|
Dear Joy, our paster, teacher, great friend, and my loving sister.
You always copied our Father; the way He loved you, acompanied you, encouraged you and guided you. You did the same to us. You followed our Father to people He loved, to love, to be with, to share and to encourage them. Very experienced, you showed them the footprints of Jesus and the path to close to God. You carefully made the decisions that pleased God the most in your daily life. What a smart housekeeper you were! You effectively and properly managed what God had handed over to you. Always you fully used the gifts that God had given to you. You took every chance to sacrifice upon God. You knew how to figure out what was the most important thing to do among all the busy tasks. You took the right timing to be with everyone individualy and help he/she to feel that he/she was special and precious in God’s eyes. Our dear Joy, you were such a worderful master piece of God—with intellegence, gentle kindness, acuity, great humour, and the correct measurment!!
How sorry we were when we heard that you got into hospital to fight the cancer just after your arrival to Vancouver. You still keep pleaseing God even though you were in bed and in pain. When we came to visit you bringing our members greeting cards and the video, you carefully listen to our messages and take notes from them through the interpreter. When we were packing and were about to leave, you farewelled us with your beautiful songs and warmest hugs. Your spirit were so vivid in your weak body.
Thank you Joy, you have made us a great example. Finally, I want to tell you that Michael was baptized on the day you leaved us. He comes regularily to Church since you and Joyce came to Taiwan. He is now a close member to us. See—this is another fruit that you have sowed and you are the seed. When I see more of these fruits, I will think of you and knowing that this is the continuation of your spiritual life. You have left with us so many, so aboundantly, and so preciously. We thank God to let us have you. Not many people know that your actually have a Chinese name. It is “Kuo, Jay-E.” I made it for you at your second trip to Taiwan in 2002. You liked the meaning of it very much and made it a name stamp. The meaning of this name (Jay-E, means clean robe, white robe) is from Revelation 3:4-5. Now I truly believe that you are dressed in white and walk with Jesus now because “You have fought the good fight, you have finished the race, you have kept the faith…….” (2 Timothy 4:7-8). We love you, our dear pastor Joy. Claire Lai and members of Siloam
During the service, I saw that there was a sign choir and saw that Joy was the director of it, so I went up and introduced myself and to find out where they held their practices, I then knew that Joy Fellowship was the right place for me to worship our Lord and Heavenly Father. During the years that I have been coming to Joy Fellowship, I have gone on many camps, retreats, daytrips and two overseas mission trips with Joy. Some of our trips together have taken us to places such as: * New Hampshire & Florida I have loved sharing a house with Joy and spending some special times and visits with her together with many of our friends in Joy Fellowship and I am going to miss her very much. Joy has also helped me with many things around my home, as well as helping me to save my money so I would get to go on many more overseas mission trips to different places in our beautiful world that our Awesome God has created. I am going to miss her laugh, sense of humor, smile hugs, water and pillow fights and I love her most of all. Love Sarah
What was it about Joy that drew me to her? Let me see if I can answer that, at least in part… We are gathered here today to celebrate Joy’s life, and I am touched but the many old friends I see, but it’s my children’s presence that has prompted me to share some thoughts today. For it’s my children that initially fed and watered our friendship. I met Joy through Joy Fellowship in the early days of her volunteering, and our relationship might have changed course had she not moved into our neighborhood. I was in those child bearing years, you know the ones, you’re sleep-deprived, you’re looking after your kids and not paying much attention to yourself, you’re poor and you rarely get out except when you have to, so you feel a bit isolated from the rest of the world And then along came Joy! I think Sean was 3 years old and Mikael 1, and I was probably pregnant with Rachael, or soon to be. Mom and Dad were away several months each year and Joy jumped at the opportunity to look after my kids when I needed to go to the doctor, get some groceries, do a duty day at preschool… They would cover her with their stuffed animals, and she would lie there and chuckle. My children loved to see Joy. We would visit a bit after I came home and then off she would go back to her life… And then the years passed and Joy got full-time work with Joy Fellowship, she got a roommate, and my kids grew up a bit. We still saw each other, and we were friends through the years, but we were both busy with our lives and they didn’t intersect as often. And usually it was at Joy Fellowship events that we did reconnect, at the Christmas Craft Fair, the Spring Fair, camps, and craft making events. It was often the midst of her Joy Fellowship flock and my children that we would reconnect. We would usually only get a few minutes, to say it all, and then be drawn back into our lives... Then about 17 years ago the Binghams, that’s us, got a golden retriever. Around that time, Joy re-entered my life as a walking partner—for Bo as well as for me. We would walk 2-3 times a week, for about an hour, rain or shine, often returning home soaking wet with just enough time to shower, change, and get to our next scheduled event. And Bo and I were happy. When Bo saw or even heard Joy coming, he would jump up and down, spin around, and smile, as only Bo could. Bo loved Joy. We walked through the next 15 years or so, sharing our hopes and dreams, being accountable to each other in our spiritual lives, sharing our latest discoveries about God, enjoying His sense of humor, the mystery of who He is, in whole new ways, and getting so much pleasure looking at God’s magical world. Joy would delight in telling me an idea she had for Sunday’s sermon, or something in a book she was reading for a course at Carey. These were not just exercise walks, if you know what I mean. With Joy making sure to schedule (in her black book) the walks for the next week, we continued to take that hour to slow down, and connect with each other and with our Father in Heaven, through all those years. We often ended our walks with a prayer and then headed back into our busy lives. And then a little over two years ago, Joy phoned me to say that she had found a lump in her breast, and that she had to get a biopsy done and she was frightened. And so we went for a walk, and
we talked and prayed and cried. And then we waited. A few weeks later, on the day she was to get the results, I was at work praying and waiting for word, but she came to my office, and when she came in I knew that the news wasn’t good. It was not the news we had been praying for... We talked and cried and prayed and that evening we walked. Over the last two years, I was so blessed to be able to give back to Joy some of what she had given to me; the love and care she had showered on me and my family was now, in a special way, mine to give to her. We shared meals; rides to doctor appointments; early morning visits after difficult nights; videos; games of Scrabble, Quiddler, and Crib; walks (sometimes just a few blocks); grocery shopping and dumpster diving for guinea pig food; excited drives to and weary drives home from the airport; laundry; gardening... All these rather mundane tasks took on so much more meaning during this time. To do them with Joy was good, for she is my friend. Jan Bingham
|
We
are sisters with different mother but same Father. This is the
special saying between us and I like it very much. We are alike in
many ways: we have same habbits, close relationship in our hearts,
speak out the same words together but one in Madarin and one in
English.
In
about 20 years ago, you and JF missionary Lori-Ann with our Father
came to Taiwan. That time, there were a bunch of people who were
attracted by your deep relationship with God and by Lori-Ann’s
passion and worship to God. Then in 2002 you came again with JF’s
TTT (the Taiwan Team Anita, Elaine, and Joy) for us. You encouraged
Michelle and I to learn Peter who trusted Jesus concertratly. You
said if we wanted to experience walking to Jesus on water like
Peter, first we had to leave our boat faithfully. You reminded us to
leave the unfearful people to serve God. You left us an envelope
written “To Claire and Michelle, There are some of the seeds for
your dreams. Little seeds…Big dreams…” Since then, the seeds started
to grow. It grows into a small tree through your and JF’s love and
prayers. It is called Taiwan Joy fellowship—Siloam. Last November,
you came with Joyce only for the small group of us even though there
were many life-threatening signals from your health situation. You
told me that it was God who sent you to us. So you came. How
precious it was for us your 10 days trip to Taiwan because you had
given yourself to us. Our heavenly Father had done wonderful things
among us to witness that He pleased this. That gave us more seeds. I
believe these seeds will grow and bear many fruits that God pleased.
I
am sorry that I did not catch up to say good bye to you at your last
time. I remember that you always told me (when we were leaving
apart) “In here, in there, or in the Air.” Then you would give me a
sign language of “I love you.” Now you are with our heavenly Father.
I feel very lonely because I miss your laughter, encouragement, and
the sincere remindings. I even envy you and hope to be with our
heavenly Father and you soon. That must be wonderful! However, I
think about what you side to me “you need to practice more.” Yes, if
I admire your aboundant life in God, I must practice more. Learn to
please God, to follow Jesus’s steps, and to trust in Him completely.
