I'm
going to tell my story by starting in the middle, which was really a new beginning.
It was about ten years ago and I was struggling personally. I did not have a
steady job. I felt a lot of bitterness towards the world and thought that was
the bottom of my life. But it wasn't, and with every odd job I took it went
deeper still. I did everything and anything to search for success and the means
to support my family: pizza delivery, tax preparation, frozen fish sales - nothing
lasted very long.My birthday falls just after New Year's and every year I would make promises to God - promises I couldn't or wouldn't keep. This made me feel worse every year. I felt such a sense of failure for broken promises and lost opportunities as if I owed God and could never repay Him. On the occasion of my fortieth birthday then, I began to search for God's guidance in His word and was lead to meditate on the story of Moses. He spent his first 40 years being raised as an Egyptian prince with all the trappings of success. Then God taught him humility and patience by leading him to Midian to learn how to be a shepherd in the wilderness for his father-in-law's flocks of sheep. Then God called Moses to be a leader and to guide the Israelites out of captivity under the Egyptians and into the promised land. This was a job of enormous responsibility and perseverance and it took the rest of Moses' life up to the age of 120.
I began to think of my own forty years. Had they been wasted? What if the rest of my life were to be without accomplishment? So I prayed to God. I laid every broken promise before Him and said, "No more God, I give up, I surrender to your sovereign will. Take charge of my life. I will only make myself available and you can show me and use me for Your purpose". The bible tells of Samuel, that he said to the Lord,"Here I am...Speak, for thy servant heareth", and of Isaiah, who said to God, " Here I am, send me". I didn't know yet what God was going to do in my life but I felt a new sense of His promise deep in my heart.
In the beginning He began to show me simple things, as he made me more sensitive to other peoples' needs, and helped me to serve others. When the Rainbow Evangelism tour came from Hong Kong in '93, I volunteered as the local business manager and also for the Chinese Christian Youth Winter Conference (CCCYWC) in Banff. These were just mundane duties such as organizing the menus for meals, travel arrangements for participants, ensuring keys and
access was arranged for the different facilities in use. That was the first year of the "new beginning".
God began to open doors of opportunity for friendship outreach to "Astronaut" families from Hong Kong who are living in Calgary, that is families where the wives and children came to settle in Canada while the husbands shuttled between here and Hong Kong to continue in business. God brought me a good, godly man as my partner to go out and share the Gospel with these husbands - and although we did not see much immediate results there was a real sense of accomplishment in reaching out for God.
Then to make make things worse (and perhaps to keep me humble) a business venture that I was involved in went out of business. It seemed like a new low in my life, but I did not give up. I still wanted to trust God's word and I found Matthew 6:33, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God , and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you". I claimed this verse for my life. I just wanted to grab hold of God's promise and to keep on serving.
At this time I opened my home for regular prayer meetings for our church planting. It was really wonderful, all the brothers and sisters were coming to my home to pray for God's kingdom and they also prayed for my family and our home. Even though I still did not have a steady job, I am certain our home was preserved through those prayers to God.
God was faithful, after all these trials, he began to show me his plan for my life. I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel. A government training program became available for which people like myself, who was then on U.I.C., were eligible. I applied but so did many others and I was not on the short list for selection. However, God saw that I received admission into the program after all, for training in computer applications. I was by no means qualified or experienced in computers. I couldn't even use a simple program like WordPerfect. After 8 months of training, however, I graduated with a certificate. I was selected for a three-month volunteer training program at Petro Canada and following that was offered a job in their I.S. department. Since that day I have had the privilege to continue working with the same company. Finally a steady job. How great is God's blessing!
