By Abdul Masih —
Three gang buddies died in rapid succession, but that’s not what brought him to Jesus. What brought Johnny Chang to Jesus was black bean noodles.
“As soon as I rolled down the window, I could smell the black bean noodles,” Johnny tells. “Black bean noodles are my favorite.”
He had only meant to drop off his mom at church. When the pastor offered him some noodles to take home, out of respect he decided to get out of his car and go in. The 2-hour-long conversation over noodles did the trick. He finally understood salvation.
Johnny Chang grew up in the projects of San Gabriel Valley as the middle son of ethnic Chinese parents who immigrated from Korea. His dad got drunk to forget and, when drunk, beat up Johnny, his brother and mom. Johnny turned to the streets to find family in an Asian gang with ties to the Triads.
“They had souped up cars, these Acura Integras and Honda Civics like Fast and Furious,” Johnny says. “I see them driving around. They have status, women and money. They have everything. That really drew me in.”
His induction included defending himself from a beating administered by the same gang and then commit whatever crime the leader indicated. He was 12.
He earn a name for himself, he volunteered for dangerous jobs. When the gang got busted for a kidnapping, he took the fall. He went to California Youth Authority.
After that, he was in and out of jail.
When he was released at age 24, he tried to straighten up because of California’s “three strikes” law mandating extra long sentences for 3-time felons. Johnny had two. Plus his mom, who had been Daoist Buddhist, had given her life to Christ and talked to Johnny about Jesus. He didn’t want to have anything to do with Jesus.
Johnny tried to get a job, but the streets beckoned. He turned to pushing drugs, making $40K a month. Then he hatched a plan to do a robbery with his “roll dog,” his crime buddy. Three gunshots were fired, and his buddy went down. He died in his arms.
“I felt this guilt inside of my heart, like, You’re so evil,” Johnny recalls. “I felt condemnation: You devised the plan.”
A second friend died, this time by suicide in prison. A third death: an inductee that Johnny had brought to the gang.
Death was stalking him. He felt he was next.
Still, he didn’t turn to Jesus. That came when his mom, a deaconess and translator at the church, broke down on the freeway. His dad was drunk and brother couldn’t pick her up, so Johnny drove her. “I’ll take you to church don’t have him invite me in,” he said.
As he dropped off his mom at church, he rolled down the window. He caught the smell of black bean noodles.
“We’ll package it for you,” the understanding pastor, a short Korean, said.
But Johnny decided to instead go in. It was a question of Asian respect. “We can’t just take stuff and like, See ya later,” he says.
The pastor was an understanding type. He asked Johnny questions, and Johnny learned that his chief sin was not the crimes he had committed but simply his unbelief. After two hours, the pastor got to the one remaining issue that was affecting Johnny’s heart: his relationship with his father.
Ask your father for forgiveness, the pastor told Johnny.
This took him aback. “Where in this world does the victim ever apologize to the aggressor?” he wondered.
The pastor explained: Just like Johnny was lost in a life of sin for a reason, so too his father was lost in a life of sin for a reason. Later, Johnny found out his father had killed someone driving in Korean and was plagued by guilt.
After years of not talking to his father, Johnny called him to go out for pho. When they met at the restaurant, it was awkward. His dad was ready to defend himself or bolt.
“I came here today to tell you that I’m sorry that I was a bad son,” Johnny started. “I’m sorry that I was a gang member. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you guys, I didn’t help you guys live the American dream. I wasn’t a good role model or anything.”
The look on his dad’s face changed to astonishment. He was caught off guard. He started crying, crying profusely.
Hit by a U-turn, the father broke down. “I’m sorry I couldn’t control my drinking. I’m sorry I beat your mom,” Dad said. “Honestly I never wanted to do that.”
Today, Dad and Son are Christian. Johnny is making the rounds on the internet sharing his testimony.
