By Esther Thio

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify to God’s power last Sunday during our English Congregation’s worship services. For those of you who do not know me, this is a step of boldness that I typically would not have taken. But God spoke so loudly and clearly in my heart, that there was no way I could say no.

I remembered it was a Thursday morning when I received a text from Pastor Douglas asking me if I would be willing to share on Sunday about how God has been working in my life. My usual text response to Douglas would be, “No, I think there is not enough time for me to prepare. There are many people at church who will have better stories to tell.” However, the area that I lived in was going through a power outage that day and my Wi-Fi and cellular services were down. I could only receive texts and not return them. I called my husband, Han, telling him that I wasn’t sure if I could share. He was going to meet Pastor Douglas for lunch that day so he could help me pass the message to him. I prayed to God asking Him to show me what I should do.

I then headed to the library so that I could check some e-mails (since the internet was down at home). As I was at the library, I accidentally bumped into this Chinese grandma whom I had known. Her granddaughter was a year older than my Rachel and they had attended the same preschool. We had not seen each other for a long time! She was attending an ESL class at the library and when she saw me, ran out to meet me. She gave me a huge hug and told me that she and her entire family, including her husband, son, daughter-in-law and 2 grandchildren have now believed in Jesus! I was in complete awe and praised God! I then asked her when this happened and how did the entire family come to know Jesus? She told me it was a year ago when it happened and there were many reasons but one of them was through Rachel and me.

At this point, I was speechless. I had met her and her granddaughter, Kathy, exactly 3 years ago. I remembered the first time I met them, the grandma was piggybacking her grandchild to school, walking at least 5 miles uphill on a difficult path with no sidewalk. She could not drive and had to get Kathy to school. I approached them asking where they lived and from that day onwards, picked them up them daily. Our friendship grew quickly and I got to know the entire family. However, due to my poor Chinese, I couldn’t share much about Jesus with them. All I could do was to give her Chinese tracts to read. Soon a year passed and Kathy had to move to a public school. As a parting gift, I gave the grandma a Chinese Bible and didn’t think much about it. Never did I know that the entire family is now attending a nearby church!

This is the work and power of the Holy Spirit and I was glad to be part of this. While the seed was sown 3 years ago, God was faithful and the entire family came to know God. He did not forget them like I did. I was thinking in my heart, how could I not testify to God’s goodness and faithfulness after what happened. I called Pastor Douglas immediately and told him yes. I was like Jonah, trying to run away when God called me to testify. Through this incident, God taught me to be bold and that He is in charge. All I have to do is to yield to His Spirit and He will work everything out, just like he did with the Chinese grandma. This gave me more zeal now to continue witnessing to those around me, even if I don’t see the results immediately. I know in His perfect timing, he will meet His lost sheep and call them one by one just like He had called me.