In memory of my earthly father...The hard shell was breaking slowly

When my father ticked me off after that evangelistic rally, I was disappointed and I told myself not to 'evangelize to him again' especially when I knew how personal that liner was to us; however, I did not give up upholding him in prayer for I believed that he will ONE day come into the family of Abba Daddy.

When my children were growing up, we would make it a family occasion every Sunday evening at my eldest brother's home. From a very young age, we had taught our children to give thanks to Daddy for the food and so every Sunday we would help our children to give thanks as well and this would be right in my father's presence and this upsetted him very much. I recalled one such occasion when he flew into a temper and told us off, "I got all the food and did all the cooking and instead of thanking me, you are getting the children to thank your God."

My children had hardly seen grandpa lose his temper and so they were shocked and at that moment, Alice and I decided to defuse the situation and told the kids that grandpa was not angry with them and that they should not be afraid but to continue with their dinner. And that was in end 1986. Little did we know that the turning point for my parents came in June the following year.

My mother was a Taoist and my father a professed free-thinker and just before Chinese New Year 1987, they made a trip down to Chinatown and decided after their Lunar New Year shopping to stop by the fortune teller and have their future read. Now I am not sure whether this was their annual practice but certainly that year, the fortune teller told my father that he would not be able to live through that year as he would face death. This shocked him as he had no known disease except for diabetes which is under control and mild high blood pressure. He was very unsettled that Lunar New Year when we visited him.

And then the slammer came in June. My niece came home from Religious Emphasis Camp one afternoon during the June school holidays and told him, "grandpa, after we are dead, it will be 'bye-bye' because I will be going to Heaven and you are not." The innocence of a seven-year-old coming home and making that statement out of her enthusiastic heart was a shocker considering his circumstances but I believe that Abba Daddy was setting him up for salvation. That evening after dinner my sister-in-law popped the question to my parents about attending an evangelistic rally at the Stadium and without hesitation, he got up, walked over to mom and together went to their room to change and quietly accompanied her to the rally.

According to my sister-in-law, when the altar call was given, dad stood up and walked ahead with mom following one step behind. They received the Lord as their Savior and embarked on their new journey in the Lord. So looking back, indeed my father did die that year (not a physical death but a spiritual dying to his sin and coming alive in Christ) but he found himself a new person in Christ and that was the turning point in his life. All glory to Jesus Who made everything perfect for my father!