.: Thanksgiving for breakthrough during CNY :.
I thanks God for the wonderful breakthrough in my family this Chinese New Year and indeed it testified God’s faithfulness in answering my prayer and further strengthen my faith to continue to pray for my family’s salvation.
As my family and relatives are Buddhism, they will visit the temple on every first day of Chinese New Year to worship their God for good luck and fortune and it was no exceptions this year. I dislike following them to the temple but was forced to do so as a form of respect to my parents especially in front of my relatives. However, this year as I attended the youth leader’s meeting and prayed for blessings in my family, I decided to stand firm in the lord and asked for his hand of protection on me for any spiritual warfare that might surface. I thank God as he answered my prayer and delivered me out of the difficult circumstances with ways that I didn’t expect and even further open up doors to bring in the Gospel to my parents. The plan to visit the temple this year with my relatives was cancelled as one of my aunt received Christ and she stood firm in not planning any trip to the temple. I was overjoyed by her salvation as she was a strong Buddhism for the past forty years. And to my amazed as I went to my uncle’s house on the third day of CNY, my Uncle actually welcomed me with great joy in his heart and announced boldly in front of my parent, “Welcome to the Christian family”! I was in total shocked and fear at that moment, not knowing how my parents will respond. And after some sharing with my uncle, I found out that he was actually a backslider since he was in secondary two but he strongly believed in God and was very encouraged in my salvation. He explained to me how his faith has being tested by God throughout his journey and he wanted to return back to church this year as he shared his testimony on how God has bring salvation to his elder daughter who is in secondary four this year. It was an answered prayer for he has been praying that God will touch his two daughters and bring them into the family of Christ and he encouraged me that my aunt and my salvation was an open doors that the lord want to bring to my family and my relatives.
I explained to him my situation and he affirmed me that as I continue to keep my faith in praying for my family, they will definitely came to know the lord one day. He understands the persecution I faced from my parent as he had walked through the same journey facing the persecution from my grandmother. He shared with my mother about his past persecution and explained that it was indeed a joy for my salvation and he even hoped that I can bring his younger daughter to my church one day. Praise God! And because of the great testimonies that my uncle and aunt shared with my parent and other relatives, it softens my parent’s heart and all my other relatives also recognize me as a Christian. Although, my parent have yet to fully approve me to be a Christian, but they have loosen their opposition to me following Jesus. Hallelujah!
I really thank God for this wonderful breakthrough and through this I learned that as I continue to persevere in my faith and prayer, even with the limited strength and ability I have, God can enlarge it by sending his people to encourage and strengthen me.
Love~ Si Jia
