As you may or may not know, my name is Ryan Chan (Wing Hei Ryan Chan is my legal name) and I am in my 5th year at the University of Waterloo studying Kinesiology as my major and hoping to minor in Psychology. I am writing this blog because people have asked me these questions:
- How did I come to know Christ?
- What made me believe in Christianity?
Whether you are Christian or non-Christian, my goal is to be a witness to Christ and this is why I will be sharing about how God has worked in my life.
Beginning
I was not born into a Christian family. In fact, I was actually born in Hong Kong, but I moved to Canada when I was 1.5 years old. In my early childhood, I never really experienced a sense of stability because my parents were still trying to adjust to the Canadian culture and lifestyle. I did not have any extended family, so adjusting can be tough at times. As shown, there are a lot of adjustments and movements and the reasons for why my family decided to move to Markham are the following:
- My dad found a full-time job in Scarborough. By moving to Markham, he could avoid the traffic jam on Highway 401 (Highways near Toronto Pearson airport and Highway 403.)
- I had a younger sister who was 4 years younger than me. However, a rare virus attacked her brain, causing her to pass away when she was almost 1 year old. I do not remember what the name of the virus is because I was very young. I do remember that this incident caused my family an emotional toll because we lost someone, who was really dear to us. To alleviate the trauma, my parents decided to move to Markham to start fresh again as this incident happened when I was living in Thornhill.
Primary School (Grade 1 to Grade 5)
Before attending public elementary school in Grade 1, I attended a Chinese day school on weekdays from JK to SK and that is where I learned the fundamentals of reading, writing and speaking Cantonese, Mandarin and English （我都可以写出来了). After graduating from the Chinese day school, I continued attending the day school on Saturday for Cantonese classes and Mandarin classes starting in Grade 4. On weekdays, I attended an elementary school in the York Region District School Board (YRDSB) called Stonebridge Public School. It was a big transition for me and my family as I had to adjust to a new curriculum and new peers. My mom was getting ready to give birth and before giving birth, she prayed to God saying that if she had a son, she would go to church due to my sister passing away. She is a very strong woman, who believed that my sister passing away was not due to chance and that something was causing it to happen.
After giving birth to a son, who is now my biological brother, this is the time when my mom started to go to church. I followed my mom as I was curious about what church was and I wanted to be an obedient kid. But my dad did not attend church because he followed the Chinese culture, where he believed that his own will is greater than God’s will. In other words, he believed that all things can be accomplished through himself and not through Jesus Christ. As a result, I went with my mom to Logos Baptist Church (Milliken) as my mom’s friend told us to go to this church for Sunday Service. From the time I started going to church, I just treated church as a routine or something to check off from a shopping list as whenever the message was preached, it would just go in one ear and come out of the other.
Middle School (Grade 5 to Grade 8)
From Grade 1 to Grade 4, I experienced a lot of ups and downs. For more details or information, you can message me on Facebook (Ryan Chan 陈永熹）or Discord (Wing Hei Ryan Chan) for more context. Fast-tracking to Grade 5 to Grade 8, I was able to adjust to the schedule, the curriculum, and started to make new friends. More and more people, including teachers, started to know my name as I represented the school for track and field, cross country, basketball, badminton, and even in chess. These are examples of highs that I experienced during this time. However, there were challenges that my family and I faced at that time.
The first challenge was that my brother was diagnosed with a long-term illness called epilepsy. For those who do not know what epilepsy is, it is when the brain sends irregular neural messages to different parts of the body. Signs and symptoms include jerking of the muscles, color change, drooling of saliva and uncontrolled urination. How this occurred includes the following:
It was Sunday. My mom, my brother and I went to church without my dad because he still did not believe in Jesus Christ. After children’s worship, my mom and my brother went to the washroom. After going to the washroom, my brother was walking and he suddenly passed out. My mom was trying to wake him up but he was not responding and that was when a close deacon and a close sister in Christ helped us by calling 9–1–1. In 10 minutes, the ambulance and several police officers came and were able to regain his consciousness after another 20 to 30 minutes of CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) and AED (Automated External Defibrillator). However, the EMS (Emergency Medical Services) told us that we should call the hospital to get him diagnosed because my brother’s situation was not stable. My mom and dad went together to the hospital to deal with my brother’s situation while I was tossed around in different aunties’ and uncles’ places. Thank God that they supported me during this difficult moment! If you are still interested in knowing more, feel free to message me with the contacts listed above. Spoiler alert: My dad believed in Jesus Christ!
The second challenge was that I had to endure physical, mental and emotional suffering during badminton training. To provide some context, I trained at a small club called Suria Badminton Centre and the training was very, very tough. If I did not follow what the coaches said, I was forced to do extra fitness, which was not limited to extra burpees, push-ups, footwork, and much more. If I talked back to the coaches, I would do double the amount of fitness, e.g. if you were supposed to do 50 push-ups, you would have to do 100 push-ups instead. If I drank water without the coach’s consent, I would do extra push-ups. These are examples of challenges I had to go through when I was in Grade 6 to Grade 8 and I will elaborate more on this.
High School (Grade 9 to Grade 10)
After graduating from elementary school, I attended a high school in YRDSB called Pierre Elliott Trudeau High School (PETHS). The transition from elementary school to high school was good. I had the opportunity to make new friends and to keep in contact with friends in the same elementary school. I was able to manage my time and maintain good grades, which was something to praise God for. However, remember the 2 problems that I talked about earlier? Well, they still existed but in a different manner.
My brother’s situation with epilepsy was still occurring and that was not the only problem. His epileptic seizures negatively impact him in many areas of life, including academics, emotions and behavior. Because of epileptic seizures and medication, my brother’s IQ is lower compared to my parents and I. The difference in IQ causes many different conflicts and tensions that arise within the family. But at the same time, I know that this is God working in us because God puts challenges for us to grow spiritually. These different misunderstandings allowed my family and I to be more resilient, which I am grateful for. Consequently, I started to become more devoted to Christianity.
Badminton training was very tough and it got even tougher when I was in high school. Not only did I have to continue facing the ones from above, I experienced times when I felt physically harassed, verbally harassed and spiritually harassed. Now the word “harassment” can be controversial for people who trained in the same club as me, but the reason why I felt that I was harassed in 3 different spectrums were the following:
- Physical harassment: I either got spanked on the legs or head with a racquet or a tube.
- Verbal harassment: Whenever I did not follow instructions the first time, the head coach would swear.
- Spiritual harassment: There were many times when I refused to play provincial tournaments because I believed that going to church and fellowship was more important. These moments caused my head coach to curse God’s name in vain and made fun of me praying.
These 3 things were challenges that I faced every single time I was on the court. But the biggest Godly moment, where I felt that God was speaking, was when I had to decide between playing or quitting badminton from the club forever. I felt that this was God using the coach to speak to me because firstly, my coach never spoke to anyone else in this harsh manner before and secondly, God wanted me to find my purpose. Am I playing badminton to glorify God or am I playing badminton just for fun? I prayed to God during this time because I personally could not make a decision. My parents did not encourage me to play because it used time, effort and money while my coach and even a few players at the club encouraged me to play. Eventually, I followed God’s plan by playing my first badminton tournament at Granite Club. How I knew that this was God’s plan for me was when I went to the finals in U17 BS (Under 17 Boy’s Singles) and went to the semifinals in U17 BD (Under 17 Boy’s Doubles) in the same tournament. If I ended up losing in the first round, it meant that God put this roadblock to reconsider whether I should play badminton or not. However, by God’s will, I ended up getting decent results, meaning that God wanted me to use badminton as a way to be his witness.
Grade 11 and Grade 12 (High School)
Grade 11 and 12 rolled around the corner and there were positives despite the stress with grades, applications to universities and even my family situation. More people at PETHS started to recognize me because of my talent for badminton and yes, I qualified to represent my school to play Ontario Federation of School Athletic Association (OFSAA) badminton in Grade 12. Even people at my club appreciated and respected not only my game, but me as a person. The amount of recognition is one that I am blessed with but at the same time, I know that the ability to be recognized does not come through myself but it all started through trusting in God and finding purpose in him. In Grade 12, I decided to get baptized at Logos Baptist Church (Milliken) because I wanted to declare to the world that I belong to Jesus Christ. Dipping under the water resembles my old life washed away and coming out of the water resembles a new life that has been born again. My baptism does not save me but rather it is a promise to God, saying that I will follow him no matter how good or challenging my day is.
Moving Forward
To answer the questions of how I came to know Christ and what made me believe in Christianity, it is the ongoing joys and challenges that made me know Christ and remind me to put my trust in God. All of these challenges happened for a reason and not due to chance. Science and other religions do not fully answer all the questions out there but God can answer every single question or uncertainty, which is why I still put my trust and hope in him. If God is not there, there is no way that I will be able to be the person that I am.
Christianity, specifically Protestantism is the only religion, where my salvation cannot and does not rely on my own strengths or merits, in contrast to other religions where people “earn” their salvation through extra works of holiness and obedience. However, the Holy Bible is very clear about how we are saved as it mentions, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23–24 via King James Version [KJV]). In fact, it also mentions, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved” (John 3:16–17 via KJV). It is clearly shown that we are saved by Jesus Christ dying on that cross to atone or compensate for our sins (sin is anything that disobeys God, like stealing, lying), meaning that we cannot do anything to earn it.
I encourage those, who do not know or believe in Christianity, to explore Christianity. Hopefully, you will realize that Jesus Christ is real and will work in your life just as he has worked in my life. For those who are Christians and believe that you are saved through grace alone, I encourage you to get baptized as the Bible mentions “And now why tarriest [or wait] thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 23:16 via KJV). Lastly, for those who are Christian and are baptized, I encourage you to share the gospel or the good news as the Bible says, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matthew 28:19–20 via KJV). So I hope that you are all encouraged and loved!
Feel free to ask questions or concerns using Facebook Messenger or Discord!
