His unexpected artwork


Haven't written for a long time, but boy do I have a good story for you, and I had to put this down on paper. Oh alright, on cyber-paper.


Easter's just come and gone, and it's been a fruitful week, starting with a TGIF party where a cell member's bro-in-law accepted Christ, followed by Saturday G12 meeting with Pastor, followed by Sunday consolidator duty with a PRC student new believer, plus another new believer introduced through my wife's cell, followed by Monday debrief with cell leaders who ran Friday's TGIF, followed by Tuesday, um OK nothing on Tuesday APART FROM NORMAL WORK OF COURSE!!!!!, followed by Wednesday normal cell, followed by Thursday meeting with cell cluster mates, plus lunchtime dry run for office cell Easter event, followed by Friday 2nd dry run for office cell, and today, the actual Easter event for Life Community Services children with tons of games and movie screening etc etc and finally tomorrow Sunday follow-up with the new believers from last Sunday!!!!!!!!!

Phew.

Anyway, the new believer from Friday and the new believer from Sunday have the same first name. For illustration purposes, let's call them Brian Ng and Brian Ho. As a responsible cell leader I'm following up and getting them to start attending church regularly. For reasons unimportant to this story, I'm trying to make arrangements to meet both of them before church at 9 am at the Singapore Expo. Brian Ng, who is my cell member's brother in law whom we have been praying for for some time, and for his extended family as well, says he will try to meet me at church on Sunday at 9 am (he doesn't sound so sure). Brian Ho, the new fellow, says he will also meet me at 9 am (he sounds keen). Hallelujah and so far so good (more or less).

Later, I find out that Brian Ng may not be able to go, so I offer to drive him to the Expo to make things easier. I'm starting to worry that he won't be able to go to church after all, and wonder if he's backtracking because he's been struggling over his salvation decision for years.

Later still, I find out that Brian Ho also wants to bring his mother to Hokkien service on Saturday (Hallelujah again!!). The Hokkien service is at Marine Parade. So I of course offer to accompany them.

I sms Brian and say "are you bringing your mother to Hokkien service?"

To which he replies "my mum last minute cannot go. These few weeks I am busy on Sunday so I will go to Hokkien or Mandarin service at Marine Parade."

Well, I guess that's unfortunate. So I sms again and ask Brian, since his mum is not able to go to Hokkien service, whether he can join us as earlier agreed, at the Expo at 9 am.

To which he replies, "No, I am already in Hokkien service, can't talk now. By the way, my mum will try to go to Mandarin or Hokkien service next week."

Hmm. Confusing. What is he doing at Hokkien service, since his mum cannot go? And I thought we agreed he would meet us at Expo? Oh well.

Then it hits me. I've been messaging Brian Ng.

Brian Ng, who has never mentioned that he would be bringing his mother anywhere this weekend, much less to church. But for whom we have been praying for this very thing to happen, as he is the influential eldest son in the family.

So when I asked Brian Ng whether he was bringing his mother to Hokkien service (when I meant to ask Brian Ho), Brian Ng obligingly (and confusingly, for me) asked his mother to go to church!! The very thing we had been praying for, but hardly the thing that I thought I was doing when I was messaging!!

So incredibly, the end result is this. Brian Ng, who quite possibly wasn't even going to turn up in church on Sunday, as he sounded quite doubtful, ended up going to church after all, albeit in the Hokkien service. Even better, as a result of my mistaken SMS, he has asked his mother to go to church! And of course, Brian Ho, who from the start was quite happy to go to church on Sunday, will in fact be meeting us tomorrow.

Even reading this back, I'm not sure that anyone will understand what I'm saying. So just think about how confusing it was for me as I was going through it :)

But the bottom line is this. It is once again demonstrated to me that God works in mysterious, and quite humorous ways. And this is one of those rare occasions where He actually allowed me to see how His lateral thinking and planning produces a better result than any I even imagined. No doubt there have been many many other situations where He has engineered a situation that appears to be at odds with what I expected or planned for myself, achieved a fantastic result, and I did not even see it.

But now, more than ever, I know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Even when we can't see it.

For His ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9)

A very blessed and happy Easter to everyone :)

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