How I Met Jesus
A spiritual diary. A healing journey. A love story between a human heart and a gentle God.
How I Met Jesus is a daily, intimate podcast where Elena —
a lady who grew up in China, now living in America,
once a Buddhist and now a new Christian —
shares the quiet, unexpected, transformative moments that led her closer to Jesus.
Not through religion, but through real life: heartbreak, fear, success, anxiety, faith, loneliness, miracles, and small everyday grace.
Each episode feels like opening a handwritten letter — soft, honest, vulnerable, and deeply human.
Here, you’ll find:
• stories of spiritual awakening across cultures and continents
• how God met her in fear, confusion, ambition, and longing
• emotional healing through prayer and scripture
• lessons learned in uncertainty, waiting, and surrender
• reflections on love, identity, insecurity, and courage
• prayers that speak gently into the soul
This is not a podcast about perfection.
It’s about learning to trust.
Learning to rest.
Learning to hear God in the quiet places.
Learning to let your heart be held — even when life feels messy.
If you’ve ever wondered where God is in your everyday emotions,
or if you’re healing, searching, rebuilding, or longing for peace,
this podcast is for you.
Come walk with me —
one story, one prayer, one gentle revelation at a time —
as I share the journey of how I met Jesus…
and how He keeps finding me, again and again. ✨
How I Met Jesus
Learning to Pray | EP5
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode, I share the moment that changed how I understand prayer.
Watching a pastor pray for a homeless mother, I realized prayer isn’t about perfect words or spiritual performance. It’s about presence. It’s about honesty. It’s about love.
I used to feel awkward praying — sometimes all I could say was, “God… I’m tired.” But slowly, prayer became the place where I stopped pretending and started being real.
If you’ve ever wondered whether you’re “doing prayer right,” this episode is for you.
Maybe prayer isn’t something you master.
Maybe it’s something you surrender to.
Email: elenaswy@gmail.com
IG: @elenaswenyu
How I Met Jesus — Episode 5
Learning to Pray
Hi, this is Elena.
Welcome to How I Met Jesus.
Last episode, I shared how I began to understand that I am beloved.
But love doesn’t just heal you.
Eventually… it begins to move through you.
I didn’t grow up knowing how to pray.
Prayer felt unfamiliar to me. Almost awkward.
In my mind, prayer belonged to “religious people”, like pastors.
Not to someone like me.
But one afternoon, something shifted.
I was walking down the street with a pastor from church.
It was an ordinary day.
Traffic passing. People on their phones. The world moving as usual.
And then we saw a woman sitting outside a closed coffee shop.
She was holding a baby. She didn’t look angry or dramatic.
She just looked… tired.
The pastor gently walked toward her, and asked if she needed help, or if she wanted him to call a shelter. She shook her head and declined.
Then the pastor asked something simple:
“Would it be okay if I prayed for you?”
She hesitated for a moment, then she nodded.
I stood there watching.
He placed his hand lightly on her shoulder.
Not forceful, not performative. Just gentle.
And he began to pray, quietly.
No spotlight. No audience.
Just one human being speaking hope over another.
I don’t even remember the exact words he said.
But I remember what I felt.
There was something about that moment that felt sacred.
The way he stood there —so calm, so present —
it almost felt like he was glowing.
And when he finished praying…
the mom covered her face and started crying.
That’s when it hit me.
This was sacred.
Afterward, I turned to him and asked,
“Can I pray for people too?”
I almost felt like a child asking if she was allowed to join something important.
He said, “Of course, anyone can pray.”
Then he added something that stayed with me:
“You can start by praying for yourself.”
That surprised me.
I had spent most of my life trying to hold myself together.
I tried to fix myself, to improve myself.
But no one had ever told me
I could simply bring myself to God.
As I am. So I began.
My prayers were very simple at first.
Sometimes… I couldn’t even get the words out.
It felt awkward. Almost silly.
Sometimes just one sentence: “God… I’m tired today.”
Or “God, I don’t even know what to say.”
Sometimes it was just, “Dear Heavenly Father…”
And that was it..
Slowly, prayer stopped feeling like something I had to get right.
It became about being present.
Not perfect words. Not trying to sound spiritual.
Just being real, being honesty.
And I began to realize I wasn’t talking into silence.
Prayer became the place where I could stop pretending.
Where I didn’t have to be strong.
Where I didn’t have to prove anything.
I used to think prayer was about asking for things.
Now I see it differently.
Prayer is about staying connected.
It’s about remembering I am not on my own.
It’s about allowing love to move through me.
That afternoon on the sidewalk,
watching a pastor place his hand on a stranger’s shoulder,
I realized something simple: Love shows up.
And prayer is one way that love shows up.
Prayer isn’t just for “spiritual” people.
It’s where honesty meets love.
Until next time…
if you don’t know how to pray,
Or if you’re afraid you’ll say the wrong thing—
Start small. Start with what’s real.
“God, I’m tired.”
“God, I’m scared.”
“God, help.”
And you are never speaking into silence.
You are speaking to Someone
who already knows you.
Just remember this:
You don’t need perfect words.
You just need honesty.
And you are never alone.