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.