Last Batch Of Photos From Europe...

I had been receiving some photos that I really love to share with all. These are wonderful photos that will be etched into my memories for life.

Here are the photos...
















How beautiful are these two photos!!! This is one of the most breathtaking sights that I had even seen in my life. This is a place in Switzerland. I have better news... heaven should be even nicer!

































Claudia and I. One likes to have his/her photo taken while the other one does not really enjoy as much. Guess who does and who doesn't.















That's Josef of Hope Zurich. He is a wonderful guy that brought us around Switzerland. He has a strong gift of serving and gives very clear details and direction to us. I love it!
















These are two brothers that I am really close to. We talk heart to heart, soul to soul & spirit to spirit. The cool one is Prawit (aka David Chen) and the very wise and godly one is Prakich. They have both helped me a lot in my life.
















These photos look like they are taken off the movie "Grease"! Some of the Hope Singapore leaders and us having a great time touring the city of Prague in 2 red convertibles. How cool is that!















That's Mike, me, David and Choon Yam some 3000m above sea level. We were on our way up to the top of Matterhorn.















Mike and me connecting with CK. I must really commend CK on his growth. He is really a very different person from how he was when in Singapore. He has grown in maturity, leadership and conviction. Way to go CK!















Here's the last photo. Here's everyone in the Euro-Convention 2006. It has to be one of the memorable conferences! I have really been blessed.

By the way, I am 8th from the left in the 20th row from the front (in the photo).

Life, Death & People

On Friday night, I received a sms telling me that one of our members had been informed that her mum had only weeks left to live. We are continuing to pray and believing in God for a miracle. Then as I was reading this sms, another one came in informing me that his wife is pregnant. In the span of a few seconds, both the faces of death and the joy of new life flashed across my mind.

This did not cause me to be more philosophical about life and death. It only reminded me of what I already know. We will all experience life and death in our lives. We will all experience the joy of seeing our love ones being born and also the pain of our love ones passing on in life. The most advance technology may be able to delay death but it cannot prevent death. The healthiest people may die slim and trim but they will still die.

What the sms-es on Friday really did to me was to remind me of the need to cherish my life and the people around me. I do not want to take people around me for granted. At the end of the day, it is people that really matters.

Today, I spent some time with a wonderful friend in our church. The last time we spent time together was more than 4 years ago as he had been overseas. We talked (he did most of it) and we got up to speed of the happenings in our lives (mostly his). At the end of our meeting, he said something that really moved my heart. He said that he was really glad that we had met up. And he said this... "there are times in my life when I am lonely and I am very glad that we can talk."

I wonder how many people are there in my scope of influence that are feeling this way. I wonder how many of my friends that needed to talk have gone un-noticed by me. I wonder how many times have my eyes failed to see, my ears failed to listen and my heart failed to feel.

May Jesus live under my skin more and more.

8 Days, i-Weekly & Stuff...

After my meeting with the Adults leaders on Sunday, Mabel Lee shared with me that she reads i-weekly weekly. Fenny buys 8 Days once every 7 days. Fenny had promised to pass her 8 Days to me. This is cool!

In my meeting, I was telling the Adults that we need to be more relevant to the locals in order to reach more for Jesus. We need to have a thorough knowledge of both the world and the word in order to make the word relevant to the world as well as to connect the needs of the world to the word.

This is a very important Salt & Light concept that Jesus taught in Matthew 5:13-16 and John 17:14-19. We are to be in the world, not of the world and to influence the world.

We must be in the world in the sense that we must be relevant to the world. We must not create a Christian sub-culture filled with lingos, jargon and behavior (not referring to righteous living that is different from the world) that is totally strange to the people in the world. We do live in this world and we must be as "normal" and relevant as possible.

That is why I have recommended the book called "Struck By Lightning" (written by 4 local journalists on the P65 generation) and 8 Days magazine to help us stay abreast of the concerns, passion and happenings of the local adults.

I would also strongly recommend that we check out PM Lee's National Day Rally speech (http://app.sprinter.gov.sg/data/pr/2006082010.htm). I saw parts of it on TV and it really stirred my heart to do more for this nation.

We are not of the world in the sense that we have a different set of values. We do march to a different drumbeat. The bible is our guide and we want to live a life that pleases Jesus. Just like the boat is in the water but the water is not in the boat, we are in the world but we are not worldly.

Lastly, we are to also influence the world. Instead of fearing contamination from the world, we must infect the world with the love and truth of the gospel. We must not be passive but active in engaging the world to turn it around for Jesus. We want to engage every aspect and sector of our society. To do this well, we must be potent in our outreach and attractive in our lifestyle. If the pre-believers do not even like us, it is rather unlikely that they will love the God that we love.

To reach Singapore in a big way, the Salt and Light concept is key. Bible, 8 Days and i-weekly must indeed co-exist together...

Purposely Tired

Since coming back from Europe on Friday (11 August), I had preached on the immediate weekend. It really took a lot out of me to do the 3 services.

Then on Monday (14 August), I taught in a leadership course. I had a fantastic time with these emerging high level leaders. We discussed and sparred with one another on differing leadership ideas and thoughts. It was very fulfilling for me to spend time with the people.

Tuesday was a day for me to catch up on house chores and family matters. We had been away for 2 weeks and there were quite a lot of catching up to do in these departments of our lives. We visited my in-laws for dinner and we went home as early as we could to plan our month ahead. We planned on the important projects to accomplish and people to meet. I was totally exhausted at the end of a long but totally necessary planning.

Wednesday was work followed by leadership huddle. The best thing about these leadership huddles for me was that we have an excuse to have supper. A few of our friends (Shirley and gang) and us went to this wonderful Teowchew porridge place. We ate and encouraged one another towards greater things (really did that and not a cliché) before reaching home at around midnight.

Thursday was a time to catch up with my family. We love my parents and we were really glad to see them. We went out for dinner and we spoke about housing plan for the future. Thank God for giving me wonderful wonderful folks.

Friday night was a time with Yean Shien. We invited Yean Shien to our house and we chatted and spoke about family, dreams, work and our past. We connected much better and deeper. Then at around 11pm, we visited one of my member's dad's funeral wake. We did our best to offer words of comfort and strength.

Saturday was preaching for me. I preached in 3 services and in between the 2nd and 3rd service, I had the privilege of attending the Indonesian group 2nd Anniversary celebration. It was really inspiring for me to see our group working together to remember God's goodness as well as to plan in pioneering an Indonesian service in the early part of 2007. Well Done People! I ended my day at around 9 plus and I saw how my team thrashed Fulham 5-1! God is real again!!!!

Sunday morning was spent with the Mandarin group. I was so tried after a week's of activities. I was so tired that I actually fell asleep during worship. Thank God that I woke up on time for the communion and for my preaching. In the afternoon, I was blessed to have the opportunity to spend time with all the adults leaders. As I stood on stage, I can see the many faces of some of my best friends in the church. It was great...

We ended our evening by celebrating with Mike for his 30th birthday. I really enjoyed my adults team. We ate and we talked and we ate and we talked. Even as we ate and talk, we were planning where and when we should meet to eat and talk again.



That's our team in a Thai resturant. Sunny is praying for the food! Alan could not make it :( And the handsome man behind the camera is me!

As I reviewed my week on Sunday night, I did my best to recall all the people that I had met and shared lives with. I was really tired. But I was taught since I was a younger believer that we will all get tired in life. We get tired either from working too much, party too much, play too much, shop too much, even from resting too much. It is one thing to get tired and it is another thing to get tired purposefully. That is why I had been taught that we need to be purposely tired (purposely get tired over a purpose).

3000!

3000 is a number that had been ruminating in my head and heart for the past few weeks. As a church, we have really been working and praying hard towards breaking the 3000 mark in our service attendance. What Peter did in a day (Acts 2:41), we are working hard to do it by our 15th Anniversary! I once comforted myself by saying that the bible stated that about 3000 were added. So it could well be 2900 and we were there already! But Christie, our Filipino Pastor, reminded me that it was very possible that they only count the men in those days. With friends like that, who needs enemies :(

Anyhow, it is never about numbers. Behind every number is a face and behind every face is a name and behind every name is a life that matters to Jesus. That is why we are so hard up about numbers because beneath the figures are lives that matter for all eternity.

We are now stabilising at around 2940 for the past two weeks. All our plans have already been set up with the pastoral groups. Some groups need to focus on retention and star-bursting. Some need to focus on being more outreaching. Some are focusing on having a stronger leadership base to reach higher heights. Some leaders are focusing on sounding a clarion call so that the followers will know that we really mean business. What we need is perseverance, will and the faith to push it till we cross the finishing line.

Some of us need to be asking ourselves, "who am I discipling?" We are called to be disciples who make disciples. Some of us need to reach out our hands to those who are far from Christ at this moment. We can invite them to many appropriate events in our group and personal activities. Some of us need to spend an even greater amount of time on our knees of intercession.

With more people in the Kingdom, there will be greater momentum. With greater momentum, the world will be redeemed at a faster rate.

Let's all push together across the finishing line. Let's reach for 3000 before our Anniversary Celebration on the 16th September.

Faith Lessons Learnt From Faith Preaching...

On Sunday morning, after only a 2 hour nap, I went to preach in the Mandarin Service. I was really sleepy and to be honest, I was not expecting anything great from my sermon. I was just looking forward to the end of the sermon so that I can rest.

In fact, on Saturday afternoon, I had already informed James (our Mandarin pastor) that I would be preaching in English instead of Mandarin and that he could help me in the translation.

I was tired after the Euro-trip and because of fatigue, I was afraid to venture to using Mandarin. I was well aware that I had much limitation of my command of the Chinese language. I rationalised that it was a move based on knowing one's limit.

Then during the preaching time, after some greetings in Mandarin, I asked James to come on stage to help me translate as I preached in English. After preaching with translation for around 5 minutes. I sensed that it was not getting through to them as much as if I would to preach in Mandarin directly. James was dong a great job but it was just that the audience would have preferred to hear it directly from me in their heart language.

I decided to step off by faith and not be limited my own tiredness. Preaching is more than keeping to my text; it is also an impartation of faith. This is even more so as I am preaching on the theme of faith. I need to preach about faith by faith!

So with my English text, I took a risk for the Kingdom's sake by preaching the rest of the sermon in Mandarin. It was really a stretch for me but I tried not to focus on the fact that I was preaching in Mandarin as much as the fact that people needed to be informed and transformed by God's word.

I had made a few obvious boo boo. For example, instead of saying that God commanded that there be light (Guang 1), I said that God commanded that there be lamp (Deng 1)!

I pressed on until the end of the sermon with faith and much difficulty. During the altar call, I simply closed my eyes (partly because I was not very looking forward to seeing the response) and challenged the people with all the limited Chinese words that I know.

Praise be to God! Almost 80% of the believers responded to being more Global Christians and the same number also committed to building a Mandarin church that will touch the Mandarin-speaking world. Quite a few of them also responded to being go-ers!

For the last part of the altar call, I gave an invitation for those that wanted to ask Jesus into their lives for the very first time. To my amazement, more than 6 people responded that morning.

I had learnt that faith is doing what is best for the Kingdom in spite of tiredness and our own limitation. I learnt that faith brings us into an arena when our physical self ebbs away and God's spirit reigns. I learnt that without faith, we are unable to do very much to bear spiritual fruit.

May all of us serve and live by faith!

Sleepless In Punggol

I have to preach later in the Mandarin Service but I just cannot get to sleep. My body clock is still tuned to the European time zone :(

Allow me to continue on my saga in Prague...

On the next 2 days, as our leaders and friends from other Hope Churches arrvied in Prague, we had a really wonderful time together as we explored the culturally-rich city of Czech Republic. Pastor Simon Eng and Lai Eng (our movement elders) were also with us. Pastor Prakich (in the Germany Soccer jersey), a most trustworthy friend, was our tour guide.

It's so cool when we can have friendship with people that we serve God with. We may not be perfect but we certainly can choose to be real and authentic. I discovered that these leaders that I spent time with in Prague are the same person on stage as when they are off stage. They are not Christian celebrities but just ordinary people that love Jesus.

Below are some pictures. We had a blast! Serving God should really be fun!














Then on another night, we celebrated Pastor PK & Kim's (Hope London Senior Pastors) 25th Wedding anniversary. I half jokingly suggested to them that they should treat us to ice-cream to celebrate with them. They bought my idea and more than 30 international leaders should thank me as we milked PK and Kim dry over scopes of fantastic ice-cream. Although it was a cold and rainy night, no one said no to the treat!

I also made PK & Kim shared some "secrets" of their relationship over a quarter centruy long. PK shared about how he wooed Kim with food in their first date. He cooked pork chop and try to win her heart through her stomach. PK later qualified that we should not use such means to woo our potential spouse and he did all these when both of them had yet to know God. I am deeply appreciative of PK's honesty and humility in it all.






















I was very glad that some of our Hope Singapore leaders were there as well. It was great to see them being connected to other leaders from the Movement. It was a great time of sharing and mutual learning for us all.

Pastor PN, our Movement's President was also there (I love his new relaxed boy-boy hair style). After the ice-cream, all of us had to walk in the bitterly cold rainy night for around 30 minutes before catching our tram back to the camp site. It might be cold on the outside but the warmth of fellowship with people that shared the same passion and vision for God filled us all.

It's 430am now... I need to sleep. Dennis suggested sleeping pills. I am tempted to try that out but I may end up missing tomorrow's Mandarin Service :(

Introducing Hope Prague

After the preaching in all the Saturday services, I finally had some time to just blog my wonderful time in Prague.

Prague is the capital city of the Czech Republic. Prior to this trip, I only know that Milan Baros, Pavel Nedved and Skoda are Czech products.

Upon arrival in Prague, Pastor Prakich and Pastor Andre (pronounced as "On-Dra") picked Claudia and I from the airport. Our Czech church is around 15-20 people strong and Andre told us that we would be having our service later in the afternoon. That's Andre with the guitar.
















It was most exciting to me to see how Europeans ran their services. It was just different but no less life-transforming and refreshing. Pastor Prakich taught about Judas Iscariot and how we could learn lessons of what not to do from his life.

Thereafter, we went for a walk in the woods. Apparently, Europeans love to walk. They consider walking a leisure while many in Singapore consider it a form of punishment. We walked for around 3-4 km as we talked and shared our life stories with one another.

I was having jet-lag and I had a very fun but challenging time conversing with a very inquisitive Czech brother that speaks very little English. I mostly listened and tried my best to connect in between very short breaths.

Two female leaders from Hope Germany was challenged by God's vision to relocate themselves to Prague. They obeyed God's call to stengthen Hope Prague. These are ordinary people that do great exploits for Jesus.

Below are two pictures from our walk...
















Andre also informed me the team that came out tops in both the rap and breakdancing competition in Prague are members of our church. I was really excited to meet this cool dudes and breakdance with them. Perhaps I could teach them a thing or two...

Celebrating National Day In Switzerland

Some of my friends and I had been travelling around Switzerland for the past 3 days. This is an awesome country. I had been to a quite a few countries before and I must say that this is the most beautiful country by far. The scenic beauty is incredible and at times, totally unreal.

I look forward to posting some photos to share with all of us. Its really breathtaking.

Claudia and I will be flying back to Singapore in around 8 hours time. My mind had already been adjusted back to work. I need to prepare my sermon for this coming Saturday while flying some 8000 km in the sky. Perhaps, being closer to God would help my sermon preparation much better...