Chapter One: Money From Heaven

The next day came and it was as if nothing had happened. No more talk of the scholarship. No more questions about their financial situation. The humdrum of everyday's mundaneness plagued the couple as always in their work places and life carried on as ordinarily as it could offer.

December came. With it, the monsoon spells to cast the hot, sunny island into a cool, gray terrain. Even the trees look different under the contantly darkened skies. Seemingly less lush than the rest of the year.

But rain was good, always a sign of blessing. And blessings were in tow for the young couple. Don got to know someone called Andrew from church in that month. Andrew was an established freelance illustrator in Singapore. He was also later to be a great source of financial help in the months to come.

Meanwhile, things were also rather happening for Poh. She had gone to work one day and was tasked to write a proposal for three government officials to go for a study trip in the UK. Now everything with the civil service was about writing papers, proposals, reports and then, some more writing. She set to work immedately, wasting no moment. She knew what to do. Everything had to be written clear, accurate, concise and presented in a logical and readable way. Perhaps most importantly, they had to be written fast. The slower you wrote, the later you got home.

Habitually, she timed herself. It was done in less than an hour. Good. She would be home on time. Then she met her boss on the stairways an hour later, where he'd chirped, "I want you to put down your name in that proposal, mine and Jonathon. You're both coming with me to London. Meanwhile, can you work with the London agencies to arrange our meetings for sometime in Feb? Plan it around the conference. You can make all the decisions. I trust you."

Before Poh could object, he was down the stairs and out of the building. Sometimes, she could hardly comprehend the energy that man had. She had never known him to have a day of rest. Even his annual leave days were taken so he could either work on unfinished business from the office or complete an external, personal development course. In the evenings, he would rush home to spend time with his family, but he would be back to work at 10pm, logging into the government server from home. By morning, Poh would open up her lotus notes server to find that the night had meant nothing to her boss. He had exchanged emails all night with his boss and senior management, even till 2am, exchanging ideas, making and receiving rejected proposals. The speed that her boss and boss's boss worked was daunting, and it was all Poh could do to keep up.

She amended the proposal as instructed, all the while wondering how she could get out of it. Ten days in England. She had done the projections herself. The airflight alone cost almost $2,000. There was no way Don could come with her. Her heart sank as she remembered how she was "rewarded" in her last job with a trip to Auckland, New Zealand. She had submitted a poster presentation that did better than expected and was accepted for both oral and poster presentation at the 3rd Asia Pacific Quality Forum. Obediently, she had followed her previous boss to Auckland for ten days.

Now it was like history repeating itself. Her proposal was well-written and her boss wanted to reward her. But it was no reward to Poh to have to part with Don for ten days. She had had to harden her heart when she left for New Zealand. And now, England?

Still, England was different. She loved England. The cooling weather, the leisure pace of life, the respect that everyone offered and the kindly manners of the elderly toward her. There were no rushing, no hurt feelings of being put down. The British held opinions of all in esteem as an act of respect to individualism. It was there that Poh learnt the true meaning of respect. That one could agree to disagree out of respect for another individual's opinions and point of view.

Perhaps being a welfare state, lending a helping hand to others in order to raise the status of the unfortunate had become second nature to most. Unlike capitalistic countries like Singapore and America, where people only cared for themselves and put themselves above others.

So maybe, going to England would be different from Auckland. Her closest friend, Amy, was there. And there were her favourite pork pies and scotch eggs. Hmmm, yes, the food would more than make up for it, she smiled to herself. She would have to tell Don that night and see what he says.

Don's reaction was all she expected. "Go ahead."

Poh had never known him to stop her from doing anything she wanted. Always encouraging, always standing with her in her endeavours, whether they were sound or not! On occasions, he might try to influence her otherwise if he saw that the thing she set out to do was overtly wild and dangerous, but he would never control her decision. The choice was always clearly, hers.

Still, Poh let her heart mull over it for a few days. She felt peace from God about it. There was nothing offensive in the trip and her boss had so wanted her to go. Perhaps he wanted to keep her as a recorder of the trip, she thought. In any case, she felt it would be nice to go overseas for a short while, all expenses paid. And of course, it would be wonderful to see Amy again, apart from the pork pies and scotch eggs.

Once decided, she emailed Amy to tell her of her coming trip and Amy was more than glad to have Poh stay with her in London. That meant she need not spend a single penny on accomodations! God bless her heart, Poh smiled as she looked at Amy's email reply.

February went by and Poh's trip to England was over before she even knew it. It was a good relaxing trip, and her boss had not expected her to record anything extraordinarily difficult. There were no pressures, and it was great to touch base with the British culture. Most importantly, she made a whopping $6,000 in that short ten days just on her subsistence allowance alone! The trip was so timely when they needed the money badly.

Then more exciting news awaited Poh when she got back. Don had similarly made $6,000 on taking up free-lance illustrations during the same period! He had not wanted to spend his time moping without Poh at home and wondered what he could possibly do to fill his time. As it turned out, Andrew had a few projects he needed help with and passed them on to Don. It was simply God-sent!

All this money, $12,000 in total, straight from heaven! More money than they could ever make in months from both their jobs. And the number: 120 hundred spelled love from God. It was a biblical number! Just as when the queen of Sheba had bestowed upon King Solomon 120 talents of gold, the moment had been recorded in the bible (2 Chronicles 9:9) as a moment the Lord had smiled upon in history. Though it was far from covering their expenses, money was not their concern anymore. They knew God had sent them the money to show that He was with them on their coming trip. His hand was upon it, and therefore, all would be well. He would take care of them. Don and Poh's hearts were finally at rest!