Esther’s Story – His Story

 

“I was six years old when my oldest brother, then 26, read the Bible and accepted Jesus as his Saviour,” begins Esther, 30, who is of Central Asian descent. “My parents, of another beliefs, felt very betrayed by him.” But her brother remained steadfast in faith and led hundreds in their hometown to the Lord. Six years later, Esther then 12, received Christ on her own when she chanced upon a gospel tract. In 2010, her father came to Christ in a Christmas meeting organised by her brother; soon after her mother accepted the Lord through her father.

One day, Esther’s church received a visitor from Singapore, a senior faculty of EAST. “On the last day of his visit, he lost his bag,” recalls Esther, “I remember thinking, no way will he find it in our city.” But to her shock, the professor led the church in prayer and gave thanks. “And the bag was found!” she exclaims. “The next shock was when this faculty invited me to apply for EAST!” Despite having ‘no hope’ of passing the English entrance exam, she applied by faith. “When the acceptance letter came, I knew God had a plan for me in Singapore.”

Esther’s adventure – from how she got clearance to leave her city to how she must trust God “for understanding” before each class – is a testimony of God’s power at work in the life of this courageous lady. “But there was a time when I lost all courage,” she confided. A year after arriving, she received news of severe persecution of minority groups in her city. “I felt hopeless, and my health suffered,” she says. “I cried to God everyday but He was silent.”

One day her Field Education director took her class to “Dine-in-the-Dark”, where students ate a meal served by visually impaired people in a pitch-dark room. “I couldn’t even see my own fingers,” says Esther. It was in that darkness that God’s light shone on her. ”Suddenly I felt Jesus standing near me and saying, ‘Esther, you couldn’t see Me, but that doesn’t mean I was not with you; I am with you always.’” That was the beginning of God’s healing in her.

One day during Quiet Time, Esther saw a vision. “Before my eyes was the persecutor of my people,” she says “Immediately I sprang forward to attack him. Just then Jesus walked in and stood between us; then He stretched out His hand like how He did on the Cross.” Several days later, a classmate invited Esther to the “City Gate Healing Ministry” at a church. “This student didn’t know about my background,” says Esther. At the church, each visitor was assigned to a room with two intercessors. “But before we could begin, someone slip in a piece of paper saying, “This is her prayer need. And it read: pray that she will forgive.”

Today, Esther is ready to move on. “Before I came to EAST, I had many plans for my life,” she says, “Now, I have nothing.”

“I am a white sheet of paper, waiting for God to write His story.”

Esther graduated with a Master of Arts in Christian Ministry from EAST.

#EASTAlumni #EASTLifestyle #Faith #Forgive