God is faithful and trustworthy—the Guide we can rely on for our whole lives.
I thank EFCCA for giving me this precious opportunity to testify before the brothers and sisters for the Lord Jesus Christ. May all glory be given to the holy name of Jesus Christ.
Before I believed in the Lord, I was a very devout Buddhist. At home I had a specially prepared place for burning incense and worship, as well as a statue of Guanyin that I had obtained through a spiritual practitioner. I was so devoted that wherever I went, I worshipped. Whenever I saw a temple, I would go in to pray and draw lots. If I heard that someone was accurate in fortune-telling, I would seek a reading. Every Lunar New Year’s Day I would go to a temple to pray for my family’s blessing and protection, asking for troubles to be removed and evil to be driven away. Several times a year I was busy with these practices. At temples I would worship every idol I saw because I feared missing one. I was even devoted enough to have my name carved on a commemorative stone, believing that this showed my sincerity, and I tried to do good and be kind to others.
I lived this way for more than twenty years, yet I still had no peace or sense of security. My heart was always weighed down by sadness and worry, and deep inside I could not truly be happy. I felt bitter and hopeless, and life seemed meaningless. The inner suffering felt unbearable.
Between 1993 and 1994, at different times, I had three unusual dreams. In each dream, a spiritual being took me to an extraordinarily beautiful place in heaven. The first visit was short; the later ones lasted longer, and the third was the longest. I was amazed by how pure and beautiful everything was. My heart opened with joy. I had never seen such a place in my life—the sky was an unimaginably pure blue and the clouds were perfectly white. Each time I was taken there, I did not want to return. From then on, I often sat alone on my balcony at night looking at the stars, wondering how I could reach that pure and beautiful place, a place of true peace, joy, and security. Day and night I longed to encounter it again.
In May 2007, because my eldest grandson was born prematurely, I came to Auckland, New Zealand for the first time. Not long after I arrived at my daughter’s home, a female evangelist came and spoke to me about things and stories I could not understand at all. I strongly rejected her. Five years later, when my daughter became pregnant again, she asked whether I thought her third child would be a boy or a girl. I immediately said with confidence that it would be a girl, because before the births of her first two sons I had used superstitious methods and believed the predictions had been accurate. My daughter Wendy, however, felt strongly that the third child would also be a boy, so we made a bet. She said, “Let’s see whether God or your bodhisattva is right.” I agreed. I said that if she had a girl, she should give me two thousand dollars. She replied, “Are you serious? If I have a daughter, I still have to give you two thousand dollars?” I firmly said yes. She then said, “If it is a boy, you must come to church with me.” I hesitated, but I agreed. Since I am now standing here giving testimony for the Lord, you can imagine that I lost the bet. I was unwilling to accept it and felt as though the deity I had worshipped had fooled me. For several days I was angry and upset. I did not keep my promise the first Sunday, and the next week I again looked for excuses. Wendy reminded me that a mother should keep her word. Seeing her pregnant and upset, I finally gave in. I also thought that church would not be harmful for my two grandsons, so I reluctantly went with her and took them along. I did not attend the main worship service; I stayed downstairs with the children while they listened to stories and made crafts. That was the first way I entered a church. I was only attending—I still did not believe. This is my first true testimony.
One night I became very ill. Wendy put an emergency call bell beside my bed and told me to press it if I needed help. I was sleeping alone in another room. It was very late and very quiet. I felt terrible but did not want to wake them. As I drifted toward sleep, I felt a cold sensation suddenly leave from the top of my head, as if I were about to die. Without thinking, I cried out, “Jesus, Jesus, please save me!” In a daze I saw someone enter through the window, even though it was a cold night in July or August and the windows were closed. The person came to my bedside. Before His hand even touched me, I suddenly felt well. As I tried to look at Him, He turned and left through the same window. This is my second true testimony.
As my grandsons grew, we began looking for a home near a good school so they would have a good learning environment and so that we could easily take them to and from school. We had looked at many houses for months without finding one that suited us, and the eldest grandson was about to start school. Once again I thought of Jesus and prayed: “Jesus, if You are the true God, please meet my need. We two older people do not drive. I hope for a brand-new house within five minutes’ walk of the school, at a price we can afford.” The very next month, we found a newly built house. It was only a two-minute walk to school, and within five minutes there was also a bus stop to the city. It was better than I had asked or imagined. Our family calls this home the “House of Grace.” This is my third true testimony.
All these miraculous things happened to me, but I was still stubborn and unwilling to accept or know Jesus. I kept telling myself they were coincidences and I did not want to read the Bible. Then one day, as I was reading the Gospel of John, something wonderful happened within me. My heart became unusually calm and real. When I read John 14:6—“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’”—the knot in my heart suddenly opened. I knelt on the floor and cried. I realised that the truth I had searched for so painfully was here in the Bible. These words of Jesus changed my life. Throughout the Bible Jesus often says, “Truly I tell you.” I began to sense His gentle and humble heart and was deeply moved. I thought of the years I had spent worshipping idols, giving so much time, energy, and money but never finding peace or joy. Yet before I even knew Jesus, He had already loved me and answered my prayers. Matthew 11:28 says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” I received such grace and peace. Things I once thought impossible were answered one by one.
There is a line in the hymn “Amazing Grace” about how precious grace was when we first believed. The first time I heard this hymn in the sanctuary, I was deeply moved. I sang with tears, as though the song had been written especially for me. I truly experienced that God is the living and true God. From then on, I began reading the Bible seriously and speaking with God in prayer every day. I tasted deeply the goodness of the Lord and came to know Jesus Christ as my closest friend and beloved companion. He knows how to care for and comfort me, and He protects me in my hardest times. The greatest blessing of my life is to know the Lord Jesus, and the greatest blessing of my life is to trust Him.
God is the true God, almighty and all-knowing, whose works are wonderful. I now know that when God chooses someone, there is no escaping His grace, because He wants to save us from darkness, lift us up, place us on firm ground, and lead us on His path of grace. He enables me to stand firm through the power of His Word. He teaches me to pray in the victorious name of Jesus Christ, to experience His presence every day, to serve more actively in His church, and to love sharing His Word in small groups so that I may grow spiritually together with my brothers and sisters. May all glory be given to the victorious name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!
Testimony by Jane Yang (楊依珍)
