Personal and family – Page 6

Category: Personal and family

Prayer Overcomes Procrastination

9 September 2021 blogpastor Leave a comment

One of the tasks that I have procrastinated is painting all the ceilings and rooms in my home. It has been nine months since I retired, and I am only halfway done. What do I do with procrastination? I bring it to God in prayer. This task goes on my prayer list and I let God know I have a problem and ask for power to overcome the inertia. I was reluctant to pay people to do it. I am virtually a one man show, and an old man show at that. Thank God my wife helps out to move furniture and clean up. Still I needed divine help most.

One morning I woke up and the idea of paint, paint, paint persisted until it overcame all excuses and resistance. It had to be an answer to prayer. I announced my sudden inspiration to my wife, who was leaving for her Friday ladies’ prayer meeting. I think she must have thought this idea would not take off and was probably surprised when I actually got it done.

I was amazed at the power to do. The Lord must have energised me to finish three quarters of the painting. I was so excited that the next two days, I completed the finishing touches, and moved in all the furniture to make ready my retreat room – the sacred space for me to withdraw, study, pray, idle, nap and write.

The momentum steamrolled its way into progress in other areas as well. What happened was that we had to reorganise a lot of old files and paper documents, books, clothes, bookshelf, storage boxes and a storage space. The result was stunning for us as we had lived with and accepted all this junk for so many years, and never had the motivation or strength of will to overcome the million excuses we came up with not to change things. Suddenly, like magic (and hard work) it was all done.

*I was pleased the writing and prayer space looked so inviting*

Looking at the results gave us great pleasure. For me it was a lesson in the power of prayer. Do as Mary, the mother of Jesus, did. “Son they have run out of wine.” Perhaps we should make of list of things to do, and that we tend to procrastinate, and simply bring it to God in prayer. Allow God to do something in the situation or in our life and co-operate with him. Let Him empower us even in the mundane problems of everyday living.

Brief Hugs and Goodbyes

29 August 2021 blogpastor Leave a comment

The past fortnight had been packed and poignant. My son Matthew and his family has flown for a work stint in Arizona. About a week later, my daughter, Elaine, flew back to Washington D.C. On both occasions, there was an unusual atmosphere because our goodbyes were short of fifteen minutes, at the drop off point of the Departure Hall of Terminal One, Changi International Airport. The airport was empty compared to the good old days. No long snacks and chats at a foodcourt in the airport. Brief hugs and goodbyes.

*Joshua, Ping, Juyoung, Chloe, Claire, Matthew, Elaine, Jenny, Kenny*

Matthew, his wife Juyoung, and his two children were in Australia for three years and came back two years ago to settle into Singapore life, renovating and living in his HDB apartment. It was wonderful to have them around especially with their two adorable, lovely children. They stayed for a while with us occupying two rooms in our apartment while theirs was being renovated. Then when they moved, they were still living ten minutes drive away from us – a great convenience for us to have time with our grandchildren. Now they have rented out their beautifully done home and we miss them.

My son Joshua came back from studies in London and he and his wife Ping were also staying with us for a while as they searched for an apartment. They hardly did any renovations before moving to their move-in condition HDB apartment. We were happy to have them around even though it was for a short few months. They are now happily living in their apartment near the city centre.

Finally my daughter Elaine came back from US because of Covid-19. All the staff had the option(with their bosses’ approval) of working remotely from their home country. She seized it and it turned out to be a good decision as she stayed with us a good year and a half. We had her with us for the two Singapore “lock downs” and we were happy for the time together knowing it would not be permanent.

When Elaine had been called back I had mixed feelings. I felt sad to miss her but at the same time I was relieved she had to go back, as working in Singapore according to Washington’s work hours played havoc on her body clock, sleep patterns and health.

WISTFUL YET GRATEFUL

I look back on the past two years with wistfulness and gratitude. Grateful for the gift of time with my two children and family. Life is unpredictable and transitory, so I realise that all these gifts from God are to be received with gratitude and to be enjoyed and treasured while they lasted. As I reflect on the past two years, I do so with fondness and sad longing, but comforted by the fact that my eldest son Joshua and his wife are still with us. I do not wish to take this for granted for God alone knows what the future holds for them or for us. Grateful for every good gift of time together.

Recently, I had been memorising verses from Ephesians. On the day, when Matthew and his family were doing their swab tests, the verse I memorised was: See then that you walk circumspectly, not as foolish but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (Eph 5:15-17 NKJV). How pertinent and timely! The rooms will be empty but the days need not be empty. With the extra free time, there will be temptations to fill up the time with vanity, and to miss out on understanding the Lord’s will. Since God has created us in Christ Jesus for good works that he prepared beforehand that we should walk in them, I would want to focus on knowing and doing his will.

“Lord, help Jenny and myself to grieve well over what has ended, to be thankful for the new beginnings you have for us. You are gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. Protect us from the temptations and the evil one who seeks to infiltrate our day. Fill us with your comfort, wisdom and energy. Amen.”

Scientific Proof of My Maternal Lineage

2 August 2021 blogpastor Leave a comment

When I first heard of it I was intrigued and excited. Scientific proof. My eldest brother said his genome profile is 86.3% Chinese DNA and 13.7% Malay DNA. Most of the time, our knowledge of our lineage is based on records in Mandarin script, or on hearsay and anecdotes of parents and relatives, and old photographs or inherited family heirloom. When my eldest brother announced casually to the siblings about scientific proof, it came with the force of irrefutable fact. All along my mum had told us we have Peranakan lineage. We believed it. I mean our mum couldn’t be wrong on this. I never got to see my grandparents or great grandparents at all – they passed away before I was born. I took it for granted that I was Chinese from my dad’s side and Peranakan from my mum’s side. Now its fact.

HOW IT HAPPENED

My eldest brother, Colin Chee, is the current President of The Singapore Peranakan Association(TPAS). The Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) collaborated with the Peranakan Association in a genome study project. They collected blood samples from 177 volunteer members (of which my brother is one) of the association and other community members in 2018, studied them, and got their research accepted for publication in the Molecular Biology and Evolution academic journal published by Oxford University Press. The analysis concluded that 90% of volunteers had an average of 90% Chinese DNA and 10 % Malay DNA. The rest showed 100% Chinese DNA.

Colin wrote in the association news: “The study is a revelation. To TPAS, the project’s findings have, for the very first time, given scientific credence to our community’s family oral histories and the smattering of early travellers’ eye-witness reports that the Peranakans are descended from the mixed unions of early traders from China, India and even Europe with local Malay women in Southeast Asia. This does not mean those with 100% Chinese DNA are any less Peranakan than those with mixed Chinese-Malay DNAs”. (Read the full writeup HERE).

Our two living aunties, Lily and Florence (aged 95 and 87), both insisted that our ancestry is Dayak blood. Our maternal grandparents all lived in Kuching, Sarawak. Well, Dayak is a general term for those indigenous tribal peoples from the interior of Borneo who then moved to the coastal areas and some have mingled with or have been absorbed into the Malay population. I do not know what to make of this but having grown up to trust scientific research, I will have to accept what science concluded. I do not know if genome grids have a separate category for Dayaks or if they are all subsumed under Malay. This is one for the scientists to give the final answer. Our paternal grandparents both emigrated from Fuzhou in 1893, the provincial capital of Fujian Province in China. You can read more about this in an earlier piece I wrote HERE.

SO WHAT?

What were the implications of this knowledge for me? For one thing, I have begun to make all kinds of illogical connections between my 13% Malay DNA and my affinity with Malay food, Malay language and culture. “Maybe that is why I like lontong, rendang, mee rebus, nasi lemak and nasi padang (but so do many other Singaporean Chinese with 100% Chinese DNA)”. “Maybe that was why I bought Indonesian language learning tools and Bible, and tried to opt my children into Malay instead of Mandarin classes in school but was not permitted by the Ministry of Education policy (but this could merely be because I wanted to spare my children the trauma I experienced trying to learn Mandarin)”. Well you get the point. I was trying to connect all kinds of dots.

On the positive side, I am now interested in knowing more about this unexplored side of my ancestry. I have mostly seen myself as a Hokkien Chinese. Now I need to learn more about my Peranakan roots.