In jail, I could no longer provide for my daughter and was desperate for help. But with the help of the women’s chaplain, I began to do better. I was entrusted to teach life skills to my fellow inmates and received a full scholarship for Moody Bible Institute Distance Learning. Although I was beside myself with these wonderful opportunities, I hesitated because I didn’t believe I could be a worker for God. 

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When I finally enrolled in Moody, they sent me their first book on how to become a Christian Leader and Soul Winner. The problem with the spiralbound workbook was that the binding is considered contraband in the jail, so I sewed the book together with string from my socks. However, as I considered the title of the book, I doubted my qualifications and ability, thinking it would be impossible for me to reach such a distant goal. 

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That night I cried out to God, and though I had put my Soul Winner book aside, another book I had not seen before amazingly appeared in my cell. The book was a Christian’s testimony. I read the entire book all the way through, thinking, if God can choose this person, He can choose me too.

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Not long after, someone mentioned to me that I should contact Dr. Bob from TUMI – The Urban Ministry Institute. I knew TUMI ran a program at the men’s jail but not the women’s, so I wrote to Dr. Bob asking if they have a distance learning program. He wrote back, explaining that they did not have such a program, but he came to visit and teach me personally monthly. He would bring me resource books to study and answer my questions. 

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In 2013 I was released from jail after serving almost two years. I did not have a car or anything. I was living with my daughter in her studio apartment and sleeping on a mat on the floor. I applied for general relief twice but was denied. I remember crying out to God after leaving the social security office. Immediately following my cry for help, God answered. My phone rang: it was a company I had applied to, and they wanted me to interview. I interviewed the next day, and they hired me right away without interviewing anyone else. I knew that was God.

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God continued to bless me in my work and with a car. I was grateful to God but burdened with the need to start serving Him outside of work. I knew I needed to do more but did not know how. Then a friend mentioned Skid Row to me. I did not know what it was and had never been, so when she took me there, I couldn’t believe the conditions. Immediately I wanted to get involved. My friend took me to a church at Eagle Rock that had a ministry of bringing food to Skid Row. Though I was not a member of their church, I joined that ministry as a way to serve. I collected Christian books from all over and would bring them to Skid Row. I would talk with people in line about Jesus and ask how they were doing. I gave them books and prayed with them.

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Eventually, the church I served under decided to relocate their ministry, but I continued doing ministry in the same location by myself. One day I saw a familiar face among the homeless and called out to him. He was surprised I remembered him. He looked around and said, “Did you hear that!? She knows my name!” At that moment, this ministry was born – Jesus Knows My Name Ministry.

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Within the next few days, I was blessed with a new job that gave me more financial stability to run this ministry. In time, I was blessed with more volunteers helping to serve with me on Skid Row. The Lord even provided us with a space to serve and minister in an auto shop lot. Blessing after blessing has unfolded for this ministry!

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Jesus Knows My Name Ministry began with just myself and a few other people going down to Skid Row to pray with people and talk with them. I would invite some of the homeless to attend a church service after our ministry on Skid Row. “We love church,” some of them would say, “but we don’t feel we fit in.” That is when our “Church without Walls” was born. Jesus preached to thousands outdoors, and we now serve 100 to 150 homeless individuals every Sunday morning, after our church service, with 40 to 50 regular attendees. 

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I feel this was always God’s plan for me. My Chinese name, in fact, translates in English as “Repentance,” though I rejected that idea for a long time because of my doubts. 

My life has not been easy, but the joy and the peace that come after the trials make it worthwhile. There is no denying that God allowed all these miracles to happen in my life so that this Jesus Knows My Name Ministry and the Church without Walls could work to bring more of His children home. 

 

God saved me from hopelessness and is now using me to bring hope to a hopeless place. God also saved my daughter, who is an honor roll student, pursuing her MBA at the University of Washington (2020). I pray the Lord will keep teaching me as He taught His disciples and that He will make me a Living Bible to the untouchable and to those who do not yet believe.