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Ciara Laja: I did the question that explicitly. I know in my head that I really did not understand any of these. I was just accepting them because I know that my parents were accepting those beliefs, and they go to church because of those beliefs.
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Ciara Laja: My name is Ciara Laja, and I live in Las Vegas, Nevada. I grew up in the Philippines in Cavite City, and I grew up in an interfaith family. My dad’s a Roman Catholic. My mom is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as Mormon.
Two Faiths
And during regular Sunday Mass or Sunday services, I go to the Mormon Church. My older sister would go with my dad. So that was like the division. So every Christmas season, we go to the Catholic Church as a family, the four of us. It’s a tradition in the Philippines, and you get to attend mass at four a.m. or even as early as that. And for me, it lasted until the early teens or maybe mid-teens.
Looking For Something Else
In college, you get yourself exposed to courses related to theology, philosophy, and religion. So that’s when I started looking for something else and looking for the answers, like, “Why do we have another testament of Christ in the form of a Book of Mormon?” I thought all this stuff. There’s only one book, and that’s the Bible. I also started questioning about the Trinity.
It was a complicated concept to be honest, and I must admit, up to this point, I couldn’t really understand it. I had several religion professors. To me, it wasn’t satisfactory, because if God really wanted for us to be a servant, it should be simplified. It should be easy— what if you’re trying to educate? Or what if you’re trying to preach the gospel to someone who is not educated? How can they understand this? They are just going to follow blindly if they don’t truly understand the true words of God, right?
Faith Alone, Praying Alone
In college, that’s the time I decided, firmly decided that, “Okay, I’ll still pray. I’ll still do good. I’ll still do good to my neighbors, do good to other people, and I would still consider myself Christian, but I won’t be associated with any religion. Faith alone, praying alone.” I know there is God, but I do not know who God is.
Fear
That moment during college, my mom specifically noticed that I was so scared. I fear college, I fear riding the bus to go to college. I was battling a mental disorder or anxiety disorder. Sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the night or even at one—three a.m., panicking. Sometimes I would cry. I would go to my parents’ bedroom. I would cry to them. I don’t understand why. All I know is I’m scared. I don’t want to go anywhere. I just want to stay at home. And during those times, too, I would pray. I would pray. I did not know who I am praying to, but I would pray because my parents would tell me, just pray. Just pray, please. Yeah. Just pray. Pray on your own, and you will find peace and pray.
Introduced To The Church
I met Troy. Troy reached out to me through LinkedIn because he was looking for a recruiter to fill their team. Troy is my husband now, and he introduced me to the Church. But it wasn’t an instant like, yeah, I want to go to the Church Of Christ because I grew up in the Philippines. So I’ve heard of the Church Of Christ, but I never really knew what INC [Iglesia Ni Cristo] is about.
It was 2014, 2015. So there’s a lot of available information that you can access through the internet. I saw all of those, but I kept an open mind. I must admit, it wasn’t like an instant leap of faith, but I continued on. So it lasted for like a few months, that I was just regularly attending the worship service
I was expecting it was going to be like a “culty” kind of thing, but it wasn’t. It wasn’t. Everything was based on the Bible. That’s also what amazed me the most. The minister would open the Bible, and then he would read the answers straight from the Bible. No add-ons, no other interpretation. Just a word from the Bible, from the Holy Scripture.
I thought it was interesting, seeing a girl and then the boy, like, wow, what? Why do you have this setup? And then Troy explained to me, “Well, we want everything to be organized—structured. It’s how God wanted us to worship.” There’s no distraction. You have to have that moment with God.
So for the Catholic masses, I would hear the priests—like other verses in the Bible—and then he would expand it by telling stories. These stories are, I don’t know, maybe from personal experience, current events. So I thought it was a little wasteful of my time because I don’t see the reference. Like I just, I don’t see the basis of it. Well, in the Mormon church, we also get to have our Bible lessons. I can also be invited over to speak and share my lessons with the brethren.
While in the Iglesia Ni Cristo, it was straightforward, like it was very easy, it was very simple. Yet you know that the source is credible, which is the Holy Scripture.
Straightforward
It took me a few months before I officially signed up as a Bible student. I felt really blessed that I was able to witness those worship services officiated by Brother Eduardo Manalo, while I was having my Bible studies. And he always talks about the lesson about worrying, right? So it goes to my heart, given my situation. Yeah, I think it was also the “Ah ha moment” because at that time most of the lessons were about, “How would you be strong? How would you be courageous?” Right? Why would God lead me to this Church? And why would God assign these lessons to this Church while I’m here? I feel like God was talking to me and leading me, “Hey, don’t trust your intelligence alone. You’ve got to surrender to me in order for you to understand.” It was a humbling thing to hear.
Yeah, I pondered upon it, and then I decided to ask Troy, “How do I start the Bible study? Where do I go first?” I clearly remember this. This was in Makati, Philippines, my first worship service. It was a big local when I entered. So I get to hear the brethren sobbing. I kind of understood that they’re crying because they really have this direct relationship with God. They don’t need to utter any memorized prayers. They don’t need to kneel. They don’t need to be conscious about any beads that they’re touching. They just pray. They just talk. And I thought, “Wow. So that’s how you pray.” I remember crying because I thought, like, I was really talking to God. I surrendered myself in a way that I did not need to be conscious about the flow of my prayer. I never had that kind of moment when I was not part of the Iglesia Ni Cristo. Maybe it’s the truth—It’s the true Church, right? When I was introduced to the Iglesia Ni Cristo, I learned that if you put God in the center of your life, you learn your purpose. And it gives me so much joy knowing that I please Him.
I do my role as an officer of the Church, and at the same time, I get blessed. People should have the courage to seek the truth, not just through behind the keyboards, behind the monitors, because there’s more to it than what you see.
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