Christina Chiu

Jesus as the Suffering Servant, who reached to people with compassion, is one of the dearest portrayals of him that I love. Jesus has always put people who on the margins and the issues of poverty and injustice upon my heart even from childhood: From when I first came to Canada when I was almost 6 years old and my father needing to take 3 jobs including being a taxi driver, to reading and resonating with the story of St. Francis as a child, to working with gang and street youth as a youth worker, running a house and outreaching on the streets to help young people off the street and addictions here and in Hong Kong, volunteering at MacDonald School with special needs kids and organizing & advocating with their parents for funding, running a Kid's club and tutoring for Indigenous kids and SE Asian kids, to living in a squatter area in the Philippines, to doing my Comprehensive paper on "Themes and Responses to Suffering" while being at Regent College, working with refugee and low income immigrants in an ESL program and many other volunteer involvements including Kinbrace House, Streams of Justice. I have compassion for people on the margins because I know what it is to struggle with poverty and to have a wounded past. I had a home life growing up that was painful, and have myself had to rely upon friends for a roof over my head. Other experiences that I bring are learning how to pray inner healing prayer, training as a spiritual director, and having personal suffering and mental health challenges. My Hope in Jesus:  "to comfort others with the comfort I have received from the God of comfort and mercy" II Corinthians  1:3-5.