Testimony of Conversion               

By Stephen Poon

	When I was 15 years old, some Christian classmates tried to  convince me to be a Christian.  We went through many very rough debates. Yet because of my pride, I refused to confess that Yahweh was the true God.  Nevertheless those Christians informed me that there was a god called Yahweh out there.

	And a year later during the summer, my friends and I disregarded a thunderstorm warning and went on a kayak trip. As soon as the weather became windy, I was separated with other teammates.  Eventually I capsized.  And due to limited budget, I did not have any life jacket to wear.  Soon seawater filled two-thirds of my cockpit.  I was sinking with my vessel. The threat of death flashed across my mind.  And I made the first prayer in my life to a god.  Randomly picking one, I prayed to Yahweh.  I said, "If I did not die, I would serve you for the rest of my life."  A few seconds after the prayer, I felt a pillar of rock underneath my feet.  Perhaps it had always been there, and I just did not sense it.  Since I could stand and rest on the rock, I waited till the sea calmed down a bit.  And after the sea calmed, I swam about 150 meters to return to shore.  Henceforth I sought to know Yahweh. 
	
	Because my two older sisters were Catholics, they introduced me to the Roman Catholic Church.   I started to attend a Catholic catechism class.  The instructor mainly taught me the basic doctrines in Roman Catholicism.  The most annoying thing was the awareness of my corruption.  From the Bible and the teaching of the Church, I realized that there was a definite standard of morality demanded by the righteous God.  However, my desire was exactly what God disliked.  During the weekdays, I followed my desires to live.  But on the weekend, I attended mass and felt very guilty.  Penance seemed to pardon my malpractice but it did not strengthen me to live right.  Later on I went to Lethbridge, Alberta to finish high school.  At an Easter midnight mass, I looked up at the crucified Christ hanging in the cathedral and asked, "Does it matter whether you have been crucified?  Now I still live in sin and have no peace."  From then on, I decided to forget about Jesus and left the Catholic Church.

	And in 1981, I spent a summer in Toronto, where I saw more corruption in humanity, including my own.  On my way back to the West, I read the Bible that I still kept to brush up on my English.  I read the book of Isaiah.  The book talked about Yahweh's suffering servant.  He was going to bring forth Yahweh's forgiveness.  And multitude of people will be put to live in Utopia.  I thought that the suffering servant might be the key to forgiveness and peace with Yahweh, and to live righteously before Him.  I thought that I had to know about Him.

	Since I knew that the Catholic Church did not teach much about the Bible, I went to a Christian Alliance Church and told them that I would like to learn more about the Bible.  There I learnt that Jesus was the suffering servant.  And from the Gospel of John, I understood that confessing to Him as Lord and Savior would bring me God's forgiveness.  And the Holy Spirit would enable me to live righteously.  Eventually I had to decide whether I wanted to live peacefully with God.  Or I could live as I desired for a while, and God would hold me accountable for my wrongdoing at any time He liked.  Between the two, I chose the former.    And on the Good Friday of 1982, Rev Job Ng baptized me.  

 	After I had invited Jesus into my life, I experienced the peace coming from God's pardon of my sins.  From then on my relationship with Jesus became essential to me.  It 
keeps my single life pure.  Acknowledging His presence, I aim to please God.  As I know more of Jesus, I desire what He likes.  He prefers grace.  So I put my revengeful character to death.  He loves the Church.  Then I take an active role in a local church.  He loves the unchurched.  I then reach out to the unchurched and pray that they will know my Lord Jesus.  He changed my values.  He molded my character.  And I still see God working in my life.  He is still molding me to like Christ.      
			 
(Brother Stephen Poon was TPC Youth Director from 9/98 to 9/99. He is now serving God in New Jersey  - Editors)