Jack was born in China, and raised in Australia.
Jack speaks English, Chinese, and Japanese.
He is currently studying abroad in Japan. Formerly, he used to attend a different church.
His passionate faith led Jack to dream of becoming a missionary, bringing him from Australia to Japan…
Where he met Providence.
This is his testimony of why he chose Providence （＾＾）
日本語はこちら
私が摂理を選んだ理由-オーストラリア人留学生Jack
Life of Faith Before Coming to Providence
Before coming to Providence, I’d been a churchgoer for 13 years. Originally, I was born in China to Chinese parents. During childhood, I didn’t think even far as to consider whether there was a God or not to begin with.
During my elementary years, our family moved to Australia. The reason I first went to church, was because my mum took me there to familiarise me with the new culture. The kids service was fun to attend, and I made a couple of friends there, so I continued attending on a weekly basis. I considered myself a Christian, because I thought Christians were people who went to church.
Around my third year of secondary school was when I first started thinking seriously about faith. I searched around for books on religion, and started reading the Bible for myself. Over the next three years, I read through the Bible 3 times. During that time, I came to accept that Jesus was the Christ, and committed my life to following Jesus.
When I entered university, I joined the Christian society on campus, and together we studied the Bible. Aside from that, I sought to learn from various pastors, including the one at my own church. I also evangelised a couple of my friends, and took them to church. To this day, they are regularly attending church in Australia. It goes without saying, it was a time when I was really passionate about my faith.
Opposition from Parents, The Path toward becoming a Missionary – Studying Abroad in Japan
It was during that time that I realised how I enjoyed talking about Jesus. To me, there was nothing that was nothing more worthwhile than spreading the gospel that brings eternal life. I decided that I wanted to devote my life to preaching about Jesus, and committed to becoming a missionary.
However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. My parents, who weren’t particularly religious, couldn’t understand the decision I made, and voiced their objections. It wasn’t an easy choice to go against my parents, but in the end I chose the path that put God first. Through a turn of events, by God’s providence I was accepted into a scholarship to study abroad in Japan. From there, my thoughts turned to evangelising people in Japan, a country unfamiliar to the name of Jesus.
Encounter with Providence CGM
It was roughly a year after having come to Japan, when my Japanese had just reached a level where it became practical. One day as I was evangelising, I met some Japanese Christians. It turns out that they were from Providence Church. They were really nice people, and over time I started learning the Bible with them. That was when my life really changed.
Even though it was the same Bible I’d been reading all my life, through the Bible studies at Providence I gained a depth of understanding I’d never seen before. Issues between the Bible and science were resolved, doctrines that conflicted in the past were reconciled, and as my own perspective changed, various problems in my own life were solved. Since coming to Providence my relationship with my parents has gotten better. More than anything, my love for God has grown immensely deeper. I’m so grateful to God for how He blessed me and brought me to Providence, seeing my heart that wanted only to live for God’s Will.
I attribute my transformation to my Pastor Jeong Myeong Seok, or simply Teacher. He was the one who took action on and gained what has now become the Word of Providence.
One thing I realised as I look at the Teacher, is that “one can teach only as much as they have learned”. The key to how he achieved an understanding of the Bible to such a depth, and how he can solve so many life problems, is because he has put in that much effort to study the Bible and took action on what he learnt. I’ve been told that the Teacher’s childhood dream was to become the the one who loves Jesus more than anyone else.
The culture that can be seen in the churches that the Teacher has established in countries all around the world, overflowing in love and truth and the Spirit, is a visible testimony in itself of the Word of Providence upon which it has been built, and of the Teacher who taught that Word and the extent of how deeply he studied and realised the Bible. Having witnessed it for myself, I myself have come to testify for it. There still remains much for me to learn, and to make myself according to the Word. But I look forward to transforming into what I might become.
In Providence, worship isn’t just about the time we spend inside the four walls of the church building, it’s about how we treat God as we live our lives day to day. In the Word of Providence, there’s a good balance between love and truth. Providence’s philosophy achieves an exquisite harmony between freedom and responsibility. In Providence we’re encouraged not to blindly believe, but to always take action and check what we learn. When it comes to the doctrine of Providence, I’ve found that far from causing conflict between religion and science, faith and reason, Bible and society, the two become a pair and together they testify for the God who gave us both.
Above all else, I truly feel that God is with me, whenever I’m in Providence.
If you’ve never heard of Providence, I urge you to give the Bible studies a chance, and to get to know some of the members. Who knows, maybe you’ll find Heaven on Earth.