Full-Time Training - Testimonies

Recovered in the Recovery, Grace Shin

My story is one of a personal inward healing. This healing has restored my Christian life and my relationship with the Lord. Yet this would not have been possible without other Christians and meeting with the local churches.

Since the start of high school, I had set my heart to go to the Full-Time Training in Anaheim after college graduation. I had grown up meeting with the local church and saw many who went before me take this way with no regrets. At the time, I was very young and ambitious, and I thought of it as a two-year service, a two-year hiatus in my life before I started my “real life.”

Things were going well in my Christian walk. However, toward the end of high school my parents separated. It was a very painful experience for our entire family and for me, and it happened at the start of my adult life. In all honesty, I was angry with God for allowing this to happen to me when all I had were good intentions. My heart toward Him drastically changed from soft to hard, from open to closed. I was wounded. Yet this did not mean that I would quit being a Christian or stop meeting with the local church. It was that the bitterness that had crept in prevented me from progressing in my spiritual life, setting me back.

When I went to college at the University of California, Irvine, I lived with other sisters in the church in Irvine who were going to the same school. There was always an inward battle and the college environment stirred me up to question almost everything. I relied on my sharp mind and considered that I was gaining knowledge. But eventually became clear that my reasoning was not going to help me in my Christian life. I had to use another deeper part of my being, my human spirit. This personal realization did not come overnight. It became very real gradually because I was surrounded by Christians who exercised their spirit to worship (John 4:24), love (1 Timothy 1:5) and know God (1 Corinthians 2:14-15). I was simplified to my spirit.

Once the healing process began, my heart drew near to Him. I was happier, more positive, and life had more meaning. Pretty soon I became constrained by His far-reaching and conquering love (2 Corinthians 5:14). God defeated me and converted me from a rebellious person to a loving person. Time had accomplished some healing, but He recovered me to love Him again. Going to the Training was not something in question. It was serious and I was open to God as to how He would lead me even after I completed the Training.

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