God has made an amazing transformation in my life. Considering my background, it is miraculous that I can stand before the people of God with the joy of the Lord in my heart. I am so thankful for God’s faithfulness to me.

I was brought up on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. We did not have a Christian home, but even at a very young age—probably eight or nine years—I believed there was a God in Heaven. I had friends who were Catholic, and I learned to pray with them. They told me to say the Lord’s Prayer and Hail Mary twenty times when I was in trouble. I learned how to do so, but that was the only time I prayed—when I was in trouble.

In my teen years, I felt restless. I liked to party, go to movies, and be involved in sports. Those were fun at the moment, but at the end of the day I would feel a void in my heart. I was not satisfied.

I am so thankful that God brought me to a place where I could hear the truth of the Gospel. My brother was going to school in San Francisco, California, but he was in the same predicament as me: looking for God, but not knowing where to find Him. In 1972, he told some college friends that he was looking for a church that preached the truth. One friend told him, “It is down the street.”

My brother found that church—the Apostolic Faith on Sutter Street. He got saved and began to write to me about what had happened to him. I did not really understand, but my heart said, I want to go to San Francisco. I felt that if I could get there I would be happy.

God had a plan for me. The day came when I had an opportunity to go to school in San Francisco. I remember as I flew across the ocean, I prayed, “God, don’t let this plane blow up. Just get me to San Francisco!” I thought I wanted to have a good time and get a good education, but God saw the real need of my heart.

I arrived on a Wednesday, and went to church with my brother on the following Sunday. When I walked into the church, the Spirit spoke to me, “This is where you belong.” I did not get saved that day, but the conviction of the Holy Spirit began to work in my heart. Little by little, God helped me to realize that there was sin in my heart. When I asked Him to forgive me, He did just that. Salvation is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me.

The first change I realized was that the restlessness was gone. My longing for the bright lights of the city and a great time in San Francisco was all gone. Church became my life.

I am thankful for the people of God. They were so kind and loving to me—they instructed me in the ways of the Lord and helped me to grow spiritually. I had never heard of being born again until that time, so I had much to learn. God knew my heart, though, and He helped me to grasp the sound truth of the Gospel. Later He sanctified me and filled me with the power of the Holy Ghost.

God has been faithful to me, and I thank Him for His patience as I walk with Him. It is truly wonderful to be a Christian. I remember when I was first saved, the saints of God would stand up and testify that they had been saved for forty or fifty years and that their salvation was still sweet. I thought, How can that be? Now it has been almost forty years since the Lord saved me, and I can truly say that each day grows sweeter as the years go by. The desire of my heart is to continue to serve God. I want to be faithful and share with others what God has done in my life.