Lessons from the field - His ways are higher
As usual, our luggage aka medicines got stuck at customs.
As usual, I was stopped.
This time, they refused to let 2 boxes through.
Strangely enough, this time round, I had peace in my heart during the "interrogation" and "checking". No fear. Maybe it was resignation that it had happened again. I remember sms-ing some of the first team to start praising God when their 16 boxes got stuck. All had gone through and the theme of our team became "prayer and praise". I told our team outside who had gotten through customs
to also praise God.
Praise us through I thought.
God had other plans.
I was brought into the "inner room" - to unpack all the medicines and to account for every sample I brought. Told the officers why I was there, that I was a doctor, it was a medical missions, the Aeta at Dueg and Bataan will benefit from the medicines, so "sayang" that they are holding the 2 boxes from me ...
They seemed rather fierce at first, but slowly warmed up to me after a while. They became more sympathetic and even smiled and started chatting with me.
The atmosphere definitely got even warmer with the entrance of Diana. They thought at first we were "high school sweethearts" or "married" (groan. Diana was thrilled. I wasn't really.) Diana was all giggly when they thought we were college students... She certainly started chatting them up after that.
It was amazing how events turned around. They started opening up. One of them was a Christian who attended a church in Manila. He had been corresponding with a Singaporean lady and been trying to bring her to Christ. We exchanged email addresses. My mission from him was to try to meet this lady and bring her to church. Another guy had been to Singapore once. We invited him back to Singapore again.
By the time we left the office, one hour had passed. We had become friends of sorts. Can you imagine - we shook hands and blessed each other in the Lord.
The 2 boxes are probably still at the customs office now. But I left with something more valuable - an email address (He wrote to me a few days later) and a Singaporean name to pray for, and hopefully to write to and evangelise to.
Praise Him. He knows what's best. His ways are higher.
As usual, I was stopped.
This time, they refused to let 2 boxes through.
Strangely enough, this time round, I had peace in my heart during the "interrogation" and "checking". No fear. Maybe it was resignation that it had happened again. I remember sms-ing some of the first team to start praising God when their 16 boxes got stuck. All had gone through and the theme of our team became "prayer and praise". I told our team outside who had gotten through customs
to also praise God.
Praise us through I thought.
God had other plans.
I was brought into the "inner room" - to unpack all the medicines and to account for every sample I brought. Told the officers why I was there, that I was a doctor, it was a medical missions, the Aeta at Dueg and Bataan will benefit from the medicines, so "sayang" that they are holding the 2 boxes from me ...
They seemed rather fierce at first, but slowly warmed up to me after a while. They became more sympathetic and even smiled and started chatting with me.
The atmosphere definitely got even warmer with the entrance of Diana. They thought at first we were "high school sweethearts" or "married" (groan. Diana was thrilled. I wasn't really.) Diana was all giggly when they thought we were college students... She certainly started chatting them up after that.
It was amazing how events turned around. They started opening up. One of them was a Christian who attended a church in Manila. He had been corresponding with a Singaporean lady and been trying to bring her to Christ. We exchanged email addresses. My mission from him was to try to meet this lady and bring her to church. Another guy had been to Singapore once. We invited him back to Singapore again.
By the time we left the office, one hour had passed. We had become friends of sorts. Can you imagine - we shook hands and blessed each other in the Lord.
The 2 boxes are probably still at the customs office now. But I left with something more valuable - an email address (He wrote to me a few days later) and a Singaporean name to pray for, and hopefully to write to and evangelise to.
Praise Him. He knows what's best. His ways are higher.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home