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On June 1, 2022, we arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport again. Compared with the previous years’ experiences, the difference was that we were greeted with a series of COVID-19-related check points. The difference is that there was no excitement and joy when I walked the long way to the baggage pickup area. After a long wait, we were greeted by the luggage that had been sprayed with wet disinfectant. The difference was that there was a long line waiting for us to do saliva PCR when we left the airport building. The hot air made our lenses foggy, which seemed familiar but unfamiliar. The feeling of being stuffy and foggy, unable to see the direction and a little lost was the portrayal of my heart. Because I knew that my father wouldn’t be at home waiting for us. When I regained my senses, I quickly wiped my lenses with the corners of my clothes, followed the line and finished the saliva PCR, and then lined up for the taxi. Finally, it was our turn to get in the taxi. When we were on the way to the quarantine residence, I couldn’t help but think about my father and the things that we have been through in the past 10 months and 7 days.
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Prior July 14, 2021 my 90-year-old father’s physical strength is not as good as before but he still can take care of many things on his own such as grocery shopping, cooking, doing laundry and taking care of my mom. To our surprise he fell before my mom. On July 14, 2021 at 7 o’clock in the morning of Taiwan’s time, my sisters and brother held an online prayer meeting via Zoom as usual to greet and pray together with our parents. Our family morning prayer meeting started on April 19, 2014. My sister invited my parents to join her to form a prayer meeting in response to Good TV’s 40-day prayer for family salvation (2014.04.17). My sister also remembered the praying sound she heard coming from downstairs when we were young (she thought the Holy Spirit might remind her to form a prayer meeting). They started with reading the book “Lord, I Wish My Family Would Get Saved” by Dr. Larry Keefauver. After the second 40-day cycle of reading the same book, at the start of the third 40-day dad said let’s read something new and the Lord has prepared the material. They changed to study “Reading the Bible in Two Years” published by Daguan Publishing House. By then other family members gradually joined the morning prayer meeting. This morning prayer meeting originally used Skype, then Line, and finally Zoom. From audio only to video. Everyone shares one thing of gratitude, listens/sings hymns, reads the Bible, prays and reads some short spiritual passages every day. Although not all of us are very spiritual or pursuing the Lord earnestly, more or less we are fed by spiritual food each day. In sharing with each other, we celebrate happy events together and pray for each other’s difficulties. They were very precious experiences. Now looking back at the video clips recorded by zoom, dad’s sharing was vivid and warm.
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Dad was like an alarm clock, he always started or joined the prayer meeting on time. Occasionally he overslept or had internet problems then we could contact him right away and check on him. Although we don’t live together, some living in Taiwan and some living in the United States, we always know the health conditions of my parents. The meeting started and ended as usual on July 14, 2021 . The only difference was that my brother and dad made an appointment that my brother was going to pick them up before noon on that day to change mom’s hearing aids batteries. Who would have thought that because of this arrangement, my brother would discover my dad fell to the ground in time and sent him to the emergency room. Later we found out that my dad had suffered a stroke. Who would know that we will experience trials after trials for the next ten months. There was tension, argument, anxiety, depression, worry, and sleeplessness, but there was also prayer, comfort, encouragement, mutual help, grace, and peace. In it, God seems to have given each person different lessons, different realizations, and different experiences. For me, I am still looking for more answers to the life lessons. But now all that filled in my mind is God’s grace given to us one upon another. Under the stipulation that transferring to a different hospital must be made every 28 days according to Taiwan’s public health insurance regulation, God has aided my sister to find a doctor and hospital that was willing to treat dad and she was also able to get a vacant bed available on the day of transfer. During these 10 months and 7 days period of time she experienced and endured such tension 11 times. Amazingly she also experienced God’s grace time upon time during the stressful process. I am grateful to my sister for her hard work, as well as the church intercession team who prayed continuously three times a day, morning, noon and evening. I also want to thank God for answering prayers.
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(To be continued …)
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