Double grief but Heaven's gain

About 3 weeks after Mom's passing off, Pa was admitted to the Tengku Ampuan Hospital in Klang. He fell into a coma after another stroke. Life support system could only sustain him for one night and he was called home to the Lord on 20th June, 2008 at 8.15am.

We have now lost both parents. Though hearts are deeply in grief, but at the same time, a relief, cos the toil, pain and struggles of Mom and Pa from their illnesses have come to an end.
We are comforted to know that they have now enter into their eternal joy and life with our dear Lord Jesus Christ....with no more suffering and pain.

Pa,
When you left us,
We did not expect it so soon
Bcos Mom just left us not too long,
Hearts are sad,
I wondered - was it bcos
You missed Mom
that you had to go?
We missed Mom
And now we missed both.





Pa,
Now you are up,
Have a sweet reunion with Ma,
Look out for Siew Ping,
When we think of you both,
We think of her,
She was the first to go,
We miss you both,
And now we miss three.

Ma, Pa,

'When we asunder part
It gives us inward pain
But we shall still be joined in heart
And hope to meet you again.

Photos of Pa's funeral service have been uploaded in my Facebook album. Check it out.

* As both parents have now left us , we will be re-titling or renaming this blog as "In loving memory of Mom & Pa". BHan will help change the header and post up some photos of his grandpa (if available). Thks, Han!

New Photos Uploaded

Funeral service and burial:

Funeral service

Presentation Photos:

Kong Ah Kui

Deeply missed

'Peace be wif granny....she went back to Jesus oredi. ..'
- Loh Khang Zheng (grandson)

'A lifetime on earth, an eternity in heaven....Forever remembered and missed, my dearest Grandma.'
- Andrew Tan Yan Hoang (grandson)

Psalm 116:15

PRECIOUS IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD IS THE DEATH OF HIS SAINTS.

We are gathered here this afternoon to honor the memory of Mdm Kong Ah Kui.
Last night we have heard the wonderful things and ways she had touched lives.

Madam Kong Ah was given to us by God for 78 years…now we have come to the point to remember her as a wonderful friend…a wonderful wife , mother, mother-in-law and grandmother. She will surely be remembered and cherished dearly in our hearts.

Memories of mother……(her hard labour, her love to serve, her delicious meals for the family, etc..'I would know where to find her when I go to heaven'). She would often be found dressed in her very best for Sundays and sitted patiently to wait for me to take her to church. Mdm Kong Ah Kui is my mother in law . The memories of her will continue to be very dear and are very precious. No one can take those memories away from us. Mother is precious to us.

Think of the blessed words from Psalm 116:15 -It says ‘PRECIOUS IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD IS THE DEATH OF HIS SAINTS.’

She is more precious to God than to us.
Our love and care for her no matter how much - can never be perfect. Only God’s love for her is perfect.

The family and church has done all they possibly could for her while she was alive. Her sickness was beyond our care. Praise God for His perfected timing.
He had taken mother in a very peaceful way.
God can do much much more for her now in heaven. Our earthly love cannot be compared to the heavenly Father’s love - He who has taken great pains and great cost to prepare a place for her in the Heavenly mansions where God can care for her for eternity.

God never takes His children away from earth without providing them a much better place. When mother accepted Jesus Christ as His Lord and Savior, she had placed her life in the hands of God. And the best place to be when our time is up is to be in the hands of God.

The bible tells us that the last words of Jesus when he died for our sins on the cross was “FATHER INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT”. Jesus knows that when our time is up , the next place would be to be with Him. The same hands that had received the Lord Jesus when He died on the cross will receive mother.
And it is with these same hands who wrote down the name of ‘Kong Ah Kui’ in the BOOK OF LIFE the moment she received Jesus as her LORD and Savior.

Meaning that she has now a wonderful place in heaven.

The bible also tells us that the hands that received her into heaven and the hands that wrote her name on the book of life and the hands that prepare her place in heaven- that very hands will also wipe off and dry every tear in mother’s eyes. That very hands will make sure that there will be no more pain, no more suffering, no more sorrows, no more tears and no more death.
Everything is new again. Heaven created by the hands of God for the people of God is amazingly beautiful- words cannot describe it.

Shall we grieve and mourn then that our beloved mother, sister Kong Ah Kui gone to heaven. Of course we deeply feel the sadness for the loss of her and our tears in sadness are only human.

I can only ask this question……What is our loss compare to mother’s gain?
Missing her and having the tears and pain in our hearts is proper but our sorrow is not without hope. There will be a wonderful reunion for us all who are in Christ Jesus in heaven and it will be PERMANENT!

Let this service be not only of tears and sadness but let it be also a service of joy and gladness. Let us rejoice that God has saved one and has removed her from that pain and sorrow. Shall we not rejoice that mother has gone and have taken possession of heaven itself?

Our dear family and friends, we who are left behind,let the certainties of God’s words bring comfort and peace into your hearts. We shall all be united again in the beautiful heavenly realms with mother and everybody who is in Christ Jesus.

But for those who are still uncertain of where you will be when your time is up whether it is sooner or later, I would like to ask :

Have you placed your life in the hands of Jesus? Is your name written in the Book of Life? If your answer is no then let’s ponder on those two questions seriously.

Let us pray:
Eternal Heavenly Father
Thank you for sharing with us this gift of life. Before Mdm Kong Ah Kui was ours, she was yours. Thank You for what she had meant to her family as a wife, mother, a grandmother, a relative and a friend.
Thank You for allowing her to journey for 78 blessed years so that her family and friends have so much to look back upon.

Lord we pray for strength and comfort for the family and for those who are here and are sad in hearts. Let Your Holy Spirit the Comforter come and comfort those who grieve so that their troubled hearts may have peace.

Receive her into your arms of mercy.
Raised her up with all your saints.
For it is into Your hands, we commend her spirit.

Grant unto those who have not receive You as Lord and Savior yet the grace and mercy and may the workings of Your Holy Spirit bring salvation into their lives.

We give You thanks…
In Jesus name,
Amen


- a sermon by Pastor Richard Lee (3rd son-in-law of Mdm Kong) during the funeral service on 1st June, at Nirvana Center.

Family is "EVERYTHING"

Over the past few days, many of our family members came around to give the support and to encourage each other during this period of loss and separation. Even some who could not be here with us, were able to contribute through this blog. This made me realize the importance of the family institution. How true the saying that "Blood is thicker than water". Po Po was trully a great wife/mother/mother-in-law/grandmother to the all of us. Words cannot express how she took on the burden of raising us all from our childhood days to where we are now and constantly providing for all our needs. We will definately miss her presence with us but we know that she's resting in a better place now. She will forever be remembered by all our relatives and family members and friends alike.

Wake & Funeral Service Photos

Thanks for all your help and contributions throughout the weekend.

You may view some photos via this link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/aileenhoe/WakeServicePhotos

and

Eulogies from Siew Chin(4th Daughter)

Throughout the period of my mom's fighting with her stomach cancer, God has shown His amazing grace and gracious love to all the family members. My mom had displayed her usual strong spirit during this period too. On behalf of my family members, we would like to thank you for all of you for your prayer and concern and support. We would like to thank people like Dr. Loh Ee Chin, who specializes in palliative care, for her help, counselling and advice that had helped to reduce much of my mom’s sufferings, and Lee Ling, Ng Swee Aun, Pastor Tan, and many others who have helped in blood donation, prayer and others. We would like to express our deepest appreciation.

Mom was diagnosed of stomach cancer on 3rd April, 2008. On 18th April around 2 am, while Seng Kok, my husband was massaging for her, she told him about her first vision of seeing a beautiful garden. The following day, after coming back from blood transfusion, while she was walking in the living hall, again she saw flowers all around as if she was walking in a beautiful garden. She knew that time her time was near and she would be with the Lord soon. Soon later after that, her health deteriorated very fast.

On the 29th May evening, a few church ladies came and led her in prayer. Despite her little energy left, she still managed to say this prayer twice: "Lord Jesus, please come now to be with me, give me the blessings, in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen." Later around 6 pm in the evening, she called out for Seng Kok to stay around her and not to leave her and tried to call others family members to come. Richard, my brother-in-law came shortly. With two son-in-laws accompanying her by the bedsides and after maid cleaned for her, she requested me to cook some mee suah for her. After taking few spoonfuls, she requested the two sons-in-law to rinse and clean her mouth. Then she took her last breath and went to the Lord.

We are glad that she’s with the Lord now. We thank the Lord for our mother. From a humble, poor and war-time background, and by God’s grace, she had not only raised up all the children, well blessed by the Lord, she had also contributed much in the growing up of all the grandchildren. Again we thank you for all your support and prayers. Thank you.

(this post is subject to the consent of the writer if editing is required) .