Updated : 21/08/2001

From Nightmare To Eternal Life
By Robert Wong

"A cat has nine lives” – so the saying goes......

When I was a boy growing up in Sitiawan, Perak, I discovered this saying to be true.  As an unkind prank, I would throw a cat up in the air and invariably it would land uninjured on its four paws. Well, it would seem that I have as many, if not more, lives than the proverbial cat.  By the grace of God, I have escaped from death on several occasions.  My wife says I am keeping my ministering angels very busy, saving me from death time after time and delivering me from all kinds of situations. Let me recount some of these experiences for you. 

I come from a family of six brothers and six sisters. When I was about nine years old, I accepted the Lord Jesus as my personal Saviour at an evangelistic rally. About a year later, I was sick for more than a month. At one point, I had no pulse. My mother cried and the family brought in doctors and ‘sinsehs’ to attend to me.  However, they left, one by one, saying there was nothing else that could be done to save me. In desperation, my mother, brothers and sisters cried out to Almighty God (which they should have sought in the first place) to work a miracle in my life. Then my mother saw a slight twitch in one of my fingers and she began to massage my body.  I revived! 

As a young boy of 11 years, I liked to climb trees to pluck fruits. There was a star fruit tree right in front of my house. The sandy ground below was strewn with pebbles and stones. One day I climbed this tree to get at the fruit.  But when I stepped on one of the thin branches, it snapped and gave way.  I fell headlong, hit the ground and slipped into a coma.  Miraculously, my head had hit a spot where there were no stones or pebbles and there was no external bleeding.  I received medical treatment and after three days I came out of the coma.  Thank God, He protected me from grievous injuries.  I went on to excel in my studies and by the grace of God I graduated from University of Malaya in 1975 as a Civil Engineer.

In 1983 I was working as a Works Manager in a factory in Rawang.  On one occasion, while I was driving to Kuala Lumpur to collect money for my workers’ salaries, I fell asleep at the wheel.  It happened soon after I had passed the former Jalan Kepong-Jalan Kuching roundabout.  The car veered and went on to the grassy shoulder of the road.  When I came to my senses, the car was already sliding rapidly across the grass.  I panicked and instead of applying the brakes, I stepped on the accelerator. 

During that time, trees were being planted along the road shoulders in Kuala Lumpur as part of a beautification  programme.  My car mowed down one tree after another and this helped to slow the vehicle. All this happened in a matter of seconds.  The next thing I knew I came face to face with a big mobile crane parked on a collision course with my car.  I cried out, “God, save me!”  Instinctively, I placed my hand over my face to shield myself.  The next moment I felt a big bang!  My car had landed five feet down in a dry and open drain right beside the road!  Concerned passersby rushed to help me.  I was shaken but not hurt at all.  The crane was positioned at just the right spot to raise my car.  Only the torsional bar at the bottom of the car was damaged and there was a slight dent on one door.  Wonderfully, the Lord had protected me and preserved my life again.  I could have slammed into that stationary crane but in that split second God intervened and He spared my life for a purpose. 

In 1991, I was overseeing the piling works for the foundation of a building in Kelana Jaya. During one of my inspection rounds, I stood on top of a stack of concrete piles that had been cut off and left beside the lift pit.  The pit measured 6ft wide, 6ft long and 10ft deep (1800mm x 1800mm x 3000mm).  It had 16 bars in clusters of four each measuring 15 inches (375mm) long protruding from each pile.  The cut-off piles below my feet suddenly moved and as I tried to balance myself, I fell backwards into the pit.  As I was falling down I sensed I was being pushed into a certain position.  I landed exactly between all the bars!  I did not hit any of the sides of the earth.  The one bar that pierced through my brand new trousers merely grazed the skin of my thigh.  That was a close shave!  All the people at the work site rushed over, fearing the worst. When they saw my condition, they could only exclaim, “It’s a miracle!”  And it truly was. The Bible says, “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33:27).  That day I fell into God’s everlasting arms and was safe. 

One night in 1993, my father and I were travelling back to Sitiawan when I suddenly realised as I was taking a bend, that I was going straight on to the grass shoulder of the road.  As I tried to turn the car back to the road, the centrifugal force nearly overturned my car.  I let go of the steering wheel and the car went out of control.  It spun twice and came to a halt in the left of the road in the direction we were traveling in. Miraculously, God had stopped my car in the nick of time.  Nearby villagers hurried towards us with their torchlights.  I drove off before they reached us.

The next day I returned to the same spot and saw the two sets of circular tyre marks on the road.  In the daylight, I could also see a big pond and a concrete water control gate in the direction we were traveling in when the car went off the road. It would have taken only a split second for my car, which was 1.8m (6ft) away from the pond, to plunge into it.  Worse still, the car could have collided into the concrete structure.  Either way, the consequences would have been disastrous.  Again, I gratefully acknowledge God’s gracious intervention. 

From the sovereign Lord has come truly gracious intervention and escape from death.    I continue to experience many miracles and instances of divine intervention in my life.  God is real and merciful.  He has provided for me and seen me through the years of plenty and years of leanness.  God says, “See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland” (Isaiah 43:19).  He wants to bless us with abundant living and fruitfulness if only we would invite Him into our lives.  God is concerned for our welfare: “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart”  (Jeremiah 29:11). 

Praise His glorious Name!

Two grotesque figures were pulling me towards an entrance. Through that opening was a huge bonfire. I hurled foul words to repel them. They answered me with scornful laughter. I called upon the name of a well-known guru to help me. More jeering remarks were heard. I then called upon the name of one of the gods but still to no avail. They laughed even louder. getting more frantic, I shouted the name of yet another god for help but again no response. Left with very little choice, I cried out to a well-known religious leader but the demons poured further contempt on me because he was dead and gone. All this while, the demons were pulling me closer and closer to the open door. I had no strength at all to fight them. They were about to throw me into the fire. I felt so hot and so close to death. Finally, I could only call upon one last name - and His name was none other than Jesus! Immediately, the demons released me.

I woke up in cold sweat. That nightmare occurred when I was a youth. After that incident, my heart was completely open to the Lord. Before the nightmarish experience, my history teacher often invited me to the school Christian fellowship and I had joined in a few times. That was where I heard the wonderful name of Jesus. Yet I still resisted the Lord Jesus even though I participated in the Christian fellowships until Form Six.

One day, before I sat for my Higher School Certificate examination, I prayed, "Lord Jesus, if you are real, please help me pass my examination so that I can enter university." I meant it with all my heart because I needed help. Passed, I did and I was admitted to the University of  Malaya. One day a brother from Campus Crusade for Christ knocked on my door and shared Christ with me. Without much hesitation, I accepted the Lord Jesus into my heart but, sad to say, I backslided after a year. 

After graduation, I started working in Singapore. During this time, I began to receive letters from my elder brother. His letters always began with Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! ...." My brother had turned from a guru devotee to become a brand new Christian! He prayed fervently for me especially since he knew of my desire to return to Malaysia.

I had applied for a job in Petronas and they had called me for an interview. I was later accepted as a trainee geophysicist. When I reported for work, the officer asked for a release letter from the Federal Government because he knew that I was a Federal scholar. I immediately went to the Federal Scholarship Board and asked for a release letter. The officer reprimanded me for not reporting to them earlier. I was made to wait for two weeks for the reply. During these two precious weeks, I sought the Lord earnestly for his help. I promised Him I would never turn away from Him. Praise the Lord for His mercy! He gave me a second chance. The release letter was obtained and Petronas proceeded to employ me. 

During the Chinese New Year of 1982, I went back home to Mentakab, Pahang, and my brother wasted no time leading me back to Jesus. I remember clearly kneeling beside my bed to say the sinner’s prayer.

Years later, I decided to buy a house for my parents using my company housing loan. All this while they had been staying in rented houses and I had to prove to them that by becoming a Christian they had gained a better son. I did not mind myself just renting a room in KL as long as I could be a blessing to my parents. They moved into the new house in 1986 minus the idols they had worshipped for so long. Instead, they decided to follow the Lord Jesus too! One by one, most of my three brothers and four sisters also came to the Lord. 

I remembered asking the Lord in early 1995, "Lord, do you still want me to work in Petronas?" The Word of the Lord came distinctly to me in Isaiah 45: 3: "I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches in secret places, that you may know that I the Lord, who call you by your name." Being a geoscientist, that verse meant I had to stay put in Petronas and that God would lead me to discover the oil and gas underneath the earth.

True to His Word, in late 1995, I led a team to drill a deep gas well and in the process, discovered a large gas field. The well was bottomed at a depth of 3,100m. Four production tests yielded more than 100 million cubic feet of gas per day and 3,000 barrels of condensate per day. This gas field contains an estimated gas resource of 900 billion cubic feet of gas and it will be developed in the near future to provide sufficient gas for the Peninsular Gas Utilisation (PGU) project. Praise the Lord! 

What about that nightmare? It has become my best story to tell others about the Almighty God. Thank God for that nightmare. Indeed, the greatest thing in my life is knowing Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour!