WHAT is the purpose of my life?
I've been thinking about this thought one night in March as I was preparing to sleep. My bed is comfortable, and so is my life. But right at that moment, a realization hit me.
If to have a successful career, to acquire a massive amount of wealth, and to have a family of my own are what I should aim for in this life, then I'm being short-sighted. I'm convinced to believe that I'm not created by God just to work for money and give birth. Surely, I'm created for something greater than these.
God commands me to love Him with all of my heart and soul and to love my neighbor as myself. If I became the most successful woman on earth but failed to do what He asks me to, then I've totally missed the point. Everything that I do and strive to do must always be an act of obedience to God's commands.
I got up from my bed and wrote the insights I received, which are mostly from the book of Isaiah chapters 58 and 61...
Only God can make my life fulfilling and purposeful and I should endeavor to accomplish these goals -
1. Share God's love to others.
2. Feed the poor and heal the sick.
3. Bind up the brokenhearted.
4. Set the captives free.
Then another question came - but how? I started praying for an opportunity to accomplish these when I remembered that late last year, a friend had asked me to help in a medical mission she's been organizing. I told her that I'd support monetarily because that's the easiest thing to do, but I knew that night that I needed to be more involved. I decided to join a group of them and fly to the southernmost part of the Philippines and deliver medicines and share God's love to its people.
General Santos City, Philippines is home to the famous boxing champion, Manny Pacquiao and Shamcey Supsup, Miss Universe 2011 - 3rd runner up. But those are not the reasons why we chose this particular place to visit. Little did we know that blessings would abound and new friendships would be found there.
Arms loaded with medical supplies, clothes and food items for kids, our hearts filled with hope and in complete dependence on God's faithfulness, the 21 of us journeyed from Singapore to Manila to General Santos.
Within our 3-day stay, we were able to reach out to four communities and to provide them not only with medicines, but also talks on proper hygiene, counseling, and prayer.
For me, the best thing about this experience was not the fact that I'm actually able to do such things as going out of my comfort zone, being brave, and exhausting my resources to help; but the greatest thing was seeing God's hand move despite my/our lack. Anybody else can do good works, and charity is becoming more trendy these days. But I would say that a most successful mission would be one that pointed and reflects to Him who started it all.
All for Jesus!
P.S. Please watch out for our online blog (for more stories and personal testimnonies of the rest) coming out soon - General Santos City Outreach 2012 (gensanmissions.blogspot.com).
