It was 2:15 pm on a retreat Saturday (Sep 24, 2023), we were enjoying free time until 5:30 and I just told my wife to get some rest while I watched the kids. My little one, Pinen, was happily playing with his scooter - he just learned how to do this a couple weeks ago and really enjoyed it. I was talking to Queenie for about 2-3 minutes and saw him scootering toward the dining hall. After I finished talking, I went to find him. He was not there near the dining hall. I had thought he might be playing near the pond - I know he loves water, but he was not there. He also could’ve been hiding in the play structure - he spent half an hour playing there early on, but he was not there. I kept thinking “I should be able to find him. He's just 5 years old with a little scooter after all.” I searched farther places, but I couldn’t find him anywhere. After I checked within a 500 ft radius in all directions and still couldn’t find him, I started getting worried. At this time, a few brothers and sisters knew I was looking for him, and when I met Elder John the second time, he offered to get in the car and search outside the retreat site. This was also the time I walked up toward the deepest end - the pool, the woods, the campfire circle. But no, neither Elder John nor I saw him anywhere. In fact, my deepest fear at the time was to see the yellow scooter but not him. I told myself, as long as I haven’t found his scooter, I just needed to search harder. We would find him for sure.
Eventually 3pm rolled around and Elder John suggested we let the camp staff know. They reacted quickly - soon I saw staff driving golf carts around the site. More help came in, Queenie shared a picture she took earlier including the entire outfit details of Pinen (which was amazing because we just arrived in the morning and we ourselves didn’t even think about taking a picture of him), Cinthia also sent an email to the retreat coworkers. During this time, I was sitting in front of the registration building, praying that I could find him. My wife was still napping but I was too afraid to let her know - I promised to take care of him but I didn’t.
I continued to rely on my human wisdom, trying to deduce where he could have been. I continued to walk around for an hour but didn’t really know what I was doing (I checked all these places already). I asked if the camp had a surveillance camera so I could check if he went out but the staff told me the system was not working. I thought maybe he went to a neighbor's house and someone had already found him, but because he is non-verbal they might have called the police. I called 911 for help but sadly no one had reported seeing any child. Soon after, 4-5 police cars were at the campsite. This was also the time I thought my wife ought to know but I still felt too ashamed to tell her myself so I told my daughter to let her know.
Pao-Hsuan was devastated. She jumped out from the bed and immediately joined the search. She was terrified when she saw police scanning the forest and the valley with their flashlights. The surrounding neighbors were already notified and were out looking too. A police officer met her on the road and asked her: “What’s your relationship with the child?” She replied in tears, “I am the mom.”
At around 4:40pm, Elder John and Queenie suggested that Pao-Hsuan and I pray together and the retreat speaker Dwayne joined us. We forgot what was said in the prayer - the only thing we remembered was pastor Dwayne kept repeating “God! Help us! God! Help us!”. Indeed, we had exhausted our human wisdom and knowledge, and it would take a miracle and God’s help to save our child now.
Thankfully, God responded. In 5 minutes Nicole got a phone call from Micah saying he’s found! A shout of joy broke out in the campsite. Even the other church group was celebrating with us (some of their brothers and sisters also knew about the lost child and helped search). Pastor Chris led us a thanksgiving prayer right before the dinner time and all of us enjoyed the rest of the retreat.
Later brother Tai-wei who found my son shared his testimony, and now we firmly believe it was God’s act that my lost child was found. Tai-wei is Elder John’s friend and happened to be in the Bay Area for training. Ring found out he’s in the bay area through social media, and invited him to come to this retreat. But there were so many obstacles that he wasn’t even sure he'd come on Saturday morning (busy work on Friday evening, for a good 40 minutes no Uber driver responded to the call). But Tai-wei said the time he knew we were looking for Pinen he was spurred on by the retreat theme, “Press On!”. If Jesus had searched for the one sheep, Tai-wei felt convicted to Press On to find Pinen. And he had a feeling from the Holy Spirit that Pinen would be found. We wanted to thank him after the event but he’s gone the day after the retreat back to Taiwan. It’s almost like he came to this retreat just to find my son!
God’s words were vividly revealed to us. Matthew 18:12 『What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? 』Yes - I’d do anything I can and search for the one that’s lost! Luke 15:22 『But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.』There verses etched into our hearts now - the experience deeply helped us understand how profound God’s love is for us. We WERE the lost sheep. Just like we found Pinen, Jesus has found us, and saved us through his own sacrifice on the cross!
This retreat will be a lifetime memory for us. We witnessed God’s presence, protection and mercy, but more importantly, how the church came as One Body. Pao-Husan and I would like to give thanks to all the brothers and sisters, adults and youths who helped in any way - prayers, phone calls, physical searches. How blessed we are to have a Healthy Intergenerational Faith Community!
Blessings,
Chien-I / Pao-Hsuan