God Had Already Prepared This Church for Me

1. Seeking God’s Will and Waiting for His Leading

During Chinese New Year in 2023, my husband suggested that I take our two children to New Zealand first so that they could study here. I felt very conflicted at the time. My husband would not be coming with us, so I would have to study while also caring for two children. Moreover, because he was not a believer, I felt that his decision was not spiritual and therefore was not something I should simply follow. I kept asking God, “Is this really Your will?”

I shared this matter with my parents, the sisters in my small group, and my spiritual companions, and everyone prayed together for us. I also thought of Gideon in the Bible. When he faced God’s leading, he asked God for confirmation. So I also prayed: “If this is Your will, please open the way for me. If it is not, please stop me through circumstances or through people.”

At that time, however, my husband was urging me to move forward, and I felt a great deal of pressure. Since I did not yet feel that I had received God’s permission, I did not want to do anything. For about a month, I hardly spoke to my husband and began giving him the silent treatment.

Later, I talked with a sister in Christ. She suggested that I submit to my husband. If he asked me to take an English exam, then I should take it. If he asked me to contact an agent and apply for schools for the children, then I should do that as well. If God did not permit us to go, then He would place obstacles in the way.

So I took the English exam and applied for schools and visas for the children. But before our departure, my son’s visa still had not been approved. Our flights were booked for July 5. It was not until the morning of July 4—the day before we were due to leave— that my son’s visa finally came through.

Looking back now, I realise that God never showed me the entire road all at once. Instead, He opened the way for us one step at a time.

2. God Prepared a Church for Us

How did we find a church in New Zealand? Looking back, I can see very clearly that this too was God’s leading.

During the week before we left in 2023, I attended choir practice for the last time and wanted to say goodbye to the brothers and sisters in the choir.

Something remarkable happened. An older sister who normally sat behind me happened to sit beside me that day. She was relatively new, so we had hardly spoken before.

She noticed that my music folder was very thick and contained many hymns. She asked how I had collected so much sheet music because she wanted to make copies. I told her that after the practice I could simply give her the whole folder, because I would no longer need it.

She was surprised and asked me why. I told her that I was leaving Qingdao and moving to New Zealand.

She asked, “Have you found a church in New Zealand?”

I replied, “Not yet. Please pray for me. I hope that after we arrive, God will prepare one for us.”

She then said, “Let me introduce you to a sister. I previously lived in New Zealand for four years.”

Just like that, she gave me the WeChat contact of Sister Liping Zhao.

We arrived in New Zealand on a Thursday, and I contacted Sister Liping immediately. Just three days later, on Sunday, she drove to my cousin’s home and picked up my two children and me to attend church.

That was our first time attending a service at EFC of Central Auckland. After the sermon, I was invited to the newcomers’ reception, where I met Sister May, Nicole, and Minister Fu and his wife.

At first, I wanted to join Sister Liping’s small group. However, her group met on Saturdays, while my two children attended the English congregation on Friday evenings. So I decided to join a Friday evening small group instead.

Sister May told me that Nicole had also first come to New Zealand as a student before eventually settling here. She suggested that I join Nicole’s group—Peace Group 3 in the Peace District.

When I heard the word “Peace,” I truly felt peace in my heart. I settled down inside and knew that God had brought us to New Zealand, because the church I had attended in Qingdao was also called Peace Church.

Had I not been asking God for confirmation all along? God had already prepared a “home” for me in New Zealand. He had prepared brothers and sisters for us.

When I first arrived in New Zealand, I could not drive. For that first month, whenever we attended small group or Sunday worship, Nicole’s family came to pick us up and then drove us home afterwards.

The brothers and sisters whom we had only just met treated us like family. They helped us so naturally that, even though we had only just arrived in a completely new environment, we felt no need to be guarded or cautious.

Later, even my cousin, who is not a believer, was amazed. She said, “You have been in New Zealand for less than six months, but you have already completely adapted to your new environment and made so many good friends.”

3. God Placed Sisters Around Me to Show Me That He Was Always Near

My decision to come to New Zealand to study early childhood education originally came through a friend of my cousin named Yaping, who suggested the idea to me.

Through a sister in the choir, I met Sister Liping and was led to our church. Then, in 2024, through another sister in Qingdao, I met Boping Xu, who was also coming to New Zealand to study early childhood education. The sister in Qingdao asked me to help receive and support her when she arrived.

All three of these sisters had the sound “ping” in their names. Before meeting them in person, I had already added them on WeChat and talked with them for a long time. When we finally met face to face, each of them felt as though I had known her for years. There was an immediate sense of familiarity and closeness.

At the time, however, I had not noticed how remarkable it was that all three of their names contained “ping.”

Later, Sister Jing Sun introduced Sister Ping Sun to me so that I could go through the From Doubting to Believing course with her. Suddenly I realised what God had been doing.

God had placed these sisters around me to show me that He had always been leading me, helping me, and preparing the road ahead.

4. Looking Back Over Three Years and Seeing God’s Grace All Along the Way

Three years ago, while we were still in China, I was still seeking God’s will. Three years later, looking back, I can see that God had been leading me all along, bringing me into the home He had already prepared for me.

My two children also found their own friends at church. They enjoy coming to church and have become involved in serving in the English congregation. Even more wonderfully, they were baptised respectively in June 2025 and May 2026.

During these three years, my son was hospitalised four times because of illness. God protected and healed him, while brothers and sisters continually prayed for him and helped us through those difficult times.

During these three years, changes to the children’s visas also meant that my daughter’s school gave us only one week either to move house or transfer her to another school. Her visa status had changed to that of a domestic student, but the house we were renting was outside the school zone for her girls’ school.

That very same week, my son was admitted to hospital for the third time. The doctors did not have a clear treatment for him. They could only prescribe fever-reducing medication and pain relief, and they drew eight tubes of blood to send to the United States for testing.

When it seemed that his condition could not be resolved in New Zealand, his father flew here from China and took him back to China for treatment.

During that same week, I was also informed by my school that I had failed one of my courses.

In just one week, my son’s health, my daughter’s schooling, and my own studies all encountered serious difficulties.

My faith was weak at that moment, and I began to wonder: “Was it really God who brought us to New Zealand? Why are we facing so many difficulties? God, have You stopped caring for us? What am I supposed to do?”

I am deeply thankful that during that period, brothers and sisters continually prayed for our family in the morning prayer meetings and other prayer gatherings.

In the end, I was also thankful for my daughter’s understanding and maturity. She said she was willing to try a new school. She transferred to the high school in our local zone and attended for one week before Term 3 ended.

During these three years, I failed one course, but once again God protected me and worked in a way that turned the impossible into something possible.

My teacher gave me another opportunity to resubmit my work. What had been a failed course became a pass, and I completed my studies in a little over a year.

I am especially thankful because my son’s repeated illnesses caused me to miss a great deal of study time. Normally, I should have received my qualification later than my classmates.

However, the staff at my school knew that while I was completing my final course, my son had become seriously ill and my husband had already taken him back to China for treatment. They wanted to help me as much as possible.

Whenever I submitted an assignment, they prioritised marking my work. They then arranged my Māori language examination and finally my thesis defence as quickly as possible so that I could graduate sooner and return to China to see my son.

Is this not God’s grace? He is able to make the impossible possible and to turn hardship into blessing.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him.” — Romans 8:28, NIV

One week after I returned from China with my son, God led me again. I began working at a childcare centre belonging to a sister from church. I have now been working there for almost two years, and our family has also submitted our RV application.

This year, our church celebrates its 30th anniversary. As I look back over these three years, my heart is full of gratitude. God not only brought us to New Zealand; He also brought us into this spiritual family and allowed us to become a small part of the story of these thirty years.

May God continue to lead our whole family along the road He has prepared for us. May He also continue to bless this church so that His grace and the gospel may be passed on from generation to generation.