Testimonial Sharing

Testimonial sharing by Brother Eric on his experience with small group and the journey of faith in Christ.

I will start off by talking about my journey of faith. I have categorized it into 3 stages. Primary School, Secondary School and University. The first stage, during my primary school time, is when my family was in Buddhism. For the second stage, I would call it the transition period, where my journey of faith is taking a turning point from Buddhism to Christianity. Lastly, in University, this was when I have already accepted Christ to be my savior.

Tua Pek Kong temple was the place that my family and I visited frequently in the past. I remember at that time we had to burn the incense sticks and paper money. While doing so, my eyes were always full of tears. Not because I was touched but because of all the smoke that was produced. This carried on for like years until I’m in secondary school.

In secondary school, there was a bunch of friends who had great influence on me. They are all Christians, except for a few of us. Wilson has impacted my life the most. He brought me to Emmanuel Baptist Church. At first, I had a bit of a culture shock as I had never experienced anything like it before but slowly and surely, after a few times attending, in my heart I accepted Christ as my personal savior.

Then, I went to Miri to further my studies in Curtin University. That was the time when I joined SMCGC, Senadin Methodist Christian Gospel Centre after some of my friends from frisbee club introduced this place of worship to me. There I started serving in Choir.

After graduating from Curtin and when I came back to Kuching, my family and I started attending Sunday Service at Chin Daw Methodist Church. My family got to know Christ through a retired pastor who moved in beside our house and became our neighbor. I believe they were sent by God as I kept praying that my family will come to know Christ.  I know it can be difficult to share with family members sometimes but God works in mysterious ways. He had sent the retired pastor and his wife and they shared the gospel with my family. From then on they accepted Christ as their savior. I would like to share this Bible Verse: Matthew 7:7-8 – Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seek finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Praise the Lord that my prayers were answered and nothing is impossible for Him. He will always find a way. However, I still have a brother who has yet to accept Christ. He is currently in Italy and I hope that one day he will accept Christ as well.

After accepted Christ and going to church, I have never joined any small groups because I was a shy boy and quite reserved. I will feel uncomfortable and will rarely talk unless being spoken to.

Then Su Jia came into my life. Previously, we know each other but never really got close. One day, I was travelling to Miri for work and I was the first in line to board the plane and she was the first who came down from the same plane that I was about to board. Our eyes met and I greeted her. We talked for a bit then kept in touch after that. After a while she invited me to TTSG.

In this SG, all of them are doctors. They are all brilliant and very passionate in their work. They are also a very hardworking bunch of doctors.

After I have joined SG, I’m more likely to do sharing because in the meetings, everybody will share their work experiences, personal difficulties and challenges. This also helped me to understand more on what doctors go through every single day of their lives at work and have more empathy because all the time we are the patients and we do not know the doctors’ point of view. All their sharing has also helped me handle stress better as my job also involves human lives. I have to authorize and supervise the workers who need to work near to live cables. One small scratch will cause leakage of electricity which will electrocute them or will even explode. Either way gone case. When I woke up few days ago, I saw this bible verse on my phone. Philippians 4:6 – Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. This relates perfectly to that day. I did pray before commencing the work and praise the Lord all went well and everybody went back home safely. Other than that, I managed to open up more to others and show more concern to other people’s needs. Whenever I hear about the challenges or difficulties that the others are facing, instantly I think about praying for them. Lastly, I have more faith because we are supported by a group of Christian friends. SG has built up my faith and I am sure this will also help build up the faith of non-Christian friends as well and let them accept Jesus Christ as their savior.

As a human, I am weak. Sometimes I tend to be lazy and too tired to join cell group especially when the time is on Friday night or Saturday night. During those times I just want to do the things that I want to do, enjoy my me-time or even do nothing but Su Jia will always ask me to join then I will feel guilty of not joining and I believe that’s the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to me. Even though I was forced to join, there is always no regret after joining the cell group meeting and it actually recharges me.

In conclusion, I would like to share this bible verse. Hebrews 10:24-25 – And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the Day approaching.