Mary Ann Uy, a member of the Lord’s Flock New Generation youth ministry, during “Nuggets” at the Relentless: Singles & Youth Faith on Fire (SYFOF) 2017 event at the Smart Coliseum, July 1. 2017. NATALIE QUIMLAT

QUEZON City – Fighting back tears, a young woman shared at the Relentless: Singles & Youth Faith on Fire (SYFOF) 2017 event on July 1, about how she fell into pre-marital sex and a life of ambition because of the pain of having a broken family.

“I tried to look for the love I couldn’t find in my family in other people,” shared Mary Ann Uy, a member of the Lord’s Flock New Generation youth ministry, during “Nuggets”, a session of personal sharing and “bite-sized teaching”, at the half-day event.

According to Uy, she would be especially sad on Christmas and New Year because it was the time she would remember her father leaving their home because of an affair.

Looking for love

Depressed and angry, she soon found comfort in the attention of a young man who would text and call her constantly.

“Texting and calls, I stayed up till early morning. I thought that was love, that was happiness,” said the member of the Lord’s Flock PSALM Ministry in Filipino.

“…[W]e got a chance to meet. I learned so many things that I shouldn’t have… I committed pre-marital sex,” shared Uy, saying she became inactive in the community shortly after.

This was also the time, she shared, that she actively pursued her ambition to be in the spotlight by finding gigs to perform at mall tours and TV shows. Soon enough, she found herself going to Japan as an entertainer.

“I thought I was ok. I also went to Japan. I learned to sit and drink with the Japanese. I thought that if I had money, [my family] would be ok,” Uy added, noting that the opposite came true because her relationship with her family suffered even more and she eventually lost her gigs.

No sin too great

The turn in events would lead her to seek God again.

“I prayed to the Lord. I said, ‘Lord, I give up. My sins are too big.’ I said, ‘Lord, help me. I want to go back’. I didn’t know how He would respond to me,” she told some 15,000 young people at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

According to Uy, God seemed to answer her more concretely by closing down the establishment where she had shows every night.

“Because of that, I had the chance to go back to the community. [There] I learned that our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit… We shouldn’t taint it,” she said.

According to Uy, since then life has gotten better.

She shared: “My father and mother are together again. We celebrated Christmas together, happy… The first time I got a Bible, [God] had a message [for me]: “I will come to you and save you…”

Now actively serving with other youth in the community, Uy said she has now found the love she had been seeking all this time.

“It turns out there was Someone loving me with an everlasting love… He is the love I had been looking for. I know my God loves me. He has forgiven all my sins and cleansed me. I am standing in front of you, a new person.” (With reports from Angel Memorando)

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