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How I came to love the Local ChurchesI was born and raised in Chicago. My parents were already meeting with the local church when I was born. My grandfather who was the ambassador of China to the Philippines was Buddhist. Somehow, he turned to Christ and met with the local church in Manila. My mother never really told me how he received the Lord or came to the local church. But from that moment, he gave his whole life to the Lord. He opened his home to strangers for the gospel sake. He lived a simple life despite his high position so that he could pour everything out for Christ and the church. My mother told me bits and pieces of the suffering he endured while escaping from the Japanese army, who were looking to kill him after the Communists took over China. I only knew my grandfather for a short period of time and never talked much with him because I don't speak Chinese, but I really admired him.
When my mom came to the United States to study, she met my dad in the church in Chicago. My childhood memories are filled with our family having the believers in the local church over at my house all the time. I really liked them. Later, I understood that they came over to talk with my parents concerning Christ and the truth. Hearing about my grandfather and his life in the Philippines and how that was somehow related to the people who were always coming over to our house, I had the impression that the church in Manila was the same as the one in Chicago. When Christians from other parts of the U.S. would come over to our house to visit my parents, I thought, “Wow! All of these big people from all these far away places really like to talk about the Lord Jesus a lot.” They were nice and fun to play with too.
A couple of years after my grandfather passed away, I was baptized. As I pursued the Lord with my companions in the local church, I began to love the Lord and His church more. The many conferences across the U.S. I attended with my companions and the many young Christians from other local churches that I met (not only from the U.S., but also from Europe and Asia) just caused my love for the Lord to increase more and more. Today I am still loving Him, pursuing Him, and enjoying Him with Christians from different cities, different cultures, and different countries in the local churches.
Seeing and Living Christ
A couple of months after I was baptized in the sixth grade, I attended a ten-day video training given by Witness Lee with the church in Chicago. I can't remember what the messages were about because I was only eleven years old and Witness Lee was expounding the deep truths of the Bible. Yet, from his speaking and by being in those meetings watching that video screen, I became interested in knowing the Word of God in a deeper way. The way he presented the Bible caused me to love the Lord and His Word more. Especially when I began to attend Witness Lee's biannual Bible trainings, I could see for myself that what he was speaking was something of his very own experience of the truth in the Word. Although three thousand people were in that same room, I felt like his speaking was often directed personally to me. His speaking was just what I needed.
Witness Lee was a coworker of Watchman Nee. It was so touching and impressive to me to see how he loved Watchman Nee as a brother in Christ and how he was so one with him. What Watchman Nee saw and received from the Lord in the Word, he presented to Witness Lee, who was faithful to dive into it and speak the same thing. The living pattern that Witness Lee was to me gave me the heart and the desire to be like him and to hunger for the experience and vision of what others who were before him had seen in God's Word. The day I heard of his death, I wept and prayed desperately, “God, what this man has seen and what this man has lived, I want it to become my reality.” What he saw, spoke, and lived was just Christ. Everyday I still have that same prayer that I would see Christ, know Christ, and live Christ.
Bethany Bernikowicz | Back to List |
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