Church Weekly for 23 March 2008
My dear readers,
Kluang – “Flying Fox City”
Kluang was named after the fruit bats which infested the nearby forests. From their sanctuary they would take off by their hundreds at night to feed on the fruits and flowers in season. In our three years’ sojourn we encountered none of these beasts because their flight path did not pass over the area where we lived.
Kluang brings back fond memories of God’s faithfulness in saving our family from the Great Depression. It was our “Ebenezer” – “hitherto hath the Lord helped us,” our relief after four years of sore testing.
Father’s “Licence to practise” was God’s answer to prayer in our darkest hour of need when the outlook was only a black and blank wall. It was the family’s “Red Sea” experience, God making a way for us, as He had parted the water for His people to cross on dry land. We too were His people and He did not forget us.
With God, nothing is impossible! That licence had not been granted before, and not again. But the Lord willed it so. With God there need not be a precedent: He works according to His own sovereign will and pleasure.
There were mixed feelings when time came for us to leave Senai. Over the years we had grown to love Peach River Garden, Great Depression notwithstanding. We had become attached to the family house, the bridge over Peach River, and the river itself, of course, not forgetting the bird song and the aroma of smoked rubber of Father’s “garden.”
All these became “things of the past” when we said our last Goodbye. Senai had become our “second Egypt” as we packed up for Kluang, sixty miles to the north. Father and Mother, and the two younger children occupied a taxi. Second Brother and I were assigned to escort the lorry with the furniture and miscellaneous household items.
Fired with boyish excitment, we climbed atop the lorry for what we thought would be a two-hour “joy ride.” It was more than we had expected, - no “joy ride” but motion sickness all the way! It was an unforgettable ordeal and – never again!
It is seventy-three years since our family left Kluang for Batu Pahat. While we have had no occasion to return, I fondly remember Kluang for many “First Experiences” of life which taught unforgettable lessons treasured to this day.
THE BLESSING OF PIPED WATER
In Kluang we had our first experience of piped water. To those who have grown up in modern Singapore, they cannot fully appreciate what it means to be freed from the daily tedium of having to fetch water from the well. At the turn of a tap, and without sweat out came sparkling clean water to meet our household need. Doesn’t it remind you of God’s supplying His people Israel with water out of rock in the parched arid wilderness?
Did it ever occur to you that without water all life on earth would cease in a matter of days? Thank God for rain!
GOD’S LIFELINE “LICENCE TO PRACTISE”
It was in Kluang that God’s amazing lifeline, the “Licence to Practise” supplied the first dollar to buy the family’s daily bread. “Nan Sun Dispensary” brought in the patients for Father to treat. It was the family’s only source of daily bread for ten years until Big Sister became a doctor in 1942.
Like the Israelites in the wilderness, every day we received fresh supplies, like manna, without fail. Every day, we could look up to God and sing, “Great is Thy faithfulness.” We did not have much but we had enough and were contented.
FIRST EXPERIENCE OF THE PAIN OF PARTING
It was in Kluang that I first experienced the pain of leaving Parents. Three times a year we children left home for school in Singapore, eighty miles to the south. Each departure was a separation of three months, without the prospect of a weekend trip home, or the comfort of hearing our Parents’ voice. Today that pain of separation is no more! The telephone, and now the videophone, provide instant comfort.
“But sweet are the uses of adversity” says Shakespeare. We cannot agree more. By these heart-wrenching separations, hearts were made more tender and each departure for Singapore was an occasion for exciting our filial feelings. Absence made the heart grow fonder.
Each departure was sealed with prayer. When the train passed by the house, it was an exciting time of waving goodbye, we children from the train window, parents from the upstairs bedroom window. By these tearful moments our hearts were made more tender and affectionate.
But for Second Brother and me, the sadness of separation lingered in Singapore on for days afterward. Each afternoon after returning from school, we would hold a "sobbing session” by the side of the hedge behind the “Church House.” When the tearful release was over we would return to our home-work. Second Brother was eight and I was six.
THE JOY OF REUNION
As the term wore on and school holidays approached, we literally numbered the days to our return to Kluang and our “Home, sweet home.” Our hearts literally leapt with excitement at the thought of being home again!
The last week of school was special for two reasons. First, to get a gift for Father and Mother. What shall we buy? A box of Jacob’s English Selected Biscuits or a tin of Cadbury’s Chocolates – just not to return “empty-handed.”
Second, the excitement of “packing for home again!” The last week was time for a thorough “spring clean” and a final “count down” to the return, -just to feel again our parents’ warm embrace and to hear again the music of their voices.
Truly, there is no place like home. (To be continued…)
Lovingly in the Lord
Dr SH Tow, Senior Pastor