Ended my whirlwind trips a few days ago and now I am just soaking up the remaining days of the holidays.

Honeymoon has been good, if you've seen my IG stories, then you would have known what happened and well, definitely had encounters of God and His providence. 

There was one incident in which I missed out regarding leader's retreat and wanted to share with YE, but didn't manage to find the time to. Hence I will just blog it down and ask him to read it HAHA.

Soooo... I chose not to stay behind for lok lok and beancurd cause I needed to report to work on the following day. Hence I followed the bus back to church. Thank God that the bus driver was agreeable to make a pit-stop at Jurong East, which is so much closer to home, rather than church where I still needed to travel back. This is because we took the Tuas checkpoint instead of the one at woodlands. 

The bus that I took had Mich and also our friends from Shandong China, who had come for the retreat with us. All was quite smooth initially. The bus came earlier than expected, everyone boarded and we were off! There was even little to no jam at the Malaysian customs! Praise the Lord!

But something struck when we were clearing Singapore customs to head back in. All of us Singaporeans cleared with ease and were waiting on the bus when we realised that our Shandong sisters were taking a while. We waited for close to half an hour when I decided to go down the bus to check. Mich was not on the bus as she was at the customs, waiting for our Shandong sisters. When I went back into the customs, I saw her and Mingzhu lao shi conversing with one of the officers. We found out that the visa that had been applied for our Shandong sisters was a single trip visa. I.e. leaving Singapore you do not need a visa, enter Malaysia you need, leaving Malaysia do not need, but when entering Singapore, you need! << this is for foreigners. I did not really know that cause I only applied for a visa once in my life and it was for a long term stay. 

Anyways, our sisters could not come back in. They were stranded in Malaysia. After some discussion, we came up with a plan that Mich will go back into Malaysia if need be. Ming zhu lao shi and I will head back to the bus. I will ensure the Jurong East people alight and Ming zhu lao shi will follow the rest back to church. After returning to the bus, I updated the rest of the people what was happening and we all rallied to pray together. It was about 4.20pm by then and we actually left our hotel around 2.45pm instead of the stipulated 3pm, we supposedly cleared Malaysian customs by about 3.20pm and it was supposed to be a fast game when we reach Singapore. But we really prayed. That our sisters will be able to receive a special pass or permission to go through just this once. 

And by 4.30pm, they were out! Honestly, we gave 10 more mins of waiting time and if they were not out, Mich would have gone in. But God really came through! Our sisters came out one by one. It was quite tough on them as they did not know what was happening as everything was in English. They also were not sure of the visa application cause they were not the once who applied for it. In the end, the officer let them through, but there was a remark made in the system that they were unsure of the procedure and have been let in just this once. Mich also checked to ensure that this will not leave a black mark for them, the next time they come to Singapore. The officer said to remember to apply for the correct visa. (I shall not go into the details of the why only a single trip visa was applied for them... :x)

But really got to encounter God time and time again. Praise the Lord! All in all, managed to reach home at a not too late timing as well :)

ooo just to add, I find it amazing how this thing was orchestrated (maybe by God for us to witness His power) - like the sisters were on the bus that Mich was on, and if anything happened, Mich can easily go back into Malaysia as she has friends there etc. In addition, we still had the group who were eating loklok in Malaysia. There were many 'safety nets' I would call, but ultimately, prayer and seeking God is the best way in all times and circumstances.

= do something right =