At the tender age of 16, Que thought she had her life perfectly planned. As a small-town girl moving to the big city, she chased her dreams relentlessly to live the life that she always dreamt of having. But even though she thought she had everything she wanted, little did Que know that God had bigger plans for her.
I was born into a family of five children in a small village, 50 km away from Hanoi City, Vietnam. At the age of 16, I moved to Hanoi to study at the top high school in the country. It was a whole new world for me and I made the most out of it. I made as many friends as I could and joined every club that my school had, such as the Publishing Club, the Music Club, and the Badminton Club (which had only 6 members!). I even had my own rock band called PUQA and a K-Pop dance cover band called Fly High. In a nutshell, I managed to do everything to live a full life that I had dreamt of. I was such a proud girl, which soon grew into arrogance and selfishness that I was unaware of. To top that, there was a sense of insecurity coming from the relentless effort to stay a cool kid, and high expectation from family. But I tried to just ignore it.
Then one summer day in 2012, a friend in the same class invited me to something like a life skill training course. It sounded interesting, so I agreed to go. The training course, was of course, none other than Alpha. The village I grew up in was next to a parish, so I entered Alpha’s small discussions with confidence as I already knew a little about Jesus and the Trinity. I thought “Christianity is just that, isn’t it?” hence it wasn’t initially catchy for me.
But I never missed an Alpha session despite the rainy season during that time. That gave me a chance to hear more about Jesus. It was overwhelming as this was not the Jesus that I thought I once knew. Everything about Him shook my world, and I wanted to know more. Also looking back, hospitality team at Alpha was another thing that made me come back because they created the most welcoming atmosphere I have ever experienced.
Alpha challenged my views in many ways. I started to question all the social norms and cultural rituals that were accepted by the majority. There were times I wished I had not come to Alpha so I wouldn’t be pounded by so many life-questions. But I came across one quote by C.S. Lewis which states “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance”. I felt God touching me on the latter and I have never looked back since.
I continued going to the church ever since completing Alpha. It has been a six-year journey of getting to know God through His Word and prayers. I’ve also started helping at an Alpha group, and later running my own Alpha groups. Jesus is indeed the most beautiful thing that has ever happened in my life. He did not come to criticise, but showed me the things I needed to improve and enabled me to do so. Unlike all the cool and trendy stuff that I used to do in school to gain my mate’s favour, or all kinds of acts to please my parents; God didn’t need me to perform or do anything for His love. He loved and accepted me unconditionally just the way I am.
Alpha gave me the opportunity to discover and explore. I am so thankful that my friend invited me to Alpha, and never regretted saying ‘yes’.
Que has recently joined Alpha Vietnam as a full time staff to further equip and serve local churches to help people discover and develop a relationship with Jesus through Alpha.
“God didn’t need me to perform or do anything for His love. He loved and accepted me unconditionally just the way I am.”
