.Update update update.
..sorry i havent been updating for a few days..been so busy catching up with friends since i got back that i havent had time to sit down. Anyway, i have been working on my testimonial for church, and i'm going to post it here. Feedback would be really nice, guys..thanks so much and Happy New Year to all of you..enjoy! =)
Testimonial
My name is Lionel Lee. I am a Christian, and a national swimmer. This is my testimonial.
Swimming has always been my passion – a sport that I loved since young. Having done it for almost 12 years, I never wanted to give up. The many hours spent in the pool, the rushing from school, swimming pool and home and even the sacrifices made were unable to deter me from it.
However, at the start of 2005, my career took a turn for the worst. I swam horribly at meets. Training became frustrating, as I couldn’t find a solution to whatever was preventing me from doing well no matter how hard I swam. Discouraged, I started to lose focus. I started to skip training sessions, choosing to “focus” instead on my social life. Clubbing, partying and socializing became my three favourite pastimes.
Then God took over.
I was in Melbourne visiting when a friend took me to her church. Being a non-Christian then, I was half-hearted about it. Sitting through the service, I was only looking forward to dinner after that. After the speaker gave his speech, he did the usual prayer for the congregation. Asking everybody to close their eyes and bow their heads, he asked for those who hadn’t and wanted to accept Christ to raise their hands. He added that God had told him that there was people in the crowd who were struggling to come to terms with important things in their lives, and were losing focus because they were feeling discouraged. I raised my hand, but only because I knew no one else would know. After he was done with the prayer, he called on those who put up their hands. I did not go. Many people went up, but I refused to, for fear of embarrassing myself. The speaker then called again, saying that there were some people who were still in their seats. Again I refused. He then called on the congregation one more time, but this time he said, ”God has spoken again to me. He tells me there is a young man, and he is struggling with the decision. I want you to know that there is nothing to fear by stepping out. If you want to be His child, trust in Him and step out.” I was stunned. For some reason, something in me decided to stand up and walk all the way to the front. As I walked towards him, the speaker smiled. “I knew you’d come, young man,” he said. “We were all waiting for you.” When I heard that, tears streamed down my cheeks uncontrollably (I don’t cry that easily.) and my first instinct was to look away, onto the ground. He immediately said, “You don’t have to look down anymore, young man – Because you are now a child of God.” That night, I went back with the most amazing and unexplainable feeling. It was a very relieved feeling, as if I had just found something precious that I had lost long ago.
I had found God.
Returning home, I knew something had changed. I started to become very thankful for everything in my life. When it came to things that I couldn’t explain, I prayed and talked to fellow Christians. I went back to training, this time with a new attitude. I did not bother to frustrate myself with why I was not performing well at meets, but instead concentrated on training hard and taking it one step at a time. Soon, it was time for the SEA Games time trials. Everyday before I swam, I prayed. I told Him the same thing every time – that I knew I had trained hard and done all I could for the meet, and I would leave the rest up to Him. Through His grace and blessings, I qualified. Soon the next phase of training for SEA Games had started.
For the next 12 weeks of training, I put in my all. The sessions were long and tiring, but I had God in me. I knew that He would make everything right, and all I had to do was trust in Him. Every weekend at COOS, I thanked Him for bringing me back to church every week, for that was all I wanted. It wasn’t long again before SEA Games drew close. On the 20th of November, the Sunday before I left for Manila, I walked up to Pastor Derek during alter call. He prayed for me, and I remembered one sentence he said in his prayer for me. He said, “God told me that through your swimming, you will show His true glory.” At that moment, I never felt happier. It wasn’t because I knew I was going to do well; but because I knew that when I swim in Manila, I would be swimming for Him. With Pastor Derek’s blessings, I left with the team for Manila on the 24th of December.
29th November - My first event was the 400m Individual Medley. I came out of it with a bronze medal and a personal best time. It was my first medal, but the work was not done. I prayed to God before and after every heat and final of all the events I raced, always asking Him for only one thing – peace of heart.
1st December 2005 will be the day I always remember. The 400m Freestyle was the event I had been training for. There was a medal chance for me, and I wanted the national record as well. In the heats, I had qualified forth. The defending champion had a personal best time of 4 minutes flat. My best was only 4 minutes and 4 seconds. As I stood infront of the Philippines crowd, I did a silent prayer.
“God, this is it. Whatever the results may be, I lift it up to You. I am going to show Your glory through my swim, and even if I do not win, I am going to try my best doing it.”
For the past 10 years, Singapore Swimming has only had 1 male individual SEA Games gold medallist. And for the past 20 years, no Singaporean male swimmer has ever won the 400m Freestyle in SEA Games. But that night, God performed a miracle. Not only did I win the 400m Freestyle, my time of 4 minutes 00.5 seconds was a new national record. The older one had been there for 5 years.
People always ask me – “What do you think was the main reason you won the 400m freestyle? Hard work? Discipline? Determination?” My answer is neither. It was because of God. God is the sole reason for everything I did and am doing now.
To God be all Glory.
Lionel Lee
P.S. – Pastor Derek, thank you for reading my testimonial. I hope it inspires you to continue helping people believe in miracles and channeling their lives towards God, just like you did for mine. I have enclosed some statistics about myself just as you requested. Thank you so much for believing in me, and God Bless you.
Lionel Lee:
-400m Freestyle National Record Holder
-800m Freestyle National Record Holder
-400m Freestyle SEA Games Gold Medallist
-400m Individual Medley Bronze Medallist
-Only male swimmer in 2005 to clinch a SEA Games individual gold medal
-200m IM, 400m IM, 400m Freestyle and 800m Freestyle national champion
My name is Lionel Lee. I am a Christian, and a national swimmer. This is my testimonial.
Swimming has always been my passion – a sport that I loved since young. Having done it for almost 12 years, I never wanted to give up. The many hours spent in the pool, the rushing from school, swimming pool and home and even the sacrifices made were unable to deter me from it.
However, at the start of 2005, my career took a turn for the worst. I swam horribly at meets. Training became frustrating, as I couldn’t find a solution to whatever was preventing me from doing well no matter how hard I swam. Discouraged, I started to lose focus. I started to skip training sessions, choosing to “focus” instead on my social life. Clubbing, partying and socializing became my three favourite pastimes.
Then God took over.
I was in Melbourne visiting when a friend took me to her church. Being a non-Christian then, I was half-hearted about it. Sitting through the service, I was only looking forward to dinner after that. After the speaker gave his speech, he did the usual prayer for the congregation. Asking everybody to close their eyes and bow their heads, he asked for those who hadn’t and wanted to accept Christ to raise their hands. He added that God had told him that there was people in the crowd who were struggling to come to terms with important things in their lives, and were losing focus because they were feeling discouraged. I raised my hand, but only because I knew no one else would know. After he was done with the prayer, he called on those who put up their hands. I did not go. Many people went up, but I refused to, for fear of embarrassing myself. The speaker then called again, saying that there were some people who were still in their seats. Again I refused. He then called on the congregation one more time, but this time he said, ”God has spoken again to me. He tells me there is a young man, and he is struggling with the decision. I want you to know that there is nothing to fear by stepping out. If you want to be His child, trust in Him and step out.” I was stunned. For some reason, something in me decided to stand up and walk all the way to the front. As I walked towards him, the speaker smiled. “I knew you’d come, young man,” he said. “We were all waiting for you.” When I heard that, tears streamed down my cheeks uncontrollably (I don’t cry that easily.) and my first instinct was to look away, onto the ground. He immediately said, “You don’t have to look down anymore, young man – Because you are now a child of God.” That night, I went back with the most amazing and unexplainable feeling. It was a very relieved feeling, as if I had just found something precious that I had lost long ago.
I had found God.
Returning home, I knew something had changed. I started to become very thankful for everything in my life. When it came to things that I couldn’t explain, I prayed and talked to fellow Christians. I went back to training, this time with a new attitude. I did not bother to frustrate myself with why I was not performing well at meets, but instead concentrated on training hard and taking it one step at a time. Soon, it was time for the SEA Games time trials. Everyday before I swam, I prayed. I told Him the same thing every time – that I knew I had trained hard and done all I could for the meet, and I would leave the rest up to Him. Through His grace and blessings, I qualified. Soon the next phase of training for SEA Games had started.
For the next 12 weeks of training, I put in my all. The sessions were long and tiring, but I had God in me. I knew that He would make everything right, and all I had to do was trust in Him. Every weekend at COOS, I thanked Him for bringing me back to church every week, for that was all I wanted. It wasn’t long again before SEA Games drew close. On the 20th of November, the Sunday before I left for Manila, I walked up to Pastor Derek during alter call. He prayed for me, and I remembered one sentence he said in his prayer for me. He said, “God told me that through your swimming, you will show His true glory.” At that moment, I never felt happier. It wasn’t because I knew I was going to do well; but because I knew that when I swim in Manila, I would be swimming for Him. With Pastor Derek’s blessings, I left with the team for Manila on the 24th of December.
29th November - My first event was the 400m Individual Medley. I came out of it with a bronze medal and a personal best time. It was my first medal, but the work was not done. I prayed to God before and after every heat and final of all the events I raced, always asking Him for only one thing – peace of heart.
1st December 2005 will be the day I always remember. The 400m Freestyle was the event I had been training for. There was a medal chance for me, and I wanted the national record as well. In the heats, I had qualified forth. The defending champion had a personal best time of 4 minutes flat. My best was only 4 minutes and 4 seconds. As I stood infront of the Philippines crowd, I did a silent prayer.
“God, this is it. Whatever the results may be, I lift it up to You. I am going to show Your glory through my swim, and even if I do not win, I am going to try my best doing it.”
For the past 10 years, Singapore Swimming has only had 1 male individual SEA Games gold medallist. And for the past 20 years, no Singaporean male swimmer has ever won the 400m Freestyle in SEA Games. But that night, God performed a miracle. Not only did I win the 400m Freestyle, my time of 4 minutes 00.5 seconds was a new national record. The older one had been there for 5 years.
People always ask me – “What do you think was the main reason you won the 400m freestyle? Hard work? Discipline? Determination?” My answer is neither. It was because of God. God is the sole reason for everything I did and am doing now.
To God be all Glory.
Lionel Lee
P.S. – Pastor Derek, thank you for reading my testimonial. I hope it inspires you to continue helping people believe in miracles and channeling their lives towards God, just like you did for mine. I have enclosed some statistics about myself just as you requested. Thank you so much for believing in me, and God Bless you.
Lionel Lee:
-400m Freestyle National Record Holder
-800m Freestyle National Record Holder
-400m Freestyle SEA Games Gold Medallist
-400m Individual Medley Bronze Medallist
-Only male swimmer in 2005 to clinch a SEA Games individual gold medal
-200m IM, 400m IM, 400m Freestyle and 800m Freestyle national champion
-lu
posted by lulu at 8:59 PM
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