Hello friends! Today, we will hear testimonies shared by Joyce and Rebecca and their dance step is line dance. We pray that you will be blessed by their stories. Shall we dance?

Of all of life’s events, the one that causes the most stress is the death of a loved one. Joyce adds one more to the stress list – the death of a dream.

Joyce’s dream was that one day the community who lived around her church would come to know Christ through the loving care and community service provided by the church members. Passionate to see her dream become a reality, Joyce proposed that they begin with a weekly prayer-walk within the community to discern its needs. Next, they would demonstrate their faith in action by giving generously to meet the needs within the community with no strings attached. In the following year, she planned to focus on harvesting souls when they would lead pre-believers to know Christ and to be born again into God’s Kingdom through their selfless love and generosity. Joyce believed that by then, they would have credibly earned the right to speak and share the gospel of love.

She presented her proposal and members of the church were excited and challenged. After several weeks of prayer-walking, God granted them divine favours with the Member of Parliament of the area. After that, they collaborated with the Residents’ Committee to do a door-to-door survey of the community’s needs.

They lovingly served the community through a range of activities. Many church members cheerfully supported these activities and gave money generously.

Joyce firmly believed that they were preparing to reap what they had sown. Open doors led to open hearts. Residents near and far showed interest in their activities such as food fairs and children’s Christmas parties. Through some activities, they also raised funds for the needy pupils of the neighbourhood school as well as residents in the one-room flats. Soon, folks in the community were trickling into the church premises. It was a joy to see them milling around the church and chatting like old friends with church members. Joyce heard that the people were happy to have a church in the neighbourhood and several of them even sent their children to Sunday school classes.

Time passed quickly and the year to secure the harvest was around the corner. But amidst the eager expectations, a storm cloud was beginning to form over the church. A small disgruntled group of long-time members of the congregation started to question the effectiveness of the community programmes. This group of people began to spread negative feelings to others in the church and asked for the pastor to be replaced. That inadvertently affected Joyce because she was the pastor’s wife!

Joyce carried a heavy heart to church each week. She sensed the harvest was so near, but the devil stirred up opposition in the hearts of unwary Christians. One Sunday in the worship service, Joyce saw a clear vision of a heart monitor and it showed a flat line. She was appalled! “Who died, Lord?”

In response, the Holy Spirit impressed on her heart that the church had died to spiritual things in their selfish pursuit of comfort and instant gratification. Even as the Lord revealed, the flat line in her vision started to flicker. The heart started to beat again! The Lord showed her   vividly and visually that there would be a crisis to jolt the church to focus its attention on His plans again. She was excited at the possibility of a spiritual revival.

Psalm 139: 23 & 24 say, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting”.

The forewarned crisis came – SARS hit the country. The church had already won the trust of the community earlier. It was now positioned to offer prayers and comfort. What a wonderful platform for a great harvest if only they had heeded the Lord’s warning. The harvest didn’t happen.

Joyce’s dream died, and she mourned for two whole years, until the Lord intervened by sending an intercessor to speak into her life.

Joyce told the intercessor that she was in a very long winter. The intercessor explained that long winters are sometimes necessary because some seeds are embedded very deep in the lower strata of the earth. When the wintry ice melts, large amounts of water    flow over the land masses and seep into the lowest depths of the earth to water the embedded seeds.

This lady read her Song of Songs 2: 11-13 & 15:

See! The winter is past;

the rains are over and gone.

Flowers appear on the earth,

the season of singing has come,

the cooing of doves is heard in our land.

The fig tree forms its early fruits;

the blossoming vines spread their fragrance.

Arise, come, my darling;

my beautiful one, come with me…

Catch for us the foxes,

the little foxes that ruin the vineyards,

our vineyards that are in bloom.

All at once, Joyce saw her winter – her seeds required plenty of water! She was determined to look ahead as she returned to God who is her consolation. She discovered that forgiveness is a Kingdom heartbeat and a Kingdom mindset. In Colossians 3: 1-4, we are  reminded:

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ,

set your hearts on things above, where Christ is

seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds

on things above, not on earthly things. For you

died, and your life is now hidden with Christ

in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears,

then you will also appear with Him in glory.

God made Joyce see that it’s not her dream that died. Instead, she died to her self-will and her  plans.

Today, Joyce is still watering her seeds. In fact, she is planting new seeds! In the winter, Joyce found her primary gifting – leading women to wholeness through faith in Jesus Christ and inspiring them towards transformation so that Christ is gloried in their lives.

She has put to death all the ‘little foxes’ that tried to destroy the Lord’s harvest. She called these ‘foxes’ the VCN mindset – Vain imagination, Condemning and Negative thoughts. These thoughts had wreaked havoc in her mind. And now, she is vigilant to deny them access to her thoughts with a ‘no entry’ signboard. She is guarding her mind prayerfully every day to keep them out.

Joyce is determined to think of things that build up her faith and her relationship with others, thoughts that are excellent and praiseworthy. Philippians 4: 8 says, “… whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things.”

Rebecca’s Dance

Rebecca owns a business dealing with small home decorations. Although she has four young children, she was career-minded, and her world revolved around her and her business. She travelled widely on buying trips. In 2001, she and her husband were on a buying trip in Hong Kong. They   received news that their 15-year-old son, David, a school athlete and an extreme sports enthusiast, suddenly died. Thoughts raced through her mind, “How did this happen? Why David? Why God? Why?”

Rebecca cried and thought a lot at the funeral. She thought of all the good times with David and regretted the opportunities she missed at connecting with him. Mixed emotions and tons of unanswered questions bombarded her mind, leaving her with a mega migraine.

After the funeral and final farewell came the long painful weeks. She spent sleepless nights trying to come to terms with the reality of her loss. Some months before his death, David told her he was anxious over his studies and suffered from insomnia. He cried a lot and told Rebecca his problems of anxiety attack and his poor concentration in school. She brought him to consult a psychiatrist and he was put on some prescription drugs for two weeks. Rebecca was busy preparing for a long three-week buying trip. She neglected to monitor him and his anti-anxiety medication. David died from a wrong combination of drugs.

Her struggles were made more unbearable as her husband put all the blame on her. He accused her of neglecting the children and causing the tragedy. When crisis strikes, people usually pull apart rather than pull together, bringing greater pain to all parties. That was what happened. They both felt very guilty as they never spent much quality time with their children and left them very much to the care of their maid. It was only upon David’s death that they found out about his many true Christian friends from church as well as close buddies from school.

Church members, together with the pastor and his wife, rallied around them during their time of grief. They rendered much valuable support. Their care and concern gave Rebecca and her husband great comfort. The church community was like an extension of the healing arms of Jesus. The fervent prayers  of those Christians ushered them to release their pains to Jesus.

In times of deep sorrow and desperation for relief, we must find the source of all comfort. Rebecca’s pain of loss was like a road map leading her back to the healing balm of her Saviour Jesus Christ. When she unloaded her burdens before a merciful and gracious God, she felt a sense of relief. Tears were replaced by a calm assurance that God understands her pain. He will heal and restore in His time.

The precious gift of friendship was vital in her pathway from bereavement to tranquil trust.  God sent Christian families from David’s school - people Rebecca didn’t know - who consoled and encouraged her with books and music CDs.

Rebecca’s dance with her Healer can be likened to a line dance. Friends and others came alongside and kept her in step to the music of healing for her soul. She is grateful that God’s people, her church family and godly intercessors stood in the gap for her during her darkest hour. Revelation 21: 4 says, “He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

Death is not the cruellest blow to humanity but separation from the love of God is! In her dance of healing, Rebecca remained connected to the love of God by being connected to His people. That’s her lifeline.

Rebecca prays that anyone whose loved one passed away would find the support of his or her church community in the line dance with Jesus back to wholeness. No one could go through such pain of loss without Jesus Christ, our Healer!