MOTHER'S DAY: MOTHER LED THE FAMILY TO JESUS CHRIST

Mother's Day will be celebrated this year on the second Sunday, May 10, 2009. The day was initiated by Anna Jarvis of West Virginia, U.S.A. at a memorial service and recognized in 1914, two years after her mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis died on May 12, 1907.

Since then many nations in the world have adopted this day to honour the mother in each family.  Different nations celebrate this day on various days, but in America and Canada it is celebrated on the second Sunday in May.  

I am paying tribute to my mother's memory this year. My mother, Foo Lee Yeng (Foo, surname) was born to a rubber estate owner and also a business man collecting and selling tin ore from the Chinese tin miners to the British Company, Straits Trading. He was in partnership with his cousin in Ipoh, Perak (silver state) in Malaysia.

Thank God for Mother in leading the family to be baptized in the Lord Jesus Christ but now there are four generations of Christians in the family. At the time, she was not worshipping any god at all. Mother was educated at the Convent, Ipoh, capital of Perak and was one of only three Chinese students in the class. Very few Chinese attend attend English schools in the town. There was no English School for boys either and so my uncles were also educated at the Convent.

Married at the age of twenty, Mother gave birth to her first child at the age of twenty-one and her last daughter when she was forty-two. She was mother of eight children, five girls and three boys. She did not really look after the children for she had servants to care for them. In Chinese culture, mothers who can afford normally employ a special amah or nanny to look after a baby after childbirth for a month. But Mother had servants to care for all her children. I suppose, she more or less supervised.

Thank God for Mother in leading the family to be baptized in the Lord Jesus Christ and now there are four generations who are Christians

When my brother Paul was eleven months old, he had diphtheria and by the time mother took him to see the doctor, it was too late and he could not do anything for him. Mother went home and wept for he was her first son.

Grandma was already a Christian at that time and she was very keen for all her children to embrace Christianity, but no one heeded her. Grandma went to the church and asked some Indian members to come to the house and pray for the child. Mother agreed that if her son became well, she and her family would become Christians. Not being a Christian at the time, she bargained with God.

After three days of prayer, the child became well and as a result, the family became Christians as well. God has a unique way of calling different people to His fold. It was due to her faith in Jesus Christ that Paul was healed and the rest of the family became Christians in the non-denominational church, the True Jesus Church which had it's origin in Beijing, 1917.   The church grew rapidly since its inception and became the third largest Chinese Church in China by the time of the Second World War.  Since then, the church in Beijing has lost touch and has no communication with the other churches in the world.  Praise and thank God for accepting the family into the fold.

Mother has a very strong belief in education for her children. Though my father was a teacher, I do not remember him as fostering or emphasizing the importance of education for the children. It was always my mother who harped on education. When we did well in school, we were rewarded with money, and children appreciate the value of money.

God had rewarded her for her insistence on good education and four out of five daughters became teachers, but the fifth and eldest daughter was the secretary to the manager of the Perak River Hydro. He was a Scotsman as well as a freemason. One of the sons is the self-employed architect who designed a satelite town of 300 estate houses outside Ipoh, the capital of Perak, Malaysia. It was rather unusual for him to plan a Catholic school and hospital for he was not a Catholic. For the planing of the Catholic church, he invited his English professor from London to work on his project. The other son was an accountant and was Acting State Treasurer when he migrated together with the rest of the family to Canada due to unrest in the country. Two of the daughters who were teachers received Teacher's scholarships for further study in England.

Now two of her children, a son and a daughter are active in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are ordained deacons in the non denominational church, True Jesus Church which was instituted in Beijing, China (1917) and worked ernestly for the Lord God.

After the death of my father, mother led three of her daughters to exorcise evil spirits from three disturbed women who came for help.  Family service was continued from Monday to Friday nights at her home.

Mother also has the distinction of having four members of the family born on the same birthday day, October 25. Her husband, a daughter and two great granddaughters (twins) were all born on the same date.

Praise and thank God for the achievements. All glory go to Jesus Christ for we are nothing! It is God who gave us life, peace, blessings and success in life. All glory to the Lord God.

Mother liked crossword puzzles and she would do them from the daily newspaper. One day she saw an advertisement asking readers to submit a name for the slogan of a new toothpaste. The competition was open to all throughout Malaysia. Mother had won the competition! What a surprise! The whole family had to pose for a photograph to be printed in the daily newspaper in the country. Many students pulled my leg over this after reading the newspaper.

Mother was good in mathematics and she involved herself in the stock exchange market though she did not attend at the broker's place as did her brother and sisters. Every evening at 6 pm, she would listen to the news regarding the price of the commodity on the stock exchange and cutting the grass in the lawn with a pair of scissors even though the gardener had already mown the grass. She sold her all her shares when she migrated to Canada.

My mother was indeed, a remarkable woman. She taught my sister and I to play the piano when we were young. However, we were not at all musical but she came from a musical family while we were more like my dad who was more artistic. She was dedicated to Jesus Christ, her widowed mother and her family and served them well. She was supportive of father's ministry. All glory to God!

Another hobby of hers was to read the bible and also take notes on subjects she was interested in and also about different types of vitamins in her very beautiful handwriting. She continued to do this until her health deteriorated. Throughout her life, she was supportive of my father in his ministry.

The first miracle was the healing of my brother from diphtheria when he was 11 months old and she led the family to become Christians.

During the last 10 years of her life, Mother did not visit any doctor. She was infected with shingles which was very painful and was hospitalized. Since her return to her home, she never saw any doctor till she passed away. Many younger people over 65 years would see their doctor for check-ups or other ailments. She did not! She stayed at home, reading the bible, praying or copying notes from the Bible or news about health and vitamins.

What impressed me most was the miracle of her not seeing a doctor the last ten years of her life and she lived up to the ripe old age of 88 years before the Lord God welcomed her into His fold.

I felt that God had not given us a sign of what happened to her and prayed to God to let me know. When Grandma died, suddenly a sweet smelling scent filled the room and my uncles who were not Christians remarked on the incident. Father passed away when one of my sisters and I were in Edinburgh, UK attending the new church dedication. She dreamt that she saw my father dressed in white lying in a room with many other dead people also dressed in white clothes. We were comforted by the dream.

WHITE RAIMENT

Revelations 3:4-5

Thou has a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white; for they are worthy.

He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

Revelations 7:9

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

Revelations 19:8

And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saint.

It bothered me that no sign was given about my mother's passing. I continued praying to the Lord and about six months after her death, I dreamt about my mother dressed in white and while being lifted up into the air, stretched out her hand and touched me. In an instant, she disappeared and I was comforted by the dream and woke up. God had answered my prayer in a dream. Praise and thank God. All glory to the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!

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