Testimony why I decided to start Hope Silicon Valley

Recently, I shared a testimony on what God is doing in my life at Hope Singapore's first University Youth Adults service.

The exercise of penning down the journey that led me to start Hope SV has been a very useful reminder to myself. As such, I felt I should put this down on this church planting blog as well.

1. Since my conversion, I have always felt God has a plan for me in Silicon Valley.
I accepted Christ days before flying to SV for the first time for my technopreneurship program. The trip got delayed for almost 2 months due to visa and during those weeks, I had little excuse to turn down Hanhui's invite to visit church as I was kept being informed I will fly 2 weeks from now. The moment I accepted Christ was a sudden unexplanable feeling that God really really would like me to say a "yes" to Him before I go and that He has been waiting for this moment to launch me to Silicon Valley.
Ever since, everytime I experience a spiritual breakthrough, doors in US opened in ways I do not expect. Be it during my 1.5yrs in SV, or when I came back to NUS, or when I decided to go back to SV. Though I seldom talk about it and sometimes choose to ignore it, deep in my heart, I've always felt there was something between this "God-SV-Me" thing.

2. Coming back to SV to work, is there something more? Going to Stanford.
Upon my return to SV after graduation, while working for the startup I was in, I really asked God if there is something more than my lifestyle of hurrying to work, coming home and doing token service with a local church in SV. Is that it?
Shortly after really asking God, I was unexpectedly chosen by Stanford as a biodesign fellow, despite them only choosing 8 a year (2 spots for industry engineers only) and me being educationally under qualified (they looking for MS, Phd or MDs).
This unexpected change in my SV life brought me out of the routine of my startup world and a chance to return back to Singapore for several months before the program starts in July.

3. Fasting on vision. Rayma word Matt19:20-22
I fasted and prayed very very hard on what's God's vision for me when I was back in Singapore. I really needed to figure out what direction I need to go in life, life partner choice, etc. I prayed for weeks, if not months. Just when I was about to go crazy with all the options, despair on how silent God is to me and wondering if God is even real or not, came the rayma moment.
First, the movie I was watching had a scene where the bad guy who really wanted the treaure of knowledge exploded after she absorbed all the knowledge to the extend that she cannot contain it nor stop the knowledge. It reflected the exact state of me: needing to know everything, not that I cannot know, but my limited human mind will never be able to contain them.
Next, the ENTIRE prayers and fasting gist was very pecularly summed up unexpectedly by the parable of the rich young man and how he was feeling when he was approaching Jesus. "I am not a bad person, but how can I experience more in life? How can I get to that ultimate level?"
I stood, in full rayma word, wondering and feeling God asking me in return: Would you like to follow me? (Matt 19:20-22)

4. Signs and Wonders: Prophecy of Tongues and Interpretation of Tongues @ Hope SG camp
Then came church camp. I had one agenda: God let me know you are real. Give me signs that you are tangible, that I can trust you.
I reached the last day of the camp not hearing anything! Entering the last night's praise and worship, I went deep into reliving 5 signs and wonders moments in my life that helped me not doubt God during worship. Just when I decided that these 5 miracles were sufficient a lifeline to help me have faith that God is real, the music stopped and someone came on stage and prophesized in tongues followed by Micheal stepping forward to interpret the tongues. Lo and behold, the message was for me (confirmed by the choice of verse, person who interpret and the content). There were 3 subsequent prophesizes that were very very applicable to my situation. There are:
Tongues: Dear child, I'm real. Have faith in me and know I love you very much. Here is a verse to encourage you, Ps 23.
Prophecy 1: A thread hanging from a rope. The thread is enough for you to hold on. Have faith though you don't see everything.
Prophecy 2: Be courageous. A new season is coming. Be courageous!
Prophecy 3: Some of you are being put in a place of influence. God has place you there to be the salt and light there. Be the salt and light.

5. Prophecy of Eph 3: 10
I came into a Sunday service, feeling super convicted about Eph 3:10 and that the church is God's eternal plan and that we are not close to the glory of what God has planned for His church because we don't believe. I was so convicted that I felt a never experienced confidence that I should go down to the stage to prophesize and speak to the congregation. I hesitated. I was not sure if the message is for me or for the congregation.
In the end, someone else (Christine) prophesized about the same verse and the same interpretation.

6. Series of highly coincidental unplanned meetings of people
- was thinking about Hanhui at the MRT station. Right after saying to myself I think I should meet him, he popped out from behind me to surprise me. We happened to run into each other in the train station. We started meeting every week starting from that moment. He helped unknot alot of my questions on faith. He is a key person of what my faith is today.
- ran into Tom at US Embassy in Singapore on the day (Friday, Jul 20th 08) I set myself a deadline if I should go ahead to try to start a caregroup in SV. Tom was the only Hope person I know who will be going to Bay Area back then.
- texted wenjiang I senseing God calling me but think maybe its a mistake because I feel very unqualified. woke up the next day (Saturday, Jul 21st 08) stumble on a video: Do you think you are unqualified? Do you think God cannot use you?
- got a unknown number texted me out of the blue to meet for breakfast on Sunday morning (Jun 22nd 08). It was Ps Dinah. This was the same Sunday where the Eph 3:10 prophecy happened.
- ran into Dylan (current DMM) on my last weekend in Singapore before flying back to SV. He was visiting Singapore and said he found Hope Singapore online and had a weird prompting to check it out. That was the same period when I was asking myself, why will any white american join me? Found out Dylan was going to move from Tuson to Bay Area and was praying what God has plan for him in SV.
- had a random chat with Micheal Villata on my 3rd day in SV. Did not know him very well but a conversation at the park lot turned into an hour, which turned into 2 hr dinner, which turned into him saying sinner's prayers and accepting Christ in his life for the first time despite coming from catholic family.
- helped a housemate's friend, who was visiting SV and I only got to know for 10min, baptized in the Holy Spirit at home.


(.... Okies, this is definitely a longer thread than I expected. Wrote more than what I shared for testimony)

To end, after the series of things that happened as described above, I was confronted with this 2 truths:
- If Christ is the hope of your life, do you believe the church is the hope of the world? Do you want to join God in His vision for this world?
- Until you fully live in the will of God, there will always be something missing, something that you don't feel fully satisfied. I realized even if I end up becoming a very successful and rich entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, I will not be fully fulfilled. Will I have peace down the road if I know I turned away from a direction from God and just lead a life for myself?

May 2009 be a great year of harvest. Amen.