INTRODUCING: Elielle Viaje-Balog
INTRODUCING is a blog series introducing you to some of the members of Redeemer. You will meet some of them through their fact file, their life story, or their faith journey.
I was born in a naval hospital in the Philippines to a missionary mother and a father serving as an officer in the Philippine Armed Forces. My parents named me Elielle Grace, the original Hebrew Eliel meaning ‘My God is God. ’ From an early age, I often felt as though I didn't quite belong. I loved classical music, books, antiques, gardening; and after reading The Secret Garden at seven, I even insisted on mimicking a (supposed) British accent.
Quiet and reserved, I was frequently bullied by girls at school, church and extracurricular activities, so I found refuge in books, the piano which I started playing at age four, and lone walks in the forest near our home. My late diagnosis for autism explained why I had a hard time making friends and being around people. Masking and mimicking others was a way to cope. It is still a challenge to this day to start conversations, but every experience is an opportunity to learn.
I spent my first 12 years in the Sandhurst equivalent of the Philippines, the Philippine Military
Academy (PMA for short) where my love for music and nature flourished. As my piano playing
developed, my parents looked for the best piano teachers in town. At thirteen we moved to the
capital, Manila, so I could study with one of the country's leading piano professors, while my
father began a doctorate in psychology. The move was a a huge shock and a
major disappointment. We exchanged our spacious home in PMA for a cramped room that
accommodated my parents, younger sister and I in just 20 square metres.
I remember my bed being up against the upright piano and my father, then a lieutenant colonel, slept on the floor.The conditions were poor, and my sister and I contracted and were hospitalised for Dengue fever from a nearby sewage canal. Watching my parents sacrifice so much for my future filled me with guilt. I became convinced that I was the reason for our hardship and pushed myself relentlessly,practising for hours every day, sometimes by candlelight when there were power cuts.
Around that time, an older boy from school who showed interest in me sexually assaulted me.The shame and trauma that followed was overwhelming. I buried myself even more in music, winning my first piano competition, being at the top of my class academically, but inwardly I believed I had lost my worth. I was angry with God and struggled to understand why He had allowed so much pain and hardship in such a short space of time.
Half a year later everything changed. An Austrian professor visiting Manila heard me play at a piano masterclass and invited me to study piano under her tutelage at the school for the gifted in Austria, right after my lesson with her. Within three weeks my visa had been sorted. I had packed a single suitcase and left my entire life and family behind to move to a country (or rather, continent) where I knew no one and didn't speak a lick of the language (German). Life in Austria was far from easy. The original arrangement fell through, and I enrolled instead in a secondary school and alongside that at a private conservatory, which my parents had to pay for by asking for sponsorships from wealthy benefactors. For years I lived alone from the age of 14 on very little money, often subsisting on potatoes or fried stale bread, practising in freezing Catholic churches and wondering whether I should give up and return home. In the meantime I would give yearly concerts for charities and non-profits in the Philippines. They would pay for my flights, I got to see my family, and proceeds of the tickets would benefit a worthy cause.
My dream was to study at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (MDW), which has ranked number one university in the world for music and arts. I failed my first audition, but after five years of perseverance I prayed that if God wanted me to remain in Vienna, He would open that door. And so He did. I got accepted on my second attempt.
Soon afterwards I began attending Vienna Christian Centre, where I met the love of my life,
Ármand. We married four years later and began our life together in a tiny studio flat. I was still
studying, and he, looking for a job. Despite holding two master's degrees, Ármand struggled to
find work. I became pregnant with our first child, Elizé, and our future looked very bleak and
uncertain. Although we attended church, I still wrestled with disappointment and questioned why
life always seemed so difficult. Then an unexpected opportunity came. Ármand applied to the British Civil Service while the UK
was still part of the European Union. After a year of tests, interviews, assessments and costly
trips to London spending our last hundred euro, he miraculously received a job offer. While he
moved ahead to start work, I remained in Vienna, caring for our newborn daughter and
completing the final stages of my degree. By God's grace, I graduated, and we were finally
reunited in England after eight months of long distance marriage.
Looking back, I can see God's faithfulness in every season, even when I couldn't recognise it at the time. What I once saw as unanswered prayers, He was using to shape my character and draw me closer to Himself. Since moving to Colchester in 2021 and joining Redeemer in 2022, my relationship with Jesus has deepened in ways I thought could not be possible. Through His grace, He has healed the shame and hurt I carried for so many years and shown me that my identity is found in Him, not in my past. My present and future belong to Christ.
Today, my husband and I have four wonderful children, Elizé (God is my oath), Amadeo (Loved by God) Eliya (Yahweh is my God) and Aviel (God is my Father). Motherhood is a whole different story for another time, but it is definitely the most difficult yet fulfilling thing I've ever done in my life. I look forward to starting my first employed job with Essex Music Service, twenty years after having left my birth country in 2006 at age 14. Looking back, I can see that God was writing a far greater story than I could ever have imagined. The dreams He placed in my heart as a little girl - my love for Europe, gardening and classical music - were never accidents. He was leading me all along.
If my story has taught me anything, it is two things: first, God is faithful and Jesus Christ has redeemed me, healed my deepest wounds and has never abandoned me. And second, without the power of the Holy Spirit, I cannot live the Christian life on my own strength.
If He can transform my life, He can transform yours too.
