My name is Candice Beverly Keh. I grew up in a relatively traditional Chinese family where we followed a certain religious norm. At a young age, I remember being so captivated with the good Shepherd described in Psalm 23. But it was in 2nd grade when I finally understood the gospel and accepted Jesus Christ to become my personal Lord and Savior. I had so much overflowing joy getting to know Him intimately even though those were the times when my family went through devastating tragedies.
I started attending CCF when I was in college and was introduced to the Great Commission. I remember telling God, Lord, maybe someday but not no. I had a heart-wrenching episode that tested my faith in God right after college. In my great anguish, I allowed the excruciating pain to numb me from seeing how God’s love was evident in this painful experience.
Instead of turning to God, I rebelled against the Lord and made alcohol my best friend. My family and few close friends were there for me but I never listened to their counsel. Deep-seated anger and bitterness consumed me to the point that I did not want to have to deal with anything about God. Yet in spite of my rebellion, God was gently beckoning me to trying to capture my attention. From time to time, He would send me people even if I angrily rebuffed every one of them. I begrudgingly gave in to His incessant prodding and went to 3 retreats—Secrets of the Vine, Overflow and B1G4. I do not remember much of what was shared during those retreats but I remember specific messages that never failed to reaffirm God’s love for me. It was a struggle for me to accept His love because I knew I hurt Him so many times. But in the end, I simply surrendered and gave in to such great, unimaginable, indescribably wonderful love of our Savior.
Before I knew it, I was introduced to my first ever disciple. It was a scary but exciting experience to be responsible for taking care of someone else other than my personal walk with the Lord. But towards the end of 2007 to 2008 something happened to my family that made my parents decide to shy away from society for our safety and protection. Even if I was sad to let her go, I entrusted my disciple to her siblings and parents for her spiritual care.
The FRIENDS retreat came on 2009. It was there that the Lord reached out to me and slowly awakened my desire to disciple people again. He allowed me to lay dormant for a while so I can grow in my intimacy with Him. Now He wanted me back in the game. I told God, Lord, I could not possibly disciple again until our family is safe. I do not want anyone to be harmed because of our issues. Why do You want me to disciple now? I asked Him to give me Bible verses that would tell me to start discipling again. Within a week, I recorded in my journal over 10 verses from different parts of the Bible commanding me to obey and disciple other women. God’s confirmation through His Word left me so speechless that I enthusiastically went to one retreat after another serving the Lord as a facilitator hoping to start a group again but none of the girls I met really stayed in the group.
That minor setback did not dampen my eagerness to disciple so I signed up to join the first ever GLC. I knew I needed training to be able to disciple effectively and GLC 2 paved the way for me to be more confident in discipling women. Like any normal student, I was nervous at first but that went away after the first session. One priceless lesson that has been deeply engraved in my heart is people do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.
A year flew by since when I learned the basics of discipleship and the Lord has blessed me with wonderful ladies to disciple. After some time, I thought I was already doing alright by simply meeting the ladies each week and discipling them until 2 Timothy 2:2 stopped me in my tracks. It says, And the things you have heard Me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. That verse haunted me for a year. I knew I had to sign up for GLC4 come June 2011 but I stubbornly resisted out of fear. I knew I needed help in helping the girls grow but I kept delaying to the last minute. The Lord however did not allow me to have peace until I enrolled to GLC4.
The sessions greatly impacted me. But everything flew out the window when I heard that we were to form a bridging event as our final project. I was terrified to delegate work to the girls since I have never staged a bridging event before. However with much prayer and dependence on God’s grace, our bridging event became possible. We held the evangelistic event Captivating: Discover the Essence of True Unfading Beauty in February 2012. My ladies went for it 100%. After the event, they all voiced out their interest to serve the Lord with their talents and giftings. I was awed by how the LORD worked everything out for His glory despite my hesitations. GLC Level 4 greatly helped me realize how important it is to be intentional in shaping my disciples to one day becoming leaders themselves. Now I move forward with more confidence in leading these ladies to become future faithful fishers of women for the Lord’s glory and honor. It has been an incredible journey! I am so looking forward to experience more of Jesus! And I can only offer my deepest gratitude to my amazing Father God. To Him alone be all the glory, honor and praise!
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