“She has two options. One, get a new kidney. Or two, jiak bah dan si (Hokkien meaning ‘to eat your fill and await death’),” the doctor told Chua Bee Leng’s family members and her then-boyfriend, Ng Chai Lai, when they asked what would become of her.

Bee Leng had had to be rushed to the hospital by her family as she was suddenly in a lot of pain. Her hospital visits had been increasing in frequency – from 1-3 times a month to 4-7 times – and each time, her condition was more severe than the last.

That was 2013. An autoimmune disease had caused Bee Leng’s kidneys to fail in 2004, forcing her to begin dialysis. She underwent multiple operations to create fistulas in her arms, legs, neck and thighs for blood to enter and leave her body during dialysis. She was hospitalised almost weekly as serious infections set in.

Chai Lai and Bee Leng with their family members after their wedding ceremony held in Breakthrough Missions on May 5, 2018.

Bee Leng recalled an earlier time when another doctor told her that it would be sheer grace if she lasted 10 years of dialysis treatment.

It had been an agonising nine years since. It seemed her time was running out.

Ready to give up

Her condition initially left Bee Leng depressed until she started visiting her younger brother, Chye Heng, who was undergoing rehabilitation at halfway house Breakthrough Missions in 2007.

While there, she got to know Chai Lai and others like her brother – ex-offenders who had been in and out of prison numerous times because of drug abuse.

She would join them for their weekly prayer meetings as that was her chance to see her brother. They would each share about their lives, and the staff and residents came to know about her plight.

The time she spent at the prayer meetings, singing praise and worship songs and listening to the residents’ sharing and testimonies, lifted her spirits.

“My brother told me to believe in Christ and to go to a church when I can. In the end, I accepted Christ as my Saviour even before he did!” recalled Bee Leng with a chuckle.

Through Breakthrough Missions, Bee Leng came to know of God’s goodness. Over the years, her parents also came to know the Lord. She is pictured here at her baptism.

“If not for God, I was ready to give up on life because the pain was just unbearable. I know now that I can continue to commit my worries and fears to Him and He will come to my rescue.”

She believed that since God allowed this to happen to her, He would have His own plan. And she stopped worrying about her sickness and her future, but waited in faith for the Lord’s timing.

“Why her?”

When Chai Lai, one of Breakthrough Missions’ residents, found out Bee Leng was hospitalised in the early days of their friendship, he went to visit her and was struck by her tender heart.

“A girl like her, who isn’t well off, who had to juggled dialysis and work, yet she isn’t bitter and can still care for others,” he reflected, as she continued to visit her brother at the halfway house and even bought snacks for them.

Chai Lai and Bee Leng (centre) got to know each other in 2007 when she went to Breakthrough Missions to visit her younger brother. They are seen here in a 2007 photo with Ps Simon Neo (left), the founder of the halfway house.

But Bee Leng, worried that she would be a burden to him, was hesitant to start a relationship. Eventually Chai Lai’s sincerity and actions – he would comfort her with his words and presence – won her over in 2008.

In the years that followed, he often felt helpless when seeing her in so much pain, it was sometimes so intense that her screams could be heard by the other patients in the ward. He could only commit her in prayer to the Lord.

Wrestling with God

What the doctor said in early 2013 – that she only had two options – jolted Chai Lai.

He had been crying out to God, asking Him, “Why her?” In an instant, he saw a vision of Moses leading the Israelites across the Red Sea. Unsure of what that meant, he asked God.

“From the Old Testament through to the New Testament to now, when God saves people, He makes use of the person to save others – Moses … Pastor Simon Neo (founder of Breakthrough Missions),” came the revelation.

“I can save your girlfriend. Are you willing?” God asked. This wasn’t the first time he had heard the question.

Chai Lai wrestled with himself. He had thought of donating his kidney to Bee Leng as he could not bear to see her suffer, but, at the same time, he was afraid he might die in the process.

“Many were shocked when they heard what the doctor said. But I believe it was God using that encounter to help me reach my decision,” said Chai Lai.

The very next day, he told the kidney specialist attending to Bee Leng that he wanted to donate his kidney to her. After making arrangements for a battery of medical tests, he told Bee Leng about it.

Gift of life

“I remember that hospital visit. He cried in front of me, worried that I was going to die,” recounted Bee Leng. They were both 45 then.

She was shocked and touched by his selfless offer.

“To give me a kidney is no laughing matter and it will take a toll on you,” she told Chai Lai, concerned it would harm him as he worked long hours. After completing his rehabilitation programme at Breakthrough Missions, he had taken on the job of driving taxis.

Chai Lai dated Bee Leng for six years before God gave him the boldness to donate his kidney to her. This picture was taken before the transplant on December 11, 2013.

After talking and praying it through, the couple decided to go ahead. But the road ahead was fraught with challenges.

Bee Leng had to undergo a heart bypass surgery as doctors discovered that three of her coronary arteries were blocked.

Despite that, the couple still encountered God’s goodness and perfect timing. Due to advancements in medical technology, there was a possibility that Chai Lai could donate his kidney to Bee Leng even though they did not share the same blood type. Had they wanted to do this just two years earlier, doctors told them it would have been impossible.

Given the fact that they were not related, and given Chai Lai’s checkered past, doctors warned they would be subject to rigorous reviews and interviews by the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Transplant Ethics Committee. One doctor even advised them to quickly get married.

“If we marry now, won’t we look even more suspicious? I don’t want to do that, my intentions are good,” came Chai Lai’s reply, and instead, chose to commit the matter to God.

Second shot 

After many rounds of interviews, they finally got the go-ahead.

Chai Lai, now 51, added: “When I found out our operation date, I was reminded that God knows me very well! I’m a forgetful person. But if you ask me when we did the operation, I can tell you it was 11 December 2013 … 11-12-13. Isn’t God amazing? I tell Bee Leng that even when we’re old and become forgetful, we won’t ever forget this date!” he chuckled.

Bee Leng never imagined things would turn out the way it did – that God would not only give her a new lease on life through Chai Lai’s kidney, but that she would find a husband along the way.

Attending their 2018 wedding were their renal medicine specialist, Dr Angeline Goh (left), the doctors who performed the surgery, the former chief of staff of Singapore Prisons Service, and professors involved in their kidney transplant.

They only tied the knot five years after the transplant, as Chai Lai wanted her condition to stabilise.

“When I think back on our wedding day, I remember how overjoyed I was. I thought when I started dialysis, I wouldn’t ever get married. But my childhood dream came true. I really thank God,” she said through tears.

Among the many who turned up to celebrate their nuptials were their Breakthrough Missions family.

Chai Lai added: “If God didn’t put her by my side, I could have fallen back to my old life of vice. And, if not for God, I wouldn’t have had the courage to donate my kidney. The promise He gave in Jeremiah 29:11 holds true: ‘For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.’”

Today, Bee Leng is a homemaker who ministers to those suffering from kidney disease. She hopes her story of finding hope in Christ will be one that encourages others. As for Chai Lai, he now visit the prisons regularly to minister to inmates, to share that, if God could change him, God can do the same for them.

“It has now been 13 years since I was released from prison and went to Breakthrough Missions. While I’m here on earth, I want to be salt and light for Him. People like me were considered the trash of society. But God has turned my life around. With God, all things are possible!”

“God wouldn’t give up”: It took a suicide attempt, jail and a near-death accident before he turned to God

“If these children with HIV can praise God, why can’t I?” cried out Radion’s Eugene Wee when his family lost everything