Life had always been smooth-sailing for Melvin Chua – so much so that he could make 10-year plans for his life.

He was ambitious and gave himself to the pursuit of wealth, power and pleasure.

Though he only entered the real estate industry when he was 30 years old, he quickly excelled in the field.

From becoming the top rookie to the top manager and then among the top 10 leaders in sales, his take home pay easily hit $20,000 to $30,000 a month. On good months, it could even balloon up to $200,000 a month.

Melvin was the top team manager in 2000.

Picking up various awards and accolades throughout his career.

By the time he turned 40, he set new goals for himself. He wanted to conquer the overseas markets and he ventured into China.

After becoming ERA’s senior executive division director, he eventually set up his own company.

He made real estate investments in China, Malaysia and Philippines.

Sunday Christian

Though his career blossomed, other aspects of his life took a backseat.

He spent little time with his three young children and justified it by feeling proud that he was bringing in the dough.

His marriage also suffered as he indulged in an affair shortly after he got married.

Melvin married his wife Lily in 1996.

He was also a leader in the non-Christian religion that he grew up with.

From being a member, he became the secretary and then the chairman of the religious organisation.

“They wanted me because I was successful in my career and had the relevant connections.

“However, I quickly became disillusioned when I witnessed issues like cheating and deception there and so I left the religious body when I was 40 years old,” said Melvin, now 57.

His colleague took him to a Christian gathering at the Singapore Expo where a pastor from overseas was due to speak. Though Melvin did not really understand the sermon in English, being Mandarin-educated, he found himself standing up and responding to the altar call for salvation.

“I didn’t understand what I just did. So when my colleague gave me a Bible and said I was now a Christian, I brushed him away. I did not see myself as a believer,” he said in Mandarin.  

His wife, who is a Christian, was happy at the development and encouraged him to accompany her to church. Thus, Melvin became a “Sunday Christian” and occasionally went to church with her and dropped off their children in Sunday School.

Melvin and his wife on holiday with their three children.

“I would go with her, especially on special occasions like Good Friday or Christmas. But I didn’t understand much about the faith. I didn’t even know there was such a thing as Father God, His son Jesus and the Holy Spirit,” he told Salt&Light.

When he was 47 years old, however, he decided to be baptised after he and his family miraculously survived a car accident in Malaysia.

Melvin was baptised in 2013.

He did not even see what hit his car, but the impact caused his car to crash in the middle of the night. His family escaped unscathed.

“A passing car from Singapore happened to pick us up that night and carried us to safety. I knew God had saved us but I also continued living life as if I did not believe in Him,” Melvin admitted.

“I still frequented unsavoury massage parlours, watched pornography and gambled.”

Seeing spirits and hearing voices 

After the accident, Melvin continued to throw himself into his career.

The then 50-year-old sold his house and went into a joint venture with renowned developers to set up his own company.

Melvin with his family in 2016, the year he turned 50.

In the August of 2016, his company was due to have an important event at a ballroom. It was with an overseas real estate investment project to sell some property and raise funds.

He turned up earlier in the day for the rehearsal. When he entered the ballroom from the main entrance, the coast was clear.

“But something invisible tripped up both of my legs at the same time, and I fell headlong onto the closest ballroom table in front of me. I hit my head on the table and went about the rest of the day in a daze,” said Melvin.

When the event started, he went onstage to sign a memorandum but did not know what he was signing.

Later on, he also discovered that his father – who was about to drive his wife to the hotel for the event – had a serious quarrel with her at the same time that day. 

“Looking back, it was the start of a period of intense spiritual warfare,” said Melvin.

“From then on, I was not myself. I couldn’t give instructions at work and was full of fears. I began experiencing demons which disturbed me.”

During the day, he could see into the spirit realm and saw ugly demons all around him. At night, he had the same nightmare for seven consecutive nights.

He dreamt about his previous religion and how he would participate in all its rituals and processions, except that in his dreams they all took on a frightening sheen.

“In the nightmares, I saw my blood brothers who had either died early or had committed suicide. The approached me one after another to tell me to also commit suicide,” said Melvin.

“In the day, I also heard their voices urging me to kill myself or jump off a building.”

He had known those men from his previous religion. They had established brotherly ties by drinking each other’s blood as a form of initiation and loyalty.

Melvin also felt angry and violent all the time.

“I could not control myself from being violent. It was as if I was possessed,”

Unable to sleep and tormented by the demons, “I was so frustrated that I broke all the furniture at home”, he told Salt&Light.

Horrified at his own behaviour, he often left the house to hide so that he would not hurt his family and children. He also tried to numb his fears with alcohol.

Melvin and his wife with their three young children on a holiday a few years before he started being harassed by demons.

One day, after Melvin did not return home for several nights, his wife called the police to look for him. Melvin’s father and two policemen went out to the HDB coffeeshop where he frequented to search for him.

“I was sitting at my usual corner, drinking, when I saw them. So I shouted for my father but he walked passed me as if he could not see or hear me. When I went back home later that night, he said he could not find me at all. It was as if I was in another spiritual world or I was isolated by some power,” said Melvin.

Warded but not healed

Noticing that he was not his usual self, his wife took him to a psychiatrist. The doctor, who had been practising medicine for more than 40 years, said to his wife: “If he isn’t admitted to a hospital immediately, he is going to hurt himself.”

Upon hearing this, Melvin ran to the toilet to hide.

“I know I am not mentally ill or depressed. Doctors assumed that I was experiencing hallucinations caused by high work pressure or trauma. But I was very aware that the oppression was spiritual,” he said.

However, his wife convinced him to have himself checked and he eventually agreed to being warded at Mount Elizabeth Hospital.

Melvin was admitted to Mount Elizabeth Hospital in September 2016.

On the very first night of his hospital stay, he saw a horned demon coming to take his life.

“I could only see it in the mirror and it came to strangle my neck. I could not breathe and started to struggle in my bed wildly,” said Melvin.

Nurses heard the commotion in the room and four of them rushed in. They were afraid by what was occurring but could not see what was terrorising him. They promptly tied up his limbs and confiscated items around him so that he would not have anything with which to hurt himself. They also strapped an oxygen mask on him so that he could breathe properly.

Melvin stayed in the hospital for a week but his condition did not improve. He was given anti-anxiety medication and discharged. 

“I felt the attack physically and knew it was not a hallucination. I have never experienced anything like that in my life. It was very scary and disturbing to me. I knew that the idols I once believed in wanted me to go back to my previous religion, otherwise they would continue to harass me until I died or took my own life,” he said.

During this period of demonic oppression, Melvin did not go to work as he could no longer function well. His businesses, however, continued running as usual.

Throughout the day and night, Melvin drove aimlessly on the roads. He was traumatised by the spirits he was seeing and did not want to disturb his family at home.

A rainbow at 4am

On the 48^th night since the oppression started, Melvin could no longer take it.

He was hiding out at East Coast Park when he once again saw a row of demons taunting him to take his life by drowning himself in the sea.

Desperate, he rushed back to his car and cried out to Jesus for the first time in his life.

“If you are real, Jesus, please come and save me,” Melvin shouted to God repeatedly from the driver’s seat of his car.

He could not remember what happened next, but when he woke up, he found himself on the sandy beach of East Coast. His clothes were wet. Immediately, he looked around for his mobile phone and found it next to him. Its lighted screen informed him that it was 3.30am on September 22, 2016.

It was then that he began to be aware that all the oppression, hatred and anger that he felt in his heart had been lifted, and in its place was peace, love and calmness.

“I felt a peace, and God spoke to my heart in that moment, ‘Go to the sea and be baptised again’,” Melvin recalled.

He obeyed and walked down into the waters of East Coast beach. There he leaned forward to immerse himself in the water and then came back up.

When he stood up from the water and looked at the dark 4am sky above, he inexplicably saw a bright rainbow shining across it. When it disappeared, the rainbow was replaced by an English word that he was not too familiar with: Justice.

“It was not a vision. It was so real and beautiful. I didn’t know what it all meant but I just enjoyed those moments in God’s presence. I felt really blessed that God met me in this way,” said Melvin.

Then, he heard the audible voice of God for the first time in his life. “You can go back home now,” God said to him.

He returned home and told his wife all that had happened. Given his wet clothes, she assumed that he had tried to commit suicide and was simply relieved to have her husband back.

From meaningless to meaningful

That night, Melvin had the best sleep in months.

“I understood that Jesus had rescued me from the deep valley of darkness and death and brought me to light and life. I had no ability to change my situation or protect myself. But He came when I called upon Him and I am grateful,” Melvin said.

Afterwards, his church friends took him to church for further deliverance before he finally found full freedom from demonic oppression.

Seeing that he was being oppressed, Melvin’s church friends took him to be prayed for by a pastor from Uganda for further deliverance and freedom.

“I began to understand how real spiritual warfare is. I also became very excited to share the Gospel with my friends, or even with the security guards and cleaners in my estate,” said Melvin.

As he continued to be discipled in the faith, God showed him, when he responded at an altar call in 2018, that he would one day stand on stage to preach the Word of God to many.

“I am not worthy. Who am I, God, to be a preacher or evangelist?” he asked God.

Nonetheless, he bought a bilingual Bible and decided to study God’s Word more seriously.

He drove to the beach – now his favourite place to meet God ­– to read it but did not know where to start. He prayed for guidance and when he opened the book, it opened to the Book of Ecclesiastes.

East Coast Park has become one of Melvin’s favourite places to meet with God.

“Meaningless, meaningless. Everything is meaningless!” (Ecclesiastes 1:2)

He read the lines, yet did not comprehend them.

He prayed for the Holy Spirit to help him understand.

When he read the verse again, its truth began sinking in and tears flowed down his face.

“All my previous hard work and yearning to make money and have fame were in vain. Only what is eternal ­– our repentance, salvation and Word of God – is important,” he said.

Declaring bankruptcy

Melvin returned to work with newfound purpose.

His real estate agency was previously called “MCG” for “Melvin Chua Group”. After his life-changing encounters, he told his employees that MCG now stands for “Manifest Christ’s Glory”.

The real estate agency MCG no longer stands for ‘Melvin Chua Group’ but ‘Manifest Christ’s Glory’ after Melvin’s divine encounters.

Some of his workers did not take well to the news and left the company.

They felt that their once ambitious leader was now distracted with other priorities.

Melvin preferred to spend more time praying in office than relying on his talents and cunning to chase after money.

“Having God in my life now, I thought my career would go smoothly and prosper,” Melvin admitted.

However, the opposite happened.

Many of his employees left the company, sales and performance plummeted, and Melvin began having difficulty paying for the rental of the office space and staff salaries.

His previous partners whom he had groomed and mentored left him

In 2020 when the Covid pandemic hit, Melvin closed down all of his 10 companies and declared bankruptcy. His family had to rely on Government and community handouts to get by.

“It was a very difficult time. But I knew that even if I were to lose everything that came with my past life – wealth, connections, reputation and credibility – I still have a true God who would never leave me,” said Melvin.

He believes the significance of the rainbow and the word “justice” that appeared to him on the darkest night of his life was God reaffirming His covenant with him and His promise to restore all he has lost.

Solace in taxi driving 

As he prayed about his finances, he felt God leading him to become a taxi driver.

Melvin drove his taxi for a total of 42 months.

“I was very unwilling. I have always worked in an office and there was no status in this. Instead, I had to be in the taxi for more than 10 hours a day, yet earning very little,” said Melvin.

During that period, he cried every day in the taxi.

But he found that being in a taxi all day also afforded him a private space to pray, sing worship songs and read the Word.

Long hours in the cab meant that Melvin could have a private space to spend more time with God.

“It was a training ground for me. Being a taxi driver humbled me and also gave me the opportunity to share my testimony and the Gospel with my passengers,” said Melvin, who drove his taxi for more than three years.

During that time, he led three of his regular passengers, whom he drove every weekday, to Christ.

This year, he stopped driving the taxi in order to attend Tung Ling Bible School.

Melvin being prayed for by leaders and classmates from Tung Ling Bible School.

In the longer term, he hopes to further his studies in theology in order to be better equipped to preach the Word.

He has since gone to the jungles of West Kalimantan to minister to the children there.

Melvin praying for healing for a boy in Indonesia and then giving him a massage as he was in pain.

Upon returning from Indonesia, he has been assisting a pastor on visits to nursing homes and hospitals to pray for and share the Gospel with the elderly and the sick.

Said Melvin: “Even though I have lost everything, I have gained Him and a new dream.

“After what I have been through, I believe my spiritual gift is in deliverance. I hope to share about God with people overseas through mission trips.”

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