Prayers and Blessings

Really pleased to see my father-in-law's progress in his Bible study. More importantly the friendship he is building amongst the Golden Men, that he could let go of us on Sunday mornings and attend their gatherings and have coffee with them after Bible Study, which is after the Chinese Service, getting home at 5ish. He has even started attending midweek last Thursday, and this is happening far better than I had dared to hope for. I am really in awe of God's faithfulness, for all these would not have happened had it not been His will. Praise God!

Lately a lot has been happening to my immediate neighbours. First, a neighbour's Taiwanese wife got pregnant with the second baby and is having very bad morning sickness. Being alone in si8ngapore and her in-laws old and living far away, she was desperate for help to settle her 4yo son's meals. I offered to help since I cook every weekday lunch and dinner anyway. I guess this is a touching gesture to them for they are seriously considering coming to our church 'for the time being' instead of going to a church at Marine Parade where the Taiwanese mothers in the neighbourhood attend.

Another family with an elderly couple and their unmarried middle age daughter ran into some problems. The elderly man suddenly could not get down the bed one day from extreme pain in his leg, and he had to be sent to the hospital in an ambulance. The wife and daughter spent all day in the hospital, so I only get to enquire about his progress either early in the morning before they left or late at night when they are back. One Friday I was at the hospital to see my psychiatrist and decided to drop by and visit him. By chance I met his wife and daughter at the foodcourt. It was then that I discovered that Uncle Ang had been suffering from cancer for several years but he wasn't told about it. The whole family including another daughter and a son who have migrated to canada were all in a state of denial for years, but that day they had just been told by the doctor the cancer cells have spread and Uncle Ang had about 3 months to live. When I visited him at the ward, I gingerly asked if I could pray with him, fearing rejection as their family are Taoists and are not open even to attending church despite Uncle Ang's younger brother's constant invitation. To my pleasant surprise they were all agreeable. I prayed for his pain to subside, for him to be mobile again so that he may resume his normal routine of 5am brisk walking in the neighbourhood. His daughter Julie went to the toilet and cried, because to her, the prayers were impossible to be fulfilled. I continued to pray with Uncle Ang almost everyday when he was discharged on that Sunday, and I occasionally would cook dinner for him as he was on soft diet. I asked if he would like a pastor from our church to visit him and pray for him, but he turned down. Yet he continued to allow me to hold his hand and pray with him almost every evening when I visited him. And once again, God proved to be faithful, for yesterday Uncle ang actually got out of bed 4 times and walked around his living room, experiencing no pain at all! I took the opportunity to point out to him and his family that God has answered our prayers and let's continue to pray faithfully everyday. Please pray for me as I continue on my mission to reach out to Uncle Ang and his family that they will see God's faithfulness and agree to have a 'more powerful person' aka pastor to pray for him, thereby starting a Bible Study and completing it before it's too late.

I have a new neighbour who just moved in 1 week tomorrow. The man is a Singaporean Chinese and the wife is an Indonesian. They are Muslims. I am gathering the courage to invite them to this Friday's parenting workshop, and I am considering if it is too rude and abrupt to invite them to the Indonesian Bible Talk since I've known them for just a week. Pray for me for courage to approach them.

Well, these are the 3 families I have been trying to reach out recently, to love them unconditionally and develop a relationship with them so that I may help them to come to know Christ's unconditional sacrifice for them. Please pray for my mission, especially that with Uncle Ang as this comes with real urgency.

Amen.