I was born in Myanmar (Burma) in 1961
into a family of the Shan people. In 1988
I moved to Thailand and a few years later
married a Thai girl. We had two children, a
girl and then a boy.
"I was shot"
At this time, I began selling illegal drugs
and was finally arrested in 2001. During my
arrest, I was shot twice by the police, and for
six months I was in a police hospital. At this
time my children were aged just four and two.
All that I owned was confiscated. It was a
very bad time for me and my family.
Eventually I was sent to prison for 50
years. I felt very angry and I thought, "This
will be the end of my life." I could not forgive
the judge for saying I must go to prison for
such a long time. I even thought I would kill
myself because there was no other way out.
Then one day, I was invited by a follower
of Jesus to go to a Christian meeting in the
prison. I was very surprised when all the
men at the meeting welcomed me. They
clapped when I walked in, and gave me a
Bible, the Christians' holy book. They sang
many Christian songs which I liked very
much and then a man began to speak. He
told us these words from the Bible: "If any
man belongs to Christ (Jesus), he is a new
person. His old life has gone. You see, he
has begun a new life." * I thought that the
speaker was saying these words just to me. I
will never forget them.
"I read in secret"
Soon I was going to that meeting every
Sunday. I also read my Bible every night, but
secretly as I did not want my prison friends to
know. I wanted to find out if what it said about
Jesus Christ was true.
The more I read, the more I found out
about how much God loves us. Nothing is
greater than God's love. I was so excited to
learn that God loves me, that I did not worry
any more what my friends thought about me
reading the Bible. Little by little I realised that
all I was reading was true.
So, on my birthday, May 21 2002, I asked
Jesus Christ to forgive me for all my wrong
doing, especially the hurt I had caused my
family, and to change my whole life around. I
wanted the new life that the man had spoken
about when I first went to the Christian
meeting. I also wanted to be free from the
anger I felt about being in prison.
A new life
I began to find that all the thoughts I had
before, even wanting to kill myself, had gone.
I realised that prison was not the end of my
life but a new beginning. For 41 years I did
not know that God was near me and looking
after me. I was in the lowest place, in prison,
but God was with me even there. Now the
most important thing to me is knowing that I
have a new friend for ever, Jesus Christ.
Even though I am still in prison, I am happy
because I know that happiness does not
come from the things around us, it comes
from inside us. The last few years have been
happier than all the other 41 when I did not know Jesus.