Day Seventeen

May 17th

Since we went to bed so late (3:00 or so in the morning), we slept in till 8:30 or so this morning. After some breakfast, Ben and his wife Han Jing and I left the apartment for some errands while mom stayed back to check on her emails. Ben and Han Jing do not have a vehicle, so rely on walking, bus or taxi to get around. But it really is quite easy to get around in this 647 square kilometers island city/country of Singapore. That translates into around 400 square miles for us Americans. I also found out that the population of Singapore is around 4 million people.

Han Jing joined us since their youngest son Aaron was feeling ill at his day care. After finding a taxi, we dropped her off at the school where she would walk home from. Ben and I were on a mission to do some shopping. Imagine! Here we are two men doing some grocery shopping. It looked like it was a pretty common practice from all the men I saw on our outing.

We stopped off at "Little India" first. Wow! I felt like I was back in India here. It was great! It smelled like India, looked like India, etc. but was definitely a lot cleaner than India. We stopped off at the butcher first where Ben picked out some meat. Ben informed me that he used to go to the super market for meat, until he found out that they were always cheating him there.

After passing by an Indian shop with Indian sweets like jalebies and gulab jamins (yummm!) we found ourselves in the midst of all kinds of produce, meats (some live meat like fish, frogs, shrimp and who knows what all else) and other kinds of grocery products. I tried to push the little cart and keep up with Ben as fast as I could, but I enjoyed it. We got in and out of there in very little time. I wondered how we would get all these groceries home, but that was answered when Ben hailed down a cab and we loaded all the groceries in the trunk of the cab. Then I wondered what we would do with the grocery cart, and just like that, there was a man from the grocery store to take the cart back to the store. One thing I forgot to mention is that to use a cart you must put a coin in the cart to release the cart and use it.

When we got home, I met Aaron for the first time. I played "Connect Four" with him. He's only 3 years old, but very smart and can carry on a good conversation (in English) with you. He had quite a fever, so Han Jing called Ben who had gone out to have lunch with a friend. They took him to the hospital where they got some medication to get the fever down. I still don't know what's wrong with him, but before they left for the hospital I prayed over him that God would heal him and bring his fever down. When they got back, he looked like a new boy.

Did I mention that it's rather warm here? It's quite humid and "sticky." The air conditioning is turned on in both my bedroom and mom's bedroom, but the other part of the house is just left open. The front door is open all the time and the windows opened wide all the time as well. We got somewhat of a reprieve from the hot weather this afternoon when a rainstorm (complete with thunder and lightning) rolled through here. That was a relief, but it is still quite humid and warm.

Ben's friend Moses, who also is a student at Singapore Bible College, took Ben and Han Jing and Aaron to the hospital. Moses' wife is a medical doctor specializing in elder care. He and his wife are from Malaysia originally. Moses is part of a church with around 3,000 members. He will be doing an internship there this summer. They are involved in the service for Chinese speaking people that has an attendance of around 170 people. The name of his church is Covenant Evangelical Free Church. They are trying to encourage other churches to join them in becoming an Intentional Disciple Making Church (IDMC). Both Ben and Moses told me that while there are some mega churches in Singapore, there is little true kingdom growth here. Much of the growth comes from people changing churches or immigrating here.

Ben showed Moses mom's book on China since there are pictures in there of how Ben looked 27 years ago. When Moses saw pictures of dad he thought he looked like Billy Graham. Then in another picture he said he looked like Chuck Swindoll. A little bit later we were looking at some pictures of my family and I asked him who he thought I looked like. "You look like Pastor Rick Warren," was his answer. I'm not sure why he thought that unless it's because Rick Warren, like me, is also sporting a goatee these days. I'm just glad to be me!

For supper, Ben, his oldest son Abel (7 years old) and mom and I went to "Holland Town." I was expecting some sort of European theme, but what I found was a shopping center and a restaurant/cafe lined street. We decided on Indian food, although we were the only customers to start with. I gathered that more customers come later in the evening. Anyway, the food was good, but we sure didn't feel very welcomed by the staff serving us. Abel had not had Indian food before and let us know what foods he didn't particularly care for.

We spent the evening relaxing. I listened to Abel practice his piano. He's using the same Thompson series I used to learn the piano, but his book is in Chinese. I also listened to Abel read to me from a book. He is a very good reader and loves to laugh and have a good time.

I heard more of Han Jing's testimony later in the evening. It was good to hear more of her story and encourage her as she faces an uncertain future. Ben and Han Jing are leaving Singapore after Ben's graduation to go back to Chengdu, China where they are from and used to live. They are not sure what they will be doing, but are trusting the Lord that He will guide them. And I believe He will.