A Visit to Singapore

From October 28th to November 9th, my father was in Singapore, and we had to do our best without him. Below is an interview I had with my dad, about his trip. Unforunately, there are no pictures, sorry!

Me- So, what was your purpose in visiting Singapore?

Eng- My purpose in visiting Singapore was to attend a financial meeting.

The first three days of my stay in Singapore I did what you call an annual estimate review. There is a group of five of us, and we look at the budget of each country, the sending country and the receiving country. We analyse that everything is consistent with the financial policy of our company.

And then on the second and the third, we had the International Committee Meeting Proper. We discussed various topics such as pension and retiring programs for our people. We also looked at all the Generation Two IFS (International Financial System). The first one is already ten years old, and we are upgrading our financial system to a better one to better meet the needs of our company.

Then we had a break in between where all of us, the financial committee members, attended a Silent Retreat in a Catholic retreat centre in Singapore. All of us felt refreshed from that, and there was a time to hear from God ourselves. One highlight was on a Saturday morning and Sunday morning, we were able to walk over to a conservation park where the only thing we were unable to do was speak. We were able to see and smell and feel the prescence of God all around us.

The next three days it was back to meetings.

Me- What did you enjoy most about your visit?

I had an opportunity to visit with one particular Singaporean family that we (the family) met just before I left Chiang Mai. We exchanged contact info, and I was invited to their house for dinner. I listened to their stories of how God is working in their lives, and how he may be inviting them into possible full time missions work.

I was also able to minister to a young boy of 12 years old that visited us back in March. I was able to spend some time with him, and encourage him. He had lost quite a bit of weight, and his parents were quite concerned about him. I encouraged him to eat and regain his strength.

One evening after having supper at his house we gathered around and prayed that God would make him feel stronger. He had been having an irregular heartbeat and problems with a very low blood pressure; seventy over fourty. The night before he left I called him, and the doctor had just given a good report about how his heart rate had normalized. I account this recovery to our prayers and that God healed him. The doctor could find nothing physically wrong with him.

Me- What’s one thing you like about Singapore that you can’t find in Chiang Mai?

The Botanical Gardena, at which I ran many mornings in. It was like God’s garden, and I was able to enjoy his creation. And eating Indian food too. I was brought to Little India for Indian food two times, and enjoyed eating on banana leaves and things like that.