When I think back to my childhood I give thanks to God for His constant protection and provision on my life.
My childhood is a mixture of both happiness and sadness. You see I was born with a bi-lateral air lip and cleft palate. This meant that I would have to undergo 13 operations during my childhood to restore my facial features.
As you can imagine life at school was not pleasant; every day I was named-called, laughed at in the classroom and sometimes would suffer from physical abuse.
If that wasn’t bad enough; living at home was not easy either. By the time I was 3-years old my biological father had left both myself and my mother because he could not cope with the responsibility of being a father. During the passage of time my mother remarried and after a few years my ex-step father became abusive and violent towards us both. Thankfully, I was exposed to the Church at a young age and always felt that I had a safe place to hang out in. I always had a sense that God was my Heavenly Father and that He was calling me to serve Him.
However, the years of psychology abuse left me paranoid and frequently suffering from anxiety attacks especially every time I saw children outside on the street. This fear paralysed me from enjoying life and it got so bad that I became fearful of going out of my house.
Thankfully God’s call to serve Him was stronger than my paranoia and in 2007 I was called into Bible College to do a BA honours degree in Biblical Studies and Theology. This was a miracle in itself since I left school without any qualification and yet I was accepted to do a degree.
But I suffered a lot with my nerves and felt paralysed to preach and work around children. Until one day I travelled to Romania to serve God on Mission.
During the mission I remember being fearful of having to work with children and the youth. One day the pastor asked me to take care of at least 30 children whilst they went to prepare for something.
It was a small room and the children were seated staring at me. Some began to point and laugh. And to this day I remember how intense my heart was beating and I wish I was anywhere but there. But then I remember that there was a reason why God had called me to Romania and so I made a stand. I said to God, ‘Father, there is a reason why you have brought me here and I am not going to run’. Once I said this one by one a few children stood up and started to embrace me for no reason. I remember now the overwhelming love I felt towards the children and the love I felt from God.
All the years of pain and anxiety was healed. For the first time I had experienced freedom from my fears. I was no longer a broken person and could now live my life serving God free from a paralysed fear.
Shortly after that healing God spoke through several people declaring that I am called to work with children.
At first I dismissed this as I had little interest in serving children. But it was not until my final year at Bible College (2010) that God woke me up from my sleep to hear an audio voice declaring that I am to work with children. Finally I accepted this mandate over my life and later I married my wife Abby and moved to Malaysia in 2014.
Today, I have a purpose to serve God by serving the children as a pre-school teacher and teaching in children’s church; I cannot imagine doing anything else than impacting the lives of children and living the calling on my life to father the next generation and building up a Godly generation amongst pre-school children.
Again, I thank God for granting me a purpose in my life.
From a background of loneliness and rejection, God has redeemed bro Antony Brown into a life of purpose, as a witness sharing about His love and compassion unto the next generation.
Bro Antony married a Malaysian wife, Abby, and moved to Malaysia in 2014. Today he attends a church in Malaysia but still shares about the redeeming power of Christ wherever he goes.
Have a testimony to share? Share your story of God’s blessing in your life so that others may be blessed. Be encouraged to write in to us at editor@christianitymalaysia or jason@christianitymalaysia.com
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