Peni-El

Just came back from dinner and spending time with the Chin family. After dinner, we had a fun time playing 'Spoons' (same concept with 'Heart Attack' game back home, difference is you grab a spoon on the table once you have the 4 same cards. last person without a spoon loses). We also played 'Pictionary' after that with Sam who came and join us shortly after. It was such a good time of laughing at each other and our attempts at drawing! We really had a good time.

Peni-El..what a name. She's the youngest daughter in the family. Aunty Irene was sharing with us the story about Peni-El's birth. The twins were pre-mature babies of about 7 months old. Peni-El was so sick when she was a newborn. She was in ICU for 4 months after birth. Her intestines had infection and made her tummy bloated up. The doctors has to cut open her stomach countless times to do surgeries on her. After few times of reoccurences of infections and surgery, the doctors decided to just leave the intestines outside of the body. The doctors also told Aunty Irene 2 or 3 times to just take Peni-El home because she will not make it through the night, but they held on to God's word and visions for them. God clearly spoke to her in dreams and His Word that Peni-El will live and that He will heal her completely.

Initially, the doctors refused to put the intestines back into baby Peni-El, but Aunty Irene and Uncle Joe insisted because God told them that when He heals, He will heal COMPLETELY. Holding on to God's words, they believed for Peni-El to be well. True enough, God healed her and they were able to take her home. She never developed proper speech until about 3.5 years old because she had ear infection that caused her ears to be clogged up with puss. She also had down-syndrome symptoms till when she was about 1 year old. Slowly but surely, God healed this child!!

What a story..what a testimony of how great His love is for Peni-El and for each of us. As i was listening to Aunty Irene speak, my tears welled up in my eyes. How great is our God..what an amazing plan and destiny He has for this girl!! Crazyyy..i cannot fully fathom God's love for us. I cannot understand why such a big God would be so interested in each individual life. Every little baby counts. Peni-El counts!!

Even through the 3 times that i was at the Chin's crib, i have really grown to like Peni-El a LOT. She reminds me a little bit of my sister..and she's just so funny! When we played Pictionary, she was LOUD, she was aggresive,..she was bursting with LIFE!! who would have thought that she was a small fragile baby who almost lost her life? But NO, God had better plans, God had a destiny for her life!

It goes the same for each of us, right? We may not have such a dramatic story like Peni-El's but everyone has a story to tell. Testimonies of God's grace and mercy..stories with God's fingerprints all over it. How great..how great is our God.

I'm just gonna go to bed meditating on this..that God is great..and greatly to be praised!!

In speechless awe of You..