By MEL LEE

MY BELOVED Susanna,
I am writing my last love letter to you and I feel sad about it. In the past five days of our week-long celebration, you slowly and very carefully retrieved my letter from our mailbox, making sure the envelope did not get bent or torn.


You shut yourself inside our bedroom for two full hours after dinner to spend time alone, reading my love letter over and over again. How thrilling and fulfilling that was for me. It is as if you know that I may never be able to devote time and effort to writing such letters in future anniversaries! And so I will post this last one with much reluctance …


You know, I am very thankful to God that in our 15 years of marriage and despite the difficulties we have had to overcome, we continue to find time to reach out to church members and outsiders who are in greater need than us. The most encouraging advice I have ever received from Margaret after each of our ordeals is, "bless others as we have been blessed by God".

This continually gives me the strength to overcome my shyness and approach people I know I can help. Sometimes, all I need to do is talk to them about the centres and outreach of the Methodist Welfare Services.


You don't have such problems; you seem to know instinctively what a person needs and unhesitatingly direct them to the nearest family service centre, children or youth centre. Once you even helped to get a medical social worker's referral to Bethany Methodist Nursing Home.


I cannot help feeling grateful when I glimpse the hope in the faces of disadvantaged people after such conversations. Even Charis, in her own small way, has become adept at connecting people with the MWS because of her experience with the Bursary Awards and D'Joy Student Care Centre.


Don't you find it amusing that days before our wedding we were discussing how blessed we were to have joined a marriage preparation course in an MWS centre and now 15 years later, we are still talking about the MWS?

Mel Lee is the Senior Executive (Communications) of the Methodist Welfare Services.

The Methodist Welfare Services helps people from all walks of life regardless of race or religious affiliation. To find out more about our centres and outreach, please call 6478-4700, email admin@mws.org.sg or visit our website, www.mws.org.sg

Editor's Note: Starting next month, Methodist Message will run a new series in which readers will find out more about the people who help transform the lives of MWS beneficiaries.

ENCOURAGING ADVICE

'The most encouraging advice I have ever received is "bless others as we have been blessed by God" … Sometimes, all I need to do is talk to them about the centres and outreach of the Methodist Welfare Services.'