Today's sermon was very timely when it touched on honesty as pleasing to the eyes of the Lord.
We offered Brother Chris and Sister Osheana a ride to church, since both of them are also our own brethren and Uncle Daniel went to fetch other fellow brethren to our church, all the way from Pasir Ris to quite a distance, possibly from Potong Pasir or Bukit Batok. During the journey I noticed this stench that very much resembled cigarette smoke reeking in Brother Chris's shirt. To be honest, I was quite put off by that, and kept quiet since nobody was actually talking about anything much at that point in time.
"Hey Chris, how's your work?" Uncle Steven asked, while on the way.
"Mmm, okay lah." came the reply.
Being sensitive folks, we talked among ourselves, speculating over what happened to Brother Chris in his newfound job. Having to pay room rent because of being kicked out of his own family for his faith in the Lord, having a job was definitely very precious to someone in his predicament. To speak about it in such a casual tone, and not adding any more to it hinted that something bad must have happened to him.
Church service was good(it always was), but it was now better because Pastor Bennett gave us some Bible scriptures to study on our own, saying that we will be blessed by the verses, if only we took some time to meditate on them. I haven't been memorising much recently, so this served as a good reminder to me that it was high time that I should be reading the Bible more seriously.
During lunchtime while Brother Chris went to buy some fried kway-teow, we then found out from Auntie Noreen and Uncle Daniel that he got the sack after the first day of work, just for being like 5 minutes late for work, both when coming to work from home and after lunch. Later, it was then that I was told about some employer who didn't want to employ him just because he was a Tamil. One employer even called him "Geh-leng kia"(a Hokkien term for calling Tamils, possibly racist) in the workplace, so he threw that job down.
"Eh, like that also never pang-chance for him ah? Mana eh sai?" I exclaimed upon hearing such things. It just dawned on me - racial and religious harmony is just very hypocritical in Singapore; they should just simply say it's racial and religious tolerance. Where's the harmony, if racism can just run rampant in the workplace like that?
After discussing about the matter on how to help him, I offered to try to get my friends to hook up a job in the newspaper for him, but it seemed impractical given my age and that I haven't even taken my 'O' Level papers yet. "Well then, is there any practical way I can help out?" I asked.
"You just pray for him, lah," Auntie Noreen replied with a smile. She was right - I couldn't do anything much for him yet, except to just lend a listening ear to him and asking the Lord to help him through everything he's having trouble with.
Just then, Uncle Kelvin received an invitation from Uncle Yiye to take a dip in the swimming pool at his condo, and the rest of the big family got invited too. How nice of him to allow such a large group of us go there. Thanks Uncle Yiye!
After lunch, we decided to hang around Uncle Steven's house, since Brother Chris wanted to view the vacant room that Uncle Steven offered to put him up in, and Uncle Kelvin had to have a haircut downstairs too. At around 2.30pm we foursome were having fun talking.
It was later on in the afternoon when both Uncle Kelvin and I packed the swimming stuff up into my bag and coming down back to the car when Brother Chris became candid about his smoking problem and his background. Due to it probably revealing too much personal info, this shall be written about again after getting his approval first.
In any case, he told me later that whatever was happening in the house between my grandparents and my uncle was that my singing of praises of Christianity in front of them was actually literally scaring them off into their own ancestral worship, and I got some useful advice off him. After talking a while, this verse struck both Brother Chris and me:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
- Proverbs 1:7
The second part may seem harsh on some people, but this verse has a whole lot of meaning within itself, just as Brother Chris said about it when he mentioned that this is one of his favourite verses in the Bible, during the journey. I couldn't agree more - I'll share more on this verse on my later posts when the Lord has taught me more through it.
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