Blessings from Far-Far-Away Land

Come Fly with Me
“The earliest flight out is 9pm and that will be 200 bucks, thank you!” Wait a minute, you mean we have to wait 11 hours to fly out? That was the predicament Ian and I found ourselves in. We completely took things for granted that we’ll have a smooth ride into that land far far away, until God bumped us back into reality! “Wake up and prepare for battle” He says. It was a good wake up call for us to be on our knees already. God allowed it because that was His way of waking us up and giving us the time to fellowship and prepare for our messages. Praise the Lord for His mercy.

Up Close and Personal
Far-Far-Away turned out to be a very pleasant place – nicer than I envisioned it to be. A decent bed and proper amenities, albeit the lack of a bathroom. We ate what we were given and I have to admit I have no idea what I was eating most of the time. And naturally, coming from the land of the “EEEeeee”, we felt the compulsion to shower everyday, and so we found ourselves asking if we could shower every day at 5pm. Poor folks, they must be bewildered. “Why are these people showering every day?!” (you see right, bathing was an event, a once in a while thing for them) And when they brought us there, they were even more petrified. The 2 of us simply went into the shower for 5 mins and we’re done. The locals look at us like we’re mad. Everyone of them who goes to the public bath will spend a long time there enjoying the steam bath and getting massaged. But we were like, “Nope, no naked men touching us, thank you!” haha.

Ok so the culture part took a little while to get used to. But, trust me, they really have the gift of hospitality. I felt like I have lived there for a while. They do not have much but they give us their best. They bought breakfast for us and yet they secretly ate the leftovers from the day before. Amazing people. Praise the Lord for the Christian warmness that knitted us together like a big family.

Eh Ian, How to Say ah?
In the beginning was the Word… Ok, I meant when I preached the word in the language for the first time, I couldn’t even express myself. Then it dawned on me that maybe, just maybe, my command of the language is not anywhere near competent. I could not even complete one sentence without stuttering! And obviously, I could not pray in that language! It was truly embarrassing; without fail, every meal time someone will definitely invite me to give thanks for the food and every time Ian had to come to my rescue. (Trust me, their giving thanks is different from ours. Not only were they long but they ended with the Lord’s Prayer. All in that unfamiliar language!). And worse still, even my manuscript I had to trouble Annie n Meishan to translate for me simply because it took me too long a time to write in that language. Praise the Lord for these 2 sisters! And so, I decided to preach off the script because of my apprehension and my lack of confidence conversing in that unfamiliar language. Of cause Ian, being that encouraging man, told me about how other predecessors used by the Lord were like; and what their learning experience was like. That seemed to blot out my feelings of inadequacy for a little while.

Pastor, You Sure our Church is Not good Enough?
Yes, it is not. When Pastor first preached that our church has a lot of growing up to do, I could roughly see, though not entirely, where he was coming from, thinking that he could be reminding us to be humble. But when I saw the church in that Far-Far-Away land, I saw precisely which angle he was seeing it from. I was indeed humbled! What fervor! What love for the Lord! What passion for the gospel! We saw old men (of 70-80 yrs old) cycling 7-8km just to listen to young nobodies preach. We saw their hunger for the word of God. To think I myself cannot even sit there listening to the word of God for more than 2 hrs! It’s crazy! And they’re just digesting and copying down everything we preached. They’re like a huge sponge! Ok, not sponge bob, I meant their ability to soak in everything that we preached.

We saw their humility. As they warmed up, they were asking questions at every possible opportunity. It was also the first time I had people calling me teacher, even though more than ¾ of them are much older than me. Physical poverty but spiritual richness indeed. I witnessed the spirit of God sweeping into the room and tears of joy overflow in their hearts. They are just so simple. Everyone laughed so hard when Ian played the simplest of game with them – Simon Says. Try that in Singapore, try. I’m sure the response will be: “Ian I think we need a more mature and fun game.”

Eureka! Faith triumphs!
After the first part of the trip, we had the chance to meet up with PC and of course we had fantastic food. Ah, the hard work of missions! However, while chatting and fellowshipping, PC mentioned that he thought that I could preach without the script, it was just that I didn’t have the confidence. It was a short short comment. In fact, that’s exactly all he said and he moved on. But that one sentence got me thinking real hard. In my mind, it was like impossible! It’s mad! It’s like walking in the dark not knowing what to expect! Until then I haven’t even had a proper conversation with the locals. I remember chatting one night with some guys my age and I could not even complete my sentences without stopping for super long to think of how I can express myself. So many times I had to run into the room and ask Ian how to translate what I wanted to express. Many times during fellowship I kept quiet simply because I really didn’t know how to say what I want to say.

So, one night before the next phase of preaching, God just put it in my heart that I must take a step of faith. He reminded me that every time I did well in my spiritual life, it was when I took steps of faith. So I told Ian that I was going to preach without looking at my manuscript (just so that I cannot back out). Humanly, this meant risking long awkward silences and worse still, inability to complete my sermon. The apprehension and fear was immense. But I knew I HAD TO take that step of faith for God to bless. My confidence just needed to be from the Lord, instead of myself.

I was scheduled to preach the next morning. When I arrived there, I was immediately hit with a bolt of severe stomach cramps. I had been suffering from diarrhea for the previous 4 days because I wasn’t used to the food there. You see right, in my 23 yrs of weak stomach experience, if my stomach starts aching, it has never just stopped. I usually will end up curling up on the floor in pain, and then void of energy after going to the toilet. But when Ian prayed for me, even though I was still groaning in pain, I had full faith that God will fix it. You see, He even took into account my faithlessness when the day before, He again fixed my stomach pain when Ian and I were both outside in a place where there isn’t a proper toilet. And sure enough, our God is so good, and He stopped the cramps just as I walked out from the prayer room. Amazing! God has been using my weak stomach to show me that I am still a weak person throughout the whole trip; that I desperately needed to depend on Him to do His work. Without which, I think I would have gone up in my flesh.

As I preached, I knew something was different. Suddenly I could preach in that language! I knew exactly what I was preaching and all that I needed to say! And the best part was, lo and behold, everyone still understood what I was saying! Tell me is that supernatural or is that supernatural? At the end of it, as I was walking back down the aisle, beaming with joy, inside I was shell-shocked. Working for God at the front line is SO great. I got the front seat row because I chose to take a step of faith to trust God so that He can be glorified!

If anything, my biggest takeaway from this trip, is to take the step of faith and trust God. My friends, stop limiting God. Step into the unknown with the Lord, and you can expect tons of blessings to flow your way. Perhaps China could be your calling? Praise the Lord, the sovereign and mighty God!