Testimony - Part 7 — Jackie Pullinger

The Sacrifice of the Oboe

Oboes but it's a musical instrument and I had this is one of the things that I studied in London and this was a very special oboe. Actually to an oboist his oboe or her oboe is always special because it's yours.

You've you've chosen it and and you know how it works and it suits you and you worked on it. And I thought why. No no no not that you know I no no no no I the Lord would never mean me to give that up anyway.

I didn't say anything to the boy and we prayed together and as he prayed uh I had a message in tongues and he had the interpretation and the interpretation of the message was roughly this as Jesus gave up his life for you.

Paying the Loan Shark to Offer a New Life

What's an oboe. All right Lord. I said I mean what's an oboe. So I went out to the girl and I said look I'll give you the money on two conditions. First of all I hand over the money myself. I'm not going to give it to you.

I'll give it to the loan shark. Secondly I want you really to consider a new life in Jesus. We'll give you any help you like we'll find a place for you to live. We'll help you get a job we'll support you so that you can start a new life.

And she said no way. She said the loan shark won't talk to you it has to be me. And I said well those are my conditions. So in the end she agreed and she set up this appointment for me. In the middle of the night we sat at a cafe and this is outside the wall city and at midnight and I'd taken all I'd filled my oboe and got all these dollar bills used and in a brown envelope and this is going to be very exciting you see.

And Michael the loan shark never turned up but he sent three or four of his heavies along instead and they all sort of creature car tires as they drove up to the cafe and they kept the the car running outside and in came these men you see.

And they came over to the table and they saw her and they picked up the envelope and they quickly counted the money and they walked out and I thought oh this has gone a bit too quick. You see I was very disappointed so I called to the men.

I said hey stop. And they looked around and I said excuse me but I want you to take a message to your leader. And they said what do you want. And I said no I want I want to give a message to your leader.

And they said well you can tell us. And I said no I have to tell it myself this is very important. And they said no he won't speak to you. And I said I insist upon it so will you please arrange that. So they took my phone number and later on the leader called Michael phoned me and when he telephoned me he arranged for me to go to his nightclub.

Confronting Michael in the Nightclub

He operated a big nightclub on the 21st floor of the building and when I got up there they had to let me in with a three feet long golden key and I found out that this was a club for sophisticated businessmen and this is where Maria would have worked because upstairs there were cages for the girls.

Downstairs was a bar thickly carpeted with teddy bears everywhere. It's a very weird place. And I sat down and Michael wouldn't talk to me. He sent other people over. Later on he came down and he sat down and he said I suppose you think you're really clever.

He said I suppose you think you've done something really noble. Don't you. Well he said I know all about Jesus. He said you don't have to tell me about him. In fact he said people in Hong Kong should be grateful to me because I find missing children.

The reason that he found missing children was that as he was a gang leader he knew where many of them were as they were in brothels and so on. And he operated the service for parents whose children were run away.

And he thought he was doing a reasonable job because he'd got 11 brothers and sisters and he needed to support them. And I said I want to tell you about Jesus. And he said oh you don't need to tell me all of that.

He said you think you've done something good for that girl. Don't you. Well you haven't. He said she'll teach you. She'll never change. She'll go right back and do the same thing. He said it was a wasted gesture.

Jesus' Unconditional Sacrifice

He was very good at talking. And I said well when Jesus died for me you see he didn't die when I promised to change. He died whether I was going to change or not. He laid down his life for me because he loved me.

And I said that's what I want to do for her. I'd rather pay the money for her and give her the opportunity to be saved rather than be hard-hearted and cynical and see her go to hell. I said now it's up to her this is her choice what she does with it or not.

But I'd rather be the fool and give her the opportunity for a new life because that's what Jesus did for me. And he opened his mouth to speak back and he was struck dumb. He couldn't speak. He couldn't speak for about 10 minutes.

No words came. He tried nothing came out and his eyes just filled with tears. And then at the end of 10 minutes he said I have nothing more to say. A man nearby had heard. And he later followed me out and he accepted Jesus and came to new life.

But Michael heard the gospel and he understood it. That's what it is. And when you come to minister to the poor and the hungry and the needy remember that you don't minister to people who are going to be grateful.

Sharing Life Rather Than Ministering Conditionally

You don't minister conditionally. You don't minister because they're going to change. You don't love them. If they repent you're willing to lay your life down whether they appreciate it or not. That's what Jesus did.

And that's what Saint Paul said in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 5. He said we lived among you and we preached the gospel not simply with words but also with power with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction.

You know how we have lived among you for your sake. And then he said to them we loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well because you have become so dear to us.

Surely you remember brothers our toil and hardship. We worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel to you. And may it be that our lives do indeed testify to other people that we love them.

We don't just say the word and leave them but we share with our lives. We want to share our lives because they were given by Jesus. So what happened in Hong Kong. Our fruit became more and more and more.

The Gang Leader Who Watched Their Faith

And there was a gang leader in the walled city who controlled uh indirectly he controlled 10 000 of the 14k. That particular triad worldwide is a hundred thousand and his part in the walled city and the surrounding areas was just about 10 000 and his immediate followers were smaller.

But because in the triad society everybody has a big brother and the big brother has a big brother. And he has a big brother and he has a big brother. That's how you can be in control of so many. And after a few years i have never met him.

But we've got to have tea together. And he said to me he said we've been watching you. And he said many people come to Hong Kong. We're not impressed. He said they stand on platforms and they sing about Jesus.

Well he said give us an airplane ticket around the world. And we'd believe it doesn't touch us. He said those missionaries they've still got their air conditioners their refrigerators. And he said us we're still here.

So he said we can usually get them out in six months. They're usually depressed by then they're discouraged. But he said when you've been here four years we thought maybe you meant what you said. He said all that time we weren't listening.

He said you can. You can have a program giving up. Right. He said you can have hymn singing every night. You can have judo classes or needle work. He said we don't care what your program is we don't mind.

If you've got a little room or a big church. What we want to know is.