Introduction
Donna Chiu was a former popular singer of
the 80’s from Taiwan. She got into
professional singing by chance. She used
to be active in sport and her dream was to be an Olympian, so she got herself
very much involved in athletics. Each time there was a sport celebration, her
team mates will ask her to sing. A sport
journalist happed to know the famous Taiwanese singer Liu Wen Zheng, so she was
introduced to him. That was where she
started singing professionally. She was
a sport woman, and was not “polished” as an entertainer, so Liu sent her to a
modelling school. On her first day at
this school, the trainer thought she was a food delivery woman! Because she looked dark and though!
She came from a strict family and her
father objected to her singing career.
He never ever attend any of her concerts, in fact when she appeared on
TV, her father will take leave and will not watch her show. One day, her father was afflicted with lung
cancer, her family was devastated but they agreed not to let him know that he
had 3 to 6 months to live. Every day,
Donna drove him for his radio therapy treatment. She asked her father why he did not want to
watch her TV shows or attend her concerts.
Her father told her, he was afraid she will make mistakes and embarrass
herself. Her father also urged her to
get married because she was the only child still single then. Knowing her dad has not much time to live,
she immediately called her boyfriend, ( they had known each other since school
days )to proposed. That took about 30
seconds and the marriage proposal was done!
Finally she and her boyfriend got married,
and her father was proud of her and her achievements. As he held her hands and walked along the
wedding hall towards the front she realised each step she took nearer to
marriage, she was losing a “step” of her dad.
Few months later, her dad passed on while
she was attending an award night in her honour.
Earlier she had called her family that she will be late going home as
she had to attend this award night. Later
she received a call from her husband that her dad has passed away. She was devastated. She cried at the venue and outside the
street, she could not care that she had her heavy make-up and stage gown
on. From than one she decided to quit the
entertainment profession. She studied
and got her Masters in Sport management and taught at the local university.
After she quitted she decided to have a
baby. Her son came and she was enjoying
being just a normal wife with a husband and kid. She had put on weight after delivering her
son. When she went around people
criticised her weight and she was angry about that. She received comment like “See her thigh it
is as big as an elephant leg!”.
Her
conversion
Around 2009 she and her son went to the US
for a holiday. Father’s Day was around
the corner, and she decided to call him to wish him “Happy Father’s Day”. On Skype her husband asked her whether she
knew where he had gone to that day, she answered that she did not know. Her husband said he had gone to church that
day. Donna almost failed off her chair
because she thought that was ridiculous!
His father was the Managing Director of a temple, and his son attended a
church? Unbelievable! Anywhere, he shared that he was very touched
by a son of about 22 years old hugging his father of 70s and both saying that they
loved each other. Knowing Chinese
culture, it was not easy for them to express their love for each other
openly. Her husband shared he just
wanted that kind of love expressions. He
also promised to bring Donna and their son to this church when they came back
to Taiwan.
Two days after they returned to Taiwan,
they all went to church on Sunday. As
Donna approached the main door of the church she could see people playing
various instruments and singing.
Immediately she was critical of their playing, as the bass was not
correct, the drumming was out of beat, and the singing was out of tune
etc. One person welcomed her saying,
“Jesus loves you!” and she was irritated by it.
The usher led her to the front row, but she said she wanted to sit at
the side because she did not want people to recognize her as the former famous
singer.
As the service was in progress, a Mandarin
hymn was sung and she began to weep. She
did not understand why she wept, but as she listened to the hymn and weeping
she could feel her burdens on the shoulders lifting and became lighter and
lighter. She continued to weep
through-out the service. The pastor saw
her weeping and he asked whether she was ready to accept Jesus Christ as her
personal Saviour, than she looked at her husband who nodded his head meaning
yes. She turned to the pastor and said “yes”.
The Pastor led her whole family through the sinners’ prayer. The following month her whole family was baptised. That was in 2010.
They began to serve in the church music
ministry since she had professional experiences in singing. After a while, the person in charged asked
her to be in charge of music and worship.
She reluctantly accepted. Later
she discovered she was using her own talent and efforts and not turning to God
in the ministry. She took a two months
sabbatical to search and pray.
Her pastors suggested that she use her
singing talent to sing Gospel songs and that she should consider recording an
album of Gospel songs. On second thought
she was thinking to herself, “This means I have to be on stage and people will
see that I am so fat !” . She told the
pastor she will pray about this. In her
morning devotion and prayers, she prayed and bargained with God, “If you help
me to lose 20 KG s I will cut a Gospel album and perform” but there was no
answer from God. She prayed, how about
losing 10 KG s? Still no answer, how about 5 KG s, still no answer! One day she was praying, and God told her
that “No matter how you look, I love you”, God said “ Do you love you son
unconditionally?. She said “Yes”. God said “I love you the way you are”. That struck her and she started recording her
first Gospel album. Her pastor suggested
that she should become a Gospel singing evangelist, and without hesitation she
took up this challenge knowing it was God’s call on her life. Beside she was not getting any younger and
she wanted to maximize her time here for the Lord. Since becoming a singing evangelist, she has
ministered in Taiwan, USA, Italy, Singapore and Malaysia.
This time around, she came with her 15
years old son Philip. Both Donna and
Philip presented a few worship songs in FBC on Sunday.
Praise God that when Donna made an altar
call in Church on Sunday, six people came forward to accept Jesus Christ as
their personal Saviour, Hallelujah, all Gory to God!
Note: You can watch Donna’s testimony in Mandarin
on You tube at this link:
(press control and click on your key board to
go to You tube direct )
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