Dan’s Story

“How could you deny something you know nothing about?” A question that changed everything for Dan.

Dan, an entrepreneur with a heart for mission work, moved to Toronto, when she felt that her chapter as a missionary in China was coming to an end. She has now been here for a year and three months, but the journey to get to where she is now wasn’t an easy one.

While back home, she faced a series of challenges (job loss and health trials), before she realized it, Dan found herself battling depression. She faced common barriers to believing in God and relied on science and logic. She began feeling so near death, experiencing panic attacks, increased health concerns, and no appetite to continue. This season led her to question what education and society taught her. What was the meaning of life? But God recklessly pursued Dan. She retells – He sent over 20 individuals/groups from different countries to introduce her to His love and she turned them all away. One day, one specific individual from Australia’s approach resonated with her. This individual was only here for one week and asked Dan, “How could you deny something you know nothing about? It isn’t logical, is it? Why not give Him a shot?” There was sound logic around the question, so Dan decided to give Him a chance and she opened her heart to getting to know Jesus.

After this, Dan was joined by a Bible study group in 2012 and began reading the Bible and praying simple prayers. She chose Jesus as her saviour and got baptized in 2017 and eventually found her home church here at OneChurch.to. Dan emphasizes how the journey was not perfect, with lots of ups and downs but she knew what felt true, she knew the love and peace she felt as she dug deeper into really knowing Him. Now – you can catch Dan serving in our community with our food bank, in production & communications and being a vibrantly loving individual who lives a life on mission.

Dan’s story is an example of how Jesus meets us where we are, journeys with us in deconstruction & does everything He can to build us back. “God goes beyond races…locations…so we are to show love beyond anything” (Dan Xue, 2024).

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