by Victoria Huang
Flow Without Bounds Ministries, Markham
I was first introduced to Flow Ministries when I shared my passion to serve the less fortunate with my youth pastor. He brought me to the first established house church in Kin Village. After a few times attending and assisting in the small housechurch, I heard one of the members, an elderly woman in a wheelchair, a new Christian at the time, telling me that she loved me. It wasn’t something I really understood yet, but I still remember that moment. I was confused, so I thanked her and treated the whole encounter as a formality, without a clue of what kind of impact that it would have on my life later on. As high school demanded more and more of my time, my attendance at the house church waned and I almost forgot about serving at house church.
Year after year, I would remember her as someone who told me that she loved me every time that I went, and even sent messages through other people to tell me that she loved and missed me when I could not make it to house church. It was not until a few years later, after many personal struggles with school, family and mental health, that I would return to the house church in a more consistent manner. One day, I got my usual greeting from the same woman, telling me that she loved me, and I smiled and nodded and thanked her, saying that I already knew. Yet she claimed that I didn’t really know. She told me that I would never, never know just how much she loved me.
I finally understood – at least a sliver of it. It no longer mattered what my grades were, how well I kept my composure, how well I hid my depression and suicide attempts. I had not done anything for her except perhaps sit and listen, bring her a drink or two and play with her cats. Yet she would crave my hugs and tell me that she loved me every single time. She loved me beyond my comprehension and imagination. She showed me, a self-critical girl who grew up hearing “God loves you” time and time again, what God’s love truly was like. It was then that I realised how beautiful her heart and soul really was, and perhaps at the same time I realised that mine was probably the same as well. We were both daughters of the most High King and we were so utterly beloved that we would never understand just how much our God loved us. It was breathtaking and heartbreaking and perhaps a fragment of the glory of God slipping into our world.
So when I serve in any aspect of Flow ministries, I see beautiful hearts, whether they be open or closed, and I am no longer afraid of how qualified I am to serve. I am no longer worried about meeting standards. Flow is not only an outreach ministry, but it is a family where every single individual involved is loved and cared for.
To find out more about Flow Without Bounds Ministries, visit their website at flowwithoutbounds.com.
