Exodus 5

Bible Passage:  Exodus 5

Here we read about Moses and Aaron encountering Pharaoh for the first time. To their dismay, Pharaoh’s heart was hard and he added even more burdens to the Israelites and prevented them from worshipping God. This chapter is the beginning of many struggles and obstacles that the Israelites have to overcome before they enter the land of Canaan. Likewise in our lives we will face a lot of obstacles and we have to rely on God to overcome these obstacles. In subsequent chapters we will read about how God provided a way for the Israelites and how He through Moses and Joshua brought the chosen ones out of Egypt and into Canaan.

For this entry, I would like to testify my experiences with obstacles and through this testimony, hopefully it can be edifying or beneficial to the readers. This testimony was written in 2005. The testimony is called For Your Patience (FYP) as a pun to the Final Year Project (FYP) that I had to complete (for 1 year duration from 2^nd half of 2004 to 1^st half of 2005) while studying in university. The FYP was the most important project of the entire 4 year course and that the score has a significant impact to my final grades.

The Final Year Project (FYP) requires a partner. It is meant to be pair work. I managed to get a partner through my Industrial Attachment supervisor. My partner is someone I do not know well and I only got to know him when the FYP began. I did not choose my friends because they were specializing in other fields. After much discussion, we decided on the FYP topic that both of us are agreeable with.

Initially the FYP was manageable as we only did literature reviews of journals and other resources. I did other parts that my partner did not do; like simulations and deriving essential equations. Problems began to surface at the end of the first semester (later half of 2004). Problems were like delays in fabrication of components required in the experiment and finding usable components. The problems continue and became worse. During my holidays (2004 dec holidays) I went back to NTU often to try and solve the problems. Therefore, the entire holiday was spent troubleshooting the experiment. However, there were still no results and the faults could not be found during the holidays.

The worse thing was that my partner did not help out in the experiment. He did not know what is happening even though I explained to him many times and he did not contribute in troubleshooting. He was like lost in dreamland. Therefore, I had to take his burden. Actually, during the past years, I have hardly prayed for my studies. The only time I prayed was just before the exams. I guess I never really relied on God in most things that I do. It was only then that I realized that I had to really start praying as the problems were getting severe. I usually think to myself not to bother our Heavenly father in such things. I wonder if that is lack of faith in Him or an excuse as not to ‘bother Him’.

The troubleshooting continued for months even till my last semester (1^st half of 2005). Time was getting shorter day by day and there were still no results. I tried many ways to troubleshoot but each idea I tried failed time and again. Furthermore, my partner continued in his daydreaming. I was also getting rather desperate and stressed up especially my last semester I had to take 6 subjects and 1 FYP (actually 2 FYP as my partner was ineffective). As the deadline approached nearer, I was getting more demoralized as each time there were failures after failures. I have also tried fasting and prayer but the situation still got worse. I felt hard press on all sides and there seemed to be no opening. Therefore, I prayed to God to ask Him to open a way for me in the FYP. I did not know what way, as I could not think of it. I have even tried asking PHD students who were researching in similar fields but they too could not solve the problem or have not done such a project before. Moreover, I emailed the professors who co-wrote the journals but they never replied. My faith at that time kept plummeting. There is a hymn that I found comforting and that is hymn 68 “Hold Thou My Hand”. At that point of time, I felt I really needed Jesus to hold my hand as the burden was getting too great for me to bear. The verse that I held on was “Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Mt 11:28).

Two weeks before the report submission, I tried my last attempt (exhausted all my ideas) in solving the problem. I was prepared to tell my supervisor that I have given up the project. The attempt failed again. However, through that last attempt the problem was identified. The fault was due to the problematic sensor which was tested to be working initially. Also, other equipment began to fail without reason and it was necessary to shift to another lab. Through the grace of God, a working sensor was found (almost all the sensors in my lab were spoilt because they are shared) in that lab and the whole experiment was shifted to that lab which had better facilities.  Some positive results were collected after months of troubleshooting. There was just enough time (about 2 weeks) to write the FYP report draft and submit it. Thank God as it was a miracle to have results!

However, it was not all over yet. The FYP report was to be written individually. My supervisor also wanted us to put down the contributions to the project. I told my partner to leave it as 50:50 (even though it was unfair as he was free riding). I felt that it was through the grace of God that the FYP finally had results and therefore decided to help out my partner through the contributions page. The shocking part of it all was that later I found out that my partner blatantly copied almost all my report into his (basically cut and paste, even the diagrams that I spent weeks drawing he copied wholesale.). I passed him my report as a reference and told him not to copy it word for word but he was just too lazy. I was really unhappy with that incident initially as I have tried to help him out and he cheated. My supervisor found out about it and told him to change his report due to the ‘duplication’; that was after I told him to search his conscience and admit the copying to our supervisor. Through this, I learned about forgiving others as my sins would not be forgiven if I do not forgive others.

Lastly, there was another problem. The last test God set for me was to endure all the wrongful accusations. During the FYP, I was accused by the PHD students of malfunctioning sensors. Even the sensor that managed to get the results supposedly malfunctioned and I was put to blame for many things. I was rather worked up (as the sensor cost about 10k) with all those accusations (some of them false accusations). Initially, I wanted to fight back all the accusations but later I just let them have their way and asked God to open a way. I remembered the verse “For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully. For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.” (1 Pet 2:19 – 20) Also, Jesus said that if our enemies slap us on one cheek, let him slap on the other too.

I told my supervisor about all those accusations and wonderfully he agreed to solve the problems! Moreover, the sensor that the PHD claimed was faulty was actually working; the PHD students tested it wrongly.

Through all these tests that God set for me, I have learned that my faith is still far from perfect and needs to be improved. I have learned that whatever matter though small it seem, we should take it to the Lord in prayer. I have learned that I should rely on God more often. My faith have been reaffirmed that Jesus promises are true and that even though the path may seem difficult with endless obstacles, there is always the hidden blessings of God in there. In my case, it was a blessing in disguise as through all the failures I have gained better understanding of the project and hence actually did well for my FYP. Through God’s grace, a project that was on the path to failure turned 180 degrees and even did well. I have learned that we should always forgive the people around us and show them love even though they may do nasty things. Finally I have learned that we should endure sufferings be it false accusations. Jesus committed no sin and yet He suffered for us. May all glory be given unto His Name.