Eva’s Testimony

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To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. 2Corinthians 5:19~21

My name is Eva Schneider. I am a wife, a mother of two. I was born in Taiwan. Now live in Eau Claire. I was raised in a family practicing Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Folk religion. Later in school, I was exposed to the New Age believes practice. I believed there are many gods as long as they work; as long as they hear and answer my prayers for blessings.

1999 September, I came to United Sated with my older sister. I was 19. We spent 10 months in a Second language institute in Madison Wisconsin preparing for TOFEL exam; an exam for applying school in US. Later we both came to Eau Claire for school and one year later my older brother joined us. We rent a house and live together.

2000 Fall, in my freshman year, a Taiwanese lady invited me and my sister to a Chinese Bible study group and there, I was introduced to the Gospel for the first time. I was told that the God in the Bible is the one and only true God. Any god besides Him is of the devil. That made me and my family to be devil worshipers. This message made me quite angry. My heart toward the word of God was hard and cold. At the end of the same year, I was invited to a Chinese Annual Bible Conference. During the Conference, I responded to a Gospel sermon by praying a prayer with a sister in Christ, saying that I accept Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior. That prayer did not change my life.

Some time later, a Korean lady invited me to have one on one Bible study. The Bible study started from the book of Geneses. There I came to know the biblical account of Creation. I started to question the credibility of evolution I learned when I was in Taiwan. I also came to know the origin of sin in chapter 3 of Geneses.

During the time in life, I was experiencing much confusion in my life. I did not know what I was doing and what I was going to do in my life. There was no purpose. I was getting a degree hoping to obtain a good job and stable life in the future. But there was no guarantee of that. Nothing is guarantee outside of Christ. But that’s what everyone else was doing. I was doing that just to feel safe. I was lonely, empty, and depressed. Not that I have no friend around me. My brother and sister were with me even though I was so far away from home. I was even in a relationship with someone. But the emptiness ran deeper than wanting to be accepted by friends or needing the emotional satisfaction. When people around me just tried to tell me that everything is alright, and I just need to cheer up and think positively. The Bible seem to explain why I was feeling the way I was feeling inside and answer some of the questions I have in my life. Although I had a lot of unanswered questions about the word of God, I continually went to the Bible Study week after week.

In the two years of Bible study, I understood in my mind that Adam sinned; therefore, we are all born with origin sin and are slave to sin with no way to escape. The wages of sin is death. God provided the one and only solution through the Lord Jesus Christ; His One and only Son. He sacrificed His Son on the cross, instead of our place. He shed His Son’s blood instead of our blood, He died and rose again. And through that we sinners can reconcile to our Heavenly Father and restore the peaceful relationship with Him.

All I learned remained as head knowledge. Head knowledge had no power in my life. I was still living in a sinful lifestyle even though deep in my heart I knew it was wrong. But knowing it did not stop me from sinning. There was no true repentance from my heart.

The end of 2002, I was invited to the same Bible Conference in Chicago. It was about a week long conference. The teachings were heavy and intensive; my heart was very weary and burdened. I was experiencing a lot of difficulties at that time in my life. God was breaking me. December 31, on the way home from the conference, on high way 94, I remembered sitting in the right back seat, Holy Spirit revealed to me that I was a selfish and hopeless sinner. Without God, nothing in my life had value. There was no hope without Him. This understanding was totally different than the head knowledge I had in the previous two years. I started crying sorrowfully. I was quite. It was dark in the car. No one noticed I was crying. I kept thanking him for saving my life through His Son’s blood, all the way home to Eau Claire. Sorrowful tears turn to joyful tears at the end.

After I got home, I got out of the car and walk into my room, still crying. My brother walked in my room and saw me crying, he was concerned and asking me what had happened. I told him that God loved him so much that He gave His one and only Son to die for him. I urge him to believe in Jesus. That was my first time told someone about Jesus Christ. Then few minutes later I went into my sister’s room and had to leave her room right away. The reason was a reality show on her TV which I found it rather interesting before, at that time I was so disgusted by it and could not stand it. I never had that kind of experience before. I couldn’t explain why.

From that night, my knowledge was no longer only up in my brain, but also down deep in my heart. I started seeing my life changing. So did my family and friends around me. They started to make conclusion that it is a good thing for Eva to find her faith. She is much happier than before. They stopped talking me out of the Christianity.

One true encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ; my life direction was turned. I cut an ungodly relationship with my ex-boyfriend because I found that we could no longer communicate with each other. What I was saying he couldn’t understand, what he was saying I did not treasure anymore. I made a decision to stop dating before I was ready for marriage. I eagerly desired to know Him and to grow spiritually. He revealed Himself to me through His Word. He edified me through the church He put me in before here. The people He had brought into my life were/are all His precious instruments to bring me to where I am now.
Only by the Grace of God I was saved and am able to stand here share with you my testimony. I am truly grateful for His amazing grace. Salvation is the work of God not the work of man. My spiritual birth was given by Him, my Heavenly Father.
Romans 1:12~13 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

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