EASTER TESTIMONIES

The Lord Is Merciful to Preserve Me

I was born into a non-Christian family and participated in ancestral worship and sometimes even idol worship.

When I was into my upper secondary years, my Physics teacher introduced me to the Christian faith. She referred me to her colleague and I was introduced to a member of her house church.

This house church member did Bible study with me at a HDB void deck. Later, he urged me to attend his pastor’s lessons and I went to his pastor’s apartment at Yishun. It was a house church. It was then that I came to know of Mr Chacko Thomas, the pastor.

The preaching style was very strict and they would not simply buy their supply of books and Bibles from commercial book stores. They ordered their Bibles from Tabernacle Books, which is at Calvary Pandan B-P Church.

Through my visit to Calvary Pandan B-P Church and Tabernacle Books, I came to know about FEBC. I visited FEBC and on one occasion spoke with Dr Jeffrey Khoo.

However, the Christian faith never really appealed to me back then. So I stopped going to church for a while. Nevertheless, I did accept the Lord.

With the benefit of hindsight, the Lord has been very merciful to preserve me from premature bodily death and demonic possession.

When I was much younger in my new parental home, I had an encounter with a doppelganger which literally copied my mother and led me to the washroom and vanished. Fortunately I was not harmed in any way. Looking back I ought to thank God for my safety.

In another incident I personally witnessed a very violent slamming of a storeroom door on the second level of the old Serangoon Gardens Community Centre. I investigated that storeroom out of curiosity but there was no one inside. So I walked away but kept my sight on the door which I forced open. It remained open as I left it, then after a while it slammed shut in an instant; again with unusual violent force. Thank God that spirit did not attack me.

I was later invited by one of my exclassmate to visit her church at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3. Church members there spoke in strange tongues and I was told by their leaders that it was a visible evidence that a sinner was saved when he could speak in those strange tongues. Those leaders even laid their hands upon me and prayed for my salvation and the gift of tongue-speaking. Nothing happened. I did not fall backwards onto the ground as they expected. Later I spoke with a Chinese session pastor at Calvary Pandan B-P Church and he assured me that demonic spirits could not possess me as I already accepted the Lord.

During the Navy Open House many years back I boarded a Missile Gun Boat (MGB) that brought us out at sea at great speed to demonstrate the sea going capability of the attack craft. As it was a rare chance for me I wandered around the vessel. As I was walking along the narrow path along the side towards the rear of the boat, it made a sudden sharp turn. The hull of the craft slanted and I lost my balance and almost fell into the sea. In a split second a hand caught hold of my arm and dragged me back onto my feet. In spite of the sheer force of that pull and the very firm grip of that hand, I suffered no bruise on my arm. That person vanished and never returned.

My interest in the spiritual realm grew stronger and I read many volumes of Russell Lee’s “True Singapore Ghost Stories”. I had several other ghostly encounters apart from those mentioned above and I was able to relate to the ghostly encounters written in those books. More than half of those stories are easily real.

I was convinced that spirits exist and since they exist then there must be a supreme leader; a God.

Thanks to the development of technology, the Lord made this as an opportunity for me to listen to the sermons by Dr Quek Suan Yew over the internet. The spiritual messages caught hold of me more and more as I listened. I came to the point that I followed Dr Quek’s closing prayers at the end of his sermons; when he said amen I also said amen in total agreement.

Looking back, I now believe that “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” (Rom 10:17). It is the Holy Spirit who convicted my heart. I prayed to the Lord for forgiveness and accepted Christ afresh.

I did a little research and came to know that Life B-P Church broke away from FEBC because its two younger pastors could not commit to the belief of a 100% perfect Bible without any mistake held by FEBC. Hence, I decided to visit True Life B-P Church instead.

As I worship the Lord every Sunday, I grew closer to the Lord and increasingly desired to read the Bible with reverence. My gratitude towards the Lord also increased as I learned more about the sacrifice He made for the sake of my salvation.

That was also the time I needed a new job as my previous employer sold off the company to a foreign holding. Dr Jeffrey Khoo prayed twice for me and I prayed several times to God to open an avenue of employment for me.

God was very merciful and I landed a job that I soon realised I just could not cope with. My past experience and self-confidence could not help me deal with the situation. I was helpless but determined not to resign at the face of those challenges facing me then.

Fervently I prayed to the Lord to help me and I realised the peace I experienced though the stress remained high. At each difficulty I faced, help came to me beyond my expectation. I knew it was not coincidence as each help came at the right time. I was more convinced that my prayers were heard and answered.

My ex-employer even offered to employ another staff as my helper. Though that was an offer, I still had to work late at night each day till after 11.30 pm. I thought that would surely affect my health in the longer term, so I prayed to God confessing to Him that I was not suitable for the job and requested that He searched my heart that I indeed honestly gave my best effort. I told Him about my request that He would grant me a more suitable job instead.

Again, God showed His grace and the former employer who had sold his company contacted me and asked if I was interested to rejoin him in his other smaller company. To my relief I agreed, and later told him that I actually prayed to God for a more suitable job.

Looking back I finally realised that the earlier job that I was given was never meant to stay. It was meant for me to learn to trust in God and not in myself. The Lord taught me to have greater faith through the difficulty that I was put through. He showed me that He was in control of the situation only if I would just lean on Him instead of myself. My confidence and faith in the Lord grew all the more. Chin KF.

God’s Loving Hand upon Me

When I was 14, I was a really anxious girl in almost everything in life. Then I got to know God and His rich Word better after joining the Girls’ Brigade (GB) as a CCA. My fellow sisters in Christ taught me how to pray and ask God for help. They also taught me how to give thanks for everything in life. I was not as anxious as before. However, I backslided after that due to family objections. Soon after, I forgot all about GB, and about God after I completed my O-Level examinations.

Many years later in 2012, I requested to be posted back to my alma mater, Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School. Perhaps it was a plan by God. I was assigned GB as a CCA. Soon I began to journey alongside God once again. I started to do my quiet time and attend church services on Sundays again. Amidst the challenges, I could feel God’s merciful and loving hands upon me. Somehow I felt that He has never ever left me. I’m still His child. How thankful and grateful for the peace still deep down in my heart for the past six years.

Today I’m not perfect but I want to be more like the Lord each day. Joyce L.