Hello, friends!  Welcome to Global Reachout.  Today, we’re starting a new series, The Grace of Redemption.  In this series, we’ll be sharing the testimonies of people whose lives have been changed by God’s amazing grace.  I hope you’ll find encouragement and hope as we share these testimonies in the coming weeks and months.  We’d also like to hear from you – please contact us to let us know how these true stories affect you.

For our very first episode in this series, we’re going to share with you the testimony of Sunny Tee Huk Guan.

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The year was 1990, and the room was dark and squalid.  Sunny and Tiong were snorting heroin, taking deep, long puffs.  But Sunny felt no euphoria.  He was painfully aware that he was snorting only to gain relief from the torment of withdrawal pains.  When he first started snorting heroin, he experienced feelings of euphoria, but all of that was gone now.

Suddenly, there was a loud banging on the door, followed by shouting.

“Open up!  You are surrounded!”

Sunny and Tiong Hock stared at each other, petrified.  If they were caught with a substantial amount of drugs, and consuming drugs, they knew punishment would be harsh.  

Sunny cried out hysterically, “I will not be caught!  I will not be placed in a rehabilitation center again!  No, I will not…”

The narcotics officers already had them surrounded, and there was no escape.  Sunny swore he would not be caught.  In desperation, he ran into the kitchen, climbed out of a window, and held on to its metal grille.  

He was overwhelmed by the feeling that his life was worthless, and that the past decade of wallowing in drugs had been completely wretched.  His days were miserable, and at that moment, death seemed a welcome relief.  He shut his eyes and loosened his grip…

But he regretted his choice instantly.  He was unwilling to die and leave this world.  As he was plummeting to the ground, a thought flashed through his mind.  At that critical moment, he recalled hearing the Gospel during his stay at Breakthrough, and he screamed, “Lord, save me!”  That was when his body hit the ground and he lost consciousness.

*****

Most drug addicts seem to have a similar background:  a dysfunctional home where they are deprived of parental care and love, together with negative environmental and peer influences.  The result is the corruption of youth, with drugs being the main culprit.

Sunny lost his mother when he was very young, and his grieving father left him in the care of his maternal grandmother while he went to work overseas.  Sunny wasn’t interested in studying, and he started mixing with bad company.  His life began to degenerate slowly but surely.

In 1974, he was arrested for gangland involvement and placed on probation for 3 years.  Instead of learning his lesson and taking it as an opportunity to ponder and reflect on his life, he got hooked on drugs.  He said, “Those were wretched and woeful times; I was spurned by my family, despised by my friends and relatives, and rejected by society.  I hated myself and was in despair.  I cried out for help in vain.”  Only those who have experienced the scourge of drug addiction can understand such excruciating suffering.  Sapped of energy and robbed of dreams, there was no future to speak of, and Sunny’s life was like a dry blade of leaf being blown about in the wind.

In 1988, Sunny was in prison for drug consumption.  He heard the Gospel preached by a visiting pastor, and was very offended by the message, which went against the views he held.  Yet in the quiet of the night as he thought about what the preacher had said, he felt there was much truth in it.  “I also observed that the attitudes and behavior of those who attended the prison chapel services were different from us.  This got me interested, and I went to the services regularly.”

However, when Sunny was released from prison, the Gospel he had heard was like seeds that fell on rocky ground, which did not have much soil.  Any desire Sunny might have had to learn more about the Gospel withered, for all Sunny could think of was drugs.  He had not learned his lesson.

*****

“It’s great to be alive!”

Sunny had thought he would surely die when he loosened his grip on the window’s grille and plummeted several stories to the ground.  He was unconscious for a week and when he woke up, he was shocked to find himself still alive!  The doctors told him he would be handicapped for life because had fractured his spine, and his ankles were broken.  As a result of these injuries, his legs were uneven in length following his operations.  Miraculously, he was able to walk, but with a limp.  

Despite his handicap, he said, “I was happy even though I knew I would have to face the legal consequences of my actions; this was far better than being dead.”  Indeed, who could value living more than one who had experienced death?

Sunny was thankful to be alive, and had time to reflect on his life during his 2-month stay at the hospital.  He could clearly recall all that had happened:  “I was jailed 3 times and wasted a total of 16 years, but that was not all.  I had accepted the Lord and then turned away from Him.  Yet He never abandoned this weakling; instead, He showed mercy.  As I looked back, I saw how hideous a character I was, and prayed for the Lord’s forgiveness of my transgressions, and that I could enjoy freedom in Him.”  

*****

No sooner was Sunny discharged from the hospital than he was hobbling along slowly with a crutch along the lanes familiar to him in search of drugs again.  His old self had returned.  No matter how remorseful he felt before and what commitments he made, they were all in vain.

When he got drugs, he went to a public toilet and could not wait to start puffing.  At that instant, tears started rolling down his cheeks.  “When I was normal, I stole, cheated, and robbed to feed my addiction.  Why am I still doing it now when I am nearly a cripple?”  He could not break free, although he was deeply remorseful and in agony.

One day, he was out looking for drugs again when he met Pastor Simon and his wife.  They looked at him with love and tenderness, and urged him to join Breakthrough, telling Sunny, “Sunny, you really have nowhere to turn to.  You have to come back to God, and that is the right path.”  He was finally persuaded and decided he would not keep running away.  He knew it was the Lord’s steadfast love that had sought this lost sheep and to bring him home.

Even while Sunny was receiving spiritual discipline and training at Breakthrough, the old self in him often disrupted the process.  He would argue with the leaders and keep threatening to leave.  “One night I was at it again, and Pastor Simon counselled me till the wee hours of the morning.  His family members kept urging him to go home and rest, but he gave this weak brother his time and love unstintingly.  The counselling and support of this pastor helped strengthen my faith in the Lord.  I was very thankful and touched.”

*****

Sunny’s story isn’t finished yet.  Join us next time on Grace of Redemption as we continue Sunny’s story of how God worked in his life to transform him in amazing ways.