My name is Edward Simanjuntak and my wife is Lilik (Turiastutik). We have one daughter, Bellinda (8). We live in Batam, Indonesia, a 45-minute ferry trip from Singapore.

In this profile, I would like to focus on how we came in contact with the UCG in September 2002. To begin, allow me to relate where we were as a family before we connected with UCG.

During WCG’s doctrinal changes, there was a period in our family’s spiritual life when we experienced a downward spiral, so to speak. We were told that many Church doctrines that we customarily observed were now abolished or changed in their observance. Since we believed WCG’s founder, Herbert W. Armstrong, was a truly chosen and faithful minister of God, we also thought that the doctrinal changes happened under God’s guidance through his successor.

We were totally blind as to what was really going on. So we just gave in and followed them. However, the further we went with the changes, the more confused we were about how to apply them. We also felt separated from the love of God which we had previously experienced. Something was not right in our relationship with God. We felt spiritually empty.

At one point, a minister visited us in our home for spiritual counseling. We had some questions about the changes, but the answers we received were not satisfactory. At the end of the day, he encouraged us to join any Sunday-worshipping group in our local community. We did not believe this, nor did we ever try to do it.

We wanted to go back to the original teachings, but we just didn’t know how or where to go. Unfortunately, at the climax of our spiritual troubles, we totally abandoned our biblical Christian way of life, including prayers, Bible study, fasting and tithing.

In July or August 2002, Clement Lim, a good friend and Singapore UCG member, came to visit us with a copy of The Good News magazine. The magazine immediately grabbed my attention. “Is this the one I used to read in WCG?—hey, still alive!” I said to myself. But I still wondered whether this magazine was coming from God’s true Church.

Mr. Lim recommended that I write to the UCG Australia office. Without wasting time, I switched on my computer, typed out a letter and Mr. Lim kindly posted it himself on his way back to Singapore.

A few weeks later, a reply from Reg Wright arrived from Australia, including more literature. The enclosed letter indicated that Jeff Caudle, a UCG minister in New Zealand, would visit us. In the meantime, we read the booklets and proved it all to be biblical, just like what we had done during Mr. Armstrong’s time. But again, by this point, we still hesitated to make a decision because we wanted to make sure that it was really from God’s true Church, established by Jesus Christ.

A short time later, Mr. Caudle came to visit us at our home in Batam, along with Mr. Samuthiran (a UCG Singapore member). I asked a few questions about biblical topics, and especially about the doctrinal changes. To my satisfaction, both Mr. Caudle and Mr. Samuthiran gave us biblical answers to all of our questions.

That day was Friday. So at the end of the discussions, I said to them, “My family and I are coming to Singapore tomorrow for Sabbath services to join you and all the other members.” So we took the ferry to Singapore the next day (Saturday) for our first Sabbath services with UCG.

On our way back to Batam, we were so thankful to God and Jesus Christ for being patient, merciful and faithful to Their promise to look out for the one lost out of a hundred sheep. When we arrived home, we phoned all our business partners and told them that we were no longer able to work from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.

Editor’s Note: Edward tutors some 150 primary and secondary students in the English language in a small classroom at their home—a manifold increase since they began observing the Sabbath again in 2002.