31 Dec 05-Grace Baptist Church Watchnight Service

Grace Baptist Church Watchnight Service Sharing

Good evening,

Firstly, I would like to thank the elders for your generosity and hospitality in hosting the dinner for us.

8 years ago, I had accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as my Saviour for He had shown me the Truth. Since then, I have been praying for Him to show me the Way. Sometime this year, I started to plan for migration to Australia by end of next year. From many incidents, I thought that this is the direction of the Lord.

Recently, Christy and I were supposed to have a holiday in Sydney and Adelaide. However, Christy had an eye injury on arrival in Sydney. She was then hospitalized on the 4th day of our arrival in Sydney and was then transferred to Mt Alvernia hospital in Singapore on the 6th morning. We had actually spent our holidays in hospitals and visiting the Singapore National Eye Centre for treatment.

While I’m on this, I would like to thank my Caregroup and all of you who have been praying for His Lord’s healing of Christy’s eye and also to specifically thank the following persons:

1. May Ling and Audrey for booking Mt Alvernia Hospital and waiting for us at Changi Airport to transfer us to the hospital in the early hours of the morning. Also, thank you for the comfort and care.

2. Wing Cheong for calling me about Christy’s condition. He had received an email from Ai Hwee who was at that time in Sydney and heard about it. He asked if he could distribute prayer support for Christy’s eye injury on the Watchman Prayer list. It was through Ai Hwee and his help that Christy and I have been covered by all your prayers.

3. Elder Teoh Swee Hin who called me at the hospital and told me that I should seek 2nd opinion after learning that Christy’s eye injury is not recovering well. Christy had already seen 6 specialists, 5 in Sydney and 1 in Singapore. Elder Teoh connected and made the appointment with his friend, Dr. Tan, the professor at Singapore National Eye Centre. Dr Tan discovered that both Christy’s corneas were not as sensitive as normal eyes which the other specialists were not able to detect thus they do not understand why she does not feel any pain during the whole crisis. Dr. Tan therefore was able to use a more appropriate treatment, i.e. to insert a bandaged contact lens onto her left eye. True enough, she does not feel any discomfort or pain in her eye. She had to keep it on throughout for about a week and since then, the ulcer has healed except for the scar. The Lord is indeed gracious and her vision has recovered except for slight astigmatism.

The injury was right on Christy’s left cornea and was affecting her vision. At one stage, she was only seeing colour and not form. It was only through this incident that I realize that Christy was born with anomaly in both eyes.

Sometimes I wonder if this anomaly is good or bad for her? Yes, she did not feel the pain but if she is hurt in her eye, she may not be able to know until she cannot see or when she or someone sees the change in the colour of her eye which was what had happened. Dr. Tan thinks that this incident could be recurrent cornea erosion which may occur in future so Christy has to be careful. Meantime, she is not allowed to swim for a while and should wear sunglasses if she goes out in the hot sun.

This experience was certainly taxing for me but I’ve learned a lot from it and in fact I felt that without His strength and His provision, and all your prayers and assistance, I would not be able to sustain. Throughout this incident, I was claiming on His Promise in 2nd Corinthians 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” It was also through this experience that I felt the warmth and affection of the church members. Many of you (some whom I don’t even know) have called, sms, and some who were not able to contact me personally, had passed messages through members that you are praying for Christy. It was indeed comforting to know that the Lord has placed you all to cover us in your prayers.

I believe the Lord had allowed this incident to happen for a purpose and He has a reason for it. I am now not sure if migration to Australia is His direction. Earlier this year, I have decided to forego my job and what I think is a more comfortable life here to follow what I think was His Way (which was why I took a month’s holiday to go to Australia to try to find a school for Christy, if we should live in Sydney or Adelaide, and also to discover for myself how I should cope there as the last time I lived there was 14 years ago.) However, through this incident, many friends and also my siblings who have previously supported my decision are now asking me to re-consider my decision of migrating to Australia. I can only continue to pray for His Grace and Healing of Christy’s eye and also His Way on our future plan.

Thank you all of you again, for praying for us.

May all of you have “A Blessed and Wonderful New Year!”

In Christ,
Regine

31 Dec 2005