Yong Ching became a Christian in high school soon after the Surubaya church was planted in 1993. She grew fast spiritually, became a leader, went on a mission team to Pontianak in 1996… Her mother became a disciple, as well as her brothers and sisters…
She got married to a disciple. They had two sons. Yong Ching and her husband had their own business. Life was going great. Then out of the blue in 2003 the business started doing badly. Unable to face the pressure, when Yong Ching was pregnant with her second child, her husband left, never to come back.
Yong Ching was devastated. How could this happen to her? All her adult life she had devoted herself to God, been completely committed, given to the church and the lost, and now she was facing being abandoned while expecting a child… This just did not seem fair.
Yong Ching is not the kind to wallow in self pity though. She remembered that God is sovereign and she needed to be surrendered. Life, even as a Christian, is not always a bed of roses. We have to accept the good and the bad. So she decided to be strong.
She started leading a single women’s ministry. God blessed her with a great job, earning double the amount she was qualified for. She is raising her sons on her own, although with the support of her physical and spiritual family.
God had another blessing in store. The only member of Yong Ching’s family who had not become a Christian was her dad. The family had prayed and tried to persuade him for sixteen years to no avail. Finally in 2009 he gave in, studied the Bible, and was baptized. Watching his daughter’s faith and perseverance had a great impact on him. Who knows, as we struggle through our own tragedies as Christians, who is watching and being changed? How we accept the path God has for us can change someone else’s eternity…
