A testimony from His blessed son, Addison Wong (Singapore)

I would like to give all praises to our Lord, for giving me the journey of a lifetime the past year.

It was a time when I was really put to the test, with regards to my ability to put my trust in the Lord and to juggle between church and school. It started in May 2005, just before I entered Ngee Ann Polytechnic. I did not expect the first year of my Polytechnic course to already be as challenging as it was. Thus, I agreed, when approached to be part of the 10th Annual Dinner And Dance event committee in church. Boy, was that a slap in the face, when reality in school dawned upon me. It was the beginning of, I would say, one of the toughest and longest obstacles I have experienced thus far. To be the secretary, the treasurer, the publicity head, and the decorations head in the event committee, and at the same time, struggle to complete the truck load of projects in school, without irritating my classmates with my commitment in church, was definitely a cup of hot oil to gobble down, especially considering I wasn't expecting it. To name each obstacle and how I overcame them would make this a very long entry. But to sum up beautifully, this series of obstacles not only gave me strength, which I know I need, considering the level of commitment I have in the various areas of my life, but also developed my trust in the Lord. At the beginning of last year, I realised that I had never been in a situation where I had to fully trust the Lord. Life had been a safe haven till then. This realisation saddened me deeply. I asked for opportunities to grow more in faith and trust towards Him. He gave me just that through the Dinner and Dance planning. I was grateful. Everything turned out better than expected. I fulfilled my duties in the event, in my opinion, impeccably and did well in school, all by His almighty and lovely grace.

Just when one would think that God was pleased with the development of my trust in Him, he lengthens the journey to give me more opportunities to develop on it further. Right after Dinner and Dance was over, up came Youth Prayer Rally 2006, an event, which, when I agreed to lead in the planning, I never expected would be as large an event as it turned out to be. This was the pinnacle of the development of my trust in the Lord and the period, which provided for me, opportunities to witness both His wonders and Him working through me. On the planning side, Lynette and I had to take on the leading roles in almost every sub committee because of the lack of manpower in the main committee itself. The amount of work we had to accomplish was horrendous! But in time, I put more and more of my trust in Him and lifted up everything I did in His name. On Youth Council side, I was appointed secretary, and was part of the Mickey Mouse Championship committee, and other events committees, as well. On the academic side, as usual, piles of work had to be done (I shall not bore you with details). The months between January and August 2006, when all the evaluations and the final report for Youth Prayer Rally was completed, were the most hectic months of my life. But the great thing was, with every obstacle I overcame since May 2005, when I joined the Dinner and Dance committee, I developed greater trust and faith in the Lord. It was a beautiful butterfly effect. My faith just kept growing and growing with every chapter of the journey, only to allow me to achieve even greater things in the next chapter (because I had greater faith).

And now, I'm so proud to be able to say, 'I have faith in the Lord. I have trust in the Lord. I can lift up my life to Him with no worries, for life was never just a safe haven, preventing me from trusting Him'.

With this faith, I was motivated to work just as hard on my academic areas as I did for Youth Prayer Rally 2006. And boy, was it worth the struggle. After Youth Prayer Rally 2006 was over, without the opportunity to take a breather, I delved right into the last few weeks of my semester in school, which are always the killer among all the weeks. Amazingly, I still found strength to complete my final projects and study for my exams to the best of my ability. You know that feeling when, after exams, you don't really care much about how well you've done, because you know that you've put in, literally, your all, and could not have worked harder? THAT'S the feeling I received when the semester FINALLY ended. I reckon it was the faith and trust that I had developed in the Lord that helped me gain strength to accomplish that.

I had aimed, at the beginning of the semester, to achieve All As and Bs for my grades. But that was just reaching for the stars so that I could settle on clouds, which would be just as satisfactory since I had so many things to focus on during that period in time. What I had expected for my 7 modules were, 3As, 1B and 3Cs. But came Friday, September 15th, 2006, 09:00am, I was astonished to see what the Lord had given me!!! 4As, 2B+s, and 1B!!!!! I passed the clouds and reached the stars!!! Praise the Lord for all that He has done for me!! Praise the Lord for His beauty and love!! Praise the Lord for his guidance and compassion!! Praise the Lord for allowing me to grow closer to Him as I so satisfactorily have!!

It was a tedious, most excruciating journey, which was most tiring in all its forms. But, as it has been said and sung, and written so beautifully and accurately that no truth could have more meaning... "WORTHY IS THE LAMB".

I leave you with words which truly showed me how trustworthy our God is, that no matter how many times one doesn't get things his/her way, there is a reason, and that one is actually being provided in other forms.

I asked for Strength...And God gave me difficulties to make me strong.

I asked for Wisdom...And God gave me Problems to solve.

I asked for Prosperity...And God gave me a Brain and Brawn to work.

I asked for Courage...And God gave me obstacles to overcome.

I asked for Love...And God gave me Troubled people to help.

I asked for Favours...And God gave me Opportunities.

I received nothing I wanted...But I received everything I needed.