AEC - "Reach the Lost, Impact the Community": MY SALVATION TESTIMONY

MY EVERLASTING HOPE

Have you ever been in despair? It was a terrible experience in my life!

I was born in a religiously diverse family. My grandfather was a Confucian and my grandmother was an ancestor worshiper. My father was an atheist and my mother was a Buddhist. Following our mother, my five siblings and I went to the Buddhist pagoda regularly. So, we obviously had no relationship with Christ and Christianity, and because of these reasons, I did not like Jesus. In fact, when I was about 2 years-old, while playing with my older brother I fell down from the bed to the ground and became unconscious for few hours. My grandmother who was a very strong ancestor worshipper found out that one old lady, a spinster who had a very far relationship with me died but no one worshipped her so her spirit caught my life. Knowing that from a sorcerer, my grandmother built an altar and worshipped that spirit on behalf of me and I was alive again.

I had a prosperous life in our remote mountain village. My parents lived kindly, so, during my childhood, I was safe under their care and love. I thought my life just was smooth. However, trouble began occurring when my grandfather got cancer. We sold all our property to heal him but he died, leaving us with poor. Since then, quarrels some times occurred in my family. We worked hard to maintain our status as well-to-do family, but could not. I soon realized how disappointing that was, and began searching for hope.

Not long after that, my father was arrested because he refused to receive bribe to sell the forest in our hometown. He was sentenced to three years in prison. As a 14 year-old girl with 4 younger, very young brothers and sister, my darkest time really came then. We were so poor that we ate rice with salt for long time. We intensified our prayers to Buddha and ate vegetarian food more than usual, hoping that Buddha would save us.

However, many other troubles came. To my horror, my mother became seriously sick and my older brother began going with bad friends and causing many problems. Those were my horrible days. I both studied and shared my mother’s burden by doing various kinds of hard work, such as: selling food in markets and streets, serving at bus stations, and working on the fields. I lived such a miserable and hopeless plight.

After that, my father was released but our situation was not better and we could not live in our place any more. So, we moved to a city, hoping to survive. And yet, different from our expectations, we fell into unemployment, famine, debt, and lived in a miserable rental slum dwelling. My father could not suffer the situation any longer; so he returned to our hometown and left us in the city. We were such despair that many times we wanted to commit suicide to end our miserable lives, and my mother ever tried to kill herself but she did not succeed.

We tried to cling to each other in a bad rental room until we could not pay monthly rental; then we had no place to live. After wandering overnight, we sat down on the rubbish area. My mother comforted us: “After a storm comes a calm. Tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow will come. . . The brightness will come. . . ” I asked her: “Mommy, but when will be our tomorrow? When? ” In the gloomy darkness, I knew she was crying.

Finally, “tomorrow” came. One old man shared with me about the hope of life found through Jesus’ salvation. He said that Jesus cared my entire burden and if I came to Him and brought Him my burdens and misery, Jesus would carry them for me all. I was like a drowning person grasping for a life boat. He was just a one-week old believer. He also lived with us in the same place, experiencing the same despair and misery but I saw something change in his life. He looked more happy, optimistic, and peaceful. In my mind, I had a concept that Jesus must be very powerful that could change his life. Though I did not understand clearly who Jesus was and how he could share my burden, I willingly accepted Jesus with three other members in my family. I wished I would to be like that old man, experiencing joy and peace.

Truly, Jesus was my “tomorrow.” He was the true and eternal hope for which I was longing. I invited Jesus come into my heart and offered my entire burden. I told Him that I no longer wanted to die; but, from now on, I desired to live in order to discover who He is and experience how good He is. I also asked His forgiveness for worshipping other gods but not Him. The four of us promised together from that very moment, we would worship Him only. Also on that very night, we threw out of our house the idols of two gods that we were worshipping, one is the god of money and another is the god of soil.

I will never forget the unusual hope filling each of our hearts at that moment. Actually, I can not explain why I experienced that unusual feeling but I just had faith that Jesus was in my heart and that He would bring me a new life. Even though I did not know how He would help us, I trusted in Him absolutely. I told my mother that Jesus was so real, unlike Buddha. We all agreed that we did not experience anything when we prayed to Buddha but right that night after praying to Jesus, the overwhelming joy poured out over us. We eagerly planned how we could attend Christian meetings to know more about Him and we also discussed the best way to share this good news to my father who was hard-hearted with his atheism.

Miraculously, God started His good works through our lives to unify us in one faith. During next six months, seven others in my family, one by one, received Jesus, including my father. Jesus became the God that my whole family worshipped and adored, since He is the source of all true hope for us. I still remember the overwhelming joy that I experienced when I led my grandmother in the prayer to receive Christ. And on that very night, in the name of Jesus I destroyed most of the altars in our house, including the altar of my grandfather. Later on, we destroyed also the altar of the old lady spirit that my grandmother was worshipping on my behalf.

God helped us to face all of difficulties by His strength. My whole family sat down together, prayed to Him, and shared our troubles. Amazingly enough, God provided us a place in the city to do our business. Therefore, we not only could live but also pay our debt.
Furthermore, He changed each of us in different wonderful ways. My father enjoyed his work and cared for my family, my mother got strength from God to do her job, and my brother, he left his bad friends.

Though some financial troubles remained, we absolutely trusted in God’s help. Though we lived in any places and circumstances, His hope dwelled in our hearts. We knew for sure that He had a wonderful plan for us. Therefore, we lived hopeful and meaningful lives.

After our conversion 3 years, we returned to our hometown and my family was the first members of the first church established in the area since we were the first fruits of the gospel there. We are now a pastoral family with all of memebers having heart for God's work. We will be always grateful about the day that God came, touched our lives, and bestowed His mwercy upon us.

Jesus Christ came and shined the light of hope in my life. Living in Him, despair turned to hope; as it says in the Bible, “In His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope (I Peter 1:3).

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For the video of the testimony, click in http://karisphan.multiply.com/video/item/93/My_everlasting_hope

It was recorded during my sharing opportunity in CCF, Philippines. And here are some pictures which may show you our family's transfomation.