Our first time doing this: giving a testimony at the singles’ dinner our church put on. My husband spoke first, then me.
我們的第一次：在教會舉辦的單身餐會做見證。老公先講，然後是我。
My husband
老公
Peace to you all. We were asked some time ago to share a testimony at this event, and at first we were a thousand times unwilling. But we took it to our family altar and prayed about it, and in the end we obeyed what the Holy Spirit was pressing on us, put ourselves aside, and stood up here.
各位平安，早先我們被邀請要在這活動中分享見證，一開始是萬分的不願意，但是我們將這個活動放在我們的家庭祭壇裡禱告，最後還是順服聖靈的感動，放下自我站在這裡。
I really did not know what to share with you. After praying, the Holy Spirit took me back through counting God’s grace. I think about being single back then and about having a family here in America now, and apart from calling it God’s astonishing grace, I do not know how to describe it.
我真的不知道要和各位分享什麼，經過禱告，聖靈帶著我開始數算神的恩典。回想過去的單身到如今可以在美國成家，除了是神的奇妙恩典之外，我真不知怎麼形容。
I came to America in 2006, chasing the American dream I had pictured for myself, and I tried every way I could think of to stay. What I expected of myself in those days was to be a cockroach you cannot kill.
我是二〇〇六年來到美國，為了自己憧憬的美國夢，百般的想辦法就是留在這裡，那時我給自己的期許就是要當一隻打不死的蟑螂。
In 2011 I walked into a church only because I wanted to widen my contacts and find more opportunities. Not long after, the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for me found me instead and carried me back into His sheepfold. Inside, I saw hope. I saw light.
二〇一一年，只是因為想擴充人脈尋找更多的機會進了教會，沒多久反而是被那位為我捨命的好牧人，找回到祂的羊圈裡。在裡面，我看到了希望，看到了亮光。
God led me to the small group I am in now. What I saw was a crowd of people my own age gathering on a Friday night to worship and praise God, to share His word, to pray for each other’s needs. It moved me deeply, and it drew me in.
神帶領我到現在的小家聚會，我看到的是一群和我同齡的人 Friday night 聚在一起敬拜讚美神，分享神的話語，彼此為對方的需要禱告，我深深地被感動和吸引。
But inside I felt unworthy, because in my actual life I was in a relationship God was not pleased with, and I did not know how to change it. Not long after, that relationship ended quietly, on its own, as though God were circumcising me.
可是我心中覺得自己不配，因為現實的生活裡，我正有一段神所不喜悅的感情，我不知道怎樣去改變，可是沒多久，這段感情就無疾而終，好像神在我身上施行割禮一樣。
In 2012 something happened in the home of our small group leader. I kept having a very strong pressing on my heart to pray for her, and then, oddly, I began paying attention to this sister. I was not sure whether I was starting to feel something for her, so I prayed and prayed and prayed. Then God let me see how much she revered His word, how faithful she was in serving His kingdom, how carefully she looked after her family, and that is how I knew what I had begun to feel. So besides one good brother in the Lord, I also told the intern zone leader of our small group how I felt. They were willing to pray for me and to be my covering.
二〇一二年，小家的小家長家裡發生了一些事情，我心裡一直有很強的感動要為她禱告，然後很奇怪的就開始注意這位姐妹了！我不確定是不是開始對這位姐妹有好感，我就一直禱告一直禱告一直禱告，然後神讓我看見這位姐妹對神的話語是那麼敬畏，對神國的服事是那麼忠心，對家人是這麼呵護，所以我知道我開始對這位姐妹的感覺，於是除了和主內的一位好弟兄，我也跟小家的實習區長分享我的感受。他們也願意為我禱告，做我的遮蓋。
The truth is I still had a lot of uncertainty about my own future in America. My average income was three figures a month, and I still had to keep my student status. Did someone like me really have a chance? I kept praying anyway. As I started serving in the small group I had more and more to do with this sister, and when the chance came up I told her how I felt about her. She handed me a passage from Matthew.
其實那時我對自己在美國的未來還有很多不確定，每月的平均收入只有三位數，還要維持學生身份，這樣的我真的有機會嗎？我還是持續的禱告。當我開始參與小家的服事，也愈來愈和這位姐妹有較多的互動，偶然的機會下我向她分享我對她的感覺，這位姐妹就給我一段馬太福音的經文。
6Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. 7Woe to the world because of offenses! For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes! 8If your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life lame or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet, to be cast into the everlasting fire. 9And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.Matthew 18:6–9
6凡使這信我的一個小子跌倒的，倒不如把大磨石拴在這人的頸項上，沉在深海裡。7這世界有禍了，因為將人絆倒；絆倒人的事是免不了的，但那絆倒人的有禍了！8倘若你一隻手，或是一隻腳，叫你跌倒，就砍下來丟掉。你缺一隻手，或是一隻腳，進入永生，強如有兩手兩腳被丟在永火裡。9倘若你一隻眼叫你跌倒，就把它剜出來丟掉。你只有一隻眼進入永生，強如有兩隻眼被丟在地獄的火裡。馬太福音 18:6–9
Reading that at the time, I felt pretty flattened. I told the intern zone leader about it, and all he did was smile and tell me not to overthink it, so I just kept praying. The astonishing thing is that God still gave me the chance to go out with this sister.
我當時看了這段經文覺得很挫折，跟小家的實習區長分享，他也只是笑笑要我不要想太多，我只好持續的禱告。奇妙的是，神讓我還是有機會和這位姐妹交往。
Our courtship started with reading the Bible and praying. In those days we often prayed in tears for the salvation of our families, prayed about each other’s future, shared God’s word. We served at church together as well, and in that serving we lived through a lot of grace with God right there, and we also came to see each other’s weaknesses and faults. While we were going out, God gave us a verse.
我們交往的是從讀經禱告開始，那時我們常為我們家人的救恩流淚禱告，為彼此的未來禱告，分享神的話語；同時也一起參與教會的服事，在服事當中經歷了很多神同在的恩典，也讓我們知道彼此的軟弱和缺點；交往期間，神就給我們一段經文。
But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.Joshua 24:15
至於我和我家，我們必定事奉耶和華。約書亞記 24:15
That told us that if God was gracious enough to let us marry, our home was to serve His kingdom.
讓我們知道，若是神開恩讓我們結為夫妻，我們家就是要服事神的國度。
I was still waiting for one more confirmation, so when I got the chance I asked her: if the Lord does not let us stay in America, would you be willing to come back to Taiwan with me? She said she had never been to Taiwan and it would be a big challenge for her, but if it really was the Lord’s will, and she could stay connected to a church there, she was willing. Well, that was the last confirmation I had asked God for.
其實我還在等一個驗證，於是有機會問這位姐妹：若是主不讓我們留在美國，妳願意跟我回台灣嗎？她說從沒去過台灣，對她而言是一個很大的挑戰，可是若真是主的旨意，並且在台灣持續和教會連結，她願意。Well，這就是我跟神求的最後的驗證了！
So we asked our pastor to give us pre-marriage counselling. During it we knelt together in front of God and confessed the sins we had fallen into, and opened up about what we each thought marriage was, and the pastor and his wife kept praying for us.
於是我們開始請牧師幫我們做婚前輔導，在輔導期間，我們一起在神面前跪下認自己曾經跌倒的罪，敞開心分享自己對婚姻的想法，牧師和師母也一直為我們禱告。
In 2013, under God’s grace and kindness, and with the help and the blessing of a great many brothers and sisters, we made our covenant to each other in front of God and became husband and wife. I remember the pastor’s prayer of blessing: may God give us more love and more forbearance inside our marriage, and then may we go out and bless more brothers and sisters and more family. May our marriage really be able to give God the glory. That same year we each received our green card just before our birthdays. That truly is God’s grace. Not long after, God brought me into a new working environment, where my income was twice those three figures. Grace again.
二〇一三年，在神的恩典慈愛下，和眾多弟兄姊妹的幫忙及祝福下，我們在神面前對彼此立下盟約，正式成為夫妻。記得牧師在祝福禱告時說：願神賜給我們更多愛和包容在我們的婚姻當中，然後去祝福更多的弟兄姊妹和家人。願我們的婚姻真的是可以榮耀神。同年，我們彼此在生日前拿到了綠卡，這真的是神的恩典。沒多久，神也帶我到一個新的工作環境，讓我的收入比之前的三位數多了兩倍，這又是神的恩典。
The next year, 2014, God let a small storm into our marriage. My wife’s ectopic pregnancy made us feel for ourselves that God’s love is with us. God’s love showed itself through the brothers and sisters of our small group. Without God’s love, we really would not have got through that storm.
隔年，二〇一四年，神給我們的婚姻有了小小的風浪，老婆的子宮外孕，讓我們真實的感受神的愛與我們同在，神的愛在小家的弟兄姊妹身上彰顯出來，若沒有神的愛，我們真的會無法渡過這個風浪。
Then 2015 came, and God’s grace showed itself again. I had not been in the new job eighteen months when God opened the way for us to borrow on a mortgage and move into the warm house we are in now. We know very clearly that this property is God’s, and we are only His stewards.
來到二〇一五年，神的恩典再次的彰顯，我新工作不到一年半，神開路讓我們可以借到房貸，讓我們搬進現在這個溫暖的房子，我們很清楚的知道這個產業是神的，我們只是祂的管家。
And now 2016 is here. As for me and my house, may we go on serving God.
二〇一六年的來到，願我和我家，持續服事神。
Me
我
In 2006 a friend introduced me to the small group I am still in. The green card I had waited five years for had been denied, I had broken up with a married man, and the lawyer said I might have to go back to Hong Kong. That is the state I was in, hopeless and beaten, when my life in a small group in the Lord began. I was baptised in 2007. Even believing, I still stumbled about, wandering between the sweetness of sin and the guilt of it. I was single again for quite a while.
二〇〇六年朋友介紹我來到現在的小組。當時等了五年的綠卡被 denied，和一個有婦之夫的男人分手，律師說我可能要回香港。在絕望和挫敗裏開始我在主內的小組生活。二〇〇七年受洗，雖然已經信主，但還是跌跌碰碰的在罪中之樂跟愧疚裡徘徊。回復單身好一段時間。
One day, driving home from work, I asked the Lord whether He wanted me to serve Him single, the way Pastor Jiang Xiuqin does. If that is it, I am willing. And if it is not, please stop sending me bad romances. My own family was broken, and I had always had to get through life by relying on myself. I believed in the Lord, but a good marriage was genuinely hard for me to picture.
有一天在下班開車回家問主，你是不是要我像江秀琴獨身服事你。如果是的我願意，要不然請不要再給我爛桃花。因為我原生家庭破碎，而且一直以來在生活上我都要靠自己，雖然已經信主，但真的很難想像可擁有美好婚姻。
In 2011 a brother turned up in the small group who liked to hide behind other people and take photographs. When I found out he liked me, my first reaction was that it was not possible. I did like him, as it happens. He was always quietly helping out in the group, and talking about God’s word with him was down to earth and good fun. I also thought he was probably very good to his parents. But there were a lot of practical reasons, and I did not think he was my type, so I turned him down.
二〇一一年小組來了一位很喜歡躲在別人後面拍照的弟兄。當我知道他喜歡我時，第一個反應是覺得沒可能。雖然我對這位弟兄也有好感，認為他經常默默的在小組幫忙，和他分享神的話語時很實在、很開心。而且覺得這位弟兄應該蠻孝順。但因為很多現實的因素，而且我認為他不是我喜歡的類型，所以我就拒絕了。
Later, when I found that I had feelings for him too, I asked God a very practical question. I already have more unknowns and challenges than I can handle on my own, and to most people’s eyes this brother’s situation was not very steady: his status uncertain, his income uncertain, his work uncertain. Could You take my feelings away before I am in deep and get hurt?
後來當我發現我也對他有感覺時，就很現實問神我一個人已經多未知數跟挑戰，這位弟兄當時的環境在一般人看來不是太穩定：身份不定，收入不定，工作不定。你可否在我未投入受傷時將我的感覺拿走。
That was when this passage came into my mind.
那時這經文就出現在我的意念。
15For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.” 16So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.Romans 9:15–16
15因他對摩西說：「我要憐憫誰就憐憫誰，要恩待誰就恩待誰。」16據此看來，這不在乎那定意的，也不在乎那奔跑的，只在乎發憐憫的神。羅馬書 9:15–16
I felt a bit ashamed. I had been very shallow, sizing a person up like that. So I said to the Lord: if this is a relationship You are giving me, open the way and give me peace, and if it is not, take the feelings away.
當時我有些慚愧，認為自己很膚淺去衡量一個人，於是就跟主說如這段感情是你給我，請給我開路和平安，不然請把感覺拿走。
After that, this brother told me he had told two friends in the group how the two of us had started. I was a little put out. We were not even officially going out, so why tell people all over the place? If it did not work out, would there not be gossip, or at the very least awkwardness? But on the other end of the phone he said the Bible says this.
後來這弟兄告訴我他跟小組兩位朋友分享我們的開始。我心就有點不高興，我認為我和他也未正式交往，為何到處和別人說，萬一不 work out，不是有流言或尷尬嗎？可是老公在電話另一邊說聖經說。
For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret but that it should come to light.Mark 4:22
因為掩藏的事，沒有不顯出來的；隱瞞的事，沒有不露出來的。馬可福音 4:22
He said God is not pleased with a relationship that is not out in the open, and that if God allows it, there is no need to go sneaking about. It moved me. In the love I had known before, because it was not certain or not real, I never would have let it out in the open. Perhaps I just had no faith in it.
他說神不喜悅不光明正大的感情，若神許可，沒有必要偷偷摸摸。當時很感動。因為在過去所謂的愛情，因為不認定或不真實，我都不會公開，可能是沒信心吧。
One time I went to a prayer meeting with him, and God let me see that he was fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). He was not a nobody with no future and no confidence in himself. He would be my spiritual leader. That is when I handed this relationship over to God.
在某一次和弟兄去禱告會，神讓我看到他是受造奇妙可畏的（詩篇 139:14）。他不是一個不起眼，看不到將來，沒有自信的人。他會是我屬靈的 leader，那時我就把這段感情交給神。
God kept providing and kept guarding us. There was a lot of noise and a lot of temptation while we were going out, and all we could do then was hold each other up in prayer. We fell, too. We wept, confessed and repented, and God is full of grace and kindness: He was the one pulling us along, one step at a time. My heart was full of trembling, because I loved this brother more and more, and I thought I had better remind myself that if God really did take this brother away in the end, I would still have to say this.
神不斷供應保守。在交往中很多雜音和試探，那時我們只能用禱告去托住彼此。也試過跌倒，我們流淚認罪悔改，神是滿有恩慈，祂就是一步一步拖着我們走過。心裏是充滿戰兢，因為越來越愛這弟兄，心想我要提醒自己，如果神到最後真的把這弟兄拿走，我還是要說。
The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.Job 1:21b
賞賜的是耶和華，收取的也是耶和華。耶和華的名是應當稱頌的。約伯記 1:21下
Most of the prayer requests I wrote down during that year of going out, God granted. Status, work, income: the things we could not solve, the things that had us cornered, God was gracious and solved them all. He also granted us 3 January 2013, the day we became husband and wife.
在交往中那一年所寫的禱告事項，大部份神都應許了：身份，工作，收入曾經是我們不能解決、陷於困境的問題，神都施恩解決了。祂也應許我們在二〇一三年一月三日結為夫妻。
Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.Genesis 1:3
神說：「要有光」，就有了光。創世記 1:3
In 2015 we had a house of our own. God was gracious and opened the way for us to have this warm home. Our love has nothing to boast about. It did not come out of anything we did. It came out of grace.
二〇一五年我們有自己的房子。神施恩開路給我們擁有這溫暖的家。我們的愛情沒有什麼可誇，不是出於行為，乃是出於恩典。
Looking back now, God really is astonishing. In 2006 the American green card I had waited five years for was denied. I had already been working in America for six years, and in that situation the lawyer said there was very little chance of starting the application again. In the middle of that hopelessness a friend brought me to a small group and I came to know God. Then in 2013 I received my green card a week before my birthday, and my husband received his the day before his. God’s good purpose all along was for us to receive that grace together. Not only did we never have to worry about status again, this home of ours belongs to God. We are citizens of heaven.
現在回想，神真的很奇妙。我二〇〇六年等了五年的美國綠卡被 denied。在美國打工已有六年，當時情況，律師也說重辦機會很少，在絕望中朋友把我帶到小組認識神。在二〇一三年，在我生日前一個星期，老公在他生日前一天拿到綠卡。原來神的美意是要我們一起拿這份恩典。我們不但不需再為身份擔心，而且我們這個家是屬神的，是天國公民！
Hallelujah! Glory to Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides.
哈利路亞！歸榮耀給耶和華以勒。