Dear Friend, How are you? I’m very well. Today, I’d like to share a story with you from my Singapore time. My mom once visited me from Seoul in September 2015 and stayed with me for a month in Singapore. I invited her, as I moved from Shanghai to Singapore in June of that year and wanted to show her my new place in Singapore and spend some time with her. Then, one day, I got a flyer on electronic goods sale and saw a sewing machine in the flyer. In my heart, I wanted to learn how to sew from my mom, as she used to design and make wedding dresses when she was young, and she is very gifted in handcraft. So, I asked her whether she could teach me sewing, and we went together to the Singapore Expo, where the sales promotion was held for a limited time. Thankfully, my mom bought me a sewing machine for beginners. Being excited, I read manuals on the sewing machine home, and my mom watched me try to sew a few zigzag lines for the first time. (I got to know she was new to electronic sewing machines.) And that was it. I mean, that was all I sewed in my time in Singapore! On one Saturday the next year, I looked at the sewing machine that had been sitting in the corner of my dining table, never up and running for the last half a year. And I thought to myself, “I don’t think I am gifted in sewing. I don’t think I will ever use it again. Why don’t I give it away to someone who needs it before I leave Singapore?” Then, on the very next day, in my church service, a dear lady came up to the front and shared her beautiful testimony. She said that she started up her new business, after finding her gift in sewing. And she said someone came to her and gave two sewing machines. One was new, and the other was secondhand. In addition to the two sewing machines, that person gave her some money, saying, “You might want to use this when the secondhand machine is broken.” Then, to her surprise, the secondhand sewing machine was broken later, and fixing it cost exactly what she was given from that person. And she continued her testimony, saying she could teach sewing to some ladies to help them become independent, and she showed some of her beautiful works on the screen in the front. While I was listening to her testimony, I felt surprised, thinking to myself, “Maybe it’s Him that gave me the heart to give away my sewing machine yesterday. She would need mine for the ladies she was going to teach.” So, I wanted to reach out to her after the service. I almost lost her in the church, but just a minute before I was about to leave the church, she appeared in front of me. I said to her, “Hi Mary (I put a pseudonym.), I have a sewing machine home. Could I give it to you?” She said, “Oh, thank you. But you wouldn’t need it?” I said, “No, I don’t think I would need it anymore. I used it only once a long ago.” So, the next Sunday, I brought my sewing machine to the church and gave it to Mary. And she said to me, “You know what, Yunee? Out of the sewing machines I had, an old sewing machine was broken, and the repairman said it couldn’t be fixed at all!” Both of us were so amazed to see how our Lord orchestrated all things and see He provides! Dear friend, in the midst of bad news on current and future economy, I want to encourage you to trust He is our Provider. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). The same God who fed Elijah through the ravens provides you today and will forever. All you need to do is to put your trust in Him. Have a bliss! Yunee “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Dear my friend, Hope you are well? I’m well, and I want to share something with you. This morning, I read Psalm 34. Psalm 34 was the chapter I read almost every day back in my last days in Singapore when tremendous spiritual warfare began before my plan to go back home in Korea and to leave the company, more precisely, to leave the corporate world for good. When I read verse 8, “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good,” it always reminded me of the very last day in Singapore and a beautiful story that I tasted His goodness. This morning was not an exception. Having said that, I’d like to share the story on the verse “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good.” On Nov. 13, 2017, three friends in my church came to the airport to see my mom and me off. My mom stayed with me in Singapore for a couple of months before I left the country for good. At the airport, one of the friends handed over a plastic bag to me, saying, “Yunee, as you take a red-eye and arrive home early in the morning, you might want to take this for breakfast.” I appreciated her kind heart, as she thought I wouldn’t have time for cooking or buying foods after a tiring trip. After saying good-bye to the friends and before on-board, sitting on a chair, I opened the plastic bag and was surprised to see what was inside. It had two bags of cookies from Marks and Spencer, and they are two different flavors that are my favorite in that store. One is pistachio & almond, and the other is cranberry & orange. Marks and Spencer is a British retail store, and it has a presence in some Asian cities like Shanghai & Singapore and sells clothes, foods, home goods, and so on. Back in my Shanghai time in 2012 ~ 2014 before coming to Singapore in 2015, it was always my joy to buy those two flavors of cookies. And in Singapore, I continued to buy only those two flavors in that store, not trying other flavors of cookies or other snacks in that store. I also used to share them with my colleagues and bought some for them, and they all loved them. But this church friend had no clue about this. And on my last day in Singapore, I was really amazed to see that He gave me these cookies that I couldn’t taste again anytime soon, due to no presence of the store in Korea. Having no clue, my church friend could have bought Singaporean local snacks or bought any kinds or brands of snacks in grocery stores. And even in Marks & Spencer store, she could have picked up other snacks. But, He knows every single detail of me and let her go to that store and pick up my favorites! And when I arrived in Seoul, my mom and I stayed in a hotel for a couple of days, as I was supposed to move to my new house in a suburb of Seoul a few days after the international move from Singapore. I was extremely busy upon arrival. And I was so tired and weary with the on-going spiritual warfare related to my mom that I would share more in my later blogs. When I came back to my hotel room after some errands upon arrival, I found mom disappear without leaving a note as to where she was going. And I just threw myself in a chair, being exhausted. I had nothing to eat in the room except for the cookies. When I opened one bag of cookie out of the two, the verse “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good” came into my mind. Indeed, I did taste it, dropping tears. Dear friend, no matter what you’re going through right now, I wanted to say to you that He knows everything about you. He counts your hair, and He cares for you. I still wonder what would be the probability that I could receive the two favorite flavors of cookies across the country of Singapore from a person who didn’t know my favorites. My Father knows me, and He wanted to give me something I like and need to comfort me just at the right time. So does He for you. More to come... Have a bliss and taste His goodness! Yunee Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; |
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