Filing in behind others in the immigration line
at the Changi airport in Singapore, my heart began to race as anxiety
surmounted within me.
"My daughter, did I
not say this time is not like the others?"
The Lord's smooth, calm voice came in a gentle whisper
to my fearful soul. In all my travels, I've had to emotionally,
physically, and spiritually prepare and guard myself from those who seek to
steal or prevent me from exiting customs without paying a price.
International immigration has never, by any means, been "safe"
for me.
But this time... this time was
going to be different.
Even before this adventure began, the Lord
ministered to both my aunt and I that this trip would be unlike any other we
had ever experienced. As one of the "Four
Asian Tigers," Singapore has done
extremely well for itself economically in the young 52 years it has been a
city-state. We were not traveling to an impoverished nation in the
world's eyes. I certainly couldn't afford the stay, let alone live there
on my bank account... yet, where God sends, God
provides.
The Lord was very stern with my aunt on this
particular issue as she was told that He would provide for all our financial
needs. If the Lord spoke this to her, I knew He would do it. I pictured
Him putting people in front of us with a "pentecostal handshake" on
the streets of Singapore or praying in our hotel room and dollar bills
appearing in our pockets (strange, yes, but it's all happened before!) ... I
recalled stories of missionaries past who were instructed by the Lord to stand
in line for a train ticket with not a penny to their name and then moments
before they reached the kiosk, an individual would turn to them and give
the exact amount they needed.
Nothing is impossible with God, and I knew if He
was calling us, He would do it.
Sure enough, literally TWO DAYS before I flew
out to Texas, my aunt called to say how the Lord impressed upon her that
breakthrough was coming. She didn't know from where or from whom, but the
Lord assured her that our needs would be supplied. She had purchased the
airline tickets and booked the first couple nights in faith from her own
savings several weeks prior, trusting and believing God would honor this act of
faith and obedience. That very morning, through the
generosity of others, the Lord provided enough to cover our airfare and our
entire stay in Singapore!
I arrived in south Texas Saturday, August 19th
and joined my aunt at her church the following day. To our surprise,
immediately following worship, the entire service was dedicated to our
commissioning and praying us out to do the Father's will. Never in my life have
I had a church pray for me as these brothers and sisters did. They anointed
our hands and feet with oil, prayed God's word over us, and stood in faith as
we all prayed in the Spirit for what was to come. Our brothers and
sisters at Christian Faith Center in Dilley, TX also took up a generous
offering which supplied all our food and ground transportation expenses while
in Singapore. I'm telling you, God did not spare one penny in providing
for His daughters!
As if that wasn’t enough, while we were being
prayed over, I had this vision of a ladder. I asked the Lord what this meant
and Jesus' words to Nathaniel came to me as I pressed in for understanding,
"Very,
truly I tell you, you will see 'heaven open and the angels of God ascending and
descending on' the Son of Man" (John
1:51).
In this part of scripture, Jesus was referencing
Jacob's vision while in the wilderness where the angels ascended and descended
under an open heaven (Genesis 28:12). Essentially, I sensed the Lord was
assuring us that we were walking under an open heaven in His power and authority for His glory!
The following day, we hopped on a
plane to San Francisco. Having never been to California, my aunt and I
decided to take a day exploring the city before flying 16 hours to Singapore.
Yet, San Francisco was not where He had sent us. Wednesday, August 23rd, we said goodbye to our beautiful United States of America, flew over the Pacific Ocean, and landed Thursday evening, August 24th.
When we arrived in Singapore, my instinct to guard myself from harm was strong. But again, the Lord assured me this was a completely different experience, nothing to fear in the physical realm.
Hungry Ghost offering
So, get this… from August 21st-September 19th
the Buddhist/Taoist observance of the Hungry Ghost Festival was taking place...
coincidence that we were there over the exact same time frame? I think not. Originating from Chinese folk religion, this is
when the gates of hell are willfully opened over the land and the deceased roam
in search for food and entertainment. To appease these "hungry
ghosts," ritualistic food and gift offerings, accompanied with burning
incense and joss paper, are set out on street altars. Street performances
called "getai" are held and the front row of red seats at these
events are reserved for these guests of honor... needless to say, it would be
extremely bad luck to sit in these seats.
A bit blurry, but one getai performance we walked past towards the end of our trip
Is not God so wonderful in all His ways? He knew He was sending us to a land where
the gates of hell had been opened,
yet even so, we were walking under the anointing, power, and authority of an open heaven!
We had His words in our heart, His fire in our bones, and His Spirit abiding in
us. Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world! (1John 4:4)
Nomads. We didn't know where we were to go, who
we would meet, nor what words He
would place in our mouths, the only thing we knew was that He would do it.
Remember God's words to my Aunt Phyllis just months before?
"Prepare
for Singapore. Nomads in Singapore, praying and doing My bidding.
See what you are doing here- getting My will and way for people there. You've
seen yourself doing this, you just think it's impossible. Did I not say I
would send you around the world for one person?... Your concept and My concept
of ministry is not always the same. Lauren understands this concept more
than you. She has done this and was doing this in Europe..."
Bear with me… I have labored over this blog more
than any other I’ve ever written. There
are so many pieces to this puzzle. Thing is, I still don’t think we
have them all! However, what pieces did
we have before we left?
When deciding where to stay, with our limited knowledge on the lay of the land,
my aunt had heard about two locations- Sentosa island and Orchard Road. With
those two names, we began praying and Orchard Road kept returning to us. Even though, in reality, it is a high-profile downtown
shopping district, the thought of trees yielding fruit flooded my mind with
“Orchard.” I was a little concerned that this buzzing atmosphere might be too
active for us introverts, but then I came upon this sign the following day and
took it as speedy confirmation! My aunt got right to booking our first nights.
One day while dog sitting this summer, a few
weeks before the trip, I brought in the daily newspaper. As I picked up the plastic sleeve, I noticed
the paper inside was wet. It hadn’t rained nor
was there any reason for this. I was quite perturbed as I removed the sopping paper
and began separating the damp sheets, laying them out on the kitchen table to dry. That’s when I saw it…
In big letters across the wilted Orlando Sentinel
read “Singapore aghast over a family
feud”...
Did God just pull a Gideon on me? I did a double take and immediately sat down
to read the contents. I don’t normally
read the newspaper on any given day, but perhaps the Lord saw fit to make this one damp
so that I WOULD read it. Honestly! The
story discussed the late prime minister’s estate and the family’s feud over
whether to open the home to the public as a museum or honor their deceased father’s
wish to tear down the property. In the first line of the article was the street
address of this “notorious” home.
For kicks, I pulled up Google maps and decided
to look up the late prime minister’s estate location in relation to our recently
booked hotel address on Orchard Road …
WHAT?!… COME ON! We knew we would be making this short mile walk to at least pray for peace for the family and whatever
else the Lord may direct us in.
And THEN, just 3 weeks before our departure, my
friend Jennie Bishop of PurityWorks informed me of
a recent email correspondence she had with a gentleman in Singapore... really,
does that surprise anyone? He inquired of how to procure a
princess charm for his daughter who is reading The Princes and the Kiss book
with the accompanying 24 life lessons book published by Revive Our Hearts. Their
church's bookstore sells these books but not the charms, and he desired to gift
his princess with a charm to mark this beautiful journey she's made in giving
her heart to Jesus.
How beautiful!
I told Jennie I would be MORE than happy to personally deliver this charm, if the Lord
permitted. So, with this one email contact, I sent a message to see how
we could meet up. He replied quickly with an invitation to his church's annual
carnival outreach... which just so happened to be on Saturday, just two days
after we arrived.
And that, friends, take us to the beginning of
this nomadic journey in Singapore. After a day of rest and prayer to get our
bearings, we got up Saturday morning to catch a taxi to Queenstown Baptist
Church to meet our first and only contact.
Two white females sure do stick out like a sore thumb,
as if being 6ft tall wasn’t enough reason! We were eagerly greeted and handed
welcome gift bags with detoxifying foot patches. I explained how we were invited by a brother
in the Chinese worshipping community named Yee Long and they sent a fellow sister
to look for him. We didn’t know what Yee
looked like nor from where he would come, but soon enough, the sweetest
gentleman approached us. Mr. Long showed us the
warmest of hospitality in ushering us around to try the various cultural foods
present.
There was quite a crowd! This event is held once
a year to invite the high rise communities of Queenstown, a zoned area within Singapore,
to enjoy fellowship, free food, entertainment, and receive an invitation to
church the following Sunday and/or an Alpha class. Through discussion with Mr. Long and one of
the pastors of the English worshipping community, we began learning a bit more
about Singaporean culture and discovered that this pastor spent a few
years studying in Texas! It truly is a small world.
Before leaving, I gave Mr. Long the princess
charm from Jennie and shared a bit of what the Lord did with her books
in the Dominican Republic. His daughter was surprised that I not only knew the
author, but that Jennie was actually my
friend! She even brought two friends
over, who also love Jennie’s book, to meet me!
Yee with his eldest princess
We were asked, “Do
you have a place to worship tomorrow? You are more than welcome to join us!” My
aunt and I had not received any further instruction from the Lord so we
accepted Yee’s invitation and came to church Sunday morning. What beautiful worship it was! There is
something so sacred about worshipping our Father in a new land with fellow
brothers and sisters you previously had never met.
God certainly had a hand in where we
sat. Before service began, a lovely
woman came to sit next to us of whom we learned works with Hudson Taylor’s
Overseas Mission Fellowship (OMF) and is originally from New Zealand. We spent time after service sharing a bit and
praying with one another. Crazy thing,
The Lord laid her so strongly on my heart as I, too, know the difficulties,
heartaches, and trials of serving in a foreign country as a single
missionary. However, between needing to
use the restroom and filing out of the sanctuary, we parted ways before we
could exchange contact information.
The Global Baptist Response directors over Asia happened to have been sitting just behind us during
church. We were introduced to this
couple after church and learned that they, like my Aunt Phyllis, served in the
Philippines AND are originally from Texas. One thing led to another and this wonderful
couple offered to walk with us to the MRT station and get us squared away with a
card and map. We were free to explore
all of Singapore!
MRT? Piece of cake!
On this short walk, we discovered that it is
against the law in Singapore to proselytize (share one’s religious beliefs with
the intent to convert). The country
prides itself in the acceptance and respect of individuals, their beliefs, and
encouraging the sharing of such. They
went on to share how the late prime minister brought strict laws (some of which
my aunt and I had learned before coming… such as you can be fined for not
flushing the toilet, chewing gum, singing in public, etc.) which brought order,
respect, and fear in many aspects. There was no tolerance for hate or violence
of any kind, and so acceptance of all backgrounds and beliefs was established. While
it is illegal to evangelize, we were
encouraged to sit at tables with others at “hawker” centres and strike up
conversations, inquiring about others’ faiths and, in turn, we would be invited
to share our own.
Newton Hawker stands
What did God speak to my aunt during worship our first Sunday that would lead us across town the next week?
Would we ever reconnect with our new
acquaintance from New Zealand?
Where all would we go?
Just how different would this trip be than all
the rest?
Stay tuned! I'm sure you need a breather just as much
as I do…
I can't wait for the next instalment and I know some of what is coming! makes me excited all over again.
ReplyDeleteYes, you sure do! God is AWESOME!
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