January 28. Segaran Tan. Segaran is a missionary, a mechanic, and a family man—a man in a country far from his home. On this date in 1997, Segaran moved his family to Malaysia.
He grew up in a culture that treasured family connections, and the younger brother’s respect for the older brother became a driving force in Segaran’s life.
Today’s story is about a time in Segaran’s life when the troubles piled high, and Segaran had to find a way to hang onto his self-respect. Here’s how it happened.
It is not ours to fix every problem, but it is ours to surrender every problem to God.
In Malaysia, Segaran’s older brother Vela was the general manager of an enormous oil-palm production business, and he managed about a dozen oil-palm plantations, which comprised 75,000 acres. When the company needed two new 45-foot cruisers, and revenue depended on it, Vela couldn’t saunter over to the yacht dealership and pick out a couple of boats.
They had to be built there in Borneo. And fortunately for Vela, a friend recommended a likable European named Marcus to build the boats.
This Marcus had let it be known that he was a “master boat builder,” and he lived on a boat moored at a local yacht club with a female companion. They were “sailing around the world,” Marcus said, which is how they happened to be in Malaysia.
Vela asked his brother, 43-year-old Segaran, to help in the boat-building project, and Seg agreed. He would donate his labor. He loved the Lord, and he loved his brother, and he had a host of practical skills. He would be happy to give his time and talent.
Somehow, the boat project expanded to include the construction of three boats, including one for a lawyer 300 miles away and two for the oil-palm plantations. Vela arranged with Seg to work out of an auto shop on Vela’s land.
As sudden as the flu sweeps through a tight family, problems appeared. Marcus and his skills did not live up to expectations, and the description “master boat builder” turned out to be quite an exaggeration—at best. And Segaran was left feeling obligated to learn how to build the boats himself.
Though Segaran was willing to follow through with the project, he realized that his older brother’s powerful influence over him made him feel duty-bound.
Vela grew more and more impatient. Because of the business, he felt pressured to get boats into the water. And that pressure cascaded onto Segaran’s shoulders.
Then, the friend who had introduced Marcus called to say his boat had vanished from its mooring at the yacht club—along with Marcus. Worse, the next day when Seg inventoried the building materials, he discovered they were missing. Gone too was the project’s money—about $100,000.
These funds belonged to the lawyer and the oil-palm plantations, which meant Vela had to replace the money, and that did little to restore Segaran’s peace of mind.
He paced the floor at night and muttered, “I have got to get some boats in the water,” and then he stared at his manuals in a daze. He appeared to be taking on the burden of completing the entire project alone, a project he would not even be paid for—all because he felt driven to follow through and be the hero for his older brother.
For weeks, Segaran wrestled with the problem himself, but he made no headway—until one day he remembered how that when he had been the mechanic for a missionary organization years before, God had answered prayers in miraculous ways.
This gave him courage to surrender the whole boat mess to the Lord. If God could answer prayer yesterday, God could certainly answer prayer today. Segaran threw himself upon the Lord and pleaded for help and mercy.
“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8 CSB).
After that, Segaran was able to negotiate with the lawyer; he took his boat half-finished. Then Segaran contacted the boat company in Australia for advice. Incredibly, they had a boat builder familiar with the same model. He was between jobs and happy to come to Borneo to help finish the boats!
What is your style of handling troubles? Do you jump in and try to solve the problem? Or do you go to God for help first? It is not ours to fix every problem, but it is ours to surrender every problem to God.
This story is based on a written interview with Nancy Tan.
Story written by: Toni M Babcock, https://www.facebook.com/toni.babcock.1