A GOD STORY FROM SOUTHEAST ASIA: Noi was a freshman at the university where I taught and lead a student ministry team. Although we often had students to our house she never attended. She was always friendly but I didn’t know much about her.
Two years later I was walking with a short term volunteer on our team and we passed by Noi in the hallway at the university. Our short termer spontaneously invited Noi to my house for a Christmas party and it was there the Noi heard about a real meaning of Christmas for the first time.
Noi was curious to learn more and happily joined our weekly Bible study. She faithfully came even in the midst of a crazy academic and activity packed junior year. As Noi was learning about Jesus she also struggled with the worry of how her family would react if they knew of her growing interest in Christianity.
However after over a year of learning about Jesus Noi knew she could no longer deny the truth that she had come to believe in.
In privacy of our own room she made the conscious and deliberate decision to give her life to Jesus. Noi’s passion for Jesus was contagious and she helped lead Kittisak, whom she would later marry, to Christ.
Noi and Kittisak wanted their wedding to be an opportunity to share the gospel with both of their families and all of their friends of whom none knew Jesus. Among the guests was one of Noi’s friends,Ying. During the ceremony, the first Christian wedding Ying had attended, she was deeply impressed by the God that was being talked about.
A few years passed during which Ying faced many troubles in her life. While scrolling through Instagram and seeing one of Noi’s posts, Ying remembered Noi’s wedding and Noi’s God. She messaged Noi and asked her if she could come with Noi to church.
She came and received Jesus as her Lord and Savior that very day.
That Sunday was a culmination of all the God was doing to reveal himself to Ying in her struggles and pain.
Later that evening Ying called her mother to share the news. But before Ying could say anything, her Buddhist mother immediately asked Ying if something happened.
“Are you playing with black magic?”, she asked. Her mother was asking this because she had just consulted with the family’s fortune teller earlier that day and the fortuneteller could see everyone’s fortune but Ying’s.
In the fortunetellers’ own words she said there’s something stronger than me blocking me from seeing anything about Ying. Ying’s mother came to the conclusion that Ying must’ve been involved in some other darker powers thus her question about black magic.
Shocked by this news Ying asked her mom for the exact time that she consulted with the fortuneteller. The time was just after Ying had accepted Christ. Ying told her mother that it wasn’t black magic but it was Jesus that was the stronger power blocking the fortuneteller from seeing her. God was Ying’s shield. Christs’ authority was upon Ying now and no dark powers could touch her.
