8- My Testimony

Before I believed in Jesus, I was a man who had practised the precepts of Buddhism from the age of 16. I got up early very morning to prepare the rice, flowers, and incense stick before going to the pagoda wity my grandmother. At that time I was not impressed with Jesus and I surly said "I have to keep Buddhism's belief, not change to another religion." I did not understand Jesus; I only knew the he was the leader of a foreign religion and that there were two churches near my home but I was not interested in them.

By the time I reached the 11 class I was still pracitcing the precepts of Buddhism, as I had not yet heard about God's salvation. In the middle of one semester, maybe the second semester, while I was studying in class, a young man shifted to our province and came to study in my class. I wondered why he came to my class because the school had a lot of classes. After we had studied together for two to three weeks we knew each other quite well. I always spoke about the Buddhist's law to him but he just responded with a smile.

One day, he invited me to free English lessons at his house. The next day I rode my bicycle with him to put in my application form for study. When I arrived at his house I saw a curtain with a picture of Jesus holding a lamb so I asked him, "Which one in your family believes in Jesus ?" "all my family," he replied.

I was very surprised and went back home. At that time I found out that not only was he a believer but that his father was a pastor. This fact took away my desire to study English at his house but some time later I made the decision to study there.

Every Thursday his father always shared God's word and I became interested in one particular statement: "When those who belived in Jesus kill an animal for food, it is not sin". This word impacted the Buddist's vision which I believed and I was angry in my heart. I remembered this word when I studied at his house and I said to myself, "I'll just study."

While I was studying English, one man called me to the pastor and told him that I want to believe in Jesus but deep down in my heart I didn't. The pastor asked me and I didn't know how to reply to him so I found myself speaking to him emphatically saying, "Yes, I want to."

The pastor prayed for me and said, "After you pray, Jesus will come into your heart." When I went back home I remembered all that he had said and I recalled his sentence: "God will come into my heart."

Then I said to Jesus, "O Jesus, please get away from me. I do not want you to be my God. I have my gods already." Maybe three weeks later I kept thinking of the fact that in spite of all that I did in Buddhism I couldn't follow its law. When I went fishing I caught a lot of fish but they were alive and I was afraid to kill them. I took them to my mother to kill for me for food. So in reality I was still killing animals and couldn't be saved by myself. I received into my heart the pastor's words: "When those who believe in Jesus kill an animal for food it's not sin, "and I wanted to be free from my sin so I made decision to have faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord.

Thank you !