My grandpa also passed away earlier this year. He celebrated his 90th birthday this year. Almost all our relatives across the world came together to celebrate with him. My brother and I couldn't make it due to study commitments. In a video that I often replay, I see him clutching the microphone with his one hand and his other amputated limb and with sincerity he says "Just thank you Jesus Christ that all my offspring came back to celebrate my birthday and thank the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone, it's important to treasure yourself, make sure you are happy and joyful, not just angry all the time. Live happily. Thank you everybody." At that time, he had not received Christ as his personal saviour, but he was motivated by all his offspring who had received Christ and the joy that they lived with. After a few months, on a Sunday night, we received a phone call from HK. My grandfather had had a rupture to his aorta. He may not survive the night. Upon hearing this, our family fell on our knees and prayed. We prayed that God would grant him a chance to get to know him. 

Should we rush back to HK? Would we make it in time? We prayed and prayed, we started to search for flights, everything was way beyond our price range. We waited for the call in the morning, amazingly, beyond Doctor's expectations, my grandpa had survived the night. Should we go? Should we? This went on for 2 more days with my grandpa showing signs of hope then signs of danger. I wrapped up my studies, commitments and became ready for the flight home, should we get tickets. Amazingly, my aunty was able to secure some redemption tickets for us to go back. 

As soon as we landed, we headed to the hospital. My grandpa, who had raised me and fed me as a child, who was always strong in my eyes, layed in a hospital bed with tubes attached to his body. His voice, normally booming was soft and unstable. The first thing he asked me was whether my injury had recovered. I couldn't help but cry- in his pain, he was caring about others. 

Because my grandpa only has one arm, the hospital allowed one family member to stay on rotation 24 hours a day. This allowed someone to press the emergency call button should anything happen. This was a blessing in disguise. As our family members each took shifts, we were able to spend quality time with grandpa. We were able to feed him, talk to him, sing to him. All the family members that were christians took the opportunity to share their testimonies, stories from the bible and sing songs of faith. At this stage, my grandpa had somewhat stablised, he was still bleeding internally but stable, so he was in a shared hospital room with others. 

I was so blessed in this experience to be able to feed my grandpa, repay favours that he once did for me when I was young, with his one hand. I was able to sing him my favourite hymns. I was able to share with him bible stories about "the bread of life" "Jesus dying on the cross" but one day, I was able to share with him the story of "Lazarus" who Jesus rose from the dead. I asked grandpa, do you believe that Jesus Christ is your lord and saviour? He nodded. I said, you have to say it, you have to confess with your mouth and in your heart you have to believe. He answered with such a loud "I believe". We prayed the sinners prayer together. It was incredible. The blessings God gives us. He was so weak but God gave him strength to say "I believe". 

And in the next couple of days, our family continued to share with him the stories of Christ and from the bible and hymns of faith. Although he was weak, he was at peace. He was so stable that the hospital had decided to transfer him to a low care hospital. As we were packing away his things, another patient asked how he can believe in Jesus. Even in his sickness, my grandfather had been a living witness. 

His chief concern when we got to the new hospital is that it is so far away it would be difficult on us to visit him and he didn't want to trouble us. Visiting hours were from 4-7 (we could no longer stay 24 hours a day in the new hospital), at 6.45, he told all family members to leave and have dinner together. We were confident that he just needed rest so we went to have dinner. We got a call from the hospital asking us to confirm the do not resuscitate order. We got another phone call half an hour later saying that he was in a critical condition. After 6 hours of being transferred to the new hospital, my grandfather passed away. I cried briefly but then joined my family in singing songs of praise and deliverance. My grandfather is now in a better place, a place where there is no pain, no tears. And our prayers were answered, he was given the chance to get to know Jesus. More than that, he accepted him as his personal saviour. 

And it's pretty cool that Jesus was born of a virgin. But that's NOT why we are christians. It's because of the way he lived and why he DIED for us. And how he ROSE again. 

It's not the things we say that leave a legacy. It's how we live. Let's start today and let us be an inspiration unto others!