A family that eats together, stays together

It is often said that we cannot choose the family members that we have. However, I believe that it is the Lord who puts together a family and weaves their lives into a colourful design. In the case of biological children, it is the hand of the Lord who guided and orchestrated the conception. In the case of adopted children, it is also the hand of the Lord who guided and led the way for the adoptive family to be formed. Every child is a blessing from God. The Lord loves us and He works everything for our good. Nothing happens by chance when we are part of the family of the Lord. God knows everything about us - our past, our present and our future.

For us, we need to know that the work of Jesus at the Cross is finished. We need to keep on seeing afresh that Jesus has done it all and believe this truth. Jesus is more than enough. We need to keep on hearing and seeing. God does not just give us righteousness. He wants us to experience His blessedness and this happens when we keep seeing, hearing and believing. See how He is more than enough for our situation and faith will arise. His glory will come upon us and defend us. I seek the Lord and I fill my ears and eyes with Jesus.

Da and I had arranged to meet my mother, my brother (LG) and LG's girlfriend (ZT) at our favourite coffee shop located at Jalan Tua Kong for lunch today. Da and I arrived first and when we located a table and sat down to await the arrival of my family, Da suddenly looked out of the coffee shop and exclaimed that he saw his parents driving towards the coffee shop. What a wonderful coincidence! As it turned out, MIL had gone to the hospital this morning (as part of her home antibiotic treatment, she needs to go to the hospital each morning to change the tube) and FIL had fetched her from church (which she attended after leaving the hospital). Without knowing our lunch plans, FIL had decided to take MIL to the same coffee shop for lunch.

MIL alighted first while Da boarded FIL's car to help FIL locate a carpark lot. While MIL and I chatted, my family arrived. After we had placed our food orders, we wondered why FIL and Da had not yet appeared. MIL speculated that perhaps FIL had difficulty locating a carpark lot. As MIL kept us in stitches with her jokes, Da appeared. He told us that FIL was at GroomWorks (a car grooming company located a few shops away), discussing with the boss (a Liverpool supporter named "Yong") about a grooming contract for FIL's car. To save time, Da placed his and FIL's lunch order before he went back to join FIL.

When the food arrived and FIL and Da were still no where in sight, I went to GroomWorks to look for them. They were still deep in discussion with Yong. When I approached to tell them that lunch was waiting for them, they ended their discussion and I overheard FIL telling Yong that he will "think about it". I smiled and told Yong that FIL is the sort of person who does not usually commit to a contract immediately as he would consider the matter thoroughly first. Yong jokingly told me that I was of "no help" to him and he goodnaturedly waved me away. My brothers and I have been sending our respective cars to GroomWorks for car grooming for several years now and we are on good terms with Yong.

Lunch was a light-hearted and enjoyable affair. A large part of the lunch centred on discussion on mahjong and the rules of the game. I learned for the first time today that if the first tile thrown by the "banker" causes another player to "game", the winner will win all the chips. This happened to a mahjong game that my mother, LG and ZT had recently, except that during that game, my family was not sure whether my mother (the player who "gamed" due to the first tile that the "banker" (ZT) had thrown) could win all the chips. It was late at night and everyone had a good laugh when LG told us that in order to settle the matter, a few long-distance telephone calls were made to my mother's relatives (who live in Philippines and Malaysia!) to consult the experts on whether my mother could win all the chips. Unfortunately, they were unable to contact any of the 师傅 (shī fu) (that is, expert) and they decided during that game to count my mother's win as an extra "double" instead of letting her win all the chips. FIL jokingly asked my mother how much she had been short-changed for that game.

After lunch, everyone parted ways. FIL and MIL went home to rest. Da and I proceeded to church. My family met up with my other brother (LB) and LB's wife (MF) and they went to the travel fair at Suntec Convention Centre.

It was another awesome church service today. Truly, one moment of God's favour is worth more than ten years of labour. We are in the days where God's ever increasing favour will fall on us. His ever increasing glory will come upon us. Let us arise and shine, for the glory of God has come. Christ is in us and the glory of the Lord will be seen in us. People will become attracted to us because they see the love of Christ in us.

After church, Da and I went to Parkway Parade to do some window shopping. We passed by a ZTP Ginseng outlet and we bought a bottle of warm luo han drink. I requested the shop assistant to add some Chinese herbs to the drink to aid my sore throat. These herbs are very bitter and frankly speaking, the drink was not very palatable due to the addition of the herbs. However, I have in the past found this to be very effective in curing my sore throat. I took a leaf out of IL's book - I made a face before I drank the drink. (When Da and I were at the home of NN yesterday, NN's wife fed IL her medication using a syringe as IL is only 15 months old. She is such a sweet child. Although she did not like the medication, unlike other children who will vigorously shake their heads, make a lot of noise and/or avoid the medication), IL dutifully allowed SF to feed her the medication. The only thing that IL did was to screw up her face in distaste as the syringe was inserted into her mouth.)

Dinner with my family was at Hong Kong Street Family Restaurant located at Eastwood Centre. As we pondered over the menu, we realised that the food suggestions that were raised were all the "usual dishes" that my family orders. Today, however, my family decided to order Hong Kong ko kee. This dish comprises ko kee vegetables cooked with wolfberries. The vegetables are very soft and tasty. We also ordered a plate of kung pao chicken.

The pork ribs in barbeque sauce (one of ZT's favourite dishes) was cooked to perfection. What I liked about it was that it was not fatty.

Although MT, ZT and Da are Teochews, they have adapted to my family's Hokkien tastebuds. As such, hae cho (deep fried yam balls with shrimp and pork) is a popular dish with the family.

My family ordered sweet potato leaves fried with sambal. However, the restaurant had run out of sweet potato leaves. The manager suggested string beans fried with hae bi hiam (dried shrimp) and we decided to give it a try. It was surprisingly not very spicy.

The fish steamed Teochew style was very fresh. As usual, my mother had the honours of eating the fish head and the fish tail. She stopped short of eating the fish eyes although she gladly accepted the fish stomach that ZT ladled onto her plate. I cannot tolerate the taste of fish stomach - I find the texture very "slimy". This reminds me of a James Bond movie that I watched many years ago. In that movie, Roger Moore (who played the role of Agent 007) nearly threw up when the person that he was having dinner with ate a dish that the person said was "stuffed sheep's head" and that person plucked out the sheep's eyes and ate them. *grin*

We must have been eating a breakneck speed because dinner was over in less than an hour. We even had time to visit the Cold Storage supermarket located in the same shopping mall. I was hoping to buy a box of Matza (which I remember seeing at that outlet) but this time, I could not find it. I wanted to buy it for the Lord's Supper that we take at home. No worries - there will be another visit to this shopping mall in the near future, I am sure.

Indeed, a family that eats together, stays together. Da and I are blessed with families that value and treasure each other's company.