FRUITFULNESS IN THE IN-BETWEEN
A BARE TREE IS NOT A BARREN ONE
By Kelvin and Julienne Ng
By Jonathan Cho
In the Christian life, we often speak in the language of flourishing and fruitfulness – in our families, workplaces, ministries and gospel communities. We are not wrong. Jesus expresses this clearly in John 15 that His desire is for us to “bear much fruit”, even refining us to “bear more fruit”. Yet, it is also true that we seldom give ourselves room for those seasons where we don’t seem to be bearing any visible fruit. We wonder, “Is there something wrong with me? Is there hidden sin in my life that is preventing me from bearing fruit?”
One of the families in the Philippines who received COVID-19 relief from Dawn for the Poor
Theo in a cardboard castle that we made during circuit breaker
We came back from the Philippines on 28 March 2020, yanked abruptly from a locked-down Manila into Singapore’s circuit breaker. COVID-19 cancelled all our missions plans with Dawn for the Poor. The family reunions we longed for had to wait. The church hall we missed was closed to all. While waiting for new assignments from church and work, we found ourselves asking God, “Is there nothing for us to do?” But God had plans for this in-between time. Ironically, we could do more for our Filipino friends back in Singapore than in locked-down Marilao. Julienne sold T-shirts on Instagram to raise funds for their COVID-19 relief fund, and we told our mission story in BFEC’s Easter video service and in a THIR.ST article. (https://bfec.sg/kjt)
We took the chance to do an online Biblical Marriage Counselling course, and answered the call to lead our cell subgroup for married couples and young parents.
These are good, important questions to ask. Yet if we are not careful, we could come to expect that the Christian life is only about visible fruit. These are good, important questions to ask. Yet if we are not careful, we could come to expect that the Christian life is only about visible fruit. Our longing to yield fruit “in season” (Psalm 1:3) must mean that we remain faithful and persevere through every season, because each one is a necessary and formative part of the pilgrim’s journey. The Lord gives us a clue from nature itself, which goes through spring, summer, fall, and winter.
Another thing that had troubled us over the last year was Theo’s speech development. With no way to start in-clinic consultations during the circuit breaker, we tried online speech therapy instead. This filled our days with interesting mouth-shaping exercises and lots of language homework. Theo started to pronounce more sounds, and we finally felt like there was a guiding light in her speech journey. Phase 2 allowed us to have in-person therapy, and it also saw Theo step into BKK for Nursery 1. We saw Theo blossom through the interactions with her classmates and attentive teachers.
I entered 2020 in eager expectation of visible fruit in three areas of my life: (1) family, with the birth of my second child and a flourishing family life; (2) work, with a growing, developing legal practice; and (3) ministry, with an expanding flock and creative, exciting plans for our young people.
We used to think that a busier schedule meant more fruit. But God showed us that fruitfulness can happen even when all plans are cancelled, if we walk into each day in His Spirit. 29
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