March, 2024
Dear Co-laborers in Christ,
Greetings in the Name of the Lord. I am doing well in the Lord. I sincerely appreciate your concerns and prayer for both my mother and I. Let me share what happened over the last four months.
It was October 12. 2024, and I was helping the Ladies’ Fellowship of the campus church. We were running a special day for the ladies with the Word of God, prayer, lunch and outdoor games. It was a busy and ordinary afternoon. During break time, I saw a message in my phone. The message said that my mum had been found with acute infarction. I couldn’t believe it! No tears, but I was shocked. “Is this real happening?”
I had already planned on a furlough for 2025. However, at the news of my mum, I had to leave the field earlier than I had planned. I met her at home. The infarction affected various areas of her brain. Her physical, linguistic and emotional condition was more serious than I could help at home. So, we made the decision to get help. My mum was admitted to a rehabilitation hospital in the city of Busan. It was November 18, 2024.
For twelve years my mum had taken care of my father, who was sick in bed. I used to feel that the work should have been mine, being their first-born child. Yet my mum took it gladly for me to serve in the mission field of Kenya. With much daily prayer, for many years, she had undertaken the major issues and duties of the family “Bai.” One and half years after my dad had passed away she encountered this infarction. It was so harsh and heart-breaking, yet there was no complaining. Regardless, I can tell God’s helping hand was in it all. My mum was living alone. Her neighbor found her unconscious outside her house. If she had fallen in the house, unconscious, I wonder what would have happened? When the neighbor tried to take her to hospital, he found most of them nearby were not able to handle her case. He continued his search, and found one quite far from home. He took her there and saw that she received the proper care. Had it not been for His grace, it could have been much worse.
On Sundays, my mum and I get permission from the hospital to go to a nearby church. The pastor teaches from the book of Daniel. One Sunday, when he was preaching from chapter 6, one verse captured my attention. “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber toward Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime. Daniel 6:10”
Danielknew the evil plans that were set against him if he prayed to God. Nevertheless, he did pray as usual. Moreover, Daniel gave thanks to his God. He used be an expert politician, and he could have used his political skills to protect himself. But he didn’t do it. Surrounded by his enemies, it must have been stressful – but he chose to give thanks. On that day of pain and stress, what would be his thanksgivings to God? What about my thanksgivings to my God?
Life in the hospital is somehow similar to that of a boarding school. In the morning you wake up, take breakfast, and run off to morning therapy sessions. After having lunch, you go back to afternoon therapy sessions. At the end of a day, you find yourself so tired that you go to bed early. Sharing a room with other patients in a ward, you experience unexpected things which are unique to the sick in a hospital. For many days, so occupied with my own issues to take care of my mum, I had no room to look around. Only recently have I started to notice the others around us. I can now hear their struggles and stories. Some were admitted because of car accident, some because of having fallen from a building, etc. They differ in age, health issues, religions and the way to face their problems. Yet, they share one common goal, to get healed and return to their normal routines back home. Feeling thrown into a world which I didn’t know before, I am humbled to learn what the Lord continues to teach me through this experience. As I write, the end of February is near, and spring is right around the corner in Busan, Korea.
So dear friends, I request prayer for my mum’s recovery and for the ministry of the Bible College of East Africa (Kenya) in general. May the Lord keep you and guide you
In His service,
Bai, Eun Young