II. The Journey of Salvation and Transformation.
Chapter 1. Strange Encounters
In my sophomore year, our group of guys started to go to a fellowship group in the “The Avenues.” For me, going to the Avenues was a new venture. I heard about relatives moving out of Chinatown to the Avenues, but I had no idea what that was like or even where it was at.
A man named Victor Quong drove his van into Chinatown and picked us up and brought us to a home. I remember I had to walk up a flight of stairs to enter the house. The dining room was straight ahead, the living room around the corner, and the kitchen on the other side. I met Pastor Ben and Mel Wong with a group of other high school girls and guys. They sung catchy tones as “I am in-right, upright, outright, downright, Happy all the time…” After the meeting, drivers would bring us back to Chinatown where some of us would hang out and have a late snack at Sam Wo around 11:00 pm.
As a guy, I was shy around the girls. I never really chatted with girls. I had no idea of what to say to them or how to interact with them. I guess you could say, I was insecure. For the first several months, I was more of an observer than anything else. One evening, I remember one of the youth group members asking me if I was interested in “spiritual things?” I said, “No” because I didn’t even know what spiritual things meant. I never heard the word, “spiritual” before. During the meeting, they talked a lot about the Bible by asking questions, but those questions, let alone the answers didn’t make any sense at all to me. Going to this fellowship group was just me tagging along with my friends.
One day as I was walking through Commodore Stockton playground area, I saw a book lying there on a bench. Out of curiosity, I picked it up. It’s title, The Bible. I looked around; the playground was empty. There was no one here. As I looked at the bible, I was drawn to it and brought it home. I felt guilty for taking it, but I couldn’t shake this compulsion to read it. Lying or sitting on my bed, I started reading this book. My Mom said that I was crazy as I would read it for hours in my bed. But that was not going to stop me. At first, I didn’t understand what I was reading, at times it was as if it was just reading random words. Over time, some of the stories became familiar but most of it didn’t make any sense to me.
I am not able to fully explain my salvation experience. I read into the Gospels and somewhere in the Gospel of John, I finally understood why this Jesus was on the cross. I realized that there is a God who loves me even though my own mother didn’t want me. This man Jesus died for the sins of the world, even for me and my sin. I knew that I was a sinner and that I have sinned against God. Now, I clearly understood why Jesus was on the cross.
Being home alone that afternoon, I prayed to God to forgive me of my sins and to accept me as His child. It was a strange experience for me. No human being was with me that day. I didn’t read a religious tract that explained the way of salvation and yet somehow the understanding or revelation, that it is Jesus who died for my sins. My heart had a great sense of joy and happiness that I never had before. It was like I was “floating” and life was different for me. I finished reading the Bible. I brought that Bible back to the school yard and laid it back on the bench. I don’t remember how long I had that Bible, if I had to guess, probably a month or two. That day changed my life forever. The changes that happened to me are almost unbelievable even to myself.