Time to Testify!

Tomorrow morning Hamish and I will be giving my baptism testimony at church! Aonghas will be giving his next month, and then we'll hopefully be getting baptised in Easter.

We were originally meant to get baptised last Christmas, but because of exams and work, we decided to postpone it a bit so we could put some thought and effort into our testimonies.

Admittedly, Karvin, our youth pastor reminded us a couple Sundays ago to submit our testimonies to him by the following Wednesday, as we had had months to get it ready. However, Hamish and I hadn't finished them! We scrambled to finish them. I found it difficult to start, as with most essays and reports I write. However, once I got started, it just all came out.

I think the same thing happened with Hamish. He took a while to get started, but once he got started, HE GOT GOING.

We decided to walk to church that following Friday morning (our mum had already gone to church to help out with some kids playgroup, so we had no transport!) to work on our testimonies with Karvin. Hamish had a job interview on the telephone along the way which was extra cool.

We read our testimonies to Karvin, and he was fine with mine. Originally Hamish had four pages of writing, but managed to cut it down to two. Even with his abridged version though, it took 11 minutes! They worked on it a bit more and managed to halve it down to about five minutes.

For me, I've always wanted read my testimony in Chinese ever since I joined our church and witnessed others giving their testimonies in Chinese. To me, I just feel like it would be demonstrating how it has been a big influence in my faith (being a Chinese church), and that since the majority of the congregation is Chinese, I should put in the effort to speak their language! I'll have a translator anyway, right?

What I find funny is that up till this point people have been asking me if I will be presenting my testimony in Chinese, and have been encouraging me to do so. However, in the weeks leading up to it, I've been discouraged from doing so, for fear of no one understanding me! Maybe they will know how I feel when Chinese baptism testimonies don't get translated into English!

A few close friends of mine told me I should pray about it, so I did.

Anyway, with not wanting to let go of a long-held dream of mine, I was determined to give my testimony in Chinese, even though the pastor was thinking I was going to do it in English. The plan was I would practise in Chinese, then make a decision closer to the day and let the pastor know if I did decide to do it in Chinese.

However, it looks like I'll be doing it in English, seeing as the translation won't be ready in time for me to practise. There goes another dream of mine!

Maybe this was how it was meant to be in the end? I suppose it's not the end of the world, and at least I will be more comfortable with my delivery.

And as Jenny has tried pointing out to me, it's a declaration of my commitment to God in front of others and that's what is most important (or something like that!).

What will make tomorrow extra special is that we'll be having a Chinese New Year pot luck lunch after the combined service and Sunday school, so it'll be an interesting day! Oh...and I have to lead kid's worship!

I better practise more!