Testimony shared by John and Li Li Lam —
JOHN: My name is John Lam and this is my wife, Li Li. We have been married for 10 years and God has blessed us with two lovely children. Currently, we are actively serving in the Business Breakthrough Group that meets every Thursday night.
Both Li Li and I have been in City Harvest for 20 years, and we have given to all the previous Arise & Build campaigns. We both came from middle income families, and when we first got married in 1997, we were like many young couples: happy in our hearts, but poor in our pockets! We had our ups and downs, and we made our fair share of mistakes. Like making wrong investment decisions, and losing money when the property market crashed.
But through it all, we have never failed to give to the Building Fund. We gave even when we were in debt and had no money. I remember that there was one season when we were short of money and we couldn’t fulfill our pledges. We wanted to keep our promises to the Lord so much that we sold our wedding jewelry to fulfill our commitment. Because we have faith in God’s promises, we believe that even if we make genuine mistakes, our breakthrough will still come from the Lord. And God has indeed blessed us as we gave sacrificially.
In 1999, I joined a technology company as an accountant, and within six months, I was promoted to Manager. The company went IPO and I received shares which I cashed out for about S$100,000. Whenever it is time to fulfill our Arise & Build pledges, God always provided the harvest for us.
LI LI: We started the year 2005 at a rather low point. The company that John was working in was facing difficult business condition. They had management problems and the work was not fulfilling at all. For the first time in his career, he had to take a 10 per cent pay cut. We were burdened not just with our own debts, but we had to clear the debts of our parents as well. We were in the red by S$200,000 dollars. All our monthly savings went into servicing interest. We struggled every day, living literally from hand to mouth.
To make matters worse, we began quarreling over money. John even withdrew himself from me as he felt that he wasn’t a good provider. Deep inside my heart, I cried to the Lord for a miracle. That year was also the season our church kicked off the Arise and Build again. Both John and I felt that we cannot miss out on this Building Fund campaign. We believed that this could be the key to our financial breakthrough. We believe God moves whenever faith is released through giving. So even though we were very tight financially, we decided to pledge more than S$10,000 to the building of God’s house.
God is indeed faithful. Almost immediately after we committed the amount, the Lord spoke to me about joining a particular international bank. At that time, I was working in a local bank. Miraculously after that word in my heart, a headhunter invited me to fill up a vacancy in that very international bank! That year, I had an above average grading for my year-end appraisal which is very rare for a first-year employee. As a result, the company rewarded me with more than seven months of bonuses and I received two salary increments within the next six months! In all, I received double from what I was getting in the whole of 2005. Praise the Lord!
JOHN: The blessings of God didn’t just come to Li Li. For many years, my family had a property mortgaged to the bank for a businesswoman whose business was struggling. We had a very real and constant risk that we would lose this property to the bank. God then spoke to me clearly to claim back our land. After we completed our Building Fund pledge in 2005, God gave us a miracle where we succeeded in redeeming this property back from the businesswoman. The second miracle was that I redeveloped this property when the property market was weak and construction costs were low. The value of this property then appreciated and we sold it for a good profit. Immediately, we were able to clear our S$200,000 debts completely. Praise the Lord!
The blessings continued to flow. We shifted from our 5-room flat to a 3,200 square feet landed property. Our new house appreciated by about S$400,000 due to an upswing in the property market!
God is indeed good. Whatever we give, He always gives us back more than what we can imagine. In my career, the favor of God just kept on increasing. After I gave to the 2005 Arise & Build, I had a pay increment totaling S$25,000. Then after I have given to the 2006 Arise & Build, I completed a project that caused our company to do very well. As a result, I had two pay increments totaling S$40,000. When I did my calculation, from the last two Arise & Build campaigns alone, my annual pay in 2007 has increased by S$65,000 more than what I was getting in 2005.
Once again, both Li Li and I are very excited to give to this Arise and Build. Last year, even before pledging, we experienced a breakthrough! I had a job offer as a Chief Financial Officer of a growing and very profitable company. To sum it up, I think our blessings from the last 2 years came to about S$750,000.
Pastor Kong’s vision and preaching have always inspired Li Li and me. Messages like …
Unequal amount, equal sacrifice!
If you can see it, you can have it!
Mixing our prayers with our giving!
Building a church without walls!
Crossing over!
Fulfilling the Cultural Mandate!
Everything Pastor preaches works!
So City Harvest, let’s all stand together with faith in the Lord, and with love for our church! Let’s build God a great house in our generation!
Let’s give to the Arise & Build!
Praise the Lord!
