My dad's friend, Uncle Samuel, from back in the day came and stayed at our house last week, and on wednesday night, he took me and my family out for the obligatory thanks-for-everything-dinner at Northbridge Chinese Restaurant [my family's new 'South Ocean' - my dad tends to have favourite restaurant phases (last one was South Ocean) and goes there until he gets sick of it and then changes to a new one... and right now the restaurant of choice is Northbridge Chinese Restaurant (as a matter of fact, I started typing this post while waiting to go there tonight)... No complaints about it tho - their cheew-yoon pai guat (chilli and salt spare ribs) is awesome and they have soup and dessert 'on the house'].
Well anyway.. (that was a bit of a side-track) At the dinner, I found out something really interesting about my dad's side of the family's salvation. Uncle Samuel was telling us about how he became a Christian, saying that originally, his older brother was the first one in his family to become a Christian [this brother was a Pastor in the United States but recently passed away... Waaaaaay back in the day, he actually gave Adrian and I yellow teddy bears in Los Angeles when I was 3 and he was 5.. I remember this quite clearly because Adrian and I had a bit of a tussle with one of these bears and the bear flew into a puddle of muddy water - I lost it, and bawled my eyes out - but this uncle went and washed and dried the bear and gave it back to me which was really sweet and all, but after the whole muddy puddle incident, I ended up wanting the other bear - stupid Adrian!]. And this brother was actually my Uncle Keith's friend (Uncle Keith works in the Salvation Army in Perth). Apparently, Uncle Keith tried evangelising so many times to this Uncle Samuel's brother who constantly ridiculed him for being a Christian - but eventually said to him one day 'Take me to your church' and then became a Christian himself shortly after. He then went on to bring Uncle Samuel and the rest of his family to know Christ as their Saviour!!
But that's not the cool part... Yeah! There's more to the story fellas and fellarettes!!... We found out that night that my dad's side of the family used to be non-Christian!... I KNOW! Crazy crazy stuff!... This was a pretty big shock as my bros and I always thought that my dad's family were Christians from the get-go, but apparently not!! My dad shared with us that originally Uncle Keith was the only Christian in the family, but by God's grace, one by one, both my Grandpa and Grandma, my Uncle Kenneth, Aunty Ruth, My Dad, Aunty Pauline, Uncle Kin and Aunty Ruby put their faith in the Lord too! I was absolutely floored to realise that the salvation of two families came down to my Uncle Keith - who seems like one of the more quiet and awkward uncles of the lot of them. To this day, out of all my uncles and aunties, Uncle Keith is probably the only one who continues to evangelise heaps in his old age (not sure how old he is, but my dad is 60, my Uncle Ken is 70 and he's somewhere in between). I guess it shows us that to be used by God, you don't need to be eloquent, charismatic, courageous or bold - you just need a willing heart! It also really makes me realise the truth of God's Word when it says:
Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
My Mum is still waiting for her prayers to be answered for her side of the family but when I see God work in Jie Aom and my auntie's (Jie Aom's mum) hearts, I believe in my heart that they are starting to get answered too. =)
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