When did it all begin?

I recently met the church members I had gone on a mission trip to Central Asia with two years ago. Our trip leader, who has since gone on to OMF to be a full-time missionary in Lopburi, about twenty minutes' drive from Bangkok, returned for a visit and so we arranged for dinner.

During dinner, we were talking about how we came to know the Lord. Surprisingly, of the seven of us, three had one way or another attended Sunday School before. When it came to my turn, I told the rest that I got the goosebumps when I heard my senior pastor say some time back that in the beginning, Church of Our Saviour had held its services at this small facility at Prince Charles Crescent close to 20 years back before the church moved to the current Margaret Drive premises.

First a little something about how I landed up at Church of Our Saviour: One of my former colleagues (who is in full-time ministry now) brought me to Christ in 2001 and I started attending the church that he and his wife were serving at. I was there for a year but somehow or other, I kept missing the membership courses during that year. I also prayed to God about whether this was the church He wants me to settle in, and I felt that His answer was "no".

Then in December 2001, my cousin came back from the US and she invited me to a service at Church of Our Saviour. At that time, I had prayed to God for three things: direct me to the church He wants me to settle in, what the biblical perspective of money is, and what His calling for me is.

When I went with my cousin for my first ever service at Church of Our Saviour, I received two things at the door - one was a pamphlet of upcoming mission trips for 2002 and the other was a schedule of baptism and membership courses for 2002.

I stepped into the main auditorium, and immediately I thanked God and said to Him, "Lord, I'm finally home." I knew in my spirit then (in fact, every part of me) that it was the church God wanted me to be in. And the subject of the sermon? The role of money in a Christian's life.

I remembered that I was so happy that day because I knew that God had answered all my prayers. The following day, I went to work and told my colleague that I was switching churches. He was absolutely flabbergasted and kept asking me why. This was the same reaction I received from the pastor at his church, who was mentoring me, whom I also told immediately. I told them that God wanted me to attend Church of Our Saviour and to serve there. From then on, I have been attending Church of Our Saviour. I was baptised and confirmed in May 2002.

Coming back to the goosebumps: My family and relatives were living at Prince Charles Crescent during those times when Church of Our Saviour held services there. I had often heard my two aunties saying that when they were young, they would always sneak out to go and listen to sermons despite my grandmother's objections. The dots didn't connect until I realised recently that they had gone to listen to my senior pastor, who was then young and absolutely on fire for the Lord, and still is very much so today. So for me, in a sense, it was coming full circle. That I would land up at the church which had been located so close to my home when I was still a kid.

One of my aunties and her husband also regularly brought us to Sunday School at Grace Assembly of God. My uncle would let us get into the driver's seat and pretend to drive the car around the carpark. In a sense, they were also our parents because they always brought us out and every weekend, they drove us up to their house in Teban Gardens. They supervised our homework and my auntie sang songs (Christian and folk songs) to us. God took my uncle home many years back (and blessed my auntie with a daughter). I'm so looking forward to seeing him in Heaven when God deems it time to bring me home.

As one of the mission trip members said during the dinner, thank God that we were in Sunday School when we were young, because the Sunday School teachers prayed for us back then and we are today the beneficiaries of their care, their devotion and their many prayers for our salvation.

Truly prayers avail much and I probably won't know how many and who prayed for my salvation but I am sure glad and extremely grateful and humbled that they did.

Truly, my feelings are like that of the words in Ray Boltz's song "Thank You":

Thank you for giving to the Lord.
I am a life that was changed.
Thank you for giving to the Lord.
I am so glad you gave.

Thank you for giving to the Lord.
I am a life that was changed.
Thank you for giving to the Lord.
I am so glad you gave.