Cuenca, Batangas & Manila

May 30 to June 2014

Cuenca, Batangas, Manila – May 30 to June 7

My maiden mission trip to Philippines can be said to be a record-breaker. This is because of the many firsts that I had experienced during this trip. In fact of the seven of us who came along, at least five of us were first-timers.

1.       It was my first time leading a mission team of this size. I was not sure what to do but I thank God for the prayers of HGC and the ‘obedience’ of team members. 

I was particularly concerned when Festus came down with fever on Monday.  As Allison and I sponged him to bring the temperature down, I wanted so much to text Ps Khor to ask him to pray for Festus’s healing. 

Somehow the Holy Spirit reminded me that Ps Khor had been praying for us during morning prayers and that God will heal Festus so that he could enjoy the rest of the mission trip. Praise God that Festus’s fever came down the following day after a night of rest, water and panadol! We took turns to do the morning devotion, prayed and worshipped in the Spirit and also had much fun and laughter teasing one another during our first mission trip together as a team.

2.       It was my first time preaching a message on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This was at the request of Ps Willy who was conducting a 2-month discipleship training session for church leaders and members of the Cuenca Bible Christian Church. Both he and Vicky had been faithfully conducting a discipleship series every Saturday and wanted to cap it with a final series of teaching on the Holy Spirit.

We had a truly awesome time. All our messages flowed with each other. The final session with Allison was to put into practice all that we had taught them for the past two-days. I heard the sound of a mighty rushing wind while Dorothy saw rain falling on the people. 

Many young people were in tears. Psalm saw a vision of halo around people’s heads. The message was that we had been cleansed and had received the Holy Spirit. We are to continue to walk in the Spirit and to keep the halo around our heads burning brightly!

3.       It was my first time praying for people to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So many spoke in tongues. Many broke down and cried when Tim and I led them to pray the prayer of repentance, some crying uncontrollably. Other team members prayed for the sick and people were falling all over the place, slain by the power of the Holy Spirit!

4.       It was also my first time to receive a certificate nicely framed up thanking me for being part of the discipleship training. For all of us who had received the certificate, we were deeply touched. 

When I held the certificate with my name on it, which certificate was signed by the senior pastors, I felt that I had graduated from Bible school. However the reality was I had so much to learn from the Christians of the Cuenca Bible Christian Church! 

Their humility, hospitality and their eagerness to serve us with their excellent meals, transportation for the seven of us and blessing us with a free holiday to Tagaytay (a volcano island with stunning scenery) was something unparalleled as compared to all the other mission trips I had ever attended. Like one of my team members said, we truly felt appreciated!

5.       To my shock and surprise, we were even given a big offering on our last day! This is also my first time to receive a love offering after ministering. Having ministered in different mission trips in the past, I have more often than not ended up given things away to the locals.  Joy filled our hearts when as a group, we decided with one heart to sow the money back to the church!

6.       It was also my first time to pray for the municipal council of Cuenca, a district of Batangas (province of the Philippines). I was asked to share my testimony during the flag-raising ceremony with the workers of the municipal office and to pray for the city of Cuenca. 

That morning as we took turns to pray during our morning devotion, one of the sisters in the team prayed for the gates of Cuenca to be opened to welcome the King of Glory. I decided to share on Psalm 24 and to lead the council staff gathered on the open space of the municipal council grounds to pray for clean hands, pure hearts asking God to forgive them for turning their soul to an idol.  Then I asked them to pray a prayer with me to invite Jesus into their hearts and into the city.  At least 40 council employees including the mayor of Cuenca prayed to open their hearts and the gates of the city to the King of Glory!

7.       It was also my first time witnessing to so many people. Armed only with the tract ‘Steps to peace with God’, I went through the 4-steps with more than 10 people, leading them to pray the sinner’s prayer, at the mall, at a 7/11 outlet, at a tourist spot, in a home, at Payatas (a slum area in Manila) and at a Dunking Donuts outlet. 

I also managed to distribute a number of tracts to several people that I met during this trip.

8.       It was also my first time to meet a humble Korean missionary, Rev Lee who had started a school in Batangas and a church in the area to reach out to the young people in the area. In fact Ps Willy shared with us that he grew up in BPC (Batangas Presbyterian Church) and that his life had been much impacted by Rev Lee’s 25 years of ministry in Batangas.

This trip is an eye-opener for me as I could see how Ps Willy and Vicky treasured their time with us in HGC. 

They shared with their church that we made their family felt so at home with our love and hospitality during their short time in Malaysia.

They also implemented many of the things that they saw us doing in HGC in the Cuenca Church for e.g. the discipleship training sessions leading to the possibility of starting discipleship groups in the different Barangays (similar to our life groups) with the possibility of turning the discipleship groups into daughter churches, the DISC profile which they learnt from Ps Nicholas Choo and which they brought back to let their senior pastors do (in so doing they discovered the personalities of their senior pastor and wife). 

They even adopted the format of our membership profile, the pre-service prayers, the prayers during services, the ‘harp & bowl’ prayer and worship sessions during their prayer meetings!

I have been so blessed. I have been so enriched. My heart is bursting with joy!

Salamat po Jesus! Paalam Cuenca, Batangas and Manila! We will be back!

The day the myvi got towed away

Amanda told us last night during dinner that her Myvi got towed away a week ago.

She did not tell us because she said that she did want to freak us out. She also felt that she had to solve the problem herself.

I was amazed at her maturity in handling the matter. She said that she had parked the car at Times Square. When she came out an hour later, the car was gone!

I can imagine her distress. She was also carrying so many things. Somehow she found out that her car had been towed by the police. However she did not know where the car had been towed away to as they were about 3 places where they could possibly have sent the car.

The police were not helpful at all. Finally an old taxi driver helped her and she managed to get her car out by paying RM250 as the penalty/fine.

I was amazed at the lesson learnt by her over this incident. She said "If something bad happens to us, God has something good in store for us" and also "Sometimes bad things happen to us so that we can appreciate the good things that we have" and "I think I will not learn to appreciate good health if I do not experience bad health" and "I will not appreciate the blessings in my life if I did not experience the troubles that I encounter in life"!

She said that it was a bad day for her when the Myvi got towed away but it was also a good day because she won free tickets to a concert. Somehow she managed to get through to a radio station contest and the announcer said that she was so lucky as normally it would be practically impossible to be connected to a radio station via a phone call.

 She also found that she suddenly had RM200 extra in her account!

What an amazing testimony!  What a great maturity in my youngest daughter whom I love very much!

However I told her that if she had told me about this I would certainly have helped her!

Lessons Learnt from this Japan trip

Thus ended our short trip to Japan. 

While the rest of our tour members went on to Mount Fuji, Ginza, Shinjuku and Tokyo Disneyland, we reached the comfort of Malaysia and the comfort of our home (like my daughter said "I missed my room so much. Hospitals make me so depressed"). I also felt a great relief to come home to my beautiful apartment where birds greet me with chirping and singing in the morning and my living room looks out to a small park.

Some lessons learnt:

1. If you have fever before you travel, see the doctor and bring your medication. 

2. Bring lots of cash with you so that you would not need to borrow from your tour mates. Traveling in countries like Japan where credit cards were not accepted, extra cash is always an advantage.

3. Do not be afraid to see the local doctor if need be. Always follow the advice of your tour leader as they would have had experience dealing with the sick on tour.

4. Make sure that you carry a post-paid phone with roaming. Our flight tickets back to KL were booked on-line using the mobile phone. Booking was done way past midnight while in the hotel reception area. As the tickets were paid by credit card, the TAC was needed. If my phone was on a pre-paid ticket where the TAC was not available.....(Ben said that even he could not help me then)

5. It is better to fly home immediately even it means spending money to buy two tickets back home. Life is more important than sight-seeing. Japan will always be there but we only have one life. To spend money buying tickets home could turn out cheaper than paying for hospital charges in a foreign country. In this case we were told that Japanese doctors were extremely cautious with their diagnosis and could take some time to give us the blood test result. Unlike Malaysian doctors who have experience dealing with dengue, Japanese doctors have none.

6. Don't blame anyone or anything for what happened. Do not even blame yourself. It is pointless. What has happened has happened. We should always focus on solving the problem rather than engage in a blaming and pointing the finger exercise.

7. PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!

Amazing race to Shin Osaka, Kansai airport and Pantai Ampang

27 August 2014

Time was of the essence.

Our flight was 11 am in the morning. There was only one flight from Kansai. The other flight as 12:45 midnight from Tokyo airport which was just too late for us. Missed this and we would have to wait till Friday for the next flight.

The challenge was this: the bullet train would only start at 6:35 am. The journey was made up of two stages. We had to take the train from one platform to Shin-Osaka. This journey will take us up to one hour 45 minutes. The arrival time was about 8:20 am.

Once we reached Shin-Osaka, we had to find the platform to board the train to Kansai airport. This journey will take us another one hour up from 8:46 to 9:46 am. The plane will leave for Malaysia at 11 am! The other difficulty was language. We did not know any Japanese. Using sign language and language cards, Ben (who came with us) managed to find out that three tickets were needed, two to Shin-Osaka and all three to Kansai. Phew!

We had to try. 

Whilst waiting for the Shinkansen to Shin-Osaka, Amanda said that the virus was attacking her bones and her heart. She felt that the virus was eating her up. Joseph later told me that the dengue virus was also known as the "bone-breaking" virus i.e. this kind of virus eats up the victim alive! I was very worried. There was nothing I could do but rely on God to deliver her.

Praying and interceding we made it to Kansai airport on time. The Shinkansen was super fast. super quiet and super efficient. Though sleepy and tired, I could see several towns like Kyoto on the way. It was Japan sight-seeing super speed!

The moment we walked up to the Airasia counter, we were so relieved. The counter was still opened at 10 am! 

PRAISE GOD! Surely God's angels were with us all the way.

The plane took off on time. Once on board, we ordered a small can of 100 plus. Amanda felt some relief after drinking it. 

Reaching KL at about 4 pm, we took the taxi straight to Pantai Ampang. That night she was admitted.

We made it doing the amazing race with God's help and the prayers of the saints!

Pastor later told us that he knew of one case where the lady died on the 3rd day of getting dengue. 

Here was my daughter still fighting for her life after the 4th day! At Pantai, the fever left her immediately after they put her on the drip.

Apparently dengue deaths have increased of late and the health authorities have become increasing concerned. Spike in dengue cases have also given rise to a number of deaths.

I received a call from the health inspector who interviewed me concerning Amanda's condition. She said that once there were more than 2 cases, they had to send people to fog the area!

Amanda spent Friday at Pantai and was discharged on Saturday. Her platelets dropped to 113 but the doctor said that she could go home as most of her vital signs had stabilized.

THANK YOU JESUS AND THANK YOU PASTOR & HGC FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!

There is no dengue in Japan!

26 August 2014

Amanda called me to her room in the early morning. I was shocked to see her skin covered in rashes. Her face and body was raging hot. She kept on vomiting.

One look at her and I knew that it was the deadly dengue!

I prayed for her and asked her to shower and go down for breakfast. We had to seek the advice of the tour leader on what we should do. We were actually due to travel to Hamamatsu about 4 hours out of Osaka and to visit some other places. 

Amanda could not eat or drink anything. She kept on vomiting and complained of headaches. She also started having eye pain and the eyes became light sensitive, all symptoms of dengue. I gave her my dark glasses and someone gave her a hat to wear.

Despite all these we got on the bus and traveled to Nara Park, Peace Palace. Amanda and I sat and rested in the bus while the others went out for photo taking and sightseeing. Our tour leader went around looking for 100 plus. Being the second time, she got inflicted by dengue, we had the experience to know that drinking lots of 100 plus while help in the recovery.

However we were not in Malaysia but in Japan where there was no 100 plus! The tour leader bought an isotonic drink called Aquarius which he said had the same ingredients like 100 plus. 

Amanda being the pharmacy student that she was said that Aquarius did not equal 100 plus. Some important ingredient was missing. Anyway she drank one bottle and ended up vomiting everything.

The good thing was that Amanda had a good apetite and she did not vomit out her lunch!

After the traditional Japanese lunch at Nara Park where deers roam around freely, we visited a few more places before the 4-hour drive to Hamamatsu. A part of me was praying that she would recover as I did not want to miss this maiden trip to Japan. I sent a text to Pastor Khor via viber. He immediately called me and prayed for Amanda. 

She slept all the way in the bus and so did I. The fever did not go off neither did the vomiting. I was getting worried.

We had a good dinner at a Sumo restaurant. This restaurant was opened by a famous Sumo wrestler in Japan. Again we sat on the floor and ate delicious vegetables, chicken and taufoo from a big pot. The soup was delicious and so was the udon that went with it.

At night, the tour leaders took us to a private hospital. The doctor on duty did not know what was dengue. We tried to tell him the symptoms yet he was not sure. Eventually his nurse told him that the disease had not been seen in Japan for the past 10 years! The doctor referred to a medical book and told us that he was unable to treat Amanda.

He wrote a referral letter for us to go the big hospital for treatment. Medication (look like the Japanese version of panadol) was given. The cost was about 5.8k yen which Allan said was reasonable.

I now had two choices: checked her into the local hospital to be put on the drip or take the next flight home.

The first option was going to inconvenience the whole tour as it was going to disrupt the others. Further none of us could speak Japanese save for Allan. Tim and I also brought only 70k yen between us which would be insufficient for the hospital fees. The tour leader told us that he had a case where relatives had to fly in from Malaysia to bring money to pay for the hospital fees! Japanese hospital do not accept credit cards!

The second option seemed to be the best alternative. Rather than spend time and money in the local hospital, it would be better for us to use the money to buy two tickets home.

That night when I saw blood spots on her hand (internal bleeding) I knew that I had to act. Ben helped me to book two tickets home. The only challenge was the timing. The flight home on Thursday was from Kansai, Osaka at 11 am. The first bullet train (Shinkansen) out of Hamamatsu was 6:35 am. Can we make it in time?

What I did not know was that the church was praying for us. It was Wednesday and there was corporate prayer. I would be there at 7:30 pm to prepare the place for the corporate prayer meeting. Pastor later told me that members joined hands together to pray for Amanda. 

It was that night that I thought I was going to lose her. I led her to pray a prayer of re-dedication. I also prayed to release her to the Lord. She could not sleep due to the raging fever. I kept on sponging her.

Universal Studios, Osaka, Japan

25 Aug and we woke up at 6 am.

At 7 am we trouped down for our buffet breakfast.

The selection was like a diet buffet! Seaweed, Japanese silky taufoo, miso soup, onion soup, tokoyaki, croissants, bread cakes, bonito flakes, small crispy sausages, eggs, beans, juices, salads, odon, green tea noodles - no wonder the average Japanese look like they were on a perpetual diet. No nasi lemak, no mee goreng, no rich cakes, no fried rice, no goreng stuff.....!

We were taken to Universal Studios. Due to the crowd, Tim and I only managed to watch Sesame Street 4-D! 

We did manage to take pictures with Shrek and Snoopy though but the crowd was really amazing! 

Thanked God we received special treatment due to my wheel-chair. We then made our way to Harry Potter village, the latest attraction in US. I am not a fan of this genre so I just sat around in the wheel-chair with Tim and took pictures with the steam engine. 

We skipped lunch. We were then taken to Shin Sai Bai Shi, a shopping area like Bukit Bintang. We took our tea break at Mcdonalds. Surprise! Surprise! No fillet-o-fish but they serve fillet-o-prawn. We had potato chips and fried chicken without tomato or chilli sauce simply because Mcdonalds do not have such sauces! Really healthy. I think in Malaysia we slather our chips with too much sauces!

As I could not walk for too long, I took refuge in a Japanese fast-food restaurant and had my favorite Japanese taufoo for 150 yen (about RM4).

Dinner was Japanese steamboat with deliciously thin beef, slices of pork, chicken and crispy small sausages. The broth was just water with bits of seaweed but the strength of its flavoring was in the sesame sauce that we poured lavishly into individual bowls. Japanese rice was simply delicious to eat. Soft, slightly sticky and fragrant, it tasted sweet.

My only complaint - we sat on the floor with our legs dangling in the space below the floor! Very bad for my knees!

The food made up for it though.

I broke my vegetarian fast and had beef at the urging of my family members.

Delicious. As Allan said, you can go to eat anywhere in Japan (especially in the small eateries and the food was simply delicious). Lots of vegetables like needle mushrooms, cabbages filled up the steamboat-pot. No spoons were given as the Japanese drink the soup direct from their bowls. 

We spent our second night at the Dai-ichi Hotel.

Osaka, Japan - 24 Aug to 27 Aug

Aug 25 2014 - Monday

Japan here we come!

It was a dream come true. I was going to Japan with my family! We were so excited - Amanda, Samuel, Tim and me. Amanda's friend came along too. The other friend pulled out the last minute and her mother (Jo) took her place.

Our flight was 3 pm in the afternoon. The tour agency assigned Ben Lum to accompany us.

At that time Amanda was having fever at about 38%. We thought it was only viral fever. The doctor just gave her some medication. Dengue was definitely not in our minds at that time!

Anyway Amanda passed the strict temperature test at Kansai airport in Osaka. 

As for me, I had a bad left knee. I felt that my knee bones literally moving while walking. It felt that I had a locked left knee! Every time I sat down and got up, the pain was excruciating. Seeing me with crutches, the super friendly, super efficient ground staff at Kansai airport assigned Kumiko Marukami to me. Kumiko pushed me in a wheel-chair past the long queues and took me through special check-out lanes!

I realized that the knee got worse after my two trips to Penang and JB. Both flights were from Subang. The walk to the tarmac was long and the climb up the steep steel staircase was simply excruciating!

The awful thing was that when Jo collected her luggage, she found the locks missing and the luggage bag open! We realized that someone had attempted to open the bag. Thank goodness nothing was taken from her suitcase.

I tried to take a photo of Kansai airport. Suddenly the ground staff rushed to me and said to me "No photo. Delete. Delete!" Goodness me! I did not know they were so strict. Anyway Kansai was nothing to shout about as compared to our beautiful KLIA 2. Our tour guide Allan from Macau came to study in Japan and ended up getting married. He could speak fluent Cantonese and Japanese!

We were taken to Kansai Washington Hotel to spend the night. Our hotel room was pretty big and comfortable with pink bed-spreads and really soft beds! Water could be drunk straight from the taps.

No dustbins were found anywhere except in the toilets. We were told that the Japanese carried their rubbish home to be put into 4 recycled bins. We were also told that for cooking oil recycling, they would have to buy a certain powder to be put into the cooking oil before they dispose of the oil in the recycle bins! Everything in Japan is recyclable.

Japan is like a sanitized country. Simply squeaky clean! Rivers are greenish-clean. Roads were devoid of rubbish. Hotel rooms smell fresh. REFRESHING!