Of Hands, Back, Mouth and Fingers

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Thank God for a blessed week and for everything that went well.

The Part about Hands
It has really been a fun week! Every year, our headquarter will embark on an in-house fundraising project in support of another needy social service centre, home, programme in another country. It will usually be a whole month of eating as departments cook up a storm and offer food to each other, in return for a small donation to bless the home/centre/programme. I do look forward to this time of the year because it is at this time of the year that we can work together with one another, have loads of fun and try our hands at business :) I always like to offer my skills in designing the "marketing" posters for my department.

This week, we sold fruits and fruit juice. It's really kind of fun putting work aside for a while as everyone come together to work out the prices, decide the menu, come up with the marketing plan and advertisement catchphrases, prepare and juice the fruits, going around trying our hand at sales, taking and remembering orders and also trying to build good customer relations. And everytime, as I see how everyone in the department work and have fun together and how our many colleagues keep supporting us and keep buying from us, I just can't help but feel encouraged and thank God for such nice colleagues. Frankly, I do not think I can find another working environment like this.

The Part about my Back
Yeah! I went for my maiden "spaceship" ride this week; my MRI for my back. I was a bit nervous because I do not know what to expect but then thank God for a smooth procedure; that although I could not move for 15 mins, the procedure seem to be over before I know it. I also thank God that I do not need injection because an injection would cost me another $125. In fact, I thank God that I was given a MRI appointment so soon because I was told that come 17 March, the price for MRI will increase by 7%. So I saved 7%, thank God! Now I have to wait for next week when I see the doctor to know the results. Hope everything will be well and that physiotherapy itself should do the trick. I am really not very keen on surgery.

The Part about Mouth
I thank God for a wonderful devotion today! Although I led HQ devotion before, I was still nervous because the last time I led, it was to a small group. But today, I realised that there will be a presentation about the in-house fundraising project immediately after my devotion, which mean that a lot of people, including the bosses, will come. Indeed, all 4 big bosses were there at the devotion. But then, I still want to thank God for:

• how everything clicking together in a nice way and how many people agreed to help me with my devotion, including playing the piano and praying for the prayer topics
  
• how despite being worried about how things will turn out, I seem to have a sense of peace in me and was not as nervous as I thought I would be. I had committed the session into God's hands and felt led to cover the topic today and hence, there was a kind of peace in me knowing that God will work through the session. I was to share my testimony about how I struggled and overcame challenges in my cell ministry with the God; how God continued to minister to me, affirm me and encourage me.
  
• how surprisingly there were light moments during the sharing and people chuckled as I injected a little humour here and there. Knowing me, it is really difficult to find me using humour in my presentation because I am such a serious person
  
• how God has guided me in preparing for this devotion, including how I was led to cover this topic, how the 2 worship songs were selected and how the message came together
• how for the first time in my sharing, I get feedback from quite a number of people about how the message encouraged. I recall also seeing a few people tearing as we sang Don Moen's "I Will Sing" and deep in my heart, I was thanking God for ministering through the session.

It just became clear that the whole session came together in such a marvelously wonderful way and all glory goes to Him. I had just barely availed myself as prompted to share my testimony of how I struggled and overcame challenges in my cell ministry with God. Of course throughout the week, there had been doubts e.g. "don't share, why wash dirty linens in public?", "don't share because it will make you look like a weakling". But then, I am glad I went ahead and hope God has used me to minister.

The Part about my Fingers
I also thank God for using my fingers to minister to my fellow cell leader through MSN. I know that my fellow cell leader is not having it easy in his ministry; so much so I have realised how he is no longer as cheerful as before. However, I have not been able to catch up with this leader because over time, it seems we have drifted apart as we tried to cope with our own ministry struggles. But deep inside me, I was very concerned and worried for this brother and kept praying that things will work out for him soon.

On Monday, I had planned to go home early to plan for my devotion. At that point in time, I have a lot of topics swimming in my head; topics for Thursday's devotion, but none of the topics gave me a sense of peace. I continued to pray for God to show the way and decided I should return home early on Monday to "think about it". But then, I felt prompted to check in on my fellow cell leader. Well, I was glad that I did because by the end of the MSN conversation, I sensed how God may have worked through the session because I realised how God not only may have used my testimony to (i) minister to this friend, (ii) to remind me about how great a God He has been and also (iii) realised how I have actually finished preparing for Thursday's devotion. There seem to be this peace in me and something which says, "share this", almost seemingly that God has His plans to encourage and minister to someone on Thursday.

I thank God for the prompting and for also giving me leave and time to sit down in Novena square after my MRI on Tuesday to just go through my spiritual journal for 2007, to prepare for the devotion. Having gone through the whole journal and drafted my testimony, it became clear to me how real God has been and how He has been guiding me through and ministering to me.

Thank you Lord.