A God Who Answers And Leads
My life in the past was full of sin.
I used to be loose with money, use people for my benefit and lie shamelessly. I lied, and had to lie again in order to cover up my previous lies. It went on endlessly, and ended up deceiving others a lot in my life.
As my lies began to catch up with me, so I found myself in even greater trouble. I left my troubles so as to escape and started a new life in a new place. But even in this new place, I repeated my bad habits. Who would ever want to follow someone like me? My life started to collapse. In December of 2015, my marriage fell apart and I lost everything—including my family, friends and job.
If you’re a sensible person, you might take action at this point and “repent” or change your ways. But in my case, it didn’t happen. I carried on believing “I can fix this”. And things got worse. Now it was my turn to be used and swindled by others. Even the things I did for good went wrong. Others deceived me and I felt I could no longer trust anyone. I was alone. In November of 2018, I remembered my wife’s words. She used to tell me, ‘God is real’ — ‘God is watching you’. I recalled her words and realized she was right. This was when I began to reflect on what I had done. In December of 2018, I was missing my daughters tremendously. It was now three years since I had seen or contacted them. I desperately wanted to do something for them. Their birthdays were in March and April, so I wanted to do something special for them. Day by day this desire increased inside me.
I had never prayed before, but that day I decided to. It was my very first prayer, so I thought I would pray not just to God, but to everyone: ‘God, Holy Spirit, Chief Angel and Angels—Hear my prayer! Would you help me to do something for my daughter’s birthdays? Would you help me regain contact with them?’
“But what God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ would suffer, he thus fulfilled. Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out”
In March of 2019, I visited a restaurant I ate at most weeks, but on this occasion a staff member approached me and asked, ‘Do you remember me?’. I had been dining at this restaurant for over two years, had spoken to this gentleman several times, but didn’t figure out straight away who he was. Eventually, I realized he was a friend of my wife’s sister—who I had met a few times in the Philippines. He informed me he was still in touch with wife’s sister, and that she had been looking after my daughters. Thankfully they were all doing well. But surprisingly, his family’s house was only several minutes walk from where my daughters were know living. They were all neighbors, and he would be returning to the Philippines at the beginning of April. What a timing!
I told him my story. He had already heard about me from my wife’s sister. I explained I wanted to get in touch with my daughters, and so he helped me reconnect. He would also pass birthday presents on to them.
‘Thank you so much, God!’ I said from my heart.
From that day, I kept thanking God. But my story didn’t end there.
In May of 2019, my wife contacted me. I apologized to her for everything I had done.
She asked me, ‘Do you want to change?’ I answered, ‘I want to change’. So she gave me a Bible. I was already beginning to believe in God, so I decided to read it Bible. I didn’t know where to start, so I turned to the first book (Genesis). I couldn’t understand it from my heart, so I missed some pages. Eventually, I got the book of Acts and saw the words: ‘Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out’ (Acts 3:19). These words hit me and I started to have a stronger desire to study the Bible. I told my wife that I wanted to go to a church. She said, ‘Let’s pray’. I continued reading the Bible and praying. I wanted to repent and change. I knew my wife was right and I desire a new life with her and daughters.
I prayed, “God, I would like to live my life by reading the Bible and repenting of my wrong doings. I would like to have my family back. I would like to go to church. Please lead me to a good church.” Shortly afterwards, I encountered GraceCity Church, Nagoya. As I was sitting in this church, I knew I wanted to know more about the Bible and Christianity. Again, I prayed: “God. I would like to learn more about the Bible and Christianity. Show me the way.” A short time later, it was announced that there would be a Bible study group, called ‘The Discovery Course’. I really wanted to join the course, but at that time I was working every Sunday and could get the time off. Again, I prayed—and this time my job situation changed. I was granted Sundays off work, and could join all the study sessions! Whilst studying together, I became convinced that the next step was to become a Christian and get baptized. I prayed and talked about this with my wife. She spoke with her mum. Her mum spoke with her pastor in the Philippines, who was the same pastor who married my wife and I.
In December of 2019 I was baptized in the Philippines, in front of my daughters and wider family. I could apologize to them for everything I had done. God had answered my prayers, because He is real. My heart remains full of gratitude towards Him, because he knew the desires of my heart. He made the world, and He guides my steps.
As I came out of the water at my baptism, my eyes were filled with tears and I could not stop crying.
God continues to answer my prayers and show me the way. God is always looking after me, despite the fact that I remain far from perfect in my daily life. But my goal is to continue being fed by God’s word. God is a merciful Creator, and I desire to keep on receiving his grace, and to keep on studying His Word.
Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to everyone in GraceCity Church, Nagoya.
Thank you for praying for me, my baptism and my ongoing journey with the Lord.
— A.K.