A young woman named Fia began attending our church a couple years ago. She was baptized into our church in the Sakeow Province. In the Surin church, she has grown steadily in her walk with Jesus. She first served as a Sabbath School song leader, and she is now an assistant teacher in our youth department. I would like to share her simple, delightful testimony with you.

From Islam to Buddhism to Christianity, Fia has had an amazing religious journey. When she was a young girl, her Muslim father and grandmother took her to the mosque. She doesn’t remember much, but a few things are etched deeply in her memory—the hot, long-sleeved outfits and head coverings she had to wear, bowing down in the mosque for worship, and playing with a cow or goat before the prayer time, and then coming out after worship to find that only a fresh hide was left of her playmate. It was a scary thought when she realized she had eaten part of the animal she had been playing with. After her parents divorced, her mother’s family took Fia to Buddhist temples where she presented food offerings and tried to participate in the chanting and merit making.

One day, one of her aunts who had been living in Germany came to visit and began to share about Jesus. She gave Fia’s mother Noot a Bible, but Fia had no interest in Christianity. Besides, her grandfather was very sick at the time, and she needed to take care of him. She had no time to visit Christian churches. Eventually, her grandfather died. The very next day, Fia came downstairs and found her mother reading the Bible. Not long after that, her mother said, “Let’s go visit a Christian church.”

“Are you serious?” Fia asked in dismay, thinking, What has happened to my mom? Unenthusiastically, Fia agreed to go with her. They went to church several times, but not every Sunday, because sometimes Fia had too much homework.
One day, another aunt from Sakeow province came to visit and told Noot that she and Fia should visit the local Pentecostal church where they attended for about a year. At the church, another visitor introduced Noot to a man named Suraphong, a self-supporting missionary who was working with a local Baptist congregation. Suraphong began to visit Noot and Fia and disciple them.

About a year later, the aunt from Sakeow province came to visit again and told Noot and Fia she had found a new church that was Bible-based and kept all God’s commandments. She invited them to go to the Sakeow Adventist Church to experience it for herself. So the aunt, Noot and Fia attended together for a few Sabbaths. Noot was very impressed and decided she would stay and work with her sister in Sakeow. Fia stayed with another aunt in Surin and continued her studies. Soon Noot called and told her about the Surin Adventist Church, and encouraged her to attend. Fia didn’t act on her mother’s wishes at first, but eventually she visited us and found her spiritual home.

When I asked Fia what had convinced her that God was real, she replied, “Well, after my grandfather’s death, our family went through a number of serious problems. My Christian aunts told us that when we suffer and have problems, we should pray and ask God to help us. At first we didn’t really pray, but my aunt prayed for us, and our problems got better! I know God helped us.

“In 2009, a tumor began growing on the tip of my tongue, and it hurt terribly. Our doctor had never seen anything like it. He recommended a biopsy to determine whether or not it was cancerous. My mother, a new believer at the time, still had only weak faith and had never witnessed a miracle. Christian friends counseled her to fast and pray about it, so she did. Two days later, she asked me how the tumor on my tongue was doing, and I realized it had vanished. Praise God!

“Another miracle I remember is how God got me out of a bad group of students. You see, in Sirinthorn, kids stay in the same group as they move through the grades. Many of the kids in my eighth- and ninth-grade group were notorious for drinking, smoking and loose morals. But as the time approached for us to take our placement tests for the upper-class programs, I began to pray, ‘Lord, if you want me to get into the math and science program and get away from these classmates, please help me pass the entrance test exam.’ Having prayed that prayer, I didn’t even study for the test. All I did was read my Bible and pray a lot, and then I put all worry out of my mind. And do you know what? God answered my prayer! I passed and was accepted into the program, and I was moved out of that group of classmates. When I saw the test results, I was so happy that I cried. I thank God that I didn’t follow after all those kids. If I had been stuck with them, I doubt that I would be God’s child today.”

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