Journeying together

I know it's only Saturday but since I have time now, I thought I'd better that advantage of that. Yesterday was Friday (obviously because today is Saturday) and well, let me just tell you what's been going on.

 

Friday morning around 3:30am (yes, that's 3:30am), my mum and I got a phone call. It just happened that my grandmother (mum's side) has been hospitalised and from later phone calls and checks, had a liver tumour removed and discovered that cancer had developed and spread. I'm not sure on the medical details but in short the doctors have said there's not much they can do. She had been quite ill already before but nothing quite as serious as this.

 

As you can imagine, it was very hard to go back to sleep after that kind of phone call and I spent most of the followsing hours in prayer... worried, anxious prayers but I Praise God for the confidence we can have in Him and His sovereignty and so, he granted me sleep and I managed to sleep for an extra half-hour before having to get up at 6am to leave for my first class. (Psalms 127:2) It's amazing now to think that I survived the whole day! I didn't even get a headache but just felt tired here and there. I say worried and anxious because my grandmother is not a believer. In fact the only other Christian that is related to us is my dad's dad. My dad's side, however, has been a bit more open to the gospel and have turned mostly to Catholicism which, at least is "closer" to the truth whereas my mum's family has stayed in their Chinese religion and can be very stubborn about their beliefs. This is one reason my mum is most anxious about her mother.

 

Since that first call, she has made several calls to various friends and family at home, whom has graciously visited my grandmother on my mum's behalf and tried to share the gospel with her. As I mentioned, she is quite a stubborn person so unfortunately, it didn't get very far. I am slightly encouraged, however, to have heard that one of my youngest cousins (who we just found out last year is autistic and struggling to get into a school for A levels) on my mum's side had been keenly listening to what my friend and her pastor had to say (by the way, Jonathan, if you're reading this, it was Aunty Fong Meng who went to visit my grandmother with your pastor). I think it was especially hard because the dialect spoken as very different. Strangely and very sadly enough, we cannot seem to find anyone who speaks Hokkien who can share the gospel with her in her own language.

 

My mum and I have also been discussing when she'd be able to go back to Singapore since it's quite hard to get away with so many things happening here and my dad being away in Greenland.

 

Anyway, my day carried on as "normal" as it could be and I was forced to put those thoughts out of my mind whlie doing maths (yay...). I was thinking about skipping OCF but I had actually invited two friends (Jing and Anastasia) who are both from Russian but Jing is originally from China instead, to join me for dinner followed by OCF. I was NOT about to pass up the opportunity of finally being able to bring both of them. I was TERRIBLY encouraged by the presence alone of Christian fellowship and, although I thought I was going to accidentally fall asleep, I really felt during the time of worship especially that the Holy Spirit was just doing something amazing... and those of you who were there, maybe, could see that by the time we got to the Bible study, I was pretty much hyper more than zombie. Just adding a little bit to what was said, yes, SO often I don't FEEL like doing SO many things but I think an aspect of Faith is doing something not because you FEEL like doing it but because you KNOW it's RIGHT to do it. My dad has this phrase that freedom is being able to "do what is RIGHT not what you LIKE", which I know is not the same thing but seems so much more alike in that sense.

 

Just looking at the blur that is the last couple of paragraphs I think I must stop here. As a conclusion of sorts, I feel that this situation, as hard as it seems, is such a great way to be able to learn about God's grace and goodness. Especially now that I think about the numerous people that I know of who are going through similar struggles (I just wrote to an email to a friend who is going through almost exactly what my mum is) and how I can relate so much better to them now because I can understand what and how they must be feeling. I guess it's times like these that as a body of Christ we can uphold one another in prayer and support, almost like seeing God's body in motion and God's hand above it all. Praise the Lord! I truly hope and pray that MANY MANY good things will come out from this as He promised in His most precious word. (Romans 8:28) This verse is so much more real this way.

 

Thank you so much for all your prayers. Please also pray for my other grandparents who are not doing well physically and also for my mum's family that maybe through this. they will be touched by the people who visit my grandmother on my mum's behalf. Pray also for the working our of when my mum will be able to fly back and just all those little details. 'Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord.'- Psalms 31:24

 

Because He is Lord,

Debbie

What a week it has been. I'm going to go ahead and blame it all on the fact that my dad is back..heehee. Just kidding, of course, it is wonderful to have him back again to accompany me safely to OCF and back again when it's late night...and also just for various conversations that we have. Unfortunately, he's off again on Wednesday to good ol' Greenland, who (bless them) have been showing their enthusiasm for his return since last year. I guess it's back to "cold cuts and cheese" for my mum and I. =0)

 

What happened in my busy week last week? Well, I was working on Monday evening, Tuesday evening was an extra Bible study (preparing for an evangelism workshop on Friday night), Wednesday was kinda my day off as far as I can remember, Thursday was a good dinner out with some of the team members from Forest Hill and Frida, of course was OCF. Maybe it was the pressure but I was feeling especially annoyed/upset.... on Friday mostly because of some misunderstandings with my travel card and to cut a long story short, I was made to pay a £20 fine for having the wrong card, which actually wasn't but I was too tired to argue much and happened to have the money in my purse.

 

When I got home, pretty much humiliated from the whole experience from having about 6 officers watching me pay a fine and exhausted and well, honestly, not a very happy camper, I thought to myself, "great, I wonder if I'll still have to go and share how wonderful my week is going". If you can imagine it, I was trying to convince my dad to let me stay home that evening while at the same time knowing that OCF usually does a good job and helping me refocus on the healer of all wounds. (When the music fades all is stripped away...turn your eyes upon Jesus...and the things of this world will grow strangely dim). Of course, in the end I went (my dad's very good and convincing me to do things I wouldn't normally do) and was blessed by the fellowship of other Christians as well as, it must be said, the wonderful time is Praise and Worship.

 

Something else I'm really quite proud of, is the fact tat I've finished reading through Genesis...I know it doesn't sound like much but when you're going through some of the geneologies and trying to leanr something from them, it does feel a little tedious. In any case, I've really learnt a lot in the last week from my daily readings and time spent with my God. I'm now reading about Moses...learning about the name of the Lord... "I AM". It's so amazing isn't it? I've had a couple of times where I've wished that there was someone around to share this with though Christians my age around me, that I know well enough, are sometimes quite rare. I think this has really taught me more about relying on God and His presence and company.

 

Well, thanks for some of your emails and stuff, it NEVER fails to be an encouragement and blessing to me. By the way, my family and I are going to the Logos 2 at the end of March with a group of students mostly from Nottingham (Sadly, no one from OCF and, can you believe it, only 1 guy out of like 8!) so we're really excited about that and praying in advance for those involved and for all the things that will be happening then. I think we're still hoping and praying, even though it is a little late, that at LEAST one more guy will come along so that the guy already coming won't be TOO alone and surrounded by too many "over-powering" females. At least my dad will be there to give some support. =0) Anyway, yea, I think we would really appreciate your prayers for this trip in particular since it's the biggest one we'll be taking so far this year (11 people including my dad, mum and myself). Pray that God will already be preparing us and our hearts as well as those that we speak to and of course, also for the ship and it's ministry and as it travels towards Malta in the coming weeks. By the way, if any of you (in England) are interested in joining this little group, please email myself or my dad REALLY REALLY soon. The costs are about £200 in total (flights, accomodation, breakfasts and dinners) and the dates are going to be from the 24th of March till the 2nd of April.

 

As usual, I'm sorry if this "email" has gone on longer than YOU have hoped but really, if you didn't want to read it all, you didn't have to so thanks for getting this far.

Because He is Worthy,

Debbie