22 to 25 April 2019

This was the hardest week I've faced in the year so far.

1. It was the second week of Daniel class in SALT. Classes were difficult and students required a lot of help.
2. Audio recordings for SALT class were failing for no apparent reason
3. Shaun had flown to Korea to sit for a lifestyle medicine exam, so I was home alone. I realized how much I actually rely on Shaun even for home affairs.
4. There were problems in the Vista house - Sharose was absurdly charged by the plumber for a simple fix
5. There was a huge clash in family holidays with the inlaws and my parents, and on top of that, I did not have enough annual leave
6. There was a 4 day water shortage both at home and at work
7. Shaun and I had many arguments whilst he was in Korea because of a lack of communication
8. I was losing my temper all the time because issues were arising not just one after another, but all simulatneously.

I remember one day (I forget which day) I was working from 8am to 8pm non stop with just a 10 minute break in between for a quick lunch. I reached home at 8pm and just sat in the parking lot in my car and cried for 5 minutes straight. And after 5 minutes were up, I wiped my tears and sucked it up because prayer meeting was starting at 8:30pm and I had to get started on storing water ASAP because my condo was going to be affected the next day.

Throught the day, I kept asking God why He allowed this week to be so hard for me, why everything happened at the same time. I remember I cried myself to sleep that night, because I knew the next few days wouldn't be easier.

The next morning, I opened my prayer journal. I found it hard to praise God with all the things that transpired the day before, so I decided to just turn the pages and see if there were any prayer requests that were answered that I could praise God for.

Boy, was I shocked, and was I humbled.

Just before this week transpired, these were my prayer requests:

1. Teach me how to cope without Shaun when he's away for one week - show me I can do things myself
2. Show me my weakness and help me have a better character so I can be a better witness
3. Teach me to pray unceasingly.
4. Help me keep my home clean
5. Give me repentence so that I can have a character more like Jesus'. Teach me to be patient.
6. Teach me to use my time wisely and overcome my addiction for wasting time, browsing the net, and stop using the app
7. Help me to control my emotions

I realized, that God had answered all my prayer requests in just 2 days.

• He made me so busy that I didn't have any time to waste or browse the internet, or go on useless apps. I did not even feel the need to and since that day, those apps are deleted from my phone.
• He taught me to cry out to him almost every minute of the day when something was going wrong, because I could not cry out to anyone else.
• He helped me through the water problem and keeping the house by myself on top of the busy days - so much so, that I did more housekeeping in the busy week than on my free days
• He showed me what my weaknesses were, how easily affected I was by my emotions, and how I was affecting people around me with them as well.

That afternoon, I was out visiting a friend. We had just had lunch in a mall and were on our way to her home for Bible Study. As we were exiting the car park, we heard a tap on my car passenger-side window from a young Indian couple on a motorcycle. They told us that my left rear tyre was flat!

I wonder how I would have dealt with this situation if I did not open my prayer journal in the morning. I wonder if I would have been angry or if I would have questioned God again.

But instead, we calmly drove to the side of the road, parked, put on our emergency signal, and sat at the side of the road.

I remember being calm, and at peace, and asking God how He was going to get me out of this situation. We were on our way to study an important Bible Study topic about Baptism, so I wonder if this was God trying to tell me that it wasn't the right time to study, or if it was Satan trying to stop us.

While we sat at the side of the road, just 2-3 minutes later, two young Malay men on a motorcycle stopped in front of us, and asked us if we knew how to change a tyre. Neither of us did. They then disembarked off their motorcycle and proceeded to help us change the tyre. They even taught us tricks and skills to make changing a tyre easier - with their concern being, that if I had a flat tyre at night on the highway, no one could help me. Within 5-10 minutes, they were done, and they left.

I didn't even have time to thank them properly, or ask their names, or even offer them a token of gratitude.

This was a huge praise for me. It was free help, but it also helped relieve my fear of motorcyclists. About 2 years ago, I got into an accident with two young Malay boys on a motorcycle with no license, and was bullied into paying for their medical bills even though I was not at fault. Since then, I have been very afraid of motorcyclists on the road. But this experience has changed that.

I praise God for how He answers our prayers and helps us to grow. We may not understand it at that moment, but we can only trust.