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Rev 12:11 They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. (NIV)

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Praising God's sovereignty over life and death

Forum: True Life Stories
Date: Mon, 08 Nov 1999 23:06:04 GMT
From: Michelle Teo <michelle.goh@us.pwcglobal.com>

My husband and I are Singaporeans working in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In May this year, we found out that we were going to be parents of twins. Our hearts were filled with thanksgiving to God for His double blessing in our lives. For the following five months, we were filled with excitement as we watched them grow and prepared ourselves to be godly parents.
Everyday, my husband would pray for the 3 of us. We also prayed that our sons will come to know Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour, and be used by God as instruments in bringing their grandparents to Christ. Both our parents, who are Buddhists, were first time grandparents and they were especially excited when they found out the sex of our twins because my husband is the last male descendent of the Teo family. Because of our difference in faith, we had conflicts with our parents ocassionally because we refused to follow their superstitious practices that will "protect" our children from harm. We believe that Christ has set us free and our lives are in God's hands. Nothing that we do or avoid doing can alter God's plans for our lives.
On October 7 1999, I went into pre-term labor for 12 hours and delivered James and Joshua. James lived for 10 minutes and Joshua was stillborn. It would have taken 2 miracles for my sons to survive. God would have to close my cervix to stop the labour, and He would have to heal my placenta so that both James and Joshua can receive the same amount of blood and nitrients from my body. This "twin-to-twin transfusion" was the cause of my pre-term labour and at present, there is no treatment for such a condition. It only happens to identical twins. If I had delivered James and Joshua a month later, they would have a chance of surviving outside my womb.
Many brothers and sisters in Christ in Minneapolis and Singapore prayed around the clock for us. Even though the practical outcome was not one that we hoped for, God answered our prayers by manifesting His abundant peace in our hearts. He gave us the strength to go through the delivery even though we know that we will be greeting our dead babies. His glory was manifested in the tiny but fully formed bodies of our sons. His handiwork was perfect. He is the God who gives lives,......and also takes lives. He is sovereign. We can testify now that death has lost its sting, and we indeed have victory over death. We rejoice that we have a living hope in God, and we will see our sons in heaven again. And we believe that the prayers that we had for our sons were not in vain......God will use them as instruments in bringing their grandparents to Christ. Their lives and deaths are only a short chapter in a long, long story. We believe that God does not make mistakes, and He wastes nothing.
In the early hours of October 8, we dedicated James and Joshua to God, surrendering our wordly claims on their lives.
We buried our sons on October 12. A memorial service was held in the evening, and was attended by about 80 people, some of whom we've never met. There were many non-believers too, especially among our bosses and co-workers. Christ was lifted up and we believe this has opened the door for us to continue sharing the reason for our hope and faith in God in the days to come.
In fact, in the last 4 weeks, we have had encouraging conversations with many non-believing friends. One co-worker returned to church after many years of rebellion against God when her husband died. We also received reports from Christian friends regarding the response they gathered from those non-believers who attended the memorial service. It was evident to them that we have "something that many people don't have".
Yes,....we have a living hope in a God who sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins, while we were yet sinners. Christ has conquered death, and we who believe in Him, will conquer death too.
We thank Him for the opportunity to experience an abundant life on earth and eternal fellowhip with Him. Thank you once again, Lord Jesus.