Everything happened so quickly! From picture on the left to the picture on the right in less than 24 hours!

 2 hours before Jason landed in Perth from Singapore (he had been visiting his elderly parents for about 2 weeks), I went to get some groceries and was having some chill time on my sofa watching some TV and awaiting his return, when suddenly my neck seized up and I came down with a severe neck pain on both sides of my neck. Jason returned home and I thought it would go away if I went to bed and slept it off but the next morning it was so bad I couldn't move my head at all. I could turn my head 5 deg left and right at most.

I was in extreme pain as I tried to eat breakfast as i couldn't open my jaw much.  
I was also in very severe pain with every little motion of the arms and shoulder area.  So i was moving around slowly and I couldn't lay down without pain. So I told Jason to search the cabinet for any pain killers,  but there were 13 year old ones. As the pain escalated to beyond bearable, I decided we should try to head to the doctor's. I managed to get to the clinic and had to be helped into the car and with every little bump on the road,  the pain intensified.

Returning home I took the pain relief medication and also the muscle relaxant and as i tried going about daily activities like sitting up, going up and down stairs, showering and even folding and hanging up clothes, they were still hurting me very badly.  Even chewing and drinking hurt me badly.
I couldn't yawn fully or sneeze or blown my nose. It would really hurt.

Doctor said "No driving for you".. so my plan was to be house bound until pain goes away. 🙏I was thankful Jason was back in time when these all happened,  as I wasn't able to even do any of daily simple household chores without extreme pain.

I also needed help getting up from sitting position and lying position with extreme pain in my neck each time and with every little movement. By evening I could not even open my mouth wide enough to put a grape in. I asked Jason what kind of pain relief medication that is?   It didn't relief any pain at all! I had 0 relief since the medication I took in morning and evening.

I half suspected it was spiritual cos it happened suddenly the night out of the blue... before Jason landed. And all this hoo-hah before we had to go for medical check up for our visa purposes too the next day!

PRAISE and Glory to God! And thanks also to the prayers of saints from different parts of the world, and here in Perth and some pastors from our city Geo network, in less than 24 hours I received a mighty miracle from God!

The intense pain on both sides of my neck were gone totally. And I can turn my head normally!



This was the TURNING POINT (no pun intended)
 I had opened my bible app that evening and it said "the poor you will have always but Me you will not have always". So I decided the read the chapter for context. I opened my new bible and it also fell open on the very same chapter in John 12 which i was looking for. And John 12 is about Mary breaking the alabaster flask of spikenard oil (costing 1 year's wage) and anointing Jesus's feet with her hair and the oil, worshiping Him and anointing Him in preparation for His burial.

As I read it I felt the Lord say to me  "will you praise Me despite your pain?"
I said "yes Lord, it is not easy but I will give you my sacrifice of praise. "

Then one praise song started flooding my soul.
"Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!
Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God
Born of his Spirit, washed in His blood

This is my story, this is my song
Praising my Savior all the day long
This is my story, this is my song
Praising my Savior all the day long
​
Perfect submission, perfect delight
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight
Angels descending bring from above
Echoes of mercy, whispers of love"


As I sung, such joy flooded my weary soul and I was amazed I could begin to raise and lift up my both hands to praise Him without pain!

I felt how appropriately worded the song was! When I finished praising Jesus with the song, I felt the pain leaving. And suddenly I was getting more and more mobile.

Then one song came after another.. songs I have not sung in decades.. like.."Pour my love on You".

...Like oil upon your feet. If praise is like perfume I will lavish mine on You
till every drop is gone.I pour my love on am You"

Then another song just burst forth from my lips..
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds thy hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed:
Refrain:
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to thee:
How great thou art! How great thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to thee:
How great thou art! How great thou art!
2 When through the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur,
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze:
3 And when I think how God, his Son not sparing,
Sent him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the cross, my burdens gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin:
4 When Christ shall come with shouts of acclamation,
To take me home, what joy will fill my heart!
Then I will bow in humble adoration,
And there proclaim, my God, how great thou art!

etc etc..Ha...hallujah ha hallelujah...

Every word of those songs meant so much to me and even though in have sung them before it was totally and completely different singing it this time. It was as if each word in the songs were written just for me, and it pounded with conviction as I sang the words.

As I sang and praise God song after song spontaneously, I got more and more free in my movement. I was able up lift my hands and able to sit doŵn and lie without help. And I went to bed that night WITHOUT Jason's assistance!  And I could lie down WITHOUT Jason's support! It was an amazing feeling of being able to do the basic things in life on my own again!

 As I laid in bed this old song kept flooding my soul as I sang. How apt the words of this song which I would like to share as well.

Verse 1
I will call upon the Lord,who is worthy to be praised .So shall I be saved from my enemies.

Chorus
The Lord liveth, and blessed be the Rockand let the God of my salvation be exalted!{X2}

Verse 2
O magnify the Lord,who is worthy to be praised.So shall I be saved from my enemies.

Verse 3
Let us praise the Lord of Lords,praise Him now and evermore.Praise the Father, Son and the Spirit.
I will call upon the LordI

INDEED "SO SHALL I BE SAVED FROM MY ENEMIES!"
When I woke up this morning i felt brand new!  I danced and sang "SO SHALL I BE SAVED FROM MY ENEMIES" over and over again with joy! 

My husband and I were able to go for our scheduled medical check up for our visas, and I completely fine on the drive there! Praise and glory to Jesus! 

We finished our full health examination, blood tests and Xray and all went very well. I thought and quipped that if the Lord hadn't healed me the night before,I wouldn't be able to even answer those questions regarding physical ability and pass those basic physical mobility tests at all! What a mighty God we serve!

My Father God is good and I am ever grateful that this Passion Weekend, we can remember what He did for us on the cross through His Son Jesus.  His death brought me life,  His stripes he received, brought me healing. And His blood brought me forgiveness. And to know the resurrected Christ who rose from the dead!

Today is what most believers in Christ call Maundy Thursday, the day before Good Friday and the night Jesus was betrayed. "Maundy" is a Latin word and it means "commandment" and it is where we get the word "mandate".

Interestingly John 12 that act of Mary in preparation for His burial leads us to next chapter of John13 where Jesus washed His disciples feet and after his betrayer was identified and left, gave us the new commandment "that you love another as I have loved you,  that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples,  if you have love for one another."

We have a mission to make disciples who make disciples and a "mandate "of loving one another as His disciples.

My prayer is that we will obey Him and follow His commandments and mandate as we remember Christ and the Passion Weekend. By this all will know we are His disciples. 

And will you praise Him? Because if we don't, even the clouds will! 
(picture below was taken this evening. It shows the cloud formation behind my house. Someone said "it is like fireworks"! "Yes I say ,the "Fireworks of God"! And could these be as the song lyrics go "angels descending bring from above, echoes of mercy,  whispers of love?" 
Or it looks more like the Menorah/ Lampstand! (As a follow up from the miraculous healing of my neck a few days ago I felt to write about this phenomenon of the "lampstand clouds" the next day. 

Honestly I am not into looking at clouds at all. But this one is extremely unusual and I felt the Holy Spirit drew my attention to it as I was walking towards my house with my dog. It is also a witness of God's greatness and miraculous work in my life,  from not being able to walk my dog and everything the doctor said I shouldn't do, to the fact that i am now able to, since the miraculous healing of my neck in less than 24 hours.  So I took a picture of it on Thurs evening.....
Read more

Today marks 25 years of my commitment and obedience to following Christ. 25 years ago I stepped into the waters of baptism in obedience to renounce my sins, and announce my faith and dedicate my commitment to following Jesus publicly. It was an emotional heart-wrenching moment. In those days, I was the first believer in Jesus in my family. And my parents were not approving of it. But I am glad I did it and never looked back since. 
​
There might be times I have wavered in my love for Jesus, but never once in the whole journey have I ever doubted His love for me. Yes, never once. Several months after I was born again in Christ, I heard the audible voice of God for once and only once in my life. I remember the singing all around me faded away and I was caught up in that moment t where it was just God and me. And all I could hear was an audible voice.  It was the authoritative voice of Father God calling me by name. "Karen", the voice said. The next 3 words were etched so deep into me, it was something I would never forget.  The voice said in a loving reassuring tone, "I LOVE YOU". I broke down and cried as God spoke those 3 words to me. 

I was ruined for LOVE. Forever.

Those might be just words to you but coming from a typical Chinese family with conservative parents, those words were not spoken to me growing up. Love was shown in many ways, through provision, care and discipline but strangely, love was never spoken. In the western culture, it is likely to be the polar opposite.

25 years strong, I am still following Him, and serving His purposes. So here am I, together with my husband and daughter, following Him to where He wants us for now - in Perth, Australia; my daughter in university here and us in the centre of God's will, plans and purposes. We love all that God is doing in our lives and in the lives of the people He has sent our way. 
​
BEING NATURALLY SUPERNATURAL!

I hope this recent testimony encourages all of you who are Christ's followers:

Jason and I connected with this man and his wife who are in their 60s, last year in Perth and they both registered to attend the training/equipping session (find out more about the training and equipping intensives at www.mccnresources.org)  we conducted this March just before lockdown. I had felt a strong leading from the Holy Spirit to hold the training when we came back from Singapore and only God knows, 1 week after the session the lockdown happened.

When he first came to the training session, I knew he had a prophetic inclination but I saw that he was totally suppressed in that area of his gift being just a Sunday church-goer for over 30 years. I could see the gift was dormant in his life. I spoke quite firmly to him and he was jolted. He acknowledged that his gift had been suppressed and he had lacked bold obedience to follow the Lord after being told many times by others in church and his family, that his prophetic ideas and thoughts were crazy and brushed him off. 

More recently, he started dreaming again, almost on a daily basis - not just the "I-overate-on-pizza-type" dream. In the night as he slept, God spoke to him clearly through his dreams. In 1 single day, he was given 3 clear and vivid dreams in a row! 

His prophetic gift was dormant since 1995. That was the year he had one significant dream which led him and his family to Perth, and then the dreams stopped.

Over the years, I have had countless dreams and recorded them down in more than 20 over journals. Many of the dreams have come to pass in the last 26 years of my walk with God alongside various prophetic experiences. So he invited us over to his home for tea, where Jason and I spent 2 over hours interpreting all his dreams for him. Many of the interpretations became clear confirmations to him. 

That night after we left his home, he felt strongly to immediately message an acquaintance who appeared in his dream. Despite highway closures that night, this acquaintance of his and spouse responded immediately to his sharing and drove over to his house through the detours.  
​
The man related to the dream that was shared, and began sharing about how he has harboured resentment against the Lord because of the disappointments he had regarding his career and family problems. He repented of his resentment and also asked his wife for forgiveness as he also saw a vision which gave him understanding on how the devil had deceived him and gained a foothold in his life which affected his relationship with God and his family.

​Who would ever know that we will be right here at OCF (Overseas Christian Fellowship) at the UWA campus last gathering before the exam break? God knows. Through delayed parking and late Dim Sum lunch!

It all started when I had to alight my daughter downtown 2 Saturdays ago, to meet her friends and so I decided to go wandering around and explore the city. Being totally unfamiliar with the parking system and signages in Perth, I circled around for 1 hour looking for the cheap parking space and stopped to Google to make sure I don't get a fine parking in the wrong place! I know, what you are thinking. You are probably thinking..."all that cost of wasted petrol driving around, you could have already parked for that price or less!" Trust me, downtown on a Saturday, it is still better to find cheap parking in Perth!

By the time I found parking, it was 230pm and I was famished. I walked towards the famous Murray Street and saw a familiar sighting - Tim Ho Wan Dim Sum restaurant. I recognise that! There are some of these restaurant chains in Singapore! I went in and was shown a seat, and quickly called for service. Without hesitation the waiter said: "1/2 price only applies to dine-in not takeaways." Oh wow! Nice, half price! I could save some money there. So I quickly changed my order from 1 dim sum dish to 4 dim sum dishes and a drink! :) 

There was quite a crowd, and the service was taking a long time. I started observing the waiters to see if they were bringing my food. A male waiter with glasses with a pony-tail hairdo caught my attention. I felt a nudge from the Holy Spirit to talk to him. And so I waved my hand so that I could catch his attention to order another drink. (I had finished my drink and I was thirsty and could have another!)

I asked him some quick questions, and found out his name was RXXX and he was from Singapore and is a dentistry student at UWA(University of Western Australia), working part-time in the restaurant. I started asking him about UWA as I  mentioned to him that my daughter was going to be studying there next year, but it was hard to chat as service was very busy then, and so he had to get on with his work.  

As I looked on to everybody else's dim sum being served, I was beginning to get a little "hangry" (state of being hungry and angry) for my delayed dim sum. When I finally finished my last dim sum dish, it was almost past 330pm, so I went to the cashier to pay for my meal. "Hang around a bit.", that is what felt the inner voice of God said to me. So I did and I just told the counter staff that I am waiting for RXXX. I could see it In the eyes of the waitresses, as if wondering: "Who is this lady hanging out and waiting for him?"  and she went towards him at the back of the restaurant and told him that I was waiting for him. Argh. I must be looking so weird and strange. 

At that moment, I saw RXXX take off his service apron and started walking out. Aha, he is knocking off from his shift! We managed to walk a short distance together towards the train station. He seemed to be in a rush and he was disclosed that he is rushing to another part-time work at another restaurant right behind the street where I lived! Hmm. What are the chances! 

Suddenly, as we were about to part ways, the thought came to me: Ask him about OCF (Overseas Christian Fellowship).  So I asked him if he knew about OCF. (Because I had known some friends who were a part of OCF while studying in Australia unis and some of them had come to know God through OCF. Heard amazing things that OCF has done. This year is their 60th anniversary of reaching and discipling students. OCF is an interdenominational, student-led, on-campus fellowship that is united in faith under one vision: to reach out to all overseas students in Australia, build them up to be Christ’s disciples, and send them back to their home countries as disciple-makers). His eyes lighted up and to cut the long story short, he then gave me his contact and also with the permission of his friend, he gave me the contact of his friend Jo, who is a part of OCF.  Interestingly Jo had invited him a few times there before, although he never went.  

A week later, I contacted Jo. And she invited us to the OCF gathering thanksgiving night, which was the last night before they break for the exams. (Think about it: if I had met RXXX later and called Jo later, I would have totally missed going to this gathering!)

So here we are at the OCF gathering night with Max Graeig, pastor advisor to OCF UWA. And as we shook hands, he immediately found us looking very familiar. (Perhaps we had met somewhere in some Christian conference or meeting). And we were able to introduce what we do (Journeying Together Resources) and turned out there was great like-mindedness amongst us. As we continued chatting, I was also pleasantly surprised to know he is my hairdresser's bible study church leader! (I had only visited this home hairdresser recommended by another acquaintance here a few days ago!) Wow, what an intricate web of connections God has weaved and orchestrated. 

With God, there are NO COINCIDENCES.  
There was every reason for the delayed parking and delayed dim sum after all! 
​Pray with us, this is just the beginning of God's purposes!
​
Karen Gan

 This happened last week and is a late post but I wanted to share another amazing divine appointment set up by the Holy Spirit for us here in Perth, Australia. Another starling murmuration moment! (Starlings are small birds that fly in a flock of thousands and tens of thousands; and they are able to keep an amazing distance from each other in perfect formation and coordination! (Watch this beautiful video of starling murmuration on the right)

Last Thursday early morning at 4 am, I was awoken by a dream. In one part of the dream, Jason and I arrived at 1 particular empty plot of land which I had recognised from our online search from thousands of available land/house for sale. (We had sold our house, moved to Perth end of 1st week of April following the Lord's leading, which is also a fulfilment of a prophecy which we received 10 years ago which we did not do anything about but had allowed God to orchestrate everything; and only since January this year we concretised our plans to be in Perth). So we headed out that afternoon to that plot.

When we arrived and got out of our car to recce the area, we saw a car drive into the neighbouring house. So we approached him and asked him how living is like in that area. He said he's not the owner but he's giving piano lessons to a kid of the owner of the house. 
So he said, "let me ask the owner to come out."

The owner came out and he introduced himself as David and we started chatting. Through our conversation, we realised he's a fellow believer and is the brother of an acquaintance of ours, Jordan, whom we are supposed to meet in week 1 here!(We had met Jordan briefly before in Singapore through another organic church meeting and he and his family moved back to Perth 6 months ago from Maldives). David was not supposed to be home that early but because he had caught the movie Avengers earlier with Jordan so he came home early from work!

Talk about a "starling moment" ..

If Jason and i had arrived any minute earlier or later, we would not have met the piano teacher and then the brother of our friend!
It turned out that he previously had a work experience recruiting students for one of the universities here and had also helped many foreign students for job placements and now is running his own migration service business called Unireach!

​​The Holy Spirit literally sent us knocking on the door of David. What are the chances! 1 in 2. 2 million!

Uni students have been on our hearts and is one of the people groups God's called us to reach and disciple here. In fact before leaving Singapore, discipling uni students to disciple others has been a big part of my ministry for the past 25 years of my journey with Jesus since I came to Christ at 18. And when Jason and i were introduced to Neil Cole 6 years ago, our disciple-making strategy was "upgraded" from discipling-one-to-disciple-another, to identifying persons of peace to disciple missional communities with kingdom DNA(in short explanation, its Divine Truth - 1st commandment, Nurturing Relationships - 2nd commandment, Apostolic mission - the Great commission Matt28:18-20) - see picture from one of Neil's trainings we hosted in Singapore recently in April.

Just 2 days after, I bumped into David AGAIN and his whole family at one of the malls! So he became even more open and intentional to meet up and we all did just that yesterday! This is the beginning of something more for God's kingdom purposes.
​
Please pray with us for His kingdom to continue to come and His will be done! We hope to see a disciple-making movement released here for our King Jesus!

Updates Mar 2023 : David became our family's migration agent and he worked on our visas and submitted an application in 2021and to-date our visas are still in process. 
Karen Gan

3rd May 2019, Perth, WA, Australia.

Day 1 in Perth - we got our KEYS to our new car and to our "tent"-nanted apartment all in one morning! (picture also just came in as I was writing this sent by my dogs' foster family - Trixie was literally in a TENT with our friend's son Isaac! Well that's also another story of God's love and providence for my 2 beloved dogs.. ) I am certainly looking forward in faith to the "city whose Builder and Architect is God".

May God's kingdom come on earth as it already is in heaven. May Perth city become the city who's builder and maker is God!

To share a little background of why we have moved from Singapore to Perth, this journey started more than 10 years ago... About a decade ago, we had this word of prophecy given to us that we will one day be in Australia. (I can't remember when exactly now and who, I suppose it doesn't matter. I always wonder why people go to the who's-who for prophecies.. I mean God can even use a prebeliever or anything to speak to us if we are listening right!)

Last December we found ourselves thrown into the whirlwind of God. Our house in Singapore got sold in less than 1 week without any property agent (Dec is typically the worst month by statistics to sell a house in Singapore) and we were able to clear our mortgage debt(in Singapore, because of crazy prices of property, practically every couple starts out with a debt) when our 16 yo daughter decided to study overseas (we had not told her about any prophecy or anything to influence any bit of her decision). In choosing between the UK and Australia, she chose specifically Perth, Australia to study a specific course related to conservation and science. She has chosen not to go down the typical path of pursuing an "elite" education in Singapore and join the rat race there. (It is not an everyday happening that a teenager chooses to leave her comfort zone, her friends, and when she's already on the path to worldly success cos she's doing very well in school, to give that all up and go to a foreign country to pursue an area of studies where there are no big bucks in the making and in the eyes of every Singaporean "No job prospects"!)

Before leaving for Perth, my senior from law school whom I have not met in more than 10 years, who had no clue about the happenings in my life, called me after seeing my fb post that I was moving to Perth. He shared with me how he had had this dream about me several months ago(before we even decided that we should move actually! We only sealed our decision in January 2019.) standing in the middle of an open-air stadium and introducing Jason to him (he does not know Jason so hence, probably the intro). When he googled "Perth stadium", it looked exactly like the stadium in his dream! How awesome is Jesus! 👍🏻

So with some big steps of faith with simple obedience and lots of planning only in the last 3 months taken with regards to our family, house, dogs, our organic church communities in Singapore, missional businesses, we are here in Perth finally! We have planned our ways but the Lord has determined our steps. We saw God every step of the way, from the timing of the sale of the house to the handover of keys, to the time college starts for Elizabeth, to the securing of rental in Perth, right down to the sale of our ministry vehicle, as well as God's providence in providing a loving foster family for Snowie and Trixie. God's timing is impeccable!

If you would like to, come on this God-venture with me. I will blog from time to time.   

Karen Gan

P. S if you are anywhere here Down Under, please shout out, Jason and i would love to connect with you! Who knows what God has in store.