第一頁
Sammy Voong
I was born in a Taoist family, not believing in God. But when I was about six, my mum took me to church for the first time, and I had a lot of fun so I kept going. Actually, I thought it was quite boring, and I only went because my mum liked it. But after a while, I started getting used to it, and I would look forward to going to church every week to meet with my friends and sing children’s songs. I liked doing that when I was younger! That is how I met God in my childhood.
Before I committed to God, I was really naughty, and I would always get my mum angry, and I would always hit myself because I didn’t want to be living anymore. Not hitting myself like pinching, punching or smacking myself, but smashing my head against the walls and my bed until it went numb, and I couldn’t feel anything on it. When I think back to those moments, it’s really embarrassing, and I will never do it again, and I thank the Lord for keeping me safe through those times and protecting me from all the damages. Now, my head isn’t as messed up as it could’ve been. I still make my mum angry, but I do it much less than before. When I didn’t commit to God yet, I tried hard to improve even more so that my parents would be really happy. Plus, I don’t hit myself anymore because it is self harm, and it’s quite silly to be honest. Then, I finally committed to God on the day before my birthday. I think that it’s a sign that I will be really happy in the futureJ! Actually, I wasn’t really sure if I should commit to God because I had lots of doubts in my mind, and I didn’t feel ready. But when Aunty Candy asked me, something made me say yes. I think it was the fact that I really wanted God to change my life and my family. I felt really happy and blessed after I committed. I tried my best to stay ‘holy’ but, of course, it didn’t last long before I drifted off. Then PHAT Camp came; it was a really good experience for me, and I loved being there. The atmosphere was brilliant, and it always brought me really close to God. But after I came back home from the camp, my ‘spiritual hype’ went away after a while, and I became far from God again. When I think back to those moments, it makes me feel so pathetic because of the fact that I keep giving up on Him when He’s always cheering me onL! At the moment, I am trying to be as holy as I can so that I can be closer to God and follow His way instead of my own way.
There were a few reasons why I chose to get baptised. One of the reasons was through prayer. I asked God if I should get baptised one day, and if He wanted me to get baptised, then my mum would call me when I finished praying. So, after I finished praying, I sat and did something. After about a minute or two, my mum called me. At first, I was really surprised about it, but afterwards, I kind of doubted the fact that God made that happen as a sign for my baptism because I waited for it to happen, and I kind of knew that she was going to call me. So a few days later, I was praying about it again, and the sign this time, was: When I listen to music on my dodgy phone, the phone would restart because that is what my phone does sometimes while I am listening to music. After I finished praying I started listening to music through my phone and amazingly, my phone immediately restarted. So I was really surprised, and I was more certain that it was accidental. And because I had two signs. Therefore, I confirmed that the God wanted me to participate in the baptism, so I decided to get baptised. Another reason why I wanted to get baptised was that I wanted to show my relatives and family that I am confident of being a Christian, and I won’t be put off by them because they aren’t Christians. It is because they think that I am more of a follower than a leader, so I’ll follow them if they tell me to stop going to church rather than saying that I’m still going to church because I’m quite shy among my relatives. But to be honest, I don’t have a thing in my mind telling me to stop going to church because that is the place where I can be with all my closest friends, and where I feel really happy and accepted. It’s not that I feel rejected in other places, but I just like the atmosphere of our church and the fact that we’re all Chinese and all Christians, so we understand each other moreJ. So that is why I wanted to get baptised.
I hope that in the future, I will keep following Him, loving Him and serving Him. And I hope that I will spread the good word to other people that haven’t heard of it yet, so that they can also be saved.
Hi, my name is Kevin, and I’m 14. I came to church when I was about 8 or 9 I think. I was born into a non-Christian family, but now, my whole family is all Christians apart from my dad.
When I was younger, I used to be a really bad person. I always hit people and wouldn’t listen to my mum which was the same with my brother and sister. We used to get mum really angry, and she would smack us with slippers and bamboo sticks. I would always argue and fight with my sister. During those times, when we were still young, I would follow my brother around a lot. Whatever he did, I would do the same. One time, when we went to a shop, he stole a torch, which of cause, I followed him. I stole one as well, but we were lucky not being caught by police or by anyone. As life went on, we went to school. We were still quite bad, and I remember one time when I started strangling this boy. I didn’t remember why I did it. And I didn’t remember if the boy told my mum of the incident or not, but the boy did forgive me the next day. As we grew older, we weren’t as bad as we were, but we were still bad. I still stole from people but they never noticed, and I was bad in school.
One day, one of my mum’s friends asked my mum if she would like to go to church and she accepted the invitation, then one day we went to church, we didn’t know anyone there, so we were loners at first. As Sunday school started, I didn’t get why they were singing. When we got to the classes, I didn’t get what they were talking about because I didn’t know God then. As weeks went by, we still went to church. We learnt new things until we stopped going, because I didn’t want to go and I thought it was a waste of time, and I kind of hated it. So, we didn’t go for few weeks or a month. Somehow, we came back to church again, and I actually learnt lots of things about God, and I made friends. As weeks went by, we went to another church which was Calvary Chinese Christian Church. I knew some of the people there, but I wasn’t really close to them. For the first few weeks at Sunday school, I would just have fun there and not pay attention. But as we learnt more, I started to understand more and more. One day, there was a notice about PHAT Camp with the theme “Praise Him all Together Camp”.
During that camp time, I experienced His love, and comfort, and blessing, but as we left the camp and a few weeks had passed the experience had all gone. However, during a fellowship night at Tim’s house, Aunty Candy was talking to me and a group of people about the poem “Footprints in the Sand”. That was the moment when I committed and believed in Jesus which Ben and Kevin Lo had also committed on the same day. Throughout the weeks, I had gained more knowledge in God, and I had gained more faith in Him. Last summer, there was a summer PHAT Camp which talked about being history makers, and it was fun. It also taught a lot about being true follower of Christ and bringing changes to our lives. This year’s PHAT Camp was a great experience, and I would never forget it.
Ever since I committed, I have become nicer towards people and cared for them, and my attitude towards my mum has changed a lot. I respect her a lot more than when I was younger. Also, I respect my sister more than before. We still do argue sometimes, but I have learnt to forgive her and someone who has done any wrong towards me. I used to hate going to church, but now I love it as I know that Jesus died on the cross for me, and I know He loves me so much, and I want to worship Him and praise Him with all my heart.
Since I was born till the day of my first year in primary school, I was a normal person, with a normal life. I just followed the tradition of the Chinese people and worshipped their idols. At that time, I didn’t really think much about anything else apart from what I needed; everything was a blur, I seemed to think faintly that there might be a God somewhere but these things weren’t for me to decide, most of my mum made my decisions for me (as I was still quite small). To be honest, it didn’t affect to me whether there was a God or not, this didn’t effect me very much at all.
Looking back, my life has changed quite a lot; I was born in Northern Ireland; everything was so different from England. At around 7-8 years old, my family moved all the way from Northern Ireland to Caldecotte; this was a big change for me, leaving behind my best friend, school, big house, and everything. Somehow my family ended up somewhere else; at that time I didn’t really realize why we moved and everything was just a muddle.
During that time, one of my mum’s friends took us to Milton Keynes Chinese Christian Church one day. As soon as I got there, I realized that everyone was different to me. They had something I didn’t have, and I knew it was something about God, and that was it. I was really stubborn, arrogant… just not very nice! But somehow, something would motivate me to go every week. As the weeks developed into months, half a year, a year, something in me slowly changed; I, myself, developed of course. But some part of me that I discovered suddenly opened. I started helping others, volunteering to help in little jobs, and then one time I helped out with the worship for the children. One Sunday, when we were having a fellowship after the church service, a little group of us got together and Cecilia simply started preaching to us. At that time, everything seemed to make sense to me, and when she asked whether I believed in Jesus Christ or not, I said to her “Yes, I do.” But then somehow I felt pretty much the same afterwards, and I was still searching for something…
When I was in Loughton Middle School, my mum worked later than my after school time. So, Aunty Candy would come pick me up to her house, and I would wait for my mom to collect me after work. One evening, Aunty Candy called me in after I had eaten; she did same as Cecilia, but in more detail. When she finished, and asked me the same question, somehow my mouth moved for me, the same answer, I said, “Yes, I do.” Afterwards, I felt so strange, like something had shocked me, and I felt like I couldn’t move, but I was conscious. My old self was draining out and my new self was moving in. The feeling was extraordinary, yet at that time, I thought it was just something weird happening to me. After that, I kept up the faith, it didn’t change anything physically, but I knew that there was a Father I could turn to when I needed help, everything felt so much better..... After that, as I started to develop into a more mature person, lots of things have helped me grow, like, PHAT Camps, Spring Harvest, worships, fellowship, church and so many things that have been like a renewal when I was down. God also helped me with so many things; my exams couldn’t be done without God being there with me, Even when I feel that this path should’ve been best for me, but sooner enough God would pick me up and put me back on track. I’m so grateful for everything I have now, my family, friends everyone I wouldn’t be where I am now without their support and help!
There were times when I felt that the presence of God had gone, and when I wanted Him to be there, He acted like He was hiding and waiting for me to fall in a trap. I really did question why I should believe in Him sometimes, especially when my mum had an operation. I hated it when people are ill and need to go to the hospital. A few nights before her operation; it was as if she’s just going to another place for a week or so. It was the day when I knew that she was due to had her operation. At that moment, I just realized all the side effects. What if the operation didn’t work, what if she died… I just started to think about all the negative things. That morning I silently cried to myself, every hour I would check my clock. As soon as I got home, I called my Aunty to ask her if everything went okay with my mum, but she said that mum’s operation was delayed until 5 pm. So I went out with my cousin and aunty until it was time to see her. When I arrived at the hospital, all the tension set in, I didn’t know how my mum would look like, and when I saw her I started to break down in tears. I saw her just lying there; she didn’t look like my mum at all, she looked very ill. I couldn’t take it, so I cried and walked out. Outside, I prayed so much; my head hurt, I really wanted her to be better. When I walked back in, I was with my cousin at that time. My mum said in a really weak voice, “Phoebe… remember to do your homework, remember to do well in school while I am away, and look after your brother…” Out of everything she could’ve said. In her pain, she still thought about others. This really hit me. After all this, all night in bed, I kept on praising God and thanking Him to send such a wonderful angel to look after me and my brother. I would go and visit my mum every day, and each day she would grow stronger and stronger. Throughout I really praised Him so much. I could just feel the amazing love of God.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son and that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” John 3:16.
From the very first day that I chose to become a Christian; I haven’t regretted it at all. God has truly stepped into my heart and blessed me, giving me a new life and Jesus Christ to hold on to my faith.