Saved from Fire and Flood
“All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies” (Psalm 25: 10, KJV).
Could you believe it? CHOL (Christian Home of Love) caught fire. THANK GOD! Everything is fine with us. No one got hurt. Everything in the boy’s and girl’s dorms were gone as the fire started off first from the boy’s dorm and then spread very quickly to the girl’s dorm. Dara, Evangel and Lin’s study room also got it but thank God we managed to bring out many of the furniture on time with the help of the villagers, mostly our ex-students and their parents.
All the clothing, money and belongings of the children were gone. School books, uniforms, bags, shoes etc were also burned up. They have no more clothing of their own. However, thank God for the last batch of clothing that Elder Victor Wee brought up in January 2011 and I kept them at another place. So, they were all given the clothing last night. PRAISE THE LORD! They could wear these clothing for Sunday Worship today (13 Feb). The weather at night and in the morning is cold. Thank God. We still have stock of jackets and windbreakers for them. Jesus says, “for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things” (Matthew 6:32, KJV).
The fire started at about 5.15 p.m. yesterday (12 Feb) when we were having our family worship. We do not know exactly what was the cause of the fire but the boys were saying that it could be because of the loose contact of the electrical plug and the mobile phone charger in the boy’s dorm that triggered the fire sparks and when the wind blew in, it ignited the mosquito nets and then the mattresses and blankets and the whole wooden building. Everything happened just so fast. When we ran to the boy’s dorm, the bed was already on fire. Within 5 minutes, the whole room was already burning. Thank God the fire did not take place in the middle of the night when everyone is sleeping, when there is no one to help fight the fire and carry the things out.
After the fire had finally died down, we carried on with our family worship. We thanked and praised God for Who He is in our lives. After we had sung the song, “Thanks to God for My Redeemer,” Dara reminded all of us once again to thank God for the series of messages we had learned at the end of last year, entitled “When Disaster Strikes” to prepare us for such a time like this. Indeed, God’s Word is our comfort and strength, as the psalmist says, “This is my comfort in my affliction: for Thy Word hath quickened me” (Psalm 119:50, KJV).
THANK GOD! There are two power supplies for the Home, one from the front yard and the other from the backyard. Though the one from the backyard was cut off due to the fire, thank God we still have light at the front yard. So, we are not living in darkness. The same is also true with the water source. We have two main pipes, one to the boy’s and girl’s dorms and the other to the guesthouse. Since the dorms were reduced to ashes, the children are now sleeping at our guesthouse, with full water supply. Thank God our kitchen is also not affected by the fire. Likewise, the fire did not burn down our Fellowship Hall. We are now putting up at the house that we have built for Elder and Mrs Wee. It’s just in front of the Fellowship Hall.
Could not imagine our house was burned up. Nevertheless, we still believe that God is in full control. In a time like this, some may think that it must be due to some sin in our lives, so God is chastising us. We acknowledge the Bible teaches that “For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth” (Hebrews 12:6, KJV).” But this is not always the case. The Book of Job says that Job “was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil” (Job 1:1, KJV) and yet he encountered calamity in his life simply because he was a godly man and God, as it were, offered him to Satan to be tempted, as it is written in Job 1:8, “And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?”
We are finite. We may not know exactly why God allows certain things to happen to us even when we have tried our best to live for Him, but still we must believe that God is the Author of our lives and He has the final say. We are just instruments of God. Isaiah 55:8-9 says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
Through this incident, we have learned also not to hold on to material things too tightly but learn to let go. Job said, “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the Name of the LORD” (Job 1:21, KJV). God has always been very good to us and He will definitely grant us His grace to go through this time of testing, though it may take quite a while for us to rebuild everything again. Do not worry. We are fine. God is always so good to us and He has granted us His peace and joy even in a moment like this. PRAISE THE LORD! “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28, KJV).
The police officers have come to block up the area. They are going to file a report. Thereafter, we should be able to start cleaning up the mess. Do pray for wisdom for us to know how to go about doing it and how and when to start the reconstruction. Do also pray for strength and good health for all of us.
It has not been easy especially for Dara, having to go through so much at this time when her health is still very weak. The environment is quite smoky at times due to forest fires or the villagers burning rubbish. She finds it hard to breathe at times because of the air pollution. Kindly uphold her health in prayer.
Due to the fire and the water from the fire engine, many of the books of Dara and both Evangel and Evangeline have been damaged. Those books are for their studies. Pray that we will be able to quickly source out the number of books that were destroyed and find replacements so that they may move on with their studies when everything is more or less settled. We also hope to explain to Dara’s lecturers about her situation and ask for permission for her to study at home. Pray that her lecturers will be very understanding.
The students do not have any uniforms to go to school tomorrow (14 Feb). And as some of you may know, every student needs 4 different sets of uniforms throughout the week. So, we will be going to the school to inform the teachers about it. Pray that they will be able to buy all the 4 sets of uniforms from the school as soon as possible and also the school will have enough textbooks to sell to them at this time. In a month’s time, they will be having their school examinations, followed by the long summer holidays. Pray that their studies will not be affected.
Under His loving Care,
Robert, Dara, Evangel, Evangeline Peh
& all at the Christian Home of Love
& the Truth Bible-Presbyterian Church
13 February 2011
Dear Rev Dr Jeffrey Khoo and Eld J T Joseph and the Session of True Life B-P Church,
We greet you in the blessed Name of our Risen Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We give thanks and praise to the Lord for His grace and mercy upon us. We are very thankful for your kind concerns, support and prayers. As a missionary pastor, I would like to write a brief report so that you may pray for us and our ministry and give us your advice.
1. Bible Study in December 2010 and January 2011
Thank God for sustaining the Bible study in Vietnamese at Jade’s home on Thursday (from 4 to 5 brethren, except the time Ps Hien was away and during Lunar New Year), the Bible study for the Youth (from 4 to 6 brethren, except the time Ps Hien was away). Thank God for blessing our Bible study and dinner fellowship on January 29 with the presence of 21 brethren, including 7 visitors (four from Singapore).
2. Sunday Worship in December 2010 and January 2011
Thank God for our faithful brethren, who played the piano, and led our prayer meeting and did the tracting in our evangelism. Thank God for Bro Michael Benjamin and Bro Jason Lim, who take care of the church while Ps Hien was away. Thank God for providing Rev Christopher Tuck (Jan 2 and 9) and Rev Adrian de Bruyn (Jan 16) to preach to our brethren until Pastor came back home on Jan 21. The attendance of our worship week by week in December was 20, 14, 17, and 6 respectively. The attendance of our worship week by week in January was 12, 17, 14, 19 and 19 respectively.
3. Thanksgiving
We thank God for His grace and mercy and His blessings upon us and Brisbane BPC, especially preserving all the brethren safe and sound despite the floods and cyclone in January. Thank God for His provision to accommodate Bro Jason during the floods and to welcome our visitors from Singapore (Eleanor and her parents and sister) at Ps Hien’s home. Thank God for helping Bro Michael to settle down in another place. We are very encouraged and thankful to the Lord to welcome Bro Maverisk Pang (from Gethsemane BPC in Singapore), who drives long distance to our worship service from Sunshine Coast (during his flying training), and to welcome Simon Ho, a Singaporean student who has just come for his two-year studies in Brisbane.
We thank God for granting Bro Jason a safe and blessed mission trip to Zhenjiang and Nantong to encourage the brethren over there.
We thank God for granting Ps Hien journey mercies and blessed time with his parents and siblings in Canada and his relatives in the States. Thank God also for His sufficient grace enabling Ps Hien to minister His Word to two churches in Ottawa and one church in Denver and to give back the honorarium to the churches as they have not got the same high view of God’s Word yet. May God use His Word (John 4:23-24) to remind the congregations that to be God’s true worshippers, they must be born again and worship God according to God’s Word to exalt our Lord Jesus Christ alone (Christ-centred and Word-centred Worship).
We thank God for the prayers, advice, encouragement and kind support from True Life BPC, from Faith Presbyterian Church (Perth) and like-minded brethren which we did not deserve and expect.
We do uphold you, True Life BPC and FEBC in our prayers. May God preserve FEBC and graciously grant her the victory, all because of His Word, His Truth, His Name and His Glory. May God be with you, strengthen you, sustain you and mightily bless you and your ministry.
Faithfully yours in Christ,
Hien Nguyen
17 February 2011
