When Tiffa Lu found herself in one of the darkest moments of her life, she discovered God and events quickly turned around. Now, as a 21-year-old fashion design major at Cal State Long Beach, she shares her story and joins with fellow students as part of the on-campus Prayer Team.
“We pray for anyone,” Lu said. “We’ve prayed for people who are sick and were then healed. God did it.”
Lu moved to Taiwan when she was 5 years old. She said her father, a businessman, was not always there for her when she needed him. In addition, her family was not very stable.
“I moved at least 20 times while in Taiwan,” Lu said. “My father cheated on my mother. My family was broken.”
Lu said she became suicidal at the age of 7. By the age of 9, she understood that all there was to life was the pursuit of money and nothing more.
“Our family was wealthy but broken,” Lu said. “I had no joy, no real peace.”
Seven years later, Lu and her mother bought one-way tickets to the United States. Without a father figure, her life changed, and coming back to her native land was not an easy transition.
At 12 years old, she faced a language barrier and discrimination at school, where she was teased relentlessly. Lu rebelled and turned to alcohol.
“Everyone wanted something from me,” Lu said. “I needed all these people for love, but it wasn’t real love.”
After drinking most of her innocence away, at age 16, she decided to end her life. Horrified by the greed of humanity and the selfishness of her father, she believed there was nothing left for her in the world. Even her mother was no longer on her side. She blamed Lu for her heavy drinking while constantly insulting her.
However, Lu’s best friend persistently asked her to accompany her to a Christian church.
“I told her, ‘If you ask me one more time to go to church with you, I will not be your friend anymore,'” Lu said.
Instead, Lu decided to attend Christian summer camp with her friend.
“I encountered the Holy Spirit at camp,” Lu said. “People cared about me and prayed for me.”
Lu said she wanted to believe there could be another ending to her life — a happy one.
“I prayed and asked, ‘If this God is so real, change my life. Save my mom,” she said.
Christianity changed her life and her mother. She then knew that prayer and God were the answer she was so desperately looking for and decided to be baptized.
“As I merged into the water, I died and when I came out, I was reborn,” Lu said. “My mother cried.”
She graduated from high school and decided to enroll at CSULB.
“I love this campus so much,” Lu said. “I’ll do what I can to influence this campus. So many people are seeking for love, not just for parties.”
Lu continues to pray for herself, her family and, now, strangers. The Prayer Team to which she now belongs was launched by marine biology major Justin Hackitt.
Last October, Hackitt decided to sit at different locations on campus with a sign that read, “Free Prayer.”
Hackitt, an Arizona native, transferred to CSULB to pursue his main objective in life — to study marine biology and eventually obtain his master’s degree in fish ecology. In addition to his interest in the ocean world, Hackitt brought a sign in honor of his other love: God.
Although there are other Christian groups on campus, Hackitt incorporated the idea of sitting down with a sign to seem more approachable.
“[I do this] to share love and encouragement that [I] receive from God and share it with others who may not know it,” Hackitt said. “But God gave me the idea, it’s not just mine.”
At first, Hackitt got no response, but in hopes of seeing “Free Prayer” grow, Hackitt asked his Christian club, known as the Navigators, to join him.
A year after Hackitt’s lawn stunt, the Prayer Team has approximately 30 members. Along with the Navigators, other Christian clubs such as Destino, Campus Crusade for Christ and a few members from Intervarsity play a role.
Lu said she decided to spend her free time praying for students who need “love.”
“Love is not always sexual or romantic, it’s so much more,” Lu said. “Love is what I can give to you rather that what I can get from you.”
Before bestowing prayer upon someone, Lu said she goes through a routine of approaching people.
“We ask God to give us a sign, a color of a shirt or something and we find someone on campus with those characteristics and we ask them what they need prayer for,” Lu said.
Even though Prayer Team is not associated with outside preachers and they don’t actually preach out loud to people on campus, some students feel threatened.
“People sometimes send hate mail or say mean things,” Lu said. “But I don’t get scared and I won’t stop because there is so much more [to praying].”
Lu even wants to turn her fashion career into something a bit more philanthropic.
“I don’t just want to earn money,” Lu said. “I want to give to those in need and fashion can do that by building a clothes company that would give back.”
Prayer Team alumni have established a place of worship called Love House of Prayer, located in Signal Hill.
Lu said, “We want people to know that God is love.”
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