Turning her back on traditional religion as it only made God seem further away, Janice Panton entered university and decided she would have a good life if she had boyfriends and attained her degree. Two years later she almost had her degree and was dating some of the most interesting and attractive guys when she realised those goals would not bring her happiness.
“I reflected on life and wondered whether humans were just like the ants, going about their life, setting goals and striving for those goals and when they were reached there was emptiness instead of satisfaction,” says Janice.
Around that time a high school friend invited her to a Bible study, where she concluded Christians were genuinely mad, but they were the “most loving people”.
Nevertheless, she began thinking on life issues and developed a burning desire to know truth. “I didn’t want to fool myself, I just needed to know,” says Janice. She gave herself six months to search for answers and if after that she had not discovered God she would decide whether living another 80 years with no satisfaction was worth living at all.
Janice decided to visit some friends in Malaysia and tour the country. “It was a very fertile environment for a person seeking truth,” Janice remembers. She stayed with Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims. She then spent a week in Penang with her boyfriend’s family, the Tans, of whom the mother was a Chinese Christian. On her way to Penang, Janice encountered monsoonal rains which swept away another bus, a bomb planted underneath the Kota Bharu bridge by communist insurgents, and her visa was about to run out.
“I was cold and hungry and feeling very sorry for myself,” she recalls. “I looked out the window and contemplated again on spiritual matters. I said to myself, ‘I have searched for God and I don’t believe in God!’
“Then I heard a voice. It was in my head and behind me, it was strong and loving, and it said ‘Oh, yes you do’. I turned around to see who was talking to me (the bus was full of Malays). There was no one there. I believe, and still do, that God spoke to me. I never doubted God’s existence from that point. But I still didn’t know who knew this God.”
Her boyfriend’s family took her to a religious parade, called ‘Thaipusan’.
“The people pierced themselves with spikes through their skin, tongues and other places,” remembers Janice. “They carted citrus fruit on their bodies with fish hooks, and huge hooks in their backs pulled carts of fruit to be offered to Hindu gods. Even children were made to march for miles in submission to the gods. I asked Mrs Tan, ‘What is it about this parade that I hate?’ She told me: ‘These people are worshipping the Devil. The Devil loves show.’ I asked to leave the parade, so we did and everywhere we went the parade followed. As we ducked into a cafe I asked Mrs Tan, ‘Why are they following us?’ She replied, ‘I think Jesus wants you to see this.’
“Those simple words followed me back to Australia. I had come to believe in God, I had come to believe in the Devil, and maybe Jesus was real too. I went back to the University and began reading the Christian books in the chaplaincy library and trusted in Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, through gradually realizing what the good news of Jesus Christ was.”
This good news is that God’s Son became a man and lived a perfect life, so that when He died on the cross, He perfectly fulfilled God’s righteous punishment of death for rebellion against God, and then He rose from the grave, conquering death. By trusting in Jesus we can be forgiven of our rebellion, have a relationship with God and enjoy eternal life.
“Becoming a Christian turned my life upside down,” continues Janice.
“The difference between my life before Jesus and my life after was so dramatic, that I felt I had literally been born all over again. Before everything revolved around me; after, my life revolved much more around others.”
God rebuilt her relationship with her mother. “I had only thought about myself after her nervous breakdown when I was eight years old. God reminded me that it was a tragedy for her too, and He showed me my selfishness. However, becoming a Christian broke my relationship with my father who I adored, because he didn’t want to share me with God.
“God has been with me through all the thirty years since then: when I found my father dead in bed one morning; when my first baby died just hours before I was to have a caesarean; and when my son was diagnosed autistic, and now as I raise my three children, hold down a part-time job and care for my husband.
“God has brought me full circle and now I teach Indonesian ... which reminds me every day how God took me out of Australia to give me the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. God goes to amazing lengths to bring us to Himself.”