When the girl explained she was a survivor of sexual violence, Lim railed against God for being absent. At the same time, she said, she sensed God asking her how she would respond.
Lim pivoted from filmmaker to nonprofit founder. Her organization, Freely in Hope, provides training for people to prevent sexual violence throughout Zambia and Kenya, while hosting storytelling platforms for abuse survivors and funding women scholars impacted by sexual violence. As Lim learned from survivors, her narrow perception of God grew to encompass the paradoxical faith she witnessed: If they could find God in the mess of injustice and violence they faced, so could she.
Seeing the power of the survivors’ stories also informed how Lim advocates for survivors in her Asian American community.
“With African culture and Asian culture, where it’s based on shame and honor, we typically silence our own individual stories and our own perspectives for the sake of saving face and showing honor to the collective,” Lim observed. “I think the process of healing is both individual, together with communal. And when our cultures are only driven by the communal, we negate our own selves.”
Lim employs the power of story through her book, “Liberation is Here,” and will be shifting her role at the organization to teach churches and other nonprofits best practices to care for survivors.
“It’s always been my goal to give the organization back to the community,” she said. “I want Freely in Hope to be survivor led, Afrocentric.”
While Lim, Park and Wong grew up differently and travel in very different circles, all three have pursued spiritual callings that helped them reclaim parts of themselves that others dismissed.
Next year, Park will be releasing a new book about grief that integrates his experiences at the hospital bedside and his path to reclaiming his Korean American identity.
Wong has also written a book, expected in August, that’s a guide for seeing oneself through God’s eyes, not the lens of others. In March, Wong re-released “I Have a New Name,” this time as Hosanna Wong, and she has a new album coming out later this year.
Wong told RNS that her decision to take back her last name is only in part about embracing her Chinese identity.
“It is me owning my heritage and background, but it is also because I allowed God to come and heal so many places in my life. I feel free and safe to share so much of my story,” said Wong. “I feel called to reveal who God is and how he works in the messiness of our real lives.”
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This article originally appeared on ReligionNews.com.
