Christian - Others

  A Landmark of Grace Collin Leong, February 16, 2020 "Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:13-14) I. Introduction I awoke in the High Dependency Ward after a five-hour brain tumour surgery on 6th February 2020. The first thing that came to my mind was thankfulness to God that I am still alive and that my mental capacity was still more or less intact. But what came after was this overwhelming gratitude that so many prayers had been offered for me, maybe by up to a hundred people, through word-of-Whatsapp in my chat groups. I am aware God has everything under control, but the love and care shown must have touched His heart.  I felt this is what it should be like being in God's family. The willingness to be transparent with our weaknesses and pain, and allowing...

Brain Surgery Experience Collin Leong. Feb 15 2020   I. Background In April 2016, during an MRI scan of a separate medical problem I had called  Myasthenia Gravis  (MG), the Gleneagles Hospital accidentally found a 4.1 Centimeter benign tumour in my brain. It is not cancerous. They called it a glioma tumour.  As the tumour is over the speech processing part of the brain, there was a risk in taking immediate surgery. The neurologist recommended we monitor it with MRI on a yearly basis, to see how aggressive it would grow. By November 2019, the tumour had grown to 5.7 Centimeters. I had procrastinated with the surgery as I wasn’t comfortable with the private hospital. In December 2019, I visited a friend who was diagnosed with Parkinson decease. His wife told me I can get a second opinion at the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH). After consulting NNI, I decided to go ahead with the surgery, as I felt the neurologists there were a lo...

A Life of Gratitude Collin Leong, February 2, 2020 " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. In love He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will"  (Eph 1:3,5) On February 6th 2020, I'll be going for a surgery at Tan Tock Seng, NNI, to remove a 5.7cm tumour from the left frontal lobe of my brain. The "benign" tumour was discovered in April 2016, when I was diagnosed with an unrelated disorder called Myasthenia Gravis (MG), which is an auto-immune problem affecting my muscles. Basically, my own antibody was blocking the receptors at the neuro-muscular junctions, preventing signals from the brain to activate the muscles properly. The symptoms include double-vision, droopy eye-lids, numb tongue, difficulty to chew and swallow,  shortness of breath, and general weakness of the neck, arms and legs. For this ...