13 December 2019 by Lim Lee Sah –
Bro Vincent Chan was born in Kuala Lumpur. Graduated from the Methodist Boys School, he had the desire to become a Christian. However, knowing that his parents were staunch Buddhists, he chose to honour them by following the religious practice of the family. When his father passed away, he carried out all the funeral rituals as the eldest child and the only son. Seeing that, His mother hinted to him that she would like him to do the same for her in the future. He promised her as an act of filial piety.
A few decades were over. In 2006, someone shared the gospel with his wife Mary and she became a Christian. Vincent was very happy for his wife but he knew it was not the timing for him yet. Later, his mother passed away and he finally made up his mind to commit his life to Jesus in 2008. He was baptised the next year and became the second Christian in his original family, after his youngest sister who was residing in New Zealand.
Very soon, he had a spiritual attack. Every night from his bedroom, he could hear people talking in the living room. After church members prayed for him, he no longer heard the sound.
During one of the medical check-ups in 2010, doctors found a cyst measuring 10.5cm in his right kidney. He was advised to have it removed. On the morning of 8 December 2010, he was lying on the bed and waiting for his turn to be operated. As he was nervous, he prayed “Dear God, I will be pushed into the operating room anytime, please come to me. I need You here. Please put Your hands onto the surgeon’s hand and guide him during the operation.”
After that, he could not remember anything until he woke up on 15 December. During the past eight days in the ICU, he was sleeping and he had a dream.
“In that dream, I was walking when I heard a clear and loud voice telling me to turn back as I didn’t belong there. So I turned around and walked away. I kept walking. It was like evening, quiet and dark everywhere. I couldn’t see clearly. All of a sudden, I saw a very bright light in front of me. I walked closer and closer towards the light. Suddenly. I felt a pair of very soft, strong hands pulling me out of the bright light. I saw those hands. There were wounds on them. Then I realized that Jesus was the One who pulled me. He was there to bring me back to our world, and that was when I woke up. Standing beside me was my wife Mary, my sister and brother-in-law.”
He was discharged five days later. While resting at home, he thought about what had happened to him. He believed that God had put him into a deep sleep because He did not want him to suffer the post-surgical pain. After the surgery, he has been living on one kidney.
To thank God and glorify His name, Vincent began to share his testimony among church members and people he met at work. He was then a tour leader by profession and often brought Malaysian tourists overseas. He would find an opportunity to talk during the long journey on the bus, especially when everybody was awake while the tour guide was resting. He would take the microphone and crack a joke to attract everybody’s attention. Then he would share that testimony.
Once, a man pointed at him and said that he was bluffing. A lady who was a Christian immediately backed Vincent up by sharing her similar experience. She had seen herself going down to her tombstone with her name there. An old man with a long beard came, tapped her on the shoulder and said to her, “Not the time for you yet. Go back!”
The lady asked for Vincent’s testimony to bring back to her church in Sarawak. When his youngest sister returned to Malaysia for holiday and heard his testimony, she also took it back to New Zealand to share with her church members.
Every six months for eight years, he went back to the hospital for a postoperative ultrasound examination. In December 2018, the doctor detected open valves in his gallbladder and presumed there was a stone. When the stone was removed, the valves still did not close.
The doctor did an endoscopy on him to take a tissue sample in January this year. Vincent had a CT scan later. The result confirmed that he had cancer and needed to undergo an operation.
On the operation day in February, he was lying on the bed about to be pushed to the operating theatre. He was very frightened like the previous time. He prayed to God to grant him a good operation.
“Suddenly I felt a warmth coming over to me and it really calmed me. I knew the Lord was with me.”
The nurse gave him an injection. He fell asleep and underwent five hours of operation. The doctors removed his gallbladder, cut the bile ducts and joined them back. They also cut part of his stomach and stitched back. He was transferred to the normal ward after staying for one week in the ICU. Later, he was discharged from the hospital.
When he went back to the hospital for a postoperative appointment, the doctor congratulated him on being free from cancer. He asked the doctor why he had not been given any medication or chemotherapy treatment. The doctor assured him those were not necessary as he was at the earliest stage of cancer and the detection was timely.”
“He even asked me to go back to thank my God that everything was okay!”
At 69 years old, Vincent was able to resume his work as a bereavement care service agent after six months of rest at home. He is so grateful to God that he continues to share his testimony zealously everywhere he goes.
(Photo courtesy of Vincent Chan)
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