In 1992, Carol Chiang learned that her grandmother had been diagnosed with stomach cancer. She was saddened and did not know what to do.

The cancer had progressed to the terminal stage, the doctor said, so her grandmother had about six months left to live.  

“Since the prognosis was bad, we decided not to go for any treatment as Grandma was in her mid-80s then,” Carol, now 63, told Salt&Light.

One Sunday, Carol visited her parents after attending Sunday service at her church.

Carol having dinner with her parents in their home.

“As I was coming in, my mother was going out of the house with two of her sisters. She told me that they were going to the temple to pray for my grandmother,” said Carol.

While waiting for them to return, Carol proceeded to take an afternoon nap at her parents’ home.

“I saw Jesus but He does not know me”

Carol entered a dream almost immediately upon laying her head down. 

In her dream, her grandmother had died and come back to see Carol.

“I was happy to see Grandma as she walked towards me and smiled. I quickly called out to her: ‘Grandma, Grandma, did you see Jesus?’ She replied: ‘Yes, but Jesus said He does not know me.’

“Then Grandma just looked at me and my heart dropped,” she related to Salt&Light.

Carol woke up from the dream with a heavy heart.

“Usually, my dreams are fuzzy. But this dream was very clear and I knew that it was a prompting from God,” she said.

The living and dining room of her parents’ home where Carol had the dream one Sunday afternoon in 1992.

She shared her dream with her husband and he agreed with her that she needed to visit her grandmother and speak to her as soon as possible.

However, Carol’s grandmother only spoke Hainanese. Carol could speak the dialect conversationally but she did not know many Christian terms in Hainanese.

“I prayed for a few days and asked God for wisdom on how to start the conversation, and for the message I am bringing to be accurate,” said Carol. She felt apprehensive as she had never had such “deep” conversations with her grandmother before. 

When she visited her grandmother a few days later, she began the conversation by telling her grandmother that her family goes to church every Sunday.

“This means that you don’t eat food offered to the ancestors?” her grandmother asked.

Carol replied in the affirmative.

“I continued to tell her that Jesus loves us and He wants to give us new life, that whoever believes in Jesus will be with Him in heaven,” she said.

There was silence as her grandmother appeared to be pondering what her granddaughter had just shared with her.

Carol as a baby in her grandmother’s lap. Her mother is standing on the right side of her grandmother and her aunty is on the left.

Carol tried to engage her grandmother again, by asking her if she was feeling any pain and if she was afraid of dying.

Her grandmother listened but did not answer her. So, Carol, who is a nurse, proceeded to help her change her morphine patch before leaving the house.

“I was anxiously hoping that Grandma would accept Jesus but that didn’t happen,” she told Salt&Light.

“But I knew that seeds of faith had been planted and that I had done what God has instructed me to do. When I told my husband what happened, he said we would continue to pray and believe in God’s timing that all would be well,” said Carol.

A Christian doctor sent just in the nick of time

On Saturday that same week, Carol’s mother called to tell her that her grandmother was vomiting blood.

Carol immediately called a general practitioner Dr Ng to make a home visit to her grandmother. Dr Ng was Carol’s former colleague and fellow believer. They would often share stories about their families and faith.

It happened that Dr Ng was on duty that Saturday and could make a trip to Carol’s grandmother.

Shortly after, Dr Ng called Carol to say that her grandmother was not doing well and urged her to see her grandmother as soon as possible.

“I knew time was running out,” said Carol. “So I asked Dr Ng if she would share about Jesus and salvation with Grandma. She agreed to and quickly got my cousin to help translate into Hainanese whatever she said.”

While Carol was on her way to her grandmother’s home, Dr Ng called her with wonderful news: Her grandmother had received Jesus into her heart and said the Sinner’s Prayer.

When Carol arrived, she found her grandmother conscious and lucid.

“I told her: ‘Now that you have decided to follow Jesus, He will bring you to heaven to be with Him for eternity. You do not need to be afraid, just call on Jesus to help you and He will be there for you’,” said Carol.

When Carol’s cell leader arrived and spoke again about salvation, her grandmother responded that she understood and would follow Jesus.

“I saw two angels bringing Duo Duo up to Heaven”

An hour later, Carol’s grandmother passed away peacefully.

“I felt at peace and thankful that Grandma is with Jesus in heaven. In the span of just one week, God gave me the dream to share Christ with her, then I had the opportunity to speak to her at home, and then our doctor friend happened to be on duty and could lead her to salvation just a few hours before she died,” Carol recounted to Salt&Light.

Carol knew without a doubt that God, in His mercy and goodness, had orchestrated all of it.

But she felt in need of more reassurance that Jesus now knew her grandmother. Carol prayed to God for a dream that her grandmother was with Him in heaven.  

The morning after her grandmother died, Carol’s then 4-year-old daughter Cheryl came up to her to tell her that she had a dream of Duo Duo (great-grandmother in Hainanese).

Cheryl (in kindergarten then) spending time with her great-grandmother.

“I saw two angels bringing Duo Duo up to heaven. At the gate of heaven, there was a bright light shining on Duo Duo and a Voice that said: ‘I am Jesus and I have come to bring you into heaven,’” Cheryl told her mother.

“Duo Duo was in a beautiful and happy place with many flowers and she was speaking to Jesus in Hainanese. Mummy, why did Jesus speak in Hainanese?” Cheryl asked her mother.

“Jesus is God and He is able to speak all languages,” her mother replied.

Carol was amazed and thankful for the precious dream that God had given to Cheryl.

Carol (right) with her daughter Cheryl, who is 37 years old now.

“My parents asked to be baptised” 

Carol was convinced Cheryl had truly had the dream from God. Just the day before, the young girl was afraid of the coffin and kept clinging on to her mother. But after the dream, Cheryl was running around her great-grandmother’s coffin.

“I asked her why she was not fearful anymore. She said this is only the shell and that Duo Duo is in Heaven,” related Carol, who worships at Church of Singapore (Bukit Timah).

“Who could make a 4-year-old remember such a detailed dream and believe it in her heart, except for God?” 

Carol added: “God is really good. He knows who to give the dream to. If He had given it to me, I would have doubted whether the dream stemmed from my own desire or if it was from God.”

Through this testimony, seeds of faith and belief were planted in the hearts of many of Carol’s family members and relatives, including her own parents.

“My parents also saw God’s goodness and experienced His healing themselves, so they asked to be baptised when they were in their 80s,” said Carol, whose mother just passed away in February this year.

Carol’s parents were baptised at Church of Singapore (Bukit Timah) in 2021.

Carol’s parents having holy communion at home.

“God has been merciful and good not only to Grandma but to our family. There is more to God’s goodness which I cannot comprehend but I know that He really cares for us and His love endures forever.”

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