His Name is Titus

Yesterday evening, Lean Choo, I, Agung and Merlyn went to the airport as our sister, Melia, is leaving to Melbourne together with her husband, Daniel, and their baby boy, Titus. They are going to be there for around one year.

Some of Daniel's family members were also there. It was great to see Hong Teck with his entire family there as well. Both sets of natural family and one set of spiritual family were present for the occassion.

Anyone present yesterday could notice that the star of the night was Titus.

This boy won people's hearts by his cuteness and smile. People were busy playing with him, taking his photo or video clip. Hopefully, his parents did not feel neglected. :)

On the way back home we had the opportunity to talk to Daniel's brother. We talked about many things including Titus. We talked about how Titus would be very different when we see him again. Actually, one part of me wants Titus to remain as he is while another part of me wants him to grow. :)

Through yesterday's happenning God reminded me of something very important. The next time I see Titus he will be a different boy as he will have grown. This is normal and expected. However, the next time I see Titus will I be a different person as I will have grown as well? Indeed, it is God's desire to see me growing continually. The end point is to be like Jesus. There is a long way to go to reach that point.

Indeed, time flies. I am already in the third division. Through these years I have noticed that change and growth do not happen automatically. If I was lazy 10 years ago I can still be lazy today. Indeed, time alone doesn't heal bad habits or characters.

As I am already in the third division I do feel a greater sense of urgency to see more changes and growth in some areas of my life. And if I really want to see more changes and growth more changes on habits and lifestyle will be required as well.

A Scripture came to my mind:

"The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful." (Matthew 13:22 - NIV)

Am I distracted? Or, am I focus? Am I distracted by the thorns of life? Am I distracted by the urgent and trivial matters of life? Or, am I focus on the truly important things?

I thank God for giving me a great nephew. He is surely cute. And recently, he also reminded me to grow along with him.

And by the way, his name is Titus.

A Happy Day

Last Sunday was a happy day for me for two good reasons.

Firstly, there was a historical moment in the world of tennis. Roger Federer defeated Rafael Nadal on Hamburg ATP Masters final on CLAY.

In order to help those who do not follow tennis let me give you a crash course of this wonderful game.

Tennis tournaments are played on three surfaces, clay, grass and cement (hard court). Roger Federer is the reigning no 1 player in the world. Rafael Nadal is the no 2. Federer is the king of grass while Nadal is the king of clay. Nadal had not been beaten on clay for 81 matches until last Sunday. Federer had never beaten Nadal on clay until last Sunday.

Few people thought that Federer could do it as he had not been in a good form in the weeks prior to the tournament and the final. On the other hand, Nadal was in the form of his life. But this is what champions do, they bounce back from their difficulties, they overcome all odds.

I was watching the match on Sunday. Federer was losing in the first set. Honestly, I felt quite scared about it and decided to switched to other channels hoping that the situation would be different when I switched back. Some time later I switched back and Federer was still losing. I switched to other channels again. Some time later I switched back again and there I saw Federer turning the situation around. I then continued to watch. Federer eventually defeated Nadal for the first time (on clay) by a big margin.

I learned two lessons from Federer. One, you just have to keep trying. Two, your breakthrough can come in the midst of impossibilities.

That is the first reason why last Sunday was a happy day for me.

The second reason (but definitely not the lesser one) is that last Sunday five people from the AG4 & AWAM groups decided to get wet for Jesus. Seeing people going through water baptism always warms my heart. Especially, when they are people I know.

My congratulations to Handoko, Irene, Klien, Angela and Pei Yang. I praise God for all of you. I trust that as you have taken this step of obedience the blessings of God will come upon your lives in a greater measure.

I really thank God for last Sunday. It was indeed a happy day.

Note: I took Federer's photo from the ATP official website. I took the water baptism photos from Wong Kam Weng's official camera. I hope to be able to upload more water baptism photos soon. For those who have Irene, Pei Yang and Handoko's water baptism photos please do a good deed by sending them to me. :)

A Powerful Testimony from Hope Manila

This year I spent Easter in Manila, Phillipines. It was indeed a privilege to be able to participate and minister in their camp.

Eugene Phang joined me for part of my trip. We had a great time there.

The experience and exposure has caused me to grow quite a fair bit. I learned valuable lessons and humbled by what God can and will do when His children choose to step out by faith.

There are many things that I can write about my experiences there. However, presently I just would like to pen down one testimony. This testimony is so powerful that it never fails to encourage my heart whenever I think of it.

Hope Manila has been renting a venue for their service, activities and office space for some years now. The venue can be divided into three areas. The first area is a big hall that can contain around 400-500 people, theatre style. Outside the hall there is this large outdoor space that can be used for all kinds of activities including basketball and volleyball. This is the second area. The third area is an office space that can contain around 8 people.

The owner of the place is a committed Christian from another church. In the beginning, he was asking for 80,000 peso per month for the rental of the venue. That's around $2500 per month. I think that's a quite reasonable pricing. It would definitely costs a lot more in Singapore for such a venue.

Over the years however the price kept going down. From time to time the owner would call and said, "I have been praying and the Holy Spirit told me to reduce the price". This kept happenning that right now they are only paying 10,000 peso per month. That's only around $300. Men, with that kind of pricing we can only rent a small room without an air conditioner in Singapore .

Some time ago the church went through a difficult time. Some people left the church. Many of the high income earners belong to this group. Consequently, the collection of the tithe and offering dropped significantly. But God is faithful. Soon after, the owner of the place unexpectedly called the church and said, "I have been praying and the Holy Spirit told me..."

This testimony truly speaks of the faithfulness of our God in providing for His people. As we take care of the house of God, as we take care of the people of God, God will surely take care of our needs. Our God is indeed our Jehovah Jireh, the Lord our Provider!

My New Hairstyle

I have been going back to "It's Hairy" situated at the fourth floor of Far East Plaza for many months now. My hairdresser doesn't want me to have the same hairstyle. He wants to do a new hairstyle for me each time I come back.

This time I told him that I wanted to cut and highlight. But he recommended cut and dye. He asked me to trust him.

This hairstyle is a lazy hairstyle meaning that I can choose to style it or do nothing at all and it would look acceptable.

If I choose to style it, the pictures below represent one possible outcome.

I think I like this hairstyle and colour. Lean Choo doesn't like the colour. Some people like it. One person told me that by having this hairstyle I look like a bad guy if I don't smile. Some people asked me to dye my thick eyebrows as well.

It seems that hairstyle is a controversial subject. For my case, as long as Jesus, my wife, I and the majority of young adults are comfortable with it I shall have my peace.

A Wonderful Thai Camp

This entry is the continuation of my previous blog on "The Ten Good Men". After having some fun in Bangkok we travelled overnight in a five star bus to Khon Khean for the Thai Camp Celebration.

I was back for the camp after 7 years. It was good to be back. They used the same convention hall being the largest one in Northern Part of Thailand, I heard. This year they were running the camp three times to contain all the people. The camp I attended had 6500 delegates. Two thousands volunteers were needed to run the camp. Wow, that's around 2/3 of Hope Singapore.

In this camp, I was really ministered by the worship sessions. Their worship team was incredible. It was so good to find out that they now displayed the English lyrics on the slides. Some songs were even sung in English. The international delegates were seated on the second floor of the auditorium. As I looked down to the first floor where my Thai brothers and sisters were, it was so gratifying to see every single hand raised to God. I couldn't find a hand that wasn't raised. This was really a display of a united and responsive worship. In one of the worship sessions I cried. It had been some time since I cried during a worship session. God was touching my heart and I was so blessed by it.

The churches in Thailand are continuing to grow steadily. We now have over 3000 churches all over Thailand. The Gospel is slowly but surely saturating the nation. The vision for Thailand is now to build a local church in every single village in the nation, 80,000 of them. I really want to thank God for the great example that the Thai churches have set for the rest of us to follow.

The Missions Night was fantastic. The entire Thailand is gearing up for Africa. The video presentation was very moving. Ps PN's message was great. This Missions Night gave me greater excitement and urgency as some of us are also championing Missions for Africa (Eastern and Southern parts of Africa). I really believe that we will see a lot more churches planted in Africa in the next few years. This is really exciting!

It was also great to be able to catch up with some brothers and sisters from Hope Manila in Thailand after getting to know them quite well through the Manila Easter Camp. It was good to be able to connect some of the ten good men to them as well. Since we are part of a global family it is always good to connect ourselves to others in other Hope Churches around the world.

We developed friendship with some Thai sisters as well. They were our buses' leaders while we were there. There were so hospitable. They took care of us really well and went beyond their call of duty to bless us. Two sisters that we got to know better were Ning (her photo is below) and Toto. Ning is a church staff with Hope Bangkok while Toto is with the International Fellowship of Hope Bangkok.

It was a wonderful Thai Camp. I wish that more of us from the district and AWAM could be there. I look foward to having many more of us being blessed out of our socks in Thai Camp 2008. Till then may this picture below act as an appetizer to the potential candidates of the "ninety nine good men". This was the best coconut drink I have ever tasted in my whole life thus far.

By the way, I calculated. If we start saving $1 to $1.5 everyday, going to Thai Camp is indeed within everyone's means.

Any additional takers?

The Ten Good Men

Eleven of us (from AG4 & AWAM) went to Thai Camp around 2-3 weeks ago. This is a stark contrast to only one of us (I, me & myself) going for LC in Thailand in Nov 06. This is why I call the additional people as the ten good men (including women).

Majority of us chose to arrive in Thailand one day earlier. The Thai Camp was held at Khon Khean (Northern part of Thailand) but we needed to take bus from Bangkok (a 8-hour journey using a five-star coach).

In Bangkok, we spent time patronising their shopping centres and food places. Some of us chose to pamper ourselves by going for a massage as well. This was one occassion where we could be really thankful for the mighty Singapore dollars.

We had a good time together in Bangkok, also with those who were outside of AG4 & AWAM. There were however three memorable incidents for me.

The first incident was our encounter with a 'sifu'. Some of us took a very long walk from one venue to another (thanks to Kam Weng's assurance that it was near - it's okay we still loved him). As we took that long walk we met this 'sifu'. He impressed us with his skill in peeling and cutting fruits. He peeled off a mango in probably only 20 seconds. He then dismantled the entire mango in probably only 10 seconds. What a display of mastery of a skill. By the way not all fruit sellers in Thailand are a 'sifu'. The rest we met subsequently were much slower than him. Indeed, there is a big difference between knowing and mastering a skill.

"The Sifu"

The second incident was where we met up with Yolanda's brother and sister-in-law for lunch. Yolanda's brother married a Thai and have been living in Bangkok for some time now. Yolanda does look like her brother. Lean Choo and I have known Yolanda for years. Knowing her life story (a powerful testimony) we know that God has brought her a long way for this happy incident to occur.

Yolanda with her brother and sister-in-law

The third incident was pretty embarrasing but hillarious. We went to this place called "The Fashion Mall". We were told by a shopping expert from Singapore that things in this place were very cheap. We went. There Kam Weng was shopping for some new pants. As there wasn't a changing room in one particular store I had to help my dear sheep to create a temporary changing room using a piece of "sarong". As a shepherd is to be willing to die for his sheep this was a good test of that willingness. :)

The makeshift changing room

We had a good time together. And the ten good men are: Lean Choo, Eugene Chong, Jacqueline, Robert, June, Yolanda, Kam Weng, Stephanie Peh, Simon and Priscilla Lim.

This time next year I hope to be able to write a blog on "The Ninety Nine Good Men". Any takers?