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Tag Archives: OneLife.OneYear

God’s Invitation

God has invited me to go back to Timor-Leste!!!

It has been 6 months now since my pre-mature return and today, the Church Board has given their blessings for R and me to go back to Maubisse to wrap up the one year short term mission.

The waiting period has not been easy. But I know God is teaching me patience. Many are surprised I could actually hang on until now without getting angry or bitter with God or the Church. I am surprised too. I could never do it without the grace of God. I am thankful God has been very generous to take time to mould me, to shape me and to prepare me for His kingdom works.

Jesus has said in John 4:34 that “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” As Jesus has obeyed God to go to the cross, I am fulfilling my promise to God that I will go wherever He wants me and to join Him in whatever He is doing.

God is already doing the work as evidenced in the English class for kids when God brought the kids to the door. The Holy Spirit has been working among the people that they have been very friendly and helpful. God has even sent a culture helper whom I met at the hospital when I fractured my right foot! There are so much more to thank God and I am just grateful that He has called me back to Timor after this much needed period of rest and restoration.

Because of His grace,

Lydia

Categories OneLife.OneYear
Author Lydia W

Closure

1 May

Today marks the end of the One Life One Year East Timor 2009 team.

One Body. One Spirit (Eph 4:4)

Scripture passage from Acts 15 on disagreement between Paul and Barnabas set the tone for the closure meeting. In verse 39,

They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company.

From this passage, we have been encouraged not to feel that we have failed because the team missions has to be terminated prematurely and now the team no longer exists. As careful as we can be in making intentional choices about communication & process, conflicts happnes. More so in a diverse team with different gender, age, maturity and experience. The stress levels go sky high when the team has to work & live together 24/7, in a foreign land with significantly different culture & living conditions.

I have learnt that the risk of sharing personal stories & struggles has created much conflict, misunderstandings and hindrance to team bonding & growth. Cultural fluency (not just of Timor-Leste’s but our very own) can be improved through self-awareness. There is much learning from the richness of diversity as well as team conflicts.

However, we need not despair that reconciliation will never happen under such circumstances. For we continue to explore Paul’s journey in Galatians 2:1 where his relationship with Barnabas has been rebuilt to a comfortable level to travel to Jerusalem together. But this took 14 long years!

So what can I say? God is in control. Throughout the whole ordeal, God did not leave me nor forsake me. When I was in deep anguish & confusion, I cried out to Him & He delivered me (Psalm 59). When I was hurting, He sent angels to comfort me, to encourage me, to support me and to help me in very tangible ways. I can never thank Him enough for His faithfulness (Psalm 91).

Yes, reconciliation is definitely possible when we place our hope in God. It’s only when we surrender to God’s will which includes His timing, He will bring to pass what He promises (Mark 13). But we must be patient. We cannot rush God. We cannot try to take over the driver’s seat with our secret plans. We must keep close to God to hear His heartbeat, to sense what He is doing and then to join Him in whatever He is doing. This is my prayer to the one true living God. Amen.

Because of His Grace,

Lydia

Categories OneLife.OneYear
Author Lydia W

God is in Control

31 Dec

Cristu Rei, Dili. Timor-Leste

Why did God allow Cain to murder Abel (Genesis 4:1-8)?

Why did God allow Herod to slew the innocent babies (Matthew 2:13-16)?

Why did God allow the blameless and upright Job to plummet from health and prosperity to boils and poverty in no time, for apparently no reason (Job 1:1-2:10)?

If we are to blame God for these bad things that happened in the Bible, then we are underestimating the problem of evil in the world, which came by man’s fall in the Garden of Eden. Evil is a fact. We must face it. Evil, not God, influenced bad things to happen to us. God allows evil to affect us to teach us about Himself.

It’s been almost two months since the OneLife.OneYear East Timor team has been brought back to Singapore, under the very wise decision of the church leaders. The team has not been able to function as one due to personality differences, challenging living conditions and inability to adapt to the Timorese culture. Certain responses to the culture shock have been hurtful, frightening and irrational. Team members are hurt emotionally, spiritually and psychologically.

But I am thankful that God is in control and in His timing, brings the teams back for healing and restoration. Through it all, God has never left us nor forsaken us. God is too loving to do anything cruel to us, He is too wise to make a mistake, He is too deep to explain Himself and He is too near not to be aware of our need. We may not understand why bad things happen but we trust that God allows them to shape us.

We need not look too far how God uses hurt to shape us. Our Father has created the most precious gift out of Christ’s brokenness. To allow God to use these hurts to shape something useful in me would have made all these suffering worthwhile. God has and will continue to keep me in His love and give me grace to behave as His beloved child. God will make the trial a blessing, teaching me the lessons He intends me to learn and working in me the grace He means me to bestow.

In His good time, He will bring me out again and back to East Timor for “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). When and how, only He knows.

Blessed by His love,

Lydia

This article has been inspired by and some paragraphs are extracted from “Forgive and Love Again” by John Nieder and Thomas M. Thompson (Oregon USA: Harvest House Publishers, 1991)

Categories OneLife.OneYear
Author Lydia W

God’s timing is PERFECT!

20 Sep

A beaming Mui Liang!

Today is Mui Liang’s birthday; we had planned to celebrate over dinner at the Pousada. But to get to the Portuguese guesthouse at the hill top, I would need crutches to move up the steps in front of the house. The plastic chair that I have been using to move around in the house will be too large for the steps. Crutches will again be needed when we get to the Pousada as there are more steps and a courtyard before reaching the restaurant.

I did not lose hope when the landlord’s nephew informed that our landlord will

God's Wings For Me

only return from Dili on Monday. I trust that our Almighty Lord will provide for our need. We have been waiting and praying for the crutches since its arrival in Dili on Tuesday (15.9.09).

Scooting around with the plastic chair has made me faintish and tired. God has provided for the landlord to return this morning with the crutches to our greatest delight & thankful hearts!

I am grateful to Ps Ivan and Adrian (in Singapore) who made arrangements for the crutches to be brought over to Dili within 5 days of my injury. I do not know the person, Raj, who kindly agreed to fly with the crutches & delivered them to TA office. I hope to meet Raj one day and thank him personally.

As we made our way to the Pousada this evening, neighbours came to carry me up the flights of steps to get into the car. When we reached the Pousada, Brazilian visitors and even UNPOL helped to carry me up more stairs to get into the restaurant.

As we finished our celebration dinner, the Brazilian visitor came forward to help carry me without any of us asking! Praise God for the timely aid as the floor was slippery from the drizzle (we saw rain for the very first time in Timor Leste).

When we got to our temporary home, I was speechless when Litu, the 10 year old boy of our neighbor Mr. Carlos, together with his father lifted me from the ground and carried me into the house! As they realized the importance of the occasion that warranted me getting out of the house even in this rainy weather, the entire household came up to Mui Liang and congratulated her.

ML's Birthday celebration at Pousada

Indeed God’s angels are all around and I am thankful that God sees to my need and helps me through this immobile period!!!

With love from Timor,

- Lydia.

Categories OneLife.OneYear, WEFC
Author Lydia W

English for Kids

19 Sep

English Class for Kids. I am balancing myself quite well on my left foot!

It’s the 4th day I have taught the kids in the neighbourhood at the front porch of our temporary home.

Praise God for the opportunity to start this ministry despite my fractured foot. The kids are sitting on the cement steps in front of the home for the lessons. These 10 flights of steps have caused much pain as I moved up and down on them so they have become the obstacle to my mobility. But God has used these steps as chairs for the kids and the very reason (my immobility) to start the ministry right at the front door step!

Lesson starts around 0930 hours and end about noon time when it gets too hot. We incorporate the last half hour for songs. The kids sing really well and enjoy singing: “Lorong Ohin” (local Christian song); “Maromak Diak” (God is so good) and the action song “He’s Able”. I have also learnt a local folk song “Diak ka la” (Are you ok?) from these lovely kids.

The number of kids has doubled in just a week!

The kids are between 5 to 12 years old with little or no exposure to English. They are most intrigued that I greet every one of them before the lesson with “xx, nice to meet you!” and end the lesson with “xx, thank you for coming, see you tomorrow!”. The “senior” kids will then teach the newcomers how to return the greetings and say thank you before going home.

Simple equipment like blackboard does not come easy! We have to get someone to saw the plywood, sand it, then we have to paint it so the lessons can happen ☺

We are now on the topic of “friend” and what does it mean to be a friend. As I look up the dictionary to explain the various words in Tetun (local language), I am also learning the local language at the same time. The kids are helping me with the proper way of making sentences in Tetun as words often have multiple meanings. I am thankful that my language learning can be interactive and enjoyable with these little ones!

Will your heart melt when you see these innocent faces that hunger for knowledge?

Civic behavior has also been incorporated into the lesson where kids learn how to ask for things nicely:

“May I borrow the book please?”

instead of snatching from each other. There was one youth who visited the class actually stub out his cigarette when I requested him not to smoke in front of the kids.

I am encouraged that they listen & practice what they have been taught! I pray that God will continue to guide me and help me to be sensitive so I can modify and adapt the lessons according to the needs here!

With love from Timor,

- Lydia.

Categories Activities, EnglishClass, OneLife.OneYear, WEFC
Author Lydia W

My Foot – Part Deux

11 Sep

: X-Ray of my beautiful but injured foot

When I woke up in the morning, I noticed that the swelling had moved up towards the 3 small toes and the bruising had spread to a much larger area.

When we returned to Maubisse hospital, Migi was at training. Praise God for the Cuban radiologist, Dr Ramon Acevedo, who took a very clear X-ray of my right foot that showed the metatarsal was fractured and required immediate plaster casting at Dili General Hospital because there is no orthopedic available at Maubisse!

Thank God for my team mates who swung into action by packing lunch, an overnight bag, calling Sau Kit at Dili for advice on documentation required for hospital admission and droving down to Dili, all in the span of one hour!

Praise God that Rachel, driving for the very first time from Maubisse to Dili, did a wonderful job in minimizing my discomfort throughout the 3-hour drive. When we got into Dili, Sau Kit took over the wheels & took us to the hospital in the shortest possible time.

X-Ray of My Foot

Thank God that the orthopedic at Dili General Hospital is from Sichuan, China and so we were able to understand each other clearly. Initially, Dr Ho thought it was only a sprain but after taking a look at the x-ray at my request, he immediately stopped twisting my foot & requested for a nurse to help me with putting on the plaster cast.

The nurse even chose a nice coral colored bandage to hold up the half cast, my favourite color! The cast will be removed in 6 weeks and I should be as good as new ☺

We rested in the TA guest house for the night before returning to Maubisse the next day. There are more than 10 flights of steps in front of our temporary home (guest house: Bensa Au Ama) in Maubisse. The excruciating pain by leaning on the left side of my body while dragging my right foot up and down those steps drove me to tears on previous days.

I have sent prayer requests to Jill (our OLOY ET prayer coordinator) that someone will help me down those steps. Thank God that neighbours from the community came to my aid by carrying me down the flights of steps into the house.

Ps Ivan’s prayer that I will be able to enter the community through the Sports Carnival has indeed been answered, though not in the way any one of us had anticipated!!

With love from Timor,

- Lydia

Categories OneLife.OneYear, Prayer, WEFC
Author Lydia W

Pretty in Pink

10 Sep

Bandaged Foot

Towards the end of the basketball game (Sports Carnival organized by Covenant EFC Youth team) with the community, while jumping up to catch the ball, I did not land on the ground properly and felt my right foot being twisted. It hurt rather badly.

When I got back to the house, I realized it was swollen & bruised. Ps Matt & ML helped to apply ice packs to the foot but the swelling & bruises got worse. Ps Matt, Kok Hong and ML brought me to Maubisse hospital and Migi (one of four physiotherapists in Timor) attended to me. Praise God for opening doors to the possibility of working with this young man to educate the community about physiotherapy. Pray that his supervisors will be open to having us as volunteers to work with Migi to visit homes for follow-up and education.

Migi advised me to apply some vegetable oil on the foot before applying the ice pack directly, elevating the foot to reduce swelling and to return to the hospital the next day for review.

- Lydia