The Road of Grace

As I look back over the years, I am increasingly convinced that God has led every turning point in my life. From migration to a foreign land and my first steps into church, to church planting, miracles and responding to God’s call, I once thought I was simply moving through life one step at a time. Later I understood that this entire road had been prepared by God—a road of grace. It began when He gently drew me to Himself through worship and the church.

1. Coming to Faith

Our family migrated to New Zealand in 1992. My university classmate Qiongrong brought us to East Auckland Evangelical Formosan Church. In Taiwan I had followed traditional folk religion, with an earth-god shrine and ancestral tablets at home, and I burned incense during festivals. I knew little about Christianity. Yet during my first visit to church, the hymns touched me so deeply that tears often filled my eyes. That indescribable peace was the beginning of God drawing me to Himself.

In 1995 I overcame many obstacles and was baptised at East Auckland EFC. Other family members were baptised in time. This became a major turning point and opened the way for me to follow the Lord and learn to serve.

2. Church Planting and Ministry

Soon after my baptism, God led me into service. In 1996 Elder Stephen Yeh received a vision to establish EFCCA in central Auckland and invited me to take part. Four families were sent and became the first elders, deacons and co-workers. We rented the hall at Mt Roskill Primary School. Resources were extremely limited. Children’s Sunday School had no classroom and met in the corridor outside the hall.

Although conditions were simple, the children were attentive and did wonderfully. They presented songs each month and performed plays at festivals. During the wave of immigration, small groups in my home often drew twenty or thirty people, and visiting denominational speakers could bring forty or fifty. At our first Christmas, more than three hundred people crowded into the hall, and we urgently gathered chairs and food. Those days were exhausting, but our zeal for ministry was extraordinary. Each time someone was baptised and joined the church, my heart overflowed with joy. I knew God was at work in this land.

3. Experiencing Miracles

While I served, God also strengthened my faith through unusual experiences. On 16 June 1996, the day my father died, God allowed me to see a vision in the sky: it was as though one person held another by the hand and slowly rose toward heaven. I might have been overwhelmed by grief, but God filled me with peace beyond understanding. My father died at noon in Taiwan, exactly 4 p.m. in New Zealand. Through this experience I came to believe more deeply that death is not the end and that eternal life is real.

Soon afterward, God showed His provision in a practical need. In 1997 I unexpectedly bought a large house with a swimming pool at auction. After moving in, I discovered many inconveniences and urgently wanted to sell the following year. The economy was weak, large houses were difficult to sell, and prices had fallen sharply. From a human perspective, the problem seemed almost impossible.

Yet God opened a way. On the first day it was listed, the first viewer decided to buy. I did not suffer a loss; instead, I made a profit of NZ$150,000 and gave a tithe as the church’s first building fund contribution. While praying earnestly about the sale, I felt led to 1 Kings 12:32–33, where the fifteenth day of the eighth month appears twice. The house settlement was completed on that very date. This was more than a successful transaction; it became a sign that strengthened my faith.

4. Changing Direction

As the church grew, new challenges and transitions came. In 1999 Pastor Li Zhaohui and Brother Kung Wai-hung joined with their families. Attendance grew rapidly and at one point exceeded one hundred. The meeting place moved from Mt Roskill Primary School to Epsom Normal Primary School.

In 2001, to establish a self-support fund, the church held a large fair. As fellowship leader, I coordinated the event and went door to door with co-workers selling tickets. Yet ministry was not always smooth. In 2002, because of differing ministry perspectives, I chose to leave the church I loved. It was painful, and I felt both loss and reluctance. Seeing my sadness, my husband encouraged me to undertake postgraduate study. Over two years I completed an MBA at the age of fifty-five.

Looking back, leaving a familiar ministry role was painful, but God used the transition to broaden my horizons and prepare the next stage. At university my classmates called me “Taiwan Mum.” Remarkably, five of the thirteen classmates were baptised as Christians by the time we graduated.

5. God’s Call

In retrospect, these transitions were not endings but steps through which God led me deeper into His call. In 1998 I attended the opening of the first Bread of Life Church branch in New Zealand. When Pastor Chou Shen-chu called people to full-time ministry, I felt drawn to the front. After he laid hands on me and prayed, I fell down, wept deeply, and experienced God’s comfort and blessing.

In 1999, during my first trip to Israel, God woke me early one morning and impressed on me to read the Bible from the bedside table. I opened to John 10:10–11: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” As I read, tears flowed. It was as if God placed His heart within me, calling me to learn to be a good shepherd. The sister sharing my room witnessed the moment and knelt to pray for me.

In 2008 Pastor Yuan Zhiming held evangelistic revival meetings in New Zealand. A sister I did not know asked me to accompany her to the front in response to the call. As Pastor Yuan prayed, “May the Holy Spirit pour from the head downward,” I felt power move from my head to my ankles. I fell and wept, asking God’s forgiveness for not serving Him faithfully. As I prepared to stand, I heard inwardly, “Go and study at China Evangelical Seminary.”

In 2010 I overcame many obstacles, returned to Taiwan and enrolled. Three years later I completed a Master of Christian Studies and formally became a minister at the age of sixty. This taught me that age is not a barrier. When God calls, He also opens the way.

6. Vision and Future Burden

After three experiences of God’s call, I believe He still desires to use me in later life. He led me to receive formal theological education and showed me that no season of life prevents His work. I desire to teach sound theology in the church and participate in care and evangelism so that more people may receive hope through the gospel.

7. The Great Commission

Mission is not a task for one stage of life, but a lifelong calling to follow the Lord. Without Jesus entering my life, I would not have today’s joy and peace. From beginning again in a foreign land, to church service and repeated experiences of God’s wonderful work, I know my own smallness, but I also know that God can use those who are willing to obey. Through His grace in my life, I have been able to lead some people to faith and witness the gospel’s power to change lives.

Although I am now older and illness has limited my mobility, by God’s grace I completed a journey to Antarctica in December 2024 and to the Arctic in August 2025. These were not merely trips, but a continuation of God’s grace. Even when my steps are less steady, He gives me opportunities to testify, lead people to faith and see that mission is not stopped by age or physical limitation.

I therefore place my remaining years in the Lord’s hands. Wherever I am, I will continue to testify to His grace, proclaim the gospel and become a blessing to others. This road of grace is a road God Himself has led. I will continue following until the day I see Him face to face.