“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” — Matthew 7:7
I grew up in China, the authority of which promotes atheism. My parents are ancestor worshipers and occasionally go to the Buddhist temples to make a wish. Living in an environment where atheism is propagated, I was an atheist when I was young. I once believed that the universe was merely ruled by scientific laws and that there was no scientific evidence that any sort of god exists.
When I was in college, I was interested in philosophical problems. One day I was meditating on the conflict of deism (Buddhism was in my mind) and science. Then I came across the “random collision theory”, which suggests that the very earliest living organism was the consequence of random collision of molecules in a pre-biotic soup. My major was mathematics and based on my understanding of probability, I had a strong doubt about this theory. Even though the Infinite Monkey Theorem suggests that the “random collision theory” is possible, this very theorem makes “random collision theory” seem to be unappealing for me. If you believe that a monkey which types randomly can type the complete works of Shakespeare given enough amount of time, you may also believe that the random collision of molecules in a pre-biotic soup can create a usable living organism. But wait a minute! Before this monkey finally types the complete works of Shakespeare, how many junks has it typed? Tons! This implies that a lot of useless chemicals would have been created before some useful ones appeared. But I don’t see that many “junks” exist on earth. Instead, the earth and the life on the earth are well organized and structured. Can you believe that your room will remain tidy even if you don’t clean and organize it for even a month? Would it be worse if you let everything in your room move randomly? If “random collision theory” holds, then there must be some filtration law that filters away those junks. But none of such law has been discovered. It would be easier for me to believe that the universe is organized by some sort of supreme being rather than randomness. Since neither atheism nor deism has enough evidence to prove that the other side is wrong, it requires a leap of faith to choose either side. I gradually changed my mind and believed that some sort of god exists. There are some candidates of gods known in the world, like the Most High, Buddha, but I am not sure which one.
When I arrived in Columbus, Ohio to pursue my doctoral degree, I was hosted by an IFI volunteer for four days and was invited to Bible study. I was glad to accept the invitation because I believed that knowing Christianity can help me to understand western culture better and blend in with the locals more easily. I got to know several Christian friends, and they are warm-hearted, kind, loving, and passionate about their faith. Even though I liked to hang out with them and appreciated their loving acts, I didn’t accept their faith because I believed that being a loving person does not indicate what he or she believes must be true. I started to read and study the Bible with IFI volunteers in the Bible study. I found that the Bible was amazing, and many verses really spoke to my heart. In addition, the volunteers’ explanation really helped me a lot to understand the Bible. I felt like that the Bible was not written for a hoax. I got to know more about Christianity and the logical arguments about why God in the Bible exists, and he is the only true God. I thought their arguments made sense to me but could not form a complete logical proof. Since I didn’t believe that one could prove or disprove the existence of God by logic, I decided to try to seek God himself so that I may know whether he exists or not. “Seek, and you will find” (Matthew 7:7). The God in the Bible encourages you to seek him. I believe that if this God exists, he would listen to my prayer. I decided to keep praying and see what would happen. Something did happen a couple of times after I prayed, but I wasn’t sure whether they were coincidence or not. However, the existence of God became more and more compelling for me. I decided to pray with my Christian friends to God that if he truly exists, then he will prove to me in a convincing way. One night, I was sleeping in my bed. I asked in my mind that “God, can I follow you?” Immediately, a bright light as white as snow shined into my eyes. I have never seen anything as PURE as this! 
I opened my eyes to see what was happening outside. It was dark and everything seemed to be normal. I believed that this light was not created by my brain since I had never seen anything like this and nothing similar had ever happened before. I was amazed and began to believe that the God in the Bible truly exists and decided to follow him since then.