Lynette Loh

Blessings of grace and peace to all dear friends, family and everyone reading this!

As I look back on 2024 and look forward to 2025, I am filled with joy and thanksgiving to God for the many blessings I can count, and my prayer for us is that He will continue to bless us out of the bountiful riches of His perfect love, all sufficient provision and grace upon grace, and that He will carry us through each and every day of this new year ahead and beyond, filling in all our gaps and meeting our needs as He knows best!

Here is my testimony and song of praise to the Lord for 2024, written on the cusp of a new year and as we stepped into 2025 with Him.

When I look back on the year we’ve had, so unbelievably challenging, trying and harrowing, yet packed-to-the-brim eventful, fruitful, joyful and blessed, I can scarcely believe how hubby, I and our family have sailed through it all and how we continue to be able to press on, notwithstanding ongoing challenges with caring for Mum (Mum’s trials and tribulations have included many falls, acute and chronic urinary tract infections which necessitated courses upon courses of antibiotics, deconditioning-causing hospitalisations, delirium, background dementia, and continuous health, safety, sanity, wellbeing and spiritual warfare challenges…). And I can only thank God as I consider with awe and amazement all that God has been, and all that He has orchestrated for us and brought us and our family through!

I am astounded by how I have been able to dance on the mountaintops and to tread on the heights, as undeterred and sure footed as a mountain goat, despite the intensity of the rough terrain and deep valleys that we have had to traverse! Although I am not surprised, I must say, because ever and always, the LORD our God has been before us, the Trustworthy, True, Sovereign, Almighty and Praiseworthy God who from everlasting to everlasting is God, my Creator and my Sustainer, my Source and my Provider, my Strength and my Song, my Portion and my Cup, my Joy and my Very Great Reward!

The way I walked and lived the past year of ups and downs, valleys and mountains, crises-riddled pathways and green pastures, was to commit and release everything and everyone to this God, looking to Him every step of the way, asking Him to arrange everything for us, day after day. This God who is the Word from Whom and for Whom I was made and in Whom I live, move, breathe and have my very being; the Only Wise God our Saviour who just as I prayed, preserved and sustained us and worked all things together for our good to the praise of His Glorious and Matchless Name; the Final Amen who opens doors no one can shut and whose good, gracious, perfect and unstoppable will, plans and purposes no one can prevail against, negate or destroy; and the One who will carry on to its completion the good work He has begun for me, in me and through me!

And that, was my best decision ever! For it enabled me to find peace and rest in Him despite the storms and even in the storms, and to be continually encouraged and renewed so that I could keep going despite everything, as HE increasingly became the very fabric of my reality! Isaiah 40:28-31 proved true once again for me:

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40:28-31

As I made space for Him and kept abiding in Him daily, He kept filling me with His peace, joy and hope, and He poured out on me His lifegiving Spirit and the blessings that flow from His Presence with us, thus causing me to thrive in the sacred space with Him, just as He intended! As I consider how He has been bringing me deeper and deeper into knowing Him as my All in all, I want to thank Him once again, for preserving Mum’s life, for blessing us with her continued presence with us, for His never leaving nor forsaking and dear Presence that’s as close as my very breath itself, for His unfailing love, unwavering faithfulness, wisdom, guidance, protection, provision, grace and favour, that have carried me throughout. I thank Him for how I have been able to stand strong and firm for my family by His grace, enabling and power, and for the great measure of the gift of faith and hope that the Holy Spirit has given me in Him, especially and ever more for this challenging season. I take heart that He fights for us and for our families, and that for all that is out of my hands, I need only to be still and to keep looking to Him and waiting on Him.

Indeed, He has been marvellous and so so good, His promises steadfast and dependable, and His will – good, gracious and perfect! And He, our Creator and Master Planner God has ordered, worked and progressively moved us forward in His good plans and purposes for us with such omniscient precision and detail, perfect timing and goodness upon goodness, that nothing we could ever have asked for or imagined, or gained and worked out for ourselves, could be better!

So I ended 2024 with a heart overflowing with thankfulness, gratitude, joy and song. And I stepped into 2025, with peace and confidence, despite everything and come what may, into the uncertain and the unknown, as well as all the new things, purposes and goodness that He has already prepared and set in place before us. I put our faith and hope once again, in our God who has never failed or disappointed us, who is and ever will be the same Unchanging God who was and is and is to come, my solid Rock and Firm Foundation, my Fortress and Sanctuary, my Sun and Shield, my Vanguard and Support, my Helper and Counsellor, my Vision and Inspiration, my Good Good Father and Good Shepherd who goes before us and with us; the God who does new things and makes a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland; the God who makes rivers of living water flow from within us and who gives us water that becomes in us a spring of water welling up to eternal life … – knowing and trusting that He will make a bright new way for us, take care of us in the days, months and years ahead, and make all things beautiful and good for us in His time.

All praises,
honour, glory and thanksgiving
be to the God who is Worthy of every song
I will ever sing,
both now and forevermore!

4/8/2024: Growing up as a child and teenager, I did not have much interaction with my Uncle Chu Poh and Aunty Oi Lian, except perhaps at Chinese New Year. Uncle Chu Poh was my father’s cousin from my paternal grandma’s side. But when I first came back from university in England, during a visit they made to my parents, we connected and they started bringing me to church with them. I used to sit with them during services until my Aunt brought me to the choir room and I joined the choir.

My Uncle and Aunt were very much a part of my adult life and faith journey, especially as I was growing up in the Lord. They were my sponsors when I got baptised. I still have the Bible that Uncle Chu Poh gave me then. I would phone my Uncle just to catch up from time to time and when I was going through challenges, during which he would listen to me patiently and talk things through with me. Basically, he was there for me and he and my Aunt were people I could count on.

My hubby Shen and I used to visit them regularly and we would often have lunch together. When we were still dating and going through the challenge of my parents being opposed and unreceptive to hubby, my Uncle and Aunt supported us, and prayed with us and for us throughout it all. They even hosted my father-in-law and mother-in-law for lunch in their home. It meant so much to us, because at that time, my parents were still unwilling to even accept thoughts of the increasingly serious relationship between hubby and I. Having my uncle and aunt representing a welcoming stance and extending warmth from my family’s side, must have I’m sure, made a world of difference to hubby and his parents too.

When we got married, my Uncle served as the liturgist and my Aunt as the organist, for our wedding. Not only that, they were the ones who picked my parents up and drove them to our church, making sure that they would be there in good time and without any deterring incident, in the midst of another family turbulence that was happening at that time. And the one thing I will always remember my Uncle assuring me with was – when you honour God, He will honour you. Indeed, God has been faithful and lived up to this assurance.

When my father passed away, my Uncle was the one who came to UH to be with my mum, me and hubby, and to help us to do what was necessary. When I resigned from my job at one time to go into partnership with someone who pulled out at the last minute after we had finalised the deal, breaking his word by using God as his excuse, my Uncle and Aunt were there to go through it with me, supporting, counselling, encouraging me and helping me to deal with it, let it go and move forward. Here is another thing I will always remember my Uncle saying to me – God will vidicate you. And you know what, God did exactly that, of course, in His time.

It was only when hubby started his business and had to work weekends, and also when much of our free time and energy was spent on mum as she started to require a lot more care because of her health challenges, that we were no longer able to spend much time with my Uncle and Aunt or anyone else for that matter. Still we would keep in touch with them from time to time on the phone and at Christmas and Chinese New Year, and it was always good to see their familiar faces at church. And I am thankful that we managed to visit, spend some time together, talk and pray with my Uncle and Aunt, when he was unwell, twice, in his final 2 months.

Well, these are just some of the many events and memories that we will remember, appreciate and cherish. I know other people would have experienced my Uncle and Aunt in different ways. But for hubby and I, we will always be thankful and grateful for the special and important part they have played in our lives, and for the love and time that
they invested in us.

And so we grieve the loss of my Uncle. But we are comforted and rejoice knowing that he has fought the good fight, finished the race and is resting peacefully now, without any more pain, suffering, illness and discomfort, in Christ and in the everlasting arms of our loving and faithful God and Heavenly Father. And that on that glorious day to come, we will get to be with him again, together with my grandparents, father and brother, as we rejoice with each other in the Presence of God forever.

Thank you Uncle Chu Poh and Aunty Oi Lian, for loving us. We love you too.