My Very Amazing Christmas

On the 23rd Dec, after my last day at D.light, I was looking forward to flying home on 26th Dec. But before that, I knew that there was a special Christmas in store this year - my husband and I had made the decision that I would serve in Hong Kong and he back at our church in Singapore for this Christmas - and God always honours such offerings of love to His name. And every sentence you will read here tells of God's grace:

During those last few days in Hong Kong, a Christian brother had granted me free reign of his apartment while he was overseas. I had spent my 24th Dec helping with preparations for the Christmas Lunch at the Vine church - within those 24 hours, I witnessed how God quickly provided the 62 presents we were short of. Also, God kept bringing in amazing people to help with the preparations.

I managed to wake up early on Christmas and had my breakfast at my favorite Tsui Wah before heading to the Vine. It was 9am and time to prepare for the Christmas Lunch. As scheduled, the volunteers for logistics headed out to pick up the pre-ordered ice at the nearby supermarket only to find out that they had sold it to someone else. However, by God's grace, they found the ice at a neighbouring 7-11. That morning, several new volunteers turned up - their spirit of giving and service was so evident that I just asked them to stay and mingle with our lunch guests.

As the first Christmas Service at the Vine began, we quickly found out that we had overlooked rostering teams to serve for the service! Impromptu sound crew and offertory teams were created by the regulars who just responded to the need. When it rapidly became clear we didn't have enough chairs, one of the regulars described to me where more chairs were upstairs, but I didn't really have a clear idea. It was truly the leading of God that led me straight to the cupboard where the chairs were. The logistics volunteers for the lunch jumped right in and began serving as the logistics team for the Christmas service as well.

The team for the lunch was scheduled to meet at 1045 to pray and go over the event schedule, but the service over-ran by some 20 minutes. While I was having the jitters to run an event without a briefing, we were carried forth by God's blessing that the whole event ran smoothly. There were occassions when we couldn't locate some items and people, but it all came through just in time. The saying goes that the devil's in the details, but I'm glad that so is God.

During the event, I was extremely blessed to be prayed over by our guests - most were asylum seekers, but they also included our church volunteers as well as people who didn't have anywhere to spend Christmas. When the event ended at 1530, it was also truly inspirational cleaning up the Vine with the volunteers. They weren't in a hurry to move off anywhere and just wanted to fully clean up this second home that was dear to everybody.

After cleaning up, I had some 4 hours before my supper appt with a friend flying in from India, and thought of heading home to grab the much needed forty-winks. An old friend then opened his house in town for me to rest, saving me from the long journey. I was also emotionally and mentally drained from completing my tenure in China as well as the Christmas lunch, and the Lord used those 45 minutes while I rested to restore my strength. Angels had surely ministered to me as I lay there - I found myself unable to really sleep but my entire self experienced a strange buzz and a sense of release as I laid there in His presence. Just as amazingly, my friend's mum invited me to stay for dinner. Thus I was able to have my first meal with a family, in more than 3 months, on Christmas day. And all these began from the point when God brought my friend from HK to Singapore some 8 years ago, when I met him at Living Waters Methodist Church.

For some strange reason, I was not able to meet up with my friend that Christmas night. While waiting around the area for her to call, I had the thought that it might be nice if I could bump into a volunteer from the Vine this morning. Taking in the populous nature of Hong Kong, I quickly brushed aside this thought. But I did not have to wait long - a volunteer called me on my handphone to check that I was alright - he had known that I might be alone and would be flying home the following day.

As I reflected on my blessings at Christmas that night, the phrase floated in my heart:
"Alone, and yet, not alone". For within God's kingdom and in the family of God, we will never be alone.

God's Timing is Perfect

How wonderful it is that the Lord should have prepared my work before I had even set foot in Hong Kong. His timing is perfect. While in India, He stirred up my heart to see social injustice and He has led me to a church strong in a vision to address social injustice in Hong Kong. He has given me the privilege of joining my brothers and sisters in Hong Kong in ministering to those poor in Spirit, and provided me with an avenue to serve in a month-long project for Christmas. He has brought alongside many brothers and sisters in this undertaking and has shown me that we are one in Christ. The Holy Spirit itself has brought us close together in this undertaking. Now, help us lay the whole project at the feet of Christ. The project ends exactly on Christmas and I fly home on 26th Dec. God's timing is perfect.

Women Christian Conferences

I just attended a Women's Christian Conference in Hong Kong at the Vine, called Soul Sister's Unite. Having spent the formative part of my Christian growth in an intergenerational church, I've never given much thought to fellowship amongst women, much less uniting as women in a church - because I've been fortunate enough to have older women in the church that I could speak with.

Being a woman who grew up in a comfortable city, studying in an all-girls school for 10 years, and having a type-A personality, I had never suffered any form of gender discrimination. Although I had an angsty teenagehood, I never questioned what being a woman meant. In many other countries, women are not as fortunate - having lower or no social status of their own, experiencing discrimination at the workplace, or facing social injustice as a single mother...

I was never a feminine woman, and I don't regret that. (Sorry Dad) To me, being a woman had never been more than existing as I am, a simple sense of just being who I am. Only when I was getting married did I feel a need of having some image of being a bride and wearing clothes appropriate for a celebration in God's eyes. But I had never associated my womanhood with shopping, the ability to multitask, enjoying the little pleasures in life - for me, those things just existed. If I enjoyed them, it was just because I am made this way and not because I am a woman.

Some of you might recognise these as signs of denial. This may be true. There is a commonality amongst women that I cannot deny - which also includes the love of shopping, multitasking etc... those things that previously I have identified with my personhood, but not womanhood. But I sometimes also feel divorced from their commonality - such as being feminine, loving heels/make-up/handbags, or sometimes being emotional.

At the conference, a speaker said that we women define ourselves by our relationships - roles that we play. I don't agree with that fully, but I certainly discovered that I often valued myself through how valuable I am to the company or to my bosses. And that was just a plain wrong way to work on relationships - it's a barrier that does not fully let you love the other person freely with no strings attached. This is a big problem if the field we are called to is the workplace. It's about being Martha or the older prodigal son - needing to do things to gain approval, instead of choosing to live in the full security and freedom of being a daughter of God.

For many women living an urban lifestyle, we put achieving things first and relationships on par, a second, or even a third priority. That focus on achievement in a meritocratic society has led us to identify ourselves with the acknowledgment we gain - in this process of moving "upwards" in civilisation, we loose our womanhood. Who needs womanhood when what we want is a progressive career? By then, we view many other women as competitors and lose a critical advantage and gift that God has meant for us to possess.

That advantage is the fellowship of women - because we are made different from men, and experience different life trials and needs that only sisters would understand. I have been so blinkered by this urban lifestyle that I have denied a commonality of womanhood and attribute it to individualism. Because we do not face the trials of womanhood so early on nowadays - such as marriage and being a mother - we do not discover the fellowship of sisters till later in life.

By contrast, a woman growing up in a village would have a keen sense of her womanhood much earlier on - because it is characterised but what she is not able to do, and what she is expected to do. Some of it, such as the non-status of a widow, is certainly social injustice that infringes human rights. But others, such as the role of wives in a village, is not suppressive in itself - it is however, injustice, when it comes at the cost of discrimination in education opportunities or even infant genocide.

So while that doesn't mean that I will now be uber-active in my home church's women's ministry, it does mean that if my church is organising a women's conference to set women free as daughters of God, and to unite the women of God - I'll be there to help out - because I've really benefitted so much from the past two women conferences I've attended.

The Harvest is Plentiful

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest
to send out laborers into his harvest.
Luke 10:2

What did our Lord Jesus mean when he used this allegory of the harvest being plentiful, and the laborers few? Our Lord spoke to an audience that mainly consisted of farmers who knew all about harvesting, and it would have resounded deeply in them:

Here’s a farmer’s typical day: He wakes up at 4 or 4.30am, milks his buffalos and then sets off to the field. He stays in the field for the whole day, only coming back for lunch and dinner. He then sleeps at 8 or 9pm, and he wakes up again at 11pm to turn on the water for the field. During harvest time, this cycle changes drastically.

Recently, I spent a day in an Indian village in Bulandsharhr to understand more about our customers’ needs, and to gather more customer stories for our company. One person that we interviewed was a farmer, who explained that it is now time for rice harvest. They harvest the rice from 10pm to 5am, and I can only assume that their sleep cycle is totally reversed, or they sleep less.

So firstly, there is sacrifice involved in harvesting – because the farmers understand it as their topmost priority. They need to harvest when the crop is at its best. Similarly, Jesus is saying that the crop is ripe, right now. There is a crop for each generation and ours is ripe for the harvest. And I can bear witness that the harvest is plentiful just by looking at two countries I have been travelling to – there are 1.1 billion people in India and 1.3 billion in China. However, only 2% are Christians in India and 6% in China. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.

While at the village in the evening, I wanted to take some photographs and the villagers were keen to have me take photos of them harvesting the rice. So off I went with my colleague/translator and some 50 men, and I couldn’t help but laugh at what happened next. Half of them rushed for the stalks that have been cut and began beating the grains out of the stalk. It was instinctive; it was communal; and there was joy on their faces.

There is much to learn from the villagers about harvesting. The harvest of souls is meant to be the natural "job-fit" for a Christian, but it’s certainly not the easiest. We have to find time for fellowship and build relationships with the like-minded, so that when it is time for harvest, we can support each other and work together. We will face spiritual battles and discouragement. But there will be both joy and suffering in harvest.

Secondly, focus on the mission. That evening in the village, the villagers wanted to show me how they actually harvest the rice. Once the men had squatted with sickle in hand, they seemed to be driven by an irrepressible urge to keep cutting the rice. I had to tell them to stay still so that I could take photos, but you could tell that every inch of their being wanted to continue cutting the rice. There is a certain single-mindedness about farmers and harvest. It is what they have waited and toiled for months for, and the source of their livelihood. When harvest comes, they assume a posture of harvesting.

Are we as single-minded in responding to God’s call to harvest souls or are we often distracted? Do we condition our bodies and minds in a posture of harvesting by soaking up God’s word daily, keeping His commandments daily and listening to see how we can respond to His call daily? And the personal challenge for me – have I shared often enough that I may communicate the Gospel even more clearly and maintain an unflinching desire for God’s heart? Again I am reminded that we cannot let ourselves be distracted by lesser things. Together as a family of God, we need to get into the “stuff” that makes us a family – prayer, God’s word, outreach, worship, and in increasing and deeper measures – seeking for the places where deep calls to deep.

And thirdly, our Lord adds an important spiritual dimension to harvest in Luke 10 – he bids us to PRAY. Not only to pray, but to pray earnestly for the Lord to send out laborers into His harvest. If we are not going out into the Lord’s harvest day in day out, we need to pray for the Lord to call and send laborers. The early disciples too fasted and prayed as an integral part of their various ministries and church life.

Singapore has been incredibly blessed. A recent report on cities by the United Nations (24 Oct) lauded Singapore as the only city without slums out of 245 cities surveyed. Our crime rate is incredibly low and the Government is free of corruption. What does this mean to us when we look at the harvest as God’s church in Singapore? We are those we have been given much, and much will be expected. The monthly income of an Indian farmer ranges from 2,000 – 8,000 rs (that’s S$60 - $240 per month). That means the lowest pay that we pay our domestic helpers in Singapore is the highest pay for a farmer supporting his family in India. When the Day comes, there will be a reckoning for us if we have responded to the call to release the oppressed, to free the prisoners, and show kindness to the orphaned and widowed. With Singapore being so small and the blessings we have received, the majority of our harvest as a church in Singapore would naturally be outside of Singapore. He calls us to be a church that upholds justice, mercy and faithfulness beyond our borders.

What can one person do? With God, all things are possible (Mark 10:27) and all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose (Ro 8:28). Archie Coates’ message for Holy Trinity Brompton Church connected the message of harvest to my experience in the village, and he further brought up the example of Henry Martyn, a missionary in the 18th Century. He graduated at the top of his class in Cambridge and received the prize for Classics. He chose to abandon a secure academic career and became a missionary to India. Ill health befall him shortly after, and he never really recovered. Henry died at the young age of 31. However, during the short 7 years he was in India, he translated the whole of the New Testament into Urdu, Persian and Judaeo-Persic. Only one person came to Christ through Henry during these 7 years, but his work has laid the foundation for the missionaries that came after him. We may not all be called to be missionaries, but we are all called to be harvesters in the field, with whichever gifts that God has blessed us with.

Henry Martyn's love for God and for justice, mercy and faithfulness saw him through his ministry. In his journal entry on 6 October 1812, it read, “Oh! when shall time give place to eternity? When shall appear that new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness? There, there shall in no wise enter in any thing that defileth: none of that wickedness which has made men worse than wild beasts, none of those corruptions which add still more to the miseries of mortality, shall he seen or heard of any more.”

Pictures of Poverty

These images are taken from outside the church I attended on Sunday in the EMBASSY sector of Delhi. There are slums even at the heart of its diplomatic quarters. While my mind reacts at the irony of it all, which includes the poster hanging across the slum on "voices against poverty" - I felt powerless to do anything. It would be useless for me to give them any money - a full education programme, schooling incentives, public housing+resettlement programme, employment and infrastructure building would be needed...

Preliminary thoughts to Living Waters Methodist Church

One prevalent area that I had the privilege of witnessing is really the poverty, social and economic stratification in India. Likewise, social issues, such as the homeless, ethnic enclaves (maids working in Hong Kong) and refugees are obvious in Hong Kong. Now, the social issues in Singapore are often underplayed in the news... sometimes to avoid racial tension, at other times it is because the Government takes care of it. Afterall, any homeless persons reported in Singapore would be escorted off to a home in no time. How do we, as Christ's body in Singapore, make God's gospel relevant to the society? Do we not go into certain areas because the Government is already taking care of it? Who are the orphans and the widows whom our Lord's heart bleeds for? What is our responsibility as one of the wealthiest nation in the world to the rest of the world? If we're not actively reaching out to people in poorer nations, does that mean that we don't hear the cry of the needy and the Lord will hold us accountable on the day of judgement? In an increasingly connected world, where Singaporeans can afford to fly, it's not enough to say that we have kind of ministered to our local congregation and that the poor in Thailand or India is too far away.

Secondly, being out here away from home makes me more keenly aware that we have only this life. With the grace of God, we will be able to accomplish all that He has set aside for us. BUT, we need that sense of thirst, of active seeking after God. Everyday, we are bombarded by the work, many other things and distractions jostling for our attention. And we suffer from the sometime guilty realisation that we need to spend more time with our loved ones. And then there is ministry and quiet time with God is somehow squeezed in. Without the wisdom of the Lord, it is not possible to live this life to the full. Without seeking first the Lord, who changes and renews our minds and hearts, it is not possible to live that "balanced" life, which is a life marked by an inner peace. We have not prayed enough. We are not desperate enough to hear from God. We do not love Him enough.

If we want to see the Lord move in our church, let's commit to meet together and pray, to seek first our Lord. Be encouraged by the Lord - that is to meet him, have our hearts changed to align with our Lord's will, that we may be en-boldened, en-couraged for the Lord. Can our lukewarm little hamlet change? Sure, we are faithful in service in many matters, but I long to see our church as a church that moves by the power and might of God - the day that our church may be able to reflect more fully the great God we worship...

Anyone from Living Waters feeling the same pls email me.

Thoughts on Church

Just a short post before the work week starts. For someone who usually goes to church 2 to 3 times a week, I have not realised how closely my emotional and spiritual rhythm have been tied to the act of going to church and being amongst a familiar body of believers. I have not been able to go to church in Noida this past 2 weeks - for various reasons. Last week, a few people from the office decided to go partying on Saturday night and I thought it would be good to get to know the others better. And it was good. Excepting that we reached home at 4.30am. Although I managed to wake up on time, I couldn't get to any churches for the fact that I spoke no Hindi to arrange for transport. This week, I lost my phone enroute getting to church and I am inclined to believe that there is some kind of spiritual battle going on.

While having a community enjoined by prayer and faith is a good thing, the fact that I was very upset and disappointed that I have not been able to go to church in Noida also seem to reveal a few things of what church means to me. Surely I meet with God in my prayers and during quiet time - is God insufficient for me? Why do I not encounter the same sense of disappointment when I am not able to do quiet time daily? I was very much looking forward to go to church. Do I not have the same level of desire to meet with the Lord daily?

What has corporate worship through songs of praise come to mean for me? God says that the object and the attitude of worship is more important than the form of worship. Have I been so caught up in the atmosphere of worship that I fail to focus on the object of worship in whatever form my worship might take? I am reminded of missionaries who go into places where the gospel have not yet reached, and they have to fully lean on God, often without benefit of having a community to worship God on Sundays. Certainly God is pleased with the work of their hands.

When I strip away corporate worship, what is left in my life? God has been gracious in providing me with a great sense of His peace while I have been in India, but I sense that I cannot get complacent or comfortable in this peace. This peace is a security such that I may be free to move on to other things, and a deeper level of walking with Him. But what and how?

Signs from the Lord

When do we ask for signs from the Lord? When is it right and when is it offensive to the Lord?

In Isaiah 7:10, the Lord bid King Ahaz to ask for a sign, and when Ahaz replied "I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test," he was reprimanded in trying God's patience. Yet in other places, such as 2 Kings 20 when King Hezekiah asked for a sign to show a certainty of his recovery, Isaiah remanded him, saying that the Lord will do as He promised. Certainly in many other places in the bible, the hearts of those who have asked for a sign is not made clear - Jonathan, when launching an attack on the Philistines ( 1 Samuel 14), spoke quite plainly that if the Philistines said "Come up to us," it would be a sign from the Lord that He had given them into their hands.

Primarily, a sign from the Lord shows that the nature of a particular course of events is His will. He uses signs (such as the miraculous signs and wonders done by Moses) that people may know that He is God. And to those who already believe, we may be prompted to ask for a sign from the Lord, but we must never hold the Lord at ransom by asking Him to perform a sign that is uncalled for. An example of this was the temptation of our Lord Jesus in the desert, when the devil cajouled Him to perform a sign if He was truly God's son. The basis of asking for a sign by us believers is never a question of God's identity, that if He is really God could He please do such and such. Those appear to be reserved for unbelievers and usually initiated by God Himself.

So when do we ask for signs as believers? In my recent experience when I was seeking for a new area of work, my heart was prompted to ask for a sign while reading an e-newsletter from a company. The thought of asking for a sign had never crossed my mind and I prayed for a sign immediately following that prompting. That was the weekend that my friend who worked for the company turned up in church in Singapore - all the way from China. And my heart trembled at the knowledge of the fulfilment of that sign.

Certainly signs are a rare occurance, entirely of the Spirit's leading. Most of the other times, the Lord speaks to us of His will through His word, His peace that guards our heart, or through the wisdom of older Christians. And sometimes, when the Lord finds us at a low point in our lives, He provides other "signs" that assures us of His sovereignty, and surely that close presence of God in our hearts is much better than any sign. Similarly, at other times, the Lord chooses not to move or show any clear signs, and asks of us to continue to obey and be faithful with what we have already been given. This is what I experienced when as a young staff, I first wanted to change jobs after two years, but the statement from the Lord was to stay and obey. He gave the certainty of this direction in other ways - there was no other doors I should step through and continued to speak to me through my daily work. Specifically, this "speaking" from the Lord was not in the form I had originally desired, which was to acquire new knowledge at work. The Lord gave another form of training and knowledge - which was how to conduct my daily work in a manner that acknowledged the Lord and in a manner that pleased Him.

Sabbath

(Left: Xian's pic of The Vine on Nikon D300)
I have great thanksgiving today:
1) Breakfast with a friend from EDB in Hong Kong;
2) Getting to Hong Kong station on time for check-in, and God answering my prayers of being able to check-in a rather overweight luggage with no problems;
3) Meeting up with Tao Sun, an old friend, at The Vine;
4) Almost totally healed of food poisoning;
5) Having internet connection in Hong Kong and now in Delhi as well.

Perhaps the greatest item for thanksgiving is my meeting with a designer in Hong Kong for the d.light project. This was preceded by my visit to The Vine, a Hong Kong church. When I was at the church, my eyes fell on their logo, which had 9 circles forming the fruits of a grapevine. Back then, I just thought that their logo needed some improving (sorry guys). The funny thing was that when I was waiting for my meeting at Clipper's lounge at the Oriental, the menu had nothing but a bunch of grapes, also made up of 9 circles done in the same style. It was as though God was saying, "Even this, is in My hands". It's wonderful that God chose such a pictorial afformation of His presence when I'm doing a project on corporate design.

Changing of Mindsets

Having worked in the Government previously, we were quite blessed to be able to send anything we collected overseas back to the office via Fedex. At my new workplace (www.dlightdesign.com), everyone knows that we need to cut costs in order to reduce overheads and bring an affordable product to the masses. I've been asked to lug heavy materials from ShenZhen to Delhi and for the first time, I'm flying to Air India from Hong Kong. So I count my blessings along the way when my friend offers to lug my luggage to Hong Kong.

The Awesome Hand of God

I sit onboard a plane writing this testimony, with the Chinese words on the flightpath information a foreshadowing of where God is leading. Tomorrow I will be in Shenzhen. The journey to China began two years ago.

In 2006, as a young staff who had been working in a design-related public agency for two years, I began praying and appealing to God to show me the way forward in my professional path. I had just completed an extremely challenging project by the grace of God and was physically and spiritually exhausted. God sent His restoration by sending me on a business trip to Australia, where through a close Christian sister, I attended and was restored at a Women’s Christian Conference. He had answered me clearly with His provision that I was to stay and serve on in the public sector. The following year, I was promoted. Praise be the God.

2007 was a year with our unit working through severe understaffing challenges. After 3 years, I was not learning as much as I would have liked at work, and the tempting voice called for me to quit. However, the clear word from the Lord was to stay. I continued thanking the Lord for the close friendships with my bosses and colleagues, and being able to help newcomers with their work.

In end-2007, following a conversation with a friend on living a meaningful life, the sense of unrest came upon me yet again. By my own strength I began pursuing a potential engagement with a global company and only subsequently prayed for God to open or close that door, according to His will. After three months of sporadic discussion and painful waiting, the door was closed. Unbeknownst to my sense of disappointment, God had already begun to prepare a great gift for his daughter that was beyond my imagination.

By staying faithfully in the same public agency, I had been exposed to the widest range of design fields possible and had developed a clear desire to be involved in design work that protects, sustains and improves lives for the needy. This desire that was grown in me over three years proved to be the key to ascertaining God’s direction for me.

In mid-July 2008, I received the usual e-newsletter from d.light design, a social entrepreneurship start-up that made LED-lights to replace the hazardous and inefficient paraffin lamps for the very poor. The company was co-founded by a close Christian brother, Xian Yi, and I had never thought of working with them as they were based in China and India. That night, as I read the e-newsletter, I felt led to pray for a sign, and slightly confounded, I prayed as led.

That Sunday, Xian Yi turned up in church! What a sign God had gavin! Xian Yi was back in Singapore as he had some visa problems. As we caught up over the week, we found out that his company had a short-term, pro-bono, project that required my skill set and I had, by this time, fully identified with the company’s vision and work. This was followed by God-covered conversations with my bosses and positive teleconferences with Xian Yi’s colleagues. At one point, my parents understandably chided me for leaving a full-time job to take on a project with a basic stipend. I prayed that God would speak with Xian Yi’s colleague regarding this matter, if it was His will. A few days later, the stipend was raised without my intervention. Furthermore, my husband Paul and I did not yet have any children or financial commitments.

Concurrent to these developments, God had also opened a new friendship with a design director in a socially minded MNC. When I began interviewing with them, I was warned that the interview process might take up to four interviews and nine months! When I stepped into what I thought to be the first interview, I found out that some of my discussion sessions on design with the design director had been accepted as the interview for design. I frankly did not think I did exceedingly well for the interview, but God provided the assurance otherwise. I was also prepared to fly back from China or India for further interviews.

Four days before leaving for China, I received a call from the company with an offer for a full-time position following my project at d.light design. A day before my flight, they confirmed an interesting workscope and a generous employment package. How awesome is the favour of God! What peace of mind and security God has granted Paul and I!

Ps 111:5
He provides food to those who fear Him
He remembers His covenant forever.

I haven't written for awhile. Have been madly trying to finish up my work at DesignSingapore but a lot has also been happening in my life, by the Grace of God. I'll get to the sharing when there's breathing time between, church, work, family, and stacks of reading I need to catch up with.

Meditations from HolyWeek to Pentecost

This is something we prepared for our small group study for Pentecost Sunday, imagining that we were one of Jesus' disciples in the events leading up to the first Pentecost. The work is not entirely mine, much help were given from online resources. Hope it would give you new perspective of what the disciples have been through in the 50+ days from Palm Sunday:

On Palm Sunday, Jesus rode on a donkey’s colt into Jerusalem, and is hailed by the great crowd as the King of Israel. The Jews had gathered from all over for the Passover Feast, and there were as many as 2.7m people (Barclay on John). You are walking beside Jesus and could not understand what was going on.

For 4 full days from Monday, Jesus teaches and preaches the Gospel in the Temple. You are there with him. Spies from the Jewish council are sent to find fault with Jesus’ teaching, but they were unable to find any. Similarly, the Passover lambs were examined for blemishes before the sacrifice. Each evening, you went out with Jesus back to Bethany. Each night, Jesus would spend the night on the hill called the Mount of Olives. And as his closest disciples, you followed him there to pray.

On Tuesday evening, you see the woman anoint Jesus with a very expensive perfume – Jesus tells you it was to prepare his body beforehand for his burial.

On Thursday night, at the Passover Feast, Jesus tells you to make preparations to eat the Passover. Everything for the Passover was prepared just as Jesus told you. Jesus washes your feet before the Supper – he has never done this before and this is usually done by a servant Jesus blesses his bread and wine as his flesh and blood and shares it with you. He tells you that one of you will betray him – you are saddened. You sing a hymn and head to the garden of Gethsemane.

That night, Jesus says that you will all fall away, and predicts that Peter will disown him 3 times that very night. He also promises the Holy Spirit and says that in a little while, you will see him no more. But soon, you will see him again and you will rejoice. Reaching the garden, he says to pray that you will not fall into temptation, and He began praying just a few meters away. You fall asleep because you are filled with sorrow.

Just as Jesus was waking you up, Judas approaches with a crowd, armed with swords and clubs, and betrays Jesus. Everyone of his disciples flees. Brought before the Sanhedrin, Jesus confesses that he is the Christ, the son of God. He is spat upon and struck. Peter observes all these but disowns Jesus when asked by a servant girl of the high priest.

Still early that Friday morning, they bring Jesus to Pilate. Jesus is flogged and handed over to be crucified. He is made to walk through the town – you would have seen him. At 9am, Jesus is crucified. Darkness covers over the whole land. At 12pm, Jesus gave up his Spirit. An earthquake tears the curtain of the temple into two. Many of the women watched from a distance. In the late afternoon, Joseph asks for Jesus’ body from Pilate, wraps it and places it in the tomb. A huge stone is rolled against the entrance of the tomb. The women still watch from a distance.

On the third day, very early that Sunday, the women come to the tomb to anoint the body found that the stone has been rolled away and the body was gone! As Mary ran away to tell Peter and John that "they" -- probably the authorities -- have taken Jesus' body, the remaining women are met by angels. They are to tell the disciples of the resurrection. But they are terrified and flee.

Peter and John go back with Mary, and saw that the body was gone, but did not know what to make of it. They return home. Mary stays at the tomb entrance weeping, and the angels appear, asking why she is weeping. There, she meets Jesus, at first assuming he is the gardener. On recognising his voice, she realises that Jesus is risen. She is tasked to tell the good news. But still the disciples did not believe it.

Later that Sunday, Jesus appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. (Luke 24:13-32; Mark 16:12-13). They returned and reported to the rest, but if you were not one of the two disciples, you did not believe.

Jesus appeared to Peter in Jerusalem. (Luke 24:34; 1 Corinthians 15:5). On Sunday evening, He appeared to his disciples and other followers, and also a second time to the two men from Emmaus, in a locked room in Jerusalem. The apostle Thomas wasn't there at that time and did not believe. (Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-23). The next Sunday, Jesus again appeared to his disciples behind locked doors, and this time Thomas was present. (John 20:24-29). A week later, Jesus appeared to seven of his disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, with the miraculous catch of fish. After eating breakfast with them, he reinstates Peter. (John 21:1-24). By now, the disciples finally believe.

Over one of the meals, he gives you the command not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the gift his Father has promised – that in a few days you would be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

Jesus also made several other appearances - He was seen by 500 believers at one time in Galilee. (1 Corinthians 15:6). He appeared to James, the brother of Jesus. (1 Corinthians 15:7).He appeared to eleven disciples on a mountain in Galilee. (Matt. 28:18-20) where they were given the great commission.

It has been 40 days from his first appearance - as Jesus walked with you along the road to Bethany, on the Mount of Olives, He ascended into Heaven. (Luke 24:50-53). Angels tell you that Jesus will come back the way he ascended. You kept faithfully praying together. About 10 days after Christ’s ascension, the events at Pentecost took place."

Flashback Testimony: Jun2006 Another Project

Extracted from email sharing with small group, 12 Jun 2006:

The curatorial team quit on Wednesday, with 7 weeks to delivery time. They have been working on the project for the last 9 weeks. God has indeed shown me a lot about communication, human relationships, and His pattern of doing things during this period, and I’m still communicating with the old team as two of them are Christians trying to make sense of the situation. It is really no one’s and everyone’s fault – we didn’t communicate with each other carefully enough, and careless words were used. I can’t say if this is for the better or worse, suffice to say that God has chosen to reveal Himself in many little ways even through this episode.

As we had to create a plan B, things have been mad and I needed God to put things into perspective for me again yesterday. I thank the Lord that He was the one in control this morning! I’ve been kinda working 14-16 hour days for the past 2 weeks, and much strength, anointing and wisdom from God is needed in this “crisis management” situation. He has blessed me greatly this past week with His wisdom, and aid from my supervisors, without which I would not have been able to handle the situation in such a smooth and peaceable manner. And even in the middle of this, I’ve been able to attend bible study on tues night, music team on wed night, to keep my spiritual tank full. Through God’s grace, I even managed to help Paul shoot his thurs seminar for 1 hour+ and attend the Veggie Orch on Friday evening. Although there was a contingency meeting I had to attend on sat, God gave me just enough time to have a quick meal with my family, prepare for worship on Sunday from 7.30-9pm, before rushing out for another work meeting at 9+pm. And although I was tempted to do more pressing work at 12am on Sunday, I could sense God telling me that I needed to rest my body properly for Sunday.

Lastly, I hope that you could indeed see that it was God’s hand this morning. I don’t believe I’ve ever felt so empty, drained, and yet so full of His blessings and so keenly aware that He is peeling away at my self-sufficiency that Christ may be revealed and glorified.

Flashback Testimony: Oct 2005 Sao Paolo Bienniel

From an email to my small group and the music team, 23 Oct 2005:

Wanted to share with you how God has been working in my life. Miracles abounded last week. It’s going to be a long sharing. For maximum impact, follow the timeline very carefully.

Some of you might have caught the news today on Singapore’s first presentation at the Sao Paulo Bienniel of Design and Architecture. If God hasn’t blessed the work of my hands, the footage would probably not have been there at all.

It was Tuesday 18^th Oct. I went down to the Brazil Embassy to pick up the visas for 5 reporters, whom we were flying into Sao Paulo to cover the event. I was asked by Nelson, the guy at the embassy to come back at 4.30pm, as they visas weren’t ready yet. Well, first taste of South American inefficiency – or perhaps we’re too efficient here. At 4pm, he called me to let me know that there was some “additional paperwork” that had to be done, as they were reporters, and he said they would try to settle it within the next two days. The reporters fly on 21^st Oct at 2am.

It was Thursday, 20^th Oct. I called the embassy at 10.30am. Nelson said that they couldn’t issue the visas because they have not received the approval for Brazil. (Now, Brazil is 10 hours behind us. If he says he can’t issue the visas, it means a one day delay and the reporters were flying that night!) I lost my cool and told him off, telling him that even if he had to stay till 10pm that day, he should do so, since it was the Brazil Embassy that said it would get the job done. He retorted, saying that he was trying to be nice and it wasn’t his duty to be getting the permit from ANCINE (Brazil’s media authority) to let the reporters in. The phonecall ended on a bad note and I regretted my fast tongue immediately.

I prayed and called him back 10 minutes later, apologized, and by the grace of God, managed to convince him that the print reporters didn’t need the approval from ANCINE and should be issued their visas. I explained the situation to my director (on his birthday when his wife was around with a birthday cake… not a good time.) By 1pm, my director was with Mr Choo Chiau Beng, the non-resident ambassador to Brazil, who said he would call Mr Alfonso Santos, the Brazilian ambassador to Singapore.

3pm. There didn’t seem to be any answer from Mr Choo, so I called up the Brazilian Embassy again. I wanted to speak with his PA Miurel to make sure that Mr Choo has communicated with Mr Santos, but ended up on the line with Nelson again (who must be irritated with me by now!) But once again, by the grace of God, he offered to put me through to Mr Santos. I didn’t know quite how to appeal to a minister/ambassador on such a “small matter”. By God’s hand, Mr Santos said that he would help fax/email over the necessary letters to highlight that our CNA reporters were only going into Brazil to cover the Bienniel, and not film some sensitive political film!

At 4.30pm, I rushed over to the Brazil embassy to camp out for any miraculous reply from Brazil. Prayed and prayed. No reply, but got my 3 visas. Had to take emergency action of finding another air ticket for the 2 reporters, and setting up back up plans. There was a flight available 2.15pm the next day, but there was no guarantee that we will get the visas, and that particular flight would incur an additional $14,000. If Singapore Airlines didn’t grant us excess luggage weight for the 2 reporters, it would mean around 60kg in excess luggage – which would be around SGD10,000! That’s a total of $24,000! I checked with another tour agent on the cost. We didn’t have a choice, the tickets were too expensive for the afternoon flight, we had to book the following night’s 2am flight.

Called my colleague who just touched down in Brazil, who was not optimistic that Brazilian efficiency would give approval in a day even if we asked IE Singapore (Brazilian Office) to speed up the process from that side. He advised for us to seek tourist visas instead if the ANCINE approval did not come through, but that would mean CNA would not be able to bring in their cameras and we would have to loan one! Given that they touch down at 4.30pm and the official opening was at 8pm, there was a very slim chance of the cameraman getting used to the camera in time! Even if we had the clearance from ANCINE, there was no guarantee that our folks won’t be stopped at the Brazilian customs and be delayed!

Worst of all was the dread of having to explain this to all involved. But once again, God has turned their favour on me. The editor Melvin Yong from Channel News Asia was very understanding, as was the reporter Cheryl Fox and her cameraman. Further to this, my director volunteered to call Melvin to personally extend an explanation. Apparently Melvin said that they face this all the time, and will support us all the way. He also asked for my director to keep an eye on me as I seemed on the verge on breaking down over the phone. It was a testing time. I also had to email Singapore Airlines again to explain the situation, and appealed to them to carry the excess luggage allowance to the next flight. Even when I sent the 3 reporters off at the airport, I thank God for the friendship of one of the reporters cultivated from last year. One of those times when God moves non-Christians to show his love and support.

Reached home at about 1.30am, and prayed for God’s intervention that night. Fell blissfully asleep at 2 plus and woke up at 9am by a phonecall from my travel agent, saying that she found an air-ticket for 2pm that would be the same price as the 2am one! This means the reporters can actually get in at 7am and have 12 hours to prepare! However, the big question mark was whether the visas would be approved, or if the Brazil Embassy could be convinced to issue tourist visas. I called up the embassy, and Nelson said that the fax fro Brazil would only come through at 10+am. I called up the reporters to ask them to standby for the 2pm flight – it was a mad rush for them as well, to standby for something that may not come through. There was peace in my heart and I decided not to fret but go for breakfast, in preparation for a mad series of events to come.

At 10am, when I went to the embassy, Nelson said he received something from Brazil and they were going to talk to his boss about it. Didn’t promise anything specific. In the meantime, I was trying to call Singapore Airline’s number, as I didn’t have the direct number of the chap who was handling my excess luggage request. Praise God! He called my handphone instead! (Anyone who has dealt with Singapore Airlines’ backend side would know how much or a favour this is). He told me not to worry, that he would just change the request again for the 2pm flight once I confirmed that.

Nelson came down twenty minutes later but still didn’t say anything. Finally, at 10.45am, he confirmed that he was going to issue the journalist visas! Finally, at 11.20am, I received the visas. My travel agent issued the tickets immediately, SIA changed the excess luggage request, the reporters went to the airport at 12pm and I saw them off. As I explained to Cheryl, I’ve never been quite so happy to send anyone off! And we didn’t even have to book any equipment in Brazil!

When God does something, He does it perfectly, as our salvation is perfect. God has given me this lesson to learn to lean on His strength once again. In this mad job, I am always very tempted to do, do and do more without consulting or remembering God during my work hours. And this experience also affirmed that this job is where God wants me to be. Although it has meant much less time for my family and for the music ministry, He has supported my family and ministry where it has been impossible for me to do so.

Next week would be another week of adventure, preferably not as heart-stopping!

Emails from God

Of recent years, I have been pondering about God's direction for my life. It has been about 6 years now. Today, at the end of bible study class, I was back in front of my computer at home. Microsoft Outlook was up and I wondered about the sense of expectancy that cause me to hit "Send/Receive" time and again. At work and at home. What was I waiting for? An email from God with directives? Had He not given all He needed to tell me in His Word?