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Back from Gen12..

4:30 PM

I'm back from my mission trip.. can see that there is not much excitemt that im back.. cos I want to stay on for a longer period of time.. but all gd things come to an end.. I really dun want to leave.. quite sad during the last day..

Hmm.. God let me learnt a lot of things thru this 9 short days.. really.. the ward we went to is the Hope ward.. it is a male ward.. they assigned us to go to the male ward becos the male residents are more reserved.. and not like the female residents who are more chatty.. thus they dun feel that lonely..

There are 61 male residents in Hope ward.. only abt 6-7 can actually walk.. the others are either bed-ridden or wheel-chair bound.. very sad.. really.. more than half of them of those who are bed-ridden and wheel-chair bound, they are either left or right paralyze.. or paralyze from waist downwards..1/4 of the residents are mentally demented.. some are blind or deaf.. some are deaf and mentally demented.. some are blind and mentally demented.. most of them are stroke patients.. some of them cant speak.. but thank God that majority of them are able to consume food.. some of them who cant eat, the nurse will feed them milk thru a tube in their nose..

For me personally, one of the elderly, Mr Sim, I ministered to receive salvation!! Praise God!! He is bed-ridden, unable to consume food, cant really speak..I ask him if he wants Jesus in his heart, close his eyes and pray with me in his heart as he cant speak.. he closed his eyes!! And I ask him 3 times.. each time he responded.. im so happy!! Haha.. it was challenging to come up with a sinner's prayer in Hokkien on the spot.. although im quite fluent in Hokkien, when it comes to praying in Hokkien.. it is a great challenge man.. but thank God!!He gave me the wisdom and words to pray.. I was so happy!!! Then after that, me and noel sang some Hokkien gospel songs to him.. and after the whole thing, he smiled at me!!!AH!!! I was overjoyed!!it made my day man!!!! Then everyday, I will clean his face for him and he gladly let me do it.. Haha.. he is one of my favourites!!

Then I went to another dorm in the same ward.. this 47 yr old resident, Mr Chua, was quite friendly to me at first.. then when I started to share Christ with him, his hand wanted to hit me.. then at first I tot it was an involuntary action.. then I think nothing of it.. then I stayed beside his bed close to him.. a while later, his hand hit my face.. I was taken aback of cos.. but after that, I still minister to him everyday.. although he ignored me for a few days, he waved to me again.. then he ignored me again.. nvm.. will still cont to talk to him.. our team will do a follow up of 6 mths.. and will be going down again this coming fri to wheel them to a nearby park.. I will talked to him again.. =)

Every wed or fri, the home will let 4 residents to be wheeled out to Lot1 shopping mall.. they can buy whatever they want or we can just bring them out for window shopping.. only on weds.. then Mr Koh, whom lynn and I wheeled out on 13/5.. one of his ear is deaf.. but his mind still can work normally.. very coherent.. so no prob talking to him.. spoke to him in mandarin.. we shared Christ with him.. he was not very receptive.. but.. he asked us to bring him to buy 'baos'.. so we did.. and he told us he want to treat us to one big 'bao' each!! I was so touched!! Of cos I refused.. he insisted.. but come to think of it, that's the only way he can show appreciation and bless us.. so we kindly accepted the offer.. im really very very touched.. so sweet.. oh man.. Mr Koh is a very nice and friendly resident.. everyday when I talked to him, he will wave at me.. then I will hold his hand.. then he will talk to me.. chit chat with me.. really like him a lot.. hee hee..

Then there is this Mr Phua.. he was borne in San Francisco.. so he is very fluent in his English.. but the thing is.. he was recovering from his 1st stroke when the 2nd one hit him again.. then after that, his vocal cord was damaged and he is paralyzed on the right.. but hey!! His brain is still functioning very well.. still can joke with me.. and how I communicate with him? You all know small children they have this board and a pen.. then they will write on it.. then there will be something to push or pull to erase whatever that is written on the board? Yup.. Mr Phua used that to communicate with me.. he will write whatever he want to tell me on the board.. then I will reply him by speaking.. cos he still can hear.. some of the words he used I dunno the meaning.. then he has to explain to me.. steady right?? His English is powerful!! He is a very sensitive and educated man.. he has a close-knitted family and it is a gd news!! =)

Then there is this Mr Lim.. nickname 'Father'.. cos he used to evangelise a lot in the ward and is even attending City Harvest uptill now.. wow!! He can walk and is very coherent too.. his Chinese is superb!! Phew.. thank God my Chinese is not that bad.. so can communicate with him.. you can expect idioms and Chinese sayings from him, and the history of China.. haha.. I listened to him.. he is very cute!! Halfway thru the conversation, he will just say he is thirsty and just drink.. so cute!! Haha.. like him a lot!! Now, he din evangelise le.. cos I think it is the discouragemt and disappointmt.. but it is ok.. will encourage him.. heh.. he is one of my favourites in the ward also.. LOL..

Hmm.. when it come to the last day.. I really dun want to leave.. I sang 'kan wa eh qiu' ( hold my hand ), a Hokkien gospel song by Lim Gee Tiong to Mr Yeo.. he cried.. oh man.. I also cried.. but I dun dare to let him see.. cos I dun want to make him even more sad.. so I hug him tightly by his side and put my head behind his so that he cant see that im crying.. I tried not to cry too much.. seriously, im very unwilling to leave the home.. I want to stay with them for a longer period of time.. but really cant.. so.. no choice.. but thank God that I can visit them as and when I can.. I miss them already just after I left the home.. uncle Nam Lai also cried.. he told me that he is very sad that we are leaving.. oh man.. I also almost cried.. gave him a hug before I left..

Thru this trip, I had seen how fragile life is.. you dunno wat is going to happen the next moment.. in the midst of this trip, we received news that one of the crusade staff, Christopher, passed away becos of leukemia.. went to his wake service.. went thru a lot of life events in this mission trip..

The simplicity of life in the old folks home.. the home gave the old folks good food, like chicken and desserts everyday.. really.. gd food.. who say old folks home offer lousy food? Oh no! there is physiotherapy for the old folks and each assign a personal physiotherapist.. then there is kopitiam hour for them whereby they will go to level 1 and drink coffee and chit chat.. there are 2 services every week.. and doctors.. but the point is.. although there are so many activities for them, you can just see the simplicity of life in them.. you just make them a crane and they will be very happy and smiling away.. you take a foto with them and give the foto to them, they will be thanking you again and again.. sometimes, we really do take things for granted.. dun we?

Im very heavily burden for the old folks.. not burden as in saying that they are trouble.. no.. not that kind of burden.. but burden for their souls.. burden abt where they will be in the future.. that's why.. I was weeping and crying to the Lord.. telling the Lord not to allow the devil to take them away unless they had been saved.. I refused to let God go.. for those who are blind, deaf, mentally demented.. seriously.. got no ways to reach out to them.. but hey!! I pray that God will just open up their physical and spiritual eyes and ears to hear and see when we minister to them.. and to give those who are mentally demented the understanding of the Good News.. I can only depend on God.. cos I cant possible pry open their brain, restructure it and stitch it up to make them understand.. I can only depend on the Holy Spirit.. I really learnt to depend fully on God thru this mission trip..

And one more.. patience.. those who know me, will know that im not a very patient person in nature.. but when you talk to the old folks, some of them need half a min to process what you tell them.. so you can only get a reply a few minutes later if you nit to repeat your sentence or quests a few times.. it really taught me patience.. I want to give up sometimes.. but hey!! Jesus did not give up on us, He did not give up on His disciples although they denied him.. and giving up wld mean that you are giving up one soul.. oh.. how precious that one soul is.. so cannot give up.. cont to persevere..

It is a very fruitful trip for me.. although it is a local trip, precious lessons can still be learnt.. if you go there with an open heart and allow God to use you and change you, be it local or overseas.. really thank God for the 7 salvations that we had!! AMEN!! 7 more names written in the Lamb Book of Life!! How wonderful!! Praise the Lord!! =)

I miss them.. really.. and my beloved team!! For communal living, I will leave it to another entry.. if not it will really be very long.. heh..

Having SMT later at 2pm.. meeting Joshua for lunch at little India at 12pm.. then worship prac with noel.. then 7pm will be the Gen12 Commissioning for wave 2 : passing the baton.. so exciting!! Heh..

I miss Mr Sim, Phua, Koh, Father,etc.. everyone in the Hope ward.. my prayer will always be with you all..

"Look! Here I stand at the door and knock. If you hear me calling and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal as friends."

Revelation 3:20

posted by cookoxt31 on 4:30 PM
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