OUR NEW FULL-TIME WORKERS

Testimony of Jose Lagapa

Since I was born again in a foreign country, the Lord gave me the burden for missions abroad. God allowed me to help in the ministry of Hokkaido Bible Center, Sapporo, Japan under the tutelage of Pastor Robert Kluttz. God gave me also the privilege to minister to an international audience—Africans, Chinese, Europeans and Asians mostly from the Philippines. I wanted to become a tentmaker missionary when the Lord called me to serve Him. I prayed to God for direction on whether to go to the land of Africa or to the mountains of Tibet. The desire to be a tentmaker missionary was however not God’s plan for me. He directed me to leave my profession and job to be trained at the Far Eastern Bible College (FEBC) in Singapore. At first, I was unwilling because I did not want to go through schooling again. But I thank God for the grace that sustained me through the rigorous but blessed training at FEBC. I sought to take the shortest possible degree program but the Lord used the Principal Dr Khoo to encourage me to go for further training despite my incapability and ineligible grades. Every time I took counsel from Pastor Kluttz, he always advised me to listen to God’s direction through my immediate under-shepherd, Pastor Jeffrey Khoo. Thus, I became fearful every time he tells me to consider something.

My strong desire was to go to Kenya to help the Bible College of East Africa (BCEA). My second option was to go back to the Philippines to start a B-P church in Mindanao. However, in December 2015, Dr Khoo suggested a third option, that is to serve in True Life BPC. After much prayer with my family and consultation with Pastor Kluttz, the Lord guided me to consider if I would be able to serve with True Life BPC after May 2016. That is, if the Lord has something for me to do for the church with the capacity and ability God has graciously granted me.

Following God’s direction for me and my family involved surrendering my own personal plans. Through His precious Word, the Lord convicted me of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20, specifically, the command “to teach all nations…” which has encouraged me and convinced me to serve with True Life BPC. The privilege of reaching out to many nations and tongues while in Singapore, not forgetting the increasing Filipino workers here, has caused me to pen a letter to Dr Khoo.

I fully understood the difficulty of getting a work permit in Singapore. I then committed the whole matter to the Lord that if it was not His will for me to work in Singapore, then He would not allow me to get the government approval, and I would take it as His direction for me and my family to return to the Philippines or wherever He would lead us. I trust my Lord who is a sovereign God and He surely orders the steps of His children. On my part, I must be willing to obey and follow His leading.

Praise the Lord for opening this door of ministry to serve Him under True Life BPC. May the Lord use me and my family to be a help and not a hindrance in His harvest field. All glory and praise be to our living and true God, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!

 

Testimony of Joycelyn Chng

I thank God for my parents who brought my sister and me to attend Life B-P Church ever since we were about a year old.

By the grace of God, I eventually accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Saviour during a church camp at Malacca when I was around 10 years old. Mrs Tow was teaching the children about the end times from the book of Revelation and I was struck by the reality of rejecting God and felt afraid of suffering forever in the lake of fire. Thank God for His mercy upon me.

As most youths in church usually do, I reaffirmed my faith when I was in Secondary One. However, although I was attending church faithfully, I stayed away from fellowshipping with other believers due to my shy nature and did not attend fellowship groups. As I look back now, I know that I was born again, but what I needed was to know what believing in the Lord truly meant, not just in my head but in my heart. By God’s providence, this happened with the controversy over the perfect preservation of the Bible.

I am truly grateful to the Lord that my family, by the grace of God, decided to leave Life Church and follow Rev Timothy Tow when he started the FEBC Lord’s Day Service, which later became True Life B-P Church. I thank God so much for True Life and for Rev Tow, who started the church in the face of much persecution despite his old age, because he sought to glorify the Lord in proclaiming that God has preserved His Word perfectly. It is in True Life that the Lord caused me to grow in my spiritual walk with Him.

By the grace of God, I began serving in various ministries of the church and experienced much joy in the Lord as I serve Him. I also thank God for FEBC. I started attending FEBC night classes in 2004 and it is here that I learnt God’s Word in a systematic way and that helped me grow in the understanding of His Word.

Sometime in the latter half of 2009, the Apostle Paul’s words to Jesus in Acts 9:6—“Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”—stuck in my mind and I began to ask the Lord what He would have me to do. I started to pray that the Lord would show me His will for my life. Looking back now, it was then that the Lord started laying a burden in my heart to serve Him full time though it was not apparent to me then. Though I could not imagine how it would eventually be done, I simply prayed and trusted that God would reveal His will to me in His own good time.

And so I continued, solely by God’s grace and enabling, to do the best I could at work for God even as I served wherever God placed me. God has been so gracious to me all these years, blessing me with a job that I really enjoyed, wonderful colleagues and bosses, as well as opportunities to witness for Him at work. But each time I returned to work after taking leave to attend church camps or to serve in the Vacation Bible School, I would be overwhelmed with the thought of how it was more blessed to do God’s work than to spend my time and energy on the things of this world.

As I continued to seek the Lord through prayer and reading God’s Word, the thought to serve Him full time grew stronger gradually. I was much moved especially after Pastor Jeffrey Khoo’s sermon on “The Chastitive Will of God” on 15 May 2011 where he testified of how he was led to know that it was God’s will for him to pastor the flock in True Life. I remember how Pastor’s challenge at the end of that sermon to trust and obey, surrender our lives 100% to God without delay when He calls, struck me and cut right through my heart. However, I was afraid that what I desired was my own will and not God’s will for me. It was around this time that I mustered enough courage to share my struggle with my sister. I thank God for my sister for the Lord used her to encourage me through prayer and reminders from God’s Word.

Then out of the blue in the latter half of 2011, I was informed at work that I was selected to do a part-time graduate diploma course in NUS, commencing in August 2012. I was very upset because I knew that with the course schedule, I would be unable to continue taking FEBC night classes. But as this study programme would potentially come with a bond period, the main thing that caused me to really cry out to God to deliver me from this was the realisation that entering into this course would be as good as saying that I know God’s will for me is to continue staying on in my job for at least the next few years. When faced with this thought, I simply did not have the peace in my heart. I fervently prayed that if it be His will, God would make it so that the course would not commence. The Lord so wonderfully answered my prayers when at the end of 2011 news came that the plans for this course would be postponed indefinitely. Indeed, with God nothing shall be impossible (Luke 1:37). I am so grateful to the Lord for strengthening my feeble faith through this trial.

God’s will for my life became clearer and harder for me to doubt after this, but I still clung onto the fear that my desire to serve Him full time was my own will, because we all know that it is a good and even noble thing to serve God. Despite my lack of faith, God never left me on my own but so mercifully condescended to assure me of His will time and again through His Word, and even hymns sung and prayers uttered during worship services, as well as circumstances God ordered in my life.

I continued to wait upon the Lord and prayed that God would lead me to take the step in His perfect time, for I did not want to run ahead of God. During this time of waiting upon the Lord, Psalm 84:10—“For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.”—spoke especially to me. I cried to the Lord to help me put away any desire that I have for the things of this world or any thing that is hindering a complete surrender of my life to Him.

Then at our church camp in June 2012 which had the theme, “Knowing the Will of God”, the Lord assured me of His will once again by answering my prayer when He, with an unexpected switch in the morning devotion messages, made a way for me to attend a particular sermon on Jeremiah’s call which had seemed impossible due to a clash with the children’s programme. After having been much ministered to by the messages at the church camp, I knew that I could not run away from God’s will for me any longer. I realised that all I had to do was simply to trust and obey God.

After being settled in my heart on God’s will for me, other fears came to try me. I did not know if my parents would be supportive of my decision to answer God’s call. So I prayed that the Lord will make a way for me to share my burden to answer God’s call with my parents. I found it really difficult to do so and procrastinated. Then the Lord caused me to develop a mysterious rash in August. Afflicted by the rash, I examined myself, prayed to the Lord to forgive my lack of faith and to grant me courage. I finally confided in them and they were fully supportive. I thank God for my family. They continued to encourage and pray for me throughout my studies in FEBC. And the Lord has been so faithful and gracious unto me to see me through my studies.

Right from the time I started my studies in FEBC, I have been praying to God to direct my steps with regard to where I ought to serve Him. My constant prayer for the past three and a half years has been that God will prepare a place for me to serve Him, and that He will also prepare me for the work that He has for me to do. I had not prayed with a specific place in mind, for I was willing to go wherever the Lord would send me, but I was specific in asking the Lord to direct me through my Pastor. Thus, in God’s perfect time, Pastor mentioned to me during my last semester about serving in True Life B-P Church. As I continued to seek God’s will in prayer, I was convicted that this was God’s answer to my prayer. How grateful and thankful I am to the Lord for answering my prayer in His time, according to His wonderful will and plan for my life. What a great joy and privilege it is to be able to serve full-time in the church that I belong to and which God has used to help me grow spiritually.

It is my prayer that the Lord will help me to never forget the lessons He has taught me throughout my studies in FEBC. May the Lord help me to remain faithful and obedient to Him till I see Him face to face. Amen.