SALVATION TESTIMONIES VI

The Lord Opened My Eyes

I was born in a Roman Catholic family in Cabanglasan, Bukidnon. My family, especially my parents, were devoted to the doctrines of the Catholic Church. I was encouraged to attend church activities, I was taught how to pray through guides from booklets and I was introduced to God through images.

During my high school years, I was enrolled into a school managed by Catholic priests. The school taught us about the Church’s doctrines. I was not very interested. I was only a year in that school because my parents decided to transfer me to a Christian School supervised by a Korean Baptist pastor. In that Christian School, believe it or not, it was my first time to read the Bible and study about it! Every chapel hour, the pastor shared with us about God, His creation, and stories in the Bible to enlighten our mind to know God more.

This was how I started to become interested in God’s Word, and to live a life knowing He is the Saviour. After 3 years of studying in a Christian High School, I entered the University. God really guided and protected me from the temptations and bad influences of people around me. He sent Christian friends to support me and help me to continue to know Him more. I attended several churches, even Mormon and Seventh-Day Adventist churches. I was trying to explore their religion. One day a Baptist pastor from Kalasungay, Bukidnon invited me to attend his church and told me many things about Christ. The Word of God comforted me and I started attending that church every Sunday. Later the pastor asked me whether I was ready to receive Christ as
my personal Saviour. Honestly, I struggled and thought about my parents and had many questions. Because of these questions, I stopped going to that church and went back to the Catholic Church.

I graduated from University in 2015. When I was still thinking about where to work, I did not expect a visit from the Korean pastor from the Christian High School. He offered me a job as a primary school teacher in his school. Of course I did not hesitate to accept the offer. I was overwhelmed at that moment and filled with excitement knowing that I would be back to the place where I began to know God. I worked with full of gladness, comfort and satisfaction because I was surrounded by God’s people.

But in life, trials are unavoidable. It tested my understanding about God. I took the licensure exam for teachers in September 2016. My family and all the staff of the Christian Academy prayed for me to pass the exam. But I failed. I felt broken and self-pity came over me. I was so ashamed to face my family and friends. During one of our school devotions, I wanted to cry and asked them why it happened to me. But one of the preachers told me about God’s plan, about His timing and asked about my faith in Him. It spoke to my heart. I learned not to give up but continue to be faithful to the Lord and leave everything to God. So I took the exam for the second time and thank God I passed. I am very thankful to the people who made me realize how important it is to have faith in Christ and without Him I can do nothing.

After a year of service in the Christian Academy, I grabbed the opportunity to come to Singapore and worked as a childcare teacher. But I realize it is not just an opportunity to work but also an opportunity to grow spiritually. Through God’s guidance, He led me to True Life BPC and the Filipino Bible Fellowship. I thank God for my friend as well who introduced me to this fellowship. Hearing the preaching of God’s Word encourages me, and my brothers and sisters in Christ here in True Life helped me to continue to live in faith, to surrender my life to God, and to share His Word with my family with confidence and joy in my heart. Learning the fundamentals of the Christian faith also guided me to understand more about God’s will. I am very grateful that the Lord opened my eyes and mind to know the truth. Encarguez J.

Thanks Be to God I Repented

I’m a Malaysian and I grew up in the small town of Kluang. My family is poor. My father passed away when I was 6 years old, leaving behind my mother and eight children.

I remember during my secondary school years, a male classmate gave me a booklet—it was the Gospel of Luke. I accepted the booklet and opened to read it. After secondary school, I was not promoted to high school because my results were no good. So I went to study accounting for one year and then worked in an accounting firm. I got to know a colleague who is a follower of a Chinese religious sect—Yiguandao. After 3 months, I became a follower of Yiguandao and learned to be a vegetarian.

Later, my elder sister who was working in Singapore came home for a holiday. She also preached the gospel to me and my family members. She encouraged me to go to church to know the eternal God. I obeyed her and left Yiguandao and went to a gospel hall in Kluang. I did this on and off for about a year but I did not become a member of the church.

At the age of 24, I came to Singapore to work and got to know a Christian colleague who exhibited a good testimony. I followed her to Grace BPC for worship.

At the end of 1997, the department I was working in closed down and my colleagues and I were posted to other subsidiaries to work. In my new post, due to my hot temper, my relationship with my new colleagues and superior was not pleasant. I also could not perform well in my work. I was always very worried and upset.

Our wonderful God used some sisters in Grace BPC to counsel me through His Word when they saw the sadness on my face. They also encouraged me to come to church often and they prayed for me. Slowly, I felt very much better and my heart began to be filled with the joy and hope of the Lord, putting off the old man. Finally in 1998, I was willing to accept the Lord Jesus as my personal Saviour and was baptised on Christmas day that year and became a member of Grace BPC.

After becoming a Christian, I attended the Chinese worship service and joined the Sunday School every Lord’s Day. I also participated in prayer meetings and cell group meetings. Thank Jesus for changing my life, teaching me to pray and read the Bible and how to relate to others. Half a year later after my baptism, praise the Lord my mother was also saved and baptised.

I was actively serving in the church as an usher, children’s Sunday school teacher, in collecting and counting the offerings, in the church choir, in evangelism, as a cleaner, in preparing the elements for Holy Communion, in children’s missions in Batam, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Xinjiang. I also joined the 10^th Holy Land Pilgrimage led by Pastor Timothy Tow. However, all these lasted only for 12 years.

Because of the love of the world more than the love for the Lord, I gradually stopped attending worship services, stopped reading the Bible, stopped praying and stopped contacting church members. I disregarded the encouragement of the church sisters and did not hide God’s Word in my heart. Before I knew it, I had strayed from the Lord. I began to have no peace in my life. I did not show a good Christian testimony.

My situation at that time was like what 1 John 2:15–17 warned against: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”

Thanks be to God I repented. I was weary of living in sin without peace. I turned back to the Lord and called on Him to preserve me and lead me. I resolved to live a life that is pleasing to God. I decided to leave the darkness and to take to heart John 15:5b which says “for without me ye can do nothing.” Hannah L.

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Saved in the Icy Waters

Just before midday, April 10, 1912, the White Star liner Titanic sailed out of Southampton Harbour to begin her maiden voyage to New York. The ship weighed 46,000 tons and travelled at 22 knots. It was the largest and most luxurious ship afloat, and because it had a double bottomed hull which was divided into 16 water-tight compartments, it was thought to be unsinkable. The captain of the ship, which carried 2,223 people, was Captain E J Smith.

Shortly before midnight on Sunday the 14^th, the Titanic struck an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean. Five of the water-tight compartments ruptured and the ship sunk just after 2 am the next morning with the loss of 1,513 lives.

The rest of the passengers and crew were rescued from lifeboats by the Cunard liner Caparthia, which arrived several hours after the Titanic had sunk.

Among those who perished was a Baptist minister named John Harper. When the ship began to sink, hundreds of people jumped into the icy cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean. One of these was a young Scotsman, who was a careless and ungodly sinner. Soon he found some object and clung desperately to it. People were crying and wailing all around him. John Harper was also clinging to some object to keep afloat and drifted near this young man. He called out to him, “Is your soul saved?” He replied, “No, it is not.” “Then believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” said Harper urgently and lovingly.

The two men drifted apart for a time, then the current drew them together again. “Is your soul saved?” Harper cried out, “I fear it is not.” “Then if you will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, your soul shall be saved” said the minister, with the deepest feeling. Again the current separated the two men. Harper loudly spoke the gospel messages to others who were struggling in the water.

The young man in desperation cried unto Christ to save him. He believed on the Lord and was saved.

In a few minutes the young man heard the preacher say, “I’m going down… I’m going down”, then “No, no, I’m going up”, and John Harper was gone, his body into the dark, cold waters of the ocean, but his spirit went to be with Christ whom he had just proclaimed.

The young man remained afloat until he was rescued. Years later he gave his testimony of how the Lord wonderfully saved him and had kept him in the ways of God. R Cameron Smith

FEBC’s 3^rd Bible Lands Pilgrimage (Turkey & Greece, 13–23 May 2018) Praise the Lord for another successful pilgrimage. “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits” (Ps 103:2)