Mid-autumn festival is often celebrated among the Chinese as a time of family and friends reunion (as with Chinese New Year), where people will gather together to enjoy mooncakes and pomelo under the moon accompanied by lantern riddles, carry or light floating lanterns etc.
In short, there are 2 main school of thoughts of the story behind the festival. The 1st was the popular legend of Chang Er, how she being the wife of Houyi (an archer who shot down 9 out of 10 suns), consumed the pill of immortality given to her husband by the emperor. Some said that she did it the wrong way out of curiosity, whereas another version claimed that she took it to protect the people from her husband's tyranny, and ended up flying to the moon.
The 2nd, which was loosely based on historical events, proposed that rebels in China spread messages hidden in mooncakes for the people to overthrow the Mongol empire on a set date in conjunction with the festival, eventually establishing the Ming dynasty. Therefore, mooncake festival tends to be associated among Chinese with the issue of freedom.
Today as Christians when we talk about experiencing the true freedom in Christ, would like to give special thanks to Bel for sharing her testimony of her experience during her early years as a student, how God set her free from the bondage of her previous mindset:
"Hi, I’m Belinda and currently I’m pursuing my Masters (Biotechnology) in UTM. I give thanks to God for giving me the opportunity to share how God set me free from a stressful life studying during my undergraduate years, which eventually changed my life as well.
When I first came to UTM, I set a very clear goal to achieve a minimum cGPA of 3.5 and above in my subjects every semester, which I worked really hard for. Most of the time I will spend my time studying and making notes in my hostel room, regardless of whether it’s exam time or not. Regardless even if it’s just a minor class quiz, I will burn the midnight oil because to me, every mark scored matters. After my first semester, I was totally shocked as my result was the worst that I achieved throughout my undergraduate years, thanks to the Chemistry subject with a failure rate of 70%.
I started off my second semester working doubly hard to strive for better results. This semester was a bit different whereby sometimes during my own study time at night, a sister would come over and visit me frequently. She’s a fellow senior pursuing her Masters in research at that particular time. She introduced herself to me that she came from Hope Church. Usually she will share with me the word of God and before leaving, invite me to join their care group. I came from a Methodist background back in my hometown, and I don’t even know what in the world a care group is. I know that every Christian should go to church every week, so I joined my roommate to attend a Catholic Church every Saturday since I did not manage to find a Methodist church. To me, I have fulfilled my responsibility as a Christian by being a Sunday attendee. Hence, the invitation or sharing each time by this sister did not appeal to me at all because I did not see the reason why I need to join a care group or spend time knowing more about God. Mostly I will just ignore her presence and continue on with my studies. I couldn’t afford to waste even a small portion of my time. Time passed and as I received my 2nd semester results, I was expecting an improved result with the double effort that I’ve put in. However, things did not come out as I’ve expected. Once again, I failed to achieve the result that I wanted.
Despite the second failure, I told myself not to give up easily. I readjusted my study time and methods. Rather than study alone, I tried studying in groups. I went through all sorts of adjustments just to make sure I’m going to achieve what I intended. Slowly, I discovered that I’ve been living a stressful study life. I didn’t enjoy or find my life as a university student fulfilling. At times, I just wish I could do something else apart from staring at my books, but I couldn’t because it was like a form of bondage stuck to me. Again, I failed to attain the much coveted Dean’s list. This time I couldn’t take it anymore. I started to realize that something must be missing.
For once, I started to make a prayer to God which I never did throughout my life in UTM. I asked for His help and expressed my desire to know more about Him. I made a decision to look for a new church. In the same week after that prayer, while I was in a computer lab, I met up with my senior (one from a different course but same hometown). Unexpectedly, the 1st question of all things that came to our conversation was “Do you still attend church?” I was shocked for a moment as it is not your usual way of exchanging greetings. I replied to her that I am currently searching for a church. She invited me to join the church she attends, that is Hope church. At that moment, it finally struck me that God had being trying to bring me near to Him all this while, but I had been so ignorant and stubborn.
I started attending the Sunday Service and few months later, I joined the care group as well. This also meant that my time to study became significantly less. Nevertheless, I found much joy and inner peace within me, as some of the sisters’ testimonies during care group about how God helped them in their studies really encouraged me. Furthermore, I also received prayer support from my newfound family in Christ. I still remembered at times when I struggled to come for the care group due to busy assignments and tests, they always encouraged me, “When you choose to honor God, He will honor you back.” I choose to believe with a simple heart and never missed the care group throughout that semester. I continued studying as before, but now after I know more about God, I came to discover prayer as a powerful weapon that helped me through. Every time when I come back from the care group, I felt so close to God. My 3rd semester went past just like previous semesters, but no longer was I bound by my boring yet stressful time of study. It was a season where I was being set free in Christ! Hence, I learn to uphold my result unto God’s hand for I know He cares for me. God is good! My 3rd semester results turned out to be the best compared to the previous 2 semesters. Not only that, I managed to be included in the Dean’s list as well!
Deuteronomy 28:13 mentioned that “The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, NEVER at the bottom.“
Belinda Tiong
U3B"
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