A Tale of Two Missives

It's so easy to get good feedback from people.

• "Wah, that was awesome, man!"


• "I love the way you think/write/sing/act."


• "You are soooo photogenic!"

It's equally easy to get no feedback from them.

• An event which you helped organised was over and done with. And everyone involved went on silent mode.


• You sang your heart out in a wedding ceremony. But besides some polite applause, no one commented anything about it. Not even your friends.


• You spent hours coaching a little underprivileged boy to read under the ministry of free tuition organised by your church. After a few months, the boy stopped coming over. No word was said as to the reasons why.

In those instances, silence does not speak a thousand words. Even if you suck at singing/teaching/organising, it'll still be helpful to know where you faltered and improve upon them. At least it will give you some pointers as to where you should go to next.

It is unfortunate, but constructive feedback is a rare thing to receive. Being the polite Asians that we are, we detest having to tell someone areas that they need to improve upon. We'd rather say nothing than say something potentially hurtful.

And so, it was a surprise to me to receive this from the founders of Elijah House Malaysia. A feedback letter gathered from the participants of the small group I led the past few months and also from the other senior facilitators.

Hahah, if you noticed, you can mostly see only my good traits here. Muahahaha

Of course my eyes zoomed in straight into the 'To Be Improved' areas. I found them to be true and told ML (one of the founders) so. It was a truly enriching and moving feedback session. Encouragement, advice and correction were given in love and she ended by praying for me. Her insightful prayer as to what was going on within me was spot on. Only God could have told her that. I felt the last vestiges of weariness and apathy on some issues slipping away from me. I felt free.

The feedback missive also confirmed what I already knew in my heart. About the calling that I felt to this type of ministry since year 2000. It was like another brick is laid upon the path which I am to walk on. How cool is that?

On another note, here's another missive my department received in the month of June. It was a response to a query about the pricing of services. Are these people for real??