PALM SUNDAY TESTIMONIES

“And many spread their garments in the way: and others cut down branches off the trees, and strawed them in the way. And they that went before, and they that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna; Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.” (Mark 11:8–10)

Reaffirming My Faith

I grew up going to church. Back then when I was younger, I did not fully understand the gospel apart from learning famous Bible stories. As I attended Sunday school, my sense of longing and interest for the Bible grew. Subsequently, I received my very first Bible from my parents at the age of six. Although I did not read it daily, I still treasured it. As I grew older, I learnt more and more about our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and believing in Him is my only way back to God our Creator.

One experience I had seeing the almighty strength of the Lord was when my mouth was hurting. I prayed to Jesus to help stop the pain, amazingly the pain subsided almost immediately. Not long after, I was praying to Him to help me have more faith, as I wanted very much to grow spiritually. Despite me seeking salvation, being the sinful beings that we are, I was still prone to sin such as lying and laziness. I was taught countless times that Jesus died, and was buried. On the third day, He resurrected according to the Scriptures.

After hearing about Jesus Christ so much, it was time that I attended catechism. Since I was twelve years old, I wanted to reaffirm my faith and learn even more about God. Ever since I have prayed for salvation, my conscience always pricks me and reminds me to do the right thing because I should please and honour God. When crises happen, like October seventh or natural disasters, I think of how the end times are coming and without Jesus, we are all doomed in eternal darkness. I am thankful for the opportunities that my parents have provided for me to know more about Jesus Christ. Koen Goh

To Be a Good Testimony

I thank God that he has been good and gracious to me, letting me be born into a loving, Christian home. As an infant, I was baptised and my parents started bringing me to church. I thank God for blessing me with good Sunday School teachers who have taught me well while I grew up, teaching me the Word of God and that Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins. My parents too, have been teaching me the Word of God believing in this verse: “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” (Prov 22:6).

However, when I grew older, I started to stray away from God. I was lured by the temptations of the world, dedicating less and less time to the worship of God. At night, when my father wanted to read the Word of God to me, I would shake my head and say I was too tired to listen. Furthermore, I would spend more time playing games and watching television programmes, leaving less time for my studies too. Over time, this became worse and I strayed further and further from God.

It was only around the end of the first semester of school last year that I came back to God. As a result of my laziness, my results for an assessment to prepare me for preliminary examinations and PSLE were terrible. That was only when I started to reflect on what I had done wrong and started to realise that I had been walking away from God, letting the world take me away from Him. I immediately confessed my sins to God, asking Him to help me along the way and protect me from the temptations of the world. I prayed that He would help me with my studies and help take away all distractions as PSLE would be coming very soon.

Since then, I decided to spend more time studying the Word of God and praying to Him, always asking Him to guide me throughout my life. I studied hard, and tried the very best I could. Because of God’s graciousness and mercy towards me, I had given up the habit of playing games too often and binge-watching television and could focus on my studies. In the end, I achieved excellent PSLE results because of God’s good will. Now, I have learned that if we ever stray away from God, we must confess our sins to God and repent. We have to be a good testimony for Christ and ask him for guidance every step of our life. Joash Tow

Trust God in All Things

I thank God for being born into a Christian family and letting my parents raise me up to becoming a Christian. I was baptised as an infant and every Lord’s Day, my parents would bring me to church to worship the Lord. At night, my father would read the Bible to me and teach me God’s Word. I learnt from young that we need Christ in our hearts to save us from our sins. As we are all born in sin, we can only be saved by believing that Jesus is the one true and only Saviour. Sometimes, I would still sin against God but after sinning, I would ask God to forgive me.

When I grew older, I succumbed to the temptations of the world and would not read God’s Word every night. That was when I was starting to doubt whether I was truly saved. John 10:27–28 says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” Once saved, always saved. There is no sin too great for God to forgive. At P5, I started to stray away from God. I thought that I could get through the examinations myself and that I did not need to pray about it. When the results were out, I did terribly for my examinations and I prayed to God to help me for my PSLE. I studied my textbooks and God helped me through. God will help His children when they come to Him.

We must be a testimony to God’s Word. In everything we do, we must commit it to God. I pray that I will not go astray and my faith will grow in church. God has guided me all along my life and has helped me in times of difficulties and troubles. I pray God will mould me to become a better Christian day by day. All glory goes to God. Nathan Tow

Attain Spiritual Maturity

I have many regrets, and I often struggle to forgive myself for certain things. However, God consistently encourages me with this verse from Ephesians 3:17–19, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”

I vividly remember a fishing trip with my brother where a big fish was at the end of his line. Unfortunately, a minor tangle prompted me to pass a pair of scissors to someone for help, leading to the unexpected snapping of the line. It could have been a once-in-a-lifetime catch if the scissors I provided had not resulted in the line breaking. More recently, during a milestone parade, I failed to inform my family of my position in the contingent, causing them to miss seeing me perform. It was another painful moment, knowing I had trained so hard and yet deprived my loved ones of witnessing my accomplishment. Time has passed, but the ache in my heart from these moments persists. However, God reminds me that He has a more significant purpose for me than helping my brother catch a big fish or perform a spectacular parade for my family. His desire is for me to meditate on His Word, pray to Him, enjoy His portion, be fishers of men, and daily seek and do His will in my life. Thereafter the void of regrets and emptiness in my heart was filled with joy and contentment.

Moving forward, I pray to grow in my faith in God, attain maturity in my spiritual life, and share the gospel with those around me. Yap Wei Hao

THANKS TO GOD

Dear Pastor,

Greetings to you in the blessed name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

We (NLSC) are very happy and really thankful to the Lord and to True Life BPC because of your prayers and cheerful love gift support and we are very well physically, spiritually and educationally. Please pray for NLSC constantly to be more and more fruitful to the glory of God.

Now all the students are sitting for their final examinations and will finish by end of February 2024. Thank God all the children are healthy, strong and happy in the Lord, reading the Word of God, praying to God and happy in their daily activities. Praise the Lord.

Thank God the water tank is constructed 100% and we have been using it. It is more convenient and easier to use than the former one. We praise the Lord and give thanks to the Lord and to True Life BPC for your love and kindness and cheerful support for the new water tank in our time of need.

Thank God Elder John Leong (Tabernacle BPC) and his group (6 persons) will come to Myanmar for VBS at NLSC from Saturday to Thursday, 6–11 April 2024. Please pray for the VBS to be fruitful and many children will know the Lord for God’s glory.

Again, we are very happy and thankful to the Lord and to True Life BPC for your love, concern, kindness and prayers and cheerful love gift support to NLSC. To God be the glory.

We pray for you and for True Life BPC and FEBC always.

Yours In Christ,
Bro Thangno
New Life Student Center
Yangon, Myanmar