A testimony shared by Lee Kiam Hong in City Harvest Church.
It was my daughter Yi Lun that brought me to City Harvest Church in August 1998. At that time, I was going through a career switch from Accounting & Finance to teaching. With my children all grown up and entering into the workforce themselves, I was starting to feel that there was more to life; I needed to have a sense of purpose.
When I first attended City Harvest, the church was in the building fund season. I remembered Pastor Kong’s message on seeking first the Kingdom of God, and all that we need in our life will be added to us. Hence, if I were to build God’s house, He will build my own natural house. Immediately I caught Pastor’s vision and started giving to the Arise and Build, believing for my wife, Sin Lee’s salvation. Our Lord is faithful and one month after I gave, Sin Lee decided to come to church and was saved that very first time.
In September 2000, my endowment insurance policy matured. This amount was actually part of an educational fund which we had set aside for our children. Sin Lee and I felt led to give the whole sum of S$30,000 to the building fund. We believed that God will take care of the funding for our children’s education in the future. Our Lord is faithful. Not only did we have more than enough to see our children through their university education, God also blessed them with excellence in their studies.
Yi Lun graduated from Nanyang Technological University (NTU) with a Bachelor of Accountancy, Honors, Second Upper. Last year, my elder son, Xin Hong, topped his first year cohort in the School of Accountancy in Singapore Management University. He was on the Dean’s List for two consecutive years and will be completing his course in June 2009, one year ahead of schedule. Liang Hong has already been accepted by the School of Accountancy, NTU. To us as parents, no amount of money can ever compare to the joy of seeing our children doing well in their studies!
In 2001, Sin Lee and I were moved to sell away 40 percent of our investments in shares to give to the building fund. Those shares were meant for our retirement. But God is true to His faithfulness. Today, in the midst of financial uncertainties, our retirement fund has actually grown by five times and it is still growing!
That same year, my mother also rededicated herself to the Lord and has been attending church faithfully since then. In my career, I had a double promotion in grades followed by another promotion three years later.
Other than all the financial blessings, our prayer is for greater anointing and capacity to serve the Lord. Last year, after we gave another sacrificial amount, the two cell groups that I’ve been leading multiplied into three groups and Sin Lee became the cell group leader for the new group. Before multiplication, the two groups had a total of 57 members. Now, the total for the three groups is 90 members.
God does not just grow our spiritual family. He grows our natural family as well. On 16 February this year, we had an addition to our family, our son-in-law, Eugene. We are looking forward to another addition in December this year when En Hui, our first granddaughter, will be born.
For the past two years, Eugene and Yi Lun had been saving up for their wedding expenses as well as their house renovations. They bought a 123 sq m five-room flat at Pasir Ris in April in 2007, just before the boom in the property market. They bought the flat at S$290,000, and today, its value has risen to S$415,000. This is a good 43 percent increase! During their wedding, they were also blessed with S$40,000 in cash and a car worth about S$35,000. What a faithful God we serve!
I am very blessed in my heart to know that God is raising up a family with strong godly values even as I lead by example. Like Joshua, I can definitely say, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!
