Accident Turned Into a Gift 🎁
Could anything good result from an appalling accident?
Hello Friends! It has been a total of 4 months since I wrote my latest blog. AHH good to be back! Quick update: I have been on a media fast for the first 4 months of 2022, so I will be sharing my personal experiences in a future blog post. Stay tuned! 🤗
In early February around 9 PM, I received a call from my mom. She was sobbing. My heart skipped a beat. “What happened, mom?” She said “Mama jatuh (Mom fell) and it hurts so bad.” She was in excruciating pain. I can tell because of the way she was talking on the phone. I tried to stay collected as I calmed her down and prayed for her at the end of our call.
So what happened was my mom walked through these rocky roadways on the way back to her car, but unfortunately the rocks under her shoes were extremely slippery so then she slipped, twisted her right ankle, and fell down. Thankfully my dad was there to assist her.
As my mom started her treatment wearing the plaster cast, she stayed on the bed most of her days listening to sermons, worshiping, praying, and reading the Bible.
My dad was the main caretaker who took care of my mom and grandma. He was a great helper in providing breakfast, lunch, and dinner consistently. He would even send us photos of what food my mom was eating that day.
Then around the month of March, while my mom was laying in bed, she got curious. She was curious to check my grandma’s green card expiration date. In the past, she thought the expiration would be around September, October, or November. After checking, she noticed the green card is actually expiring on 4/23/2022. Shocked. She decided to come to the United States as soon as possible.
Now my brother was planning to return to Indonesia on 4/1 to pick up his bride. Their spouse sponsorship process was another testimony of God’s faithfulness over their marriage. My brother and my sis-in-love have been separated from each other for about 1 year since their sponsorship process was ongoing. The final wait was for my sis-in-love to get an interview before receiving her permanent residence in the US, which she received on 3/17/2022! God is Good!
In the beginning, I thought “Well then this year I’ll be celebrating my birthday, ALONE.” Well God is too good to leave me all alone for my 26th. Not only was I surrounded by my parents and grandma, but I was also surrounded by some church family members.
Some photos with my GMI ladies, parents & g-ma, JMK LA family, and 5Gs (God-fearing sisters). 💞
My heart is full of gratitude because I get to witness firsthand how God makes all things beautiful in His perfect time. What we thought was a disastrous experience for my mom, God has turned it for our good where our whole family can be reunited together here in America.
My parents' arrival here in the US is God's birthday gift for me this year. 🎁
The Bible tells us “The just shall live by faith.” (Hebrews 10:38) As Christians, we have this mandate to live by faith in Christ alone. It is in the impossible and unfortunate events, that we get a clearer view of God’s hands over our life. Our full dependency and trust in God exceed what we currently see in the physical realm.
Will you relinquish your current understanding in exchange for trusting God’s perfect plan for your life? When you truly live in faith and not by sight, you begin to operate in a Kingdom perspective where the people around you will also experience an accelerated level of faith & favor.
On April 13th, when my parents and grandma were at the Juanda Airport in Surabaya they faced another obstacle before boarding the plane. The person who was checking them in noticed how my parents had their second dose of vaccine less than the 15 days window of arrival to the US. They mentioned how US immigration might do random checks for all the arriving passengers. And if they are caught, those who had the vaccine less than the 15 days window will be deported back to their country.
My parents only had two options:
Postpone their trip to April 20th, (aka miss my birthday, & Passover weekend) OR
Continue their flight, risking the chance of deportation if they’re caught
As I was about to end my fasting, I received a Whatsapp call from my mom. I ignored it because I was starving. Then she texted saying there was a problem, so I quickly returned the call and she explained the unforeseen problem at the airport.
After hearing the two options, I just responded by saying “Mom, percaya nggak Tuhan pasti lindungi sampai di US? Nggak akan di check vaksin papernya, bahkan semua pasti lolos. Just go with faith mom, we’re all praying and fasting here for you, Papa, and Emak. God is able to protect you all.” And we just prayed and they decided to move by faith.
Was it scary? Oh heck ya it was scary, especially for them. The worst thing that could happen was they get caught and be deported back to Indonesia. LOL. Thankfully, we serve an ALMIGHTY GOD who is gracious and kind. Through this experience, my parent’s faith also increased to another level, since they personally saw God’s hand moving throughout their trip from Surabaya, Singapore, and California.
As soon as they passed through the US immigration, the officer did not even ask anything about their vaccine reports. Instead, they asked why my grandma has been out of the country for more than a year when she was supposed to stay here in America for at least 6 months in a year.
Once my grandma arrived here in the US my aunt helped submit the paperwork for the green card renewal. Initially, we were informed that the process might take about 3 to 6 months. Well GOD worked it out quicker than expected. Kindly note her green card expires on 4/23/22. Then 5 days later on 4/28/2022 my grandma received her new green card in the mail without any interview, fingerprint, photos taken, or any questions asked.
Lately, God has just been teaching me to have crazier faith. To believe in the impossible, because our God specializes in the impossibilities of our life.
It still amazes me to this day how an all-knowing, all-powerful, almighty God who knows the end from the beginning would want to partner up with me to fulfill His Kingdom here on earth. I get to play a role to do life exceedingly well with Him by my side.
What a perennial, loving, & faithful GOD we have in JESUS.
I’ll be back, Talk to you soon!
With Love,
Sharon