“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jer. 29:11, NKJV) is a promise that has been a source of encouragement and comfort throughout my short time here on earth. It is a joy to know that whatever God has planned for our lives, His are plans of peace, not of evil.
My family and I emigrated from Laos when I was one year old. We lived in a refugee camp in Thailand for five years waiting to come to America. During our time there, God had a plan for us to come to America at just the right moment. In 1991, that moment came in a form of an approval for us to finally leave the camp.
My family moved around for a few years in the States. We lived in four different cities before we got to where we live now; this is where I first heard about the Gospel. Looking back, I now know that God had it already planned even before I was even born.
When I was in third grade, God planned for two people to knock on my house door. Through this bus ministry, my two younger sisters and I were able to attend Awana and then the Sunday services at church. That was the first time that I heard that Jesus, the perfect Son of God, came to earth to die for my sins, and that He conquered death and rose again from the grave, and now lives on the right hand of God. He is the only One that can save us from our sins and that all the other gods are idols because they do not live. One passage that made me realize that idols cannot save is from Jeremiah 51:15-19 (NKJV):
15 “He [God] has made the earth by His power; He has established the world by His wisdom, And stretched out the heaven by His understanding. 16 When He utters His voice-There is a multitude of waters in the heavens: ‘He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; He makes lightnings for the rain; He brings the wind out of His treasuries. 17 Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge; Every metalsmith is put to shame by the carved image; For his molded image is falsehood, And there is no breath in them. 18 They are futile, a work of errors; In the time of their punishment they shall perish. 19 The Portion of Jacob is not like them, For He is the Maker of all things; And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance. The LORD of hosts is His name.”
I did not fully understand my need of Jesus to cleanse me from my sin until I was in eighth grade. The youth group went to an evangelistic meeting one evening and there I realized that my sin was too great for me to bear on my own. 
There is no good work that I can do to get rid of it; only Jesus, the sinless One, can be the perfect sacrifice that God will accept.
That evening, I went forward to ask Jesus to come into my heart and be my Savior. My life has never been the same since that evening. I was baptized a year later in my home church and have since then dedicated my life to the Lord for Him to use it for whatever service He wants. I know that God does not need me to do His work, but He allows me to. It is a privilege to serve Him because He loves us as His children and wants the best for our lives. The hardest part is to
trust and obey, which we must do each and every day of our lives. Although it is hard to trust and obey at times, it is comforting to know that “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it”
(I Thessalonians 5:24, New King James Version).