My name is Victor Wang and I am from Henan, China.
When I first came to Canada to study in the year of 2011, I met many new international students like me from different countries. First few weeks is a honeymoon for me; new country, new friends and new school especially parents are very far away from me.
After the first few weeks, the emptiness coming back, I felt lonely again even though I have many friends in class and much more on Facebook. I stared to go back to the way I dealt with loneliness, playing games, watching animation and porn. Not until one of my friends Mike invited me to the church first time during Christmas, I noticed this place is different and I can do something else on Sunday. So almost every Sunday, I came to church, talk with people in the church. At that time, I was still in learning English. So, for me, it is a good opportunity to practice my English in the church at the same time knowing more people, two birds with one stone. To be frank, my listening ability is not well enough to catch up the pastor’s preaching, but I did take this as another opportunity to practice my listening.
By God’s grace, there is a couple Ben and Linda from Hong Kong, they can speak Mandarin and always invite me and some other friends to their place or in the church for dinner on Friday night or weekends. During the conversation and their personal stories, they not only share with me a lot of living experience in Toronto and also tell me about Christianity. One of the afternoons, Ben invited me to his place for lunch and after lunch he explained me the salvation by believing in Jesus Christ and ask me whether I would accept Jesus in my life as my savior. I did not think too much, and said yes. When I am thinking back at that time, I truly do not know why I would say yes if Holy Sprit were not there and that’s the year of 2012.
In the following year 2013, I joined Rexadle Chinese Alliance Church, and I attended baptism class and got baptized on April 14th, 2013. That was a big day for me and I do not have many struggles with believing and getting baptized. But two years after, I was lost again.
During these two years, I had a non-believer girl friend; she was nice to me but sometimes we would have argues about faith. And she went to church with me for first few times, and then I was struggling whether I should go to church on Sunday or spend more time with her for something else. With time goes, I did not go to church regularly anymore. During our relationship, I became more demanding and selfish; I found a lot of brokenness inside of me. Also, I stared to be more addicted to porn and drinks.
By God’s mercy, our relationship ended at the beginning of 2015, and it was a tough time for me. Until on a Sunday, when Pastor Henry was preaching John 21; Jesus was asking Peter “do you love me?”. First time, I felt Jesus is so personal and asking me do I love him. I cried. Since that I have not watched porn again.
During the year 2015-2016, I joined a lot of young Christian Camps and spent a lot of time in praying and studying Bible, which has changed me a lot.
During my visiting hometown in 2016, when I was about to leave for Canada, my mom told me I have changed, and said I became gentle. Even though until now, both of my parents are not believers yet and my mom was against me a lot at the beginning. They both saw the difference I have carried out during the year 2015 to 2016 and they become a little more open now.
After becoming a Christian, life is still ordinary and every day there are still tasks, studies waiting for me to finish. But now I have the habit of praying and reading Bible daily, I felt my life is not ordinary anymore. The difficulties and stresses of life are sill there, however, every time I felt disappointed or hurt, God’s word always comfort me and lift me up.
For me, at the age of mid 20, there is a long journey waiting for me, but Jesus has promised me and those who believe in Him. “I have come that they may have life and have it to the full (John 10:10)”