Today's event went well! Thank God! Praise God! It was interesting working together with the cambodians and learned a number of things regarding culture differences and once again we had a very good and fruitful debriefing session with Julian!
The challenges of church planting isnt about dealing with Spiritual warfare but with people and culture differences. Things that will frustrate you and irritate you and make you feel like giving up. We had a taste of it today and it was interesting! :) hahah... Going church planting, you need to be resilent and persevering in order to sustain through and to last for 5 years.
With cross culture differences especially in developing countries, their lifestyle and response to things will truly frustrate you and to instill biblical values in them will probably take you 4 years and lots of modeling and repeating for them.
Had new perspectives into church planting and also new understanding of the Hope Spirit! :) The spirit of sacrifice, faithfulness and perseverance, standing firm in Christ.
Everything went well at the end :) God really provided a way out for us, there were so many hipups here and there but God moved amazingly and we saw how God provided a way for us. For His grace is sufficient :) We had problems with projector and the electricity but things eventually turned out well too.
Friday, 8 January 2010
Thursday, 7 January 2010
Praise God!
There were so many technical hiccups before the start of the event, but we really thank God that we pulled through everything. The hosting and P&W done by the Cambodians, the dance performance by Marcus' team, the skit with Calyn, Guan Rui and Wei Ling, my sharing and translation by Somien... We really thank God for carrying us through.
There were about 5-6 hands that were raised in response to receiving Jesus. The pastor Joko shared more after my sharing and will be following through on them. Though we won't be continuing our work in these new believers' lives, we thank God for the privilege to participate in their journey with Jesus and will continue to pray for them.
Finally, a shout out to everyone who has been faithfully keeping us in prayer and encouraging us over sms, email and tagging the blog. It means a lot to us and we've been really blessed. Most importantly, praise God for His faithfulness with us all along.
More updates when we get back from dinner tonight.
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There were about 5-6 hands that were raised in response to receiving Jesus. The pastor Joko shared more after my sharing and will be following through on them. Though we won't be continuing our work in these new believers' lives, we thank God for the privilege to participate in their journey with Jesus and will continue to pray for them.
Finally, a shout out to everyone who has been faithfully keeping us in prayer and encouraging us over sms, email and tagging the blog. It means a lot to us and we've been really blessed. Most importantly, praise God for His faithfulness with us all along.
More updates when we get back from dinner tonight.
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2hours to the FREEDOM CONCERT
Hi all!!
2plus more hours to the evangelistic service! Woot! It's called THE FREEDOM CONCERT! Cause today is the day they celebrate freedom from under Pol Pot. Pray for the cambodians for the service later! May God's spirit really stir in their hearts today! Rehearsal went ok just now, with mr tan acting as an abusive father and calyn acting as the girl who is drove to desperation and receives a new life from God! I'm supposed to be a bad bully that stole food from her when she was rammaging therough the rubbish. No words are used in the skit, only sounds, for practical sense that we cant speak khmer. Kudos to calyn for reading the script. it's really a good job, from my point of view, and really pray that it will hit home. from experience of past few days, things that i think hit home for the cambodians might not actualy have, cause their responses might not be how they feel and what they think. but because of my experiences in singapore, how we do things in singapore, how we think, led me to think they receive it well when it may not.
Once again, pray that God's spirit will really stir today in their hearts and touch them. May His anointing flows to all that are serving in all ways, from bringing visitors to on stage, musicians, etc etc!
2plus more hours to the evangelistic service! Woot! It's called THE FREEDOM CONCERT! Cause today is the day they celebrate freedom from under Pol Pot. Pray for the cambodians for the service later! May God's spirit really stir in their hearts today! Rehearsal went ok just now, with mr tan acting as an abusive father and calyn acting as the girl who is drove to desperation and receives a new life from God! I'm supposed to be a bad bully that stole food from her when she was rammaging therough the rubbish. No words are used in the skit, only sounds, for practical sense that we cant speak khmer. Kudos to calyn for reading the script. it's really a good job, from my point of view, and really pray that it will hit home. from experience of past few days, things that i think hit home for the cambodians might not actualy have, cause their responses might not be how they feel and what they think. but because of my experiences in singapore, how we do things in singapore, how we think, led me to think they receive it well when it may not.
Once again, pray that God's spirit will really stir today in their hearts and touch them. May His anointing flows to all that are serving in all ways, from bringing visitors to on stage, musicians, etc etc!
Countdown to Freedom Concert
3 more hours to the Freedom Concert!!!! We just came back from NIE (the place where we will be holding the event). Now Tim is preparing for his sharing later. Cambodians are different from singaporeans and to reach them we need to come across as friends and the challenge for Tim would be to bring the message across in a soft and gentle manner and less preachy. (Different from Singapore style ah :)) So keep him in prayer as you all read this as he is preparing for later. Tim feels nervous and yet priviledge. Pray for him to be able to connect to the cambodians at a friend level and be Spirit-led. Pray for the translation to be smooth also as he work together with somian. That there will be synergy and they will be in the same Spirit. The theme is on Hope and Freedom.
We did up the decor and it was fantastic! With balloons and the word: FREEDOM in front of the stage. The place looked so warm and welcoming after we did up the decor. Thank God for weiling!! We used red and green balloons to decorate the door (use the colour of the cambodia flog) and blue and silver balloons for the inside. We also did the props for the skit and rehearsed the skit. Due to language barrier as we do not have a translator for the skit, it will just be a skit on alot of actions, gestures, expressions and screaming, so while writing the script and acting out, must be super drama and exaggerated kind since there will be no dialogues or talking at all.
The plot of the skit:
A girl (me) is happy with her life and loves to study but has an abusive father (guan rui) as he loves to drink and he gambles. So one day while the girl was cleaning the house, she heard the dad coming home drunk. She quickly went to keep her money and hid in her bed under her blanket. Father came into the room looking for money but counldnt find anything and flare up. He confronted the girl and asked for the money but the girl refused to give him and he hit her and strangled her. In the midst of the struggle, the girl accidentally hit father with something hard and he bled and was so angry. She ran away out onto the streets and became homeless. One day while she was looking for food and she was really hungry after not eating for days, she found a mango but was bullied by another girl who took her food. She was in despair and desperation.
At this point, Tim will come in to share. I will leave it to Tim to update this part on his sharing. Then we will show a video on Jesus dying on the cross and at the last part when Jesus was hung on the cross, I will come in again to receive Christ's love for me and to have hope and joy in my life.
Prayer points for skit:
Please pray that the skit will be relevant to them and that it will touch their hearts. It will stir in their hearts and prepare them for Tim's sharing and the video of Christ and the altar call. Pray that i will be able to portray the helplessness and despair and hope and joy at the end. This is really a challenge for me, acting other roles would really be easier than helplessness and despair. But i believe that God will anoint me in this and that I will experience breakthroughs :) Joyce is my keyboardist. PRay that we will have synergy in the skit and that the music will bring out the helplessness and despair and also hope.
For this event, it is the first time they are doing something so big, invited 120 children and everyone is really excited. 2 church is combining effort to do this with us and also another stm team from hope singapore but the adults side. They will be doing a dance with some of the cambodians before our turn and their dance is about a group of 'dead' people coming to life after receiveing Christ.
Program flow:
ice breaker games
praise
dance (by marcus and his team)
skit
sharing
altar call (response)
Please keep us in prayer from 4-6pm (singapore time). The prayer points are at the side. I am so honoured to be part of this. So humbled also. This morning as we were doing QT on john 4:1-42, God spoke to me through (v35-38) and i was also reminded of the verse that God spoke to me about the cambodians when we first touched down at cambodia and that is 2cor 6:2. The harvest is now! "Now is the day of Salvation". I believe today and now (this time) is the period of reaping. Many people have been sowing and for years they have perserve in sowing seeds in the hearts of the cambodians and now we are part of this harvesting. It is a priviledge and a blessing for myself to be part of this, to be used by God and to witness what God is doing here. It is really amazing!
All of us are anticipating and the same Spirit is flowing in the room (summarised by serene). Tim is feeling nervous so pray for him k :) We are all fasting lunch and praying. Going to have a time of worship and prayer soon.
Hey all, i hope u all are as excited as we are and also capturing our heartbeat and Spirit there.
We did up the decor and it was fantastic! With balloons and the word: FREEDOM in front of the stage. The place looked so warm and welcoming after we did up the decor. Thank God for weiling!! We used red and green balloons to decorate the door (use the colour of the cambodia flog) and blue and silver balloons for the inside. We also did the props for the skit and rehearsed the skit. Due to language barrier as we do not have a translator for the skit, it will just be a skit on alot of actions, gestures, expressions and screaming, so while writing the script and acting out, must be super drama and exaggerated kind since there will be no dialogues or talking at all.
The plot of the skit:
A girl (me) is happy with her life and loves to study but has an abusive father (guan rui) as he loves to drink and he gambles. So one day while the girl was cleaning the house, she heard the dad coming home drunk. She quickly went to keep her money and hid in her bed under her blanket. Father came into the room looking for money but counldnt find anything and flare up. He confronted the girl and asked for the money but the girl refused to give him and he hit her and strangled her. In the midst of the struggle, the girl accidentally hit father with something hard and he bled and was so angry. She ran away out onto the streets and became homeless. One day while she was looking for food and she was really hungry after not eating for days, she found a mango but was bullied by another girl who took her food. She was in despair and desperation.
At this point, Tim will come in to share. I will leave it to Tim to update this part on his sharing. Then we will show a video on Jesus dying on the cross and at the last part when Jesus was hung on the cross, I will come in again to receive Christ's love for me and to have hope and joy in my life.
Prayer points for skit:
Please pray that the skit will be relevant to them and that it will touch their hearts. It will stir in their hearts and prepare them for Tim's sharing and the video of Christ and the altar call. Pray that i will be able to portray the helplessness and despair and hope and joy at the end. This is really a challenge for me, acting other roles would really be easier than helplessness and despair. But i believe that God will anoint me in this and that I will experience breakthroughs :) Joyce is my keyboardist. PRay that we will have synergy in the skit and that the music will bring out the helplessness and despair and also hope.
For this event, it is the first time they are doing something so big, invited 120 children and everyone is really excited. 2 church is combining effort to do this with us and also another stm team from hope singapore but the adults side. They will be doing a dance with some of the cambodians before our turn and their dance is about a group of 'dead' people coming to life after receiveing Christ.
Program flow:
ice breaker games
praise
dance (by marcus and his team)
skit
sharing
altar call (response)
Please keep us in prayer from 4-6pm (singapore time). The prayer points are at the side. I am so honoured to be part of this. So humbled also. This morning as we were doing QT on john 4:1-42, God spoke to me through (v35-38) and i was also reminded of the verse that God spoke to me about the cambodians when we first touched down at cambodia and that is 2cor 6:2. The harvest is now! "Now is the day of Salvation". I believe today and now (this time) is the period of reaping. Many people have been sowing and for years they have perserve in sowing seeds in the hearts of the cambodians and now we are part of this harvesting. It is a priviledge and a blessing for myself to be part of this, to be used by God and to witness what God is doing here. It is really amazing!
All of us are anticipating and the same Spirit is flowing in the room (summarised by serene). Tim is feeling nervous so pray for him k :) We are all fasting lunch and praying. Going to have a time of worship and prayer soon.
Hey all, i hope u all are as excited as we are and also capturing our heartbeat and Spirit there.
Wednesday, 6 January 2010
and we were touched by God for the harvest ahead . . . Day 3
Official Day 03 - 060110
Workshop: Time management and Budgeting
Evening Christian Youths Training: How to grow as a Christian (Cross Values)
Workshop: Time management and Budgeting
Evening Christian Youths Training: How to grow as a Christian (Cross Values)
(Calyn explaining the rules of the money management game. In this game, each of the youths are given a certain amount of tokens from the start and as the years went by, they need to think what they want to invest in.)
(Weiling as a career manager - providing jobs like being a tuk-tuk driver. Thru this station, the people can earn more tokens.)
(those who did not spend money well on food will be sent to hospital for drip and they have to spend money for the medical fees.)
(lunch time together at Joko's Eden Cafe. We linked up with Marcus CIP team together with Julian and his wife Serene.)
(group photo)Evening workshop
(playing ice-breakers)
(breaking up the cross values into 4 parts - Prayer and Worship, Word of God, Fellowship and Serving God)In a few hours time we will be having 120 youths coming for the outreach event. I feel that God is working in the hearts of many people and as we gathered to pray in the afternoon and at night,
I am so touched to know that the people here really want to see Jesus be known.
Pray for us that God's power be filled in the event venue we are using and His hand touching every heart that comes thru the door.
- Guan Rui -
Tomorrow's The Big Day!
We're done with all the workshops. It has been an amazing few days where God has helped us in so many ways. There were so many things that could've gone wrong, but God sent the right people at the right time and all we had to do was give our best in whatever we knew how. He is in control and His kingdom will advance no matter what!
Tomorrow's the big day and we'll be spending the morning and afternoon preparing for it. We'll be fasting lunch (fast with us if you can!) in preparation for what God is going to do.
Tomorrow's event will be 3-5pm (4-6pm S'pore time) at the National Institute of Education (NIE!). Do pray and intercede with us for the youths in this country. Will definitely update on the outcome of things as soon as we can tomorrow.
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Tomorrow's the big day and we'll be spending the morning and afternoon preparing for it. We'll be fasting lunch (fast with us if you can!) in preparation for what God is going to do.
Tomorrow's event will be 3-5pm (4-6pm S'pore time) at the National Institute of Education (NIE!). Do pray and intercede with us for the youths in this country. Will definitely update on the outcome of things as soon as we can tomorrow.
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Today's journey :)
Today weiling and i we conducted a workshop on self management in the area of managing our finance and to persevere in our planning. A continuation from yest's workshop.
The challenge when we were planning was not language barrier but culture. The cambodians youths are simple-minded and things have to be put across simple and direct. Content had to be cut down greatly cause they will not be able to understand but to have simple and yet deep take home points. Simple in terms of content but deep enough for them to apply in their lives and that it is relevant. We had to replace most of the content with activities and games, and to focus on key debriefing take home points at the end. It was challenging but fun to plan and also how God expand our creativity and also enabled us to bridge the gap.
To teach the cambodians the importance of saving, planning and prioritising we came up with a game with different scenarios over a span of '10 years' and they had to work, go to school, go church, fall sick and go market to buy food. It was interesting but chaotic. The activity was finalised quite last minute as we had to take note of some of the culture differences and also their way of living. Many impromptu things and it was a little bit chaotic but overall i think the main points were drove in. Through this activity we also managed to bring in some christian values and also the importance of growing their relationship with God.
Physically quite tired already :) but God is sustaining me and keeping my energy level up! :) continue to keep us in prayer for protection :) Excitied about tonight's workshop on follow-up :) Cause there are a few female leaders around who are really serious about God and i hope to be able to share more with them and impart to them. Yest had a chance to talk more with them and after the conversation i was so blessed by their Spirit! God is soooo amazing. Going for dinner and the workshop already tmr is the exciting Day!!!!! So exciting it can last for 50 years ;) ahahhaha..... Nope, its so exciting it can last forever. Whatever we are doing has eternal value. Gotta go le!!!! Will blog tonight.
Cal is blessed, ministered, renewed, exciting, happy, crazy (by tim).... hahahahaha.
The challenge when we were planning was not language barrier but culture. The cambodians youths are simple-minded and things have to be put across simple and direct. Content had to be cut down greatly cause they will not be able to understand but to have simple and yet deep take home points. Simple in terms of content but deep enough for them to apply in their lives and that it is relevant. We had to replace most of the content with activities and games, and to focus on key debriefing take home points at the end. It was challenging but fun to plan and also how God expand our creativity and also enabled us to bridge the gap.
To teach the cambodians the importance of saving, planning and prioritising we came up with a game with different scenarios over a span of '10 years' and they had to work, go to school, go church, fall sick and go market to buy food. It was interesting but chaotic. The activity was finalised quite last minute as we had to take note of some of the culture differences and also their way of living. Many impromptu things and it was a little bit chaotic but overall i think the main points were drove in. Through this activity we also managed to bring in some christian values and also the importance of growing their relationship with God.
Physically quite tired already :) but God is sustaining me and keeping my energy level up! :) continue to keep us in prayer for protection :) Excitied about tonight's workshop on follow-up :) Cause there are a few female leaders around who are really serious about God and i hope to be able to share more with them and impart to them. Yest had a chance to talk more with them and after the conversation i was so blessed by their Spirit! God is soooo amazing. Going for dinner and the workshop already tmr is the exciting Day!!!!! So exciting it can last for 50 years ;) ahahhaha..... Nope, its so exciting it can last forever. Whatever we are doing has eternal value. Gotta go le!!!! Will blog tonight.
Cal is blessed, ministered, renewed, exciting, happy, crazy (by tim).... hahahahaha.
More Prayer Requests
We had a very blessed time with the leaders praying for the event tomorrow. They are pinning many hopes on people coming to know Him through the event tomorrow. Tomorrow is Cambodia's Independence Day, the day that the people were set free from Pol Pot's regimes. The event is called Freedom Concert, and the leaders are praying that people will be set free and lives will be transformed.
We went down to the Outreach Event venue to pray over it just now. As I was praying, I felt the blood of the Lamb over the doorposts, that the place will be protected and that people will be set free just as the Spirit of God set Israel free from the Egyptians.
I'm very privileged to share the message. It is a huge responsibility but I'm trusting God to give me the right words to say. Our brother Somien, whom God has allowed us to work with over the past few days, will be our translator. He too is an orphan who was saved by Jesus and whose life has been transformed. God will speak through him too. Calyn, Guan Rui and Wei Ling will be involved in the skit, Joyce will be playing keyboards for some parts of the skit, and Serene will be leading the intercessory session.
Pray with us...
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We went down to the Outreach Event venue to pray over it just now. As I was praying, I felt the blood of the Lamb over the doorposts, that the place will be protected and that people will be set free just as the Spirit of God set Israel free from the Egyptians.
I'm very privileged to share the message. It is a huge responsibility but I'm trusting God to give me the right words to say. Our brother Somien, whom God has allowed us to work with over the past few days, will be our translator. He too is an orphan who was saved by Jesus and whose life has been transformed. God will speak through him too. Calyn, Guan Rui and Wei Ling will be involved in the skit, Joyce will be playing keyboards for some parts of the skit, and Serene will be leading the intercessory session.
Pray with us...
.
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
another day where God blessed us . . . Day 2
Official Day 2 - 050110
Workshop: Self-Management
Evening Christian Youths Training: Running CG meeting (OPSC)
Workshop: Self-Management
Evening Christian Youths Training: Running CG meeting (OPSC)
Wow! Today was a day that God moved. I thank God for the SMS-es that Jan and Sihui sent to my phone, encouraging me not to be nervous but to speak forth words prompted by the Spirit.
Last night I was preparing my sharing in details until 2am (3am, Singapore time). Timothy was asleep already but I enjoyed the time alone and occasionally pray to God whenever I get nervous.
(Calyn and Joyce discussing about the conducting of workshop.)
(Wei Ling helping out during the tower building activity)
(once the final segment of the tower is connected, the team rejoices as they look at the tower they built.)
(the winning team completed the tower. It almost touched the ceiling.)
(Discussing on the questions in the workshop handout)
(thinking.... hmmmm.. will the tower collapse this time?)
(our volunteered translator - Somien. The collapse of the UNO Stacko symbolises the crash of all our dreams and hopes if we do not plan well.)
(opening the time with games. Before the sharing we played games (Monkey King and Zoo keeper) and break into smaller groups to share about things to give thanks to God. I was really encouraged by their heart of gratitude and thanksgiving spirit for everything God does in their lives.)
(I was teaching the cambodian christian youths the song "I love You Jesus, deep down in my heart", with translator Somien beside him. We had a time of praise (with actions) for the song "I love You Jesus". It is really heartening to hear these people share their prayers to God and really love Jesus with much child-like joy! A simple song but contains a really child-like joy and trust. I am glad to see each of them enjoying the actions and sharing the joy )
I love You Jesus (Version 1)
I love You Jesus (Version 2)
The topic for today was "Running Care group meeting". It is a continuation of what Timothy shared on Monday about Principle of Care group - Discipleship, Outreach and Care.
My sharing concluded the Open, Pour, Shake, Close model. Just a context of the situation here. The place which we visit to conduct workshops and evening christian youth training is run by Joko. Currently there is no care group structure at the moment. However they do have 18 boys living together, most are christians. They also have about a group of sisters who joins this centre for Sunday service. This concept about care group is very new to each of them. But from what they shared and during the time of mock cg meeting they seemed enjoying themselves.
The time of sharing was not the best fluent speech I have given, but from what we sense, the spirit was imparted to the Cambodia christian youths. I learnt that it is not the bombastic words that drive the message across.
(the cambodian youths observing the elements of care group meeting by a mock care group meeting where the care leader shares a passage from the bible and ask the rest to share what God reminded of them.)
(Julian sharing to the youths in the small group setting)
(sharing in small group settings)
(breaking into groups to try out OPSC)
God's grace was upon me as I lead the time and flow. This reminds me that it is not me but the Spirit of God that convicts their hearts. Really thank God that they seemed to have taken home something from the sharing in the evening that the caregroup is part of the church and is committed to the church.
Everyone is important in a care group. Each of us can serve with whatever God has given us.
- Guan Rui -
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