Last Thursday, I spoke at a the New York Christian Women In Media Dinner.  Aaron Horton and Johanna sang an incredible song that brought me to tears and then before I knew it, I was asked to come up for my speech.  Still dabbing my eyes, I went into my speech and wasn’t sure how well my message got across, but received loads of compliments afterward and I just wanted to touch more people with a recording and transcript of it since it seems to have helped so many people.  Enjoy!

Hi, I’m Jeanette Eng and I’m honored to be here tonight, to share with my fellow Christian Women in Media. Now, I had this whole speech written out, recorded in Garage Band, converted into mp3 format, and playing in my ipod while I ran, hoping that I could subconsciously program it into my brain. Hey I’m Chinese and a stickler, what can I say?! But that all went out the window last night when I was at a power women event hosted by Sukyana from Channel 11. She hosted with such flair and humor and ease…all without notes! So, I said, out with these notes, I’m gonna do the same! And then I came to my senses!

So, let’s get started. I know that for me, it helps me “get” people when I get their story, so to say, so I’ll give you the standard introduction.

I’m a commercial actress and model and spin instructor, working in NY and living in NJ. I’m 32 years old. I started as a Journalism major at Rutgers University and my first job out of college was writing for a local paper. That was the end of my print career. I decided TV would be much more exciting and then just followed the bright lights. To make a windy story short, church reporter led miraculously to red carpet hosting, which led to commercial acting and modeling, which I have been living off of for 4 years…which in this industry, is like tenure!

Ok, that’s it for my Facebook profile. Now, let’s get into the meatloaf of the night, shall we?!

I have been a Christian for most of my life but it is only recently that I have begun to truly mature in my faith and as God would have it, also hitting my stride professionally and personally.

As I mentioned, I was at an event last night that celebrated Power Women. Women in media were present, but these women represented excellence in all fields, from entertainment to film making to business, from Iman to Sade Baderwinwa to Lisa Ling. I was the reporter assigned the task of asking these women “how do you summon your power,” a clever wordplay on the theme of power women. And I received all sorts of answers, from my family to my children to doing a job that I love, but I never heard doing it for God. And that’s my vision…that one day, I”ll be interviewing one of you and that you will be the one to give me that soundbyte.

But I did get some great tips from these women and I don’t think it’s a coincidence, but a God-incident, that I’m experiencing two female power themed events back to back. So in that spirit, I’d like to share 3 stories about what I believe helps us tap into our power source, our Lord, Jesus Christ, to reach our God-appointed power potential.

This first story is about
Following the Burden in Your Heart.
God has to speak to us somehow, am I right? And one of the ways, I truly believe, is through what many people will call gut feelings, nudges. I believe that if you have a God inspired moment like this and you receive affirmation of it and it simultaneously terrifies you and gives you peace, you need to pay attention to it. L
Case in point, I took a commercial acting class and was exposed to a population of improv’ers and comedians that I really took to. At one point in the night, I realized, sadly, that I was probably never going to see many of these people again. And the Christian in me was heartbroken, wanting to connect with these people beyond this one evening of performance and drinks and laughs. But it just wasn’t realistic for me to invite them all to church, or for me to go to all their shows, or for all of us to somehow become coffee grabbing buddies. And so, my heart was burdened.
At the same time, I realized that I was being charged up the “you know what” for this commercial acting class that, in my opinion, did not command such a price tag. I realized that I could mimic this formula of theirs and probably help a lot of people out by doing it for free. And the wheels started spinning.
Well, within a few months, we held our first Actors In Christ meeting, affectionately referring to it as Actors InC w/ a capitol C, for Christ . And fast forward one year, we just celebrated our one year anniversary of meeting every Monday. We have a consistent turnout of 20-30 actors. We consider ourselves equal parts acting workshop and missional outreach. We have brought actors to church and to God and helped them nail auditions and land roles. And one of the actors from that original acting class, whom I felt burdened for, is now one of our leaders.

As Christians, we often have this dilemma. We exist day in and day out, in our unique industries and various circles of friends and acquaintances. How much of God do you share with these people and do you feel a burden in your heart to do so? If that’s the case, my plea to you is to follow that burden to a solution that enables you to bridge that gap. Someone in our church works in a financial firm where he began sending daily inspirational verses to his co-workers…now, there are several hundred Wall Street men and women on this mailing list. And I can just imagine how much life has changed for him, now known as a Christian amongst his peers.

So, once again, follow the burden in your heart…it’s from God for a reason and to you and it’s for a reason.

This second story is about:
Biting off more than you can swallow and trusting that God will help you chew.
Some of the best things that have happened in my life have been the things that were the most daunting, the most unplanned, the times that God had to help me chew. Francis Chan wrote in his book, “Forgotten God,” “I want to live in such a way that I am desperate for Him to come through. That if He doesn’t come through, I am screwed.” And as a pastor, he acknowledges that he probably shouldn’t use that word, but he doesn’t feel that any other word expresses his feelings as well! And he goes on to challenge us to live a life that screams, “This could have only been made possible by the hand of God!” Like Gideon’s army, we want people to look at our lives and know that this was some sort of miracle, this was not simply of our own skill and network, but something infinitely and mysteriously greater. And, in order to do that, we have to step out on faith, step out on those burdens, and trust that God will meet us when we need Him. He wants us to set the bar so high, think so big, that it would be impossible on our own. How exciting is that call to action? To think big, and then think even bigger on top of that? We don’t do that enough!

I was guilty of it when I embarked on my first missions trip last summer. It took me over a decade to do my first missions trip because I was “ye of little faith.” I looked to my bank account, my lack of experience, my time constraints…and they all told me, you’re in no position to go on a missions trip! Yet, when I went for it, God raised the $3,500 that I didn’t have, gave me the missional mindset, and made it all not only possible, but a life-changing trip for me. It was this missions trip that planted the seed for Actors InC.

But I committed the same crime just months later, when just a week shy of the launch of Actors InC, I tried to delay it. I wanted to prepare more, become more qualified to lead an actor workshop, get rid of this voice in my head that kept taunting me, “who do you think you are, leading an acting workshop, you’re still taking them!” But God spoke through one of my brothers, who would not allow me to delay the launch…he said, “God will make it happen.” And so I took a big ole bite!
This is nothing new. We’ve all heard
“It’s easier for God to re-steer an object in motion than to move a parked object.”
“God, I’ll take care of the quantity and you take care of the quality.”
Start your vision and the provision will come.
So ladies, this is one area in which I denounce portion control! Go and start biting away at the God’s plan for you!

This third story is about:
Being excellent in what you do and being honest about your faith.
All things stem from this and go back to this. Tim Tebow is an example. Oprah can be cited as an example. Jeannie Mai is an example. Megan Alexander is an example. And we should all hope to be household names one day…names of people excellent in their craft who give all the glory to God. It’s started to happen to me lately, where people are seeking advice from me and time with me, and are simply marveling at “how I do it.” And these are my golden opportunities. I couldn’t ask for a better platform on which to reveal that I thank God for it, that I prayed over it, and won’t you come to church with me?
If you live this way, “being excellent in what you do, and being honest, and I mean, raw honesty, about your faith,” I can assure you that you will be challenged…there’s no way to live this way and not be.

And cue, my 3rd story. I was recently on a shoot for Shape Magazine. On this shoot, I had to do 100 exercises over the course of 3 days! And I executed those exercises with excellence, holding poses for much longer than is recommended! And never once did I complain or display diva-behavior. In short, I displayed excellence in performance, attitude, etc. And when the shoot wrapped on day 3, I was so joyful that I again felt this burden to say a prayer with these people who had been my family for the past 72 hours. And so I asked. I asked these people, whose faith was unknown to me, to “just humor me and join me in a quick prayer of gratitude, before we leave?” And so, there we stood in the studio, heads bowed and hands joined, as I thanked God for a successful shoot and prayed over each person’s individual life. It was scary for me, but to have done anything less than that would have been a lie. Honesty is still the best policy and so, if you are honest about your faith, you will talk about church when asked what you did this weekend, you will say grace even at a business lunch, and you will be the same woman in church as in the world.

And excellence for God is one of the best motivators! There are times when I’m swimming and literally thinking to myself, this is for God because this exercise is going to make me more excellent. Whether I’m running a race, getting dressed, exercising, auditioning, or any of the multitude of tasks that we have to complete in this life, doing it for myself doesn’t always cut it, and when I switch to doing it for God, suddenly, the drive is back. Doing it for God is certainly a reason to get up in the morning!

And honestly, the success, accolades, and money will come. Last night, I was in a room full of CEO’s, Bestselling authors, the president of Jenny Craig, all clad in glittering gowns and smelling just lovely. And people wanted to know how these women do it. And there is truth in the clichés because these women testified t it. The soundbytes I collected included, “Do what it is you’re passionate about and the money will follow.” Lisa Ling really drove this point home when she pointed out that she doesn’t even know how much money she has, she just does what she loves. And I believe her and it’s comforting to see living proof that that works. Other sentiments were, “Stay true to yourself,” “mentor and inspire others…go outside of yourself to affect the world.” These women were in a position of influence and were given a platform on which to share whatever it is they wanted. When Iman got up, she went into a whole schpiel about her charity, attempting to connect with us in 5 minutes about the women she is trying to save in the Congo. It was a bit much, like a mini-lecture, but I applaud her efforts. And my prayer is that one day, one of us is up there, just as passionately ignorant of our time restriction, using those 5 minutes to glorify God.

So at the end of the night, I was kicking myself for not inviting Lisa Ling, Sukyana, and Robert Dinero’s wife here…sorry Suellen! And that made me realize how unique we are. Because in a room full of media women, I didn’t experience one who was clearly a believer. We are a demographic that represents a slice of an already small slice! So, it’s vital that we all play a role in supporting CWIM, not only returning, but returning with someone new every time. As we grow in excellence and gain more clout in our respective fields, it becomes even more important to bring that back to CWIM and God will continue to bless us…abundantly, accordingly, and powerfully.

Thank you!