Church Weekly for 3 February 2008
My dear readers,
1. Senai, City of my Sabbatical
My “sabbatical” was announced last year, but the New Year 2008 “took off with a bang – busier than ever!” Man proposed, God disposed. On Monday January 21, finally by kindness of Elder and Mrs William Seah, supplying “door to door service” we took off. As God willed, my dear wife had one of her bad attacks of motion sickness (now very rare, thank God). Fortunately it happened only near the end of the journey. All the same she was “washed out” the rest of the day, not able to drink or eat till the next morning. Through all this we learn new lessons of leaning on the Lord, for what is our life? It is ever so frail, “even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time …” (James 4:14 ), so transient.
It is fitting that I return to Senai to write the first Chapter of “Footprints” which began right here in Senai! I daresay Senai will shortly be well known to some who know little about it now. We have just passed the midpoint of our stay at Sofitel Golf Resort. For those who play golf, this place is unbeatable. For me who knows little about golf, it is also unbeatable! I don’t have to walk in the open with a lightning attractor and risk being struck. (I speak as a fool like Paul [2 Cor 11:23 ]).
I spoke as a fool, requesting Elder Seah to search for our former rubber estate “Peach River Garden.” It probably disappeared from the face of the earth more than half-a-century ago, razed to the ground by some developer’s bulldozer!
2. Preface – a First Draft
One of America’s best loved poets, William Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) wrote, “The Psalm of Life” full of meaningful and godly thoughts. The title of my memoirs is derived from stanzas seven to nine, which I have taken the liberty to adapt (edited words are in bold type):
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime;
And departing leave behind us
Footprints in the sands of time.
Footprints that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s restless main,
A broken and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.
Let us then be up and doing
With a heart for any fate;
E’er achieving, e’er pursuing,
Learn for God to work and wait.
Moses, the greatest observer of human life, led God’s people forty years in the wilderness. He observed that, “The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10 ).
In my fourscore years of “labour and sorrow” my footprints lie scattered in the sands of time over far removed parts of our planet; footprints directed by my Master, and patterned by godly forebears and others who, going before, have set their pattern for me.
In the pages following I have endeavoured to tell the story of my life, with the dull bits cut out. I confess that I never knew there were so many worthwhile thoughts in me till I put pen to paper. It is my prayer and hope that some shipwrecked brother or simply someone seeking the better way, may read and be led to the only way that leads to life everlasting.
3. Grandfather’s Cork Hat
(Excerpted from “Footprints”)
Released from Senai’s backwood into Singapore’s metropolis was a great leap forward for my six-year-old mind. Grandfather, a man twelve times my age, was equally enthused. Without my knowledge, he bought me a cork hat to ward off ultraviolet’s harmful rays. Father’s second younger sister was given the special service of looking after me. The quiet soft-spoken Auntie became my “Second Mother” and loved me as her own son.
Anglo-Chinese School (ACS) was my school of choice in the footsteps of two elder brothers before me. However, having missed the January intake, the Principal Miss Smith registered me for the July intake. Meantime I found admission to McNair Road Primary School which was much nearer home than ACS. Second Aunt thought this was some compensation for the disappointment as she had a shorter distance to send me to school.
Second Aunt organized every item of my “school stuff” with meticulous attention: school uniforms, school bag, pencils, eraser, pencil box, coin purse. Then came an item I had not expected: Grandfather’s cork hat.
Brethren, pray with me a) that God will restore peace in Pandan, and b) He will deliver FEBC from uncharitable treatment.
Lovingly in the Lord
Dr SH Tow, Senior Pastor