Our Community

	People from all nations
Proclaiming the gospel to every tongue, tribe and nation. (Revelations 14:6) Our church is composed of people from many different nations with diverse backgrounds; people at different junctions in their journey of life with God; people like you and like me.  On this page, we feature some members of our church and their stories.

Jinyao Tang  (Kim Yaw Tong) I lived through almost 28 years of my life without knowing God.  I heard the Gospel before; one of my sisters had been a Christian for more than 10 years.  It just never occurred to me that I needed God — life seemed good enough in my 20 something years without God.  However, without me knowing it, God had been patiently preparing for me an opportunity to come to know Him.  After going through Chinese, Malay, and then English education systems in Malaysia and Singapore, I unexpectedly ended up in Pittsburgh.  My stay in Pittsburgh has been longer than anyone expected too!  I ended up doing graduate studies here, and have been here for almost 8 years.  After 7 years in Pittsburgh, by a chanced encounter, a friend invited me to a hiking trip organized by Oakland International Fellowship.  I got to know a few people during the trip, and they invited me to Sunday service and Bible studies.  For the first time in my life, I read the Bible seriously.  I was immediately captured by the perfect character and amazing teachings of Jesus Christ.  But it took me almost a year, with the help and prayers of many brothers and sisters, to finally understand God’s wonderful love for me. After I accepted Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior, I slowly realized how lost I had been before I came to know Him.  By His grace, I’m being transformed and renewed each day.  I’m finally starting to see a purpose in my life.  I can’t express how thankful I am that our Lord has found a lost sheep, me, as He promised.

Jasmin Simmons I accepted the Lord as my savior at about the age of twelve and, like everyone else, I thought that being Christian meant just going to Sunday school and keeping out of trouble.  However, I was far from perfect and to try to fit in, I lied and stole from my parents and friends.  Then one day a Christian friend asked me, what I was doing with my life.  This really caused me to stop and think about what it really meant to be called a Christian and whether or not God was really in control of my life.  I rededicated my life to God at 16 and I have never looked back.  Sure, it’s been tough at times, but I have learnt that with “Christ in the vessel you can smile at the storm.” Coming to Pittsburgh to pursue graduate studies was a true act of faith in God.  I had never lived on my own before and everyone around me was a stranger.  But God provided me with a family at Oakland International Fellowship, people to encourage and pray for me when I am down or when difficult times come my way.  He provided sound teaching to help me grow.  This was no accident, because my heavenly father knows me and my needs and shows me that he is able to supply them all.

Elias Enrique del Real My mother shared the gospel with me when I was seven back in Venezuela.  I asked Jesus to save me, and I remember Him lifting the burden of sin off of me, and giving me the joy of the Holy Spirit.  Since then it’s been a continual journey of learning to be in Him.  In Him I have freedom over addictions and past guilt.  In Him I am fruitful.  I’m learning to walk humbly as He shapes my character.  I’m still learning just how much He loves me, and how to love Him. I first came to Pittsburgh Chinese Church, Oakland as a student on January 23rd, 2000 with my friend Richard Chen.  At the time we only had combined English and Mandarin services.  I believe God has led me to serve people from all nations.  When I was I child, I enjoyed going to an International Christian Fellowship with my parents.  He led me to Pittsburgh as a student though I didn’t realize why then.  He later answered the prayers of many in this church and provided me with a job and housing here after graduation.  I thank God for the opportunity to share in His work in OIF among internationals here, and am awed at how Oakland fits into His work around the world.

Jarun Ngamvirojcharoen I never thought that I would become a christian at all because I was satisfied the way I was living out my life.  I was born Buddhist.  I also had a good opportunity to read a lot of good books and practiced the way to have a peaceful life.  I thought at that time that I didn t want anything more.  But God had something else planned.  I met a female friend who brought me to church where I was exposed to an interesting idea about human s knowledge and god s knowledge.  I learned that the foolishness of God is wiser than man s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man s strength (1 Corinthians 1:25) It impressed me because this was consistent with what I had been thinking all along about man and God.  This was the first time I was introduced to some Christian thoughts. One day my friend was asking me about how receptive I was to Christianity.  I was not sure how to answer.  I went back home and decided to ask God, (not knowing that God does hear us!) that if He’s real, let Him show me the answer.  The next day, I went to look for a Bible, amazingly, I came across a book that talked about Christianity and Buddhism.  The incident changed my perspective about Christianity.  One night, I read a small booklet called Four Spritual Laws that I got from my friend.  I followed the prayer in that book to receive Christ.  Suddenly, I felt very warm in my heart.  It’s undescribable.  I had never experienced this kind of feeling before.  I still was not sure what happened but God showed me along through answered prayers and a great discipleship experience I had with a brother from our church.  It is something that increasingly strengthen my faith in Him.  Oakland International Fellowship has been a great place for me to hang out.  I can see God’s love in the midst of people around me.  We have a fun time, good Bible discussion, worship time together.

Christy Bucknell A typical story you will hear is that a person grew up in a Christian home and became a Christian when they were young and have been going to church ever since.  I could tell you the same story, but God gives a special story to everyone, here’s mine. I did become a Christian when I was about six and a half.  One night as I slept I had a dream.  I dreamt that I was walking down a road and I came to a fork in the road, to the left was about the same as I had been walkng down, a smooth, wide road.  To the right, the road narrowed and became rough to walk on.  The obvious choice was to stay left, and I did.  Throughout the dream I came to forks in the road and always I stayed left.  As I walked I saw a bright glow in the distance and I got closer I saw that is was a palace.  I hurried toward it only to find a big pit of fire seperating me from the golden palace.  As I turned to go back and to find one of the forks in the road, I saw the road I had taken start crumbling.  The crumbling road started crumbling toward me and the pit of fire behind me.  As I began to fall into that pit, I woke up. You may say it was only a dream.  But at six and a half that was no dream, it was a nightmare and I was scared.  I went downstairs to find my dad, who I knew would be in his study corner reading his Bible.  I told him my dream and he told me the way to that golden palace.  That morning, I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. Through the years God has taught me alot, but I never really grew alot till my parents started bring our family to he Oakland International Service.  Though it wasn’t till after I submitted to God and decided to accept my parents decision and join a cell group, that I started to grow.  For me I was taken out of youth group and put into a group with people that were older than me.  It took me out of peer pressure and let me mature like God wanted me to.  I’m thankful that God has used changes in my life to make me more like Him.

Kelly Wang I was blessed with a Christian fellowship group when I was an undergraduate in China.  I saw the joy of the Christians and their heart-felt desire to serve God by caring for others, and I saw my own dissatisfaction with life and selfishness, even though I had all of what they had.  God moved me to love Him and trust in Him. At the Oakland International Fellowship I see the same kind of desire to pursue God and to care for others within the community.  This is a highly-educated, humble and culturally diverse group.  People here are for real; opening up their lives and are willing to be vulnerable to one another.  I can really sense they have genuine hearts for God.  It is really neat to be part of such a dynamic congregation.

Ling Lim God entered my life 16 years ago when I was an excited college freshman, in a new city away from home for the first time.  Although I had been exposed to the Bible and Christianity as a teenager, the only one I believed in and trusted was my family and myself.  I had been raised to be a morally upright person who lived in pursuit of important values such as family and education.  Religion and God was not something I felt I needed at the time, since my life up to that point had been going so smoothly.  I guess God knew what I was thinking and what it would take for me to see Him, because my life was turned upside-down before I finally surrendered it to the Lord. My first semester of college was far from the exciting, succesful time that I had imagined it would be.  In fact, I experienced many challenges, such as loneliness, illness, and academic struggles, all of which I was unaccustomed to.  Looking back, I see that all this was necessary for me to realize that I could not depend only on myself, others, or things of this world to bring me hope and comfort.  When God revealed Himself to me, He offered to carry all my burdens, and brought a unique joy and peace into my life that I had never experienced before.  He also promised me an unconditional love that went to the extent of sacrificing His only Son Jesus to die on the cross for my sins.  Here was the Creator of the Earth and all-powerful Sovereign God taking time to love and care for me.  At this realization, I surrendered my life and worries to Him. An important and integral part of my Christian growth has been having a spiritual home and family, which I have found in PCCO, especially in OIF.  Not only have I been privileged to be a part of this new exciting work that God is doing within our church, but I have experienced accountability, fellowship, and love among a friendly and dedicated body of believers.  Being in OIF, I have been able to serve God and others, and witness first-hand the life-changing growth of this congregation.  I believe God is moving among the people in Oakland, and that He is using OIF as part of His amazing plan.

Pastor Paul Bucknell It might sound odd to some people but the church that I grew up in just didn’t believe or teach about the salvation of Jesus Christ.  It was amazing that I had an opportunity to hear the gospel at all.  The church had a student from the local seminary come by and be our part time youth worker.  I wasn’t interested in hearing the gospel, though.  If it wasn’t for my mom making me go to Youth Group, I surely wouldn’t have been there.  But there I was.  I sat through the whole meeting.  Not touched a bit.  Afterwards, the leader asked us all to bow our heads and pray.  I politely bowed my head but had no intention of praying.  Well then something happened that forever changed my life. As I bowed my head, I found myself falling down and down at a tremendous speed.  Everything felt so real.  I looked down to see where I was going and gasped at what I saw.  I was speeding straight into hell!  Up to that point in my life (12 years-old), I thought I was a pretty good person.  But that short ‘trip’ made me very aware how evil hearted I was.  I couldn’t pretend to be better than my brother any longer because I was so convicted about my terrible heart.  The worse part was that I knew I should go where I was heading.  Well what do you do in such a situation? I looked for a way out. I remembered the message that I just heard.  If I believe in Jesus, then all my sins would be forgiven and I could have eternal life.  In just those few short moments, I repented from my sin and believed in Christ Jesus.  He died in my place.  From that moment on I knew, despite my horrible past, that I was His forever.  I can still remember coming home full of joy and delighted in my Savior.  Those things which I would not ever do like praying and reading God’s Word all of a sudden became a great joy to my heart.  Now well over thirty years later, I am still amazed of His goodness to a sinner like me. Oakland International Fellowship has become a special place for our family.  We love the opportunity to serve, grow and fellowship in the Lord’s presence.  We can have a real part in God’s great work which is not just reaching internationals around Oakland but also around the world.

Jayden Lim Hello! The story of my birth is about answered prayers.  Before God created me, my parents have been trying to have kids for awhile.  My Mama’s womb was barren until both my Papa and Mama came to a realization and were willing to accept whatever God’s will is for them with regards to having a family.  They prayed and many caring brothers and sisters from our church family prayed along with them.  Finally, God answered and here I am.  My name is Jayden, which means God has heard.