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Some of you may be very familiar with these two verses.  In fact, they are my favorite too.  They remind me of the journey of my family during the year of 2012 – the experiences of how to trust in our Lord with all our heart and lean not our own understanding.

In January this year, my wife and I had to drive our daughter back to her college. It was a day with heavy snow and roadway condition was bad. Based on this condition, we decided to use our small SUV, which has equipped with a 4WD function.  The trouble is we were asked to carry two additional students, who are in the same college with my daughter, in the last minute. As a result, our small SUV was fully loaded with passengers and luggage. This gave me an uneasy feeling because I knew the trip ahead is not going to be easy, in light of the snowy weather.  At this moment, I know I had to ask our Lord for protection because He is the Lord of the stormy sea (Mark 4:39). With an anticipated longer than usual travel time, we arrived at the college safely, even though there were some added thrillers along the road. We thank our Lord for His faithfulness in giving us a safe trip.

In the late June, I had to make an emergency trip back to my hometown to visit my hospitalized sister, whose condition was critical due to a comeback of her illness. It was a precious 10 days that God had granted me to stay with my sister in the hospital. The attending doctor was helpless to her condition and I was in distress when looking at her deteriorating condition.  I pleaded to our Lord earnestly hoping that He could show mercy on her. I remember Rev. Billy Graham used to say, “I am not afraid of death but I am scared of the process of dying”. I could imagine the fear of dying but I do understand that we, Christians, would not be afraid of death because our Lord has triumphed over it.  Realizing this, I decided that my #1 priority at that time is to win my sister over to the Lord. I used every possible opportunity to witness the life saving faith to my sister under that idol-filled environment. I spent a few hours every day with my sister to accompany her and chatted about my journey of faith. At the end of my stay, I asked my sister if she would like to accept the Lord. She said, “Yes”. At that moment, I was thrilled and asked her to pray with me. I thank our Lord for His grace and mercy.
In the early July, my elder son again attended a short-term trip to China — this is his third time to teach English for middle school students. My wife and I were encouraged by his heart in God’s kingdom. We are also very grateful to see our Lord’s protection and provision upon him throughout his trip. Later part of the year, we were busying in his college application. Even with prior experience in our daughter’s application, we were still having many hurdles. The first hurdle is my son’s ever-changing mind in selecting a major of his study – He couldn’t make up his mind to which field he would like to go. My wife and I almost got a heart attack in dealing with this situation. We learned that what is in a boy’s mind is quite different from what is in a girl :-). Then, we need to drive him around to visit different schools. We find that this is really a laboring and lengthy process. We are glad to see that he has been accepted by one of his preferred colleges, finally. From this process, we learned a lesson of parenting – impatience oftentimes could cause rebellions and subsequent heartburn situations. Most importantly, we realize that only God is in control not us.

This is the second year that my family attends this new church. We saw God’s hand is upon the church — several baptisms had been held and my son was in one of them. We are very grateful to have opportunities to serve our Lord in various capacities, alongside with our brothers and sisters, in this loving church.  We did see many new faces came to our church during the year. God opened assorted channels for us to reach new young people and new families came to this area. This reminds me of the development of the early churches in Jerusalem and I do believe that God is going to do miracles in this church.  He promised that He shall direct our paths if we acknowledge Him in all our ways.

In this Christmas season, may we remember, “Jesus is the REASON for this SEASON”. May He bless you and your family richly in the years to come!