2009 Music Revival Meeting — Leap of Faith
The Seminary’s Music Revival Meeting was held at Kowloon City Baptist Church on April 24 and its theme was “Leap of Faith.” That evening the Seminary Choir, the Hill Road Singers, the Alumni Choir and the Male Faculty Choir sang a good number of hymns, President Joshua Cho delivered the theme message and three students shared their testimonies.
It is our great joy to gather together more than a thousand brothers and sisters from many different churches through this public meeting to pray for revival of our lives in the Lord and to praise him and testify his abundant grace with our lives and songs.
Testimonies from Our Students
In the meeting, three students shared truthful and touching testimonies of their life struggles. Owing to the limitation of space, we can only publish part of two students’ sharing and the whole testimony of the third one.
“That night I thought that once I began my seminary study, the family’s financial situation would have to be changed. With that thought in mind, I could not help sweating out of fear and anxiety, lying restlessly in bed. Just at that moment, God spoke to me for the second time: ‘I pray that my Lord will be with me — you must trust in me and not in anything else.’ * His instruction encouraged me and also gave me a sense of peace….”
Our student Wong Mun-lun, who is married with two sons and who has worked as a senior engineer in the government, recounted how God had spoken to him twice and reminded him to let go the attachment to the high-pay, secure job and to cast away the worries about what would happen in the future but to take the first step on the road of consecration by faith.
* The prayer of Jabez (1 Chr 4:9-10)
That year, just as Wong Woon-yin was preparing to wed with his fiancée, he fell for another girl. As a result, the wedding was cancelled, he hurt his fiancée and did not know how to face his human weakness. During that period of darkness, he reflected on his Christian faith and once again stood in front of God: “I know that the road ahead will be hard for me to walk, but if it is a road pleasing to God, it is a good road. And so, by faith I began to step on the road of repentance….”
Woon-yin described how God redeemed him and his marriage, led him and his fiancée to break through the barriers and then stepped on the red carpet four years later. Not only this, God even led the couple to respond to his calling to enter HKBTS together to be equipped for full time ministry.
The Voice of a Victim: A Leap of Faith
Student Fung Kit-ying
Being One of the Forty Thousand Victims
After several years’ struggle, I confirmed God’s calling to be a full time minister in 2005. I then resigned from my work in a bank where I had worked for more than twenty years. I soon began full time seminary study in HKBTS, set out on a new road in life by faith and opened up a remarkable second half of my life. The equipping process has been colorful. It has enabled me to experience how God’s grace and faithfulness are made perfect in a weak person like me. God has continued to help me experience the lessons of faith, and he gave me an extraordinary lesson last year: Among the forty thousand “Lehman” victims, I had become one of them without even knowing it.
In leaving the bank in 2005, I got a sum of money from my mandatory fund. I immediately put it in a time deposit account to generate fixed interest assuming I would not have to pay further attention to it. In 2006, a former bank colleague kindly introduced me to some bonds as investment products, telling me that it would generate interest every quarter, better than the time deposit and assuring me that it was safe and secure. At that time, I thought that as I would not need to use that sum of money for any other investments and I trusted my former colleague, I bought this financial product. The expiry date was 2009, which would be the year I would graduate from the seminary and so I could set my mind at ease and rest assured that I could have guaranteed interest every quarter during the time of my study.
When I first heard the news about the Lehman Brothers’ bankruptcy, I was still unaware that I was involved in it. It was only when the bank called me that I came to realize that I was affected. At first I remained hopeful, but later when I received the bank statement, I was shocked to find that my bonds investment was down to zero! At that moment I felt shocked and heavy-hearted! I remembered clearly that when I bought the products, I did not intend to make quick money on risky ventures but simply considered the products to be a kind of savings. How could it end up this way? In the past, there were times when I had lost some money, including a loan to a friend who did not pay me back and once my hand bag was stolen, but this time it seemed too big a joke to me. To be sure, the money was hard earned, and now it suddenly came to nothing. Could that be true?
Owing to the fact that it also involved my former colleague, I hesitated to lodge a complaint. Instead, it was my former colleagues in the bank who initiated in providing me with avenues for complaints and urged me to file a complaint with the authorities concerned. What touched my heart was that this colleague who had introduced these products to me took the initiative to call and apologize to me, telling me the phone number of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and urging me to lodge a complaint as soon as possible without worrying about him.
What I Learned First was Thanksgiving
After doing what needed to be done, I felt relieved and let God take control! However, it was not something that I could bear at the first instance. In the process, I kept asking God: What is your will in this matter? What lesson do you want me to learn?
God has a great sense of humor as his reply is that I first must learn to be grateful. In retrospect, I certainly have to be grateful for a good number of things:
1. Adversity Reveals the True Feelings
Even though my entire mandatory fund might come to nothing, my husband neither complained nor blamed me. Instead, he kept comforting me and generously promised me: “Come what may, I definitely will take care of you!” What he said touched me greatly! My husband shared this in his prayer group and gave my special thanks to God that our husband and wife relationship had not been affected because of this. Remarkably, there was no quarrel whatsoever. I was grateful for my husband’s consideration as his generosity equaled his physique: fairly solid.
2. Shared Frankly with Others
I shared this within my prayer group and among my fellow students, asking them to pray for me. I also told the congregation in my church practicum when I delivered my worship sermon. Brothers and sisters showed their concern, and fellow students took the initiative to ask me if I needed any help. At lunch time in the campus canteen, some fellow students were worried that I might not have enough to eat and so voluntarily served me more food from the dishes with their chopsticks. Frankly speaking, although this lost mandatory fund was part of our pension, we have not yet become penniless and our present way of living has not been affected. Shouldn’t I be thankful for this? As for our finances when we grow old, I am sure God will have his plan and we can trust him to take care of us.
3. Experienced God’s Peace That Transcends All Understanding
Even though fellow students worried that I could not sleep well, I was astounded that God granted me good sleep every night during that period. This ability to sleep well was truly a very great blessing from God, more precious than anything else! I saw on television that other Lehman’s victims were very broken-hearted, and I personally witnessed so many indignant, bewildered, anxious people in the protesting procession. I increasingly realized how precious God-given peace was in my life. This peace transcends all understanding. I had prayed to God that he could take away anything but not the peace and joy inside my heart. I thank God that he hears my prayers!
Bank of God’s Kingdom
Although the mini-bonds issued by Lehman Brothers Incorporation Ltd. Caused me to lose a lot of money, what was most important was that I was made to reflect on my attitude toward money in light of my Christian faith.
1. What is the position of money in my life?
Does it mean that the loss of a big sum of money equals the loss of everything? Who is my support in life? Am I left alone in the deep valley of anxiety when I lose money? Psalm 23, my favorite scripture, says: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.” Do I really believe that?
2. How do I make use of money in future?
In the future, how will I use the money entrusted to me by God? Will I keep storing up treasures on earth and be a miser, or will I invest in something which is of greater value because it is eternal?
God challenged my husband and me to take a further step in faith. This was really hard as we had already lost a sum of money, and now did we still need to take a further step? But then God really put a burden in my heart as I kept hearing the message to make a pledge of offering by faith. All right, we reasoned. Trusting that God is all that we want and apart from him we have no good thing, my husband and I have decided to practise the lesson of giving still more to him. That is, besides our basic tithe offering, we set aside an extra sum of money to meet the needs of the mission field practicing storing up treasures in heaven. Right now, we have set our eyes on a bank which yields the highest return, the Bank of God’s Kingdom. It is easier to learn from bits and pieces at first, and at present my husband and I have begun putting this lesson into practice. We pray that God will help us keep up the good work of supporting missionaries who go to far off foreign lands to share the Gospel.
My husband and I have made a decision: If there would be any compensation or the mini-bond can truly be redeemed in the near future, that sum of money would totally be put in the most secure Bank of God’s Kingdom. It was wonderful that recently I heard that the bank would probably redeem the mini-bond. We pray that God would give us the opportunity to increase our savings in the Bank of God’s Kingdom so that more money can be used for the mission field, which is in financial need.
“Losing” Is a Channel of Blessing
Brothers and sisters, what in this world can separate us from the love of Christ?
What man sees to be a loss can become in God’s kingdom a channel of blessings. God can grant us blessings bigger than any we might expect and yearn for! He is the God who grants us peace and not calamities. Thank God! He continues to lead us on to victory in Christ.
Let us move on together by faith! To God be all the glory and praise!