1 Life Changed

Let us hear from Joshua Chong one of those who recently went through Baptism.

1) Before I trusted Christ, I was a hot-tempered and self-centred person. I was a competitive person by nature and always wanted to win in everything I do, I always thought that I was right in everything I did and would not give others a chance to explain things to me. I was stubborn and would often quarrel with my family members over small issues, especially with my father. I remember once we even fought and tore each others’ shirt and this resulted in me running away from home for a day. When I was younger, I would steal my parent’s money in order to buy the things I wanted, i.e. tamiya cars, dragon ball cards or play LAN games (counter-strike). Since young I was rebellious and often caused many problems in school. I would not listen to my teachers and often show disrespect to them. I did not bother about the consequences of cheating in school; I just wanted to take the short cut. I would take part in fights and resort to smoking whenever I had a problem.

2) How I trusted Christ – Angus who was then my school mate will invite me to FCBC and I would agree at first, but eventually come up with some excuses when it drew near to Friday or Saturday. However, after 6 months, I felt really bad turning Angus down every week and finally visited FCBC for the first time. My family had huge communication problems as I never gave them a chance to relate to me. I was easily agitated by people’s comments and I wanted God to mold me to have more patience, but many times I would be tempted to argue resulting in arguments again. I began to follow Angus to church for the next few months for the sake of Angus and the friends that I have made in church.

I felt that my life was in a mess. I wanted to improve my relationship with my family and friends. I wanted to do something more than just being a nuisance and living my life without any aims/goals. However, I would feel hurt and rejected, as people often misunderstood my intentions. But I managed to find love from my friend Angus who was always there for me. There was once after a heated fight with my dad, I left home and went to Angus’s place. I was sad and tired so I ended up sleeping on his bed. In the end, he slept on the floor which really touched me. Knowing clearly that I was hot tempered and self-centred, I decided to make an effort to change. I joined the KCPSS cell lead by Angus and also started to attend church regularly.

During my early NS days while training to be a commando, I was very full of myself and often offended many of my platoon mates. I had many conflicts with people and found it hard to work with others. I asked God to change my heart and humble me so that I can even show love to the people who hated me.


3) After I trusted Christ, I embarked on a journey of constant molding by Jesus.
I stopped smoking and even developed a sense of dislike for smoking. I am able to accept others’ comments more freely and have the desire to constantly change for the better. This would not have been possible if not for God touching my heart and making me realize that discipline is for my own good, so that God can mold me to become what he wants me to be. I would approach my spiritual family for help and share with them my troubles.

By being accountable to my spiritual father, Teck Horng, I have learnt the heart of being a disciple and obeying my leader even though it is really difficult at times. Accountability guards me from falling back to my old sins and even allows me to see certain stuff, such as relationship issues on a different perspective.

Thank God for saving me, he helped me to improve my relationship with others and even mend the brokenness in me. I managed to build a strong rapport with my bunk mates after trusting God and my relationship with my family, especially with my father improved. We began to talk calmly and listen to each other views and I truly thank God for this change.


Joshua Chong
Teck Horng's tribe

Baptised by Joshua Teo and Ps Jimmy