Hellos everybody, I’m jiehao and I’m here today to represent my Life Group Nissi Knights to give thanks to God and how He had used us to impact a widow and her 3 kids.
It all started when one of my LG member Jerrold read the Newpaper on the 21st May 2010. ( Gesture to the screen as the article is being flashed) Should I read through certain important parts of the article with them like 68k debt and stuffs? As Jerrold read all these, he was filled with compassion for them. And it was at this moment that God spoke to him, as Christians, we seemed to be always “hiding” in our comfort zone in Church and life group rather than going out to impact the world out there. Coupled in with the recent series of living an extraordinary life, Jerrold really felt challenged by God to do something extraordinary to love and meet the needs of this family. Although the life group really has no idea how to help this family or contact this family, we decided to just go ahead and do it!
And around the 2nd week of June, we finally got hold of the widow’s address and we visited her at her home in Ubi. The first visitation was discouraging because the widow and her kids were not at home when we visited them. After talking to the neighbours to find out more about the situation of the family, we decided to buy some food and leave them at the doorstep of the house. At that particular moment, some of us were quite discouraged because we didn’t get to play with the kids and to talk to the widow. However, a few of us went to visit again the next evening to see whether she’s at home a not. And this time round, the kids and their mother were at home! We were shocked and so excited at the same time as we finally have the opportunity to speak to them and reach out to them! BUT, we were faced with a BIG problem- LANGUAGE BARRIER. The widow can only converse in Bahasa Indonesia although she can understand simple English and mandarin. Using simple English, friendly hand gestures and a lot a lot a lot a lot of smile on our face, we told them that we are here to help them and we want to care for them and give the kids tuition and stuffs! The kids and the widow were quite receptive to us and we really felt encouraged by them.
After we went home that day, we quickly gathered children’s clothes from different life group members and also got an Indonesian Christian friend to visit with us the next week so that we can communicate better and know her needs more clearly. The subsequent visits were productive as we begin to set up duty roasters to visit the widow every Tues evening bringing small little goods like milk and whatnot to give her every week. Tuition was also being given to the kids by some of the LG members weekly.
However, we quickly realized that we are focusing too much on meeting the physical needs of the widow and neglecting her needs as an emotional being. ( Eg. Our normal routine of visitation is always bringing clothes, giving of small little food items, asking her about the application of her visa and stuffs) We realized that as we meet her physical needs(which is very impt for her situation) , we are not loving her enough as a person and showing God’s love and care for her. That’s where God being to change the way we look at this project as we seek ways to care for her and find out more about her interests and to treat her like our elder sister because she is only 30years old this year.
And that is also when she requested us not to call her auntie anymore but call her ‘kakak’-meaning elder sister in Bahasa Indonesia. We also begin to substitute the word WIDOW with kakak in our LG because we don’t want to always associate kakak with the label of widow but we want to love her and treat her as a person Jesus loves. More breakthroughs were to come as kakak begin to share with us her worries and concerns and also her likes and dislikes. And that is when we found out that she’s actually a Christian when she’s younger but something happened and she stopped going to church. It was at this time that we realized that our purpose of visiting kakak is not only meeting her physical needs and emotional needs, but most importantly, she needs the love of Jesus and only Jesus can meet and provide for all her needs.
At this point of time, we also begin to realize the difference between volunteers and us Christians is not the money, milk, tuition, kong guan biscuit that we gave, because all of us gave the same things. So what is the difference? The Difference is the love of God. We need to love them with the love God has given us and also tell them about the love that Jesus has for them. From then on, the Indonesian translator Stephen begin to bring Christian tracks for kakak and we also decided to pray for kakak everytime we visited her.
It’s not been easy for the LG for these past 2 and a half months as we travel all the way from cck and even from JB to Ubi, but as a LG, Many of us had changed from being inward looking to more outward looking as we served and visited kakak. We believed that it is more blessed to give and to receive and we really enjoy ourselves playing with the kids and travelling there. And like what Pastor Chris has said last week, we are city on a hill that cannot be hidden. As Christians, I believe that we should continue to shine God’s light in our city by impacting the lives that are around us. There might not be widows in every neighbourhood but I believe that there are a lot of our friends and relatives that also need the touch of love in their lives. Before I end, 15 August 2010 which is tml, 10am, kakak, edo, jenny and yao wei will be visiting the Indonesian service at the Indonesian translator’s church! Praise God! And let’s give God the glory as He is the God of love and the One who provided the translator, the wisdom and the love to take care of them for these past few months!
Kiat Hau.
