On Tuesday, Life Without Limbs, a ministry started by Nick Vujicic, released a new episode of "The Nick Vujicic World Outreach" web series through Youtube, which highlights his visit to Macau and Hong Kong. The video highlights Vujicic speaking in front of thousands of people at four different venues, sharing his testimony and his Christian faith to the people of Macau and Hong Kong. However, unlike the previous trips, Nick Vujicic and his team approached these speaking engagements with a different angle.
"People know about Nick's story. He's not a stranger. People know about him, his beliefs, his faith in God," said Ignatius Ho, the Asia Director of Life Without Limits. "But I think what people will be interested in knowing is 'hey there should be other people who grew up with you.' From time to time we receive questions from churches and schools. 'If I have a special needs child, what should I do?'"
"So we are trying to bring a more three-dimensional view of how Nick became Nick today. I think this is a more complete picture of what family values and family ministry can do in the future."
In order to present a more complete picture about his childhood, Vujicic flew in his younger sister, Michelle Vujicic, an aspiring music artist, all the way from Vancouver, Canada to share her story and perform some of her songs to the audience.
"He was like 'why don't you just come and sing for me in the background after I do my speeches?'" Michelle recalled. "My initial reaction was absolutely not, I'm not doing it. Not at all. For some stupid reason I agreed to it. And I loved the message that Nick always brings to the world with the ministry. And I wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself and I'd love to be there to support him in it."
The video showed Michelle singing some of her songs to the audiences. At the first venue, she was alone on stage with her acoustic guitar, but at the second venue she was accompanied by a symphony orchestra and a group of children ranging from the ages of 4 to 6.
"I really don't know how I got through that night [Second venue]," Michelle admitted. "God gave me a real peace to get through it and the strength I simply didn't have and I trusted him with it."
Nick Vujicic surprised the audience at the third venue by gracing them with his voice, as he sang alongside the Macau Youth Symphony Orchestra and several other singers.
Michelle and Nick Vujicic had the opportunity to share about their childhood living together, revealing certain details that has hindered them from living comfortably with one another. Due to her brother's lack of limbs, Michelle was to shy and ashamed to admit that Nick was her brother. In fact she never knew Nick was teased at school until she began attending the same school as he. She also felt Nick was unaware that people at school were teasing his sister. Life was not easy for her to live under Nick's shadow.
Nick did feel distanced and apart from most people at school, but he was too ashamed to admit it, only sharing his feelings to his mother. He did not want any sympathy, something he has already received too much of. Michelle and her older brother Aaron were hesitant to tell Nick about the teasing they received because they didn't want their brother to feel like he is a burden to the family. Looking back, Michelle admitted that such communication would have made the family dynamic healthier.
"It's mature [to] not always just [be] thinking about yourself but thinking 'okay I'm in this situation, who else is in that situation?'" Nick said. "I think if as a family we communicated that, I think love will be reinforced in your life."
