Updated : 21/08/2001

Back From The Brink
By Yeoh Hock Hian

Life was hard being a member of a poor family living in a small village in Malacca. My mother worked as a rubber tapper to feed ten children. My father, who worked only occasionally, was seldom home. Daily, from 4 am to 5 am, I had to help my mother tap rubber before going to school. After school, I had to do some farming. This background of hardship shaped my thinking about money. 

Money was the family's primary concern and soon the idea came that gambling was the quick way to get rich. I fantasized about striking it rich through gambling and I was well-known as a gambler even in my teens. 

After my graduation, I went to Singapore to work for my eldest brother who had started a business there. I fell into a wrong crowd - a mahjong playing group - and I was soon hooked on the game. 

During the eight years I was in Singapore, I got deeper into gambling and owed people money because of gambling losses. In 1985, my brother sent me to Hong Kong as part of his business expansion plans to tap the China market. 

My  early days in Hong Kong were without problems. But birds of the same feather flock together and soon I was associating with a group of friends who were mahjong `kaki'. My days and nights were consumed by mahjong sessions. At one time, we gambled non-stop for 36 hours! 

I got married in 1989. During the first few months of marriage, I played the role  of a good husband - avoiding my gambling friends and keeping my wife company. But it did not last. Before long, I was back to my old ways. And this time, the gambling habit began to take its toll on my personality. 

Gambling had become my master. I became moody and prone to emotional outbursts. My marriage went downhill and fast. Eventually, the inevitable happened: divorce.

My gambling habit had destroyed what I had forgotten to appreciate: my marriage and family (I had a daughter by then). I thought of suicide during the divorce proceedings but I was afraid to face death. My life had become a nightmare and I had no other relatives and real friends in Hong Kong to turn to. 

Then I remembered a lady friend from my hometown who had witnessed to me about Jesus several times. I had mocked her then, saying that  ‘only the weak turn to Jesus'. 

When I met her, I poured out my woes to her. She invited me to join her at her church on a Sunday. I will not forget the date - 28 March 1993 - when I went to the church. It was the day Jesus became my Saviour and the Lord of my life! 

I experienced no dramatic transformation at conversion. But I knew I had a new lease of life. I began to see the ugly side of me – which was something I had been blind to before. Eventually I gave up gambling and never returned to the habit. Some years after becoming a Christian, my brother, having been convinced that I was indeed ‘a new man', gave me a chance to start a business of my own.

Today, God in His mercy has restored to me what I had lost through sin. He has not only prospered my business but also blessed me with a new God-fearing wife and three children. 

The devil came to destroy through bondage of habits and by whatever means he can to enslave us. Jesus came to set us free. If, like me, you are bound by habits you cannot break free from, there is only one person who can set you free from sin and all the attendant evils that sin brings into our lives. That one and only Person is Jesus.

My wife and I share many things in common. We are both from Kuching, Sarawak. We graduated from the same university with degrees majoring in business management. We even have the same surname. After our marriage in 1989, she joined me in Kota Kinabalu (KK), Sabah. However, far from the expected marital bliss, our relationship turned out to be an emotional roller coaster ride. 

My job required me to travel to timber camps and sawmills all over the state. I also made frequent overseas marketing trips and trade fairs visits to keep abreast of changes in the industry. As a result, I devoted little time and attention to my wife. Although she had a job, she seldom socialised because she did not have many friends in KK. 

Suspicion and jealousy developed and quarrels became a common thing in the home. Things did not get better even after our first child, a girl, was born in 1992. In fact, our relationship got worse as I lavished attention on my daughter.

This continued into early 1994. I had, by then, made my fortune in the timber industry and as my ego grew I started comparing my wife to others. Although she was two months pregnant with our second child at the time, I began having an affair with another woman. I decided to end my marriage and went to see my lawyer, Mr. Tan, about drafting a divorce settlement. Mr. Tan, however, was a Christian and refused to do so. Instead, he asked me to allow him to pray for my marriage and for me. 

In April 1994, my wife, who could no longer tolerate my attitude towards her, left for Kuching with my daughter. 

One night, I dreamt that my grandmother was beating and scolding me because I had disgraced the family with my “divorce”. After this dream, I resolved to end my affair and to be reunited with my family. In July 1994, my wife and I were reunited and in October, she gave birth to our second child, a boy. My affair stopped for a while but it soon started up again. My wife found out and pleaded with me to end it but I had become too deeply involved and could not let go. In July 1995, a year after she had come home, my wife left again for Kuching, this time with our two children. 

I was now even more determined to end my marriage and I went to Mr. Tan again about drafting the divorce agreement. He was surprised to see me. “I thought your problem had been solved,” he said. Mr. Tan told me that he was supposed to listen to my instructions but that he would not agree to do so in this case. He said that the decision to divorce my wife would be the biggest mistake I would ever make in my life and that he could not allow me to go through with it. Instead, he prayed for me and invited me to his church. 

Unfortunately, I turned down his invitation.

During a visit to Kuching to see my children, my son, who was only around 16 months old at the time, hugged me and said, “Daddy, bring us back to KK, O.K.?” Those words from his little mouth really touched my heart. I realise now that there was a power from above that wanted me to change my decision about the divorce. Looking back at the chain of events, I know that God sent Mr. Tan to save my marriage. 

After that trip, I cooled off my extra-marital relationship and it stopped completely in late 1996. However, my wife had still not forgiven me and we continued to live apart. In May 1997, during our time of separation, my wife accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Saviour in Kuching. She told me about her conversion and I was happy because I knew then that my marriage could be saved. Our relationship improved tremendously and my wife softened her stand so much so that in April 1998, she finally forgave me and she and our two children moved back in with me. Our third child was born in October 1998. 

I found my wife to be a different person after she became a Christian. She had been transformed into someone who was pleasant, positive, joyful, caring and understanding. I was curious about her change. She told me it was God’s power. I began picking up her Bible to read and, as I did so, my personal resistance to God started to weaken. But I still refused to attend church. 

Whereas my family life improved, that of my business worsened due to the 1998 economic crisis and the change in the state’s forestry policy. I was, however, confident that I could pull my company out of its troubles and sold my properties to raise additional working capital. However, rain started falling almost continuously from October 1999 until the following May and production was badly affected. My company’s turnover fell to the lowest in its history, the bank started calling and the sleepless nights began.

In October 1999, the FGB chapters in KK organised a banquet dinner and a good friend of mine invited my wife and I to attend. I was very touched but was still reluctant to go forward when the speaker made the altar call. Both my friend and my wife had to pull and drag me to the front. Even though I accepted the Lord Jesus that night, I still did not want to go to church.

My business problems grew worse and I did not have anyone to turn to for help. Faced with an increasingly critical situation, I thought of God and quietly knelt down to pray to Him for help. It was then that God made me realise that I was not as capable as I had always thought I was. 

Not long after this prayer, a friend introduced me to an Indonesian timber concession holder who offered my company the opportunity to participate in the operations of the concession. Initially, I was very skeptical about the offer. I nevertheless prayed and asked God if it was the correct path and for Him to show me if He wanted me to proceed on it. The concession owner was persistent and finally I sent my survey team to the area. 

I was very surprised when the survey team told me that it was a “life saver”! The Indonesian concession holder and my company subsequently signed the agreement and set up the joint venture company. Deep in my heart I know that God led me to this new opportunity because I confessed my inabilities and my dependence on him as Master. The concession area presented me with the chance to practice sustainable forest management, something that is very difficult to implement in Sabah.

In April 2000, I made a trip to the logging concession and on the way back, for safety reasons, I hired a twin-engine speedboat rather than the usual single-engine one. After the boat had been on the water for an hour, however, both engines seized and we were stranded. In addition, one of the starter ropes snapped in half. I started to feel panicky but then I thought of God and began to pray. Instantly, the engine with the broken starter rope ignited! Yet I was not completely convinced that it was the hand of God as it might have been coincidence. I held up my hand again to pray for the second engine. It also started immediately. Hallelujah! God showed His mighty power right before my eyes. 

After returning from the trip, I wanted to know more about God and began going to church. I now never miss church services when I am in KK. I am eager to learn more about His Word and teachings. My involvement with the FGB has grown with the support of my wife and I have also begun to spread the gospel to colleagues and friends. The most rewarding experience I have had is when a friend that I brought to church said to me, “What Jesus Christ has done for me and my family is better than earning a million.” 

Truly what God has done for me is worth more than millions. He saved my family through His love and reunited them with me. All the things that have happened in my life demonstrate the power of prayer. It is sufficient here to say that if you are totally submissive to our Lord, He will miraculously move your “mountains” just as He did for my wife, my children and me. What the Lord has done for us, He will also do for you. 

Glory be to our Lord Jesus Christ!