Esther Chiang
3/4/07
My Testimony
Of course, most of you old people out there have probably seen me grow up in the church but I truly accepted Christ when I was in third grade. I was in a room with Teresa Li and Janice Cheung. We had our little booklets that she talked us through. When I went in there I didn’t know what I was expecting but I came out a new girl. On that day I was happy and my heart was light. It was like I had a spiritual high for the rest of my life, but not really. When I was a kid I was always bold about my faith. I told my friends why I didn’t celebrate Halloween and received brownie points, more like stamps, when I answered questions in Sunday school. One time in first grade I even prayed with my friend and tried to convince her that God created the heavens and the earth not the furbies. Jesus has saved me countless times whether it’s when I’m falling to my death as I trip over myself or when I walk into the wall by accident. He also saved me from suicide. I was never extremely suicidal but I had suicidal thoughts. My parents lost their jobs around 5th through the beginning of 7th grade. My dad was really depressed and it rubbed off on me. I was tormented with nightmares and I was extremely scared of night time and the dark. I liked going to school and dreaded going home. I was depressed and as 5th grade and 6th grade are it’s the time where kids start forming cliques and the decision of who is cool and who is not. I was subtly kicked out when one of my friends didn’t invite me to their birthday party that summer and that was tough on me. My “friend” spread rumors about how I wasn’t cool because I liked to read. I was turning into a true Asian. I did have a counselor for a while and it helped but I had thoughts once in a while when things got bad. Now I realize that if I ever committed suicide it would be really selfish of me because God loves me so much and I can barely comprehend how much. He made me with his own hands and died for me. I could never do that to him or my friends and family. It has taken time for me to realize that when bad things come my way I can’t run and hide and be a drama queen. I have to take the armor of God and use it to defend myself from Satan. I now understand that bad things happen because God loves me and it’s his way of making me a woman of God.