MY FIRST BIBLE!

MY FIRST BIBLE

I come from a family with Chinese folk religion. Every year during Ching Ming Festival (Chinese All Souls Day), my whole family would follow my father to worship the altars of my ancestors and the altar of a god. But my mother never joined us in this worship. She said she was a Christian. She could help my father to prepare the things for worship but she could not worship. She held to this principle.

Since I was young, I realized my mother’s thinking was different from the other family members. Sometimes she would talk about her belief in God. One day, a villager who returned from overseas, gave my mother a blue colored Gideons New Testament.

When I was transferred as a student to Bau Secondary School, on the night before my departure from my home, my mother gave me that copy of Gideons New Testament. She told me to take it and to read it. I happily took the book. I loved to read and I thought I would read it like a novel.  Whenever I was free, I would read the New Testament. I gained an elementary knowledge of the life of Jesus Christ. I liked particularly to read about the miracles of Jesus, which I thought were amazing indeed.

That New Testament gave me some impressions of Christianity. However, since young, I had always considered Christianity as a western religion. The Chinese should believe in their Chinese gods.  At one time, after watching the Jesus film produced by the Campus Crusade, I was very touched and I decided to believe in God.

After that, I read the Gideon New Testament diligently with the hope of understanding more about Jesus Christ. That New Testament had built the foundation of my faith in Jesus. Finally, in 1985, I was baptized.

Under the encouragement of a pastor, I bought a full Bible because I wanted to read the Bible starting from the first book of Genesis. That copy of Gideon New Testament was put aside. Because of frequent shifting of home, I do not know where that book is now.

In 2007, when a Gideon member Brother Richard Wong shared about the Gideons ministry in my church, I suddenly remembered my first Bible was a Gideons New Testament.  Someone says, “The best way of evangelism is to distribute Bible.” I want to encourage the Gideon members to continue their work of distribution and placement of bibles. Your labor in the Lord will not be in vain.

Rev. Mok Ing Huat

(Ching Daw Methodist Church, Kuching)

YOU CAN BE SAVED!

Testimony of William Wong

Curiosity leads to Salvation

                             

William Wong came as a volunteer for the blitz on the first day.  Simple minded and ever willing in his heart to help our group as the van driver.

As we started off in our rounds to place Bibles in the budget hotels and medical clinics in Johor Bahru, he told us that he is not a Christian yet.  That started our minds racing with prayers and asking God for the right time to speak to him about the gospel.

The moment came when we waited for the doctor in the clinic. We seized the opportunity to share the plan of salvation at the back of the Gideon Testament with him.  He was interested and receptive of what we shared with him.  He said, "I volunteer in the blitz as I am curious how Christians work. Now I know why Christians share the gospel."  He accepted Christ as his Lord and Saviour by saying the sinner's prayer in the clinic. 

Praise the Lord!  His curiosity has led him to the Saviour.

Submitted by Allen Low

Bahau Old Folks Homes Visit

Gideon Bible - A Starter to God's Word!

“I am not a Christian!” came a curt reply when our Gideon Dr Lim KG of Taiping tried to hand over a New Testament to a resident of St John Nursing Home during the International Scripture Blitz 2011 in Taiping, Perak, Malaysia. However, when it was made known that it was free and that no one was forcing anyone to take a copy of the scripture (NT), Uncle Boon (Ch’ng Kim Boon) relented and accepted one. As the Hospital testament did not have a Salvation page, Dr Lim photocopied an enlarged version and passed it on to him.

Uncle Boon was not in such a good mood that day. He was depressed, as his left leg was recently amputated due to diabetes, and was consequently confined to a wheelchair. A few days later, Dr Lim received a surprise call from him. Boon wanted to be taken to a church to worship God, as was stated in the Salvation notes! Subsequently, he was not only going to church weekly, but was also asking others from the home to go along with him. Many text messages were exchanged between Uncle Boon and Dr Lim. One day, while referring the message of forgiveness that Jesus gave in John 8 and 1 John 1:9 he texted: “Lord Jesus, I am a sinner, I confess my sin and trust in You.” Uncle Boon had at last embraced the Lord, Jesus Christ, as his personal Saviour. He was baptized in June 2012. He had certainly received redemption, salvation and sanctification, as he wrote in an sms on July 28, 2012, “The power of Satan is no match over the power of God’s word.” Uncle Boon departed to be with our Lord at 9pm on October 16, 2012.

Shared by Dr Lim Kean Ghee