TESTIMONIES
I would like to share my
testimony with you and you may publish it on your website or
anywhere else.
I became a Christian in 1989 when the Chinese government crushed
the student democratic movement in such a brutal way, as I am
Chinese and was also a student at the time, I thought it was the
right thing to do. I went to a Chinese Christian summer camp in
Sweden in July 1989 and got baptized. One year earlier, in 1988,
I also went to the camp and listened to the preach by Pastor Zhou
who must be one of the best pastors I have ever met. I decided
right there and then to become a Christian.
By that time, I had almost never read the Bible. Then something
happened. First was my father's death. The news came that my
father died a year ago and my family did not even tell me for one
year. All the time they just said father was having some problems
with his hands and cannot write. Then in my deepest depression, I
wrote a letter to a guy in Sweden, a youth church leader of some
sort who talked to me several times during the summer camp in
1987. I expected some emotional support. But I never heard
anything from him. And in the next summer camp in 1988, He just
avoided speaking to me at all, not to say to make apologies for
not responding to my letter.
I was angry. And then some other thing happened, it was also some
senior persons in the church who did not want to talk to me. I
then felt like being deserted. I soon stopped going to the church
altogether. After I received my master's degree at the university
in Norway, I went back to China and worked for about one year. I
made some great friends, and the salary was high, but I missed my
two year old son who was in Norway with his mother who separated
with me at the time. My ex-wife and I decided to live together
again. So I went back to Norway.
I soon landed myself a great job and got chances to travel some
places like China, USA and South America. And I did a great job
for the company. We sold offshore drilling rigs which cost
anything from several million US dollars to several hundred
millions of dollars. For a junior broker, it takes two years in
average to sell his first rig. It took me only ten months to get
my first contract. Boy, I was happy!
I was in Houston for three weeks with my Chinese client and my
boss and the colleagues were so happy that they spend a lot of
company's money to entertain me. I lived like a king, or was I
living in a beautiful dream, I don't know. All I know was that I
was on the top of the world.
Then something happened. The Chinese government had a military
exercise near Taiwan, the US government took sanction against the
Chinese government and any US company to do business with China.
We had this L/C which depends on electronic transfer that had to
be terminated due to the sanction. Then the company decided it
was time to withdraw from the Asian market. I lost the job. Then
for almost four years, I had some small jobs here and there but
was basically unemployed.
The racial discrimination is so tough that most of the university
students with a minority background go to the USA and other
countries when they finish their study because they know there is
no hope for them in Scandinavia. During all those four years, I
never thought about going to the church.
Boy, life was like living on a hard rock. I had to live basically
on social welfare after I spent eight years at the university. I
was one of the first students at the university ever to be
invited by Philips to attend the World Broadcasting Convention in
1992.
Life was so miserable and unbearable. My wife and I separated
three times. She is a Christian but I think she never really
loved me. She has this family inherited problem, being so
nervous, and so depressed all the time and never ever want to get
any medication. And when she got extremely frustrated, she would
scream and shout the dirtiest things to me. And when I was having
that kind of hard life, she never ever supported me one bit,
emotionally or economically.
One day, I went out to attend a course for the unemployed (which
was a typical thing to do for a person with minority background
in Norway, you get to attend the courses all the time, as you
seem never will get employed). And just when I went out of the
door, my wife screamed something to me in the corridor so that
all the neighbors can hear it. I guess she said: "you son of a
bitch, never come back again!" I didn't say anything as I was
getting used to it, and just went out of the door.
It was raining and I had no umbrella with me. I was all wet. When
I came across a bridge, I suddenly had the thought to jump off
the bridge and finish my own life. But I just couldn't do it. Had
I done it, I never had doubt that my wife would not shed one drop
of tears for me. She would drop some tears of course, but only
for herself, thinking she would have to look after our two kids
all by herself. She is that egocentric.
This year, I somehow decided to give it a try to go to the church
again. I went there on the Chinese new year. And then two other
Sundays. And then, all of sudden, I got a job! It was the first
time in almost four years! It was a nice IT company. My office
was brand new and I was given big responsibility in the
company.
Then I stopped going to the church again. Because I was really
not so much interested in being active in the church. I just
thought I can meet some very nice people and maybe make some
friends there. One month and two weeks later, I lost my job for
no reason. Through my lawyer, I got really good compensation. But
I had no job anymore.
Then summer came, the Chinese Christian church in Scandinavia
organizes summer camp every year, and I have not been there for
almost 11 years by now. I thought this year I should go. I really
missed that wonderful experience I had there. So I told the
people in the church that I want to go. But they told me that it
was too late. There are too many people still on the waiting
list. And I was so late and there was no chance I can get a
place. Then all of sudden, I was told someone cannot go and they
decided to give me the place. I was so happy! I thought I should
take my ten year old son with me so that he can get close to
Jesus from a young age, not like me. (I still think that is the
single best thing I have ever done for my son and for
myself).
One week went by, I did not see any miracle happen to me. In the
last day of the summer camp, all the Pastors stood in the front,
and Pastor Anthony Shen asked us to hold each other hand-in-hand
as he prayed. All of sudden, tears run out of my eyes like a
fountain, and I cannot describe the feeling. But it was so
emotional and so great and it was sheer joyfulness. I thought
about everything I experienced in the last nine years: I stayed
outside of the Kingdom of God, I had no family, no love, no job,
nothing, life was like a hell. But here in the church, it was
love, so strong that I have never experienced.
Then Pastor Shen said everyone who wants to receive prayer and a
blessing from the pastors can go to them. I was the first one to
go to a Mr. T.Y. Lee, who really looked amazingly like my father.
He asked what I want him to pray for me. I mentioned that I lost
my job and I want to have a job and I also want him to pray for
my sons and their mother.
Then brother Lee held my head with his hand and prayed for me for
about ten minutes. During that time I almost cried. Nobody ever
showed that much love and care to me ever. But it is the Lord
showed His love through brother T.Y. Lee's prayers.
I came back to Oslo from the summer camp on July 22, 2001. On the
second day, Monday, the 23rd, it was a day I will never forget. I
sat on the train alone reading the New Testament. I started to
pray. I thought about the tremendous experience I had in the
summer camp. And tears just run down my face and can't stop. I
sat alone in the car and I said to the Lord: "Dear Lord, from now
on, I am yours and I will do whatever you tell me."
I came home to Oslo and everyday I prayed to the Lord asking Him
to give me a job, and within three weeks, I got a job! It was the
best job I ever had! I remember Pastor Zhou said in a summer camp
in 1988, "As long as you trust the Lord, He will make miracles
for you. So just trust the Lord."
Although I got baptized many years ago, I never got reborn and
never really accepted Jesus as my Savior. So how could He make
miracles for me in those nine years? In the past years, I spent
lots of money buying self-motivational books, cassettes, etc. I
have read all kinds of such books, while life went from bad to
worse. I also tried Fengshui and astrology, but nothing changed
for me for the better. Only the Lord can, and has changed my life
for the better. And not only that, He has given me a new life!
Now I almost never experience any frustration or worries, or
depression which have always accompanied me. Now I pray to the
Lord every day. I also started to write for the newsletters in
our church. I want to share with everyone I know or I don't know
the great experience I had since I opened my heart and accepted
the Lord.
I also prayed to the Lord to give me a loving girl with whom I
can start a new family. I know He will give me whatever is best
for me. Now I have a better relationship with my two kids, and I
am so thrilled everyday about writing a book on my testimony and
life experience so that more people can have their belief in our
Lord. I know that the Lord will be pleased.
The tragic event 9.11 to me is like a nightmare and one of the
greatest shocks I have ever experienced for a long time. But I
guess it was an act of God. In the Muslim countries, more than
90% of the population practice Islamic religion, but in the
Western Christian countries, there are less than 10% of the
population practice our religion. Less than 10% of the population
worship God. Most of the people only worship in money, power,
sex, or devil, you name it.
We damage the environment without a second thought, we kill the
animals for their fur or skin, burn or cut the forests, pollute
rivers and water resources. Very soon there will not be enough
forests left for the oxygen which our lives depend on. Do you
think the Lord is happy about this? Of course not. Why should we
damage the world He created for us? How dare we?
In the Bible, God has punished his own people by using their
worst enemies. The 9-11 incident is a warning from the God that
we have to get rid of the devil from controlling our society.
Ever thought about 9-1-1 as being a bit strange? Isn't 911 a
phone number you dial to alarm the police?
Don't get me wrong. It is not the God who killed those 7,000
people in the world trade towers! Of course not. I believe it is
because we have been living in the shadows of the devil for so
long and we refused to worship the Lord and let the devil to have
control of our lives. It is the devil who took the lives of those
7,000 innocent people and the best brains of American
finance.
Did you see the picture on the newspaper that while everything in
the World Trade tower were crushed, the only thing that stand
vertically is a huge cross of metal frame formed by the force of
millions of tons of concrete and stuff. This metal cross is the
only thing standing on the ground zero in the world trade towers.
Do you think this is coincidence? Think again. Now it may be the
God's warning that we should rethink all we have done in this
world and if we are going to follow the Lord or the devil before
it is too late!
This is the beginning of the Judgment Day if we still don't wake
up and start following the Lord.
Anthony Cheng
E-mail: web2000hk@yahoo.no
(As in all cases, UK
Apologetics and Museltof Countercult and Apologetics
would not necessarily express doctrinal/theological points as
they may appear in submitted testimonies).
TESTIMONIES