Sowing and Reaping in God's Economy

Sunday, 21st January 2007

Dear all

Some of you guys must probably be quite "sian" of reading my testimonies already, so let me share one about our daughter Rachel.

Rachel is very dear to us, as well as to my parents and parents-in-law, because she is our firstborn (as well as their firstborn grandchild).

One of the principles we have been trying to inculcate in her is that of sowing and reaping in God's economy. She knows the value of money because it can be used to buy her a Nintendo DS game or to top-up her prepaid mobile phone card.

Sometime in Dec 06, 3L2 held a 12-hour extravaganza that included swimming, lunch, bowling and dinner. Roland and I (and our spouses) were going to leave 3L2 to form 3L7 in 2007, so as a parting gift, we decided to bless 3L2, with the Tays taking care of dinner and us taking care of the day-time activities.

I remember Rachel asking me, "Daddy, isn't that going to cost a lot of money?". I said, "Yes, sweetheart, but the way God sees things is different from the way we humans see things. When we bless others, we are actually sowing into their lives. When we sow plentifully, God causes us to reap even more abundantly.

Guess what? Just 10 days ago, I received a letter from my boss. I was given a Spot Award for "Helping the Finance Team in Korea". To cut a long story short, I was informed by my boss sometime in Oct 06 that I had to go to Korea to look after the Finance team for 3 weeks, because the Head of Finance there had to leave suddenly. I am one who does not like to be away from my family for too long a time, so I shared this with 3L2 to pray that I need not spend too much time in Korea.

As it turned out, I was allowed to fly there on a Monday morning, and fly back on the Friday of that same week. The next 2 weeks were handled via conference calls. My colleagues were amazed that my big boss had allowed me this arrangement, and said "you must have prayed very hard". I told them that "my cell group was praying for me." Now God has exceeded my expectations again by giving me a monetary award that has more than covered the cost of the extravaganza! And that was just for spending 4 days in Korea and 3 hours on conference calls! Isn't God a good God!

Anyway, the testimony is supposed to be about Rachel, so sorry for sidetracking. I told her that we all need to start small first. It is first giving 10 cents without any difficulty. Then it becomes $1, and then $10, and then $100, and then $1,000 etc. I then shared with her that someone had underwritten the shortfall for Project Uplift and given the church more than $50,000, and I am looking forward to the day in which I am in the position to do likewise.

Just yesterday, as I was fetching her back from Chinese tuition, I gave her her weekly allowance of $30. I told her to remember to put aside $3 for God. She told me that she had just put $10 in the offering bag that morning in Silver Boxes! As I type this, tears are flowing down my face, because I am so grateful to God that He has taught her His principle of sowing and reaping at such a young and tender age! I am sure that in her mind, that $10 could have bought her many other things. But she decided to put it into the offering bag! That represents 33% of her weekly allowance, and I must say that my own faith has never ever reached that kind of level before!

I was so encouraged that this morning, I went to an AXS machine to top-up her mobile phone prepaid card by $50. As parents, we are supposed to reflect the character of our Heavenly Father to our children. I want her to know, through me, that He is a generous and loving God. For the $10 she has sown, I wanted her to reap 5-fold (which incidentally is the number representing God's grace).

Hallelujah, and praise to Him alone!

Shalom
Malcolm