Our Love for God

Romance and marriage inspire and excite the hearts of many. Numerous brilliant songs and poems have been penned for the sake of love. Many sacrifices have been made for the sake of love. We all know that much is made of romance and marriage, and being in love, we understand why romantic love is hailed in this fashion!

However, the union of a man and a woman, as precious as that is, merely points us to a greater union that will one day occur! Followers of Christ anxiously await the day when the Church (the bride) will be united with Christ, her groom! Nothing that we presently experience, even the most excellent, faithful and passionate love between a husband and wife can compare with the love the Church will know when she is united to Christ in eternity!

Thus we desire to share not only our love for one another with you, we eagerly desire to also share the greater love we have for God, who has brought us together, but even more magnificently, has loved us with His infinite love!


Sony's Younger Years

I was not raised in a Christian home. I am the only member of my family who is a Christian. I pray that in my life time or theirs that this would change. I am of Cambodian descent. Cambodia is in the Southeast part of Asia, bordering Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. My parents left their home country, fleeing to Thailand for safety from the Communist regime who were oppressing their own people, killing in the millions, in a fanatic attempt to return to the old ways of life. They had a sick sense of the value of life, one of their mottos being: “To keep you is no benefit, to destroy you is no loss.” My mom, is the only surviving member of her family of 9 siblings.

It was here in a refugee camp in Thailand that I was born. And yes my father named me after the electronics company. I am the second oldest of 4 children. I have an older brother who was born in Cambodia, a younger sister born in the same camp, and a younger brother later to be born in Toronto. I look back and see God's hand of grace and mercy in first keeping my parents alive during the genocide years and then bringing them to Thailand so that they might have an opportunity to come to Canada. Our family, along with my father's niece were sponsored by Canadians to come to Canada. We did not know who sponsored us, they did not know us, but I do know that God's hand of grace and mercy was in this sponsorship. I actually remember the plane ride over, I was three at the time and I was fighting with my brother over the radio headphones.

We arrived in Canada, May of 1984, we were placed in a hotel and then moved into subsidized housing in different areas of Toronto and North York. My dad found work in a factory, which he recently retired from this past month, so he was there sacrificially working to support his family in the same job for over 24 years. In 1985, we moved to Regent Park, where we lived for about 17 years. We did not have much while we were growing up. We did not have very many toys or books and so a lot of my time growing up was spent outdoors, in the playground, in the community centers, or at a friend's place where toys and video games were accessible. As I grew older I became an addict to video games and didn't realize how much I was enslaved to it until my latter years of university. Television and movies were also one of those idols in my life that controlled my life even after I became a Christian and it wasn't until recently, when I started Seminary 2 years ago, that God had freed me of their deceitful grip on my life. The hours I would spend in front of the television or some form of screen did me much harm in terms of my spiritual growth. Those hours could have been invested in growing in the knowledge and grace of God, but I was hindered in my growth in God. One of the effects was that I preferred watching something over reading something, and so time spent in God's word was little to none. As a result, my growth in God was a slow and gradual process over many years, as God worked in me to rid me of old habits, replacing them with godly habits.


Sony's Walk with God

At the age of 6, I first attended Jarvis Street Baptist Church and I remember asking Jesus to come in to my heart to be my Saviour, as I learned about God, heaven, hell, my sinful condition, and my need of a Saviour. I'm grateful to God, for allowing me to understand the foundations of salvation. I just wanted to note that of all the churches in Toronto to attend, I'm thankful to God for bringing me to Jarvis where God's truth was being taught faithfully.
At the age of 12, after being away from the church for about a year or so, God brought me back to Jarvis through the Adventure Club – a Friday night program for kids and youth: In a time in my life when I was not attending church and was being exposed to worldliness and ungodliness, God brought me back to himself. I'm grateful to God that though he was slowly fading from my mind, God still had me in His mind.

While attending Adventure Club I was challenged one Friday to attend Sunday School and church through a lesson on heart motivation for God, where I had asked the question, “should someone still go to church even though he doesn't have any motivation to go?” The answer was, “yes, absolutely!” And so I started to attend church a little bit more regularly, but not as often enough as I should have.

At the age of 16, I went up to Camp Saugeen for the very first time. Here I was able to see Christians live on a daily basis and be exposed to the things of God on a daily basis – something I had never experienced before. I met Christians who had something that I was missing, that was a relationship with God. I realized that 1 to 2 days a week of learning about God at Adventure Club and/or Sunday church service was not enough and that I needed to spend more time with God everyday. It was also here that God removed my doubts about salvation as I took hold of his promise that complete salvation is for those who put their faith in Jesus Christ. Through an invitation by the Camp speaker that year, I made up in my mind that I would no longer doubt my salvation and that I would make an effort to seek a relationship with God. A lot of questions I had, that I was afraid to ask, were also answered during that time, even though I myself did not ask them. I'm grateful to God for revealing to me what true Christianity is about. It was about having a relationship with God.

I would return to Camp in 1999, and I was asked to give my testimony on the last day of camp and as I was sharing about God's grace, it hit me for the first time, the weight of what I had said, that I did not deserve anything that God did for me, and for the first time I experienced grace, it is one thing to know it, but this was the first time I felt the weight of it, and I broke down in tears, and I could not finish my testimony.

On December 17, 2000, I got baptized at Jarvis Street Baptist Church where I made a public declaration to the church of my faith in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour. I became a church member, and continued my involvement with Adventure Club which was now renamed Kidz Klub, and where I served in various ministries.

I just see God's fingerprints all over my life. How he brought my family from Thailand, to Canada, to Toronto, to Regent Park, how he brought me to Jarvis, to Adventure Club, to Camp Saugeen, to TBS, how he brought into my life a godly woman, soon to be my wife, Lynette Adams – saving me by His most precious and glorious grace in the process against so much opposition, but thanks be to God, that nothing is too difficult for Him, He is in the business of saving people. He saved me and He can save you. Surrender your life to Him, trust in Jesus as the only way to God. He saved me, so that I might live my life for Him and be used by Him, transforming, by His grace, this shy and timid boy from Regent Park into a man of God. My deepest desire is to be serving my God wherever I am, and reflecting the grace and love of Jesus Christ, my Lord, my Saviour, and my God. Then I will be the happiest of men.


Lynette's Walk with God

Although I grew up being surrounded by Christians and Christianity, and had a head-knowledge of God, it was not until I was 11 that God made Himself known to me personally, at a heart level. I thought that going through the 'Christian' motions was enough to get me saved. All I wanted was to go to heaven, and escape the fires of hell. I tried to be obedient and good so I would not suffer the consequences of hell.

One year I went to Camp Saugeen, and was surrounded by people (adults and children alike) who prayed to God and loved Him. I found this quite shocking! I mean, they prayed for more than mere requests, like 'please keep me out of hell' and 'please give me the toy I want'. Rather they talked to God like they talked to their friends - they shared their joys with Him, they share their sorrows with Him, and they trusted Him to be their comfort and strength! As I observed them, I realised I did not have this kind of relationship, but very much wanted it. I longed for a Friend who would be faithful, and would never leave me nor forsake me. Somehow I knew that God was the only One who could be this kind of friend to me. We had a beach day and were given quite a bit of free time, so I went out on the rocks, and committed myself to love and obey God.

I knew I was ugly in His sight. I knew that I was an angry, selfish child, and I knew that He is Holy and cannot look on anything sinful. But I also knew that God had sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to live a perfect life for the ungodly, and suffer the punishment of the ungodly by dying on the cross. I had been taught these things all my life! I knew that all I needed to do was have faith in Christ's perfect sacrifice for me, and God WOULD accept me as His own very dear child. And so with faith I prayed as sincerely as I could, and there, quietly on the rocks, received perfect salvation from a perfect and most gracious God! I was awed by His perfect power as I gazed out on His waters, and was astounded that such an infinite One would embrace and call me His own. I didn't fully understand then, but have since learned that there is none like my God. He is truly the Loving Shepherd of my soul, who has faithfully nurtured me, purged sin bit by bit from my life, healed me, and granted me to know full and true joy in Him. All the joys of earth cannot be compared to the treasure of being found in Him! I glory in my Redeemer!

Since that time I have grown in the knowledge of my dearest Friend and Saviour. I have had many doubts, struggled through many trials, but through them all God has been abundantly faithful. He has taught me to trust Him, He has forgiven me time and time again my sins against Him. He has shown me the beauty of Holiness and led me in His way. He has given me hope. My love for Him has grown sweeter through the years. My most earnest prayer is that I will live my life in a manner worthy of the calling with which He has called me, so that I may bring Him glory, for He alone is worthy of all glory!