Hope Johannesburg

I had a wonderful time in Hope Johannesburg. The temperature was erratic (as low as 6 degree during spring) but the ministry time went really well. I did not bring enough clothes but thankfully I could still take the cold. Wonder why?

On Saturday, I taught 3 lessons in the seminar. The people were very hungry to learn and it was encouraging to me. I knocked off completely at around 8pm and slept till the next morning!

Sunday was preaching for me followed by DMM. I shared some key leadership concepts with the team and encouraged them to faithfully follow them through. Henry, Alex and I spent the rest of the afternoon together feasting in an African restaurant. I was expecting to suck Elephant trunk but it was not as exotic as I had anticipated. The food was interesting and the fellowship was even better.

Monday morning was spent with Henry in his office. He did his work while I spent time reading. I had lunch with Elvis (yes, the king is alive!) and tea break with Gift (it’s the name of a brother from Malawi but working in Johannesburg). Later on, I had dinner together with all the key leaders in the church. Kingdom work often revolves around food. I am getting fat for the Kingdom sake!

Tuesday lunch was with Ezekiel and the rest of the time was all with Henry. I had a really enjoyable time with Henry. I find Henry to be a very open, honest, genuine person who loves God greatly. He was very open with his weakness and learning. With heart as such, I know that God’s grace will surely befall upon him abundantly. I am really thankful to God for Henry and Lerato.

I am indeed very strengthened by the work here in Hope Johannesburg. The African local leadership has taken what Hope Singapore started some years ago from strength to strength and glory to further glory. The sight of Africans taking responsibility of what God is desiring to do through them for their continent and beyond is most inspiring to me. My joy knows no end!

There were many instances when they remembered the Hope Singapore folks who had actually served or visited them in Johannesburg or people that they had met while they were in Singapore. They readily expressed their heart felt gratitude to many of these people who had played a significant part in their lives. You did good people!

Lastly, thanks to all of you who had prayed for the trip and the team there. It made a big difference. Hope Johannesburg and I are eternally indebted to you!

From the bottom of my heart, thanks for praying, remembering and contributing to Hope Johannesburg.







The same vision all over the world










The service venue






Henry & Lerato Sabata







Coffee Break during cold weather is a must!







Some of the DMM guys







Dinner with the DMM






Self-Portrait while waiting (cool rite?)

Off To Johannesburg

Have been connecting with Henry & Lerato Sabata (our South African pastors) over the past 2 weeks. We have worked out a series of things to do and people to meet over the next 6 days.

Later in the day, I will be flying off to South Africa. I believe this is my 5th visit to Hope Johannesburg already.

Every time I visit them, my heart is both filled with hope and gratefulness. I am thankful to God for the many good people that we have that have stuck with God and the church through good and not so good times. Through it all, we have tasted the goodness and faithfulness of God.

I will be arriving on Saturday morning. This will be followed by 4 teachings in a seminar Henry has especially requested for. It is to strengthen and envision our leaders, members and regular visitors.

Then on Sunday, we will be running an outreach services. As I have been told, the people had been sowing and having Matthew CGs for the past weeks to prepare for the Sunday’s service.

Please please do take 1 minute right here and now to pray for the following…

* pray that the leaders, members and regular visitors will be strengthened and envisioned by the Saturday Seminar

* pray for at least 5 people to cross the line of faith on Sunday

* pray for Henry & Lerato to be anointed in leading our Johannesburg church

* pray for an even clearer sense of purpose and leadership in the church

* pray for the unemployed to find jobs within the coming month

Thank you for playing your part in building up our Johannesburg church.

Memorising . Meditating . Applying

During last weekend, God brought my first ever memory verses back into my heart again. The verses are Joshua 1:8-9

Joshua 1:8-9
8 Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

In order to be successful in our lives, we are commanded to not let God's word depart from our mouths; but to meditate on them day and night such that we will be careful in applying them.

This are very powerful verses and they have helped me greatly in my life. It is important for us to keep God's word in our hearts. One good way to do that is to memorise God's word. I know of people who memorised three to five verses on a weekly basis.

We are also to meditate on God's word. I have attached a portion of what I have read on meditation in the bottom part of this entry. I find it useful and I hope it will shed some light on what meditation is all about.

But we must not stop here. We are called to be do-ers of God's word and not merely hearers of God's word. We need to apply them into our lives in order to bear fruits!

Have a great time memorising, meditating and applying God's Word into your life!


WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO MEDITATE ON GOD’S WORD?

If you look up the word meditation in a dictionary, you will find that a synonym is the word rumination. Rumination is what a cow does when it chews its cud. A cow eats some grass, chews up all that she can, and then swallows it. It sits in one of her stomachs for a while, and then a little bit later she burps it up – with renewed flavor. The cow chews on it some more and swallows it again. That’s rumination. That cow is straining every ounce of nourishment out of that grass. That’s what meditation is.

Meditation is thought digestion. Meditation doesn’t mean you put your mind in neutral and think about nothing, Meditation is thinking seriously about what you are reading. You take one verse and ask, “What does this mean for my life?” Talk to yourself about it, and talk to God about it.

(From The Power To Change Your Life by Rick Warren)

A Most Enjoyable Dinner

James, Claudia and I had invited a couple that we wanted to bless and encourage for dinner at Holland Village.

It was a rather well known eating place and the food was quite good. But the company with and the stories from the couple was the main highlight for me.

Allow me to give you some background. This couple came to know Jesus through their children who are from our church. This took place around 1 year and 9 months ago.

The couple shared with me about how God has blessed their business, families and their relationship. The husband was like a typical father who only knew how to support the family financially. He thought that by bringing home the bread, he would have fulfilled his family duties already.

Now, as the wife testified, the husband has a strong love for the children and wife. He cherished the family time greatly. The wife gave quite a substantial testimony of how her husband has changed for the better. He even quit his smoking habits that he had been hooked on for the past 40 years of his life!

When someone as close to you as your spouse can testify that you have changed for the better, you really have changed for the better!

Throughout the dinner, the sense of closeness between the couple could be felt around the dinner table. The wife was so joy-filled and authentic in all her sharing. She talked about how she has grown with her temper issue.

The husband was an ex-temple boy, who worked alongside the temple medium. When he first came to church, the leaders could feel the “dark presence” that enveloped him.

He shared with us that he used to have this amulet that would grant him all his wishes. He said that people had offered him up to hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy it. But after he came to know Jesus, he got the church leaders to come to his house and they willingly burnt all these amulets in expressing their new found faith in Christ.

When the last dish was served and consumed, I left that eating place thanking God that He is indeed real and He does indeed transform lives. James, Claudia and I had the privilege of front row seats to witness two such lives unfolding before our very eyes.

Thank you Jesus…

EPL Predictions

I checked the soccerent.com this morning and found out that Man U has once again drawn their second match. To make matter worse, Ronaldo got sent off. With Rooney out for at least 2 months, Man U seems to be getting into a bit of a challenge only two weeks into the new season. One brother emailed me this morning to ask me to fast and pray more for the team.

Spurs got off to an even worse start. They had lost both of their opening two games. But the season has just begun and it is still anyone’s game.

Anyhow, I was thinking of checking out the “prophetic” power among us. I will give treats to the first 3 persons who got the top 4 teams of this season in the right order. It may not be a meal at “My Humble House” (where the price is certainly not humble at all!) but it should be a rather decent meal. We can then walk and talk through the season together.

If you are from overseas, I will treat you when I see you in some conferences or when I visit your country.

This is my take…

1. Manchester United

2. Chelsea

3. Liverpool

4. Arsenal

What’s yours?

A Refreshing Point Of View

As some of you may have already known, I have shifted from the North-Eastern to the Central-Western region of Singapore around one and a half months ago.

While we do miss our old place, this new one is really a blessing from God. We know that it God's blessing to us after we had depleted our savings to complete our building pledge. We bought it at a very low and affordable price using the money cashed out from the insurance policy that I have had since I was 17.

Once again, we can testify that no one can ever outgive God!

This new place suits Claudia and I greatly as it has an extremely quiet and green surrounding. There are nights when we feel like we are living right in the middle of some jungle.

Anyhow, a picture paints a thousand words. These are two photos that were taken from the top of the building that I am living in.















This certainly brings forth the creation pathway within me in getting close to God.

Operation Bear (9 August 2007)

I could not sleep as I am still getting used to the time difference in Europe, I decided to get up to blog this very significant event that took place on Singapore’s 42nd birthday.

As I was told, close to 600 brothers in our church gathered for Operation Bear in Yishun SAFRA country club at around 9am. Guys were represented from every group as we gathered to play station games as we build closer bonds together.

It was really fun to see brothers of all ages, all shapes and sizes compete. Full credits must be given to Jo and his team for organizing this event well.

I took the last part of the gathering with a short sharing on Bearing Each Others’ Burden.

The bible teaches us in Galatians 6:1-5 that we are each to carry our own load while helping to carry each others’ burden. Our load is basically area of our own responsibility that each of us have. We need to be responsible and carry that on our own. Burden refers to areas that may be too heavy for us to shoulder it on our own and we need others to help us.

As guys, we need to help one another to become all that we have been created to be in Christ. We cannot do it alone and we need to do it together.

How can we practically bear each others’ burden? I gave 3 practical ways. They are not comprehensive but I believe that they are the big 3!

1) Bare Heart

The key here is openness. Guys are generally competitive and opening up to one another in an authentic and vulnerable way is not natural for most. While we certainly cannot bare our hearts to anyone, there must certainly be some people that we can and must bare our hearts to.

We need to have fellow brothers who can gift us with the role of being truth-tellers in our lives. We need people who are ask us hard questions about our personal lives (more than just ministry, work and other stuff).

2) Bear Hug

The key here is proximity. We need to learn to do lives together. There must be regular time and events where the guys in our groups can do lives together. We can do sports, watch movies, have long meals, go on trips or even shop together (though the last suggestion may not appeal to most guys!)

Relationships among guys are more task or activities oriented. Unlike the gals, guys are less communal naturally.

3) Bear With One Another

The key here is “tahan” (tahan means forbear in Bahasa Malaysia). When human natural likings wears thin, Christ-like forbearing love has to win the day.

Like it or not, all close, meaningful and deep relationship is not built on a 21 Day Europe Tour or simply by joining hands and belting out “We Are The World” at the top of our voices. Like all close relationship, there will be tough times.

This would be times when the Care Bear Feelings is preceded by the Bear With One Another tough love.

Lastly, the planning committee encouraged us to build close brotherly relationship at two levels. The first level is within the pastoral groups. The next level is with the others groups in other life stations. The second level would help us to learn from people in other stages of life experiences and ministries.

May godly men arise all across Singapore and the whole globe!




Some of the groups

Europe Convention 2007

I am writing this entry from a small room in the Sports University of Prague, Czech Republic.

Emotionally, I am completely spent. It has been a rather tiring trip.

90% of all the meals are meeting meals. The food is not great but the discussions have been fruitful. The weather was rather cold when I first arrived. The summer temperature went as low as 10 degree Celsius. The European summer is even colder than Singapore’s winter (if we have one!). But thanks be to God, the weather was much warmer for the next few days (the forecast said that it would be cold throughout the entire camp period).

Having to deal with the jet lag and the change in weather, it has taken a definite toll on me.

On the other hand, there is a deep sense of satisfaction within me. I am so glad to see our European churches moving slowly but surely in the right direction. We now have churches in 8 of the 46 countries in the continent. I can also clearly see God setting His affirmation and authority upon Prakich as he leads the leadership team.

Personally, the highlight was on the 3rd day of the camp. Besides learning about missions, we want to do it! Two big teams were sent out to the city centre of Prague to do creative street outreach. The German group did hip hop, breakdance, mime, song presentation and many other stuff to draw the crowd. The London team chose a more oriental theme of Thai traditional folk dancing.

While the crowd was drawn by the presentation, the rest of us would work the crowd by inviting them to an outreach services that was taking place later in the same evening.

The things that marvel me were the boldness and strong desire to reach people for Christ. And God was faithful, we manage to invite around 10 to 15 people (as I was told) to the evening event. Hard ground or not, our team was determine to move on!

A German leader by the name of Titus impressed me very greatly. He is a successful business person involved in the sales of some high tech paper-thin computer keyboard. Church wise, he uses his hip hop breakdancing skill to reach people for Christ. He is not just your average breakdancer but he is a really good one. He is able to perform the head spin and windmill! (breakdancers would be familiar with these moves).

I would certainly need more time to reflect on all the learning that has been squeezed into my puny brain over the past week. For now, I can certainly conclude that our European scene in shining bright and moving on strongly. Post modern or not; post Christian era or not; God will always work through people who have a great desire for Him and His church!






MISSION POSSIBLE











Street Outreach








Sharing God's Love







A Street Contact From Bulgaria











Pastor Prakich