Twenty years ago, I was a career-oriented IT Professional working for a Fortune 500 company.  

I had what many young people wish to have: a high-pay and secure job, a sports sedan, an investment house, a boyfriend and other friends to hang out with. I received a Special Achievement Award and was given stock options by my employer. Yet, none of those were able to fill the emptiness in my heart. The emptiness was so unbearably painful that I constantly needed to distract myself by either working or spending time with friends.

I was born and raised in a Catholic family and attended Catholic schools in Hong Kong until I came to Canada for post-secondary education. My faith began to waver in my university years. Shortly after I started working, I became very focused on my career and forgot about God.  

Through many people, God slowly brought me back to Him. The first was a SFU student whom I met at work. She was doing a co-op work term where I was working. She invited me to an Evangelization concert as she was one of the performers. That concert brought back childhood memories when I was much closer to God. It paved the way for my “reversion”.  

A few years later, a Passionist priest invited everyone at the end of a Sunday Mass to come to his parish mission. He gave each of us a beautiful crucifix and asked us to look at Jesus on the cross and tell him why I could not attend his retreat. 

Despite the hardness of my heart, I was unable to say ‘no’ to the Crucified Jesus.  It must have been God’s grace that I said to Him “I will try it out for one night”. 

The first night of the retreat had changed my life.  I was convinced by Father Claudio that God loves me personally.  Even if there was no one in the world except me, He would still send Jesus to come down to earth to die for me.  I was so excited to learn about the personal love of God that I brought my boyfriend with me for the next 4 evenings.

On the last night of the retreat, I went to confession for the first time in 10 years. The penance was to pray the Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be in front of the Crucifix. As I was doing my penance, God showed me how He had been pursuing me for the last 10 years when my heart was far, far away from Him. He never gives up on me. 

Streams of tears flowed out from my eyes. My whole face was wet and tears were dripping down to the floor. I said to Jesus, “I would never leave You again”. After the retreat, I became a new person. I looked for service opportunities and God led me to Street Ministry.  I was also interested to learn more about the Bible. My heart was ready for it.  

One day, as I was walking down to the church basement, I was approached by Pamela, a leader from the Bible Study group in my parish, St. Francis Xavier Church. She invited me to join the group as they were about to start studying a new book. 

As shy as I was, her invitation really made it easy for me to join them.  As a result, I was able to grow in my knowledge of the Bible and God. What I learned in the Bible study complimented my volunteer work in street ministry very well. God did not stop there.  

Shortly after, a friend in Bible Study invited me to a 7-week Life in the Spirit Seminar. 

Initially, I was hesitant to go because it was far. She did not give up. She explained to me how much she got out of it and that it was totally worthwhile. I was convinced and attended. In the 5th week, I was baptized in the Spirit. On that night, I decided to devote my entire life to serve Jesus. 

Today, I am a consecrated person under private vows, serving Him in the poor and addicted. Thanks to the friends that God put on my path.


To learn more about Mildred Moy and the Catholic Street Missionaries, please visit https://catholicstreetmissionaries.org/.


#WeAreProclaim is a story campaign by the Proclaim Movement. Inspired by Humans of New York and the Archdiocese of Detroit’s I am Here campaign, it will showcase missionary conversion stories of people from the Archdiocese of Vancouver. Check out the rest of the campaign on Facebook and Instagram at @weareproclaim.