Brother Low Siong Khim has been a Christian for almost 50 years. Throughout all that time, God has carried and delivered him through many life-threatening experiences.
Once when he was driving, a lorry from the opposite direction was carrying timber logs that were only secured with two chains instead of the three it should have been. As the lorry turned a sharp corner, the logs flew off the back of it towards his car, which was also approaching the corner. One of the logs rolled onto the car, another knocked and landed right next to the driver’s door, and the rest flew over the car. Brother Low had just narrowly escaped death.
This miraculous escape was only one of many of his encounters with a providential and merciful God. This incident and a later one involving encountering God at the crossroads have taught him many lessons about faith and life at the crossroads.
Recently, Brother Low shared these lessons from his own life experiences. ‘God is good to us. Because of His grace and mercy, we know that whatever we go through in life, we can hold on to Him,’ he shared. The best evidence of this comes from our personal experiences with Him. Because of what we have gone through, we know we can trust Him, and He will be with us no matter where we are.
Crossroad Experience – “A Place of Major Decisions”
Brother Low conveyed that when your life is at a crossroads, it is a place of major decisions. Jesus Himself experienced such a moment in the Garden of Gethsemane. A particular crossroads experience occurred about 18 years ago but is still very fresh in his mind. Today his left leg is a modified artificial one because of a related incident. However, this was a silver lining in a cloud because it providentially led to another more serious problem in the nick of time. Whenever he has the opportunity, he shares his crossroads experience with people.
At the end of December 2004, on the way to Changi Airport, Brother Low missed a step while he was on a staircase and fell. As he landed, he heard a cracking sound and found he could not stand up. His brother, who was with him, called the ambulance, and he was taken to the hospital. There, he found that he had broken a bone in his leg. ‘I requested a transfer to Universiti Malaya Medical Centre(UMMC) because all my previous treatment was done there, but I made the mistake of not having my leg placed in a cast during the transfer,’ he said. That accident led to an experience that would place him 10 months on medical leave.
Deterioration of Eyesight
A couple months after his fall, on February 9th, 2005, Brother Low discovered his eyesight was deteriorating. He tried to buy new spectacles, but it did not work. One day while lying on his sofa seat, he closed one eye and tried to look at the clock. He discovered that his right eye could see the numbers 1 to 12, but his left eye could only see 4 and part of 3 and 5. His left eye was almost blind. At that time, he was in Kluang. ‘Finding that my eyesight was deteriorating badly, I went to the Kluang Utama Specialist Hospital. An eye specialist checked the eye and could find nothing wrong with it. At that time, he surmised that maybe some infection had gotten behind the eye and prescribed a 1-week antibiotic and eyedrop.’
Later, during a follow-up at Orthopedic Clinic at UMMC, he enquired if an antibiotic had affected his eyesight. Due to his leg incident, he was taking 3 antibiotics because there were bacteria in the leg hibernating inside the bone. Any open wound and the bacteria would wake up. ‘Immediately after I asked the question, the doctor wrote a note and referred me to the eye clinic. It was almost lunch hour,’ Brother Low remembered. After checking with a few Master’s Degree student doctors, the conclusion was that there was nothing wrong with the eye. ‘The doctor said something behind the eye must be causing the problem. After making many calls, the doctor connected to his mentor, Consultant Eye Specialist, who gave instructions to admit me for further checkup.’
Discovery of Brain Tumour
‘Imagine, from Kluang, I went to Kuala Lumpur for an orthopedic clinic follow-up. I was admitted, and a CT scan was done in the afternoon the very next day. I underwent a lot of tests. Wondering what was happening, I asked a nurse why there were so many tests.’ The answer gave him a shock. ‘You tak tahu ke,’ the nurse replied, ‘you ada tumbuhan kat otak, mahu operate.’ (Don’t you know, you have a tumour in your brain that needs operation). It felt like the floor was collapsing beneath him. ‘I was only about 50 years old at that time. None of my sons were married. One marriage date has been set. I wondered what was going to happen.’ At the very least, brain surgery was on the cards, but where this would lead, he did not know.
God Spoke into the Situation
Brother Low remembers the date very well. At 4:14am on February 24th, 2005, he broke down. It attracted a nurse who came to check, and he said to the nurse, ‘Tak apa, tak apa.. (never mind, never mind)’. That was when he heard God speak to him clearly, “If you cannot trust Me in this critical moment, your faith in Me is in vain. Trust not in the neurosurgeon who is going to operate on you, but trust Me who is going to operate through him.” ‘God brought 1 Corinthians 2:5 to my mind, and I found peace and calmed down for quite some time.’
When God gives, He gives the best, Brother Low expressed. The next morning at around 7:30am, he was supposed to go to the MRI Center as operation procedures require more than a CT scan. However, the MRI machine was not functioning, and he was straightaway sent to Hospital Pantai Bangsar for the MRI scan. (All the while, his leg was in a cast, and he was in a wheelchair). The urgency of the procedures indicated the seriousness of the condition. After the MRI scan, the Radiologist said to him, “You had better remove the tumour as soon as possible.”
A Family Situation
Because this was a crucial moment, Brother Low informed his family, and they traveled up from Melaka. At first, his parents did not want him to go for the operation because his uncle, who was a medium that lived next door to their house, had told them that their son would not survive the surgery.
‘I thank God a friend brought along another friend who was knowledgeable about such cases about 30 minutes later. That friend looked at the MRI scans and told my parents, “Aunty, uncle, if this were my son, I would ask him to operate. If the operation is not successful, he will die instantly. If he doesn’t go for the operation, he is just waiting to die.”’
Brother Low learned from the eye specialist that the tumour in his brain was pressing the optic nerve. This was why his eyesight was deteriorating. The tumour generated a kind of liquid that could not go upward, instead going downwards. In simple terms, if unchecked, the discharge from the tumour will eventually make him blind, and moving further down will cause his death. At that time, the optic nerve was still pink in colour, meaning that there was no blood flow. If the brain tumour is removed, blood would start flowing, and his left eye would be able to see again. However, it would be too late once the optic nerve turns white.
A decision was made to go for an operation at the private wing because after the MRI scan his case was considered non-life-threatening. He was put on a waiting list at UMMC. Taking the advice of the eye specialist into consideration, the decision to operate at the private wing was to prevent damage to the optic nerve and loss of eyesight.
Visited by Concerned Friends
Brother Low remembered, ‘My friend Pr Benjamin Yeoh skipped his lunch after his general council meeting and came to the hospital and visited me. He asked, “How are you feeling now?” I replied, “If God tells me not to go for the operation, I will not go. Otherwise, I will just go.” Well-meaning friends came to visit. Through their conversations, it seemed to be farewell. But after my encounter with God on February 24th, I never thought of dying. I knew God was with me. All my brothers came and waited with my parents till almost midnight outside the operating theater (OT). I remember my dad was so afraid to see me wheeled out of OT with my head all covered in linen.’
Before the operation, the neurosurgeon had called Brother Low’s second son, Solomon, who was 21 years old, into the consulting room. The doctor told him, “You are at a legal age. I cannot let your father sign the consent form without a witness. I need you to understand the risks. If I cut the optic nerve, your father will go blind. If I cut the blood vessel, I can only ‘say sorry to you.’ The Operating Theater does not cater to all these emergencies. If the blood vessel is cut, there will be no time to shift your father to another Operating Theater.”
Carried On God’s Grace
Brother Low reflected, ‘I often wonder, if the children’s parents were not Christians when they face a crisis, will they be able to still stand in their faith? It’s not an easy question.’ He recognizes that it is through God’s grace that he can share his story today. In addition, he could go and pay the fee by himself, though he was still in a wheelchair after his discharge. While at the payment counter, he met another person, whose mother had a brain tumour the size of an egg and who had died at the OT. Initially, she was surprised to see me with my leg in a plaster cast and wondered why I was at the neuro ward. After knowing I went for surgery to remove the size of an old 50-cent coin tumour, she told me I was blessed that I could still come and pay for my medical charges, while her mother had died during surgery, and she still had to pay her mother’s operation fees.
‘I was blessed with a new technology,’ he shared. ‘I did not need to open the skull. A cut was done at my nose, and the scraping was done through there. It took the doctor a few hours to scrap the tumour. It was not an easy operation. The doctor told me the tumour was supposed to be a soft, jelly-like consistency, but it had hardened.’ Despite the delicate operation, it went successfully. Brother Low survived without any side effects and without the optic nerve or blood vessel being cut.
The tumour could recur because it was impossible to remove everything. The MRI scan was rescheduled to every 3 months, then changed to 6 months once, yearly, and then every 2 years. The 2017 and 2019 reports came back with excellent results, and the next one is scheduled 5 years from the last, in 2024. Throughout this whole period, God had been covering him. Brother Low shared that he knows a person whose tumour grew back at the same spot it was removed two months after an MRI scan.
The Work Belongs to God
This experience taught Brother Low many lessons about being at a Crossroads. ‘We cannot stay too long at a crossroads,’ he said. ‘When we are at a crossroads, we must decide – whether to go north, south, east, or west. A Crossroads is a place that is dangerous to stay on. At a crucial moment in my life, a decision had to be made whether to go for the operation and to trust in God’s direction or my own. Proverbs 3:5-6 counsels us to trust and acknowledge God, and He will direct our paths.’
‘By cultivating a time set aside to be alone with God, we can discern His direction. Cultivate an intimacy with him. Our personal relationship with God matters. No matter how bad or crucial our situations may look, God has a word of hope for us. Numerous scripture comes to mind. Jeremiah 33:2 reminds us that the work belongs to God.
‘Just like God had a covenant with Israel, He has a covenant with us and He will fulfill His part of the covenant. We can rest in Him. In Matthew 11:28, Jesus says to us, “Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” This “Call to me..” indicates a relationship with Christ. It’s fantastic to find that the Creator knows us. He wants to hear from us and answer us when we call on Him.’
Waiting On and Trusting in God
Brother Low conveyed that when we are at a life crossroads, we wait on God because sometimes the answer may be to wait a while instead of receiving straightaway. Seek Him to direct your path. In Jeremiah 33:3, God promised to reveal great and unsearchable things to us. As a husband and a father of five sons, Brother Low has experienced many deep things and challenges. Hebrews 13:8 tells us that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. God was reliable in the past. We can trust Him today and hold fast to the hope for tomorrow. This is a blessing because this understanding would lead us to surrender ourselves totally to Him.
Regarding Bother Low’s leg surgery, the plastic surgeon had told him, “You better pray to your God. I have never done a flap so big in size. If the flap rots away and does not grow, it will expose your bone. I would not know what to do.” To operate on the leg, the surgeon had to remove his leg muscle to cover the bone and take the skin from the thigh to cover where she had pulled away the muscle. ‘The surgeon was so happy the operation was successful. God’s ways are far above our ways,’ Brother Low expressed.
‘We cannot trust our own understanding. We need to trust God in every area of our life and be assured that God is interested in every area of it. Sometimes circumstances come into our lives, and Satan’s strategy may hurt Godly people and leave bitterness and loss of hope for the future, and we cannot understand. Sometimes from time to time, we may be confined in a jail of a mind that is so stressed and filled up that we do not know what to do and every direction seems to be blocking us, but this is a time that we should not be discouraged.’
God Is Ever Present, Ever Able, and Ever Willing
‘We should look to God, who is able and ever-present with us,’ Bro Low conveyed. ‘Remember, we have a God who is with us, and He knows us. He is ever present, ever able, and ever willing. Whatever we face right now, His strength and peace are with us. It is not the end of the story. God wants a relationship with us and to be a part of our hearts. Let us continue to trust in Him and to depend on Him.’
Note: Brother Low also shared this testimony in a church service at Peace Assembly Kluang in Kluang, Johor, on the 11th of February, 2023, almost exactly 18 years after the events described above. You can view the full video on Peace Assembly’s YouTube page on https://www.youtube.com/live/sdR29KE8DSA?si=mPtXhK8IDa8s3yjL
The writer would like to thank Brother Low for his openness and generosity in sharing his story as a blessing to our readers and for his great hospitality and help throughout its production. All photos of Bro Low and his family were contributed by Brother Low. The rest of the images are used solely for illustrative purposes.
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