Thank you and goodbye Howard.. :)

Howard passed away yesterday morning and i only got to know this morning. I guess many people are shocked at the news but still, it's kinda expected considering howard's age and health. He is 89 years old this year :)
It is really such great honour to know this man, a history of Singapore. He's so influential, wealthy, famous, intellectual yet, he's so humble and down to earth. We used to have cell group meetings every single week in his house. I was always the first few to reach there before cg meeting.Hence, initially i was lost, not knowing what to talk to Howard about. In my mind, I was thinking, "He was the number 1 lawyer in singapore. what if i have grammatical errors in my spoken english?? how??" But he was always so readily to give his warm smile to every single one of us. All of us respected this fatherly figure and all of us regard him as our family.


Every single week, he will be present to have cg meeting with us together. I remember the first time i took whole cg, including p & w, and preaching, I was obviously nervous. Howard sat beside me, lifting up his hands, praising and worshipping God. In my mind, i keep encouraging myself and during my preaching, i would look at Howard and he would give me smiles to assure me. He was taking down sermon notes too! :) After the cg ends, i would ask him for opinon, he din say anything about my english language lol..but he said, "you are speaking too fast..i couldn't catch u.." *noted, i must do better the next time!*. then for the next few weeks, boonkiat gave me chances to take preaching and each week, he would say, "you are getting better and better!" heh i would just fly up onto the clouds! It's such a great encouragement! He's so high up there, yet, he's so relational and encouraging :)

I remember during chinese new year this year, all of us went to his house to a reunion lunch. Just as we are to leave his house, he pulled a chair and sat right beside the door to wait for us, shake our hands and say bye. As we are leaving, he gave each of us hong bao :) Such a humble man. He love life and he love people.

Like what pastor yock kiang shared during the funeral service, when pastor suggest to boonkiat not to have cg at his hse as howard needs undisturbed rest, howard cried. He said, (can't remember the exact words, but the meaning is like this), "Please do not take away this opportunity for me to serve God. I am old already..and I just wanna serve God in this way.."

I remembered Boonkiat sharing with us 1 year ago about how Howard offered his house to us, he said to BK, (not exact words too, but meaning is there), "I pray to God for a purpose in my life. And I know, now, my purpose in my life is to lend my house to u guys for cell group meeting.." When i heard that, i was like.."woah..that's really touching.." Some people may say they are too busy, too tired, too old to serve God. But look at this man, he's 89 years old, with multiple cancer relapses, yet he's still on fire, serving God!


I was a bit taken back when i heard the news this morning. Feeling a bit upset initially. But i thought, Howard has passed away but he has left behind a legacy to many of us. :) And he is now home with the Lord..:) He always says he wanna attend every single one of our weddings. And i really wanna have him at my wedding. Even though he's gone now, but i won't forget how his humility to serve God and others has impacted me. It's normal for one to be wealthy, famous and influential. But it takes extraordinary character & personality to be that, yet humble & serving at the same time :)

Thank You Howard for the fond memories..
And Goodbye Howard... :)