You are here

Foreword

Foreword

Bentley C.F. Chan

 

The stories that speak most power­fully to us — and stir our hearts most deeply — are often stories of human suffer­ing on the one hand, and of God’s help in the midst of the suffer­ing, on the other. The story that imme­diately comes to mind is that of the biblical Job, even if the inten­sity of his sufferings may seem unrelatable to us.

I think Pearl Bong’s story will likewise speak powerfully to us, even if her story is not the equal of Job’s. For one thing, whereas Job lost his children (Job 1:18–19), Pearl and her hus­band kept theirs. Yet it was the survival of their son, who was born prema­ture­ly and later diag­nosed as autistic, that has made possible a poignant story of a mother’s self-giving love for her autistic son, and of God’s unmistakable love for both.

While you are reading this book of five chapters, please keep in mind that there is an 18-year gap between the first two chapters and the last three. This book was not written in one sitting, but is a compilation of Pearl’s sharings written at various points in her life, and published at www.christiandc.org.

Sister Pearl welcomed my suggestion of compiling her five sharings into a book, arranged chronologically. As the editor of the book, I did mainly light editing and made zero changes to her story.

In the course of my editing work, something wonderful happened to me: Doors were opened wide for me to glimpse into the mind of an autistic person, yet I was only looking at him from the out­side. Here and there in the story, I would see bright sparks of humanity that genuinely startled me (in a breathtaking sense), and made me realize that a person with autism is truly and fully human.

The book’s outlook is not negative or melancholic but positively God-centered, at times cheerful. And the story is not yet finished, for Pearl’s autistic son is alive and well, and the family will certainly expe­rience new happenings from God in the years to come.

I am confident that Pearl Bong’s story, born of suffering and helpless­ness, yet also of God’s sustaining presence, will inspire many to seek after Yahweh our loving God and Father.

Bentley C.F. Chan
Montreal, Canada
July 27, 2022

 

(c) 2021 Christian Disciples Church