Updated : 21/08/2001

Shall Not Die But Live And Declare The Works Of The Lord     By Low Heng Ong

I was baptised during World War II in an Anglican church in India. Although being baptised, and still in my youth, my faith was undoubtedly superficial, and regretfully meaningless. Then, during those important development years in university, when the intellect interceded and everything, including religion, was questioned and tested, my faith was relegated really low down in priority. To be truthful, I was no more than a nominal Christian when I had to fill the blanks on my religion! 

This period of spiritual vacuum and dryness continued throughout the decades of my career as an architect. The demands of self improvement together with the sinful practices in the path of career building were many and I had stumbled and unknowingly fallen on many occasions. But having been guided by my parents on the fundamental importance of moral conduct, a conscience and to be charitable, subconsciously, I conducted my life accordingly in the mistaken belief that all this would counteract my other transgressions. 

But now, in my mid-sixties, and I am sometimes told by others that I have already achieved success in my profession and given all our four children their education, there remained an emptiness in my spiritual life. This was apparent whenever I attended church and witnessed the glow of happiness and contentment in the faces of the believers when they sung songs of praise and worship. I knew that was what was missing in my own life. I then realised that salvation certainly can neither be bought with all our worldly wealth nor earned by the way we have lived. That salvation is only available by God's grace. All that is needed is our sincere repentance of our sins, ask for forgiveness and accept Jesus as our Saviour. Salvation is always free for us to accept.

This realisation was the turning point. And it touched me and symbolised by my baptism on the last day of 1995. I was born again! Praise the Lord!

I would like to share my personal testimony concerning my health. I had a bypass operation 8 years ago. Until recently, my health was good but I had irregular heart-beats and my doctor advised me that these need to be corrected. How?

Most people would have been bothered at one time or another with rats. To get rid of them, apart from the usual traps and sticky-foot boards, another solution commonly used is Wafarin - a deadly poison usually in the form of little pink granules. Thus when the rats eat the Wafarin, they would develop severe thirst, they will look for water, and while quenching their thirst, would have severe internal hemorrhage which is followed by certain death.

So what if your doctor prescribes Wafarin for you to be taken daily? It must be more than slightly disturbing. This was what was prescribed for me when my cardiologist diagnosed atrial fibrillation, which is fast irregular quivers of the heart's upper chambers. During these periods, with the heart pumping irregularly and ever so often, even fails to pump any blood at all. This is when the blood would remain in the upper chamber and possibilities of formation of clots are high. Then, when blood is pumped out of the heart, the blood clots may travel to the brain or elsewhere. The result - a debilitating stroke. Thus, Wafarin, an anticoagulant, taken in closely monitored and regulated dosages is intended to prevent the blood from coagulating, thereby preventing the formation of blood clots which is the cause of strokes.

Understandably, such a regime in my condition, is highly disturbing. Take the deadly rat poison to reduce the probability of suffering a stroke, or stay off it and face the high risk of being crippled!

I had shared my health problems and apprehensions with members of my fellowship and they prayed for me at our various fellowship meetings. Then, one evening, while having refreshments after our fellowship, they prayed over me. Involuntarily, my knees crumbled and I fell backwards stretched face up on the living room floor. While conscious of those around and above me praying, I began to feel my heart-beats increasing both in strength and regularity. I felt my heart beating strongly against my chest. But I was calm and at peace. I felt a warm and strong pressure as if someone's hot hand was pressing against my chest. After experiencing this sensation for some time, I 'awoke' to see the radiant faces of the members of my fellowship looking down on me. I asked if anyone had pressed a hot hand on my chest? They assured me that none of them had touched me. However, they could see my heart beating stronger and stronger under my shirt. Half an hour later, back home and while changing to go to bed, I looked at myself in the mirror when I saw a distinctly dark pink imprint of a palm and five fingers on my chest. This was incredible because no one had touched me. I asked my wife and son to tell me if I was mistaken. But they confirmed what I had seen myself. Truly, not only has the Lord touched me, but He has left a clear imprint of His hand on my chest. The healing touch of God is not only real, it is also visible!

Some months later, I had an appointment in Singapore for another medical check-up. I am now convinced of the effectiveness of God's healing touch as well as Jesus' promise that all I had to do was to ask, and it will be given (Luke 11:9), I continued to pray and asked in faith that I would have a good report and that another by-pass operation would not be necessary. After conducting two thallium scans, the specialist pronounced that there was only a minor occlusion in one of the vein grafts which had already been detected some months before by my regular cardiologist. The nuclear specialist said this condition was not unexpected and normal more than eight years after a bypass.

Then the next day, after a series of two echo scans, and to my great relief, thank God, my cardiologist said that I had done very well on the treadmill and that he was surprised that the results were better than the previous time, a few months earlier!

My prayer and those of my fellowship group, have been answered! Praise the Lord! I cannot ask for anything more - except to ask our good Lord to continue to keep me in good health. And that, whatever time is allotted to me, I will try my utmost to contribute to the glorification of His name. The Lord is good and caring. He hears and answers our prayers. His healing touch is real. 

Glory be to our beloved Lord.

Wednesday 9th March 1994 was a day of darkness for my wife, Kristin and me. The CATscan at a Medical Centre in Subang Jaya showed that there was a sizeable tumour in the brain of our only boy, Marcus. The suspicion of our Malacca doctor had been confirmed. Our world was suddenly shattered to pieces! 

How could this be? I appeared strong on the outside but inside of me I was no different from my wife. My wife on hearing the diagnosis ran out of the neurologist’s clinic to the hospital reception area downstairs, crying all the way. The more she was consoled, the louder she cried. The hospital staff must have witnessed similar scenes many times before. Yet when they saw my wife crying uncontrollably, they also cried with her. God where were You when we needed You most? We could not take the bad news. Not only was there a sizeable tumour but it was likely to be a malignant (and subsequently confirmed as one). And the condition of my son was so bad that an immediate surgery had to be undertaken that midnight to insert a V/P shunt (which is actually a duct) to drain away the brain fluid which has accumulated as a result of the tumour. The major operation to remove the tumour was to be done a few days later. 

Looking back, my wife and I know that our God never deserted us. He was not only with us throughout our ordeal but He was actually carrying us through our most difficult stages. 

My wife when she finally came to grips with the situation surrendered our son totally to God. She said to Him, “Lord, we are in position to handle this. You take over. Marcus is all Yours.” With that, she committed Marcus to God like Abraham did of Isaac in the Old Testament. Following that we felt a sense of great relief and peace. She was prepared to accept whatever was to come for Marcus following the diagnosis.

I too was also starting to have my own experiences with God. That Friday, 2 days after the diagnosis, I decided to make a trip back to Malacca to attend to certain outstanding matters so as to prepare myself for a long stay in Subang Jaya for my son’s major operation. As soon as I had started on the journey, I played a cassette tape. I had played that tape before but that morning, the worship songs from the tape ministered to me like never before. I found myself crying all the way to Malacca. My cry was not out of sadness but from the assurance of the presence of God. There was one song in that tape which particularly ministered to me. I did not know the lyrics then.

I felt the peace of God so much that on my return to Subang Jaya that afternoon, my sister in-law commented that I looked very refreshed. Later out of curiosity, I checked out the lyrics of the song, which had ministered to me. I was surprised to read the wording.

This peace I give you. Not as the world give
Open your heart to receive My peace
So as to worship Me.

Jesus was assuring me of His peace! 

Throughout our ordeal, the unseen hand of God was very real to us. Things just fell into place without our planning. We had no time to plan anything. Even if we had tried, we know the outcome would not have been as perfect. We did not know anything about the Medical Centre we had sent Marcus to. We just went there. As it turned out, it was probably the only private hospital at that time to be equipped with Laser technology for brain surgery. Neither did we know anything about the neurosurgeon. But he turned out to be the most popular in the region with many overseas cases referred to him, and he was a Christian. 

There were many such “coincidences” along the way both before and after the major operation. They were so obvious that one of our God must have been with us to guide us through. He was right. My wife and I were not ardent readers of the bible then and it was so amazing how the Lord somehow led us to many scripture verses to assure us that the glory of His works would be revealed in our son. 

More bad news awaited us when Marcus was sent for an MRI scan on the 16th March, 2 days before the major operation. The tumour was determined to be of size 3.5cm x 4.7cm x 3.7cm. Not only that, there were 2 tumour seedlings further in the brain, indicating that the tumour was spreading. This information was not made known to us at the time of the 9th March diagnosis probably because the doctors then thought that we were in no position to take the bad news. However by 16th March, we were ready for anything. We just took the news in our stride, trusting God for a way out. 

I can still remember clearly the morning of 18th March 1994. Marcus was lying there outside the operation theatre. My wife, Kristin and some of our relatives and friends were there. We were waiting for him to be pushed in. there was nothing, absolutely nothing anyone of us could do except to trust God for the best. The operation was supposed to take 4 hours but the neurosurgeon did not come out to meet us until 6 hours later. He straightaway asked for my wife and me. We went to him not knowing what to expect. He started by praising God and then went on to say that the operation was a complete success. He had removed at least 98% if not 100% of the primary tumour cells and under microscope, the base area of the tumour was now totally clean. He had earlier told us that he has to do the operation just right; not under-removing the tumour cells nor over-doing it to cause damage to the brain. And he did it just right! But he said that he would have been much happier had my son been diagnosed earlier; as it stood he had to leave the tumour seedlings alone.

Exactly one month later on 18th April, we were advised to send Marcus for another MRI scan to prepare him for radiation which was the next stage in his treatment. We will never forget that day nor the expression of the lady radiologist when she came out to meet with us after the scan was done.

The scan took about half an hour and in that time while the scan was being done, the nurse came out twice to check with us whether our son had already undergone radiation. We were puzzled for it was for that purpose that we had come for the scan. We did not know what to expect when the radiologist herself came out to meet with us. But the moment she saw us, she kept repeating to us excitedly, “It is amazing. It has never happened before but the 2 tumour seedlings were totally gone!” When we heard that, we broke down and cried unashamedly with joy to our Lord. Our sovereign God had done miracle on our son when we least expected it. We had by then been conditioned to receiving bad news. But it was not to be. The MRI machine and the doctor who had on 16th March detected the tumour seedlings could not find no traces whatsoever of the tumour seedlings. In fact the whole brain was now totally clean. Another MRI scan was taken in 1997 and the result confirmed no traces at all.

Marcus is in Form 4 now (1998) is a big boy living a normal life. He was absent from school for the major part of his Standard 6; yet when he came back to school just before his UPSR examinations, he passed the examination with excellent results. In 1997, he sat for his SRP examinations and scored 5A’s.