He cared for us
around April, 1997
~ Arriving on site safe & sound; the Lord answers your prayers ~
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you
have received it, and it will be yours. (Mark 11: 24)
Thank God, we landed safely in "Hah-Hah Land". We couldn't wait to tell
you how the Lord answered your faithful prayers. Let us count the Lord's
blessings together.
~ 1. Nice Winter! ~
This year's winter temperature hovered around 3 to 10 degree Celsius. From
what we heard from the locals, this was the warmest winter ever! The Lord
had been good to us, so we could easily adapt to the climate here. Much
fruits and vegetables were still offered long into the winter. Our health
were doing well as a result. Typical winter can be below -20 degrees Celsius!
~ 2. Angels' help ~
Brothers and sisters here were willing to help us settle, especially a
Korean colleague. He's like an angel sent by God, to help us buy different
necessities and introduce us to our language teacher. He even led us to
the immigration office to apply for visa extensions in another city. That
was a six hours drive in itself. What a nice guy!
~ 3. Strict Language Teacher ~
Our language teacher was very strict but also very experienced in teaching
foreigners. We had three lessons weekly. Each session lasted an hour and
a half. We had to memorize and dictate each time. That's why we could hardly
slack off. (The Lord must know that we will be lazy if the teacher was
not strict enough. The language is classified as the hardest to learn in
the world.) Since she didn't understand English, we can only communicate
by means of a dictionary.
~ 4. God's blessings on Filbert's parents ~
Two weeks before we left Hong Kong, a real estate company was willing to
rent the store which Filbert's parents kept for many years. As a result,
Filbert's parents could move into our apartment in Hong Kong. What perfect
timing! Filbert's brother had a new born baby girl, and as a result, they
decided to move closer to where his parents lived. This way, they could
help look after their grand daughter. In turn, they can look out for them
better, too. As a result, even Filbert's non-Christian sister said that
this was God's special arrangement!
~ 5. Too challenging, Lord, help us! ~
Filbert's work involves general office administration and setting up computing
equipment, like an email server. This is very challenging. Thank God that
he doesn't feel too stressed, but find it interesting. Iris teaches in
a local international school on Math and Economics. Since the education
system resembles the American style, this is different for Iris. As a result,
we both have to draw our strength on the Lord for all the challenges ahead
of us.
~ 6. Miraculous arrangement! Thanks to your prayers !~
The visa we got was valid for a month upon arrival. Before it expired,
we had to go to another city to apply for a new visa. Before we set
out to another city for the official long term visa application, our site
supervisor suggested we applied for a short term extension at the city
we lived in first. At the time, we didn't think much of it. Looking back,
we knew that it saved us from becoming an illegal resident in this country!
When we arrived at the immigration office in the other city center, some
VIP visitors' were there and delayed the office opening period. If we didn't
have the short term extension a while back, we would have been in much
bigger trouble and had to leave the country earlier than we planned. Now
we finally obtained a multiple-entry visa for two years. The Lord is great!