The Awakened Seed

Back in history

I grew up in a patchwork family. My mom married twice because my biological dad never seemed to exist since I was a baby. However, my stepdad really accepted me like his own daughter. From him I have a half sister who is seven years younger but we look totally different as she was half Western and half Asian. I on the other hand was fully Asian.

When I was in third grade, my parents brought me to a Christian elementary school which was one of the best they could find in our area. My family is not a religious family. My stepdad was a Christian but never went to church after his wedding. My mom is a Buddhist, but she's not like my grandma who often goes to the temple. But then I ended up in a Christian school having to learn the Bible let alone I didn't even know how to pray!

One of the first questions I asked my friend whose parents were ministers in a church, "Can you write me, an example of how a prayer should be?"

She laughed and replied, "How can you don't know how to pray? I don't need to do that for you. It's just like talking."

The thing is that I didn't really even know who I was praying to. I just learned about God about Jesus, and that I had to pray to Him. We do morning devotions every day and had chapel once a week. We sang children praise and worship songs and watched VeggieTales. And only then I get to know a bit more about being a Christian. However, I still never went to an actual church.

As I entered my junior high, I had to move to another school due to my parents financial situation. This was also a private school but not a Christian school. There I had a best friend who just converted to Christian. Both of us were eager to go to church, and luckily a junior of ours invited us to come to her church.

Back, then I didn't know that there are different types of churches, and in fact, the church we went to was a charismatic church. Once a week we met up for Connect group. Moreover, we had Youth sermon every Saturday evening. We were taught about salvation that a our ticket to go to heaven was to receive Jesus as our saviour.

The first time I went to do Youth sermon, I didn't know what was happening. During praise and worship, there were people who were speaking weird languages very repetitively like Shalla, la la la or Raba, raba, raba. It was called speaking in tongues.

Sometimes I could see people rolling on the ground and manifesting. They said it as being filled in the spirit. But I didn't understood what was going on. I thought it was a normal and then paid much attention to it.

One day we had two days teaching at church. All the participants sat on the floor cross-legged listening through the sessions. At the end of the first meeting, there was a prayer session, where the pastor asked who of the participants who couldn't speak in tongues. Me and my friend raised our hands. However, since we sat to long cross legged on the floor, I couldn't have full control of my legs. I stood up wiggling like a worm and I had to hold my friend to be able to stand straight. My friend was shocked and a bit afraid because she thought that I was possessed. Then one of the seniors came towards me and asked if I was okay.

I replied, "I'm okay, but I said too long so I can't feel my legs." That was hilarious to the people who heard but for me, it was embarrassing.

Then came the moment where they prayed for me, and my friend to be able to speak in tongues and receive the Holy Spirit. The seniors came towards us and started to place their hands on our back and praying for us.

One by one, I saw all the other participants who stood up, started to speak in tongues. In the end, it was only the both of us who ended up looking at each other and not knowing what to do. It was quite embarrassing because they kept on praying for us but we weren't moving our mouth. Until I said to my friend, let's just mumble so that they stopped. And right when we mumbled, there was a big "Hallelujah", and they finally stopped! After that day, we made excuses not to come to the second meeting.

Then, when did I actually started speaking in tongues? It was in one of the Youth sermons weeks later. The atmosphere of God was so strong during praise and worship that short phrases started to come out of my mouth. I started to cry. It was the feeling of how I was able to express the unexpressed things I was containing inside. My hands started to shake, and I couldn't control it to stop until the music slowed down. And that day I knew that I receive the Holy Spirit.