I became a Christian in 2017. As I was born into a family that favors sons over daughters, I used to seek solace by reading books on Buddhism. In 2014, I came to Malaysia and met my boyfriend. After I witnessed a testimony he made, I began to come to faith.
My boyfriend and I once took a trip to a city with some friends. We didn't return to our accommodations until 2 am, but at 7 o'clock the next day, my boyfriend said he had to get up and go out. Usually, he has trouble falling asleep, and has to sleep until noon; besides, it was in the early hours when he drove back to our lodging the day before. But he said he needed to go to church, and at that moment, I was taken by surprise. From that time on, I became slightly curious about the Christian faith and even stopped believing in Buddhism later on.
I was baptized when I went to Malaysia in 2017—that was the last time I went to Malaysia. In 2018, I broke up with my boyfriend. And upon returning after the baptism, I found myself a church.
In September 2018, I started to prepare for studying abroad in Thailand. During the last two days of a trip to Thailand, I met two girls who were from Australia and South Korea. After chatting, we found out that we were all Christians; my boyfriend at the time told me that he believed in Christ as well. There seemed to be a voice telling me: It was time to go back to church.
After that, I gave up my plan to study abroad and started to go back to church. Little by little, my boyfriend led me to know the Lord, and my spiritual life gradually began to grow. But on Christmas Eve of 2019, I lost my job, and also, my boyfriend left me due to family reasons. However, a few days later, I experienced God’s healing and release in a prayer meeting and realized that God wanted me to rely fully on Him instead of my boyfriend and my job because all of these things could pass.
Then, a sister from my church introduced me to their company as a salesperson. However, when COVID-19 broke out in 2020, I basically hadn’t gotten to meet any clients since the second month I started working. Moreover, as I felt I couldn't learn anything there, I resigned after two months.
Later, a good friend of mine from high school introduced me to a job as a procurement clerk in a group, and I passed the interview. Although it was a clerical support job, my supervisor kept asking me to try to work on procurement-related tasks on my own, including negotiating project requirements with the suppliers and communicating with the company's own marketing department about the details of tenders.
One of my supervisors helped me familiarize myself with the procurement industry and its procedures. She has worked in this company for 10 years already and is a very professional, strict, and harsh person. Since I began to work in this company, I was scolded by her frequently. In the second month after starting the job, she once asked me to clock in for her because she would get off work early. A few months later, I suddenly remembered myself clocking in for her, so I confessed my sins before the Lord.
Then, in the Bible study group, I asked my fellow brothers and sisters to pray for me about this. Around a week later, my supervisor asked me to clock in for her again. I was terrified at that time, worrying that if I refused, she would ask my boss to fire me.
So, I went to pray in the bathroom, asking the Lord for wisdom and strength. After returning from the washroom, I sent my supervisor a message on WeChat while praying in my heart. Then I remembered one incident. One of our jobs in procurement is to rate our suppliers. At that time, this female supervisor told me that the service of a certain supplier was not good, and she insisted on expressing her views toward that company and its services impartially so that a comprehensive evaluation could be made. Therefore, in refusing to clock in for her, I retold how she taught us not to do things that were inappropriate and against our conscience.
I first made it clear to her that I am a Christian. Then I told her that I knew that she often had meetings in the evening after work and that if those unseen overtime hours could make up for the time she left early, I was still willing to help her clock in. I also mentioned to her that when she rated the clients, she said she didn't want to go against her conscience. My hands shook after I finished sending the message. Afterward, I went to pray in the bathroom for another half hour. Then, my supervisor simply replied, It's okay.
From then on, she never asked me to clock in for her. I thought she would make things difficult for me in the future, but instead, it turned out that she had a little more respect for me.
Furthermore, I have a colleague who is in the same position as I am, but she has a very bad temper. There was once when we went to pick up some items to be handed out, and I needed to get an extra-large platform trolley, so I asked her, “Is the trolley where it was put?” I was just confirming with her the location of the trolley when she lost her temper. I could only silently pray to God in my heart, wondering how I should respond. Later, as I was moving in front of my colleague, I turned around and grinned at her, which surprised her. After this incident, her whole attitude changed.
During that period, I joined the morning prayer meeting every day and practiced walking with the Lord at all times. As long as there was time that I didn't need to use my brain to think, whether I was riding in the car or drinking and eating, I would pray silently to God in my heart.
- Translated by Joyce Leung
