A New Church Home

I was 18 years old and a freshmen in college when I had the first experience of finding my own church and attending church without my family. Although, I didn’t have too much difficulty attending church on my own, there was something I quickly noticed was missing…. My mother’s wonderful and boisterous singing voice.

Something I took for granted growing up was my mom’s amazing and strong voice. I have always enjoyed singing in church and I think I have a fairly decent voice, but it was always comforting to be singing next to my mom. Initially I thought adjusting to the lack of my mom’s voice would not be too difficult. However, it turns out it was actually rather hard. Through out my college years it is something I got used to, but still always noticed was missing.

At the beginning of January, I began attending the BCCM Petagas church. The church service is all in Mandarin Chinese. This was something I was actually looking forward to. Yes, I don’t understand too much, but there is something to be said about experiencing a church service in a different language. You would actually be surprised at how much you can still understand and gather from it.

I have only attended the church two Sundays now but it is already beginning to feel like a home church to me. Surprised to hear this since the service is in Mandarin? The reason the church feels like home to me is because Teacher Wong (class CBlue teacher) has a beautiful and strong singing voice, just like my mom. She sits behind me and there have been a few times where I have actually thought it was my mom singing… you know, aside from the fact that she’s singing in Mandarin. This is also very helpful since I am just beginning to learn the songs. I can try to sing but still am over powered enough that if I completely botch a pronunciation, (which I’m sure I do at least 80% of the time) nobody will notice.

I feel like it is a real blessing to feel so at home in a church that could easily be quite foreign to me. I am really enjoying worshipping with the teachers from school and hope that I am able to pick up Mandarin somewhat quickly. I at least hope I can learn to sing the songs sooner vs. later… understanding will be the next step ☺