1. 120798
Religious Autobiography of Laura 12-07-98
In my early twenties, on the top of the highest mountain in Taiwan, the Yu-
Mountain, I experienced an empty feeling inside. This feeling shattered my whole value
system and my whole lifestyle. This was a turning point in my life. At that moment, I felt
that nothing was meaningful. I asked myself these questions: “Where did I come from,
Where am I going?" I also asked myself, "If there is no heaven, where am I going after I
die? Although I had the privilege of attending the best girls’ senior high school, Taipei
First Girls’ Senior High School, and one of the best universities, National Taiwan
University, in Taiwan, these privileges were not important in my life. Also, my favorite
hobbies, such as mountain climbing, photography, movies, anthropology, broadcasting,
and traveling, were no longer fulfilling to me. I felt disconnected from this world.
After this six-day journey of climbing, I had lost the will to live. For almost one
year, I just ate, slept and became more depressed. My depression did not lift until I met
Jesus. A Campus Crusade worker, May Fung, gave me this discovery. She shared the
Four Spiritual Laws with me on the NTU campus. I then realized that God has a plan for
me. My life was no longer purposeless and I asked Jesus to come into my life as my
Savior and as my Lord. Since this time, I have been connected with eternity. I was
baptized on December 23, 1984. Before my graduation from NTU, in order to display my
gratefulness to what the Lord had done in my life, I had a photo exhibition titled “ The
Bygone Years: My Testimony of Gratefulness."
Having Jesus in me and realized that life would not be a dream and gone with the
wind. Those bits and pieces, which once had been falling apart, begin to fit into their own
places. Step by step, I have reformed my belief system based on Biblical truth, and
developed my own personal Four-L personality theory: To Live, To Learn, To Love and
To go to the Lord. By doing so : to live, to learn, to love and to go to the Lord, to be or
not to be would never bother me again. Also, one of the praise hymns I learned from the
church worship recently, titled “Lord I lift your name on high”, described exactly what
my feelings are toward the Lord. The lines go this way:
“…I am so glad you came into my life, I am so glad you came to save us,
you came from heaven to earth to show the way,
from the earth to the Cross, my debt to pay,
from the Cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky,
Lord I lift your name on high.”
I have attended Boulder Vinelife Community Church, Colorado, for more than
one year. I love this church, because it is so dynamic and energetic in Lord’s Kingdom.
And I have enjoyed broadening my horizon by attending an American church like
Vinelife and seeing the Holy Spirit breaking the wall of ages, races and languages. I have
incorporated the five core values in VINELIFE: Worship, Discipleship, Community,
Ministry and Evangelism. This church focuses on building great people to love the Great
Savior and fulfill the Great Commission. How do they do it? The Strategy is
“Servanthood + Discovering, Developing, and Deploying Spiritual Gifts within
Community under Christ’s Lordship = A Prevailing Church!”
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2. Part B
Before I came to the U.S. one of the most outstanding experiences in my life was
being a correspondent for the Christian Tribune in Taipei, Taiwan.
http://www.ccea.org.tw/~tribune/.) After I came to the U.S., I still had some articles
published in this influential weekly newspaper. Interviewing the leaders, pastors and
individuals of different denominations, and Gospel organizations were my main
responsibilities at that time. I especially valued the chance of interacting with godly
people and of transforming their insightful wisdom and life-changing experiences to
inspirational messages.
Informing, educating and changing the values of readers with these inspirational
messages were the most wonderful and exciting things ever happened to me. I was
blessed with this opportunity, and it opened my worldview of Christianity. Survival and
success would not satisfy me any longer. I needed something of greater significance in
my life. Serving the King of Kings is glorious.
Through the valleys, the mountains, and the wilderness, I went through three
stages of spiritual growth that are similar to Moses experiences in his life of 120 years.
First, I was somebody in my first twenty years. Then I was nobody wandering around in
the deserts where the Lord showed His presence to me. Finally, God has used this nobody
to fulfill His plan now. Eight years ago, the Lord led me to the U. S. to pursue higher
education. In a way, I felt like Abraham, Father of all nations, who was called to leave his
own country, his people and his father’s household, and go to the land He would show
him.( See the attached document, "Joy of Encountering Rainbow").
In 1996, I received my first M.A. with emphasis on Mass Communication and
Arts History. I am currently pursuing a M. S. in Telecommunications at the University of
Colorado-Boulder, which I will receive in December 1998. I had tried a career in
engineering, but did not find it fulfilling or the calling for my life.
Looking back on my life, I realized that my passion is to be a writer and a teacher who
shares the gospel with non-believers. In fact, this is the kind of vocation that integrates
my background. In order to effectively function in a leadership role and to make a
difference in my social network of teaching, writing and serving, Fuller Theological
Seminary would allow me to fulfill this dream. In addition, attending Cross-Culture
studies would equip me to communicate with people of different backgrounds and ideas
and to have another stage of my spiritual growth. This is described in the Purpose and
Character of the School of World Mission:
“…those called to communicate the gospel cross-culturally, need insight into
theology, history, anthropology, sociology, theory of mission, the biblical base of mission,
elentics (knowledge of and approach non-Christian religions), the world church
(sometimes called ecumenics), church growth, evangelism, leadership development and
the indigenous church. These subjects are all, therefore, to be studied as proper parts of
education for mission.”
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