Should I Believe in God? : YES: When an infant brother returns to life from certain death, how can I refuse to believe? God is everywhere.

There are many events in my life that have shaped my beliefs. One of them was my journey to America.

When I was 7, my family escaped from Vietnam.

We had to leave secretly because the government would put us in jail, punish us or take away our house if they knew we were trying to leave Vietnam. Holding my 4-month-old brother, my mother led my two sisters and me toward the bushes to hide so they couldn’t see us. We heard a gunshot. And another one. Since I was the oldest, it was my job to take care of my two younger sisters, but I lost track of them in the confusion. I yelled for help, but it was too late. The boat was coming and the captain forced my mother and me to get in.

With 165 persons in a small boat, our journey wasn’t easy. We ran out of food and water after the first day. On the sixth day, some people caught the rats for food. They were delicious: I too was starving and ate what was offered me. Others caught and ate insects. Everyone seemed thirsty, so the other kids and I prayed to God for rain. Some adults asked us to give them our urine. It wasn’t comfortable, at first, placing the cup underneath and giving those adults our wasted liquid.

A sudden storm whipped across the ocean. Without warning, a huge bolt of lightning struck and tore the boat in half. My baby brother was knocked into the ocean. With the storm swirling about him, he was sinking fast! A man jumped into the water and using all his strength, managed to drag my brother onto a piece of wood.

Everybody knew that my baby brother was dead. Unable to handle the situation, my mother fainted. She saw my naked brother come to her in a dream, saying, “Mommy, I am happy to be with God and his angels. They treated me very nice. Since I only lived on Earth for four months, I could see God immediately. God asked me to tell you and others to believe in God’s spirit of love and confidence, and faith in his real presence in the Blessed Sacrament. However, God wants me to go back to Earth! See you in a few minutes, Mom!”

My brother’s disappearance from the dream woke my mother up. Suddenly, the storm calmed down and rain began. I was shocked when I saw my brother’s toes were moving. I thought it just came from my imagination but it wasn’t. There! My brother started to cry, letting us know he wanted to eat!

Jesus rose from the dead, giving us the strongest proof of his divinity. The whole truth and meaning of our faith rests upon this greatest of all miracles. My brother was risen from the dead to tell us that Jesus’s teaching must be true.

My brother is 8 now. He wants to become a priest to tell people to stay faithful to God and his promises because God is not from our imagination--he’s real.

I always believe and give thanks to God for saving my family’s lives in the journey to America and many other times. Just a few months ago, I was reunited with the sisters I had lost. Do you have any problem guessing why I believe in God?

* Both of the Youth Opinion essays are winners of a writing contest on the theme of religious belief sponsored by LA Youth, a student-written newspaper. They are reprinted with permission from LA Youth.