My parents - who are both non-Christians - sent me to church because they wanted me to learn good morals and there was free English tuition. So I grew up in church learning Bible stories like Daniel in the lion’s den and earning good-deed stars by memorising verses. But honestly, I didn’t know much about Jesus. I was just religious - a boy who tried hard to be nice and kind. When I visited my other grandparents’ house, I’d pray to idol statues. On other days, I’d pray to the Christian God simply because there were no idols around. Prayer was just something I was taught to do in Sunday School, so I did it. This went on until I was 12, when I had a weird spiritual encounter that led to me being hospitalised. That was when my mum’s religious philosophy started to contradict. She brought both a Taoist talisman (“fu”) and my Bible to protect me from evil spirits - but she strictly instructed me not to place them together, saying the gods would fight and the talisman would lose its power. That made me realise not all gods are on the same side. And it taught me that the Christian God must be stronger. I didn’t overthink it then, but I concluded that I should follow the stronger God - so I started attending youth group more consistently. A couple of years later, I became Vice President of the Youth Fellowship simply because I was a regular attendee. That made me even more pious and “Christian.” I wanted to lead by example, so I behaved very “holy” and proper. I think I got baptised around that time too, and I started to understand that the God of the Bible is the only true God and that other religions were idol worship. To show how pious I was, I never cussed in high school or even in uni - so much so that my friends would offer to pay me to say the f-word, and I still wouldn’t. I prayed before meals and even tried to evangelise my friends. After SPM, I went for RBS (a 5-week Bible school by IBA in Cameron Highlands). There, the environment felt really spiritual - cold weather, morning devotions, and quietness. We learnt to do “lectio divina,” a meditative way of reading Scripture where you reflect on what God is trying to say. That’s how I was taught to read the Bible. But when I came back from RBS, I felt that my Brethren church no longer gave me the “spiritual high” I was craving. Around then, I entered Sunway Uni and joined their Christian Fellowship. I loved it. There was 45 minutes of singing, a short talk, then hanging out. I realised what I was really looking for was friends - Christian friends who were fun and on the same wavelength. I even told the FES staff that once I graduate, I’d join FES. Still, I wasn’t happy in my Brethren church, so I started visiting other churches with a friend. One day, a friend from Sunway CF invited me to a church near Sunway called CERC. I had never heard of it before. Coincidentally, that Sunday, I saw Wei Kin at my Youth Group just standing around, I casually asked him if he knew the church. He said, “Yeah, I’m attending that church now.” I was surprised, but didn’t say much - just told him I was planning to visit. He offered to carpool, so we went together. On the way, we talked about church and then Calvinism. When Wei Kin explained predestination, I wasn’t offended at all. In fact, I thought it made more sense that God chooses people, rather than people having the power to choose God—otherwise it makes God seem weak. My first time at CERC was during a sermon on Romans 13. Everything was different - the songs, the liturgy, the sermon length. But it finally made sense when my friend said CERC was a “Bible-centered” church. I had never sat through a church service where we actually had to open and read the Bible extensively. Normally it’s one verse and that’s it. Then the following week at Sunway CF, news spread that I went to CERC. The FES staff warned me about CERC, saying I should “be careful.” She even told me CERC teaches Christians not to vote because “God is in control” - which during GE13, sounded like a red flag. So I told my church friends about CERC and Wei Kin, and we decided to “save” him from this strange church. We noticed CERC was promoting FWC 2015, themed “The Gospel and Evangelism,” and decided to attend it as a “mission.” Honestly, it was a dumb reason to go, but it turned out to be a turning point. In the first session, the workshop leader, Winnie Lai, asked a simple question: “What is the gospel?” And I couldn’t answer. That whole weekend, I felt like a fool. Despite being in church my whole life, I couldn’t explain the gospel. Every night, I met with my church friends who also felt the same - we didn’t know anything. But we were learning the gospel properly for the first time. We quickly realised the issue wasn’t us - it was our church. We wanted to help fix it, so that same year, we attended CERC Camp - I am 73. That’s when I got “reformed.” I read Carl Trueman’s article on Liberalism with Winnie, and entered a bit of a caged stage - calling everyone a liberal and correcting every wrong theology I saw and desiring to make sure I honour God by living out his word in the most faithful way I can. To answer why I finally want to join CERC as a member: Even though I got reformed in 2015, I delayed membership because I was trying to help my old church. For 4 years I engaged the elders and youth advisors, and while we managed to change the youth a lot - teaching exegesis and correcting theology - the problem was always the same: the main church gathering. It constantly confused the youth with inconsistent teaching. Eventually, I started to lose the plot. I’d do whatever I liked. Because there was so little accountability, I could appear active on Sundays but live my own life the rest of the week. I love to travel and could even skip Sundays and no one would care. I knew the longer I stayed, the more I’d become a nominal Christian. And that was sinful and selfish. Even after talking to elders, leaders, and members, everyone would get fired up for a while, then lose the plot again. So I made the decision to join CERC because I know CERC takes accountability seriously. We aren’t afraid to call out sin - not to judge, but to love one another rightly so that we can serve God together and build each other up until Christ returns. With my background in poor churching and seeing so many friends reject the gospel, I’m joining CERC because I want to be part of the Klang Valley reformation - to help Christians who are blinded by sin finally see God through His Word for who He really is.