One of my Nepal mission team members passed away yesterday in a diving accident. It came as a shock to all of us who knew him. Those closest to him couldn't believe that he was gone. Others wept over his life, taken away so suddenly at the prime of his life.

Death certainly is no respecter of persons. Part of the shock came because we knew him to be an experienced diver. I thought of all the good and bad things I've thought and said about him. Wished I had been able to convey the good as an encouragement and regretted the bad things and wished that I had exercised more grace towards this brother.

His sudden death made me look at how easily I take life for granted sometimes, mostly not living as if today would be my last day on earth. Thinking that there'll always be yet another day. Yet another tomorrow.

His death revealed the many lives he has known and touched through his friendship and ministry as a photographer in church. It's only now that I realised how many people knew him in our big church family. There are many who mourn for his passing. And I wonder, how many people do I know and what difference am I actually making in their lives? Did I leave any loose ends untied? Unreconciled relationships? What would they say about me when I'm dead and gone? What would God say to me?

When it boils down to basics, there is only one thing that I want and hope to hear.

"You have lived and finished the race of life well. Well done, good and faithful one."

LT, I pray that this is what you hear when you face our Maker. May your soul rest in peace.

Other Friends Who Mourn His Passing:

• This Temporal Life


• In Memory of Laurence Thong


• Au Revoir, L.T.(when the sweet smell of death knows no mortal soul)


• A Tribute to Laurence Thong

aaaawwwww twinnie! strange, one of my faculties also got news yesterday that his best friend pased away and will have to leave for Australia for the funeral. :-(

Whoa... that certainly is strange.

This has been a 2nd experience losing someone suddenly, in 2004 I also lost a good ol' pal in a freaky bus topple off Kuala Kangsar - at the North-South expressway - this should come to prove that death knows no sweet smell and YT, what you have shared in your blog shall certainly be a grim reminder to all of us to keep evaluating our lives from time to time.....

Am so grieved as well... wrote something about him on my blog. It's times like these that we learn to cherish others around us a lot more. Hugs...

*Hugs* to you guys. See you tonight...