2022.11.12/13
From the Pastor’s Desk: Rev. Mark Liu
Dear brothers and sisters of RCAC,
Hello brothers and sisters. Thank God for letting me share with you what I encounter these days.
In the past six months, God has given my family a new test. There was a problem with our visa. I thought it was just because of the pandemic that the issuance of the visa was delayed. When the BC government stopped giving us medical insurance, I suddenly found that my faith was facing a big challenge. I kept thinking about whether I made a mistake in a certain application process, which caused the delay. And the hardest part is that in October, even my daughter’s visa had problems. The government asked her to stop attending classes until a new visa is issued. For me, it was a huge blow, especially to tell my daughter that she could no longer attend classes. My daughter’s teacher told me that when he told the news to my daughter’s classmates, some of them cried. I also cried when I heard this. My faith was put in test again.
In the past two decades, while I was at work, I had always been very sure of this kind of things. Because as long as the application is filled out and the documents are ready, everything will happen at the scheduled time. But what I didn’t expect was that in this application, not only my visa was not issued at the scheduled time, but also my daughter’s visa also had problems. The “high tower” I built for myself was built on a pile of sand, not the rock.
I was shocked by my daughter’s composure after she learned she couldn’t attend classes. My wife told me that her reaction depends on the parents’ reaction. If we don’t react very much, she will think it’s not a big deal. If we react much, her response will be even greater. These are not what parents should give to their children. My daughter sent a simple email to tell the teacher that she could not attend class for the time being, but she would do her schoolwork at home. Between the lines, I saw her calm, but her father was there clinging to worry. Jesus said we should be like children. I’m thinking this is a good learning to me. I have some biblical knowledge in my head but I did not apply when the problem came. This experience told me that I did not turn the past encounter into an experience to help me face the current challenges.
Thank God, after a month of praying from brothers and sisters, all our visa problems were resolved. After a month of waiting, the daughter finally returned to school. When seeing her classmates hugging her, the image still stuck in my mind. May my encounter of the past few months no longer stay in the past, but become an experience that will help me face today and can also be a blessing to others.
May God bless you all.
In Him,
Rev. Mark Liu