It would be a worthy gamble.
When the 4 African hunters heard about the challenge, each scoffed. With gusty candour, they were ready to take it up. After all, with years of experience in the African wild, this would be a walk in the park.
If they assessed the animal correctly through a hole in the wall, they could bring it home to their village for a feast. In a time of famine, this was a grand lure.
Feeling something long, thin and slender, with an ungracious tuft of hair at the end, the first hunter threw up his hands in the air, “What? Do you take this as a joke? A ferret can’t feed my family!”
When the second hunter had his turn, he shook his head despondently, “It’s so hard, I don’t think even an axe could split its meat into half.”
When the third hunter returned, he merely sniggered, “How slithery! My village is not eating any snake!”
In a fury of disappointment, the three hunters left, leaving only the last, hopeful one.
Cheering and shouting, the last hunter returned with a candescent smile, crying out, “I’m taking it! It’s great and magnificent, it must be an elephant! I’M TAKING IT HOME!”
When the mystery was unveiled, the fourth hunter went home with a whale of a kill, an entire elephant ready to feed his entire village, who had been starving for months.
As I listened to this gripping story at our African village church one day, the story pierced my heart and hit me like a ton of bricks.
After all, how often do we, like hunters in the dark, fail to perceive God accurately, based on what we feel?
It has been a “tail-touching” journey for me, with our soon-transition back to Singapore.
While we both had wished to stay on for another year serving in Uganda, my remaining bond to serve as a medical doctor in Singapore prevented us from doing so. With housing, employment, and adjustment worries creeping up on us only soon after we felt we had just settled in Uganda, I started to fret and worry about the future.
Like the first hunter, who only touched the elephant’s “tail”, the worrisome part of me rashly concluded His insufficiency for us by worrying. Where would we stay? Where would we work? How could we adjust back home so quickly with so many demands?
After a year of desperately recalibrating to a new rhythm of life in Africa, I dreaded being thrown back into the flux of 90-hour work weeks back at the hospital. Like the 2nd hunter who had touched the elephant’s tusk and concluded the animal was as hard as stone, I too, had projected the image of a hard taskmaster onto God. Surely after my term in Africa ended, He would put me through a different kind of “suffering” for my own character development, right?
And as with the third hunter who perceived the animal was slithery and slimy because he had touched the elephant’s trunk, I wondered if I too, had assumed the worst of God because of single, un-contextualized experiences?
Recently, as God smashed the walls I had enclosed Him in, I stood amazed at the vast extent of His grace, mercy and favor.
When doors to my previous workplace were closed unexpectedly, I felt the ground beneath me give way. After months of reassurance and anticipation, I had imagined going back to a familiar environment at work, given there would be numerous adjustments to make after finding a new rented home to settle into. As I knocked on other doors, I found them all open to receiving me, except the one I really wanted- an academic placement at the School of Public Health, to develop and teach curricula that would impact students. While the faculty valued my Resume, my contract with the government prevented me from serving at a different institution.
With employment matters up in the air, the unsettling thought of having no home when we returned to Singapore shook us greatly.
How we prayed!
Weeks later, I was informed that someone had unexpectedly forwarded my Resume. A Skype interview later, I was asked if I would like a position in the Department of Global Health at the School of Public Health! There was but one catch-because the University was a distinct institution on its own, it could not contribute to the serving of my bond.
Feeling stuck, I slumped into momentary despair. God, I prayed, may Your will be done. And if this is Your will, then l know You’ll move mountains.
A week later, I was informed that a special arrangement had been made for me to be seconded to the School of Public Health during our 1 year back home. That meant that I could serve out my bond there! On top of that, of all things I had been tasked to do, it was to develop curricula to empower students for Overseas Community Projects!
I knew it could only be God.
Housing-wise, while we could not stay on-campus for the year we were home, we were, however, given the privilege of staying on campus for the first 2 weeks we touched down, at an academic staff rate, which is a quarter of the usual rates, because I would soon be staff.
To leave us further amazed, we were left speechless last week when we received news that a stranger had offered us a home to stay for the year we were back in Singapore. When I saw the photo of the house, I apologized because it was far larger than the 2-room flat we had budgeted for- there was no way we could afford its rent.
It was only then that I was told that because of the property slump, the owner was unkeen to sell this house currently, and was happy for us to house-sit for free for 1 year.
It was rent-free!
How astounded were we. We still are!
It is however, completely empty, and so we are on the lookout for items to furnish it with. From a dining table to chairs, mattress to shelves, washer/ dryer to a sofa, I’m determined not to be overwhelmed with having to furnish a home we will leave in a year again. After all, if God has provided a roof over our heads, will He not provide for us?
It blew my mind, as this house is in the exact location I had initially prayed for, when I first knew I would be working at the National University of Singapore- it is fairly equidistant from my workplace and Cliff’s likely place of service at church in the east. It was housing agent friends who had shared with me that low-budget rental flats are not to be found in that locality.
Being in the wild in Africa and moving back to an urban sprawl, I secretly asked God if it might be possible for us to stay near nature. It was a tall request, given flats in Singapore are built like close-knit lego-blocks. Who would have thought the house would be right next to a Nature Reserve, famous for its tall trees and beautiful running trails? The house also turned out to be not a flat… but a house with a green grassy yard.
Just thinking of God’s immaculate goodness and abundant generosity, made me cry.
Looking back, I realized that in spite of my doubt and suspicion of God, and in spite of my maligning Him to be much smaller than He is, He never changed.
Though we may touch the elephant’s tail, tusk, or trunk, nothing changes the reality of its large and magnificent torso.
God never changes and He never will.
May you continue to trust and personally experience His greatness and magnificence.
Because only with such trust and faith, can we, like the fourth hunter,
come to know His vast mercy and grace,
and savour His great generosity.
If you have any of these items to sell second-hand or to pass on to us (list below), please drop us a note at [email protected], with attached photos. As we will view the house only in early June, we can only confirm the items we need by earliest, 10 June. This list of items is not exhaustive- if you have other items you think we’ll need for a new home, please feel free to email the photos to us! Thank you!
List of Items (not exhaustive)
Kitchen:
- Fridge (large sized)
- Knife holder, Dish rack
- Cooking/ Baking utensils
- *Our parents are passing on their oven to us.
Appliances:
- Washing machine
- Dryer
Living Room:
- Dining table
- 4-6 chairs
- Curtains
Bedroom:
- Mattress n 2 Pillows
Living Room:
- Sofa
- Coffee table
- Shelves
Yard:
- 2 Outdoor chairs
- Coffee table
- Dumbells