6. Migrating to Singapore

In May 1989, God bestowed upon us a beautiful baby girl. We thank God for His blessings. Despite our busyness as young parents, we continued to serve God faithfully until He called us for the next mission. In March 1990, the boss of Bong’s company had a plan to start a branch office in Singapore. He approached Bong and asked him if he would be keen on operating a new company in Singapore.

At that juncture, we were unsure of God’s plan for our lives. As always, we would come humbly before God and pray. This time we decided to pray a specific prayer. We prayed, “God, if it is Your will for us to leave Indonesia and go to Singapore, please direct someone to knock on our door and indicate his/her desire to purchase our house.”

After committing our prayer request to God, we waited upon God. To my amazement, the following day a gentle­man came knocking on our door. He asked, “Madam, may I know if you are selling your house?” My jaws dropped when I heard his words! I wondered how on earth he found out that we might want to sell our house? Oh wow! How wonderful! I was truly amazed by how quickly God had answered our prayer. That was the indication from God that we should leave Indonesia. God answered our prayer in accordance with what we had prayed for. I thank Him for answering our prayer. Without further delay, we packed up, sold our house, and left for Singapore.

A few months after settling down in Singapore, in 1990, I discovered I was expecting again. My second pregnancy was unplanned. It just happened as God had intended. For your information, my second child Brendon was diag­nosed with autism at the age of three. For those who are keen to know more about the arrival of my miracle baby Brendon, you may go to the website of Christian Disciples Church (www.christiandc.org) and download my book, “Embracing the World of Autism with my Autistic Son”. In that book, you will learn about the many miracu­lous encounters in my journey of raising my autistic son over the past 31 years. May you be richly blessed as you read through my book.

Alright, back to my sharing. After settling down in Singapore, we were in search of a church. Finally, we found a Baptist church which was quite near our house. We attended that church from 1990 to 1992. However, we felt uncomfortable in that church because it had a large con­gregation of more than 400 people. We prayed for God’s direction to lead us to a smaller church where we could worship and serve Him.

One day, while Bong and I were strolling along The Centrepoint located on Orchard Road, I voiced out to him, “We have been in Singapore for more than two years already, why haven’t we run into any of our old friends?” As soon as I finished that sentence, a familiar face appeared right before my very eyes! He was a brother from our former church in Ottawa. He shared with us that he was attending Christian Disciple Church. What an amazing encounter! God had led us to someone who would show us His way.

Bong and I started attending Christian Disciples Church in 1993. Over the course of two years, we joined the “Commitment Training” and “Basic Training” conducted by our church pastor to equip ourselves to serve our almighty God Yahweh. As our God Yahweh has called us to serve His church, we have been serving faithfully as treasurers, as Bible study leaders, and as members of the Homemakers since 1998.

In 1996, I was invited to join the Music Ministry as a song leader once again. As I looked back, I had been serving as a song leader ever since I first joined Ottawa Chinese Bible Church, in 1983. The truth of the matter is that God has given me the passion in music not for pursuing my dream to be a world musician but to serve Him and to glorify His Holy Name. How blessed it is to be given the talent in singing and the passion for music. My love for singing and my passion in music were fulfilled in my offering my best service to our God Yahweh. How blessed I am!

Although my dream of pursuing music studies has never been fulfilled, God has blessed me richly through my serving Him in the music ministry. There is no word to describe the joy of leading our church brethren in worship to our awesome God every Sunday. I will sing of Yahweh’s great love, and proclaim His salvation to the ends of the earth. I will say, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His Holy Name!”

In the course of serving Yahweh God faithfully, I was con­stantly seeking new opportunities to serve Him. On one of the rare occasions—I can’t quite recall exactly which year it was—I was invited to be the emcee of the wedding of a couple from my church. Being the emcee for the very first time in my life, I was full of excitement! However, I was stunned when I found out that I had to speak in both English and Mandarin as the emcee for that special day.

I admit that my heart was filled with anxiety as I had hardly spoken Mandarin in ages. Moreover, since 1977, I had not been exposed to the Mandarin language, for our mode of communication at home or with friends was solely English. I was caught in a dilemma. The only way was to commit my fear and anxieties into the hands of our merciful God and Father in heaven.

Eventually I learned that it was Yahweh God’s way of preparing me for a new mission ahead, even beyond this public speech! He reminded me to exercise total trust in Him while I was preparing myself to speak in Mandarin in a public speech for the very first time in my life.

You may recall from the earlier part of my sharing that I was the oddball in the Ye Family as I didn’t like the Manda­rin language at all. Thus I opted for art instead of Mandarin as my elective course. Nevertheless, by the grace of God, I managed to speak reasonably good Mandarin on that wedding day. Indeed, glory be to God for enabling me to perform well. My heart gave thanks to God as I prayed, “Not my will but Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Many years later, in 2012, Pastor Long’s mother whom I addressed as “Auntie Long” had started attending our Sunday service. At that time Pastor Long was searching for someone to translate the Sunday sermons from English into Mandarin for his mother. It was then that he remem­bered that I could converse in reasonably good Mandarin. So I was invited to be the translator. My heart was full of fear and trembling when I started my translation work. I had never dreamed that I would ever be a translator. Ever since the day I engaged in this translation work, a Chinese dictionary and the “Google Translate” mobile app became my close companions. Truly thank God for the availability of such wonderful tools.

It was amazing to experience God’s transformation power at work within me! Our awesome God has changed my heart! Through each passing day, I began to love the Mandarin language more and more. How miraculous it is when God works in one’s heart. He had removed all the obstacles before me. Throughout the years, Yahweh God has blessed me richly through my new missions work! I noticed that my Mandarin was improving by leaps and bounds. Indeed, God’s ways are higher than ours. Who can fathom the greatness of His love!

In September 2019, Auntie Long’s third son and his family were back in Singapore from Canada. I heard from her that the last trip they had made back to Singapore was 12 years earlier. Oh wow! What a joyful reunion for the Long family after such a long while. At that point in time, a thought came to my mind. I was thinking how wonderful it would be if Auntie Long were to commit her life to Yahweh God so that her third son and his family could be present to witness her baptism.

Approximately two weeks before September 2019, Pastor Long informed our church members that there will be a water baptism on 13 October 2019. Amazingly, on the following day when I woke up before sunrise to pray, the Holy Spirit indicated to me who the baptismal candi­date would be.

However, a week before the event, I sustained a torn ligament in my right knee while playing badminton with a group of friends. It took quite a long while for it to heal and I was unable to stand on my feet for more than 15 minutes. As I was eager to attend the baptismal service, I came humbly before Yahweh God and beg of Him to grant me the strength to attend the service. Yes, He heard my plea. I was given the extra measure of grace to go to church on that lovely day.

Lo and behold, on 13 October 2019, Auntie Long was the baptismal candidate just as Yahweh God in His lovingkind­ness had revealed to me. After seven years of translating the Sunday sermons and Bible studies for Auntie Long, she finally made her commitment to Yahweh God at the age of 87. It was a glorious day to celebrate her new birth. Oh, how I thank God for another new addition into our big church family. Praise God!

On that day, I shared the following with our church brethren. Here is a brief recap of what I shared:

As I recall what had happened back then, my heart can’t thank Yahweh God enough for His unfailing love.

As I have testified, I disliked Bahasa Indonesia, yet Yahweh God has called me to serve Him in Indonesia. Similarly, I did not like the Mandarin language, yet God has chosen me to be the translator for Auntie Long. I felt so honored to serve Yahweh God wherever He calls me to. What spiritual lesson have I learned through it all?

I have learned that in our walk with God, it is absolutely essential to avail ourselves as an instrument to serve Him and His church. It doesn’t matter if we have our areas of weakness and inadequacy. Our God Yahweh is looking for people who will say, “Yes, I will LORD. I am willing to offer myself totally to You. Please use me as Your channel of blessings to others.” If our hearts are so willing to serve Him, He will grant us His strength and power to offer our very best service to Him and His church. Yahweh God will use us mightily when we are willing to offer ourselves in service to Him.

Another great blessing in my life has to do with my daughter Sharon. Ever since she was young, she inherited my artis­tic talent. Her passion for art reminded me of the old me in the past. After she had completed her secondary school education, she decided to pursue art studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. Truly, our God Yahweh had comforted my heart. I saw the joy in Sharon for being able to pursue art studies which was unattainable to me in my youth. Formerly she worked as a game artist, but now she is working as an illustrator and animator. God is good all the time! My heart is eternally grateful to Him.

There is so much to share regarding the greatness of our God Yahweh. It would take an eternity to declare His mighty deeds! As I have tasted God’s goodness over and over again, I just want to share about it so that the world may know that Yahweh God is real. He is the one and only true and living God. Indeed, He is a God of love who is constantly waiting for us to come before Him, to know Him, and also to know Jesus Christ whom He had sent into this world to reconcile men with God.

Before I end my sharing, it is the prayer of my heart that we continue to seek Yahweh God with all our hearts.

As the word of God says in Jeremiah 29 verse 13,

Yes certainly, if we seek God with all our heart, we will find Him. As I have testified, even in my non-Christian days, my heart was open for God to reveal Himself to me. It took me more than seven years of seeking God before I committed my life to become a Christian. For those of you who have committed your lives to God, let us join our hearts in prayer to God, that He will use us as His channel of blessings to others.

As Matthew 5 verse 16 says,

I earnestly pray and hope that more and more people will come to know the only true God Yahweh, and to know His only begotten son Jesus Christ.

May the name of Yahweh God be praised! Amen.

Art gallery on a wall (December 2016)

All drawings in this book (c) Pearl Bong