What makes the Christian life significant? Is it the doctrines or learning? Or is it the long history of cultural influence? When we examine it introspectively, we will realise that Christianity is primarily about the relationship between a compassionate and almighty God and fallible, imperfect humans.
Many Christians find comfort and reassurance in the promises of God. But life is often not plain-sailing, and the Christian journey is much more dynamic than being just about blessings. It’s often in the crucible of suffering that God does His most mighty work.
Stephen Ng is no stranger to the world of Malaysian Christian publications. He is a published writer of various books about local/Malaysian Christian issues and the Hebrew Language. His best-known books include Where Is Pastor Raymond Koh? and You Can’t Read Hebrew? Let Me Prove You Wrong. Within the 80 or so pages of Stephen Ng’s latest book, Same God Different Stories, he brings to life 9 extraordinary true stories of life-changing encounters with God, right on our home soil of Malaysia. 9 different lives, one sovereign God.
The testimonies in Same God Different Stories encompass a broad and diverse spectrum. Among them, you will read about a businessman who returned to life after 42 days in a coma, a Filipino maid who only wanted to find a new opportunity in life in Malaysia but whom God had greater plans for, and the real estate negotiator who had only RM200 in her bank account when the MCO was announced but went on to feed thousands while being broke.
Three stories stood out particularly for me; the story of Maureen, formerly an abused and broken sex worker who was gang-raped multiple times and who is now the founder of a home for broken women; the story of Edmund Smith, a transwoman and gay on his journey to becoming a fully man and Reverend; and the story of Brenda Yong, who brings to mind the story of Job, and who like him, found peace in the eye of the storm.
From such hard-hitting stories comes forth much of the book’s power. What gives it a real strength, however, is in how relatable the stories are. Not every story in the book is as striking as those mentioned. Some are very down-to-earth and many of us would have probably have had experiences that correlated with the struggles with faith, the experience of emptiness despite success, and the setbacks in business that some of the people in the book experienced.
One central theme permeates the entire book. Same God Different Stories situates the wonder of the stories where it belongs. It is about ordinary people and the God who became so real in the lives He brought hope and recovery to. Accompanying the stories are short introductions setting the context of each one, pertinent Bible verses, and highlighting of the salient parts of each story. The book is adorned with photos of the relevant people and illustrations by Shika Koo heighten the local context.
Stephen conveyed that, alongside a friend, he hopes to do more of such books in the future. The books are designed to leave an impact on pre-believers and are very useful as Christmas gifts.
He shares, “The book will hopefully be a series of books that I hope to write since 1998. I have so far written about 6 biographies of local Christian men and women. The idea of such books is to bring God nearer to our neighbourhood especially for pre-believers who always think that God is far away. Malaysian Christians have been reading a lot of books from America. For example, we have heard of William Booth, but have we heard of Dr. Nehemiah Lee whose construction company believes in zero corruption?
“When we read these books from the US, we read of names like Michigan, Boston, New York Central, and other names that are unfamiliar to us, but what about places like Sri Damansara, Subang Jaya, Puchong where God is also at work?”. Through this series of books, Stephen aims to show that God is also at work in our nation.
Book Info:
Title: Same God Different Stories
Author: Stephen Ng
Printed By: Akitiara Corporation Sdn Bhd
Same God Different Stories is available now at Canaanland at RM18 per copy, or for 10 copies, the price is reduced to RM15 per copy. For bulk purchases, please write to Stephen.Ng.Author@gmail.com
There will be a launching event for the book on Dec 3rd, Friday, 8:30pm at Rhema Radio. To find out more, including about the book, please visit this post on Rhema Radio’s Facebook page.
|Share The Good News|
Leave a Reply