The year 2021 was a difficult one for Joni Yuen and her family.

Her father-in-law was diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus. Much of the caregiving fell to her husband, Joseph Oh, him being the oldest child. Her mother-in-law moved in with them so she could receive better care. Then that November, despite best efforts, her father-in-law succumbed to his illness.

When Joni discovered she had cancer, her first thought was to ask God what lessons He wanted her to learn.

With so much going on, Joni had little time to think about herself, or her health. The lump she felt on her abdomen was something she had noticed in the past. It would usually disappear after a while and there was never any pain. So she ignored it.

But one night, as she was about to go to sleep, she realised the lump had not only not disappeared, it had become more prominent.

“I felt I should see a doctor,” said Joni, 58.

A detailed consultation, a scope and a scan later, the results came in: Low-grade lymphoma in the small intestines.

“I had no symptoms. I exercise well, eat well, sleep well. The only symptom was this lump. I thank God for that prompting to see the doctor.”

The cancer was considered low-grade because the tumour was small and slow-growing. There was nothing to be done. Yet.

When Joni was told the news, she neither cried nor panicked. She did not ask God “why?” either.

Instead, she told Him: “However much time You have given me, make me useful.

“Just show what is Your purpose for me in this situation. What do You want for me to learn from it?”

Her simple faith had not come easily. It was the result of living through difficulties and seeing God at work through them all.  

Faith 10 years in the making 

In 2011, Joni attended her first session with Duranno Mother School, a movement that nurtures mothers spiritually. During that time, she learnt the importance of intimacy with God. The close walk with Him was necessary because of what was to come.

In 2014, Joni and Joseph’s youngest child went through a rebellious phase which saw him dropping out of secondary school. For two years, he associated with negative influences and kept late nights.

Joni (seated right) and Joseph with their three children.

“I am a very strong-headed person. I will just cheong (power through). But there was nothing we could do. The more we tried to call him back, pull him back, the worse it got.”

Because she had been growing her relationship with God, Joni was able to lean on Him.

“The only thing was just to let go and trust in the Lord that He would deal with it. I just needed to surrender to Him.

“God told me to ‘fight the right battle’ and just look to my faith and trust in Him to do a miracle in his life.

“God had been preparing me for 10 years.”

That lesson in surrender was reinforced in a dream some years later.

“In this dream, I saw a lot of dead bodies. Then from afar, I saw flags. As I walked towards it, I saw a lot of people dancing and singing, very happy.

“At that point, I didn’t understand the dream. A white flag represents surrender. What is so happy about surrendering? It’s a defeat.

“Then I realised that it was a call to surrender to the Lord. When you do, then you are able to find joy and peace in the midst of whatever battle you are in. That is why you are able to worship and sing with joy.”

A battlefield of angels

After the diagnosis in 2021, Joni’s condition remained stable. But within a year, her condition deteriorated.

“I occasionally have this kind of gastric pain, a kind of burning pain. But it goes off pretty soon.

“But in April 2023, the pain was so bad I had to go back to see doctor. I was crouched over and turning pale.”

A scan revealed that the tumour had almost doubled in size in just a few months. She had to begin chemotherapy.

Even while all this was going on, Joni’s thoughts were on others.

“When my cell group prayed for me to get healing from the Lord, I told them, ‘Thank you. But don’t let that be a stumbling block to your faith if it goes the other way around.

“’Please pray that however much time God has for me, He will use me.’ That was one way of me letting go. No self.

“Even if there is no healing, I still tell myself that I am in the Lord’s hand. I let go of questioning God, ‘Why?’, even questioning, ‘Lord, why me?’”

When her chemotherapy began, Joni had to live out that surrender. The first round of treatment was painful. Always sensitive to medication, Joni reacted badly to the drugs.

Joni underwent six rounds of chemotherapy. Through weakness and emotional exhaustion, Joni was encouraged by God and the support of her family.

“There was a burning sensation from my back all the way to the front. I couldn’t breathe. It felt like I was dying.”

As she shut her eyes in agony, Joni had a vision, the first in her life.

“I saw a lot of angels, a battlefield of angels. As the angels surrounded me, there was peace. I felt very peaceful.”

That was when she remembered the dream and its importance became “very clear with my own condition”.

Living water within

As Joni prepared for round two of the six rounds of therapy, God gave her a word of encouragement out of John 2:1-11 through Joseph.

Joseph’s encouragement from God’s Word gave Joni strength and hope through her treatment.

Her husband wanted her to not be afraid, but to consider the chemotherapy drugs as life-giving: Jesus could make the drugs like living water to Joni.

“What is living water? It is the Holy Spirit empowering and filling you. That helped me to understand the Holy Spirit, His power and what He can do.”

Though Joni did not experience the usual side effects of chemotherapy, treatment was still challenging and she was often physically and emotionally drained. By the fourth cycle, the drugs had also damaged her veins so much that the nurses struggled to find a healthy vein for the infusion plug.

Joni had to learn to “let God’s power be made perfect in my weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). That very night, as she slept, she indeed felt God’s power running through her body. When she awoke, she had a new understanding of the truth of living water which is the Holy Spirit in her (John 7: 37-39).

Even while she was going through chemotherapy, Joni (back in yellow) continued recording songs for the worship album.

Through it all, Joni continued to serve as a key leader of Duranno Mother School and a member of singing group, Overseas Radio & Television. During that time, she even recorded all 10 songs of the group’s second album, aptly titled Surrender.

“While I was recording it, the Lord showed me my 10 year-journey with Him, how I can surrender anything to Him. There is joy in surrendering things to the Lord.”

A whole-family affair

What Joni did not realise was that her three children were not in that place of surrender yet.

“One day, my oldest son said to me while we were sharing, ‘Ma, you have not given us space to grieve.’”

The mothers at the Duranno Mother School, a ministry in which Joni serves. She has been sharing the testimony of her cancer journey to encourage the mothers and give glory to God.

Joni had thought that being upbeat and living her life happily despite her diagnosis would bring her husband and three children – sons aged 28 and 24, and a daughter aged 26 – some comfort. After that conversation, she realised that, in her effort to exercise faith, she had swept their feelings aside.

“The children were worried. They did not know what to do, how to help me. But they didn’t dare talk about things like what to do if anything happens. They couldn’t process their feelings.

“I had to learn to step back, slow down and let them catch up with me while they internalised things.”

It worked. Just this May, Joni’s daughter got married. In her thanksgiving speech, she said that her mother was her role model.

She said: “I wanted to show through my life what hope in God is like, what it is like to rely on God for strength and the reality of God.”

Since completing treatment last October, Joni is in remission although she still has to undergo immunotherapy quarterly for the next two years.

When Joni first learnt about her cancer, she had asked God what lessons He wanted her to learn. As the interview came to a close, Salt&Light asked if she had the answer to that question.

Joni replied: “I’m learning the true meaning of surrendering myself to the Lord and finding the inner beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit (1 Peter 3:4).”

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