When I look back, I was quite a privileged child in more ways than one. I had a wonderful family and friends, lived in a lovely house with a large garden to play in.?We went on marvelous family holidays by the sea, and traveled abroad, something I adored. I didn't have a private education but went to a local school that was "state of the art". However, for all this idyllic childhood, and the wonderful new facilities the school had to offer, learning was a nightmare for me as a child; I just hated trying to learn and so school was a place where I didn't achieve. I had no idea how other children knew the answers to questions and understood figures and numbers. I kept the same school reading book for weeks on end; one of my worst struggles was with writing my name.
Then one Christmas, my elder brother, who was a great artist, received a drawing set. He would do a drawing and then show Mum. When it came to my turn, instead of trying to create a picture, I took the note pad and drew each of the letters of my name over the whole page - but not in the right order nor in a straight line, as I didn't know how.
When showed Mum what I had drawn, she looked closely at it. "Well look at that, you do know the letters of your name, don't you?"; she said, and then asked me if I could put the letters in the right order, and in a straight line. I shook my head.
Mum took a ruler and wrote the letters in order, in a row. Instantly, I could now see each word. Using a ruler I copied the letters in order, again and again, until I got it.?I had finally learnt to spell my name! Next Mum got my school reading book and used a card over the page, revealing one word at a time. I could now make sense of it. We progressed to me holding a card under each word to separate them so I only saw one word at a time. In this way, during the school holidays, Mum taught me to read.
I returned to school thrilled that I could now read and write and was instantly taken out of the additional remedial class. However, the teachers were furious with my parents and accused them of interfering with my learning! Despite the fact that for the first two years at that school their methods hadn't worked for me, they didn't like it that my parents had found a way to help me.
With practice at home, within weeks I could read any book for a child of my age. It was like a miracle.?I continued to have some difficulty with spelling and grammar, my mathematics was poor and every new thing that I had to learn was incredibly difficult, but my parents had proved to me that there was always going to be a way. They just needed to help me identify the problem and together we would find the answer by finding an alternative way to learn. This was a revelation to me.
That Christmas, a simple plain sheet of paper and pencil allowed me to transcend what was in my mind - to see a solution to something that I knew was a problem, but couldn't explain.
From then on I always had an exercise book and pen nearby, and using the page like a mirror to reflect what was in my mind, the problem was copied as a visual image on a page. Seeing it on the page enabled my parents and me to identify and resolve the problem.
You have to know your own mind to identify the problem, before you can go forward, and then you will go forward with speed.
Gradually my mother found many ways of teaching me, and these things I included in my book, The Achiever's Journey.?As I got older, I started interpreting my mind through writing and drawing. Interestingly, many other people found this useful, including those without any learning difficulties. I couldn't believe it, what a revelation to find out that others didn't really know their own minds either.
As my education continued, I still found the school's teaching methods virtually impossible to learn and virtually gave up. I learned in secret at home and to cure my boredom whilst at school, I started to share the benefits of transcending the mind, and spontaneous words and drawings using paper and pencil, with my classmates.
Minhs children would suffer disease and sickness, proving to him the folly of idol worship. His daughter had a debilitating disease since childhood. It caused her health to deteriorate rapidly. Minh tried everything to get her well, even other sorcerers. The best doctors and hospitals he brought her to could not change the course of her life.
At the brink of her death, a Christian friend, who was a trained Christian worker invited Minhs daughter to pray and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for her salvation. She knew her father would be angry but she began attending church and Bible studies anyway. All my life I was afraid of Christians because my father hated them, she explains. As I began to know Jesus through the Bible study, my health was renewed. I was being miraculously healed!
Minh began to notice his precious daughters health returning. I had to ask my wife how this was happening since there was no hope. I was told that not even Buddha could save her, Minh said. My wifes answer was vague. Perhaps our daughter may have prayed and relied on the Christian God, she replied. My wife was hiding my daughters new faith in the Lord Jesus for fear of my hostility towards Christianity.
He found a New Testament in his daughters belongings, the one she received after completing a Bible study hosted by a trained Christian worker. He immediately confronted her.
She had confessed to converting to the Christian God, says Minh. She told me, Jesus had died because of her sins, she accepted Him as her own Savior, and it is His power that makes her well. I responded, Do whatever you like because the sickness had disappeared, but I cannot change my faith or my occupation. She then glanced to the sky and said, Many thanks are to my Lord because my father has agreed to let me follow You. This left a deep impression on my mind, says Minh. But even after all this, I still did not believe in the Lord. Years later, Minhs son fell from two stories and injured his head, telling no one of his injury.
He began to lose his memory and suffer headaches. Wizards and magicians tried to cast out what they thought were demons. They subjected him to many dangerous and superstitious methods including walking on hot fire, drinking petroleum, sword fighting, his own grandfather shot an arrow into his neck that was dipped in dangerous solutions. This left him worse off and half, crazed because devils haunted his life, Minh says. Minhs last resort was a mental hospital where they heavily sedated his son and used electrotherapy. The scene was utterly tragic since he would jump out of his skin, then tremble like a leaf, only to lose consciousness afterwards. My son had to endure such treatment four or five times. When he regained his consciousness, so weak that he could not stand, the physicians advised me to take him home.
At home, Minhs son tried to jump out of a third story window. It took the aid of five strong men to stop him. While this was happening my daughters Christian friends and pastor came to pray for my familys state. My son looked at the pastor, eyes wide with fury, as if he would eat him. With much patience, the church members and senior pastor continuously gave prayers to the Lord Jesus to save him out of the devils yoke. My son was finally released and shouted many times, Oh Lord Jesus, I surrender!
I was an eyewitness while my son was made whole by the power of the Lord! says Minh. Yet, I still did not accept the Lord as my own Savior.
Many years of stubbornness continued even as I clearly saw the Lord Jesus heal my two children. The dark power of this world still bound me under the demons yoke that made my heart hard.
Years later, Minh met with a friend who had an idol in his home. I lectured him on the futility to worship such an idol. The more I talked, the more I became excited to talk about the Lord. I tried to remember all the verses in the New Testament that I had heard from my children. His wife came and sat listening to my testimony, Minh says.
My friend asked me, How long have you accepted the Lord as your Savior? I was stupefied and then told him I had not yet believed in the Lord. Amazing! my friend responded. You deliver your testimony as a true Christian. I felt such shame and remorse because of my long stubbornness to the Lordship of Jesus, Minh recalls. I rushed to the church where they teach the Bible, crying out loudly, Oh my Lord! Oh my Lord! Save my soul! Save my soul! I succumbed to uncontrollable weeping for the Lord to accept me and give me the right to become one of His children, remembers Minh.
From that time I have experienced the power of the Lord and His great love for my life and for my soul. I gave up my job as a cheating sorcerer and now I study His Word for more understanding.
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