I was born in an atheist family and my parents worshipped their ancestors. In my childhood years, I believed there was a god and spiritual matters. After high school graduation, a classmate invited me to a church meeting. The Christians were very loving, so I continued attending the meetings for a period of time. It wasn’t until I heard the Bible saying “God is love” that I started to wonder if God is love, how come He is not fair? I lost my mother when I was young, and my father did not take good care of us, so I left church and left Christianity.
After one year, during one occasion, I joined an activity held by a Christian organization. Through this, I knew another group of Christians and they made quite an impression me-- they were loving, passionate, and serious about studying the Bible. The Bible said, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” I then understood that I was a sinner and had done things wrong. I hurt my father and my family. I started to forgive my father as my heavenly Father forgave me and reconciled with my father, as I reconciled with my heavenly Father.
After receiving Christ as my personal Savior, I knew the Holy Spirit came to stay in my heart and would lead my future and give me peace and joy in my heart. I would like to serve together with my husband in this church.
Salvation Testimony – Meiling Kuo
My name is Meiling Kuo. I have been coming to this church for over 10 years. It was through a recent traumatic experience with God’s protection that changed my view of Him. This happened in my work place. I was running a jewelry store in a plaza that has two other stores. One was owned by a middle-eastern person, and the other was by a Taiwanese who also happened to the landlord of our plaza.
What happened was that this Taiwanese owner brought a young girl over from Taiwan and worked her as a slave. This girl worked in the store during the day and had to be a servant to the owner in the evening. About two years ago this girl ran away and the owner subsequently reported to the police as “kidnapping”. However, the girl counter-sued for civil compensation. This Taiwanese landlord asked me and the middle-eastern owner to testify that the girl had never worked in their store. I flatly refused so since the bible teaches “thou shall not bear false witness”. However, I did not know that the middle-eastern person made a deal with this Taiwanese owner by testifying against the girl. It is unbelievable that they both claimed to be Christians.
The worst was yet to come. It was last September, two weeks before the end of my lease, the landlord informed us that our lease will not be extended. By October we received the eviction notice. You see, Christmas was coming up. We would not have enough time to notify our customers of a new location. As a result, we could have lost our store and our clienteles to the landlord and the other store owner. My lawyer estimated that in order to win the case, we would have to spend tens of thousands of dollars! I was stressed with the decision as to whether go ahead with the suit or move out in 5 days. What am I going to do?
I began to complain against God. I have been doing my business according to the laws all these years, and yet this is what I get. How could this landlord and the middle-eastern owner do this kind of things. Then Psalm 73:3-9 says, “For I was envious of the arrogant, as I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no pains tin their death; and their bodies are fat. They are no in trouble as other men; nor are they plagued like mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace; the garment of violence covers them. Their eye bulges from fatness; the imagination of their heart run riot. They mock and wickedly speak of oppressions; they speak from on high.
They have set their mouth against heavens, and their tongue parades through the earth.” Will the wicked be punished? Where is justice, I asked. It was at that time a sister came and encouraged me to trust God and He will lead me through this predicament. Then the amazing thing happened. God sent two angels to help me. These two are lawyers and agreed to help me for free. Finally, we had a settlement before the court date. And I thank the Lord that in January of 2008 we moved to a new location in Newport Beach.
Through out this event, I learnt that we have to trust the Lord always. Our human effort can often be in vain so it is better to commit our problems to the Lord in prayers. I believe God’s word has penetrated my mind over years of Sunday school. Whenever there are problems, we should calm down and ask God for wisdom. I also see that if a so called Christian does not do the right thing, he or she can be very ugly to the others. On January 6 of this year, my Sunday school teacher deacon Daniel Lim led me to pray to accept Jesus as my Lord and my Savior.
The greatest difference was joy and peace that follow, and I no longer view life the same. I used to be very self-centered, now I am learning to be God-centered. I understand that the sun and rain are over both the righteous and the wicked. Our greatest challenge in life is to know how to face trials and suffering with patience. And through patience we learn how to look upon God. With hope we can build our faith. And with faith we have strength to face the difficulties. As record in James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing tat testing of your faith produces endurances. And let endurances have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing”. Now I truly appreciate how the precious word of God can help us live.
I have to thank many brothers and sisters for their faithful prayers all these years. I especially thank Teresa for bringing me to church, Sunday school teacher Daniel Lim’s weekly lessons, Brother Wilson Yue’s unrelenting encouragement. Their faithful services have become my examples. And I want to get baptized and join this church.
Ellen Wan
{In 2005, my health was in serious problem and I could have died. I needed 2 urgent surgeries and before entering the operation room, I was scared and was afraid that I would never wake up again. This was something I had never experienced before and I prayed in my heart, “God, please help me go through this difficult time and I will begin a new chapter in my life after this.” I kept repeating this prayer, and when I woke up, the doctor told me that the surgery was successful and that after further treatment, I could recover. I was so unspeakably thankful at that moment.
Later on, some ladies from my mother’s former church came to visit me and cared for me. Gradually, I learned more about God. After my recovery and at the beginning of 2006, I started to attend church to listen to the sermon and to read the Bible. Sometimes I would pray silently, yet tears trickled down my cheeks uncontrollably. I knew that I had sinned and needed to look upon God.}*
*Note: This section of the testimony was not said during the day of the testimony.
I was born in a Buddhist family and many of my relatives also were Buddhists. When I was sick in 2005, facing the pain of surgeries and treatment, my relatives would tell me that whenever I needed peace and courage, I just needed to recite the Buddhist sutra and Sanskrit. I tried that for some period of time and hardly understood what they meant. I just kept repeating them over and over but could not find peace. I felt depressed and wanted to give up the treatment.
At that time, a sister from the church kept on visiting me at home, and with their care and prayers, I seemed to understand and experience what they were saying. Meanwhile, my body also was recovering well. On March 15, 2006, Rev. Chao came to visit me. He said that “Men are separated from God because of sin, and there is a deep gap between a holy God and sinful man. Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation and that God sent His Son to die on the cross for our sins. He is the bridge between God and man. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, the life, no one can come to God but by Me.”
This passage touched my heart and I then prayed and said to God, “God, I need You, I am willing to open my heart to receive You as my personal Savior and Lord. Thank you for forgiving my sins, and please take control of my life so that I could be pleasing to You. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.” At that time, I felt Christ entered into my heart just as what He promised, and I became a child of God, I thank Him for all the plans He has for my new life.
After that, I always went to church for worship and Sunday School. With the teaching of the teachers, I started to notice my attitude began to change. I had more patience with my family members, showed humility before my friends, have more self-confidence, and whenever I had difficult problems, things I could not handle, or fears and uncertainty for my health, I would pray to God and look upon Him. Then God gave me unexpected peace and joy. My life has become substantial. Indeed, He is the source of my strength.
In June of 2007, I went for a regular checkup. Unexpectedly, my body faced another serious problem and my hope for life sank to its lowest. However, with the care and unceasing prayers from the sisters and praying that the doctors have wisdom, after one month and diagnosis from five doctors, I had to take 8 weeks of treatment at a hospital in Pasadena. Every day, I drove from Huntington Beach to Pasadena. With God’s protection, guidance and grace, I finished my treatment, and the medical report came back as normal.
God again used my physical weakness to manifest His power. Believing in Jesus Christ, Savior of my life, with the seal of the Holy Spirit, obeying His commandment, we can be made new in Christ. The church was established by Jesus, and we need to grow in this spiritual family. We need to learn to love one another and to serve our Lord, together we receive His teaching, and together we pursue spiritual maturity and be good witness for what God has done in our lives. I want to express that I belong to this establishment and I also belong to this spiritual home.
Shun Tai Pun
God, I need You! I am willing to open my heart to receive Jesus to be my Savior and Lord. Thank you for forgiving my sins and please take control of my life so that I could be pleasing to You. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. I attended college in China, and after graduation I worked in China. I was influenced by atheism for a long time and I did not believe in Jesus nor worship any idols. I didn’t like the fact that when we were on a trip and visited a temple, we lost a lot of money. My wife wanted me to go to worship service so we could be in heaven, but I didn’t care if I went to hell because I don’t believe in God. Yet, when I worked in a prison in Hong Kong, Jesus started to reveal something to me.
Every Sunday some pastors would come to share the gospel to the prisoners, and a lot of them accepted Christ and were baptized. Afterwards, these prisoners behaved very well in the prison and our workload became easy. Especially one of the prisoners called “Big Head” was a bully. However, after he accepted Christ, he helped us to manage those disobedient prisoners and even changed them and put them on the right track. At that time I thought that Jesus was really powerful and could help people turn over a new leaf, much better than the communists who just speak of reform. After coming to the States, my wife and son brought me to church.
I felt so welcomed by the brothers and sisters here; I could feel their warmth toward us, and this helped me get rid of my sense of resistance. Gradually, I looked forward to coming to church every day. However, since we lived in San Diego, the distance was far and we could only come with my wife and son on Sundays.
At this time I seriously listened to the sermon and I started to understand the truth. I realized that Jesus died on the cross for the whole world. He redeemed our sins, and paved a way for us so that we could go to heaven. Also, we could have direct communication with God. Since Jesus redeemed all my sins, we need to thank Him, worship Him, and glorify Him and we should tell the world that Jesus suffered for us so that we could have peace and spread the gospel to every corner of the world.
Ever since the Lord changed me, I started to realize my sins, and I asked the Lord to forgive them, and to give me good health, to lower my blood sugar level (it was between 8-10). The Lord answered my prayers and now my blood sugar level was lowered to 4.5 – 7. I really thank God for His grace and I should worship Him. My other testimony is concerning my son. He was looking for a job for a long time, so we asked God to give him an ideal job. God also answered our prayers, and in March of this year, my son got a job at UCI in line with his professional knowledge. This shows that our Lord Jesus cares for us, and I really experience this love. I say to my wife, “We need to serve God even more.” I am in my 70’s, and feel that it is quite late to turn. I pray that God’s light will shine on me to worship him. I thank my wife for the books on God and testimonies that help me to get to where I am today.
Shun Tai Pun’s Encourager
I thank God for Pun. His wife must be happy that he accepted Christ, and we know the prayer in the beginning of the testimony was sincere. I knew him for a short time from Sunday School, but through him, I see God in him. I remember the Bible said if one believes, the whole family is blessed. He wants to spread God’s love to others after his son believed. His son is willing to drive him here before 9 am on Sundays even though he is in English (2nd) Service and they lived in San Diego. Pun didn’t skip any Sunday School classes either. He is not familiar with this area and they don’t go anywhere, so God told me to give him some gospel books, testimonies for him to read. I asked Sister Sue, “What books do you have in the Library?” He got a bag of books from Brother Chen. He really longs for God’s word. Pun’s wife said, he at first wasn’t willing to go to church, but now he is willing. Although the prayers are complicated, God hears his prayer. He experiences God’s love and power firsthand. He will be leaving soon. He says the next time he comes, there will be good news. God will work through all problems. I thank the Lord, give him all the glory. I heard Pun is playful, and many people will shed tears of joy for him fallowing the baptism. This is a great opportunity for him to share his testimony to others.
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