Love that break boundaries
Today service was really mind-blowing.
The story about the 10 lepers has been one of my favourite stories in the entire bible.
But to see it come to life really amazed me.
I was facing a lots of obstacles while on my way to service.
After a late night outing with my CG, I reached home at 3.50am, slept at 4.30am, and planned to wake up by 7am but my mum, unknowingly, took away my handphone as she found it a bad habit for me to sleep with my handphone beside me, so I never heard the alarm and I missed the time to wake up. I slept till 9.30am, woke up to find out that I missed Chinese Church Service, so I decided to go for Service 4 instead and just so happened, Jenny [NTU China Student] called me and said her sister and her are on the way to church, I don't have to wait for them and oh my, I felt really bad, I promised myself to wake up early and accompany them for the service due to the fact that Jenny's sister, Jane, was a visitor and she really want to see how our church function and she went for Service 1 yesterday and was really amazed by the acting of Pastor Steve Munsey and so she really want to go for Chinese Church Service and she managed to drag Jenny with her, and there I was, still at home, woke up with slight fever and flu and I missed the service.
So instead of accompanied them, I could only prepared for Service 4.
But the journey wasn't easy.
1st = My shoes was spoiled. Actually, I felt that I should wear my converse shoes but I wanted to go church early so I decided to wear another pair of shoes, but turned out, it was slightly spoiled, so I was on my way to the interchange after I went to take a look at a shop at Bukit Panjang Plaza and my shoes just failed me when I exited from the shopping mall.
In a moment time, I rushed back home or at least I was at my flat and asked my sister to help me get my converse shoes.
2nd = I ran back to the bus stop and there it was, my bus to Boon Lay Interchange, in a hurry, I ran across the traffic light [Of course it was green man, or else I shall be with my heavenly Father] and chased after the bus, with a laptop bag [charger and laptop all intact] and my big and heavy handbag.
3rd = I waited like 15 minutes for 241. It was 11.50am and I prayed that by 12.15pm I will reach church and lo and behold, I reached 2 minutes before the time and I decided to take the stairs as the lobby was jam packed with people and man, it was tough with many stuffs and I was feeling giddy...
4th = Finally I found a good seat at 2nd row, but... A sister came to me, and told me I looked familar and I thought she was just being friendly, seeing that I was alone. So I smiled at her and asked her a few questions so that I can know how come she found me familar then suddenly she whispered to me and asked me, can I shift to third row cause they were sitting as a zone, and feeling stunned, I shifted with a sad feeling in my heart.
BUT! The story didn't end here.
As I was feeling sick and down and asking God for healing, suddenly 3rd row seem to have many seats and I was shifted to the center of the row. At first, I was hoping to get a center seat at 2nd row, but nonetheless, as I looked carefully, I gotten a center seat. And I had nothing much to complaint cause God know how much I want to be at the center.
And as I was worshipping, God reminded me of a good old aunt that I gotten to know during my SOT days last year. Her name is called Jane and she was from China.
At the beginning of SOT, last year, when I first started out coming to church early in the morning, at around 7am, I will always queue up 1st than anybody else yet I was afraid to be the 1st so I let someone queue in front of me [who was Renata, if Renata is reading this, it was such a good memory right? To always queue up together. ^^] and the 1st time I came so early was 1 month after SOT. I was very provoked and desired to experience God even deeper and my pcgl at that time, saw this told me that I don't need to sit with the team at the back if I really want to sit at the front thus, she told me, unless I wanted to book seats for them, it is alright for me to sit at the front.
And that time, I started to come early, really early, compared to 8am in the morning and when the door opened, crazily, all of us ran into the lifts.
Then when I was in the hall, it was so messy and people are booking seats left right and center and I found a corner seat at the center 1st row of the floor area. I was a little upset cause I was hoping to sit at the center seat of the row and I was asking God how come it was like this? I came early and hoping to encounter You and along the way, everyone were so busy booking seats that they don't even spared a seat for me. Then I saw an empty seat, I don't know it was meant for the sound man, so I felt God telling me, why not you sit down here. And I happily sat down. Then to my amazement, we needed to shift and that time a brother, Leslie, was suppose to sit at the seat beside me and the middle age lady, Jane, was suppose to sit beside them and I actually shifted their bags.
To Leslie, he was alright cause he knew I came 1st in the morning but to Jane, she was upset and asked me how come I shifted her bag and I recognised her as the one who snatched my whole row of seats for my team mates once and I was pretty much upset with her.
Yet at the same time, I felt bad for shifting the seats and I asked God why this happening to me? It made me felt bad sitting at the center of the row.
But I never knew why until that very same day, Pastor talked about loving one another.
I went back home, feeling unsure about accepting someone who was unreasonable.
Yet the next time, as I came to church, I found myself helping her to book a seat. She was running but everyone gotten in front of her and as she came to the row, I turned to her and told her that I left a seat for you and she was so touched and our relationship took a turn.
A few months later, in Jun, Pastor Mike came to minister to us and during one of the break, she started sharing with me why she came to Singapore CHC Bible School.
She shown me a letter her daughter wrote and with tears she shared with me that she came here to learn how to love. She grew up in a broken down family that no one in her family accepted her because she was born as a girl and as she grew up, she carried this bitterness within her that even after her marriage, she found herself hard to love .
Her daughter grew up not knowing how to relate to her and even after Jane got saved, her daughter chose to stay away from her then to connect to her. This relationship is distant and it caused her tremendous pains and hurts.
Her church really supported her and loved her but she wanted to feel the true love of God and love her daughter back and hoped that her daughter can love her back.
She asked me to accompany her to see Sister Jo, Pastor Mike's wife and supported her.
She don't understand english and Sis Jo spoke in english but during the moment Sis Jo looked toward me as Jane approached her and I helped Sister Jo to translate as Jane gave her the letter that was written by her daughter in english and as Sis Jo ministered and I was translating, Jane was crying and I was tearing. The presence of God was tremendous and the testimony that Sis Jo was sharing about her daughter touches our heart.
It was hard to imagine what Pastor Mike and Sis Jo went through in those moments when they were facing the reality of how to accept their daughter when she committed sins and how they chose to forgive and forget and helped their daughter to move forward in life and really, it was something I can't ever forget.
As God reminded me of this during worship, I was tearing.
I really missed Aunty Jane.
Before SOT ended, she passed me some snacks and we had a wonderful times of fellowship and after an email, I never received a reply from her.
And today as Pastor Steve talked about accepting others and loving others and the level of forgiveness determined our level of faith, I was reminded of all the offenses we encountered during SOT and how God brought us through.
And I was reminded that now I am going to another level and my level of forgiveness must surely increases.
When sins abound, grace abound more.
We must always be graceful toward people, and love them no matter what happened. I learning this and will continue to work toward it.
Love break through walls and boundaries and it broke through mine and will continue to break it through.Labels: Love
Remembering the LORD @ 1:34 AM
