Against All Odds - The Story of Judith Halim

[Music] I grew up in a poor family my dad was a gambler womanizer and she left us when I was 18 months I have two elder sister blasts on the political instability in Indonesia that's why we often felt insecure and a lot of fear and anxiety so at the age of 20 I met a Singaporean businessman he said that he fell in love with me and he wanted to marry me so I got married six months after we met each other six months later I got pregnant and because he wants the baby to become a Singaporean so that's how I came to Singapore 23 years ago the first time when I came to Singapore when I walk Orchard Road from the beginning to the end - means freedom it's a freedom that we as a minority a Chinese in Indonesia don't get because we don't walk on the street we don't take public transport we don't even play outside especially for my my family because we are all women and there's no one to protect us so when I walk on this on an object road in Singapore from the beginning to the end to me it's like wow you know this is freedom when Joelle was born the second days and the doctor detected some abnormality on the fifth day they concluded that and Joelle had Williams syndrome Williams syndrome is kind of fun I'm Down syndrome that is a lacking in the inner chromosome in the gym so and also because her Fanta curl is very thick preventing the blood in the energy circulation to go to the upper part of the body so he or she also developed brain damage and she also has three holes in her heart and she is also a hemophilia carrier because her father is a hemophilia the doctors say that she will not live past three months I I cannot accept it because some I was born in our in our in a family that is I was I was not happy as a child and when I got married I hope to be able to build a happy home a happy family on my own but then whereas the three holes in a heart come from where does the brain damage I come from where does the Down syndrome come from I couldn't accept a nine and I find that life is just so unfair for me and when we celebrate first man the father told me that I think we're not meant for shada I think we have to separate I was totally shocked because this was the last thing that I ever thought will happen to me I mean now we got married and we have a child and the child is so sick and because of that I cannot go back to Indonesia and the fathers say that we are not meant for each other I kept asking what do you mean by we are not meant for each other is there anything that I could make up you know is there anything that I can do I can change but time he said that we are just not meant for each other and he left the next day without saying anything without leaving anything behind I was the puzzle for months that down why my my marriage has to end this way because prior to coming to Singapore everything was perfect everything was good and I was happy and I did not descend anything wrong with my marriage but then why out of you know sudden things happen in this way so quietly I booked a ticket leading joelle behind so I stepped into the house I opened the door and I saw there's another woman there woman living in my house sleeping on my bed and my heart breaks I just thought that perhaps they're happier without me I just ran outside and I stopped a taxi and I make a detour I went back to a Soekarno Hatta Airport and I just sat there and I reboot my begetting this that then cry and cry and finally I found out a reason a true reason why he said things does not work out in our marriage I came back to Singapore and all hope is gone I was too ashamed of myself I was too ashamed to even tell my mother we're still in Medan because to me you know I laugh I laugh man with high hope that I'm going to be well-to-do very well businessman and I'm going to make it in life and you know building my own family aren't going to be happy but when things happened not in a way that I thought it is too shameful for me to go back to me Dan it is too shameful for me to even tell my mother about all the bad things that happen to me because I saw her mother suffer raising the three of us up single-handed she has the world you know and then she has to deal with I'm being [Music] no husband at such a young age men who live by neighbors and friends and relatives and as I grew up soften suffering so to me that the last thing that I want to do is to practice names to her so there's no way out just only me no friend I'm not able to speak English and it's in a foreign land that I mean all of the culture the people the language so and there's no way out for me so I thought the only way is to any I plan to jump down from what inflow and the apartment where I stay but God has some federal God as a highway for me at that point of time all that I felt right heroes came who the pain of betrayal it has became physical that pain you know that even when I breathe is painful I count every second of the way I was in a severe depression I are asleep five days I can do it for five days I wrote a letter to my mother to say that I'm sorry I cannot send money I cannot tell well you know be a good doctor and then I make all plan already I'm getting ready to go out for the last time I receive a phone call from an insurance agent stainless thief I don't know him he said that I had from so-and-so that you know you have a baby and if you buy an insurance policy from me right now the price is very good so I say that no I'm not I'm not buying insurance I don't have money to buy insurance and I want to put down the phone and he said wait wait hold on hold on we say that you know my church has some evangelistic meeting there's a special speaker coming can I invite you to a church church was so foreign to me because my whole life I've never stepped into the church before I say no I remember day I want to go to Orchard Road it's very troublesome for me to carry baby bring temples and bring me powder and all that and go to go out and go sir I'm not familiar Singapore and I said to him a strange answer I said that if you can bring me to watch a row okay either before after your service okay I'll go with you I never expecting to say yes but then he said yes I'll come and get you because my church instance is slightly off auto rope so he came with his wife he picked me up and I sang it was a church and I was seated at the last role from the back holding on to a baby and this man that brought me to the church with his wife and he just put me the Amen will just disappear I don't know where they are and it's a English service I don't understand English is the first time in my entire life that I stepped into a church that I do not understand I don't understand the language they were singing in English I don't understand the pastor was preaching in English that I don't understand a single word throughout our entire service I only focus in one one thing it's very painful here I couldn't breathe when is this going to end because I just want to go out and I just want to end my life until at the end of service the speaker asked is there anyone that want to come forward to get a prayer I didn't even know but up from the stage the preacher was pointing at music that woman that woman with a baby I want you to come forward I just came from the left and from the right asked me to go I was a girl of you know the picture is calling you I went out carrying a Joelle they were trying to translate in hockey and uh do mean and the preacher was asking me he said do you want to receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior my answer is who is Jesus I don't know who is Jesus if he can even get me out of my situation I saw the whole auditorium was great in color grade re and then suddenly because when I went out I we're not feeling very pain pain a lot of pain right here and suffocating but as I went out and I and I say who is this Jesus suddenly I sense peace peace that transcends beyond understanding peas that I never thought in my entire life I asked I I asked them I don't know who is this Jesus but if these Jesus that you're talking about equivalent to this piece then I'm experiencing I must have it I cannot do me down so I receive Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior then and then I came home there was the first night that I slept so something and my daughter for the strangest reason that normally she will wake up every two hours she also sleep very soundly so the warm of us able to sleep until the next day 9 o clock that morning when I wake up something happened as a week up and as I walk to the window as I look out how come this one can be so beautiful you see nothing has changed at that point of time the father is still gone I still don't have money I still don't have anything as they don't have hope and I was someone trying to such and such place that pain where's the pain that I couldn't even breathe it is gone just like that nothing has changed externally but something changed within me something changed within here I pick up a letter that I wrote to my mother and I reacted game somehow there is strength from the inside that tell me that no I'm not going to die but I'm going to leave I'm going to live for my daughter and most important of all I'm going to leave to declare that hey Jesus said I just knew midnight before she can she'll and Men my broken heart after the experience I decided that hey I want to restart my life all over again I pick up the courage to call my mother to tell her all the problem and I answer that can you come to Singapore and take care of my daughter so that we can start afresh here in Singapore I need to go and look for a job but to look for a job for foreigner like me back then don't speak English don't know anything I only managed to go into a first-year University in Indonesia and then I got married straight away so in Singapore my education is not even recognized and not and so many doors and I was rejected and I thought that what else can I do you know maybe I go and sell McDonald I go and sell Kentucky ok and again I went to McDonald's and Kentucky and I was rejected too so I have to put my resume in a recruitment agent and then one day the recruitment agency called me and they say that you know I was looking to your CP I found out something that you're good at beside Indonesia the only thing that I was good at okay is bahasa indonesia so he said i have a opening for you okay and you would have no problem by speaking because all your colleagues you know speak malay so they put me um as a security guy yeah so that was my first job 23 years ago as a security guy learning $2 70 cents per hour yeah I was there for 3 - a security guy and then my supervisor look at me and he said it hey you know why don't I send you forward English cause so that you can become operator so they sent me four in viscose and eventually I became an operator and then after that the recruitment agency gave me another assignment in another company as a operator and then from the operator the recruitment agency again referred me to another company okay this is the construction company that they meet me and administrate them and then they send me for further school from administrator I became assistant manager from assistant manager I became manager and an Athenian manager and then after that I got hit hunted to another company from a senior manager became a general manager and then from a general manager I became a managing director just we did secure six years it was a really the grace of God because if you if now if I think back those years to be honest I don't know how I went true I have to work like from 8:30 to 5:00 and then I have to go to study from 7:00 to 10:00 and when I come home is worth the time I think over the in care of Joelle and Joelle wakes up every two hours for feeling and because I don't have enough income I have to look for supplements so I think I bake cookies pack mushroom hacker helpers to have income supplements and plus when I study eventually when the company sent me for management cause I have to do a lot of people works I have to study very hard I don't know where is all this strength came from maybe what one may one day I only sleep like 2 hours 3 hours but the Lord gave me a verse for me to go through you say that in Hebrew 1160 say that without faith it is impossible to please God for whoever come to him must believe that he is and he is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him so when I seek him and look at him alone I have to forego my situation I have before god yes is tiring but instead of complaining instead of murmuring instead of being ungrateful I choose to say that the joy of the Lord is my strength and that is where I got my strength back all the time we don't feel every time when I felt tired I would just say that you know the joy of the Lord is my strength and the strength just came and that keeps me going I remember I was a human resource manager as a human resource manager you need to write a lot of memos by informing people that ok today is public holiday tomorrow and your leave maybe you know take this and then I have to write a lot of memo the company gave me an opportunity knowing that I have my English is so bad ok but not everyone are being gracious and they were a lot of them adopters and genius professional and all that and the northeast part is right in the middle of a place that everybody every day will walk past and every time when I want to write a memo to put up on a notice board I was always in trouble because my English was so poor my grandma is always wrong and every time when I put out I will see very soon a rip and a green pen they were sometimes they were put at the Bell and then they will make fun of me like they were put up remarks that you know we school do you graduate from I mean everybody in the office will walk past and will look at it and at me so every time when I collect back those that member end up with full of remarks and before funny funny cartoons and all that and I ask myself do I give up I can give up easily every time when I look at that memorandum and went on to give up I always remember the lost promise to me when he gave me Joelle - 25 - 26 he said it I will respond to you all that has been eaten by de Lucas all the years that the locust has eaten out restore to you and you will eat in plenty and praise the name of the Lord your God who has that wondrously with you and I remember he said this he said that from my people will never be put to shame those who trust in the Lord will never be put to shame so I say that okay I will work even harder and I would turn this adversity into something that would come out great for me doctors say that that she will not live past three months she live past three months doctors say that once in six months at the most she live past six men and doctors say that one year she died she never died she asked me to prepare 100,000 100,000 same dollar for surgery I don't have 100 thousand sing at that point of time but I know that I will be God and I can pray so I pray I stop seeing doctor because of not having enough money Joelle was always sick she's so weak that one man she was sick for three weeks and then after that she will get sick again she's so weak that she's not able to walk she's only started learning to walk and it is a form that's how she grew up and then she always have problems because she couldn't breathe properly she will always have problem during feeding yeah during mealtime prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and she got better I sense that she got better although I never bring her to see doctor but just praying and praying and at the age of six God saying why not to bring her back to see the doctor and see what the doctors say brought her back to see the doctor they did it he sees you on the heart and they asked me what did you do to this child I said I didn't do anything he said it cannot be you say you look at the whole report this heart you know what the three holes in your heart and he said is failing okay but he said when you look at the new report this hat is normal it's totally perfect and to them it is still impossible because as they put the Torah put together side by side the old report and the new report is see that these two hat is not connected to each other and to them from the medical point of view it is something that is impossible because they cannot trace back the doctor told me that you know from the medical point of view there's a recovery process every time you know I went from their soul to become no holes okay so it's like you know closing up they are able to tracy sabol in your daughter case we are able to trace anything because this poor heart as we put together is it has so different is a different set of heart you know I see that there's a hand that removed all one and in the new one okay and who can do this kind of miracle is only God so God heals haha and I became greedy I say that God if you can hear the heart you can hear the at that point of time Joelle was a six plus six years plus and I made the register for your primary school so I say that God surely you Hilda had surely you heal the brain too because what good is it if she has a perfect heart without a perfect brain so every day I pray got UMass Hill you must heal when are you going to heal I got no more time I pray and pray and pray and pray and pray and I make my own decision I say that Joelle must be a normal child okay she a lot surely will heal her brain so I put her in a normal school so the law spoke to me say that do you think that Joelle is a burden to you I say of course yes you ask any parents who have a special child it's very burdensome you don't know what to do to them sometime you want to school them you think they don't know I didn't know sometimes you don't sometimes call them if they're not sue me they don't know do not say what about I say that she's a blessing to you I said can a burden become a blessing they say that is it easy to love the lovable yeah but if you are able to love the unlovable you see already you don't know how to love and the love is always come with a question why can't you be normal yeah the condition love you know when you're able to love the unlovable then the true christ-like love will be developing you he said that what makes you sing the world called and special child do not say because they were special in my sight and I was like wow God you say that they are special in your sight you don't even call me special in your sight so I say okay doc if you say that this child is a blessing then so be it from today onwards I'm going to change my prayer I'm not going to say that God you must hear her I'm not going to twist your hand to say that God if you don't hear that I'm not going to frame you but be undoing according to your view if today she will be like a thorn on a poor sight to me so that I'll cling on to you with that Vanessa P that I will never let you go so I took you out from a normal school I put her in a special school I say sorry to her I say that I am sorry mommy is sorry my mouth I say I love you but in my heart I have never truly 100% accepting as who you are but from the day onwards I'm not going to expect you to be like what I wish all my dream off but I'm going to just accept you as how the Lord has created you she cried she cried and cried and cried and cried and and and and I thought she didn't know all this what I think she knew they had a very sensitive heart they know who can accept them fully and who is not accepting them moving and progressively I saw that she recovered from there onward she excel when I put her in the normal school she's always calm down I put her in a special school she became a school prefect and then she started learning being me she started singing and dancing and every now and then she will tell me things like Jesus visit me in my dream last night and as she grew and she loved God and she can do things that normal people can do how much I can do except Academy feeling that she's reached but the resolution is a very good have been all the while I thought they've done my assistant is the careful but the [Music] [Applause] - well so that I can feel cause what was in my life [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Hope Singapore

Views: 414,199

Rating: 4.8219156 out of 5

Keywords: Judith Halim, Olive Vine, Testimony, Hope Church Singapore, Against All Odds

Id: J9daO6eDjR4

Length: 30min 26sec (1826 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 09 2017