Fix's Testimony On Becoming a Christian

I wanted to share the testimony of Fix, a Thai student in the Adventist university, and how he came a Christian. I think it will really help Christians and non-Thais understand how it is that someone who has never known a single Christian person growing up can come to change religion in his youth. His details about prayer are fascinating and were similar to my experience, though I first starting thinking about God seriously and praying to him when I was older, around 24 years old. Fix I think was around 14 years old or so when he meets the two ladies who introduce him to prayer.  Praise God for his story and may it help us learn more about the incredible diversity of human experience, and how God is the answer for all of us.

Here is the original story in Thai: เรื่องราวก่อนผมจะเป็นคริสต์เตียน https://fatheroflove-thailand.com/article/view/becoming-christian

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I am a man who used to be a devout Buddhist. My family strongly believed in Buddhism. For example, my grandmother would go to the temple every Buddhist holy day to chant prayers and sometimes even stay overnight at the temple. On some days, she would offer lunch to the monks. My grandmother could also ward off spirits because she knew how to chant prayers and had a family incantation for driving away ghosts. She taught some of these incantations to her grandchildren to protect them from spirits (I still remember some of them to this day, though I no longer use them). My father also collected dozens of amulets and kept them in our house.

As for me, I had a fairly good understanding of Buddhism, just like most people. I enjoyed listening to stories about Buddhism, especially those about Prince Siddhartha. If anyone argued with me about other religions, I would always defend Buddhism and explain why it was great. I also loved chanting prayers. Given all this, it might seem unlikely that I would ever change religions!! But now, I’ve converted to Christianity!!!!

At first, I thought, "Wow, did I change religions too quickly? It feels like it happened in an instant!" But upon reflection, I realized that I didn’t change religions abruptly. It felt like God had been preparing me for this change in many ways, even through fantasy movies about religion, such as vampire movies, The Conjuring, and others. These movies had a lot of supernatural elements, and they made Christianity seem really cool and exciting. This sparked my interest in religious-themed movies, and I kept watching them, though they didn’t have a profound impact on me at the time.

My life truly began to change when I was in 8th grade. It felt like the second step in God’s plan to prepare me for a major life transformation. He introduced me to prayer for the first time through Christians. It was a Sunday evening after school, just a normal day when I went to sit alone at the sports field to watch movies and browse Facebook on my iPad. I liked being alone because I was quite introverted at the time. Suddenly, two women approached me and started talking to me about something. At first, they seemed interested in getting to know me, and then they asked,

"Do you know who God is?" They continued, "God is someone who loves us very much. No matter how many times we sin, He will forgive us. No matter how sad we are, He will be with us. He listens to us, takes care of us, and no matter what we ask for, He will provide. Have you ever asked Him for anything?"

Of course, I replied, "No, I haven’t. But how do I ask? And how will I know if I’ll receive it or not?" Something along those lines.

The two women then said, "Let’s try asking and see what happens." They started praying, and during the prayer, they told me to close my eyes. What I was thinking at the time was, "Oh no, my phone is outside my bag, my iPad is outside my bag, my wallet is outside my bag. If they’re scammers, will my stuff disappear? Because I have to close my eyes while they pray!" So, I slowly started putting my things back into my bag one by one. When they finished praying and opened their eyes, all my belongings were already in my bag. They seemed to notice but didn’t say anything, probably because it’s normal for strangers to be cautious.

Then they told me, "We just prayed for you to have a better life. But if you want to ask for something personal, you can call God 'Father' or 'Lord,' and at the end, just say 'in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.'"

About 1-2 days after that, I ran into them again. They invited me to pray for forgiveness from God, which I didn’t know how to do, so I just closed my eyes and mumbled something. Then they invited me to church on Sunday, saying, "If you’re interested, let us know."

I replied, "Really? That sounds interesting." We exchanged Line contacts, but I didn’t message them because I wasn’t planning to go. Then we went our separate ways.

A few days later, around 5:30 in the morning, I was waiting for a van to take me to school. The van usually came every half hour, but sometimes it was late. As I waited, I felt like it was taking forever. The thought of what they said about asking God for anything popped into my head. I thought, "Why not try it?" But I also thought, "It probably won’t work because Christianity is nonsense. Prayer is probably not real. I’ve watched a lot of movies, and I know supernatural stuff isn’t real." Still, I prayed playfully, "God, I’ve been waiting for the van for a long time. Please let it come soon, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

As soon as I opened my eyes, the van arrived. I thought, "It’s just a coincidence. I’ve been waiting for so long; it was bound to come eventually." That’s what I told myself.

The next day, I thought, "It probably won’t work again." So, I prayed the same thing: "God, I’m waiting for the van. Please let it come soon, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." As soon as I opened my eyes, the van came again. I thought, "Well, today’s just another lucky day. It has nothing to do with the prayer." So, I let it go.

But the next day, it started drizzling, and I had to wait for the van again. This time, I prayed, "God, please make the rain stop and let the van come quickly, in the name of Jesus, Amen." Suddenly, the rain stopped, and the van arrived.

After that, I started treating it as normal. I would talk to God or ask for things I wanted, ending with "in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t, but most of the time it did. However, I still held onto my Buddhist beliefs.

Life continued like this for a while, with me praying occasionally. Then, when I was in high school, I met a friend named Andrew. I knew he was a Christian, and he often debated Christianity with our classmates. But everyone liked him, and no matter how badly I behaved, he was still my friend and talked to me. We became friends, though not very close.

One day, for some reason, Andrew invited me to go to Hin Chang Si (a tourist spot). I wanted to go, so I said, "Sure, when are we going?" He said, "This Saturday afternoon." But since I thought I might need to help prepare something, I went early at 10:00 AM, wearing shorts, sneakers, and a T-shirt. I didn’t know there would be a church service.

During the church service, I thought, "Wow, why does everyone here look so happy? Everyone is smiling and welcoming me warmly, even though I’m dressed inappropriately." I felt really happy. After the service, we went to Pathfinder (a youth program) and then to Hin Chang Si.

What was interesting was that before we left, we had a closing worship at the cliff. We saw that the rain was coming toward us, but suddenly, it shifted direction away from us without me even realizing it until someone pointed it out. After that, I felt that this church was special—not just a church for me, but a place that filled what was missing in my life.

From then on, I started going to church every Saturday and eventually every day, even though I didn’t know why. I just felt like I wanted to meet my friends and hang out with them. It made me feel happy, like I was in a place where I belonged, where everyone loved me, and no matter how much I messed up, they would forgive me and teach me what was right.

After that, I went to church every day, rain or shine. (Oh, I forgot to mention that by then, I had a motorcycle, so I could go to church on my own and leave whenever I wanted.) Many times, my dad would scold me, asking why I was going so often and saying it was pointless. But I felt that the church was very valuable to me, so I tried to go almost every day, hanging out with Andrew’s mom and dad, and attending church every Saturday. And that’s the story of how I became a Christian.

My story might sound unbelievable, but if this part already seems so incredible, imagine how exciting it would be if I told you the whole story!!!!!