I nearly forgot to put this testimony in this blog. I felt it was necessary because the visions for the Sep 2008 Great Recession could be corroborated.
It was in late 2004 that I started to have the vision of a great recession. I blogged about it in 2005 in one website Antioch.sg and I entitled it “The Coming Financial Tsunami”. (I was surprised as well that the media also called the crisis a financial tsunami later in 2009. Another surprise was that it turned out to be caused by the US subprime loan crisis which I had blogged.) When I was first called to missions in China in 2007, I started warning the Chinese church to be prepared for the looming economic crisis.
In late 2007, I went to the Hakka region between Fujian and Guangdong province to warn the three-self church in Dapu. The church leaders were not happy for they misconstrued that I was slighting the economic progress of China. Nevertheless I started to save up the ministry funds in case of need.
In early 2008, I went to a rural city in Liaoning province near to Shenyang. The church gathered several pastors and ministry workers from other remote places to meet in a three day conference in an obscure village. (It was still not allowed then to hold such conference without official approval.) I spoke and warned of the looming economic crisis which would happen after the Sep 2008 Olympics held in Beijing. I just blurted out the date spontaneously when I was giving the message. My traveling partner CH Goh, a missionary based in Hong Kong, translated for me for I was not fluent in speaking Mandarin then. (Later he told me that he lost USD 20,000 in his stock portfolio. Though he translated for me, he admitted that he was not paying attention to what I shared then. The picture below was taken when he was leading the worship then.)
In early 2009, I went again to the Dapu church bringing funds to relieve the financially strapped elderly brothers and sisters. Their children, who were working in Dongguan, did not remit money to them after the financial crisis hit. I believed they were laid off. The church leaders were awkward when I reminded them of their unpleasant attitude towards me in my last visit in 2007. We had a good laugh to break the awkwardness.
All glory to the Lord.
