Tim said i am usually very random. So i should just blog my random thoughts on stm... so here goes:
Give thanks to God for making a way our for the team in our workshops and our ministering nights, for opening the hearts of the people, for breaking the language and culture barrier and for helping us to minister and be relevant to them. Alot of impromptu activities and sharing as well as sensing of the ground and respond to changes and things. Things are dynamic and God was working through the different things that we do.
I feel very humbled by the whole experience and also very refreshed and ministered. Especially the time spent with Julian. He shared alot during our lunches and when we take the tuk tuk with him. Although this is a trip to bless and minister to people, i am so blessed and ministered myself. The past few days renewed some of my convictions and also to revisit my values and build upon my faith and perspectives.
Will just share my thoughts generally for now. Will need to think through more :) Julian has shared so much with us and imparted so much spirit to us that made me ponder about my r/s with God and about my vision and passion. What am i living for? Do i really love God to the extent of giving and surrending everything to Him and what does it mean to seek His kingdom first?
Tmr will be conducting another workshop with weiling and thurs we will be having our outreach event. Will be preparing for the skit! Pray that it will be relevant and that it will open their hearts to Tim's sharing. There will be 100 youths :) exciting.
Starting to see more and more why I am here for STM and I am so glad and blessed that i am here. So humbled to be used by God too. Though i ve so many weaknesses and have pride in my life, God still chose to use me. I am also very blessed by the cambodians here. To hear them share about their lives, to receive their spirit of thanksgiving and faith. So blessed.
I have been praying for God to humble me more and more through this trip and that i must become smaller that Christ becomes bigger. I am thankful that God is growing and pruning my inner man and redefining my convicitions and values and i will continue to allow God to do His work in me. No matter what, never say quite. Whatever that i am going through, be it struggles internally or external challenges, never say quit but to stand firm in my faith and hold on to the truth and the values that God has established in my life. God is indeed doing something new in my heart :) I am so thankful to God for these experiences!
tt's all folks, gg to plan workshops with weiling le :) Continue to keep us in prayer for discerning heart and spirit :)
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Please Pray
It's been an exciting journey thus far. Thanks for all your prayer support and encouragements on the tagboards.
Today's workshops conducted by Calyn and Joyce went well. Thank God. We're also seeing God open new doors and opportunities. We feel really small and helpless at times but God is really in control.
Pls pray along with us. I've been updating the key prayer points on the top right hand corner of this blog and will continue to do so as frequently as I can. Do keep us in prayer as often as you can too. God is with us and we know you are too.
.
Today's workshops conducted by Calyn and Joyce went well. Thank God. We're also seeing God open new doors and opportunities. We feel really small and helpless at times but God is really in control.
Pls pray along with us. I've been updating the key prayer points on the top right hand corner of this blog and will continue to do so as frequently as I can. Do keep us in prayer as often as you can too. God is with us and we know you are too.
.
musings from day 1...
(trying hard not to fall asleep as I'm typing this out)
It's been a very long and eventful day. The first in our trip in meeting the Cambodian youths whom we'll be ministering to in the next few days. We've had many feedback on how these youths were like but getting to meet them and conducting workshops for them was still an entirely new experience for both Weiling and I.
The Cambodians are generally a rather reserved bunch, but after getting to know them better, they start to want to share more about themselves with you. During the workshops where we got to share a little about ourselves, we realise that we are not so different after all. The activities in which they engage in are similar to ours, e.g. many love to play soccer, listen to music etc.
Even though language barrier was an issue, we thank God that we had a very skillful translator Somien. It was heartening to see the youths try to share about their lives to us despite their simple English. I had an encounter with this sister who has known Christ for 1 1/2 yrs and has this desire to see the whole of Cambodia come to receive Christ and even talks about wanting to travel out to reach the lost elsewhere. Praying that this desire will continue to spur her on to mature her faith in Christ so that she will be more effective in reaching out to the people around her. I believe that she is one in many Cambodians who have a desire to reach out to others as well. It's amazing to know that more Cambodians will cross the line of faith because of these people who have a simple desire to share their faith to others.
While conducting the 2 workshops today with Weiling, I realise the importance of teamwork, that these workshops are not ran by the speakers alone but requires the coorperation of everyone in the team. After we ironed out a few rough bumps in the morning workshop, we started to see greater coorperation between Weiling and myself, and also the rest of the team who acted as facilitators.
Later on during the evening, Tim and the rest of us had the challenging task of implementing a caregroup system in this youth congregation. Tim did a great job in conducting the sharing on CG principles and the rest of us participated during the Q&A. Although this whole caregroup deal was an entirely new idea to them, from the questions that they asked during the Q&A, we could see that they were keen on implementing this. Very very heartened to see that. Praise the Lord!
All in all, I see God's hand in guiding us through the events today and it has been a great and challenging experience! Looking forward to what we will be receiving from God and the youths in the days to come. :)
P.S. Thanks all for the encouragement and prayers!
~ Serene ~
It's been a very long and eventful day. The first in our trip in meeting the Cambodian youths whom we'll be ministering to in the next few days. We've had many feedback on how these youths were like but getting to meet them and conducting workshops for them was still an entirely new experience for both Weiling and I.
The Cambodians are generally a rather reserved bunch, but after getting to know them better, they start to want to share more about themselves with you. During the workshops where we got to share a little about ourselves, we realise that we are not so different after all. The activities in which they engage in are similar to ours, e.g. many love to play soccer, listen to music etc.
Even though language barrier was an issue, we thank God that we had a very skillful translator Somien. It was heartening to see the youths try to share about their lives to us despite their simple English. I had an encounter with this sister who has known Christ for 1 1/2 yrs and has this desire to see the whole of Cambodia come to receive Christ and even talks about wanting to travel out to reach the lost elsewhere. Praying that this desire will continue to spur her on to mature her faith in Christ so that she will be more effective in reaching out to the people around her. I believe that she is one in many Cambodians who have a desire to reach out to others as well. It's amazing to know that more Cambodians will cross the line of faith because of these people who have a simple desire to share their faith to others.
While conducting the 2 workshops today with Weiling, I realise the importance of teamwork, that these workshops are not ran by the speakers alone but requires the coorperation of everyone in the team. After we ironed out a few rough bumps in the morning workshop, we started to see greater coorperation between Weiling and myself, and also the rest of the team who acted as facilitators.
Later on during the evening, Tim and the rest of us had the challenging task of implementing a caregroup system in this youth congregation. Tim did a great job in conducting the sharing on CG principles and the rest of us participated during the Q&A. Although this whole caregroup deal was an entirely new idea to them, from the questions that they asked during the Q&A, we could see that they were keen on implementing this. Very very heartened to see that. Praise the Lord!
All in all, I see God's hand in guiding us through the events today and it has been a great and challenging experience! Looking forward to what we will be receiving from God and the youths in the days to come. :)
P.S. Thanks all for the encouragement and prayers!
~ Serene ~
Day 1 is over!
It has been a long day. We've been up since 6 plus am, and we conducted 2 workshops and 1 training session on principles of the CG. Nodding off as I'm typing this entry... We got to meet the Cambodian youths for the first time.
As expected, the language barrier was very difficult to cross. We thank God for our excellent volunteer translator called Somien. He's studying full-time in the bible school and yet juggling another job at night. At 26, he's a father of 2 with the third daughter on her way. He also has a burden for kids and aims to be a student pastor in the future. He's a really fun and humble guy.
Serene and Wei Ling ran the workshops excellently in the day! Despite the language barrier, we're thankful that God made it work and hopefully the people will take home many points.
Thank God for helping me through my training session too. I was sharing with the Christian Youths the principles of a CG (they presently have no CGs), and I'm thankful that I communicated what I wanted to say. Guanrui's drawing help a lot in helping them visiualise the key thrusts.
Tomorrow, we've got 2 more workshops on Self-Management, led by Calyn & Joyce, and a Christian training session at night on running a CG meeting, led by Guanrui. Do pray for us for effectiveness in helping the youths draw closer to You.
.
As expected, the language barrier was very difficult to cross. We thank God for our excellent volunteer translator called Somien. He's studying full-time in the bible school and yet juggling another job at night. At 26, he's a father of 2 with the third daughter on her way. He also has a burden for kids and aims to be a student pastor in the future. He's a really fun and humble guy.
Serene and Wei Ling ran the workshops excellently in the day! Despite the language barrier, we're thankful that God made it work and hopefully the people will take home many points.
Thank God for helping me through my training session too. I was sharing with the Christian Youths the principles of a CG (they presently have no CGs), and I'm thankful that I communicated what I wanted to say. Guanrui's drawing help a lot in helping them visiualise the key thrusts.
Tomorrow, we've got 2 more workshops on Self-Management, led by Calyn & Joyce, and a Christian training session at night on running a CG meeting, led by Guanrui. Do pray for us for effectiveness in helping the youths draw closer to You.
.
Hi all~!
Today is the first day whereby we really officially interact with the Cambodians at Joko Center. We had 2 workshops today, both on self discovery. As mentioned by Joyce yesterday, serene and I were the facilitators for today's workshops.
The first workshop started off quite well with the Cambodians enjoying an ice-breaker we always play - wAcKo! But the mood died down a bit as we proceed into the 1st activity of the the workshop and which was that we might have anticipated it beforehand but we didnt. Along the way we improvised the activities, added new activity. Few things we have heard from othe stm groups that went Cambodia previously were that they are generally more reserved towards discussions and if you post them open ended questions, it may not hit on the intended effect of making them think. So what we did was they we got them to write down what they think on mahjong paper, eg. what are the things they find that they have certain difficulties in, areas they want to grow it, and after it share the ideas in the small groups they were divided into. They drew, wrote in Khmer, wrote in English, which ever they were comfortable in and best able to express what they think in.
Taking some of the lessons we learnt in the morning workshop, we took it to the afternoon workshop. Despite the fact that they may be reserved in front of people they do not know, they can be very open talking to us about their vulnerable sides and they depends on how deep the examples we gave them for the activities they did. For example, in the 1st workshop, we ask them what are the things they find difficult to grow in, so many wrote stuffs like not able to do maths etc; in the 2nd workshop, we gave examples like patience towards people and they wrote down stuffs that are deeper like no perseverance. So, as mentioned by Jullian, how deep they can go into depends on how deep we are able to lead the activities into. Which indeed we did see an improvement in the depth of the discussions held. PTL! examples are very important to help them understand the activities, life demostrations where possible will be great. Rapport building with the people helped them to open up a lot to share oso..
2nd workshop also showed better support and team work between the whole team. =) Mo4 Qi4 ah..
It was a first for me to have a translator, need to have some form of communication, eye contact with the translator so that he can support you better. but depends on the translator, may not need to eye contact if he's quite good. some original intended meaning may be gone with translation and we did face quite some problems with translation and understanding what we are saying.. sometimes the words we use may be too long or chim. happened that when we were saying "have a break after that", the translator literally took it as breaking some stuffs and he did the action of breaking, so need to be careful when using words with mulitple meanings.
another interesting thing was that we met this girl who is studying in 3 schools now. morning 7-11am she attends high school, 3-5pm she goes computer lessons, 5-8.30pm she goes university. and guess where is she 1-2pm? cycling to go computer lesson. sounds like some crazy schedule.. some of the people are quite generally very eager to learn and improve their lives..
Generally workshops objective of getting people comfortable and discovering more about themselves were met.
Something that touched me was that the Cambodians just openly come to us for comments about what we thought of them, for an activity where they were supposed to ask their friends what they think of them.how much they trust us.. think in singapore you will most probably never have people whom you just met asking you for comments on what you think of them..
Yesterday, Jullian mentioned that people really put in their all to build up the church last time, reminded me of the church building fund; where compared to the past they really poured out their savings to buy nexus. now with a bigger church (in terms of quantity), am I willing/able to go to the extend the people in the past went before?
- Wei Ling
Today is the first day whereby we really officially interact with the Cambodians at Joko Center. We had 2 workshops today, both on self discovery. As mentioned by Joyce yesterday, serene and I were the facilitators for today's workshops.
The first workshop started off quite well with the Cambodians enjoying an ice-breaker we always play - wAcKo! But the mood died down a bit as we proceed into the 1st activity of the the workshop and which was that we might have anticipated it beforehand but we didnt. Along the way we improvised the activities, added new activity. Few things we have heard from othe stm groups that went Cambodia previously were that they are generally more reserved towards discussions and if you post them open ended questions, it may not hit on the intended effect of making them think. So what we did was they we got them to write down what they think on mahjong paper, eg. what are the things they find that they have certain difficulties in, areas they want to grow it, and after it share the ideas in the small groups they were divided into. They drew, wrote in Khmer, wrote in English, which ever they were comfortable in and best able to express what they think in.
Taking some of the lessons we learnt in the morning workshop, we took it to the afternoon workshop. Despite the fact that they may be reserved in front of people they do not know, they can be very open talking to us about their vulnerable sides and they depends on how deep the examples we gave them for the activities they did. For example, in the 1st workshop, we ask them what are the things they find difficult to grow in, so many wrote stuffs like not able to do maths etc; in the 2nd workshop, we gave examples like patience towards people and they wrote down stuffs that are deeper like no perseverance. So, as mentioned by Jullian, how deep they can go into depends on how deep we are able to lead the activities into. Which indeed we did see an improvement in the depth of the discussions held. PTL! examples are very important to help them understand the activities, life demostrations where possible will be great. Rapport building with the people helped them to open up a lot to share oso..
2nd workshop also showed better support and team work between the whole team. =) Mo4 Qi4 ah..
It was a first for me to have a translator, need to have some form of communication, eye contact with the translator so that he can support you better. but depends on the translator, may not need to eye contact if he's quite good. some original intended meaning may be gone with translation and we did face quite some problems with translation and understanding what we are saying.. sometimes the words we use may be too long or chim. happened that when we were saying "have a break after that", the translator literally took it as breaking some stuffs and he did the action of breaking, so need to be careful when using words with mulitple meanings.
another interesting thing was that we met this girl who is studying in 3 schools now. morning 7-11am she attends high school, 3-5pm she goes computer lessons, 5-8.30pm she goes university. and guess where is she 1-2pm? cycling to go computer lesson. sounds like some crazy schedule.. some of the people are quite generally very eager to learn and improve their lives..
Generally workshops objective of getting people comfortable and discovering more about themselves were met.
Something that touched me was that the Cambodians just openly come to us for comments about what we thought of them, for an activity where they were supposed to ask their friends what they think of them.how much they trust us.. think in singapore you will most probably never have people whom you just met asking you for comments on what you think of them..
Yesterday, Jullian mentioned that people really put in their all to build up the church last time, reminded me of the church building fund; where compared to the past they really poured out their savings to buy nexus. now with a bigger church (in terms of quantity), am I willing/able to go to the extend the people in the past went before?
- Wei Ling
Monday, 4 January 2010
and we started the "real stuff" . . . Day 1
Official Day 01,
We met in the room at 0715hrs and ate cereals for breakfast and did QT together and shared our thoughts.
Then we left our guest house and started the whole day of "real work"!
(Weiling and Serene preparing for their workshop along the way on the tuk-tuk)We conducted a workshop in the morning and afternoon for 2 groups of people on Self-Discovery at Joko centre.
(Ice breakers)
(Weiling giving out the discussion cards)
(the team having a debriefing after the morning workshop.)
(going for lunch. We learnt alot from Julian as he shared with us his burdens, even while riding on a tuk-tuk. We termed it as "Tuk-tuk with Julian". Really thank God for this opportunity to work with him closely:)
(Evening lesson on Principles of Care Group)
(Timothy sharing on the principle of care group. With Somien as the translator.)
Now sitting on the bed as I prepare the flow and teaching on running cg which is going to happen in the evening today (Tuesday). Pray that God will anoint me as I prepare the points and empower me as I share to the youth christians the technical aspects of planning a cg meeting. I am treating this seriously as I know that I am not just imparting the skills but the heart and spirit as well. Update you guys again when I come back at night.
- Guan Rui -
(Ice breakers)
(Weiling giving out the discussion cards)
(the team having a debriefing after the morning workshop.)
(going for lunch. We learnt alot from Julian as he shared with us his burdens, even while riding on a tuk-tuk. We termed it as "Tuk-tuk with Julian". Really thank God for this opportunity to work with him closely:)
(Evening lesson on Principles of Care Group)
(Timothy sharing on the principle of care group. With Somien as the translator.)Now sitting on the bed as I prepare the flow and teaching on running cg which is going to happen in the evening today (Tuesday). Pray that God will anoint me as I prepare the points and empower me as I share to the youth christians the technical aspects of planning a cg meeting. I am treating this seriously as I know that I am not just imparting the skills but the heart and spirit as well. Update you guys again when I come back at night.
- Guan Rui -
Prayer requests for Official Day 1 Program
We are 9 hours away from our first "official" adventure to minister in Cambodia. :)
Serene and Weiling are currently busy preparing for a Self Discovery workshop for Youth on Mon 9-11am session and afternoon 2-4pm session. I can see how excited yet how nervous they are at the same time. Gave my best attempt to nag and remind them to rest early for tml. Tim will be sharing on Principle of CG in the evening time (7-9pm), first spiritual impartation of biblical principles fromt WOG for the youth leaders. Do keep them in your prayers as it will be our first few workshops to be conducted which will set the tone and platforms to build the rapport with the youths that we will be meeting tml.
There are many thoughts and reflection that I have so far but it is going to take quite some time to blog them all down. Praying to God to sharpen our spiritual senses and to increase our reliance on Him not just using the experience & skills that we have but to minister and speak His truth into the hearts of the youth.
Thanks all for arriving so early in the morning and sending us. All of us are very touched as we understand that most of you had a late night after Anniv Dinner. Hope to share more along the way in the blog and face-to-face when we are back.
We are eager and hopeful to see how God is going to use us here even though it is a short 8 days trip. :)
-- Joyce
Serene and Weiling are currently busy preparing for a Self Discovery workshop for Youth on Mon 9-11am session and afternoon 2-4pm session. I can see how excited yet how nervous they are at the same time. Gave my best attempt to nag and remind them to rest early for tml. Tim will be sharing on Principle of CG in the evening time (7-9pm), first spiritual impartation of biblical principles fromt WOG for the youth leaders. Do keep them in your prayers as it will be our first few workshops to be conducted which will set the tone and platforms to build the rapport with the youths that we will be meeting tml.
There are many thoughts and reflection that I have so far but it is going to take quite some time to blog them all down. Praying to God to sharpen our spiritual senses and to increase our reliance on Him not just using the experience & skills that we have but to minister and speak His truth into the hearts of the youth.
Thanks all for arriving so early in the morning and sending us. All of us are very touched as we understand that most of you had a late night after Anniv Dinner. Hope to share more along the way in the blog and face-to-face when we are back.
We are eager and hopeful to see how God is going to use us here even though it is a short 8 days trip. :)
-- Joyce
Day 0
Today is a day of introduction and settling down. But i am so tired already... haha :) The weather here is really hot, the air is super polluted and crossing the roads is a challenge for us :) hahah.... The food so far is good! :) We had lunch and dinner at chinese restaurants. The food dun look so appealing but it is tasty :)
Today we went to the khmer rouge museum whereby it reflects the tortures the people went through in 1975. It isnt the first time that i am exposed to such things. Did research on WWII during my Secondary sch days and was quite shocked by the torture then. Some thots however still lingered in my mind: Why man can be so cruel? The extent of men's cruelty is beyond what i can understand. How can they ever do such things to their own kind?
Before coming here, i felt that the cambodians were really very pitiful esp after understanding their history and background and because of this, i would feel for them and felt that they really really need God. But today as i was visiting the museum, victims of WWII and the jews came to my mind. In actual fact, the cambodians are no different from other civil war victims. Everyone needs God and Christ is for everyone regardless of their background or 'sufferings'. Regardless of what circumstances or background, Christ represents salvation and hope and it is only in Christ that we can find salvation and hope :)
There are changes to our program and more workshops and sharing to be conducted. So now all of us are busy preparing now ;)In the next few days we will be super busy with 3 workshops a day but i am excited and anticipating to interact with the people and see how God can use me. It is not just about running the program or conducting workshops but it is about transformed lives. How as we touched their lives in little ways and plant different little seeds in them, their hearts, minds and lives are transformed by Christ and these seeds will be passed on to many others in the future.
Grateful to God for this opportunity to be here to bless the people and be part of what God is doing and wants to do here in Cambodia. So continue to pray for us, that God will strengthen us in every aspect. Thanks for for comin to send us off!
Today we went to the khmer rouge museum whereby it reflects the tortures the people went through in 1975. It isnt the first time that i am exposed to such things. Did research on WWII during my Secondary sch days and was quite shocked by the torture then. Some thots however still lingered in my mind: Why man can be so cruel? The extent of men's cruelty is beyond what i can understand. How can they ever do such things to their own kind?
Before coming here, i felt that the cambodians were really very pitiful esp after understanding their history and background and because of this, i would feel for them and felt that they really really need God. But today as i was visiting the museum, victims of WWII and the jews came to my mind. In actual fact, the cambodians are no different from other civil war victims. Everyone needs God and Christ is for everyone regardless of their background or 'sufferings'. Regardless of what circumstances or background, Christ represents salvation and hope and it is only in Christ that we can find salvation and hope :)
There are changes to our program and more workshops and sharing to be conducted. So now all of us are busy preparing now ;)In the next few days we will be super busy with 3 workshops a day but i am excited and anticipating to interact with the people and see how God can use me. It is not just about running the program or conducting workshops but it is about transformed lives. How as we touched their lives in little ways and plant different little seeds in them, their hearts, minds and lives are transformed by Christ and these seeds will be passed on to many others in the future.
Grateful to God for this opportunity to be here to bless the people and be part of what God is doing and wants to do here in Cambodia. So continue to pray for us, that God will strengthen us in every aspect. Thanks for for comin to send us off!
my thoughts after day 0 . . .
Finally we are here in Cambodia, by no accident.The night before flying off, i was talking to a sister till 2am. Actually wanted to sleep already, but felt unsettled cos there seemed to be some issues I need to attend to her before i fly off. I thank God for the chance to talk over phone without my mum chasing me to go to bed. Fruitful one. With much unsettled stuffs, i entrust to God these things.
" God I can't possibly minister to these brothers and sisters while I am away in Cambodia. God, You take over and help me. I know You will. "
I was so 感动 when I see so many brothers and sisters sending us off. Thanks everyone! "
Thanks to Tracy's cg who compiled a little booklet containing messages from the cg members. Very sweet for you guys to do that. Thanks everyone! Encouraged. I will read them time to time during the rest of this trip - a reminder of God's promises.
Thanks Coco for the letter as well. Be courageous and faith-filled! It is not you but God who will transform lives.
Thanks Jan and Zac for the cards.
We are fortunate to have Julian with us and facilitating this mission trip. We got a few chance to talk to him while travelling on the tuk-tuk, over lunch.
Our hearts grew heavy after the tour to Genocide Museum.
"Why does these people have to go through the pain and agony of suffering?"
" God, they need healing, right? "
" God, You love them, right? "
What can these Cambodians hope for? An increase of wealth? More jobs? Better government?Calyn brought out a good point. As we shared over dinner today, she mentioned that whatever past people may have, everyone needs God. The whole point is that everyone needs to be reconciled to God.
True.
Often times we approach the needy with much sympathy and pity, to want to give them something. But everyone needs to reconcile their relationship with their Creator God. I shall keep this in mind.
Today is day 01. Although we haven't really start to minister, today's genocide museum tour, reflections over lunch and dinner, QT - all these help to set the focus again, as now we stand on this ground and witness the condition of this land.
I pray that tomolo (monday) we start our ministering to the Cambodian youths whom we will meet for the next few days till Friday. Some of them are Christians while some are not. This will be the start of our interaction with the locals. I pray that God will add on His burden for these people in my heart. Lord, I pray that You will empower us as we will offer our service to You, preaching the Gospel and impart skills and heart.
As Christ's ambassador, I hope to be a vessel that contains God's love and compassion, ready to be shared. Since the Cambodians here are less educated, they will really take our word as the truth. We will be their source of God's truth to them. Thus this is a role which is privileged and yet also need to be really serious about it.
Continue to keep us in prayer. Cover us.
As the team embarks on the journey to preach the promises and hope of God, we expect to have spiritual warfare. Pray that God will keep us within His plan, be led by the Spirit, and move accordingly.
Update you guys again when we have internet access again in the evening.
- Guan Rui
Sunday, 3 January 2010
Reflections and Prayer Requests
I'm really blessed and privileged to be here with this team. Our preparation has been slow because of the various ministry responsibilities back in Singapore. But I'm just thankful that as the team has arrived here in Cambodia, God has been preparing our hearts and our hands. We're ready to give our very best for these 8 days.
We're going to face many challenges over the next few days: language barriers, cultural barriers, gaps in understanding, as well as our own fears and inadequacies... Pray with us that despite these human obstacles, the Word of God will help us transcend these barriers with ease, not by our wise and persuasive words, but by a demonstration of the Spirit's power.
Today, we were told that we were required to do a lot more discipleship and leadership training, something that we did not prepare much for. Thank God for the clarity and focus that He has given us. If all goes well, we'll be ready by tomorrow. Check out the messy outline below:
We're also preparing for an outreach event for about 100 people on Thursday afternoon. Let's pray for souls to hear the Word and respond to Jesus. He is indeed the Answer for the Cambodian youths just as much as He is for those of us in Singapore.
Stay tuned! =)
.
We're going to face many challenges over the next few days: language barriers, cultural barriers, gaps in understanding, as well as our own fears and inadequacies... Pray with us that despite these human obstacles, the Word of God will help us transcend these barriers with ease, not by our wise and persuasive words, but by a demonstration of the Spirit's power.
Today, we were told that we were required to do a lot more discipleship and leadership training, something that we did not prepare much for. Thank God for the clarity and focus that He has given us. If all goes well, we'll be ready by tomorrow. Check out the messy outline below:
We're also preparing for an outreach event for about 100 people on Thursday afternoon. Let's pray for souls to hear the Word and respond to Jesus. He is indeed the Answer for the Cambodian youths just as much as He is for those of us in Singapore.
Stay tuned! =)
.
with heavy hearts . . .
In the late morning after leaving our luggage in the guest house, we went to visit the Genocide Museum "Tuol Sleng".
This is a former high school which was turned into a prison during the time of Khmer Rouge.
This place was then reconfigured to a place where detention, interrogation, inhuman torture, and killing after confession from the detainees were received and documented.We saw many photos describing the Khmer Rouge and how the Cambodians were tortured by the regime..
We came out the museum with heavy hearts. Speechless.
" Why would humans go to such an extend to kill so many fellow people? "
(20, 000 people were killed, not including childrens killed)
" Would this history that happened 30 years ago affect the current generation, especially when they need to think about how to go about their daily lives? Survival issues. "
God loves them as well. No matter what, everyone needs Jesus the Saviour.
He is mighty to save.
- Guan Rui -
and the journey begins . . .
The journey on the plane.
We touched down on the Kingdom of Cambodia at 915am (Phnom Penh time).
Timothy trying to steer the luggage trolley.
We are now safe and thankful for the smooth journey on Silk Air MI602. Customs was smooth as well. We met Julian at the Phnom Penh Airport and hopped on to a tuk-tuk to our guest house.
As we travel on the road, in the streets, we saw many people, we were thinking
"what does these people need? What is hope to them?"
And the journey continues!!
- Guan Rui -
on behalf of the team
We have reached Phnom Penh!!!
Hello guys!!
Departure (Terminal 2)
Guan Rui, Calyn, Wei Ling, Joyce, Serene, Timothy
Farewell - from the travellers' point of view.
The team at Changi Airport - Flight Gate waiting area
Thanks for sending us off at the airport so early in the morning!!
More updates later!! Stay Tuned!!
Thursday, 31 December 2009
Personal thoughts :)
Personal thoughts:
Feel a lot for the children and youths there as I hear more about their conditions and lives. Many of them are orphans and they need to fend for themselves and ensure their own survival. Many of them need hope in their lives which we know can only be found in Christ. I feel that I am very blessed to be in Singapore and to have a complete family with everything provided for me.
I am excited and yet nervous and abit scared about the trip there J haha… for our outreach service, I am in-charge of the skit which is to be used as a platform to Tim’s sharing and the response to receive Christ. I am still writing the script, will be playing the lead who is the rebellious girl running away from her abusive dad (marcus from the other team) and how she ended up in trouble and how Christ gave her a second chance to live and hope. Haha… I am actually quite excited but really nervous J
In conclusion, I am really glad to be part of this team and first time working with them! I have learnt much from them and I am just so glad for this opportunity to be able to be used by God and to be able to go Cambodia to impact the youths. While the youths will benefit greatly, I think at the end, it is me who will gain the most from this trip. I believe God is growing my faith, courage and love through this trip. Growing my heart and burden for the lost and also to be more faith-filled and bold for God and His kingdom. I am truly excited J Do keep us and the Cambodia people in prayer k J Pray for God to move mightily there!! Thanks all J I am blessed to be able to share this part of my life with ya J
Feel a lot for the children and youths there as I hear more about their conditions and lives. Many of them are orphans and they need to fend for themselves and ensure their own survival. Many of them need hope in their lives which we know can only be found in Christ. I feel that I am very blessed to be in Singapore and to have a complete family with everything provided for me.
I am excited and yet nervous and abit scared about the trip there J haha… for our outreach service, I am in-charge of the skit which is to be used as a platform to Tim’s sharing and the response to receive Christ. I am still writing the script, will be playing the lead who is the rebellious girl running away from her abusive dad (marcus from the other team) and how she ended up in trouble and how Christ gave her a second chance to live and hope. Haha… I am actually quite excited but really nervous J
In conclusion, I am really glad to be part of this team and first time working with them! I have learnt much from them and I am just so glad for this opportunity to be able to be used by God and to be able to go Cambodia to impact the youths. While the youths will benefit greatly, I think at the end, it is me who will gain the most from this trip. I believe God is growing my faith, courage and love through this trip. Growing my heart and burden for the lost and also to be more faith-filled and bold for God and His kingdom. I am truly excited J Do keep us and the Cambodia people in prayer k J Pray for God to move mightily there!! Thanks all J I am blessed to be able to share this part of my life with ya J
Prayer Requests!
Thanks to all who are reading this blog. We'll try to update you as often as we can about the progress of our trip, and hope you guys can keep us in prayer...
General Things to pray for:
Our team - teamwork, focus, clarity, sensitivity to the Spirit's leading
Cambodian youths - open & receptive hearts
Protection - from sickness, loss of belongings, spiritual attacks
Specific Things to pray for:
Progress of Youth Workshops (Mon-Wed)
Success of Outreach Event (Thurs morning)
Effectiveness of Follow-Up Training (Fri)
.
General Things to pray for:
Our team - teamwork, focus, clarity, sensitivity to the Spirit's leading
Cambodian youths - open & receptive hearts
Protection - from sickness, loss of belongings, spiritual attacks
Specific Things to pray for:
Progress of Youth Workshops (Mon-Wed)
Success of Outreach Event (Thurs morning)
Effectiveness of Follow-Up Training (Fri)
.
Our 1st entry!
Hello to our care group members, sheeps, our leaders,
close brothers and sisters whom we love to share our life with, and members of the public,
Before leaving for the Cambodia mission trip, I thought of involving
you guys more, in terms of what the team is going to do and how you can
support us in prayers in Singapore.
Who is in the team?
Myself, Calyn, Weiling, Serene Ho, Joyce Peh, and Timothy is leading this team.
God has formed this team filled with people who are equipped with skill sets which complements with each other.
At this juncture, I see many things that we are planning to do are things which God has been preparing us.
Eg. Outreach, discipleship, service support, teaching the WOG, guitaring, singing, deco, acting.
Actually, mission starts here in Singapore.
Where are we going?
We are going to Cambodia (duh?) and visiting the orphanages in the city and village.
Duration:
3rd Jan - 10th Jan 2010
Time Zone Difference:
Cambodia is 1 hour slower than Singapore.
Flight Details:
Departing
Singapore(SIN) on Sun, 03 Jan 2010, 0815 hrs
Arriving
Phnom Penh(PNH) on Sun, 03 Jan 2010, 0915 hrs
Flight: MI602 Economy Class
Departing
Phnom Penh(PNH) on Sun, 10 Jan 2010, 1810 hrs
Arriving
Singapore(SIN) on Sun, 10Jan 2010, 2110 hrs
Flight: MI607 Economy Class
Briefly what this trip is about:
We are going to interact with youths living in a place we named as "JOKO"
We are going there to impart life skills thru activities and conducting workshops, helping them to make decisions in life. We will be doing an outreach service to share about God's love for them, that they might come to experience hope.
Background of Cambodia:
Cambodia is one of the poorest country in the world.
This country is crippled by decades of wars, international embargoes, political and economic stagnation. Majority of the Cambodians live in rural areas. During the extension of the Vietnam war into Cambodia, around 2 millions Cambodians were killed, followed by the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge.
Even now after 30 years, the effects are still very much present in Cambodia as the children had lost their parents since young.
Over half the population is under 18 years old. They are concerned of their survival, in terms of social and economical well-being. Those luckier ones are brought into the orphanages, while
the rest had to roam around the streets, begging, even exploited and become victims of sex trade.
Many die, unknown, unloved and unaccounted for.
What is the main thrust for this team?
We are having an opportunity to conduct an Outreach Service for about 100 Cambodian youths on 7th Jan 2010, instead of the previous 200-250 pax.
We will be linking up with another team (bros and siss from adults group) to put up this service
together. It is something like our ESS - we will have games, praise, testimonies, a skit, sermon, and lastly a time for response to receive Jesus into their lives.
Challenges we are facing:
Haha! We are left with very few days for our prep phase and all of us are managing pastoral roles and prep for UNI-YA anniversary at the same time, before we finally leave on the 3rd Jan.
We are going to meet language barriers there, but that also called us to rely on the universal language - LOVE! Even if we cannot speak their language, our team believes that God's love will cross all boundaries. We will use alternate means to bridge the gap - using pictures, simple english and music to drive across the Message of the Cross.
Huge responsibility which God has given us, to be used as a vessel to bring His love to these people who are in need of hope - the True Hope.
What a honour to be selected to be part of this team!
What can you pray for us?
1) Pray for the team to be united in spirit, to move according to God's prompting.
2) Pray for the team to experience renewal of God's love as we enter into this land.
3) Pray for God's hand to reach into the hearts of the Cambodian youths whom we will be interacting with, during this 8-days trip. Let not the dark forces in the spiritual realm keep this children from coming to Jesus.
4) Pray the message of the cross will be proclaimed as clearly as it should, to bring salvation onto this land.
5) Pray for protection for this team - physical and spiritual and emotional.
6) Pray that the team can handle sudden changes in plans and be flexible to them. This happens a lot of time in missions.
Conclusion:
For myself, I hope not just that I can learn and be broken by God through this trip, but ask of you to experience with me the journey of someone going on a mission. I will continue this sharing with you when we come back. Please pray for us, ok?!
Whenever we have access to the world in our guest house in the evening, we will bring you the latest updates (prayer points, pictures, journals) on this platform and we really appreciate your prayers and encouragements through sms/on this blog page throughout the trip :)
Thanks thanks!
May God move so mightily in this trip!
Guan Rui
close brothers and sisters whom we love to share our life with, and members of the public,
Before leaving for the Cambodia mission trip, I thought of involving
you guys more, in terms of what the team is going to do and how you can
support us in prayers in Singapore.
Who is in the team?
Myself, Calyn, Weiling, Serene Ho, Joyce Peh, and Timothy is leading this team.
God has formed this team filled with people who are equipped with skill sets which complements with each other.
At this juncture, I see many things that we are planning to do are things which God has been preparing us.
Eg. Outreach, discipleship, service support, teaching the WOG, guitaring, singing, deco, acting.
Actually, mission starts here in Singapore.
Where are we going?
We are going to Cambodia (duh?) and visiting the orphanages in the city and village.
Duration:
3rd Jan - 10th Jan 2010
Time Zone Difference:
Cambodia is 1 hour slower than Singapore.
Flight Details:
Departing
Singapore(SIN) on Sun, 03 Jan 2010, 0815 hrs
Arriving
Phnom Penh(PNH) on Sun, 03 Jan 2010, 0915 hrs
Flight: MI602 Economy Class
Departing
Phnom Penh(PNH) on Sun, 10 Jan 2010, 1810 hrs
Arriving
Singapore(SIN) on Sun, 10Jan 2010, 2110 hrs
Flight: MI607 Economy Class
Briefly what this trip is about:
We are going to interact with youths living in a place we named as "JOKO"
We are going there to impart life skills thru activities and conducting workshops, helping them to make decisions in life. We will be doing an outreach service to share about God's love for them, that they might come to experience hope.
Background of Cambodia:
Cambodia is one of the poorest country in the world.
This country is crippled by decades of wars, international embargoes, political and economic stagnation. Majority of the Cambodians live in rural areas. During the extension of the Vietnam war into Cambodia, around 2 millions Cambodians were killed, followed by the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge.
Even now after 30 years, the effects are still very much present in Cambodia as the children had lost their parents since young.
This image was originally posted to Flickr by cambodia4kidsorg
at http://flickr.com/photos/58428285@N00/10889253.
at http://flickr.com/photos/58428285@N00/10889253.
Over half the population is under 18 years old. They are concerned of their survival, in terms of social and economical well-being. Those luckier ones are brought into the orphanages, while
the rest had to roam around the streets, begging, even exploited and become victims of sex trade.
Many die, unknown, unloved and unaccounted for.
What is the main thrust for this team?
We are having an opportunity to conduct an Outreach Service for about 100 Cambodian youths on 7th Jan 2010, instead of the previous 200-250 pax.
We will be linking up with another team (bros and siss from adults group) to put up this service
together. It is something like our ESS - we will have games, praise, testimonies, a skit, sermon, and lastly a time for response to receive Jesus into their lives.
Challenges we are facing:
Haha! We are left with very few days for our prep phase and all of us are managing pastoral roles and prep for UNI-YA anniversary at the same time, before we finally leave on the 3rd Jan.
We are going to meet language barriers there, but that also called us to rely on the universal language - LOVE! Even if we cannot speak their language, our team believes that God's love will cross all boundaries. We will use alternate means to bridge the gap - using pictures, simple english and music to drive across the Message of the Cross.
Huge responsibility which God has given us, to be used as a vessel to bring His love to these people who are in need of hope - the True Hope.
What a honour to be selected to be part of this team!
What can you pray for us?
1) Pray for the team to be united in spirit, to move according to God's prompting.
2) Pray for the team to experience renewal of God's love as we enter into this land.
3) Pray for God's hand to reach into the hearts of the Cambodian youths whom we will be interacting with, during this 8-days trip. Let not the dark forces in the spiritual realm keep this children from coming to Jesus.
4) Pray the message of the cross will be proclaimed as clearly as it should, to bring salvation onto this land.
5) Pray for protection for this team - physical and spiritual and emotional.
6) Pray that the team can handle sudden changes in plans and be flexible to them. This happens a lot of time in missions.
Conclusion:
For myself, I hope not just that I can learn and be broken by God through this trip, but ask of you to experience with me the journey of someone going on a mission. I will continue this sharing with you when we come back. Please pray for us, ok?!
Whenever we have access to the world in our guest house in the evening, we will bring you the latest updates (prayer points, pictures, journals) on this platform and we really appreciate your prayers and encouragements through sms/on this blog page throughout the trip :)
Thanks thanks!
May God move so mightily in this trip!
Guan Rui
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