…to know their Bibles and be on fire for Christ.”
“What could I do to make this possible? I didn’t know.”
Yik Foo Soon is from Malaysia, where Islam is the official religion. Although he didn’t grow up in a Seventh-day Adventist home, Yik Foo loved to go to the Pathfinder meetings at the nearby SDA church, where he heard Bible stories and made Christian friends.
However, he fell in with the wrong crowd at school. “I did a lot of bad things – gambling, video gaming, computer gaming, stealing, watching bad movies—as the youth in the world do. But I thank God for the seed that He planted in my heart. Because of the influence of Pathfinders, I didn’t do the really bad things.”
Then a church member invited him to attend a youth mission conference. “The speaker said, ‘If you want to give your life to Christ, you have to give up many things.’ He listed several examples, and one was video games. Video games were a part of my life! I was convicted and went forward with tears in my eyes. At that moment, I made a firm decision to be baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church.”
Two years later, Yik Foo enrolled in the medical missionary training course at Aenon Health Farm. There he met Canny Tay, Tat Ying Wong, and other Hartland graduates who told him about Hartland College. After finishing the course at Aenon, he applied to Hartland.
“My mother did her best to support me, even borrowing money from relatives, but I could only raise enough money for pay for two terms. I did get my visa, though, so I came to Hartland by faith. I decided, I will just move one step and see what happens. Now I praise the Lord, because he provided a way through the Missionary Training Fund.
“I really can say that my spiritual life has continually grown while I have been here, even though sometimes I was down. But because of all the difficulties and problems, God has made me stronger in Him.”
Yik Foo is now a sophomore, training to be a pastor/Bible worker, with a minor in agriculture. “My ultimate goal is to establish a college in Asia like Hartland College. If all the church members knew their Bibles and lived true Christian lives, the church would be on fire. I want to be like Paul, to train them and help them grow in Christ. Once they are stable, they can grow themselves and go out to work more mightily.”
Without your help, Yik Foo’s vision might never come true. He says, “Thank you so much for donating to the Missionary Training Fund. Because of this fund, I am able to study for the ministry to hasten the coming of Christ.”
By Staff Writer HMR Dec. 07 – Jan. 08
