I’m Alexandra (Alex for short), and that’s my brother, Andrew, on the guitar. We’ve been roving about and bringing worship in simple forms to different places, and that includes several sessions at Lepark.
The concept is simple: Lovers of His presence from all walks of life gather, worship, soak, get healed and recharged.
One day, I was told by Carmen, one of the owners of Lepark, that a group of fathers would join us in worship. They were from a group called Elijah 7000, and have been interceding in prayer for Singapore for years now.
As usual, there was no setlist – we usually just worship free-flow, as the Spirit leads. But God put a song in my heart, one that I had not heard for years.
牵我的手 – pronounced Kang Gwa Eh Qiu, which means Hold My Hand, by Lim Gee Tiong – is a song in the Hokkien dialect, which I do not speak.
The last time I’d heard the song was at my Grandpa’s wake. The song is a desperate man’s cry for God to take his hand. He cries out for help as he walks a road he doesn’t know how to – not in his human strength.
At the end of the road, he reaches God’s door and hears His voice saying, “Come in, My child.”
During the week, I was studying for my exams. Several times I found myself singing or humming 牵我的手, and I would feel deeply moved and weep, not knowing why.
When we met the fathers, we finally sang it during worship. Many of the fathers knew the song and sang along passionately and loudly, weeping as they did.
I later found out that many present that night work in prisons, and this was the song they sang as they led inmates to Christ. It’s also a song inmates sing on death row.
This is just one of many instances I’ve seen God orchestrating everything so the generations would turn to each other for His glory. He’s the God of our youth, our adulthood, our first to last days and beyond.
I’m beginning to see that the changes we want to see in society can only come about when we partner with our parents’ generation.
He’s the Father of all fathers – meaning He loves our parents more than we ever could, and will love our children more than we ever will.
I’m beginning to see that the changes we want to see in society can only come about when we partner with our parents’ generation.
They carry immense wisdom and the wealth of God’s Word. We in our 30s, 20s and even our teens have all the potential – the keys to unlocking dreams in each other, the language of hope that this world is thirsty and dying for.
It takes so much humility to turn back to our fathers and mothers – especially if they have not exemplified our myopic ideals. But what we did not have growing up, Father God lavishes on us. It is His will that we run back to the very ones who gave us life on this Earth.
To honour them with the way we live out our ambitions. To do our parents proud, even if that looks completely different from their “lawyer/doctor/businessman” expectations.
This is the prayer that the Elijah 7000 fathers are praying for us.
This is their heart of humility – acknowledging that only God knows how best to raise their households – and their posture of purpose – embracing why they have children.
These are the prayers being poured out on us. How will we respond?
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord
And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
(Malachi 4:5-6)