On 21^st May we celebrated our 30th Commencement. If I had to choose three words to describe the occasion, they would be “Soaring in JOY”. Each of the students beamed a natural smile that shone through their masks, and BTS as an organisation was also smiling as she proudly graduated 27 graduands for the first time in two years in a physical setting. Moments like these make us (both graduands and school) feel like eagles soaring into the high heavens. We feel that with God’s enabling we can do anything.

As I stood on the stage for an hour and the students paraded in front of me, the Lord led me to a question – “What will they be like five years from now? Will they still be soaring like eagles?”

Haddon Robinson’s exposition on Isaiah 40:31 answered my question. “But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

The answer is ‘no’.

As we wait on the Lord, sometimes we experience His miraculous ‘breakthroughs’ and we feel like we are flying. But at other times, we have no miracles. We are just running fast for Him and He gives us supernatural strength to persevere so that ‘we are not weary’. I think of a dear friend, Jane Soh, who despite being in the terminal stage of cancer, was granted the supernatural strength to minister to hundreds of cancer patients before the Lord took her home. Yet at other times, we walk in dry and weary times and the Lord protects us so that we do not faint in the heat of the wilderness.

I realise that Isaiah 40:31 is going to be our graduands’ lot. Sometimes they will fly. Sometimes they will run fast. Sometimes they will just walk. But the secret of maintaining the flight, continuing the race and walking out of the wilderness is just one thing – trusting and waiting for the Lord’s miracles, strength and protection. And with that, while I was on stage, I started praying that our graduands will be a people who wait on the Lord.

The speaker, Rev Dr Chan Fong’s, first PowerPoint slide summarised it well. It was a picture of a turtle perching on top of a telephone pole. How could the turtle be in that position: did it fly to the top of the pole? No – someone put it there. In the same way, if our graduands can fly to great heights, finish the race and walk out of the wilderness, it is because God has enabled them to do it.

Friends, the last two years have been incredibly challenging years. I describe them as akin to walking in the wilderness (for BTS, giving and foreign student intakes are down). Now we are all coming out of this pandemic wilderness with anticipation, hope and joy. Are we going to run for Him and fly with Him? It all depends on one thing – are we waiting on Him in dependence?

We are all fascinated by eagles as we want to fly high. But do you know that even though eagles are mentioned many times in the Old Testament, in the New Testament another bird has a stronger presence? It is the sparrow. The sparrow is small and comes cheap (two for a single cent) but not one of them is forgotten by God.

And as we walk through our trials, as we run our race, as we soar, may we be like the little sparrow – always mindful of the Father and dependent on His care.

Our prayer for you is that whether you are flying, running or walking, you will have the heart of the little sparrow and be truly dependent on the Lord.

Rev Peter Lin
President