HELLOOOOOO
I can't contain my excitement the moment Project Sparkle ended so I quickly finished my project which is due on Monday and tada here I am writing typing this post.
Anyway, for those who didn't attend or didn't know, Project Sparkle was today!
It's a day that we, as a church, just go around blessing people in the community by helping them clean their units, corridors, environment, and even giving out oranges to them(because cny is coming)!!
Without further a do, let me share with you what exactly happened today.
In the lift, we met an Indian man, he was kinda complaining that there were people who promised him that they would clean his house for him in the past but no one went to his unit and he felt kind of angry. He was gonna take the lift to 12, while we were going to 7. He knew that we were Christians but to my surprise, before we left the lift, he said "Praise the Lord. See you all"
3 simple words, but that really struck me alot. Never would I have thought that someone random, a stranger, would say that to us.
Initially, NP4 was appointed to go to a unit, specifically, 7-49__, and we were all so excited to see what God has in store for us, some of us skipped there but when we reached the door step, we knocked (alot of times), but no one opened the door. To be honest, I was quite disappointed because I was expecting to give my best to help that particular unit. BUT IT'S OKAY, we move on with life...
We then decided that we would go to 12th floor since the Indian man went to that floor.
We went there, saw only one unit with tamil writings hanging on the door, we decided to knock the door, kinda expecting the person who's gonna open the door to be that Indian man we saw.
But........... NOPE. It was an old lady, and when we offered to help, she kinda rejected us.
Wow, to be honest, at that point of time, I really felt kind of sian, but something just spurred me on, because I know that God has a greater plan for us, to meet someone that He wants us to meet.
I kinda forgotten where we went after that, but we knocked quite alot of doors, but no one answered at all. We were even thinking of going back to Axis or take the bus to Chinatown to help out.
Just when we were about to walk away to the other side of the flat (kinda our last resort), a door behind us suddenly opened.
WOW, LET ME TELL YOU, AT THAT TIME, EVERYONE'S HEADS TURNED TOGETHER HAHAHA and we were like " WOAHHHH" then ran to that unit because we were so happy that someone actually cared about us -wipes away emo tears-
When we arrived at the doorstep, we were greeted with a wheelchair bound Auntie. Initially, she seemed kinda scared and confused why we were there. Then, we explained that we were volunteers and she let us in to help her clean her fans because it was super dusty and kinda inconvenient for her to move about. So we agreed and went into the house.
Before I continue, let me tell you something. The Auntie only speaks limited Chinese and only can communicate mostly in Hokkien. I can only understand a little bit and Shumei can kinda understand too, but the rest of us are kinda blur (mostly understand, but do not know how to speak hahaha)
Ok, let's continue. We then helped to clean her fans, and at the same time, using limited and broken Hokkien to ask her if she needed help to clean the rest of her house.
Amazingly, she agreed! YAY which means we can do even more things to bless her. (Not that doing more things means that we are blessing her more, it just means that we are able to give our best to do what we can for her)
As we cleaned, she began to open up more to us. AND THEN, at that moment, Jiayi saw a booklet on her table, with a title "Holistic booklet of having Christlikeness" (or smth like that). omg i tell you, my jaw drop because we were trying to find a time when we can share to her about Christ, but WOAH, God just gave us an opportunity like that. and of course, we treasured that opportunity and began to ask her if she has ever been to a church before. As she spoke, she began to share more stuffs to us and there were some things that really struck my heart and reminded me to hold it really close to my heart.
From all the things that she shared... this was what God really reminded me
1. If you want to help somebody, why not give it your best shot? :-)
2. If you see somebody in need of help, why not take a step of faith and courage, go to the person and help him/her? If it's not you, then who?
3. Everything that you do comes down to your heart, your heart condition, your heart motive.
4. Why are we so quick to judge? Categorizing people into good and the bad? At the end of the day, everyone is equally important to God, we are all children of God, so why are we judging them according to what they do and not what they really are? God is the ultimate judge at the end of the day. If we pass judgement, we ourselves will be judged by God.
5. We don't need to have a heart and mindset that constant pursue and strive for ONLY worldly success. True enough, success is important and it's good to have. But sometimes, what we need to do is.... stop, drop everything you have, take a step back, and see. Appreciate what you already have, treasure what is already around you.
I really dont know how I came up with all these conclusions, but as the old lady was sharing, all these just struck me. Struck me so much that I had to just take out my phone and note all of them down because I dont want to forget anything that I've been reminded of.
When we were about to leave, the old lady was still talking and sharing. As she was sharing, the sincere look in her eyes really touched me at that point. I wanted to cry but then I would look kind of silly so I held it back LOL. She then kept thanking us and said bye in a really happy tone.
I thought, " Thank you God. Thank you God for bringing us to this old lady. I've been reminded of much. Thank you for using us to bless her. "
She's happy not because we are good, we are skillful in helping her, but I really think she's happy because God worked through us and that really made her happy because as we blessed her, she herself has been blessed through the touch from God.
AND YAY TO SHUMEI who finally had the chance to pray for someone in chinese hehehe (more to come yo), God opened a door for us to pray for the old lady, asking if she had any prayer requests. and woah, her prayer requests were simple, but heartfelt. All she wanted as good health, protection over her family and peace in whatever they do.
So simple yet it means alot.
There are many more things that I would like to express but I just dont know how and LOL i may sound too draggy and naggy.
But the main reason for this post is not because I want to show how much we are able to do for her, not because what we manage to take away, but it's about how faithful God has been and will always be, using us to bless the old lady and speaking through her as well. Everything that happened was just so timely and it's like everything just fell into place as if someone is literally controlling every single thing that is to happen. (which in this case, it's God)
AHHHHH I can't contain how mindblown I get when I experience God in such a way omg
Something that the old woman said, "我们信主的人，一定要有一个好的心，出去外面帮助别人。我也不要只有我有一颗好的心，可是我也要把这份好的心传下去。我可以活这样的生活已经很满足了。“
( As Christians, we have to have a good heart, a heart that yearns to serve and to help people. Not only do I want to have a good heart, I also want to be able to pass down this goodness to the next generation and the generations that are yet to come. With this life that I'm living now, I'm already really contented. "
Acts 20:35
35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
Dear God,
Thank you for today. Thank you for everything.
I pray that we continue to serve, we will have a heart of humility that God,
we are not doing this for ourselves, for our limelight, because at the end of the day,
all Glory goes back to You and You alone.
We are never good, we are never worthy.
I pray that You'll constantly fill our hearts with Your spirit,
and when our hearts are filled, we will pour it out to the people out there.
Amen.
