Be Like an Eagle....

This year, I finally managed to find time to attend G12 conference, for the past 2 years, I was either travelling for projects, or I have to manage weddings. The theme for this year conference was "The Power of A Dream". This is so appropriate and I don't think it was a coincidence. When I was in Seattle and Phoenix, God spoke so clearly about a childhood dream He will revive.. and He spoke 3 times while I was in States. I knew this year my dream will come to pass :) Today, I was reminded about Eagle by one of the youngest speakers in the conference. When I was a youth, I was always inspired about the life of eagles, how they grow and how they live since young. There are spiritual insights about an eagle life, and I would love to share with you.

This is a story of the Eagle’s life. Eagle has long life up to 70 years. It has patience to survive.To live till 70 years, he has to pass though a hard decision. It’s talons works properly till 30 years After 30 years, it’s talons becomes weak and they can’t grab prey. It’s long and sharp beak also becomes bent. It’s thick feathers become stuck to chest due to heavy wings and can’t fly freely. Then Eagle has left only two options: either die or pass through a painful process of the changes, which lasts 5 months.When Eagle reaches near 30, it’s beak,talon and feathers becomes weak. For new life, eagle makes one hard decision. Eagle flies on top of a mountain and sits on nest. Then Eagle strikes its beak against a rock and pull it out. After that it waits for new beak to grow. Then it starts plucking out it’s talons. New talons grow back. Then it plucks its old and thick feathers.Now the painful process completed and it has to wait for 5 month to recover. After that it can make its fly to sky and can enjoy new birth. Now it can live 40 years more.

The speaker was sharing about how we could continue to live for our dreams, and I was brought back to the memories how I started Heaven's Gift. I was a Group Manager/ Group Account Director for a company. Life in the corporate was great and I have had many travel opportunities especially in Asia in that particular 4 years. Indonesia was one country I chose to visit regularly and support my local team, though my bosses never expected me to do so, as none of my predecessors have ever gone there. When I worked, I could be very absorbed in my job. Yet one life changing incident in Indonesia changed my destiny. I was in the Marriott Hotel when the first terrorist bomb took place in Jakarta in 2003. I could still remember that day, I was having meeting at the lobby with my colleague, and we ordered lunch. Then I went up to my room to make a few calls, my colleague was calling me 3 times to chase me to come down for lunch. I hanged up his first 2 calls as I was stuck in an overseas call with another vendor , and finally I answered his third call and advised him to bring up the food to my room instead. Now, he was not a hotel guest, would not have any access to the guest room, so eventually we decided to meet in the business centre so we could print all the documents for the next client's meeting we would be heading to. Imagine me coming down from my room fr 22nd to 5th level of Marriott Jakarta, and he coming up from lobby to the 5th level - business centre. 5 min later, the building shook, guests started screaming "bomb bomb" and all we knew was we needed to run down through the fire escape and get out of the building, not knowing what had had happened. When I finally saw the devastation of the ruins and the death of so many people at level 1 in that night, my heart sank.

I realised, life is indeed unpredictable, and I asked myself : Hannah, what do you really want to do for the rest of your life...I wanted to be near home, I wanted to have a lifestyle career when I can be mobile and yet be close to my family. And somehow, wedding planning naturally came to mind, since I have helped so many of my friends in the weddings. The detailed story of how I started this business can be found in my first blog. But what I did not share was : God was the one who inspired me to start a business, and He gave me the name "Heaven's Gift". I started the business at the age of 30, I was reminded always that this company is a gift from God. It was a steep learning curve, just like the eagle who needs a rebirth, I learnt to be humble, and re-learnt the rope of doing business from a corporate world perspective to a lifestyle career understanding. It was a good 7 years of learnings and relearnings. Initially some of my pals could not agreed with my move from a director role to a wedding planner. The good remuneration and perks I used to receive, how could I forgo all.. My boss was surprised why would I gave up a job that had 25 subordinates , to be a planner who serves the bride and her entire family. But I wanted something more than a job can offer, I want to see the impossible becoming possible. I wanted to experience the extraordinary in a very ordinary life.

And now looking back, not once has God ever failed me. I saw how He has stretched, blessed me and my team, I saw how He has blessed my couples with good weather, the creativity that He inspired in us, and the actual day deployment, everything was provided timely and sometimes supernaturally beyond my imaginations.
The last 7 years I felt I went through what the eagle went through. I have removed my old beak, old talons, old feathers, to growing new beak, new talons, new feathers. And I am ready to soar another 40 years... I am excited about what God has in store for me. Heaven's Gift is renewed for a greater purpose. It began as a gift from God to me, but I believe the last 7 years has prepared us to be an organisation that He could use to bless more. I want to see more lives be touched, and more couples be blessed with our creations. To God be the glory.

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