Tony’s Story

The testimony of Tony (Daichopstix) Nam

I was born, in west Wales, of  Chinese parentage, in 1941. I was “born again” in Hong Kong on the 3^rd Sunday of October 1983.

Although ethnically Chinese, the first 42 years of my life was typically Welsh. I was christened as an infant, and introduced to Christianity at the age of 5 when I was enrolled in the Sunday school of the local  parish church. I joined the church choir at the age of 7, and apart from a few rebellious teenage years, continued to attend an Anglican church into adulthood both in my home town and later when I moved to east Wales in 1970 and in 1982, even further east to Hong Kong.

On the 3^rd Sunday of October, 1983, as I was about to deliver a sermon as the Church Warden of Emmanuel Church, Hong Kong, I had what could be described as a “Damascus Road” experience. Although I knew that Jesus had died for the world, I had never realised that Jesus had died for me, Tony Nam, as an individual. So in the 8 seconds it took me to open my sermon in prayer, I had a mega conversation with the Lord Jesus.

I said to Him, “Lord You gave Your life for me… now Lord Jesus I want to give my life to You. Whatever You want me to do, wherever and whenever You want it done, speak Lord and I will obey. Get into the driving seat Lord and take over my life.”

At that moment, I was simultaneously born again and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I preached, but not the sermon I had prepared, but what came from my heart as the Holy Spirit gave me the words. I do not recall much of what I said, but I do remember concluding with the word, “… for 37 years from the age of 5 until now, I have known about the Lord Jesus Christ. But in the last 10 minutes, there has been an 18 inch shift, from my head to my heart. Now I can say that I don’t just know about Jesus, but I now know Him.”

My life has not been the same since. From being merely a committed church goer, I became a committed Christian, and empowered by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, I’ve had the privilege and joy of serving the Lord in many capacities, and particularly in the Christian ministry of healing.

In July 2008, 25 years on from that wonderful experience, a tumour was found in my bladder. On removal of the tumour, I was informed by the registrar (urology) that not all the cancer had been removed. It had already infiltrated the muscle and the wall of my bladder. Furthermore, unless I received radical radiotherapy or surgical removal of my bladder within the next month or so, the cancer would break out of my bladder and spread throughout my body.

 On leaving the registrar’s office, in agreement  my wife Marian and I resolved… WE SHALL NOT COME UNDER THE SPIRIT OF FEAR, OUR TRUST IS IN THE LORD

 When I chose removal of the bladder I was referred to the top consultant urologist in west Wales and a pre-operation interview arranged.

At this interview the consultant’s opening words were, “Mr. Nam you have an extremely nasty aggressive cancer and your bladder must be removed as soon as possible together with your prostate and lymph glands…”  The pros and cons of a neo-bladder or stoma bag were presented to me so that I could make an informed decision of which procedure should be followed when the operation was carried out. Before this interview was concluded, however, I said to the consultant I needed to say something to him.  What I said was:-

 “I am a Christian.  I believe, indeed know that Jesus is alive and heals today. I know that Jesus heals through the medical profession; I have no problem with that, as the Gospel writer Luke was a physician. But Jesus also heals through miracles. I have and will continue to receive a lot of powerful prayers and ministry for the removal of the cancer in my body. What I would hate to happen is, for you to remove the bladder, send it to the pathology laboratory for analysis and for the pathologist to say to you,  ‘why have you removed a perfectly healthy bladder?’ So, is there anyway you can check me out before you put the knife in?”

The consultant agreed that he would examine the bladder internally with a camera and on opening me up, would further examine the bladder visually and by touch… and should he conclude that the bladder need not be removed, he would be doing this based on my faith and not his. To which I responded, “That’s cool.” In fact, over the weeks since I’d learnt that there was a cancerous tumour in my body, my primary prayer had been…

 “Lord, I desire a cancer free body.”

 Which I followed up with a secondary prayer of…

 “And a miraculous healing would be cool.”

On the evening of Thursday 25^th September I was admitted to the hospital. On the Friday morning, the consultant’s registrar asked me to sign the consent form for two procedures, an examination by camera following which they would remove my bladder etc. “May remove my bladder.” I responded, to which the registrar said that they expected to remove the bladder and were only inserting the camera for my peace of mind as I’d requested consultant so to do.  I said to the registrar that I had an expertise in my professional field just as they had an expertise in their professional field. I also presumed that they had a professional integrity such that they would do or not do whatever was correct, and so I had no problem with entrusting my body into their care.

 I was wheeled into the anaesthetic room… and the next thing I remember was, being in the recovery unit and the registrar saying,

 “Mr Nam, we have not removed your bladder.” To which I responded “Alleluia.

He then said that they could see no sign of cancer in my bladder or in the tissue sample he removed from the site of the tumour.

All I could say was “Praise the Lord.” And then went back to “sleep”.

Unknown to me whilst I was asleep in the hospital and prior to the surgical team’s investigations… my wife, Marian was woken at 4.00am by a bright light in our bedroom and which she knew was a heavenly visitation. Whether it was Jesus THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD or an angel… she doesn’t know, but what she does know is that she was not shocked by this supernatural visitation, but felt such a peace and joy within her. Hardly the feelings one would expect in the natural, knowing one’s husband was in hospital to undergo major surgery. Also, a member of our church, whilst driving to work that Friday morning, saw, hovering above the roof of our home, a white dove.

Again, prior to my knowing that I had received a miraculous healing, Marian took a phone call from the consultant who told her that he could not justify removing a perfectly healthy bladder. Alleluia.

I was discharged early the following Sunday and my wife, Marian and I decided that we should not immediately go home, but first go to our church meeting to give thanks to the Lord for the miraculous healing I had received.  When I arrived in the church, a microphone was put in my hand, and all I could say was “Wow… God is so good.” And heard our senior pastor say, “It’s not very often we see Tony Nam lost for words.” And then I spoke as The Holy Spirit gave me utterances, and here’s what I said, here’s what I believe this testimony is all about. On this Sunday morning, 3days after I had been admitted to the hospital for major surgery, I said…

“The lesson God wants to give to the Church, and that means you, through this miraculous healing is… You must be bolder in professing your faith… you must be bolder in professing what you believe… and not in an academic intellectual way, but in an active way, in the market place, in a relevant way. Think about it guys. If I had not had the audacity… not been so bold as to tell the consultant surgeon what I believed, I would not be here now giving this testimony. Instead, I would still be in the intensive care ward, and minus my bladder, prostate and lymph glands. Praise the Lord.

POST SCRIPT.
Since the above testimony was written two things have happened.

 First, the Histopathology Report of the biopsy that was taken during the operation that never was has been received which stated, quote  “No tumour/transitional cell carcinoma is seen. “  and  “No dysplasia, residual or recurrent Transitional Cell Carcinoma or any other malignancy is seen.”  Unquote.

And secondly, in October, for the peace of mind of the medical practitioners who were looking after me, I had a MRI Scan carried out, the report of which concluded that, quote  “If multiple deep biopsies have revealed no tumour then perhaps a follow-up study after a suitable interval (3 – 4 months) might be recommended to assess changes of these appearances having allowed for post operative changes to settle.” Unquote. Or in other words, as the high-grade, aggressive, invasive cancer that was observed when the tumour was removed can no longer be found, it would be prudent to “kick for touch”, and check it out again.

In May 2009, 7 months after the MRI scan and 10 months after the malignant tumour was removed, to satisfy the urologist, I allowed them to examine me once again with an internal camera and take further and more extensive samples from my bladder for a biopsy. The urologist is still perplexed, but announced that there was no sign, visually or on analysis of any tumour or malignancy.

HEAVENLY FATHER,

MAY ALL WITH WHOM I SHARE THIS WONDERFUL NEWS BE ENABLED TO KNOW THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AS THEIR SAVIOUR, AND KNOW THAT THE GREATEST MIRACLE… THE GREATEST HEALING  IS… SALVATION,  A FREE GIFT FROM YOU.

THIS I ASK IN THE NAME OF YOUR SON JESUS CHRIST. AMEN.

Melanie’s Story

A terrifying world of addiction set free by God.

I first started experimenting with drugs and alcohol when I was 15 years old – drinking vodka with my friends and smoking cannabis: this was pretty normal every weekend. Although my parents had brought me up not to behave in such way I was completely rebellious. My parents separated when I was 15 but this is not why I drank or took drugs. I liked the effect and loved going out with my friends. I lived with my dad when they separated and he worked hard. This meant he couldn’t really keep an eye on me 24 hours a day and, although my big sister took over my mum’s role in the house, she was also unable to stop me from being so rebellious.

On the night of my 16th birthday party I got very drunk. Many people brought alcohol and there were soon at least 60 people at my house. I had liked this guy for some time and he knew I liked him. He was drinking gin and must have been about 25 years old. We all left the house and went to someone else’s. I was so drunk I could hardly keep my eyes open and I remember being in a room with the bed against the door. That night I lost my virginity in a black-out. Even this did not deter me from getting drunk.

I then met someone and lived with him, on and off, for nearly four years. It became abusive and it ended when I had enough and got extremely drunk at a wedding and kissed another man. I continued getting drunk and taking all kinds of drugs: ecstasy, acid, mushrooms, amphetamines and other uppers. I tried to get my life together when I was 19 years old and went to the doctor for help. I had a CPN (community psychiatric nurse) and would have regular sessions talking about my problems. They also prescribed me anti-depressants and sleeping tablets.  I went college to do an Access course as I wanted to become a nurse. I passed the course, but that’s as far as I went. Throughout this time I was searching for an answer and often thought to myself that there was more to life than taking drugs and drinking. I read lots of inspirational self-help books and tried many alternative new-age religions – a bit from everything.

Drifting along I started really to try and make a change. I worked for a year but really struggled to keep it together, until eventually I had to give the job up as I had been admitted to a psychiatric ward several times.  Each time in hospital I wanted to get better and hated the person I’d become and the things I had done. I remember one time I was in a psychiatric ward and my mum was on the phone begging me not to keep doing drugs. I know I meant it in my heart when I said to her that I wouldn’t do it again but, the very next day when I was released, I went to a free party and got trashed. So I ended up in the same place again. I missed out on so much with my family and my friends and became a lone wolf.

The last time I went into hospital a place came up for me in a rehabilitation centre. Although I still didn’t think I had a problem I went as a last resort. I was there for three months and then moved on to secondary treatment for drug and alcohol abuse. I stayed clean for four years but was still really unhappy and full of fear. I would wake up and think to myself, “If this is life clean and sober I don’t want it.” I knew that a drink would lead to another drink and then more drug abuse so I took lots of painkillers and ended up in hospital. How very dark it is before the dawn! The day I got out I was resigned to the fact that I might always be mentally ill and need medication or help in some way, but God had a plan for me and I met three girls who were clean and sober and attending 12-Step meetings and church. Life got so much better as a result of being around these people and they told me that God could do for me what I couldn’t do for myself and that He was the answer. But I was still preoccupied with my ex- boyfriend. I thought I could help him get clean. One day I went to see him and was full of anger and resentment that he could not stop for me – so I relapsed. I drank some whisky and that lead to nine more months of turmoil. The physical craving was beyond my mental control; I could not stop, even if I wanted to, because the craving for drugs was so strong. Eventually my boyfriend went into rehab and I decided to try and give up again. I went back to those girls I’d met before and carried on doing support groups. I was prescribed Codeine Phosphate for the pain of withdrawal by a doctor and got hooked onto them – and so did my boyfriend. It took a year for us to separate and get clean again but this time I knew that I needed something more so I cried out to God, “help me please.”

I was in Cardigan, walking down to the supermarket one day, and just felt as though someone was prompting me to go into a church, so I went over and soon found myself inside being prayed for. Thus my journey with God really began. Little did I know that my boyfriend, who had left that same week, was going through detox ‘raw’ with prayer and he also rang me up in the same week to say, “I love Jesus.” I was shocked and excited because I knew then that God really did have a plan. A year later we were married.

God has given me a new heart and definitely has plans for me and my husband. Since being married we have had people detoxing in our home. It is so amazing to see people light up and look healthy and full of life again. I never forget that these people are God’s children and think, “What would Jesus do?” I have a vision for a place where people can come straight from the street to detox. There are so many people we come across every day that want to stop what they are doing and be well, but we have waiting lists and all sorts of hoops to jump through sometimes that make it too late. I’ve lost many friends to addiction.

God’s love and power flows in our home and, through us, many have come to know Jesus and love Him too.

Today I know a peace like no other and I feel so loved by my Heavenly Father. He is my corrector and director. I have met many people on my journey so far and, God-willing, will be going to Bible college this September. I believe that the Lord is equipping me and my husband to do miraculous work with addicts.

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,

because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted,

and to proclaim that captives will be releasedand prisoners will be freed.

(Isaiah 61:1 NLT)

Sarah and Ian’s Story

A couple’s intense search for God.

When we met neither of us were Christians but we were seeking God through various techniques such as meditation and fasting. We went into it quite deeply. This is before we even met, but we both had similar lives – spending concentrated time trying to focus and still our minds and seeking a breakthrough to something beyond ourselves. We would devote ourselves, sometimes for years, to a specific type of meditation or spiritual subject matter. But at the end we were always thinking, “This is not it – we are still looking.”

We have subsequently discovered that we were actually once in the same room together on a ten-day silent Buddhist retreat course before we met. The men weren’t allowed to look at the women so we didn’t recognise one another as future potential marriage material at the time! For both of us it was several years of intense spiritual searching. We were both earnestly seeking something other than what life was showing us. It was quite a drive in us.

Ian

I spent a year in India simply trying to still my mind and find God. What I found was that everyone was doing his or her own thing. The retreats were not pleasant. It was physically difficult and painful to sit for eight to nine hours a day cross-legged and in silence. You do have certain spiritual experiences during these retreats I would say. But I have now found that there is a big difference between a spiritual experience and a God experience. Maybe 80 per cent were still seeking. Strictly speaking Buddhists don’t believe in God, but I was following the Buddhist path in a religious way. I was talking to God, asking Him to help me and give me strength. I don’t think many people were doing that.

Sarah

It was the same for me. My first experiences were when I went to New Zealand and felt I had been guided to spend some time looking inside myself. I went on a Vipassana meditation course and it sparked a real interest in spiritual things in me. It became my life. I started getting a real hunger to seek spiritually – nothing else around me mattered. I also spent some time with the Hare Krishnas. They were opposites really. Vipassana believes in anything and everything. It is about overcoming the snares of life by bypassing it. You detach yourself from life in a way. Krishnas, on the other hand, celebrate life. They have a focus that they call the Supreme Godhead. I had one foot in each side but neither of them was right for me. I felt that everyone else seemed to be getting something out of it. But there was something about it, especially the Krishnas, that wasn’t quite right.

I returned home and came to a point where, even though my whole life was focussed on this spiritual search, I realised that I wasn’t happy. That’s when I started to look at other things as well. I looked at dousing and medium-ship. I found quite a lot of evil stuff coming in that frightened me. I really started to cry out to God. I was confused and I needed help. My mind was getting really unstable. I had been so deep into so many thingsI didn’t know what was real any more. So I ran away  and met Ian! That was three years ago.

Ian

Both of us were talking to God, but how do you get to know Him? What happened to us is common to what happens to a lot of people. They try one thing and then the next thing and you end up with a whole bookshelf full of different stuff. It leaves you very confused. You don’t see many people who just follow one thing – if you do they are probably a bit stuck in it. For us, the saving grace was that we kept on looking until we eventually put all of those books in the wood burner.

I guess that the first step for me was coming to west Wales for an interview. I stayed with a friend who was going to a church in Cardigan and went along with him to one of their small-group meetings. I enjoyed being with people whatever their faith. That’s how it is from a New Age perspective. You feel that you are kindred spirits and that it is all relating to one god. Christians seemed a bit narrow in saying that Jesus was the only door. I felt that I was more enlightened.

Back in Devon Sarah and I met and Sarah was brave enough to come to Wales and start a life with me. We were both still seeking and there was something about Cardigan that drew us.

Sarah

Ian said a kind of prayer – not prayer as we know it today – saying, “We have come to the end of things. Where do we go now?” We went to see Ian’s friend again and he spent the whole evening basically explaining that everything we had spent years learning about was a lie; it wasn’t actually the truth! All the people that we believed in and thought were great people were also deceived. It turned everything on its head. We went home and for a week we hardly spoke to each other. We were both thrown into quite a turmoil as the truth of the gospel of Jesus fought against everything we had previously believed in. I remember getting out all my meditation books to try and hold on to something. But suddenly they were just empty. I thought about everything that Ian’s friend had said. Eventually I came to the Bible and opened it up. The moment I did that Ian walked into the room and said, “So it’s been happening to you as well.” That just broke something. I then said a prayer to Jesus, “If you want to come in, you can.”

We went to a church service two days later – just to find out more really. The pastor invited those who wanted to give their lives to Jesus to go to the front. I really wanted to go up, but I was scared that I might have to talk into the microphone. Then Ian got up and off he went. I thought, “If he’s going I’m going!” That was it. That was us giving our lives to the Lord. It was very quick – we just plunged into it. We felt we had nothing to lose. We weren’t totally convinced but it felt safe. We had probably let other sorts of spirits in before so it wasn’t a totally new thing for us to say, “Spirit of Jesus, come in.” At the same time it was very different. It was a real submission. The last place I’d previously wanted to look was to Jesus. Christianity just didn’t seem exciting. None of my friends believed in Jesus. The pastor said, “You do know what you’ve done don’t you – you’ve just been born again.” I thought, “Oh no – they’ve got me!”

Ian

The change from then to now has been HUGE. It’s been a journey. The next day I felt different. I didn’t feel alone. I felt that Jesus was walking with me.

All that energy in deep spiritual searching – God turned that around to Him. The search is over. Our whole life focus is now God, and it feels very good. We’ve thrown all the old stuff out and now we have a completely new life. It felt really good for both of us to say, “Right, now we’re not confused; we’ve just got the book [The Bible] and this very clear way now.” Everything we have been searching for in other places – meditation etc, we’ve found in God and in Christianity. And it’s good, pure and safe – and yet at the same time awesome and powerful because God’s Holy Spirit is in us now. Christianity is really exciting. It’s not at all how it seemed to us before.

All we want now is to ‘do God’. We want to be everything that He wants us to be and have closeness and intimacy with Him. We want to get any junk out of us that stops that from happening. God has done so much in us. Boy – it’s been intense!