Having received a few feedback regarding certain entries in our competition, we feel we need to clarify a few things:
- This competition is based on each writer’s individual experience and provided they can testify to them being genuine, we consider all testimonies valid and eligible for running. We hold to the guideline that each writer is entitled to their own opinions about their experiences, and in their expression of said opinions.
- Currently, this is still part of an ongoing competition. As such, the articles listed on this page are still under the prerogative of each writer and Asian Beacon will not meddle in any way with any content by any writer. If we ever publish any articles under the name of Asian Beacon, we will clearly state our stand on our statement of beliefs.
- This competition is judged purely on the writer’s testimonies and not on the finer points of theology. While the competition is still ongoing, in all cases, and in line with our respect for each writer’s individual testimonies, we adopt a ‘spirit rather than the letter of the law’ approach to each writer’s testimony.
- The Asian Beacon team will endeavour to its utmost to be fair to all participants, without any discrimination, prejudice, or favoritism to any single participant.
- In all cases, the Asian Beacon team will hold true to the conditions we have outlined in our Terms and Conditions for the competition. You may find these terms on https://asianbeacon.org/writing-competition/
Asian Beacon would like to reiterate here that we are all members of Bible-believing churches and we hold to the evangelical creed. We thank those of you who have raised your concerns and hope this will help answer your questions.
Walking to His Light
by Doreen Lau
How often have we heard that everything happens for a reason. When we look back at our past, the events that we sometimes mistakenly thought as misfortunes eventually turned out to be blessings. I thought it was a blessing when I was accepted into St Charles’ Hospital in London as a trainee nurse. That blessing quickly turned into a misfortune when I fell seriously ill and had to be sent home to Malaysia without completing my nursing course. The return home without my mission being accomplished which I mistakenly thought a misfortune was in reality a blessing that led me to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour.
I was twenty-three years old when I left Malaysia for the first time with no fear of the unknown. I had never left home before, never been on a train or plane when I embarked on my journey to London. Life as a trainee nurse in St Charles’ Hospital was hectic. Three months into the training, I noticed that my fingers and toes were always blue. That didn’t bother me until pus began to form in several fingers. Thinking that all I needed was some band aid to cover the sore fingers, I went to the nurses’ sick bay to get some. To my utter dismay, the doctor on duty told me that I had to be warded for some tests. Unknown to me what the doctor saw on my fingers and toes were pre-gangrene symptoms which if left untreated could cause me to lose all my fingers and toes!
It was fortunate that I was warded because the very next day, for no apparent reason I went into spasms, my back was arched and I was in great pain. I couldn’t speak or swallow and had to be given oxygen in order to breathe. Forty-eight hours later, I woke up aching all over but otherwise feeling perfectly normal. The night before, Daisy, a maid who worked in the nurses’ sick bay, saw several doctors at my bedside when she went off duty. The next morning when she came on duty and saw my bed empty she thought I had died. When she discovered that I was transferred to another ward, she came rushing in to see me and told me that “the Lord had put you here for a purpose”. I was not a Christian then so I did not know the implications of that statement.
Meanwhile none of the doctors could identify the cause of the spasms and neither could they explain how I could be so critically ill the night before and then wake up the next day feeling perfectly fine. They decided to transfer me to another hospital for more tests. The final diagnosis was that I was suffering from a condition called Raynaud Phenomenon where all my fingers and toes would turn blue in the cold weather. They concluded that I had to be sent home to sunny Malaysia before winter set in or they would not be held responsible for my ill-health. That spelt the end of my short nursing career. Looking back at the events that followed after my return to Malaysia, I believe that nothing happens by accident and that God was in control of everything that happened to me. I now realise that every problem is an opportunity to see Him at work leading me to something greater.
Back in Malaysia, I left home for the second time and found a job in Kuala Lumpur as a staff writer in Preston Corporation, a local publishing company. A year later, I was fired from my job when Preston discovered that I had attended an interview at Oxford University Press (OUP), an international publishing company. In despair I phoned OUP. To my great joy, I was informed that I got the job. Wow! I was fired in the morning and hired in the evening. After nineteen years, I decided to resign from OUP to start the first local stock photo library in Malaysia without the faintest idea on how to run a business. Despite my lack of experience, the Lord guided me to succeed. Looking back at the numerous times I made wrong decisions that would have caused setbacks in the business financially, I know now that it was His unseen Hand that steered me through the difficult times and not my own wisdom or foresight. Flushed with success, I could now afford to move to a bigger apartment nearer to my office. When I was led to check out the apartments in Desa Pesona in Section 17, my first thought on seeing the apartment was, oh no, it was next to a church. After months of searching for the right apartment, it was the Lord’s plan that I should buy the Desa Pesona apartment which is located next to The Life Chapel.
A year later, a former colleague, Sook Yuen, invited me for a Christmas celebration at the Cheras Gospel Centre (CGC). This was the first time she had invited me to her church. When I entered CGC that night, the first person I noticed was a lady who looked vaguely familiar. To my utter amazement, it turned out she was Alice, one of the Malaysian nurses from St Charles’ Hospital who prayed for my recovery when I was critically ill. When I told her I was not a Christian she said: “You should become one!” That meeting with Alice took me back to my time at St Charles’ Hospital and suddenly I remembered Daisy telling me that “the Lord had put me here for a purpose”. Though Alice worked in Assunta Hospital and I was warded in Assunta twice before, our paths never crossed. It was the Lord’s plan that I should meet her at CGC and to hear the message that I should become a Christian from her. That night I told Sook Yuen that I wanted to know more about the Christian faith. Sook Yuen decided that instead of my having to go all the way to Cheras, she would introduce me to her sister church, The Life Chapel! In hindsight I can see that leading me to buy the apartment next to The Life Chapel was the Lord’s plan to lead me to salvation. I was wandering blindly in the darkness and now He was leading me to His light.
One Sunday worship service at The Life Chapel, the late elder, Henry Philips, quoted from John 15:16: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you …” and even before he finished reading the verse, I was convicted and could now see that I was indeed chosen by Jesus Christ. I know now why I, unlike my other siblings, had always been reluctant from young to follow my mother to pray in the temple as I never felt at peace there . I have never believed that burning paper talisman and drinking the ashes would protect me from evil demons. Without fear I would never burn any of the paper talisman my mother sent me on a regular basis. Looking back I know now that the Lord has shielded me from the demons and has given me the courage not to fear any evil because He has chosen me and nobody could snatch me from His Hands.
I believe the Lord watches over all of us who are chosen from the earliest moments of our lives. He leads and guards us through all our blind wanderings no matter how long it takes until it is time to walk together with Him in His light. I was baptised on 21 July 2002 at The Life Chapel without knowing the Bible but knowing in my heart that Jesus loves me. He is my Lord and Saviour who will not abandon nor forsake me. For more than a decade I have lived next to His house in great peace and joy in the blessed assurance that He is always watching over me till the end of my days as He has promised.
I have passed three scores and ten years and I am thankful to the Lord for the countless times He has changed what I thought was a misfortune into blessings instead. His unending love and amazing grace for all of us who loves Him is beyond measure. Psalm 32:10 …but the Lord’s unfailing love surround the one who trusts in Him.
