AS A HEN GATHERS HER CHICKS UNDER HER WINGS..Matt23:37: 20160604 -Gohst Outing @ St John & Lazarus Island : His faithfulness! Thanksgiving!

Sunday, June 5, 2016

20160604 -Gohst Outing @ St John & Lazarus Island : His faithfulness! Thanksgiving!

John 11 : 1 - 43 .."Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus..Martha said to Jesus " But I know that even now God will give you whatever you asked...I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live , even though he dies; and whoever who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe in me?

On 4/6/2016, our Goh family had a memorable boat outing to 2 of the 8 islets that formed Singapore Southern islands. We chartered a ferry for the 25 of us and went to St John & Lazarus Islands!

It was a trip that began at 9am and ended about 3pm. How it came about and on hindsight was a remarkable footprints in the sands of time. Of which these were the 5 main thanksgiving thots on this event!

1. Great COOL Weather!

The morning weather looked bleaked with dark skies and thunderstorms with highest precipitation at 11am on this saturday morning of our outing. The nite before I asked 2 prayer partners to pray for good weather . And my nieces too prayed hard. Rain drops came at about 7:45am and I prayed like crazy! Decided to proceed with the ferry at 9am plus. Guess what? We literally experienced the little mist showers of flurries rain but no cats and dogs! There was hardly any sun the whole day! We brought sunblock lotion but never get to used it! It was almost the perfect Coolest weather we had on the island!

What a miracle! At about 9:38am, a friend sent me the text "Never stop believing in hope because miracles happen everyday. Good morning" What a timely photo with that red umbrella! YHWH heard our prayers! He stopped the big rain and gave us awesome weather! PTL!

2. Rare GOH full gathering of 11 siblings in such an outing ever before!

With extended married couples and kids - 25 of us made it for this trip! One of my sisters did not have a passport but it was a trip that was out of Red Dot and yet within her boundaries. Several had been to Kusu and Sentosa but never been to St John & Lazarus Island. As for me, I recalled my last trip to St John was 35 years ago when I was in secondary 3! Oh My!

[Birthday cake for Junies made by mummy of the birthday gal Shayne who turned 24 on actual date of 4/6/16!)

And yes, we celebrated 6 birthdays of those born in the month of June! Ages...24, 39, 65, 60,70 & 71! Wow wow! Indeed a rare occasion for such a different experience instead of makan session!

And yes, my beloved John was upgraded to Saint JOHN on his 60th birthday on this island!

p/s: The original date was supposed to be a week earlier on 28/5/15. But a few couldn't make it and so it was postponed to 4th June. Might as well.....

3. Little Sarah's fever and her miracle of making to this island trip!

Poor little grand niece had fever since Tue. Almost gave up the idea of her recovery for the sat ferry! But guess what? Fever came down to 37.2 and she was all ready to go on sat morning!

As little Sarah lived up to her name, she was treated to a 'princess' throne on the back of her commando uncle! Flunked by chaperons with brollies! LOL

oh....what fever?! PRINCESS built sand CASTLES with her PRIESTLY cousin Aaron after lunch at the Lazarus beach!

4. The Amazing Impromptu RED TEE that was birthed in 3 days before the trip!

KIDZ

Man Tank Top

Ladies Singlet

The idea of having a group tee was mooted some time back but was shoved as it was a headache to look for tees/sizing and get the printing done. But it was indeed strange how this tee idea was resurrected just a few days before the actual outing!

Amazing Lord allowed me to sell a used heat press through Carousell . I had asked my brother to put on sale on his ebay account some years back but the response was bad. Little did I realise that Carousell had generated so many interested parties. One chap Jamas decided to come to see the press on tuesday morning. He was in the tee printing small biz. The rest was history. It was like a barter trade! Got rid of the heatpress in exchange for 27 red singlets (ladies) , tank tops for men and 3 kids tees! Not enough singlets for men and kids - so the tees range were modified (Though all RED) ! Guess we were credit worthy enough that no deposit was required for this last minute tee printing! So we DID the tee in 3 days! Very efficient considering that I only met Jamas on Tue - a risk too! LOL

And the original Family day design was "REJECTED" by the 2 other "protemp committee MEMBERS" . LOL Too common lor so they said. So in the end , my design was chosen instead after burning midnite oil on that wednesday nite :) GOH. ST John . Lazarus was born! And the customised names were a last min add on on Thu! To prevent "in fighting' of the tees finding their rightful owner after the wash! Ha Ha Ha!

5. A Final Buzz Tale Testimony of HIS Faithfulness and Goodness!

Anyone who is doing logistics co-ordination would know how such a human intricate process would be like! LOL . Especially with my GOHST family with so many diverse characters and personalities! Some simple love to be on foot and bus and MRT. Some cars...for us - car and bikes!

Likewise as we had decided to charter the ferry (S$500 for us) which could take up to 40 seaters instead of splitting into 3 ferries which could take max of 12 each for 25 of us that day, who wouldn't prefer to have a chartered bus to take all to Marina South Pier?

Pro-temp committee' Geng Chow efficient' KP did try. She emailed to one on 1/6/2016. But the price was exhorbitantly high @ S$240! So committee REJECTED it! LOL. NO WAY!

Well, strangely enough, one other bus operator apparently offered a much lower price of only S$80 for 24 seater- 2 way! But guess what? Mr S.A.Tan must have been very naughty. He SPAMMED it into the junk mail! Wow lah! Trying to be funny with us!

But the Lord whose eyes are roving to and fro searching out for those whose hearts are fully committed to Him PREVAILS! (2 Chron 16:9) If He is for us, who can be against us?HUH! HUH> HUH!!!!

So just before the sat outing, on the day before, the person in charge of the bus called instead! Asking why no response from enquirer instead! LOL. So the rest was history too. The several groupings of car pool to park at the cheapest car park in town (which as One Raffles Place for S$2.35 for WHOLE day parking) with MRT transit was smoothly re-organised to a single meeting place! The whole gang was loaded into one bus to the pier! Hooray!! PTL!

Such was the behind the scenes of this awesome family outing. A unique one that happened in a blue moon! Through this all, can see that His Hand was on us all! Thank You Lord Jesus ! You are forever faithful. You are good all the time!

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Some Further Reflections

My eldest brother asked the meaning of "Lazarus " when we landed on the island that morning.

This set me reflecting on the story of how the Lord Jesus resurrected this dead man Lazarus - brother of Mary and Martha. The story was recorded by apostle John in chapter 11.

Lazarus the name has the resurrection meaning. In 2 movies, Casper the little cute white cartoon ghost was supposed to be 're-incarnated' in the time machine called Lazarus . In the other more recent movie "Interstellar" - the mission was called the Lazarus Mission to save the dying earth.

It was in this John 11, that came one of the most common banners which we tend to see hanging at any believers' funeral wakes . vs25 JESUS DECLARED " I AM THE RESURRECTION, AND THE LIFE. HE WHO BELIEVES IN ME WILL LIVE, EVEN THOUGH HE DIES, AND WHOEVER WHO LIVES AND BELIEVES IN ME WILL NEVER DIE"

Then the Lord asked Martha " Do you believe this?"
And Martha replied "Yes Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come to this world"

Martha then called her sister Mary.

Mary heard, got up quickly and went to Jesus. She fell at Jesus feet.

She blamed Jesus "Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died"

Jesus saw her weeping. He was deeply moved in spirit and trouble.

Jesus wept.

Vs36 recorded " See how he loved him" But some said "Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?"

V38. Jesus was once more deeply moved.

He came to the tomb. "Take away the stone" he said.

But Martha, Lazarus sister was concerned " But Lord, by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there for 4 days" (true right?)

But what did Jesus tell her??

V40 "Did I not tell you that IF YOU BELIEVE, you would see the glory of God" (Caps mine)

They took away the stone.

Jesus looked up and said "Father , I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me"

V43 Jesus called in a loud voice "Lazarus, come out!"

v44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with the strips of linen and a cloth around his face"

So, this- my dear brother - is the story and meaning behind Lazarus.

Do you believe in this Jesus who loved us so much?

Do you believe that He is able to resurrect a dead man like Lazarus?

Do you believe that He is the resurrection and the life?

Do you believe that if we believe in Him, we will live even though we may die in our flesh?

Do you believe that whoever lives and believes in Jesus will never die?

Do you believe?

I do.

I believed in Jesus some 20 over years back.

I just simply believe and know that He loves me just too much.