by Alessandrya Pak
I was in search of a community as I felt strongly that community can help me to deepen my faith in God and make new friendships, as it is harder and more arduous to journey alone. While serving in Treasure 5 in the Logistics team, I met some friends from 1 Peter. I was keen on joining them, however I did not meet the life stage and was referred to Fig Tree instead.
On 1st April 2016, I started to journey with Fig Tree as a guest and officially joined in August. At first, it was smooth flowing and there was a sense of joy too. Over time, there were many challenges faced, such as differing views during community meetings, and also the feeling of being left out, as I am quite an introvert and also the youngest member at that point in time. However, community has also helped me to be more accepting and being gentle with myself, to learn to surrender my insecurities, and be more accepting of other members in Fig Tree. Community is not perfect but we are many parts that make up One body of Christ.
This year, many members (4 couples) are getting married, and my community is transitioning to a different life stage. It is also a challenge faced, however we are struggling to overcome and support one another through prayer, our journey groups (smaller gendered groups within the community where we meet every quarterly). Once in a while we have social outings, and weekly fellowship dinners before cell group sessions. Sometimes we have formation sessions too. The recent one which our community did during the Lent period, on the Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen. This has helped to increase my knowledge on my faith and given me a deeper insight and wisdom.
Moving forward, our hope for the future is to be able to support each other in love and with courage, to journey together and grow deeper in faith, and spread God’s love to all whom we meet. Hence, forming Disciples of Christ and building God’s kingdom here on earth.
