Full-Time Training - Testimonies

A “Privilege Untold”, Daphne Lim

The details of the account escape me now but if I am not mistaken, it was a cold, January evening in Vancouver, British Columbia, when I ran into some old friends from high school and university at a local teashop. I had just completed my first term in the Full-Time Training and was, at that point, spending my winter break at home with my family. The exchange that followed between us was marked by the typical descriptions of each of our current whereabouts and involvements that seem indicative of all such encounters. They spoke of their jobs in various firms, their new apartments in downtown, and of several mutual acquaintances that, I began to learn, have relocated to other cities in other countries where they have since carved out new lives for themselves. Consequently, as I began to relate to them concerning my being in Anaheim for the Full-Time Training, I myself could not help but feel somewhat puzzled by my own decision to

be there. A certain degree of confusion was triggered in me, which seemed to echo the bewildered statement displayed on the faces of my friends. What indeed was I doing at the Full-Time Training? Before me were a number of young women, my peers, moving on successfully in their careers and personal lives. Even before the conclusion of our coincidental meeting, I could not help but begin to view my own life through their eyes. What I saw defied even my own logic. What I saw was what the disciples considered a “waste” in Matthew 26:8.

Now as my two years at the Full-Time Training draw to a close, I reflect on that encounter a year ago. With a genuine heart I now realize a little more, by the Lord's mercy, the significance and meaning of that account of Mary in the Bible and of what Witness Lee wrote in the footnotes to that passage in Matthew 26 in the New Testament Recovery Version: “Throughout the past twenty centuries thousands of precious lives, heart treasures, high positions, and golden futures have been `wasted' upon the Lord Jesus, to those who love Him in such a way He is altogether lovely and worthy of their offering. What they have poured upon Him is not a waste but a fragrant testimony of His sweetness”, (Matthew 26:8, footnote 1).

My two years at the Full-Time Training were not a waste. What the Lord was able to show and to do and the extent of His operation and growth in me during that time, only He can measure. Through all the classes and through all the specific situations and circumstances I was placed in, the Lord was able to dispense Himself into me, under this particular training environment, in ways He has never been able to before. What I received then was truly of priceless worth. It is by being in this training that I was given experiences through which I really began to discover, appreciate, treasure, love and enjoy this lovely One inside of me.

The Lord is too much and He is so much. What I am and what I can give pales in comparison to His precious worth. “O never speak of sacrifice! A privilege untold is to be His at any price, in Calv'ry's hosts enrolled”(Hymns, #473). It has been utmost privilege for the most undeserving to be able to give even these two short years to be trained in such a way by the most deserving One!

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