A Christian worker in Cambodia, David was surveying floating villages on Tonle Sap Lake, the largest freshwater lake in Southeast Asia, and was in need of a boat and driver. Andrew,* whom David had led to Christ 18 months earlier, agreed to take the job.

It was on one of these survey trips to the village of Kbal Taol that David met Tim*. The two began to talk of spiritual things, and David gave Tim a Bible. After several more visits, Tim invited David and Andrew to dinner in his home. Before they arrived, Andrew gave David some advice.

“The way you talk about God is good, but it would be better to start differently,” Andrew said.

“How should I start?” David asked.

“You need to talk about ghosts,” he replied.

“Ghosts? Why ghosts?”

“Because the people here are afraid of ghosts,” Andrew said. “They need to know that this Creator God is more powerful than ghosts.”

The close-knit community of Kbal Taol is home to approximately 350 Vietnamese families and 450 Khmer (Cambodian) families. It is two hours by boat from the nearest town — Siem Reap in northern Cambodia. Although some residents may claim Buddhism, the predominant religion, most live in fear of spirits they believe can cause harm.

It is difficult for Vietnamese to get land rights in Cambodia, so most choose to live on the water. Since the majority of the men are fishermen, living on the water means they are closer to their work. They go out at night to drop their nets and collect them early the next morning. The women spend their days harvesting fish from the nets. The fish then are taken to Siem Reap to sell.

“The Vietnamese who live on the water are different from those who live on the land,” David said. “They are more community and family oriented. If a mother dies in childbirth, the entire community will take care of the baby. They will share their food with each other when food is scarce.”

The children attend school, which Tim teaches, or help with fishing during peak season. Instead of riding their bicycle to visit a neighborhood friend, children as young as 6 or 7 hop in a boat and paddle next door or down the “street” to see their friends.

Until 2008, no one in this village had ever heard the story of Jesus.

But that changed the night David and Andrew arrived at Tim’s house for dinner.

Tim had invited a few neighbors to join them, including Andrew’s father, who lived next door. After dinner, the talk turned to spiritual things. Tim had begun reading the Bible David gave him and had many questions.

“Tim and I had been talking for about three hours, and the other men were falling asleep,” David said. “Then about 9 o’clock Andrew pulled me aside.”

“Now is the time to talk about ghosts,” Andrew told him.

So David began a discussion about ghosts by sharing the story of the rich man and Lazarus from Luke 16. He explained that ghosts are not spirits of the dead but rather fallen angels and evil spirits sent out from Satan.

“The men woke up,” David laughed. “[Now] they were paying close attention.”

At midnight, however, the visitors left to get some sleep before their early morning fishing trip. But Tim still had questions.

Finally, Tim asked David, “Now, tell me how someone can become a child of God.”

David explained the Gospel, and Tim prayed to receive Christ. It was 3 a.m.

“That is the longest visitation I’ve ever had,” David said with a smile.

Tim says life is better since he trusted in Christ.

“I [still] teach children … [but now] every day I pray and ask God to help me….”

–”God, please let my brother be waiting in the bay when we pass by.” Though not a Christian, 12-year-old David* offered up this prayer the day he and Tom*, his 16-year-old brother, were trying to escape Vietnam. It was 1980 and hundreds of Vietnamese refugees — known as “boat people” — were fleeing the country in search of a better life.

David’s mother used her life savings and sold her wedding ring to make the journey possible for her two sons. The brothers left their small town in South Vietnam to board a boat bound for Thailand. As the crowd jostled to get onboard, the boys got separated. When David realized Tom was not on the boat, he begged the captain to wait. Awhile later the captain told David, “I have to pull out. I’ll circle the bay one time, and if he’s waiting when we pass, I’ll pick him up. Otherwise, we have to go.”

God answered David’s prayer — Tom was waiting in a small boat in the bay. David prayed again when the first of three pirate ships attacked the small boat of refugees. The pirates stole money and jewelry. David told God, “If You will bring us safely to land, my life will be Yours.” God once again answered David’s prayer.

“The Lord sent a huge merchant ship,” David said. “It appeared out of nowhere and headed straight for us,” scaring the pirates away. A second band of pirates attacked — stealing food and water, and damaging the engine beyond repair — but no lives were lost. When a third gang of pirates came onboard, they took pity on the refugees and pointed them toward shore.

United Nations personnel spotted the group, picked them up and took them to a transit center in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. When they arrived unharmed, Tom reminded David, “You need to pray. You need to thank God for keeping us safe.” The brothers soon were transferred to a U.N. Refugee Processing Center in Bataan, Philippines, where they lived for seven months before they were allowed to immigrate to the United States. Baptist missionaries working at the center provided vocational training. While he was living at the refugee center, David found the God to whom he’d been praying.

“Even though I’d been through so much, I still felt empty and alone,” David said. “I had no joy. Then I prayed to receive Christ, and that was the beginning of a change in my life.” He was baptized in a stream at the refugee camp with 100 others. Sometime after moving to the United States, David set two goals for himself. The first was to go back to Vietnam to share the Gospel with his paternal grandfather. The second was to return to the Philippines as a missionary at the refugee camp.

Ten years later, after graduating from high school and college, David’s second goal was realized. He was appointed as a missionary working at the Refugee Processing Center in Bataan. But his dream of witnessing to his grandfather still weighed heavily on his mind. Without telling anyone, David took a vacation to Vietnam to find his grandfather. It was his first trip home since age 12. When he arrived, he learned his grandfather had died two years earlier.

“I was devastated,” David said. “I had come all this way to share the Gospel with my grandfather, and he was dead. I had a lot of questions for God about that.” But God spoke to David through his pain. “I felt God say to me, ‘Whether or not your granddaddy heard the Gospel is for me to know. But the rest of your relatives don’t know, and that is why you’re here.’” David began making frequent visits to see his family and share the Gospel. “After three or four trips to Vietnam, I began to see some fruit among my relatives,” he said. Now David serves as a Christian worker among the Vietnamese living in floating villages near Siem Reap, Cambodia. In 2006, David baptized the first believer in the village of Chong Khneas. Another man came to faith in a neighboring village in March 2008. David continues to build relationships with the villagers so he can share the hope he found in Jesus Christ.

If you have seen the movie, you would recognize this as a place of ministry for the “slumdogs”. Each day hundreds of children are cared for, prayed over, fed and taught how to read write and speak English- a language that may help them to find a job some day. They are taught these things as they learn the scriptures and as they experience the abundant and joyous love of Christ.

My Cuban friend tells me that every time she comes to this place she feels the sting. The sting of pain that comes to a mother’s heart as she holds little babies who are hungry and have nothing to eat. “I have five children” she says to me with her eyes tearing up, “I breast fed all of them and always fed them many times a day before they even had a chance to cry”.

She goes on to explain why it is such an important journey for her. “I come back here because I believe this is a part of the abundant life too- to come to places like this and to see the poverty and reach out and touch it and to let it sting.  I never want to forget that there are little babies in places like this that are hungry and looking for their mommies and they are nowhere to be found.”

“I never want for it to not sting- because that would mean my heart has grown cold.”

I know what she means. The sting of pain that is felt when you first experience the overwhelming poverty of this slum.

A sting I believe comes from the heart of Christ.

This certainly is a place that Christ had in mind when he said “if you have not done it to the least of my children you have not done it unto me…”

For any person who would ever doubt the love of Christ and the impact of His work, this place is a shining example of how light penetrates darkness. There is no darkness as dark as this darkness. And there is no love that shines brighter than in this place. It shines brightly in the hearts of the two Indian believers who are leading the ministry. Allen and Vaneta have lived here with their young family for the past 12 years for the sole purpose of taking care of the children of the slum and to reflect the love of Christ.

And they are doing this by literally living in the garbage dump with their small children, raising them alongside the untouchables in a place that most of us would not want to bring our children for more than a few hours at a time for fear of what they might be exposed to.

Their family sleeps and eats in the rooms attached to the ministry center. Their children sleep on cots on the floor without running water or any of the conveniences that most middle class children in India enjoy. Though they are both well educated and speak very good English and could find quality jobs almost anywhere else in the world, they choose to live in the Delhi slum for the sake of the gospel.

Sheeba Subhan, our friend from Global Action tells us that several months ago she told Vaneta that she should move away and drive in every day to take care of the children. “You don’t have to live here.” She told her. Vaneta said without hesitating, “We want to live here. We would never live anywhere else, this is where our heart is. We want to live among the children.”

For most of us this kind of choice seems somewhat counter-intuitive. It makes no sense.

But somehow when you are here and experience all the bright smiles against the sadness and all the suffering alongside the joy and when you feel the sting and sense the boundless love of Christ that comes from a ministry like this, it all makes sense. Somehow you understand. they are doing what comes naturally when one is totally immersed in the gospel.

Our time at the ministry ended with a story from a 17 year old girl who has just started working on the staff. Punim first came to the slum ministry as a little girl living on the street at 5 years old. A few years ago she embraced the gospel and became a Christian. She asked for prayers as she continues to reach out to her Hindu family- many of whom are not pleased that she has left their traditional religion and converted to Christianity. She told us of how important the ministry has become to her and how it is like family. She has decided to devote her life to caring for the children of the slum. What makes Pumim’s story so remarkable is that she is presently the youngest student of the Glomas training- a kind of seminary equivelent for Indian students who are interested in fulltime ministry.

As I watch this beautiful young girl, face glowing with the joy of the Lord explain how Christ has changed her life in one of the most desperate places on the planet, it occurs to me that truly the gospel is reaching into every dark corner. The sting of pain and misery and hunger is still here.

But there is a light shining in the darkness.
SOURCE: Rick Thompson http://roadwetravel.blogspot.com/

Paasu Ninama told Compass that the six attackers first lured him into a house in Malphalia village, Jhabua district with an offer of water on Oct. 4. The 35-year-old resident of Pipal Kutta village said he was on his way back from his regular Sunday service in Malphalia at 4 p.m. when six men sitting outside a house invited him in for a glass of water.

When he saw a photograph of Jesus Christ in the house, he knew they had set a trap for him – Pastor Ninama said he knew they would accuse him of providing the photo and trying to “forcibly” convert them.

“I immediately turned to escape when they all jumped on me and started to beat me, accusing me of luring people to convert,” he said.

They badly beat him with wood on his hands, legs and back.

“I joined my hands and begged them not to beat me and let me go, but they mercilessly continued to hit me black and blue,” Pastor Ninama said.

One of the Hindu extremists chewed off Pastor Ninama’s left ear, which bled heavily. Pastor Ninama fell unconscious.

“A piece of my ear was in his mouth, and it went missing,” said Pastor Ninama, in tears.

The attackers started pelting the unconscious pastor with stones until villagers intervened. There were two eyewitnesses who will testify in court of the attack, said Pastor Bahadur Baria, who lives in a nearby village.

When Pastor Ninama regained consciousness, he found himself in Life Line Hospital, Dahod, Gujrat state, 33 kilometers (20 miles) from the site of the attack. He sustained internal injuries and had severe pain in his chest from the beating and stoning, he told Compass.

Pastor Baria said the attackers planned to trap Pastor Ninama by saying he had given the photo of Jesus to them and that he had tried to convince them to forsake Hinduism for Christianity.

Pastor Baria told Compass that a group of Hindu fundamentalists later went to the Meghnagar police station on behalf of the attackers to file an FIR against Pastor Ninama, accusing him of entering their house with a photo of Jesus and trying to convert them to Christianity.” The officer refused to consider their complaint, he said, based on the obvious harm that the attackers had done to Pastor Ninama. Police also stated that they would not consider any complaint that could lead to violence in the name of religion.

Pastor Ninama has filed a First Information report (FIR) at the Meghnagar police station against Ramesh Ninama and his five accomplices. Police have filed a case for voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means, punishment for voluntarily causing hurt and “obscene acts and songs” under the Indian Penal Code. Depending on the results of a medical report, they will decide whether to add the charge of voluntarily causing grievous hurt by dangerous weapons or means.

Sub-Inspector B.K. Arya told Compass that no arrests have been made yet. He confirmed that the charges could be modified depending on the expected medical report.

“I will personally see to it that the investigation is expedited and the culprits nabbed,” Superintendent of Police Abhay Singh told Compass.

Fearless Ministry
Pastor Ninama, who converted to Christianity five years ago, said that his faith and bold ministry have earned him many enemies.

“Twice the Hindu extremists tried to put me behind bars,” but they had not treated him so severely, he said.

A year ago, he said, he was praying at a meeting in Malphalia village when two men approached him with a sword and made false accusations against him because of his ministry. One of them, Prakash Gadawa, had accused Pastor Ninama of forcefully converting his daughter, son and wife. They took Pastor Ninama to a police station, where they reached an agreement to drop charges, but six months ago Gadawa again attacked, this time entering the pastor’s house with a sword and threatening to kill him.

“I went to file a complaint against him in the police station, but instead the police arrested me and kept me in custody for the whole day and took no action against Prakash Gadawa,” he said.

Pastor Ninama revealed that around five days prior to the Oct. 4 incident, Gadawa came outside his house and shouted obscenities – accusing him of preaching the Bible and converting people.

“I did not take any action against this, for I know that no action will be taken by the police,” the discouraged pastor said.

Pastor Ninama said he and his family became Christians after his wife was delivered from demonic possession by a pastor’s prayer.

“After just three days, my wife was completely healed,” he said. “Me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”

For the past three years, Pastor Ninama has traveled a distance of 28 kilometers (17 miles) every Sunday to conduct four services in different churches in the area. More than 100 people gather to worship at Vadli Pada village, he said, 200 people meet in Pipalkutta village, 15 in Malbalia village and 13 families in Kodali village.

The independent pastor said he works as a day laborer in farm fields to sustain his family: 32-year-old wife Bundi Ninama, four daughters and two sons, the youngest boy being 5 years old.

Pastor Ninama told Compass that the Dahod hospital has referred him to Baroda’s Nayak Hospital for further treatment and grafting of his ear.

“I will continue to do the work of the Lord,” Pastor Ninama said.

SOURCE

CityLink-Chiang Mai was started by Moonsri and several Christian groups in 2005, taking over an existing station. In 2009, that location was lost to the station. On top of these problems, CityLink-Chiang Mai started to have transmitter problems. The station had inherited an old Thai manufactured unit that was overheating. HCJB-GLOBAL, a radio ministry founded in 1931 as a Christian shortwave station came to the rescue and donated a high quality 600-watt transmitter manufactured by Crown Broadcasting. This unit was installed by HCJB engineer, John Brewer. Several months later, that new transmitter failed and yesterday afternoon Brewer installed a new unit.

“We appreciate the donation of transmitter and antenna by HCJB and look forward to their continued partnership. In fact. CityLink-Chiang Mai has a number of hurdles to overcome. Right now, DJ Kuhn Noi is a volunteer and to grow we need to raise the funds necessary to pay our DJs and electricity. We need local people to step up and help develop programming, both Thai and English,” Moonsri stated.

Right now the station is gearing up for the Christmas season. Many Thai’s are curious about Christmas and CityLink-Chiang Mai is developing short interviews about the meaning of the holiday. In fact, Christmas has many events by churches and schools that CityLink-Chiang Mai will support through broadcasting.

FM 104 CityLink Chiang Mai is working with Nation Entertainment to re-tool their popular NEVER TOO LATE (NTL) dramatic radio series for distribution in a programming block with music and to other low power and program hungry stations. The 120 episodes of NTL aired on stations in  36 provinces in Thailand several years ago. It is a story of a family of four struggling to live in modern Thailand. It covers social issues like AIDS, handicapped children, sex out of wedlock and corruption. The main character, Annop, is a man much like the Biblical character Boaz in his approach to relationships and love of his family.

“I was doing my residency in surgery and shared the Good News of Isa with a co-worker. I had met Isa Al Masiah (Jesus) when I was in medical school and believed I needed to share Him with my fellow doctor.  So I did and that night the police came for me at home.

I spent 10 days in jail. They beat me, kelp me awake and always shined a light in my eyes. When I closed my eyes they forced them open. (He pauses and closes his eyes, remembering…)

They did not want me to recant, but kept asking for names of other believers.  I did not give them anynames. It did not make sense. But much of the reasons given by police did not seem to have a concrete reason. For example, there was a 16 year old boy who was arrested a year before. He is still a Muslim and it seemed like a random arrest. They have beaten this boy so many times his eyes are white. They put so many things under his finger nails (Paul gestures like someone jabbing a knife under his nails and winces in pain) he had lost most of his fingers (Paul gestures with a chopping motion, as if his own fingers were being chopped off).

One day the police said to Paul, “so, today is Friday – you are a Christian so on Sunday your God rose and you got your salvation. On Monday you will also get salvation!” Paul was confused, as many times that week they had said they would execute him on Monday! However, on Monday he discovered that his Muslim family had paid for his release.

Shortly thereafter, he had the opportunity of coming out for three months training and I asked him what he would do at the end of the training. He shrugged his shoulders and said he did not know but God did.”

I asked him about what he would like to do and he showed me a DVD of a rough dubbing he did of the visual MATTHEW film. It is pretty good considering he did all the voices himself. He wants to write films for his people and is convinced that media should be used to reach the millions who are without the Good News.

Please pray for Paul that God will show him what he should do in 2 months when his training is completed.

*not his real name due to security issues

Sure, Islam is very beautiful for me and at times there are a lot of miracles that’s happening. I saw a lot of great testimonies, but still I find that God is very, very far, my Allah that I worship is very far. It’s like a routine. It’s like a normal ritual that I am doing every day, we don’t feel, but still I wouldn’t sense God was with me at that time.

So, I began to ask my ustazah or my religious teacher. I also asked my mom questions, questions which made them angry. The standard reply that they would give me was “You do not question all this. You do not question your faith or else it will shaken it, you will shaken your faith.” So I was like, “OK, since I can’t get information from my parents, from my religious teacher, I have to do it on my own.”
So, our priest called for the Internet. I actually log onto the Internet, and I actually just surfed more about Islam. In the beginning it was fine. All the websites I saw was the normal websites telling how good Islam is, there are five pillars, and all that.

I came across another website, which tells a story about my prophet at that time. The stories were very harsh. It seemed very harsh to me. He was talking about his marriages, his battles with other tribes, and I was very angry. I was very angry with the creator of the website or whoever wrote that information, because I thought that was a lie. That never happened.

Until I actually found out that whatever happens, what is actually being taught in the Hadith, in another Muslim collection of books, and I was very surprised. One thing that sort of like disgusted me was how my own prophet, whom I revered so much, got married with a lady that was much younger than him. That actually made me come to a stage where, “Wow, is Islam really real?”
I was a bit scared of course, because you are like hating a prophet that God loves so much. God loves him so much. Even before the world was formed, his soul was really there with God in a sense. I had to have a sense of spiritual, of unas in me, so I began to learn more.

I guess as I was searching for God, I drew closer to Christianity, mainly because next to my secondary school was a Catholic church. Like many, many Catholic churches, they have a very prominent statue or figurine of Jesus on a Cross. Everyday when I walked past the church, I would always look inside, without fear I would look at a statue and I often asked myself, “Who is the person? Who is this person?”
It is a gruesome sight to see a man, I mean even though it is a statue, it is very gruesome to see a skinny person with blood all over, with a crown of thorns, on a cross, dying. Somehow, when I saw that figurine or that crucifix I was at peace. I knew there was something behind it, that Cross, there’s a story behind it, so I began to search more about Christianity.

Of course, in the beginning we knew that Christians are very bad. We are always being told by my parents and by my religious teacher that Christians are the ones that will give you money to convert, they will do all sorts of magic for you so that you will convert. One of the stories is that they will give you Holy water, and when you drink it your tongue will be black and you cannot recite anymore Quranic verses. So, all of that comes to mind.

When I went to the Internet, I searched more about Christianity, I learned more about Jesus. I did a comparison study between the two faiths, between Islam and Christianity. One thing that made me confident that Jesus was Lord is that we have a prophet we address in the Quran, his story is this, “He has experienced death before. He went to hell before, and then after that he went to heaven.”
In the Quran, we all know that nobody can go to heaven without experiencing death, without experiencing hell. Then after hell, then you can go to heaven. In the story of Isa al Masih, in the Quran, he went straight to heaven to be with God.
When I look at this parallelism with Christianity, I find that Christians believe that he is God. The Muslims believe that he is with God. Who can be near God, unless you are divine or you are someone very, very holy? Isa al Masih in the Quran did not experience death, but he is still with God.
So that is one of my convictions, which finally after six to eight months of comparison study, from my computer, I just declared that “You know what? I think Jesus, you are God to me,” and that was when I was 14. That was about 10 years ago.

My journey in Christ wasn’t that fast. I grew very slowly in faith. Firstly, because I was 14 and when you became a Christian all things come to mind, especially stories which you heard about Malay being Christians, and they were kicked out of the house, they were beaten, they receive all kinds of persecution.
And I was a kid, too. So, I became a secret believer. I did not know anyone except for one person, one of my good friends. So, I grew up, slowly. I actually went to the national library to borrow Bible, and to read from there.
And there was one instance, I guess. My mom saw me reading a Bible, but that was in a hotel room. I was reading the hotel Bible. She asked me “What are you reading?” I said “I am reading the Bible.” And then after that, she was very quiet. So, I don’t know. Maybe God is working somewhere at that time.
Over the years, as I got older, I was enlisted to be in the army. If you understand Malay culture, the Malays like to have… whenever we are going to do something big, a big project or like for my case, going to be enlisted to the army, you’ll be more closer to God.

We will hold a lot of festivals, and the Malays will call it a konduris and they do al salama, a time of prayer. So I decided I think it’s time for me to go to church, to first step into the church. So, I first went into the Catholic church, I was just a normal Sunday attendee. I go there, I just sit in the back of the pew, and just listen, and then go out.

I realized that soon after I saw certain practices in the church itself, which I was not very peaceful about. I saw a person prostrating down in front of the saint. So, I realized that maybe this is not my church. So, I went on to a Protestant church, and from then I felt very happy, and so I decided to be baptized.

During my baptism course of study the church required us to go for six months course, six months study so I had this file which was filled with all the Christian notes. So there was this particular night I actually forgot to hide the file. So, I left it open on my bed.

My parents on that night I think came home from work, and I was in the living room, playing computer. And I guess she walked past my room, she saw that file, she was curious, she took a look at it, she carried it, she brought it in front of me and she placed it in front and she asked me, “What is this?”

I was very stunned, I was speechless. I wanted to lie, I wanted to say “Oh, this belongs to my friend,” or I wanted to say I am working for the church. But I cannot lie because my names are all on the forms… my IC number, my full name, so I know I cannot run away. So I just closed the file and I told my mom. “Mom, this is my private things,” I said. My mom said “No, you wait here and I will call your father.”
So she went to the kitchen. I quickly take the file and hide it in my room cupboard. My mom saw me going to the room and opening my cupboard, so she knows exactly where I hide the file. But, she doesn’t know the specific spot.

So she came in later with my father. She was very hysterical, she was shouting “Where is the file? Where is the file?” I told her “I do not know.” I ran out of the room.

The cupboard once belongs to my mom. It’s an old cupboard. It’s a very simple cupboard with a top shelf, a middle drawer, and a bottom shelf. And in that drawer where I hide the file, is where she used to keep all her birth certificate, her jewelries, all her important documents are there in that drawer. I’m sure she wouldn’t miss the drawer. She’ll definitely open that drawer first.

So, I ran out of the room. I ran to the living room. And for the first time, I prayed to God something that I really want. I want it to be fulfilled. So I prayed to God: “Lord, I’ve never asked anything from you for the past six years. Please blind their eyes, I really don’t want them to find the file.” So I prayed to God to blind their eyes.

And I got up. I don’t know how I got the courage, but I actually got up and ran into the room and I look at their faces. They were so hysterical, they were just rummaging through the cupboard. And for the next one and a half hours, what my parents did was to search the top shelf, and they skipped the drawer, they went to the bottom shelf. All this happened for the next one and a half hours.
Somehow or the other, I think God has just covered their eyes, or has prevented them from opening that drawer. And I was pleased with God at that time, that my faith actually just skyrocketed up.
Yeah. And I know some people have told me, “Oh, maybe your mom was confused at the time. Maybe she couldn’t see the drawer.” But, I told my friends that, you know, my dad was there too. And my dad is a very alert person. Two persons couldn’t see the drawer, which is very obvious? I don’t think that’s a possibility.

So they went out of the room, and then I prayed to God: “Oh Lord, thank you so much.” And I told God that you know, I do not want this situation to be prolonged. I hope everything will be back to normal tomorrow.

The reason why I didn’t want them to find the file that they know I am a Christian is OK, but I do not want them to know the name of the church that I am going to, because I am just worried that they might call up the church, or they might create trouble with the church, and that is what I’m trying to prevent. It’s OK if they know me as a Christian, as a believer, but I just do not want the church to be involved. Really, the church is kind enough to accept me as who I am.
So, I went to sleep on that night. The next morning, my mom just knocked on my door and told me to have breakfast. So, I came out of the room, and my dad came up, took the bread and he just nod at me. From then on, ’til now, we’ve never talked anything about that incident.

I guess they know that I am a believer in Jesus, but somehow… or rather, they refuse to acknowledge… maybe they are just trying to be in denial that I’m a believer.

After the incident, after that little persecution that I faced, just very little, I managed to grow steadily in faith. Currently, I’m in full time ministry. I’m attending Bible college. I’m taking degree in theology. I really hope one day that I can serve effectively to the Malays here.

And God has been very good to me over these years, provided me with finance, with good health, good family relationship, and better friends. I have lots of friends last time, but all those friends do not have the kingdom mentality. Right now, I’m very glad that my friends that I have now are all focused into walking into the kingdom. That’s just my story [laughs], and a little miracle that has happened in my life.

I am from Chinese Malay-background. My mom is Chinese and my dad is Malay. They brought me up in the Muslim faith. They tried their best. They sent me to the mosque to learn how to read the  Al-Qur’an.

And I went, very frequent, to the mosque to study. But because most of the time it is just reading in Arabic. So they don’t really stress on the meaning of what we’re reading, but they stress more on how you read it in Arabic. And I don’t know Arabic at all, so it’s just a sing-along thing for me, every time I go, and good friends, and good food – so I go. So it’s more for fellowship.

My mom didn’t let me fast when I was younger, because Malays start fasting from the age of seven, and they’ll start slow. But my mom, she waited ’til I was 14, because she said that, you know, kids need to grow [laughs]. They need to eat food. And so I did fasting when I was older.

And all of these things that I do – fasting, praying – I did it just because we had to do it. I did know that there was a God. I didn’t really know what kind of God He is. All I know is that you got to be good, because that’s what they teach you from young. You got to be good. You can’t lie, and things like that, which is something very normal for me. I was very good at lying when I was younger [laughs]. Making stories was one of my favorite things to do when I was younger.

So just going through the motions in Islam is very interesting. Going through, I follow my mom sometimes for Malay zakir, where they have chants, and you say like [religious chanting] “God is great, ” over and over again. I think my mom tries her best to understand Islam, and to be a good Muslim wife.

My dad also, he’s just a normal Muslim guy. He tries his best also, to teach my mom and myself. Somehow, their relationship didn’t work out. They actually broke up when I was 14. My parents’ breakup was really hard on my brother and I. That’s when times got very trying, especially since you’re in the middle [laughs]. You know, tell your father this, and then, tell your mom that, and things like that.

My mom actually kind of lost her faith in Islam, because of my dad. She converted mainly because my dad convinced her that Islam is very similar to Christianity. My mom was from a Christian family. She was not a Church-goer, but she did learn the gospels in school. It was just like history to her.

My dad convinced her that the husband is the bridge to heaven [laughs]. My mom is a very spiritual person, and when she broke up she was really upset with Islam. And I was very afraid, because I said don’t judge the religion by the man [laughs]. Because the religion is different, and the man is different.

But when I grew up myself, my hate for my dad grew, because I was my mom’s best friend [laughs]. And to see her hurt and upset was really sad, to see her in that situation. And I began to hate my dad more, because I just wished he could have been more understanding. But my dad is not a bad person, it’s just that I think he himself didn’t come from a strong family structure. So he doesn’t know how to care.

Their relationship was to a point that my mom doesn’t speak to my dad. And I also, to one point I couldn’t take it anymore, that I decided to hate my dad, to the point that I think he is dead in my life. That’s how much I was disappointed to him.

So actually, that hate is very strong. Now, I realize what hate can do. It actually made me into a very bitter person. Also a very short-tempered person [laughs].

As I was growing up, as I went to university, I also tried to be more Islamic, tried to be more religious, because I’m getting bigger, I am going to be going to university, I’m going to be far away from mom. So I started to, OK, you know you got to learn. And so I started praying five times a day.

In the university, they actually talk a lot about the woman covering. They say that you’ve got to cover yourself. That is what is needed in Islam. It is written that you have to cover yourself. Being drummed for one week of talks and speech, I said, OK, I’ll give it a go, and I’ll try it out.

But the thing about wearing the tudong is that you put on outer garment so that you’re trying to say “I’m holy, ” like, I’m religious, I’m practicing the faith [laughs]. Actually it’s very stressful, ’cause you really got to match up to that. I know deep down inside that I’m a hypocrite. And this scarf, this tudong, just proves it even more.

It kind of convicts me inside that I took off the tudong after six months intensively wearing it everywhere. Actually, my mom couldn’t understand why, but she just told me that what’s inside is more important than what’s outside – your heart.

When I took off, because I felt really guilty wearing the tudong, I felt that I was not worthy of wearing it. Surprisingly, those friends whom I was very close to, they actually deserted me, ’cause they also wear the scarf as well. Most of them, 90 over percent of them, I think just want to be accepted, basically also. One of the reasons.

And when I took it off, and they left me, they called me “apostate” – a “murtad” in Malay – and I was just so hurt. I thought they were my friends. Seems like this cloth is more meaningful to them than me [laughs]. That was pretty sad, as well, for me.

And as I grew older, I started working. Life got tough. Actually, at one point I realized that, you know what, there’s no point praying [laughs] the five times a day, because sometimes I feel like I am not good enough to come before God. Because I know I’ve done so much wrong things, and I just don’t feel worthy to come before Him in prayer.

Mainly because I also don’t understand prayers. I think it’s just a religious thing that you do, and you don’t understand it. It has no meaning. You don’t feel anything. So, I stopped praying, but I still fasted.

Every night before I sleep, I make sure I will say a simple prayer in my own language, in English. And I always say the Al-Fatiha. I always ask God to show me the right path, the straight path. And I will pray for my mom and for my brother, and then I’ll say Amin and I’ll go to sleep. So I still pray, that way, but it’s a tape recorder prayer every night.

But then as my life got tougher everything that I depended on, on my mom… I depended on my, then my boyfriend. My relationship with my mom got worse. My relationship with my boyfriend, which we were supposed to be engaged, didn’t happen. And I was really busy at work. Studying as well. And life was just too much for me. And everything that I worked for in my career, it just never seemed to move or to be, to go anywhere.

So I became very disappointed and felt that even though you work so hard life has no meaning. The more you earn, the more you spend. [laughs] There’s no meaning. And I just felt like life is just like a cycle. You go to work every day and you come back and then, you know, one day you’re going to maybe get married, and then get children, grow old, and die. And I was like, how disappointing is that? [laughs] So predictable. So life was really down.

But, at that time I knew that my mom had been a ‘seeker’ for a very long time. Ever since my, even before she separated with my dad. Now I came to know that she believes in Christ. And I was like, “Oh great.” [laughs] “Of all the religion” I said, “You’ve got to choose Christianity, because Christianity is the number one no-no to Islam.” And I said, “What are you doing? Don’t you care for us, me and my brother? What’s our family going to say?” I said, “What’s my friends… what’s people going to say?” I was more bothered about what people are going to say, than what God has to say. [laughs] Not now that I know. So anyway, I just said, “Oh, she’s just gone into one of her other religions that she’s into right now.” And so I really didn’t believe in Him.

And then I had a friend in my workplace. She was the secretary to my boss. And she was a very nice lady. I’ve never met anyone like her before. She’s very friendly. She has a stern face, but she’s very friendly. So you can imagine. I was very afraid of her at one point. I came to know that she was Christian. I liked her very much, so I didn’t mind. I’m actually very open to everyone. I befriend everybody. I’m not racist or anything. She started sharing with me her testimony. Actually I liked her very much just as a person. Whether if she’s a Christian or not. But I just liked her very much.

She’s a very good friend, and very honest, no-nonsense kind of person. And I really like that character in her, and I want to be like that. I said, “I want to be like her.” I asked so many questions. And then she said, “I was not like this before.” The way she talked, she was very harsh, and things like that. But she’s changed. And I said, “I can’t believe it.” And then she started sharing testimony with me. She also passed me some CDs of other people’s testimonies, and I listened to them.

But, what really got me going was my younger brother. My mom told me that he too believes in Christ. I was just… OK this is way too much. That’s it. I called him up. He was at the University. I called him, and started talking. And I said, “So I heard, mom told me that you believe in Christ.” He said, “Oh you know mom.” He was trying to cover up. And I said, “You don’t just believe whatever people tell you.” I said, “You’ve got to read it for yourself. You think about it. And then you believe.”

So I was convicted because I told him that. [laughs] So I went back, and I actually flipped open my mom’s Bible and I went to Genesis. OK, I asked, “What is all this thing about? I need to know.” So I read through Genesis…and I was like. I read through the fall and everything. And I actually understood, because it was in English. And then it dawned upon me. I was like, you know what. I actually understand this. Now I understand why we are all so fallen, it was from the beginning. So my curiosity just doubled.

Also at that time I had another childhood friend who, out of the blue, for so long we have not contacted each other, he calls up, ” Hey you want to go for, meet up for dinner, it’s been a long time.” So he comes up with his sister, it’s rare that friends come to you to have dinner. It’ always you have to meet them somewhere. And I was very grateful that Dave could come and see me, and make all that effort, and to have dinner, and just to have a good time, and before they left he said, “can we pray for you.” Normally, I would say don’t bother because you pray for yourself and I’ll pray for myself, why do you want to pray for me. I was very… like that last time, you know I would laugh at even if you want to pray for me because yeah, you pray for yourself.

But then at the time I was really going through a very tough time and I think God knew and he send me all these wonderful people and I said, “yes pray for me I need all the prayers.” So the first time in my life I ever heard one pray for me. Pray. And I listened to their prayers and I was like wow it’s really nice that they are praying for me. And so that got me thinking that you know what I want to know more about this. I want to know about Christianity.

So I went to my friend at work and I just sat there in front of her and I said, “How is it if somebody wants to convert into Christianity. Does that person need to go to a church then meet a priest or anything like that.” And she says, “No. Anyone who is a true believer goes with you through the sinner’s prayer and you are believer.” Instantly I said, “Can you convert me.” Of course I know it’s the Holy Spirit converting you know but then I thought it was [laughter]… and yeah that’s how it was. That’s how it happened.

And God has been very good, he has put people around me to ensure that I grow correctly and then I go in the right direction. I have actually been to a larger church before but it was tough being in there, big church, because of whom we are, our identity. We can’t even make friends in fear of whom we are going to be speaking to and who they are going to be speaking to. So I decided to come to a smaller meeting where people understand you and it’s more protected in that sense.

So far I also have the desire to serve mainly because the materials that I have read the bible as well as some other materials about apostolic prophetic by [inaudible 14:34] . He really got me thinking about walking to eternity. He said you are walking to eternity now, because I used to think that if I die then I will go to heaven. No. You are on the way to heaven. So that is different. That actually makes me wake up and look around and see what am I doing with my life?

I decided to serve, really wanted to do something meaningful in life. In the mean time I am also studying in a bible seminary. It’s tough but I am enjoying. But it’s tough [laughter]. When I came to know of the work, my burden for my people grew as well. I never used to think so much about them. Just very thankful that God saved me. I just pray that I will be able to see many more come to faith.

The village elder looked and them, and he said,

Elder: “We don’t really want to hear about this story, because we already have spirits that we worship, and we don’t need this new spirit that you’re speaking of.”

Man: So they talked on, at length, the men trying to persuade the village elder to let them come and have permission to tell about the living God. But he was obstinate and refused to allow their entrance into the village.

So, finally, the men, in desperation, just said to the village elder, they said,

“Our God is the greatest spirit of all–greater than all the spirits you fear. You need to hear about this God.”

The village elder was silent for a little while. He pondered what the two evangelists had said to him. And finally, he pointed down at the end of the village to a very large tree. Now, in our country, some of the trees are like sequoias in America: very, very large, standing sometimes 200 feet high. Beneath this tree was an altar. And upon that altar were a number of different sacrifices: some pigs, some chickens, water buffalo, flowers, that sort of thing.

The village elder said,

“That tree has been here as long as my father can remember, his father before him, and his father before him. And always, beneath that tree, we have offered sacrifices to the spirits. And so our village has been a village of peace and rest. Now, if your God is as powerful as you say he is, then let’s see if he can make that tree fall down. If he can make that tree fall down, then we will be interested in hearing about your God.”

Now, I don’t know what you would do in a case like that, but these men thought for a while, and they considered,

“What should we do?” Believing that God sent them to that village, they believed that God would do what was necessary to see that the people heard the message they came to carry.

So, looking at the village elder, they said,

“All right. Deal.” So, almost immediately, they left the village and went outside and got beneath a tree and they began to pray.

Now, it’s around about 9:00 in the morning. They’re praying. Noon comes: nothing. They keep praying. 3:00 comes and goes: nothing. 6:00, 9:00, finally midnight passes. They’re praying, but no response. 3:00 in the morning comes and goes: nothing. 5:00: nothing. 5:30, the sun is just beginning to rise over the treetops, and stirring is beginning to occur in the village as the people are waking up.

About 6:00, just as the sun is really beginning to come up, a great stillness lies over the village, and suddenly a cracking sound is heard, and the cracking sound grows louder and louder and louder. And pretty soon, the great tree begins to tremble. And looking up into the tree, they can see the branches beginning to move. And all of a sudden, with a great cracking sound, the tree begins to fall, and it falls right into the middle of the village.

When the dust clears, all of the people come running to see what has happened. The village elder says,

“I can see that the spirit of whom you speak is more powerful than our spirits. We want to hear the message you have come to tell us.” And so the two evangelists spent the better part of a week sharing the gospel of the living God in that village, and by the time they left, nearly everyone in the village had become a follower of Jesus.

We were living in that little village, that little town, where my husband’s work was all up in the mountains. One day, one of the pastors hiked in and came to see us, and he had a big problem. His little daughter had come down with typhoid fever and was seriously ill. He’d just spent a lot of money on trying to get her better. Then his wife had gotten seriously ill. Then he had also gotten seriously ill.

His money completely spent, he had gone back home. The people in the area said, “The reason that your family is all getting so ill is because you have moved near the waterfall. The spirit of the waterfall is angry because you have not paid homage to him.” This family had been living several kilometers away from where there was water. They had to hike every day to get their water and bring it down; every day hike in those mountains just to get the water. So he’d moved his house near the water.

As my husband had, through the years, learned to deal with these things, God just gave him a picture story for this pastor that day; something that finally helped kind of bring the light on [laughs] to explain the situation.

My husband said, “Pastor, who owns the waterfall? Who is the owner? Who is the creator and the owner of all of it?” Pastor said, “Well, God’s the owner of the waterfall.” Then my husband said, “Well, then who is the spirit in the waterfall?”

The pastor thought a little bit. Paul said, “That spirit is a squatter. In the Philippines, we have squatters. Squatters are people that put a little house up on a piece of land. If you stay there long enough, you’ve got a right to stay there. Squatters have rights in the Philippines. So, squatters’ rights, and then the owner has trouble getting you off his land. So that spirit is a squatter. But you, pastor, are a son of the owner. So, who has the higher right in this situation?”

Pastor said, “Well then, I should, because I’m a son of God. As a son of the living God, I can take authority over that situation and be able to live peacefully in my house by the waterfall.” So that was what pastor was able to do: go back up and just pray, and claim that waterfall back for the Lord. And he and his family, after that, did well.

There were ways that we had to learn how to explain these things; so that they could see it–because there really is this thing about territory and rights, legal kind of things that go on with this. So there’s a formal religion, whether it be Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism–well, Buddhism already has so much spirit activity in it. But then there’s the underlying animistic, and that’s the same all across the board, in all these different countries.