I was born and raised in the country of Singapore into a family of 3 brothers and 4 sisters. My parents were staunch Buddhists and prayed to multiple idols when we were growing up.  Making daily incense and food offerings to those idols was a daily routine. Ancestral worship was also a part of making those daily offerings.  As a little child, I was taught to fear those idols and dead ancestors by being extremely careful not to offend them by what I said or did or suffer their wrath by means of an accident, sickness or doing badly at school.  I was also told that my dead ancestors lived on to haunt the living and paying respect and worshiping them is a way to appease their anger. Thus, growing up, I lived my life out of fear and bound by superstition.

When I turned 17, I started having nightmares about our house being haunted. I recalled many nights waking up in intense fear and cold sweat. One of my brothers and one of my sisters became very sick but doctors could not find anything wrong with them each time they were taken in to see them. My parents started consulting with mediums to see if we had offended the idols and to find out ways to appease them but all to no avail. My brother and sister started to see apparitions and eventually were possessed by evil spirits whom we thought, back then, was my dead grandmother.  They would go into convulsions, throw up and speak in an authoritative voice just like grandma’s.  The whole family was paralyzed with fear and cramped into my parent’s bedroom to sleep at night. I could see my father’s desperation to protect the family by standing up to and challenging the demons but to no avail. I dreaded it whenever night fell because it would mean another long night of sleeplessness due to fear.

3 years prior to what was happening, at 14, friends at school tried witnessing to me about Jesus Christ. That was the first time I ever heard the Gospel about how He loved me and gave His life to ransom my soul.  They also invited me to attend a youth group which was an after-school activity organized by Youth For Christ. I attended a number of times and recalled putting up my hand at invitations given to receive Christ. However, I did not follow Christ wholeheartedly nor read the Bible which was given to me subsequently. Billy Graham was in Singapore at that time of the family’s ordeal which was when I attended his crusade that was held at the National Stadium of Singapore.  Once again, I prayed to receive Christ as my Savior but this time, I also committed myself to follow Him wholeheartedly as Lord of my life.  My faith in God started to grow as I read Scriptures daily. My fear and confusion dissipated in the midst of the ongoing turmoil in the family as my knowledge of Scriptures grew and my trust in Him grew. Scriptures like 1John 4:4 “…the one who is in you is greater than the one in the world” and Hebrews 9:27 “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment.”, were only some of the many scripture verses the Lord used to liberate me free from the bondage of fear of the idols and my dead ancestors. The conviction grew that only the True and Living God whom I had found would be able to free my brother and sister and my family from the bondage of Satan. I started to pray for my family’s salvation and not long after that, a neighbor introduced us to a pastor, Rev. Philip Heng.  Rev. Heng shared the Gospel with my family and they all prayed to receive Christ. He then used the 10 commandments to lead my family to renounce idolatry and ancestral worship and started a bonfire to destroy all the idols taken down from our home.  The battle began to be waged between us, God’s children against Satan to liberate my brother and sister from demon possession. Scriptures, prayer and praise were our daily weapon against the enemy of our soul. Whenever my brother and sister went into convulsions, we used the Name of Jesus to rebuke the devil and together we witnessed how the devil shrieked in fear and pain as the evil spirits left their bodies. That battle went on daily for a period of 2 months when finally my brother and sister were liberated from the stronghold of Satan. With God’s help and Christ as our Captain in the battle, we were freed from idolatry to serving the True and Living God and no longer to live our lives in fear but pledge ourselves to know, love and serve Him and His purpose in our generation.

That was 30 years ago and I am still growing in my love and commitment to God with no turning back. All these years, He kept proving Himself to be the loving and faithful God and I am forever grateful to Him for revealing Himself to my family and me.