Roy was told he was going to die
Roy is a member of the Iban-tribe in Borneo. His grandparents on his father’s side are Muslims, but his father became a Christian when he moved to the capital, Kuching. As a little boy, Roy went to a kindergarden that was owned by Adventists and learned about Jesus there.
When Roy was twelve years old the family moved to another place. He began to hang out with friends that were doing bad things. They skipped school, and had conflicts with the teachers. At the age of 15 Roy was expelled permanently from school. His dad insisted that he had to go to school, so he started going to a private school. Life however, did not change for the better because of this. At the age of 17 he was involved in serious gangster business, and he got to know all the important gang members in Kuching. Fighting, smuggling, and confrontations with the police was life in a nutshell for Roy.
After a while Roy wanted to get out of this, so he went to Singapore in 1992. His parents didn’t know anything. His relationship with them was not much to brag about, and he defiantly didn’t care to hear their opinion, so he just left.
Roy stayed in Singapore for two years before he went back to Kuching. He applied for a position in the Malaysian military force, and he got a positive answer. In 1995 he started a career as a solider, stationed in Kedah in West-Malaysia, close to the border with Thailand. In the military camp Roy started boxing and many other activities to find out what was his strength. He was eager and skilled, so he went to the top in the boxing championship. Still today he is training young boys in boxing, but a lot of things have happened between now and then. Roy keeps on telling:
“Even though I had got a god job in the army, it didn’t change my lifestyle at all. I kept on drinking a lot. My life was in the dark, and I couldn’t feel anything. I was invited to church many times, but I never had time for such things. I was training all the time, including Sundays, and everything I had heard about Jesus in my childhood was long gone.”
In 2006 Roy was transferred to his previous hometown, Kuching in East-Malaysia. He kept his habits, and his lifestyle didn’t change, or in fact it changed for the worse. He knew a lot of people from the Iban-tribe here, so he had even more friends to party with, and his drinking problems got even worse. At the end of 2007, right after Christmas, Roy got sick. Very sick. He was examined at the hospital, and the doctor said that Roy’s heart only had 20% of its original strength. Years of boxing and ruthless drinking had taken its toll. His condition worsened quickly and dramatically. In two weeks he lost more than 50% of his weight, down to 31 kg! The doctor told him in plain words that there was no way for him to survive. Such a loss of weight in such short time only pointed in one direction: Roy’s life was over.
This young man – with wife and three kids – had no choice but to go back home and wait to die. February 2008 came, and Roy was completely helpless; the emaciated and exhausted body was full of pain and fever. Then, one night, Roy had a dream. He remembered in his dream how the doctor had told him to go home and wait to die. But in this dream, he saw two men in white that came to his home and called his name. Immediately Roy responded “yes, I am up here!” The two men in white had a Bible, and they asked Roy if they could pray for him. He said yes, so the two men prayed for him, and then they left again. All this happened in his dream. When morning came and Roy woke up, he understood at once that he was healed. His wife could not believe her own eyes; she knew how bad he was, and now all of a sudden, his fever and pain was gone. His heart was still weak, but there was no doubt that Roy had been healed in his dream.
The dream and the change that he felt, made Roy read the Bible in a way that he never had done before. One month after this had happened a group from the local church went to his home. They prayed for him, and Roy received Christ in his heart. Still he was lingering about going to church himself. After a while he went to the hospital again, and the doctor now confirmed that there were improvements. From that time Roy started to go regularly to church to get intercession for a longer period. At the next medical check, the doctor could hardly believe his own eyes when he saw how quickly the patient had improved. Normally it is very hard for heart-patients to recover, but Roy’s heart capacity had improved from 20% to 80%. The doctor asked what kind of medicine he used, and Roy said that he didn’t use any medicine, he just went to church and had people pray for him. In January 2009 – after one year of sick leave – Roy started working again. His colleagues are very surprised, because the rumours say that he should have been dead long time ago. Roy got his life back, and now he is testifying this wherever he goes. He is now back at his normal weight, 80 kg, but that’s not all, his family has also gotten a new life. His marriage was about to break because of all the drinking, and they had no love anymore, only fighting. Now all things are made new. His wife has also
accepted Jesus as her Saviour, and the home is in harmony. “They’re not just faithful in church” says pastor Greman, “they are also eager fishers of men”.
- If you should characterize your life how it is today compared to how it was before, whatwould you say?
“It is almost impossible to describe. The change is so drastic. It has gone from the worst thinkable situation to a place where both my health, my family and my job is back. And in addition to that I now have the joy of the Lord. Everything is new” says Roy.