The memoir
Blessing Upon Blessing
An autobiography of faith, loss, and divine transformation, in thirteen chapters from a shophouse altar in Singapore to a mountain blessing in the Philippines.
This book was never supposed to exist.
Blessing Upon Blessing: A Journey from Chronos to Kairos, a memoir by Elias Kairos Chen, PhD
The youngest of eleven children in an ancestor-worshipping home in 1960s Singapore. A wife who ministered healing to others while battling her own incurable cancer. Four years of wilderness after her passing. A divine prompting that he would meet a doctor. And a name he had carried unknowingly for over sixty years.
Chapter 1 takes about 15 minutes to read.
Who this book was written for
- “For those who have experienced profound loss and wondered if God still hears their prayers.”
- “For those whose children don't fit conventional molds and who are learning to see neurological differences as divine design.”
- “For those who have lived through seasons of wilderness and wondered if spring will ever come.”
- “For those who carry names they don't fully understand but sense hold deeper meaning.”
From the Foreword
From Chapter 1
Born Between Altars
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart” Jeremiah 1:5
The acrid sweetness of burning incense filled our living room every morning, carrying whispered prayers to ancestors who watched over us from their mahogany tablets. As Singapore's youngest of eleven children in the mid-1960s, I learned to navigate between worlds before I could fully understand what either one meant—the ancient traditions of my Chinese immigrant family and the rapidly modernizing nation taking shape around us.
My third sister, closest to me in age and affection, would sometimes tell me stories about our father that seemed too strange to believe. “Ah Pa was baptized in the sea,” she would say matter-of-factly, as if discussing what we had eaten for dinner. “Before you were born, when he first came from Fujian.”
Keep reading Chapter 1About 15 minutes
Then came the name.
陈进金Chen Jin Jin, “entering golden opportunities.” The name his parents gave him.
- Elias
- The Greek form of Elijah, the prophet who confronted false gods and called down fire from heaven.
- Kairos
- Not chronos, the tick-tock of ordinary time. God's appointed moments when eternity breaks into history.
- Chen
- Still his surname, still his heritage.
Thirteen kairos moments
“Each chapter of this book represents a kairos moment—times when God's eternal purposes intersected with my ordinary life in extraordinary ways.”
- Born Between Altars
- When Death Came Calling: Trauma and Forgotten Promise
- The Hand That Touched Mine
- From Failure to Masters
- The Prayer Warrior: Meeting and Living with a Woman of Substance
- The Mystery Child
- The Daughter of Promise
- Migration at 56
- When Prayer Warriors Die: The Ultimate Test of Faith
- Four Years in the Wilderness
- The Doctor's Prompting
- The Mountain Encounter
- The Name Revealed and the Testimony That Outlives
With a Foreword, “The Name That Changed Everything,” and an Epilogue, “For Such a Time as This.”
“Four years of grief taught me that God's silence is not God's absence.”
“God writes sequels to stories we thought had ended.”
The Blessing Upon Blessing series
Start with the memoir. The two companions take its themes into your own prayer and daily reading, and each can also be used on its own.
The prayer companion
Prayer Guidelines
Biblical frameworks for applying the memoir's principles in prayer. Suitable for small groups, counseling and pastoral care.
- Prayers corresponding to each memoir chapter
- Foundations for breaking generational patterns
- Prayers for grief, medical crisis, family struggles and career transitions
The 365-day devotional
Daily Devotional
A full year of daily readings through the memoir's themes. Each day gives you a Scripture foundation, a connection to the memoir, a life application, a prayer focus and a faith declaration.
Get all three books by email
Enter your email and complete the quick check on the next page. We'll then email you the password and download link for the PDF editions, free of charge.
- The complete memoir
- Prayer Guidelines
- The 365-day Daily Devotional