A pact with the devil and two bouts of cancer later, he can finally say: “I know the meaning of life”

Kelvin Ang started life as the favoured grandson in a three-generation family.

“If I wanted heaven, I would be given heaven. If I wanted the earth, I would get the earth. I could do no wrong,” he said, quoting a Chinese saying.

Then his grandmother, the matriarch who held the family together, passed away from cancer, and everything fell apart.

Young Kelvin being carried by his maternal grandmother. His paternal grandmother (left) was the one who doted on him.

His parents moved out with him and his three siblings. Without the doting attention of his grandmother, he felt adrift and began acting up in school. He was bullied, got into fights and fared poorly academically.

By secondary school, Kelvin’s reputation as troublemaker and failure was sealed. He felt he was a disappointment to his parents and an outcast amongst his relatives.

But most of all, he felt abandoned by God who was, to him at that point, a general higher being.

“I was angry with God. Among my peers, why was I the one who was rejected in school, rejected by my family, rejected everywhere? Why must I suffer all this?”

As he railed against God and got no response, his resentment deepened. One day, he made a deadly vow.

“I told the devil that if he made me successful, I will follow him and help him destroy the world because I didn’t like the world. At the time, I felt everyone was horrible.

“If God was going to treat me this way, I was going to fight back.”

“God, change me”

After that, Kelvin’s life actually took a turn for the better.

He went from Normal stream to Express, made it to the top 5% of his cohort in polytechnic and then to university. Before graduation, he was promised a job as a business analyst in a global bank. He even thought he was going to marry his girlfriend of three years.

Kelvin in his teens (left) and when he graduated from university.

Then in 2008, American global financial services firm Lehman Brothers became bankrupt. The collapse triggered an epic financial crisis that created a ripple effect worldwide. The job offer evaporated, his investments got wiped out by plummeting markets, his girlfriend left him and he fell into severe depression.

“I felt I had lost everything. So I wasn’t eating and I was running every day. In one month, I lost 10kg.

“There was no point living. I wanted to die. And I was angry with God again. You come again and tekan (disturb) me.”

It was then that an old army friend heard about his situation and invited him to church. With nothing left to lose, Kelvin said: “Yes.”

“At the sermon, the pastor talked about how everyone has a love bank. Do something good, plus one in the love bank. Do something bad, minus one.

“For the first time in my life, I realised I was so self-centred. I was such a bad person I probably bankrupted everybody’s love bank.

“I wanted God to come and change me.”

Seek ye first His kingdom

After that worship service, Kelvin began regularly attending City Harvest Church. He also joined a cell group. Two months later, he landed his dream job.  

“I got the feeling that God was blessing me and I started to feel happy again.”

The change he desired from God came slowly. It began with a compassion he never had before.

In 2011, when Japan was hit by a 9.0 earthquake that generated the deadly Tohoku tsunami that killed 18,000, Kelvin felt burdened to help. He joined a humanitarian aid agency, lending carpentry skills he had picked up from his parents’ furniture business to help rebuild Japan.

Kelvin volunteered in Japan, helping in rebuilding efforts after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that followed.

Then came a desire to do more. The trip made him realise that he was ill-equipped to pray for people, much less share the gospel. He thought of enrolling in the School of Theology (SOT) at City Harvest Church (CHC).

“I was praying about it when I heard a very audible Voice say, ‘Just go.’”

Kelvin (left) with his batch mates graduating from the School of Theology at City Harvest Church.

Kelvin was due to be promoted to head a department. The coveted position came with an equally enviable salary. Going would mean giving up his job.

“I was crying, ‘Why do You want me to quit my job?’ But I heard from God that I should seek His kingdom and all these things will be added unto me.

“And He also said, ’Even if your future has a lot of ups and downs, don’t worry. I will be with you.’”

Kelvin did not understand what God meant but he chose to obey.

“Why me again?”    

The ups came almost immediately. Kelvin met his wife at SOT and they got married within six months. The next year, their daughter was born. His stockbroking business also flourished. 

Kelvin met his wife at School of Theology and they married six months later.

Then came the downs.

In 2016, Kelvin discovered he had Stage 3 nose cancer. He had been having nose bleeds for a year and would sometimes wake to “a pool of blood beside me”. When he came home one day with a swollen neck, he went to see a specialist.

On the back of that devastating discovery came news that his wife was expecting twins.

The illness put a strain on his marriage as the couple fought bitterly about treatment regimes. Kelvin refused chemotherapy and radiotherapy, opting instead to use natural means – a change in diet and exercise – to boost his immunity.

“I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t breathe and lost a lot of weight. At my worst, I went from 75kg to 46kg. There was a point I got better, then it slowed down and got worse again.

The first time Kelvin was diagnosed with cancer, he refused chemotherapy. After treatment, he went into remission in 2020. The cancer spread to his lung in 2022 but this time, he had no fear.

“There was a lot of unhappiness. I fell into depression again and wanted to commit suicide.”

Again, Kelvin asked God: “Why?”

In the two years of natural therapy, the tumour grew and the cancer spread to the lymph nodes on the left of his neck. He now had Stage 4 cancer and was dying.

Free at last

Prompted by God, his wife insisted that Kelvin go for deliverance sessions. He attended several, receiving the emotional and spiritual healing he needed.

Kelvin with the marks the cancer treatment left on him.

“During deliverance, I realised how many areas of my life needed to be set free. I renounced all the vows, death wishes and generational curses because both my grandparents had died of cancer.

“After the deliverance, I felt a weight lifted off my heart.”

He began to dig deep into Scripture to find out the purpose of the illness and of his life, finding a love for God’s Word he had never experienced before.

“Before this, my relationship with God was normal. I wasn’t into the Word. But I was dying. So I wanted to really find out why Christianity is the truth, why it is the only way to God.

“It really started to burn a passion in me to study the Bible a lot. In suffering, I turned more towards to God.”

His wife urged him to go for chemotherapy. He was so thin and frail by then that he should not have survived the treatment. But he did.

Meaning through pain

In all, he endured six cycles of chemotherapy that shrank his tumour from 8cm to 3cm, and 35 rounds of radiotherapy.

Kelvin undergoing chemotherapy.

“Chemo was so painful. My veins collapsed because the chemo drugs burned the veins. I felt like my whole body was on fire.

“Radiotherapy was one of the most painful things in my life. It was like being ultra sunburnt. I felt like dying. It was like being in the valley of the shadow of death.”

He developed mouth ulcers and could not eat or drink. The nerve in his tongue was also burnt. Deformed, it made pronouncing certain words and swallowing difficult.  

“Every time I went through radiotherapy, I prayed Philippians 4:13. I also clung to Psalm 91 for protection, believing that through fire, pure gold would emerge as Job 23 and 1 Peter 1 describe.

“As the pain increased, I got closer to God because I really needed God during the treatment. I told Him, ‘Not my will but Yours be done.’”

He also found the meaning of life.

“To build a relationship with God, understand who He is. We have this lifetime to find out so that when we go up to heaven, the relationship will be sustained.”

Kelvin realised as well how much God had been planning for him. When he quit his job to go to SOT, he had switched to a commission-based stockbroking position. Over time, he made enough to support his family and pay for his treatment while he was battling cancer.

In March 2020, Kelvin was cleared of tumours.

Doing cancer differently

But within two years, in early 2022, the cancer returned. It was considered Stage 4 because it had spread to his right lung. This time, Kelvin had to undergo surgery to remove half his lung.

When the surgeon opened him up, he realised the tumour was attached to Kelvin’s heart. It took six hours to carefully slice the tumour away.

Kelvin post surgery.

“That I didn’t die was a miracle.”

While he was recovering from surgery, God told him to “go exercise”. So despite his weakened condition, Kelvin began walking, then running and doing pull-ups.

Six months later, the cancer returned again. There was a 15cm tumour in his lung and cancer cells in multiple areas. Another 12 cycles of chemotherapy were ordered.

“I asked God, ‘Why again?’ He told me, ‘This time you face cancer in the right way.’ I realised that I was being asked to be a right testimony for God.

“Last time, I was depressed, angry, crying and shouting. This time, I went in with no fear, no sadness.”

Kevlin also never stopped exercising throughout his treatment, both working out on his own and playing soccer with friends, too.

In January 2023, he completed his treatment. Because of his improved physical condition and excellent test results, no further treatments are required.

Telling of the God who restores

In continued obedience to God, Kelvin has not stopped exercising. Last year, he ran the 10km Unlabelled Run organised by The New Charis Mission and the 15km Race Against Cancer.

Late last year, he went on the Camino de Santiago, an 800km Christian pilgrimage, with his uncle. They completed it in 34 days.  

Kelvin at the Race Against Cancer.

Kelvin (left) with his uncle with whom he went on the Camino de Santiago network of pilgrimages that leads to the shrine of apostle James in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain.

“I spent six to seven hours every day praying and worshipping God while walking.”

Wherever he goes, when given the opportunity, he also shares his story with people. At the hospital for a checkup one day, he met a woman whose stomach had turned upside down twice and who could not digest her food.

“I shared how God restored me and how I am a lot healthier compared to before cancer. She was very encouraged. She said God answered her prayer for someone to come and encourage her.”

Kelvin shares his journey at the Singapore Cancer Society and on a YouTube channel he started as well.

“Most people I encounter have questions about God. So I answer them.

“I think I survived to bring hope, to let people see that God can restore you. He restored my relationship with Him from someone who hated God to someone who loves Him and submits to Him.”

Kelvin is now pursuing a Master of Theology to be a better witness for Christ.

Kelvin with his family and one of his church pastors, Ps Aries Zulkarnain.

“God once gave me a vision where I saw myself in a room with a Bible. I’m trusting His plan for my life and seeking His purpose for the future.”

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