This testimony must begin from the time when we had our fourth child, Nathan. We would thought that he would be the last child whom the Lord wanted to gift us with. But right after giving birth, Geri kept receiving the vision of giving birth again to another son. That was not the plan we were looking at! But the vision kept coming, and that was when we were a little open to the idea and along the way, we had further confirmations over our fifth child.
Geri met a lady over in Indonesia when she went on a mission trip a few years ago and when they communicated, the lady actually told her that she already knew that we would have a fifth child, a son, and that she had already started praying for us. She mentioned she would keep all of us in prayer by name and also included the coming child.
Besides that, God also spoke through another sister through a dream, and also one of our LG members.
So in November 2016, when we found out that Geri was pregnant, we rejoiced!!!
God was faithful and good as well that He sent another two Petran ladies to minister to us during the Christmas period. While one lady was chatting with Geri, she saw a vision of Geri taking care of 5 kids and commented, “You will be really busy handling 5 kids.” At that time, we hadn’t announced the pregnancy just yet, since Geri was barely 2 months pregnant. This further confirmed God’s plan for this 5th child.
However, on 12th Jan 2017, we received shocking news from the gynaecologist. The Oscar test result (which tests for Down Syndrome) was showing that the baby had a high risk of being challenged. Despite the scan of the Fetal Nuchal Translucency & Nasal Bone’s result being in its normal range, because of the total calculation of Geri’s age (39) and the blood test, that resulted in the chance of the child suffering from Down Syndrome.
So with this news from the doctor, all sorts of negative thoughts and images were thrown at us by the devil. The doctor asked if we wanted to do further testing (which can be very traumatising to the baby) to confirm the result and decide if we would like to abort or keep the baby. We were supposed to let him know of our decision soon. Both of us prayed and agreed that a life comes from God and we would not abort the baby. And because of that we did not do the additional test as well.
So what we did instead was to speak to Chi Chuan, as he and his wife had a similar diagnosis for their 2nd child – Ezra. He shared with us his journey and prayed with us, agreeing with us that God’s gift is a blessing and brings no sorrow.
God connected us again with the two Petra ladies who saw our 5th child coming. We shared about the report that the gynaecologist told us, and they felt this child was a special child since God spoke about him through so many people. They guided us to reject the report, ministered to us, prayed over us and prayed a prayer over this 5th child, and ever since then they have been praying for us.
So our few months of fighting were those of speaking forth God’s promises to us and resisting the thoughts of the enemy. It definitely wasn’t easy for us. Songs like “God is my refuge”, “Still”, “You are good”, helped to keep our sanity and put hope within us. We kept each other in prayers as there were times when one of us felt down or when we felt the attack from the enemy. Basically, we are in the fight of faith together and the thing that we held on to was the word of God and really, God Himself.
So when 30th June 2017 came around (the EDD of our son), there was a great expectancy and Geri could not wait to have this child delivered and to carry him in her arms. When finally this child was born, we rejoiced! Yes, as God’s word says, this child is fearfully and wonderfully made, created in His perfect image and likeness!
With each child given, there is additional grace and anointing given to steward. In the same way that we do not split our love between our other children, with each additional child, more grace is given to us from the Father. That is when our sphere of influence grows.
So, we were extremely grateful to God for entrusting us 5 children to steward and love. Looking back, it was the Lord’s grace, mercy, goodness and faithfulness that kept us along the journey. It was Him holding us, being our very presence help in times of need. Had it not been for Him, we would not be able to make it through those difficult times and moments, and we just want to give God all the glory and praise!