THE STORY OF MY SALVATION IN HAMASHIACH

Sis,

Dun wori. Evythg v share and pray here is fully P&C, we'll only share with outsiders if the person who posted requests for it. Bros & sisters in this group, kindly observe this strictly ok? If you really hv the burden to pray for a particular member of this group in your other prayer grps or cells, by all means, go ahead but jz lift up this person and pray the HS' perfect prayer i believe will be sufficient, no need to tell the whole story, v respect each other’s privacy agreed?

What you & ur husband are going through now as you shared, i went through in the 1997 economic meltdown when i was an unbeliever. I urge u, from my experience, pls stand by your husband no matter what, even if he was the one at fault who created this mess. This is the crucial time where he needs your full support, undstdg and tender loving care and concern. Dont quarrel and dont jump ship, even tho at times it seems like the ship is sinking. This may be the greatest test of your faith in your entire life before God brings the biggest breakthrough for your life and pours down so much blessings that your barns overfloweth. Bro, if you are reading this too, pls share with your wife and ask her for her full and undivided support. No matter who made the mistake tat brought u & ur fmly into this situation, this is not the time to point fingers and play the blame game like Adam & Eve. Pls dont make the same mistake i made. I was too proud to ask for love and help and my ex-wife was too insecure and paranoid so in the end we had one fight too many and she left. Those were real dark days of depression in my life's history. But i thank God that He only allowed me to go thru it for ard 2 yrs from July 1997 till 01April 1999. I thank God that He didnt allow me to go nuts or lose my life in revenge and bitterness. This is the story of God's grace and mercy for my life when He decided that i have had enuf of being kicked around by satan and it was time to reel me in like a poor little fish with a hook in my mouth and save me from the depths of hell. This is the story of my salvation. Lord Jesus, i pray that what i went thru during those dark years, God can use to touch Sisters and Brothers everywhere, whomever who takes the trouble to read this, in their current situations. Amen!

From childhood, i always wanted to be better than my father. I wanted to be more successful and richer. I was vy ambitious. I always dreamt of becoming a millionaire before i turn 30yo. Because of this burning desire, i quit halfway thru my ACCA course to pursue a full time career in Showbiz, i was already quite successful as a Disc Jockey and MC in discos, pubs and private events around M'sia so i quit my job and started my own entertainment agency cum sound & lighting rental company in 1990. Many clients migrated from my ex-boss and i had an immediate large pool of customers, at the chagrin of my ex-boss. My biz grew vy quickly from 1990 to 1994. 1st i had RM10k. Then i worked hard to achieve RM100k. Growth was phenomenon in the early and mid 1990s...the economy was really good then, esp when i had so many "cables" in both goverment and private corporations. Within months i hv achieved my target so from 100k my new objective became 1mil. U see the evil spirit of greed in action in me then?

This was a very big jump, so to achieve it, i had to work 10 times harder, entertain 10x more and bribe 1000x more! My greed and love of worldly riches drove me to get a XXmil loan to expand my biz. I was already very comfortable and living quite a luxurious life but i choosed to gamble evythg. i became the franchisor of the world's no.1 sound system for south east asia and quickly established branches in bkk and jakarta doing all kinds of international concerts and conventions. i was working more than 18hrs a day and when mega projects came, i wud spend 2-3days without sleep! My home became like a hotel coz i was flying between KL, Bkk and Jkt. My fmly hardly see me around. My 2nd daughter up to age 3 didnt even know tat i m her father! I was betting tat the economy will hold up till at least 1998 after the commonwealth games and once the next 10yrs downturn cycle came, my debts wud all be paid up and i cud retire early and enjoy all my riches! When i came to Christ and started reading the Bible, i realised i was exactly like the foolish rich man in Luke. What a fool i was.

Betw 1994 and July 1997, thgs were going real fine. All 3 branches were enjoying brisk biz and my co.'s turnover jumped into the millions, from a small one-man-show 50k company it grew into a multi-million ringgit co wt more than 100 staffs spread over 3 countries, but the success was built on the wrong foundation, it was built on bribery and all sorts of sinful ways and means of procuring biz. Little did i knw tat disaster was about to strike. One fine day, the Thai currency crashed and the whole Asian economic tigers died! Suddenly, my order books whch was full, became empty due to cancellations and postponements as most companies and investors pulled out of the region. Big government multi-nationals needed to be rescued so they cut most of their sponsorship of events and concerts resulting in our jobs being cancelled! My partner in Bkk fled with more than 2 million baht of my profits, my partner in Jkt had to flee the country when a few of his offices and warehouses were burned down by the mob....tat was when i realised my Indon partner was a crony and proxy of Suharto's son in drugs, extasy pills and money laundering biz! Thank God, even tho i still didnt know Him at tat point, had mercy and let me salvage all my equipment and assets and transferred them back to Msia. Back home in Msia, most of my best friends cum biz associates cum buddies also abandoned me.....collectively owing me almost RM1mil! No amount of pleading or threat of lawsuit cud coax them to help me by paying up their debts. At the same time, the bank was recalling my loans and because i was behind in many payments, they were also threatening me with bankruptcy lawsuits. It was really frustrating, i only had an outstanding balance of about RM500k and i had more than 1mil in other ppl's hands out there....if only they paid up, i wud've been scot free and wud even have enuf balance to weather thru the bad times! But now looking back, i thank God for allowing my circumstances as such coz otherwise i wud not know Him till this day.

With all these pressures, i was getting more and more desperate from day to day. There were no jobs and i had so many staffs to feed. The bank was engaging debt collectors to harass me day and night. Repossessors were calling and visiting me to threaten to repossess my fleet of cars and trucks. Thank God the premise is under my dad's name! I kept calling all my so-called buddies to pay up but all of them switch off their phones when they see my number, some even changed their numbers, some bolted. I was so very bitter, angry and depressed. I was out all day going around to beg for jobs, even small tiny jobs which i wud normally reject but tat was payback time....all those agencies with small budget jobs scorned at me because i used to reject their jobs with pride and arrogance. i was desperately trying to liquidate my assets but no one was interested! Depression quickly set in. I was out all day and all night driving aimlessly around KL. My ex-wife thot i was keeping a mistress coz i withdrew from her and was not around most of the time. I didnt knw how to talk to her and din wan her to panic if she know what kind of trouble i was in. So she oso started going out getting drunk wt frens then come home and fight and quarrel. It became so bad finally she jz packed her bags and left.

Extremely bitter and angry, in those days when almost evyone abandoned me, i started hearing voices that told me to commit suicide, some of these voices suggested tat i shud engage hired killers to kill all those who betrayed me and then kill myself before i get caught by police....some friends from BKK introduced me to professionals tat cost anything betw USD200 to USD5k! From daggers to machine guns! Ha ha ha...one "cable" in the m’sian government circle even offered to help me procure the service of an SB officer who moonlights as a hired assassin! (Tats y i believe Raja Petra’s story on altantuya). Only RM5k to take a life! How cheap and terrible! I was seriously considering those options, even went as far as borrowing money to do it!

But alas, God is gracious to me. Suddenly, i began to hear another voice in my heart tat reminded me of my kids, reminded me what if after killing those ppl, the assassin turned around and started to blackmail me? Then one fine day when I cudnt contain the mental pain and torture anymore, i finally opened up to my 2nd sister and she gave me a Bible. She reminded me tat when i was a small 7yo boy, they gave me a picture Bible and i rejected it saying tat i can be successful on my own. That i was my own God and can determine my own destiny. How wrong i was.....so i took the Bible home and started reading Genesis.

On the 1st nite when i brought the Bible home, i kneeled beside my bed and i said, Jesus, if you are who you are as was told to me and as what the Bible writes, if you are truly the Son of God, all i want is a good night's sleep....sumthg whch i have not had for many months already. Without realising it, i dozed off peacefully and slept in tat kneeling position till the next morning! I had such a beautiful, peaceful sleep! Hallelujah! When i woke up, that day was 1st April 1999. I immediately did what i normally do evy morning, go to deposit at "Bank Negara", but instead of bringing the newspaper with me as usual, i brought the Bible my sister gave me the previous day....and i ended up in the wc for almost 2 hours! i was so captivated by the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph that my parents tot i fainted or committed suicide in the wc! ha ha ha....they were searching for me then started to shout to see whr i was! Less than 2 hours after tat, after dressing up etc, i suddenly got a call from a friend who was avoiding my calls for the last few months. You see, i tried to sell him my franchise whch was worth around RM1mil. I was even prepared to go as low as RM600k but i was so annoying tat he stopped answering my calls. He called tat morning and asked if my franchise and the eqmt tat came with it is sold or not. i said no. Then he asked if the price still remains at RM1mil? I said yes (actually i was desperate enuf to go much lower than tat). Then he said he'd like to meet me to discuss financing details the next few days! WOW! For sum1 who has been avoiding me to suddenly call me to make me such a good offer? This is a miracle! Cud this really be Jesus? I cudnt believe it....so that night, i kneeled beside my bed and prayed again. I asked Jesus to give me another sign coz tat day was April Fool's Day....maybe it was a prank by tat friend. Amazingly, i had another beautiful sleep that nite and when i woke up, i did the same routine and spent another 2hours in the wc reading the whole book of exodus. A few hours later, i recvd a call from another friend and he told me that a pastor from Johor Bahru wud like to visit my warehouse the following day to test some of my other speakers and sound system to purchase for his new church in JB. Apparently, this Pastor Awalludin Abu Bakar prayed for the Sultan of Johor's brother who was suffering from throat cancer and he donated a large sum of money for him to start a new church. Double WOW! Well, tat day i learned that there is no such thing as "COINCIDENCE" in this world. Jesus IS the true Son of the Living God! The God of the Bible! After so many months of living in depression, fear, anger, bitterness, pain and desperation, that day, i saw the light at the end of the tunnel! Finally, i found the true God who loves me and really can help me! I have never been so relieved and happy ever in my life!

The following day, Pastor Awalludin, another pastor from his church, his sound engineer and my friend came to meet me. We chatted and i let them test those speakers they were interested to buy. After that, over some drinks, as we chatted, i told them about about my biz in Thailand and indon. I believe, led by the HS, i told them about my fear of heights and how i used to go bungee jumping in Phuket jz to try to get rid of this fear. At that point, suddenly, Ps Awal stopped me and said tat God wants to tell me sumthg. I was shocked. I didnt know God can speak to ppl. I didnt know God wanted to speak to such a wretched soul like me. He told me tat God knows i am like a man hanging by a small branch of a tree over a high cliff. I was screaming and shouting for help but no one hears or bothers. I was afraid of letting go lest i fall into the deep ravine and die.

But Ps Awal told me that God is asking me to let go and fall coz Jesus is waiting for me to fall into His hands at the bottom of the deep dark ravine. It was exactly how i hv been feeling for many months. God knows wat was in my heart! I was speechless. I jz stood there and cried uncontrollably for almost 30mins! When i finally calmed down, i accepted Christ into my heart right there and then. After i finished saying the sinner's prayer, i felt a great sense of freedom and release! I felt so light i tot i cud jz float up and fly! Praise the Lord! Up till today, 9 yrs later, evytime i share this testimony wt any1, tears of joy still comes flooding back to me. I was like a little child who lost his parents in a huge shopping mall and has found them again! Hallelujah!

To cut the whole story short, many miracles happened after tat. God helped me dispose of most of my assets to pay watever remaining debts i still had. I sold off all my trucks and the 2 luxury cars and humbled myself to drive an old 2nd hand car. HS led me to trim my company's expenses and took out all those redundant, dormant and wastage items and personnel. God brought another buyer to take over my franchise as well as the entire bank loan thus releasing me from the responsibility and burden. God led me to relinguish a lot of the properties and assets tat i acquired while i was still an unbeliever and made me start back from square one. It was quite painful and heartsick to let go of the fruits of many yrs of hard work but i jz surrendered to God in faith tat He has better thgs and times in store for me further down the road. And true enuf, after 9yrs of walking wt Jesus, i m enjoying Prov 10:22...."the blessings of the LORD makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow to it"! God has restored to me 10x of wat i used to hv and He is still increasing! Amen! God is good, ALL the time!

God bless us all!