How Good is the God We Adore: A Contemporary Story of God's Faithfulness to a Missionary Couple. . .

By Charles Harvey

Part missionary memoir, part devotional, this is a true story of God’s faithfulness to missionaries Charles and Yoke Fong Harvey as they serve as "Dad and Mum" to children and young adults at risk of labor and sexual exploitation in Northeast Thailand.
With humor and transparency, Charles shares the lessons learned in a life filled with hard work and sacrifices, fulfilling relationships, heartbreaking betrayals, and joyful victories—all to the glory of God in a predominantly Buddhist nation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Sep 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9780692229507

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Preface

Yoke Fong and I were married in Ireland in 1994, and I spent much of our free time during the first year asking her questions and eagerly absorbing her personal and family history. I was fascinated by the God who sovereignly guided her parents to Malaysia a short time before World War II broke out. Intrigued by her parents’ journey and her own upbringing, I thought that Yoke Fong’s unusual and inspiring story should be told.

Having begun to write about my wife’s history, I also wrote about my own early life, different in many ways from Yoke Fong’s but equally foundational in receiving our call to serve the poor and underprivileged in Thailand. God, the Great Economist, never wastes our life’s experiences; rather, He delights in molding us and teaching us through them. It seems clear to me now that He had lovingly and expertly laid each of us on the potter’s wheel of life to prepare us for His calling on our lives.

From our youth, both Yoke Fong and I were motivated by a God-given desire to provide a safe haven for the underprivileged. We are drawn to the poor, the needy, the overlooked, and the vulnerable, much like Jesus of Nazareth was, and we are inspired by His love and compassion for them. Our work in Thailand has never been an effort or a burden because we have been led by an unseen hand. Both the ability to cheerfully serve and an understanding of God’s extraordinary grace toward all of His children came with the Father’s call to accompany Him where He Himself had been laboring for so long.

We have come to recognize our own wounds and inadequacies in the dysfunctional and broken lives of those whom we love and serve; through them we have been confronted with our own limitations and with our limitless God in life-changing ways. We have been a Dad and a Mum to the sometimes badly behaved and apparently ungrateful until we have come to recognize that such behavior is the vocabulary of the deeply wounded and those who do not have the resources to cope with the burdens and impoverishments that weigh so heavily upon them.

If there is a challenge or invitation in these pages, it is that God is infinitely full of love and compassion, and although He is holy and pure in nature, His plan is to include His flawed servants in His crusade of pouring out love and healing on the wounded and broken. In doing so, He purifies His followers by degrees until He creates more of His own character and nature in us. My prayer is that in reading this account of God’s work in and through our lives, you will be inspired to give yourself more wholly to Him and to the wondrous task of sharing His compassion with those who are needy and vulnerable in your own life.

The Japanese troops are outside in the street looking for young girls. I can’t hide you from them any longer. You must get married as quickly as possible!

Twelve-year-old Sow Ying Ng had traveled all alone from her tiny village in China to the British colony of Malaya (Malaysia). Her father, the headman of his village, had promised to send his favorite child to his sister as payment for a debt of honor. They had a verbal agreement that Sow Ying would return home after a number of years serving her auntie in that far-away land.

The grey sky over the frigid harbor perfectly mirrored Sow Ying’s feelings as the heartbroken girl tearfully parted from her father. Neither of them could have known they would never see each other again; nor would she ever return to her homeland. As the just-about-seaworthy junk cast away from the shore, she gazed for one last time on all she held dear. Her life had changed forever.

Sow Ying was clever and gifted, and she excelled as a seamstress under her Auntie’s strict but kind training. She was eagerly sought after by her auntie’s growing clientele. But everything changed in 1944 when World War II arrived in Malaya, carrying horror and destruction with it. The occupying Japanese troops, using rape and sexual intimidation as a weapon, were searching homes for unmarried girls to serve as comfort women–prostitutes–for their troops.

The soldiers had learned that Sow Ying, 18 years old at the time, was living in her auntie’s home. Although they searched it several times, Auntie had encouraged her younger children to cry loudly and kick up a rumpus during each search, providing warning and a distraction as their cousin hid in the tiny attic. Clearly it was only a matter of time before they captured her. Something must be done.

So, knowing her business would be adversely affected, Auntie reluctantly performed the duty of matchmaker with an acquaintance, a hard-working young man of good character who had emigrated from a remote part of China. It was a hastily arranged marriage that she would not have allowed in less traumatic times.

Yoon Chong Lye was extremely poor, but he was a gifted, self-taught mechanic, eking out a living with odd auto repair jobs. He had immigrated to Malaya from China with his father some years before. When his father was killed in the Japanese bombing of Penang Island, Yoon Chong and a friend wrapped the body in a sheet, carried him to the top of a remote hill at twilight, and laid him to rest on a piece of dusty waste land.

The wedding was a simple, tense Buddhist ceremony, with the sound of Japanese bombing in the background. Soon after they were married, Yoon Chong was robbed of his tiny savings, leaving them in poverty. The couple set up home in a rented room, and Yoon Chong began a car repair service under a large mango tree nearby, where the Perak River meandered through the outskirts of the town of Teluk Intan.¹

He soon gained an excellent reputation for maintenance expertise and integrity. His only problem was collecting payment for work done, often waiting for hours at a client’s home or business late into the night, only to return home empty handed. Scrupulously honest, Yoon Chong refused to falsify receipts for work and steadfastly resisted attempts from clients to force him to do so. Despite their hardships, the young couple was happy and loved and honored each other.

Yoke Fong was their third child. Her parents had decided to call her Kim Fong, in line with Chinese horoscope predictions. Kim means gold, and Fong was a widely used name for girls at the time. However, when her father registered her at the local municipality, he called her Yoke, which means Jade (or precious stone).

Yoke Fong was an intelligent and inquisitive child. Her father was aware of her academic potential and delighted in it, responding to her fervent pleas by enrolling her in a private Chinese school when she was five. This was a great drain on his meager earnings, especially when she could have gone to the local state-run primary school.

Two years later, in 1963, he transferred her to the same Catholic school her older sister, Yin Fong, attended because he was farsighted enough to understand the necessity of an education in English and because he felt that the quality of education was better. Their school, which had an Irish headmistress, was located across the street from the Catholic Brothers’ school where the Lye boys attended. During school hours the tall iron front gates of both facilities were bolted and guarded, rather like a prison. At lunch hour many of the children would line up along the wrought iron railings, boys on one side and girls on the other, and look longingly across at each other.

A few months after Yoke Fong’s enrollment in her new school, her father died of leukemia, but his decision to enroll her would impact Precious Stone in a profound way and alter the course of her life.

His death left seven-year-old Yoke Fong, her mother, sister, and two brothers in abject poverty. He had been owed substantial fees for work done, but these customers refused to pay his widow.

A kind neighbor allowed Sow Ying to borrow a truck to take her husband’s body to the public Chinese graveyard for burial. Other neighbors gave them colored cloth with which they dressed up the old truck in order to make it look more presentable. Yoke Fong’s mother sublet part of their rented home to her late husband’s apprentice so he could carry on the business, but he was dishonest and disagreeable and finally refused to pay the meager rent. Yoke Fong, a shy and timid girl, was so appalled at his callousness to her mother that she mustered the courage to scold him. He left soon afterward and never returned.

She could not have understood it then, but her sense of justice and desire to protect and help the poor and the vulnerable would be a characteristic of her adult life.

Sow Ying made dresses for her two daughters out of the material donated to her at the time of her husband’s death–such was their poverty. An excellent and creative seamstress, she worked tirelessly to support her family. Her workmanship was in demand, and she clothed her children from the fragments of cloth left over from the garments she made for her clients.

She was also an excellent, if strict, mother, and there was always enough food for her children. She had opportunities to re-marry but refused more than one suitor, as she was not convinced it was in the best interests of her four children. An industrious woman, when she had no sewing projects, she would make snacks for Yoke Fong to sell door to door. Her one indulgence was to occasionally see a movie in the local cinema. On such occasions she would take along Yoke Fong, armed with a small bag of candies, to translate the English dialogue into Cantonese Chinese for her mother. This became one of Yoke Fong’s favorite memories of her childhood.

Another happy memory is the time the family spent preparing for Chinese New Year, a holiday celebrated with great joy and no little ceremony and a rare period of rest for her mother. For a few days before the eagerly awaited event, every spare moment was given to lovingly and painstakingly cooking the food for the great occasion. Yoke Fong and her siblings helped their mother with the same kind of excitement as children in the western world anticipate Christmas morning. During the Chinese New Year celebrations, the family sold holiday snacks to friends and neighbors.

Although Sow Ying worked nonstop to support their frugal lifestyle, making ends meet was extremely difficult for the Lye family. They rented a two-room house on the edge of a large, fast-flowing river; when the monsoon rains came, the river overflowed its banks and flooded their home. Yoke Fong remembers hearing the lapping of the water and waiting through the night for the river to rise. Then they would roll up their sleeping mats and climb into their mother’s raised bed. After the flood receded, she and Yin Fong would clear off the mud and debris and scrub every inch of the plank floor by hand.

The Perak River, a freshwater tributary that ebbed and flowed with the tide, was an integral part of the Lye household. One of Yoke Fong’s chores was to fetch water from the river for bathing and cleaning the floors. Each morning and evening she filled two kerosene cans and then struggled to carry them 300 yards to their home. One day the tide was out, making access to the water difficult. Despite her mother’s warnings to be careful around the river, she stretched her little arms to fill her containers and slipped on the slimy bank, falling headlong into the deep, fast-flowing water. Her brother, Hoe Chin, who was working nearby, heard her cries and hauled her to safety.

The river was also a source of fun. The Lye children liked to sit on the narrow pier near their home and dangle their toes in the cool, chocolate-colored water. In no time baby puffer fish would begin to peck at their feet. Scooping up these little fish into plastic containers, the children watched with delight as the fish lived up to their names, puffing themselves up to appear as intimidating as possible. Puffer fish have a remarkable ability to expand their bodies quickly, maximizing the long poisonous spikes that cover them. They provided much amusement to the children without ever harming any of them.

Another of Yoke Fong’s chores was to raise ducks, which she did with diligence and affection. One day her small flock was stolen; she knew a rich neighbor had added them to his own brace hidden inside the high wall of his compound. Not to be outsmarted, Yoke Fong called her ducks from the roadside. Recognizing the voice of their true owner, they happily waddled out of the thief’s yard and followed her home–much to the neighbor’s displeasure and embarrassment. You can be sure Yoke Fong’s loyal flock was given extra food that evening!

They also raised chickens. Once when the river had overflowed, a fifteen-foot-long python swam into the wire chicken coop. It ate a number of the chickens and promptly fell into a self-satisfied slumber at the back of the cage. Sow Ying contacted a local snake handler, an Indian gentleman, to free the coop from its large, unwanted occupant. With great expertise he quickly dislodged the sleepy reptile, killed it, and ate its meat. He then dried its skin–blood red with traces of orange and yellow–for sale. Before selling it he offered the beautiful, shiny, snakeskin to the Lye family, but the two girls had seen enough of the giant reptile and refused his generosity!

Soon after Yoon Chong’s death, a neighbor who had five children under the age of 15 also lost her husband. All of the children had to drop out of school and find menial work in order to survive. Her own mother, who in similar circumstances worked a miracle in not having to do the same, inspired Yoke Fong. But despite all of her efforts, Sow Ying barely had enough money to pay her children’s monthly school fees.

Yoke Fong realized that without an education she would be condemned to poverty for life and excluded from the privileged world of knowledge and the many wonderful opportunities that an education provides. To the poor, wholesome and adequate food, a safe place to live, and an education are in a very real sense a privilege and not a right!

She had another reason to want to stay at the Catholic school. She had been interested in Jesus Christ for some time and was captivated by His love for the human race. Having read in the Gospel of Luke about His crucifixion, she felt amazed that He, perfect and without sin, would die such a cruel death for a poor and insignificant sinner like her. She often could not afford lunch at school and was given permission to sit in the school chapel during lunch break so she would not be embarrassed by her poverty in front of her friends. Through her great need, the God of all the earth was seeking her company; already He was planning to reveal His sovereign and eternal will to His precious little girl.

Many years later she would look back at the graciousness of a number of nuns in her school and thank God for them. They lovingly helped her retain her dignity and gave her little kindnesses and privileges that spoke volumes to her about their love for their God and the people they had come to serve in His Name. The poverty-stricken, inquisitive girl whom Jesus was seeking first heard His Name from an Irish nun.²

I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too (Psalm 139:5, MSG).

Because of her growing love for Jesus and the Catholic teachings to which she was exposed, Yoke Fong frequently refused to pay homage to the family idols and to pray to her dead father, which was a great insult to her mother’s Buddhist beliefs. When Sow Ying beat her disobedient daughter on the backs of her legs with a rod, Yoke Fong asked her why they had to fear the spirits who did nothing for them and why she was not free to worship the God of Love, who cared for and listened to her. Already the shy young girl was becoming a woman of integrity and courage.

On one occasion her mother informed Yoke Fong that unless she bowed down to her father’s altar and asked him for favor in choosing the correct numbers in the local illegal lottery, there would be no money to pay for her school fees. It would mean the end of her academic education–and her contacts with her Christian teachers. They also had no money to celebrate the upcoming Chinese New Year, which would be a humiliating loss of face for the family. This time Yoke Fong did not refuse to kneel down at her father’s altar, and without a word escaping her lips, she poured her heart out to Jesus and asked Him to give her the winning numbers so that she could continue her education. She then cast the dice three times and received the numbers 999. Her mother’s first reaction was that they were pathetic numbers, but she then reflected that they were so pathetic they just might win the lottery. The ticket that the poor widow bought won enough money to pay for the school fees and celebrate Chinese New Year in a fitting manner. They had sipped from the eternal artesian spring of exquisite grace. Oh, the incomparable and indefatigable love of God!

Yoke Fong graduated from high school with excellent grades. While there, she helped to pay for her school fees by tutoring local children and continued to do so after graduation, gradually saving up enough to study bookkeeping and typing.

Yoke Fong’s first job at the age of 17 was in an Indian lawyer’s office; the tiny salary she earned went to help her mother, who was still living in extreme poverty. Sow Ying was very keen for her to earn more money to help pay for her younger brother’s education, and Yoke Fong felt some responsibility to do so; therefore, she applied for a nursing course at Newham School of Nursing in Bromley-by-Bow in London. The small student stipend would allow her to continue to help her mother, and as a western-trained nurse she could eventually earn a good salary. A local charity determined that Yoke Fong was a young woman of sincerity and impeccable character and paid for her airfare.

Before Yoke Fong left Malaysia for England in 1977, her mother insisted on three promises: 1) she would not become a Christian, 2) she would not marry a foreigner, and 3) she would return home after graduating to care for her in her old age. Yoke Fong had been an obedient and responsible daughter and, with the exception of her child-like faith in Jesus Christ, had never disobeyed her mother. However, as she embarked on the journey that would change the course of her life, Yoke Fong replied that she could not comply with her mother’s wishes. The shy young woman–with natural wisdom and a developing will of iron–knew she must be free to decide these matters for herself, for they would determine the direction of her entire life.

The adjustment to life in inner city London was difficult for the young Malaysian. Yoke Fong was so shy she would wait for all of her fellow students to cook their meals before she would sneak into the kitchen with her single saucepan (her only cookware) and prepare her meal. To say she lived frugally would be a pitiful understatement. Yoke Fong sent most of her monthly income home to her mother.

Within a few months of arriving in England, Yoke Fong contracted chicken pox and then pneumonia and was hospitalized for 21 days. Although she did not yet know Jesus personally, she turned to her belief in Him for strength to endure her illness and her loneliness. A lasting memory of this time was the kindness of a friend named S.K. Lim, a Malaysian nurse she had met on the first day she arrived in England. S. K. lived in another part of the city, but frequently visited the lonely newcomer and often sent her Malaysian food.

Having first heard about Jesus in a Catholic school, it was natural that Yoke Fong would attend a Catholic church in London. In time she was baptized but was disappointed that a personal relationship with Jesus still eluded her. This young Christian felt that she had come to know the form of religion without entering into the power of the Gospel, leaving her empty and heartbroken.

One day she happened to be in the foyer of the hospital as Imelda, a new girl from Ireland, arrived for a short nursing course. Remembering how difficult it had been for her in her first few days, Yoke Fong reached out of her own shyness to welcome the new nurse and help her settle in, initiating a life-long and life-changing friendship. Imelda, who had by that time entered into a living, personal, and growing relationship with Jesus Christ, invited Yoke Fong to the charismatic house church she was attending.

Yoke Fong was drawn by an indescribable something these worshippers had with the Lord Jesus and with each other. But the church was distant from her hospital, and she could attend it only occasionally because of her nursing schedule. Instead, she visited several nearby churches looking for the peace and the relationship with Jesus she had been seeking since her childhood in Asia.

One congregation offended her by ridiculing her Catholic beliefs. She had come to the group of professing Christians in good faith in order to learn more about the Christ of love Whom they seemed to know and Whom they proclaimed, only to be ridiculed and judged in an un-Christlike manner. Forgetting that Christianity is often caught rather than taught, they had displayed a spirit alien to the Jesus they claimed to know and serve.

Her chief means of fellowship was with the Nurses Christian Union in her hospital, where the leaders’ love for Jesus and for her impacted her greatly. She soon came into a life-changing, life-renewing personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. She no longer knew Him merely as a sublime Being who had sought her out and looked after her for her entire life. She now knew Him as He took up residence in the deepest recesses of her heart. She had been born again.

Some years earlier she had prayed that if God made Himself known to her personally, she would follow Him for the rest of her life. Joyously she did just that, committing her entire being to Him in an act of worship and glorious abandon. She had taken the first tentative steps towards an understanding that