re: some corrections made to the info given
29/12/07 - some info is corrected in the blog entry below. thanks to the kerks for pointing them out. my apologies to them and to our readers for the inaccuracies.
it has been 6 days since kerk zi on was swept away. chances are almost nil that a person can survive that long in the sea. police search is now concentrated on finding the body. and even that, chances of finding the body is slim as the waters around there are known to be infested with sharks.
there has not been much news from australia. here is an old clip from the yahoo7 news from thursday (one day after the fateful event). it shows the place where the event happened which perhaps can give us a perspective of things.
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=248153&cl=5344883&ch=885636&src=y7news
i will be blogging my thoughts on this event (but not immediately as it is still trying to sink in)(seriously, no pun intended). it is hard to accept the fact that he is gone (to be with the Lord). i first knew him when he was about 8 years old when my wife and I moved to teluk intan wesley methodist church in december 1990. he and his brother were cute kids, each one having a temperament which were poles apart. zi on was taller and more sober about things while his younger brother was shorter, plumber and with a jolly good nature. even after we left teluk intan in mid 1993 (for my studies in singapore), we made our regular visits to the home of the kerks. mr and mrs kerk became our daughter's god-parents soon after she was born in December 1991. they have been wonderful god-parents for our daughter (and the main reason why we asked them was because we could see that their christian parenting obviously works. zi on and zi lu were 2 boys every parent could be proud of. mrs kerk has 2 more god-daughters). staying with the kerks was a regular affair, as often as a few times in a year.
we saw zi on growing up year by year, doing well as a member of the teluk intan 1st company boys' brigade, becoming a sergeant and receiving the President's Award in 2000. even when both brothers went to australia for their university studies, we would catch up with them during chinese new year holidays when we visited the kerks as they made regular trips home during university breaks. zi on finished his first degree but wanted to further his studies in another field. it was probably with a little reluctance that his parents agreed with his plan. he wanted a change which was the reason why he applied to both melbourne and queensland and it was the latter that he went to do his masters.
there will be a lot of unanswered questions as to why such a thing could have happened: where was God in all things? couldn't He have saved zi on too? why did God allow this to happen? why do bad things happen to good people? why does God test us sometimes to our utter limits?
i have worked on some of these issues in my last book 'Job Made Simple' and in subsequent posts will make mention to them. my next book is 'Ecclesiastes Made Simple' (it will most probably be dedicated in memory of zi on) and have begun preaching on the book chapter by chapter once a month at Wesley Methodist Church Segamat. Only just yesterday i was preaching on chapter 4 on Qoheleth's arguments why life is meaningless and vain if there is no God. The Teacher made 4 observations about life and how life does not make sense (a striving after wind) if God does not come into the big picture in our lives. Likewise, as I shared about zi on with the church at Segamat, it was as if his life was that perfect illustration of why it is so importnat to have God in the big picture. If not, his death would be in vain and his saving the Korean girl whom he doesn't know seems an useless act. but for mr and mrs kerk, his brother zi lu, and the many others we know him personally, we all know that zi on's death was not in vain.
'There is no greater love than this when a man lays down his life for his friend and no greater love than even this when a man lays down his life for someone he does not even know'. The Reb
29/12/07 - some info is corrected in the blog entry below. thanks to the kerks for pointing them out. my apologies to them and to our readers for the inaccuracies.
it has been 6 days since kerk zi on was swept away. chances are almost nil that a person can survive that long in the sea. police search is now concentrated on finding the body. and even that, chances of finding the body is slim as the waters around there are known to be infested with sharks.
there has not been much news from australia. here is an old clip from the yahoo7 news from thursday (one day after the fateful event). it shows the place where the event happened which perhaps can give us a perspective of things.
http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=248153&cl=5344883&ch=885636&src=y7news
i will be blogging my thoughts on this event (but not immediately as it is still trying to sink in)(seriously, no pun intended). it is hard to accept the fact that he is gone (to be with the Lord). i first knew him when he was about 8 years old when my wife and I moved to teluk intan wesley methodist church in december 1990. he and his brother were cute kids, each one having a temperament which were poles apart. zi on was taller and more sober about things while his younger brother was shorter, plumber and with a jolly good nature. even after we left teluk intan in mid 1993 (for my studies in singapore), we made our regular visits to the home of the kerks. mr and mrs kerk became our daughter's god-parents soon after she was born in December 1991. they have been wonderful god-parents for our daughter (and the main reason why we asked them was because we could see that their christian parenting obviously works. zi on and zi lu were 2 boys every parent could be proud of. mrs kerk has 2 more god-daughters). staying with the kerks was a regular affair, as often as a few times in a year.
we saw zi on growing up year by year, doing well as a member of the teluk intan 1st company boys' brigade, becoming a sergeant and receiving the President's Award in 2000. even when both brothers went to australia for their university studies, we would catch up with them during chinese new year holidays when we visited the kerks as they made regular trips home during university breaks. zi on finished his first degree but wanted to further his studies in another field. it was probably with a little reluctance that his parents agreed with his plan. he wanted a change which was the reason why he applied to both melbourne and queensland and it was the latter that he went to do his masters.
there will be a lot of unanswered questions as to why such a thing could have happened: where was God in all things? couldn't He have saved zi on too? why did God allow this to happen? why do bad things happen to good people? why does God test us sometimes to our utter limits?
i have worked on some of these issues in my last book 'Job Made Simple' and in subsequent posts will make mention to them. my next book is 'Ecclesiastes Made Simple' (it will most probably be dedicated in memory of zi on) and have begun preaching on the book chapter by chapter once a month at Wesley Methodist Church Segamat. Only just yesterday i was preaching on chapter 4 on Qoheleth's arguments why life is meaningless and vain if there is no God. The Teacher made 4 observations about life and how life does not make sense (a striving after wind) if God does not come into the big picture in our lives. Likewise, as I shared about zi on with the church at Segamat, it was as if his life was that perfect illustration of why it is so importnat to have God in the big picture. If not, his death would be in vain and his saving the Korean girl whom he doesn't know seems an useless act. but for mr and mrs kerk, his brother zi lu, and the many others we know him personally, we all know that zi on's death was not in vain.
'There is no greater love than this when a man lays down his life for his friend and no greater love than even this when a man lays down his life for someone he does not even know'. The Reb
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