First testimony

In the POV of Brother Cai

In September, I went to Switzerland and Paris with my family. On the morning of the 23rd, we took the train from Paris to Switzerland. We arrived at Switzerland at around 11am. The place we stayed in had 5 stories and our room was on the fifth floor. The lift only brought us to the fourth floor so we had to take the stairs to the fifth floor.

Because the fifth floor is the penthouse, the ceiling was slope and there were many low lying leaves. When I was going up the stairs, I paid extra attention to my footsteps. But the moment I stepped on the fifth floor, my forehead hit the low-lying beams and I stumbled backwards and I fell backwards. When my family heard that I had fallen, they immediately surrounded me asking if I was alright. I asked them to help me up to try to stand and they did so. I felt that I couldn’t feel the floor with my left leg and I couldn’t move my left hand. They quickly called an ambulance to send me to the hospital.

At the hospital, I did an x-ray and the doctors found out there were 3 areas I was fractured. My left wrist, shoulder and my left thigh. The injury in the thigh was the most serious and life-threatening. Thank God for preparing very good doctors for me and at 7pm, the doctors operated on me and my thigh bone was successfully rejoined. I stayed in the ICU for a night and in the morning the next day I was transferred to a normal ward.

On the third day, the physiotherapist started to see me. The physiotherapist saw me everyday and started to teach me simple movements. They were very professional and patient and I stayed in the hospital for 16 days. After which, I could walk and move up and down the steps. Thank God that in these 16 days the doctors and nurses took very good care of me. I covered day by day.

We returned on the 9th of October and arrived in Singapore on the 10th. I took the ambulance directly from the airport to NUH and on the 15th I had an operation on my wrist. Although it had been 23 days later, the operation was still a success. Thank the Lord that now my wrist is in the process of recuperation. I stayed in NUH until the 31st before being discharged and I was overjoyed to be able to return home. What I thank God more for was that before I was discharged, the doctor took an x-ray of my shoulder and saw that the fracture has reduced in size and there was no need to operate on the shoulder.

This time even though I met with an accident on a holiday with my family, I still want to thank God. All these injuries will slowly recover. If I had injured my spine or head, the consequences would be even more severe. I sincerely thank God for His care and protection. I also want to thank all the ministers and brethren for your prayers and your concern. Thank you everyone.

In the POV of Bro Cai’s son

I will add on to what my father had just said. There were 5 of us on this trip; my father, wife, my mother-in-law, sister and myself. The doctor’s initial assessment was that my dad would take 6 weeks to recover and the wrist fracture should be operated within 2 to 3 weeks. We were contacting the insurance company because we had a travel insurance. The trip was supposed to be for a week, but due to problems after problems, the insurance couldn’t arrange for my father to return home on the planned date and we had to extend our stay. We discussed and decided that my sister would accompany my brother-in-law to return to Singapore on the original return date while my wife and I would stay on to accompany my father.

For the next 2 weeks, we had frequent conversations with the insurance company for the arrangement for my father. The progress was slower than we hoped. As we got closer to the end of the window period for the wrist injury, we got more and more stressed and worried that my father’s wrist recovery would be adversely interrupted.

Then, the insurance company arranged for a business class flight back with the company of a nurse. We also managed to come back on the same flight.

After reaching Singapore at NUH, we were stressed again when the doctor at the A&E wanted to discharge my father. We talked to the doctor and tried to explain that my father was supposed to be admitted and not discharged. After waiting for more than 12 hours at the hospital, my father was finally given a hospital bed.

The next day, when the hospital’s orthopaedic team came to look at how my father walked, they told us that he was in no condition to be discharged. Thank God my father was admitted and not discharged and stayed in hospital until his wrist surgery 5 days later. Thank God the surgery was successfully done although the window period was over.

After the surgery, because we had to work in the day, we discussed with the hospital for my father to be transferred to the community hospital so he could be under hospital care for 6 weeks. This was the estimated plan of the Zurich doctor. We waited day after day but there was no bed space at the community hospital. We started to be stressed again and when the doctor wanted to discharge my father.

Then we realised, it was already coming to 6 weeks since the accident. I find God’s timing amazing. Since it’s close to 6 weeks, the estimated period for recovery, and the doctors assessed my father’s condition to be good enough for discharge, we decided to bring him home to continue rehabilitation at home.

We experienced God looking after us and His amazing work. I have many things to thank God for in this incident. Thank God although my father’s leg bled internally and could have died as a result, He has preserved my father’s life. Thank God his head and spine are not injured. Thank God his recovery has been fast and smooth and thank God that my father has been able to stay in hospital care for close to 6 weeks until his condition was better. Thank God my mother-in-law wasn’t injured. Thank God the incident happened in the day. We were supposed to take the train from Paris in the afternoon but we missed it. So we booked the tickets for the next morning and reached Zurich close to noon time. If we didn’t miss the first time and reached Zurich at night with the accident, I imagine the situation may be worse.

Thank God for being in control of the situation throughout. During one of our prayers, I was feeling overwhelmed by the situation and what we were planning to do. Then I heard a voice telling me, “Do what you need to do. I’m in control.” I felt encouraged and kept this in my heart. Although there were times we were worried, I believe everything is in God’s hand and God would lead us through.

I would like to thank the church for the prayers and to everyone for the visits and the gifts. To the brethren who sent messages of encouragement to us, thank you. Thanks also to my family for the support and help. Thank you to my wife for taking care of my father and staying by my side to go through this together. May all glorification be unto God’s holy name.

Second testimony

In the POV of Sister Lee

I thank God for this opportunity to speak this testimony. I would like to seize the opportunity to thank everyone for your prayers. God was merciful to me and kept my life.

9 months ago, I was in Cambodia. I planned to stay there for a month. 2 and a half weeks into my trip, I was bitten by the Aedes mosquito. When it was confirmed, my platelet was at 109. The normal range should be 150 to 200 plus. The doctor was a little concerned as well because of my age and this is also my second time. The doctor wanted to retain me in the hospital as the platelet was going down. I refused to stay in the hospital because of financial situations. I went there for a holiday so I wasn’t planning to spend a lot of money. In Cambodia, everything is charged in USD and I requested to be discharged and contacted my travel insurance. The company couldn’t find my policy and I had to change my return date with SQ to a week earlier.

On one of the nights we went to the first China family in Cambodia for home worship service. During the time of my 2 and a half weeks stay in Cambodia, in some of my prayers, this hymn kept popping up. However, I couldn’t remember the entire hymn and only the chorus so I just let it pass. The screen shows a picture of hymn 244: O To Be Like Thee!

The screen flashed a picture of when I was supposed to go home but the airlines requested for health clearance before I boarded the flight. I failed the blood test because my platelet went down to 37 and the doctor was very anxious and told me I had to be admitted immediately into the hospital because I needed a blood transfusion. Again, I refused and went back to church. The insurance told me they didn’t have my policy and hence I called them again and told them my situation was dire and they should seriously look for my policy.

The next day, they found it and knowing that my platelet was at 37 they told me I needed an immediate admission. It was arranged for me to go to the A&E. I did a blood test again and my platelet count dropped to 33 and the blood vessels have also started to break on my extremities.

The picture shows me in the emergency room; very different from the other patients. I was still feeling hungry and was eating very cheerfully. The doctor was very anxious.

The picture shows the blood vessels start to break and the doctor told me I’ll go into shock soon. I have given strict instructions for no blood transfusion and he was saddened. I refused blood transfusion because I’m a creation of God. If God wants me to live, He can pump the blood back to my body. If He wishes to take me away, let it be done to His will.

I was then transferred to the ICU and the picture shows the wires put in to me. I thank God everyone was praying for me. After one night in the ICU, the nurses saw that I was eating all the food on the tray and the blood test came out the next day. By the next day, the blood count increased to 43 and the company decided to fly me back to Singapore. I came back with the doctor and the nurse.

Also, because the doctors were very saddened and expected the worst to happen to me, he requested for the Singapore embassy personnel to come to the ICU to visit me and she had to work overtime to get information of my family in Singapore in case they had to come collect a corpse. Thank God the next day I was able to fly back to Singapore. I came back on a ten-seater plane and was immediately transported to TTSH.

The picture shows a picture of me back in church healthy.

When I went through this calamity, I knew God wanted to teach me something. All along, although I had been attending church services, my spiritual life was below par. In TTSH I kept asking, “Why God, why did You keep me alive?”

Then I remembered the chorus of the hymn that kept popping up in Cambodia. I didn’t know the hymn number. Thank God after 5 days in TTSH, the platelet count went up to 171 and I requested for a discharge.

When I arrived home, I checked the hymn book. I went through the lyrics and that made me realise that I wasn’t qualified and wasn’t living how God wanted me to be living; to be like Him, loving, kind and pure.

I went through the next few weeks pondering over this matter and in one of the evergreen fellowship’s morning worship prayer, this question came to my mind, “What does God require of me?” On the way home on the bus, I googled for this verse.

The verse is in Micah 6:8;

‘He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?’

Up to date, I haven’t succeeded. What I’m doing now is to ask for God’s help. To rely on His divine nature and power to change me to help me to be who He wants me to be. All glory be to God. Amen.