Am touched by God's hands of grace and love this past week.
This week, i've been mulling over some matters regarding a friend, financial issues regarding how best to save/earn money to purchase a MacBook Pro before Viscom starts in Year 2, including worries over not being able to get a job to earn money in time for the Vietnam STM, which I will be going with many of my lifegroup mates in 5-10 August. Kept thinking of all these things and I guess for a moment, the enemy distracted me away from God's assurance and love onto all these problems. Which led to the publishing of the previous-previous post.
Right away, God answered and responded to this cry, yesterday Sat morning.
Yesterday morning, I embarked on a open June sketchwalk session organised by the Urban Sketchers Singapore, a group of outdoor sketching enthusiasts in Singapore, inspired by its sister groups in many cities and countries all over the world. It just so happened that this month's session is held to be at Lavender/Jalan Besar area, which is a walk away from church, so I could easily go for my 5pm service yesterday afterwards. The sketchwalk was scheduled to be 9am-1230pm, where we would meet first at Lavender MRT, embark on our own walks at 9.30am and return to meet to display our sketches for all to see, at 1230pm at Jalan Besar Stadium.
Unfortunately, I was a tad late, so by the time I arrived at the meeting point at 9.45am, everyone had already dispersed. So I decided to set off myself to find places to sketch.
After I had finished a sketch at one of the neighbourhood areas in Jalan Besar, I decided to make my way to the stadium itself, in hope that I won't have to travel any more when the meeting time approaches.
Reached and realised there was a primary school Sports Day event going on at the field, wanted to find a way to get up to the highest floor, but couldn't seem to find a way in.
This was when an Indian uncle saw me probably looking rather lost, and approached me to ask if I needed any help. Explained to him that I wanted to get up to the stadium's floors to sketch the kids. When he found out I was here to draw, he recommended me to go to an Indian temple situated nearby, where he witnesses many artists going there to draw often. Found out he is a resident in Jalan Besar estate itself. (It was my first time exploring the estate!) He offered to bring me to the correct entrance of the stadium, which happened to be at the opposite end of the length, so I obliged.
Along the way, we talked more and it turns out he happened to be on his way to meet a friend at a coffee shop, near the Hindu temple. Shared w him that I am a design student in ADM, etc.. eventually, when we got to the other end of the stadium, I decided not to sketch the stadium anymore and wanted to go to the temple, since it seemed like a better subject to sketch than the stadium. He was a little pleasant surprised but agreed to bring me there anyway, since it was along the way for him.
We continued to converse, and I discovered he has travelled to places like Australia, New Zealand, to study/work, and he advised me with much zest that I should experience studying or working overseas some day, and not to let myself be bottled up in Singapore. Somehow the conversation trailed off to a point when he asked me of my religion.
"What is your religion, Buddhist?"
"Nope, Christian!"
"Oh, Jesus? Jesus is gooood! Jesus is strong!"
He gave me a thumbs up sign and began sharing about how he has a cross on the top of his entrance door at home, and whenever his friends come over to his house, they will comment that his house is very "...peaceful...". Additionally, he has prayed for friends who are sick but are miraculously healed in Jesus' name.
Wow, at that point, I was pretty blown away, because never did I expect him to believe in Jesus! Thought he was a Hindu or the like.. because after all, he recommended me to go to a temple, right? :) Also, he kept encouraging me to get away to a different country, so I thought he might have discontentment with his current residence in Singapore hahahah. (Cause my personal take would be, it has to be in God's will if I want to live/work/study overseas, otherwise it would be fruitless/pointless)
He even imparted me a method on how to see angels... hahaha! Which is essentially, to just pray really hard for God to let me see a glimpse of His heaven. Am unsure if he is teaching this based from his personal experience, but yup haha.
Somehow the conversation continued and we began sharing deeper. By circumstance of the conversation (which I realise now is probably God's directing lol) he got to learn about my family, me being the youngest, and my dad not being around any more. Think he sensed my burden for people as I shared, and he sensed I was feeling worried / burdened. He kept encouraging me, (in essence, can't rmb word for word) "Don't worry! Jesus is here! Just pray to Him and he will settle for you!" and I knew so, so strongly that God had sent this dear uncle not by random, but purposefully to remind me of His grace, His love, His sovereignty in my life. Know I am sounding like a wimp/baby but I couldn't help but tear/cry upon realising what God was doing in this encounter. Uncle Rajoo was taken aback when I did and kept asking me why I am crying, and told me to stop before people misunderstand the situation and think he is bullying me, hahaha!
Briefly after I teared, it began to drizzle, and unfortunately we didn't have an umbrella. At that point we were already reaching the temple. We rushed to a sheltered space beside the temple, and he initiated to exchange contacts. He commented, "See la! You cry, then Jesus also send rain down for you!" hahahahahahah not sure if that's the actual intention of God for sending rain down but anyhow the timing was really pretty divine. Because shortly after we parted at the temple and after I began to 'dry up', the drizzle ceased and the sky gave way to a beautiful, clear afternoon sky brimming with clear clouds.
Felt this pretty fatherly / pastoral love from this uncle / son of God when we were sheer strangers an hour ago.. know so clearly that this encounter is not by chance but is a divine intervention from God.
Uncle Rajoo also shared how he has friends who are sick. One of them is admitted to IMH and another is suffering from liver cancer. He actually requested for monetary help today but I wanted to buy the supplies he needed for his friend myself to go visit them to bless them personally, as I believe that would help them more, but he didn't reply to my messages about where I could find him/his friend. That was the initial plan today, with a couple other friends, but because he didn't respond we had to drop the plan. Praying that God will shower His presence SO evidently in his life, his friends' life, and lay His hands of MIRACLES on their health! If He is for us, who can be against us?
The same day (Sat), during service, there was an altar call, for various things, and one of them was about responding to surrender your life to Christ / God's will. Decided to respond to follow up on the response I did on the similar area called out during Acts Conference last week. Really, really wanted to learn to give up my carnal self to allow God to do so, so, so much more for His Kingdom through my life, but I really need God to teach me how. As I went up to the front of the auditorium to queue to be prayed for by one of the leaders, I briefly saw Jolene, the i/c of Hope Centre whom I've been working pretty closely with and the rest of the creative comms team for HC this holiday, and happily decided to join her queue, out of convenience + familiarity (her queue was very close to the row I came out from).
When it got to my turn to be prayed, she saw me and was pleasantly surprised, and said that when the altar call was announced, she was led to think to pray of me by God.
Wow.
I wanted to present my prayer requests to her, but somehow she just initiated praying immediately, so I followed suit. As we prayed, the points that Jolene spoke just so happened to be the points I wanted to share to her, in essence, which was about being obedient to God in my life, and to ask God to teach me to surrender more and more to Him. Wow! God also reminded me that He loves me so, so much and reminded me of His assurance of His plans, as well, which were things that I really, really needed to hear for this period of time.
Very, very timely word from God, through the prayer. Can't be more thankful for this! Thank You SO much Jesus! You do and still know my heart, inside out, after all this time.
Help me to do my best to glorify You in whatever I do, and learn to let go of what I can't control, because I know You are.
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