Silicon Valley
Roy Lo
I was born in Taiwan to a non-religious family and immigrated to Texas when I was 10. Being a social outcast through middle and high school, combined with my love of science, turned me into a full-on atheist—the kind who went around evangelizing that God doesn’t exist.
That’s how I arrived at UC Berkeley, a free-thinking skeptic studying mechanical engineering. On my first day, someone invited me to check out their Christian club. I wanted nothing to do with a religious group, but I wanted a lot to do with the free food, so I started attending Bible study.
As I investigated this strange religion, I discovered I had been wrong about some of the most fundamental facts about life. By the end of my freshman year, I decided to give my life to Christ. After college, I went to law school, where I was told my way with words could be honed through legal training to help other skeptics like me come to believe in Jesus. While studying law, I also ministered to college students and continued doing so bivocationally as a patent litigator.
In 2010, I got married, and my wife and I helped start a church in Minneapolis. We later moved to church plants in Taiwan and Los Angeles, where I went into full-time ministry. Along the way, God blessed us with two daughters and, in 2016, brought us back to Berkeley. We spent a few years in youth ministry before returning to college ministry, where we first caught the vision of serving God with our friends. We’re excited for whatever new adventure God has in store for us.
Kaitlyn Lo
I grew up in Hong Kong and moved to Southern California in 8th grade. My parents were indifferent agnostics who believed that God either does not exist or is irrelevant to our pursuits in this world. But somehow by chance I grew up in a Christian school and heard the gospel when I was in 5th grade. It made sense to me that my sins required some kind of payment and I was relieved that Jesus took my punishment on the cross. I wanted forgiveness from God and thought that my end of the bargain would be to try to follow God's rules.
Fast forward to college, I started coming to our church because people were friendly and the messages were intellectually satisfying. But the more I learned about God and how he desired us to live, the more burdened and guilty I felt because my end of the bargain kept growing. One day I just decided to walk away from God since I was miserable and believed I'd fail. Ironically, that's just where God needed me to be. Miraculously I went to a retreat where I heard the familiar gospel message that Jesus unconditionally loves sinners and it was like I heard it for the first time. I trusted in God's free gift of forgiveness and unconditional love, and I knew I wanted to follow Jesus the rest of my life.
My love for ministry started in law school when I had my first experience working hard to reach out to classmates, doing life with other brothers and sisters, and studying the bible with a friend and leading her to Christ! I was blown away that I can do something this meaningful and worthwhile with my life. Since then, I've had the privilege of serving at our church in Taiwan, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Berkeley, West Lafayette, and Elgin. God has definitely humbled me a lot as I saw (and continue to see) my own sins and failures, and I have come to know God's grace and mercy so much more. I am so thankful God saved a wretch like me and now I get to be a part of his people building up his church!