A Roller Coaster Ride of Happiness

Uncle Yong and Aunty Chen used to operate school’s canteen, they were hard workers and serious in earning their living, they were not wealthy neither lacking.  Uncle Yong and his wife have 5 above 60 years old elderlies under their care, they are their parents, an uncle and a 92 years old grandmother, and they also have 2 children who are still schooling. Every day, uncle Yong’s parents and his uncle have to wake up before day light to sell beverage in their central wet  market, everyone in the family played their own role and live harmoniously and happily.

When our government declared MCO, another of his uncle who lived in Brunei moved back to stay with them. During that time, everyone had no income, Uncle Yong’s burden were getting heavier with the increase of living expenses. In the end, they started from delivering bread to receiving Manna Food Bags as aid recipient. They had experienced the joy of delivering breads to others, but when they were at their lowest points, their hearts were comforted when they received the Manna Food Bag instead.  Malaysia Christian Basel Penampang branch 7979 Holistic Care Station had built close ties with Uncle Yong and his family by giving regular care and encouragement.

On one afternoon, when the sun was shining bright, the volunteer had a talk with Aunty Chen in the car.  “Our lives are already very difficult, furthermore we have 5 elderlies and 2 children …” Aunty Chen poured out all her worries, she was worried that Uncle Yong would lost interest very quickly while using up all their savings, life would get worse. The volunteer shared her thoughts after they prayed over the issue: “If God allows, then you will not be able to stop it. Things will go on smoothly, and the outcome can be out of our expectations.”  Thereafter, Aunty Chen’s heart was comforted, and she agreed with Uncle Yong.

Uncle Yong encountered many challenges in the progress of setting up the coffee shop business, it was not an all smooth sailing. However, God’s blessing is unstoppable, whenever need arises, there would surely someone there who would offered to help, just like the incident where Uncle Yong worried about the startup capital, then one church member was willing to contribute for investment purpose.

Looking back at one particular incident when it was close to opening, where Uncle Yong was worried and troubled over the deteriorating condition of a very expensive roast duck oven. However, they chose to believe that the God who had brought them through all their lowest points will bless them once again. Aunty Chen told Uncle Yong: “You will in-charge of searching for our new oven, I’ll in charge of praying.” Very soon, somebody sold an unbelievable low price roast duck oven to them. On another occasion, when the business was bad due to pandemic, many of their workers left, that left Uncle Yong and his wife to handle everything. When the church heard that, and so coincidentally there was one public holiday during that period of time, the church brothers and sisters went to the shop to help up by taking and delivering orders. Uncle Yong and his wife were so moved by their deeds. Later, an orphanage in that community closed down, a youngster from the centre had no way to go, he ended up working at the coffee shop.     

At present, Uncle Yong and his family slowly catching up to their previous days, his parents were also back to the Central Wet Market to sell beverage. “Just like the roller coaster rides, it goes up and down, it seems like dangerous, but God is just like the rail track that hold us firmly, preventing us from falling …” When we talked about the lowest point of their lives, Aunty Chen expressed that although running the business was difficult but with God’s blessing and caring from church’s members, she still felt very thankful, and thus named the coffee shop “Happiness”.     

Holding on to each other, Uncle Yong and Aunty Chen weathered the storms and received the blessings of God, they have grown closer and became more harmonious with each other. Meanwhile, Aunty Chen also insisted to bring their children to church, their daughter had slowly turn from a rebellious teen to a teen who is close to her parents, she shared everything with them, in return gaining trust from her parents.

On one early morning, Happiness Coffee Shop ….
“This is a large poor community, we have to cook 200 packed meals!”
“Good! The yellow noodles that we ordered is on the way, I’ll pick it up ….. and also eggs.”
“Please tidy up the table outside, we are going to pack the food on it.”
“Who can buy soya sauce, we need it for the fried noodles?”

The conversations went back and forth as the volunteers busied themselves at Uncle Yong’s coffee shop. Happiness Coffee Shop was the business that Uncle Yong took over earlier, now it had become the community hot spot that spread out Happiness to every needy family.