My First Prayer (an old story back in 2006)

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. - Matthew 7:7

This apparently happened before I was saved. I have just moved from thousands of miles away into the US about a year ago. Many people, in this year, had tried to share the gospel with me, but I have not believed.
Among those people, there was a beautiful lady and great cook called Barbara. We had been hanging out together quite a few times, and I was amazed by the wisdom in the ways she sees things and talks. I have always thought, whoever her husband was, that must be a super lucky guy!

Finally the time came and Barbara invited me to have lunch with her and her husband Berk. During lunch, Berk and I were talking about college memories. So he naturally asked what my hobbies in college were. Among those many things I did in college, I happened to give the example of debating. I went to many debate contests and had always been the VIP of each match, no matter whether my team ended up winning the match. Then Berk said, “Great! Would you like to have a debate with me?” Ha! Of course!

You can imagine how the story went – of course our topic was creation versus evolution; and of course I picked the side of evolution because that was what I had been taught for years; and of course it became the first debate I lost horribly.

This talk, along with many previous efforts and prayers by others around me, brought me to a middle point where I truly did not know whether there was a God or not. All that I had been taught for more than a decade in school had gone away. So I posted the challenge to Berk: “If God exists and is who you said He is; then tell Him to show me that! Ask Him to call me, email me, or come knock at my door saying that He exists and loves me! If He is all knowing, He should know my phone number, email, and address. If He does exist and He loves me, He should not have a problem telling me that!” To which Berk replied, “Why don’t you tell Him your request?” So that became my first prayer: “Hello God, if you do exist and if you do love me, then call me, email me, or come knock at my door to confirm that!”

He did not call, email, or come knock at my door (fortunately not!). Nevertheless, He has revealed Himself to me. Later I asked a close friend, Sasha, whether God exists. Sasha had been helping me selflessly since I arrived in Raleigh, and had never said something like “I would help you with this if you agree to come to church with me this Sunday” (I did hear that a lot in my first year, from people from different churches). I believed that he would always put my merit first when he gave me suggestions. At that moment Sasha looked into my eyes and said, “Of course God exists – or who had put me here to help you clumpy little girl with all those things?!”

That was the moment I first saw that God exists, and He cares about me so much that He would plan people into my life for years to fulfill a purpose later.