Jehovah’s Blessings Abound

1/24/2020

Emerson and Ivy Wu

The blessing of the Lord brings wealth,
without painful toil for it. (Proverbs 10:22)

“Jehovah’s blessings abound” describes our life experience.  A praise song “Jehovah’s Blessings Abound,” published by the Stream of Praise Music Ministries, is a very popular song for the Taiwanese churches. To listen to “Jehovah’s Blessings Abound” in Taiwanese with English lyrics, please click https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j7GJBD_bSU

We would like to thank you for your prayers and get-well cards for Ivy’s surgery, from which she is recovering well.  When the doctor gave us an estimate of his fee, we knew it exceeded our credit card limit so we began daily withdrawals from our ATM. We brought a big stack of cash to pay the hospital admitting deposit and were surprised that our insurance company had already provided a full payment guarantee to the hospital.  BLESSING!

During the holiday season in November and December, we especially miss our children. One week before Ivy’s surgery, our daughter informed us she would have a business trip and would stop by Hong Kong to visit us. Her visit on Ivy’s birthday and whole day in the hospital were a significant blessing for us.  BLESSING!

We would like to thank the churches and our friends for the Christmas gifts, letters and Christmas cards. Thank you also to the ABW of an Ohio church which sent us a whole year of prayers list with the prayer relay list. We were also so blessed to receive a Christmas gift (a check) from a church in Pennsylvania. The church had received a legacy gift, and the congregation decided to share a portion of it with missionaries and community organizations that the church supported.  BLESSING!

This year, Chinese New Year is on 1/25.  Although protests in Hong Kong continue, people are preparing to celebrate the Chinese New Year. A few days ago, the chairperson of the Civic Party on our residential street used Chinese calligraphy to write the blessing words of a traditional “Red Door Couplet” for the people in the community. The “Red Door Couplet” tradition has existed in China for 2,000 years and is used at the New Year celebration. It is used “Evil Exorcism”. We don’t know if the “Red Door Couplet” relates to the Jewish Passover when Israelites were instructed to mark the doorposts of their homes with the blood of a slaughtered spring lamb. The “Red Door Couplet” shown on this journal’s photo is what we asked him to write. The words on the right side are “The Lord’s Grace with us;” the words on the left side are “Joy and Peace” and the word in the center is “BLESSING!”

On Chinese New Year, an ancient custom to bless someone is giving a “Red Envelope” with cash enclosed. Here is a funny story that happened to us.  We received a rice cake (a traditional gift) from a friend a few days ago. We had tried twice to give that rice cake with a “Red Envelope” to a young lady who had been very helpful when we needed to replace a cell phone at her store.  To spend extra time and effort to walk to the store, our persistence in action was tested and spirit in returning the favor had struggled. On the third time, we finally saw her in the store and told her that we had a “Red Envelope” for her.  She said she needed to check with her store manager who said it was store policy not to accept any gift from a customer.  After we returned home, we received a message from our friend asking if we could return an attached coupon in the rice cake to him. He also mentioned that one of our friends had placed a new coat as a Chinese Year’s gift for Ivy in his place to pass to us. The timing was just right.  If the young girl had accepted the rice cake, we would not have been able to return the coupon to our friend.  We were encouraged to keep doing the right things right, too.  Surprise BLESSINGS!

Our biggest blessing of this year is “our PSG is 93%.” Praise to be the Lord for His faithfulness to answer prayers. We would like to thank you all for your prayers, your response to His call and the financial support for God’s mission work. Your support enabled us to continue serving our Lord in the mission field.  BEST BLESSING!

May God’s grace and blessings be upon you and your family.