Wimbledon and more

Portugal and Holland lost in their quarter final matches. It proves that soccer is not my calling. Thus I will now change sports. A major tennis tournament started on Monday. Yeap, I am talking about Wimbledon, arguably the greatest tennis tournament in the entire tennis calendar.

Wimbledon is special for many reasons. One of them is because it is played on grass court. Today there are very few grass court tournaments in the world. Another reason is because Federer is a great grass court player. He has won this tournament 5 times on a row. If he wins Wimbledon next Sunday he will be the first player to do so in the open era.

During Federer's first round play yesterday something unusual happenned. Dominik, Federer's opponent, sat besides Federer nearing the end of the match. This is very unusual to say the least. Normally players sit at their own designated chairs during break times. This will help them to focus better on the match. The photo of the incident is below.

Source: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/24/sports/tennis.php?page=2

This scene is heartwarming. It reminds players and fans that there is more to life than winning tennis matches. Sometimes we can be too focused on our selfish passion and goals that we sacrifice more important things such as God, people around us and people out there.

On Sunday we had a district event where we celebrated God's goodness in our midst in the past half year, affirmed people and look forward to the months ahead. We called the event, YA Team Rally.

There many people that I want to thank for making the event possible including Desmond & Ziying, the coordinators of the event. However, I want to take this time to make a special mention of the deco team. I discovered that Shiyan and team really put in a lot of efforts in making the deco and gifts to serve all of us that day.

Sometimes the contribution of those who serve behind the scene go unnoticed and unappreciated. But sometimes these people serve the hardest. Sunday's deco team is one example. If you are interested to read more of the story you can read Shiyan's blog on the below link. I have also taken liberty to download a photo from her blog and upload it below. :)

http://shiyansimplyliveforyou.blogspot.com/



I just want to take this opportunity to really appreciate the many people in the district and church who have served behind scene faithfully in many many occassions. Thank you for giving yourself to God and to all of us. Your labours are not in vain. I pray that you will continue to fight the good fight of faith and keep your faithful service to God so that more people like me can be blessed and impacted again and again.

By the way, yes, this is more important than Wimbledon. :)

Euro 2008

Euro 2008 is underway. The competition is now entering the quarter final stage.


The defending champion, Greece, is out without a point. The hosts, Austria and Switzerland, are also out.

Who do you think will win the cup this year?

Based on my gut feeling and very limited analysis I think I think I think we will see Holland and Portugal in the final.

Exclusion clause: This is not a prophecy. Thus I shall not be responsible for any damage resulted from agreeing with my limited calculated guess. :)

Mini Celebration for YA320

As a district and young adults ministry we were trusting God and labouring towards YA320 by the end of June. Some weeks ago we broke YA320 once. Before camp we were averaging at YA317 precious souls.

As such we want to consider this goal as done by faith. In our DDMM huddle last Sunday afternoon we did a mini celebration for reaching this milestone. Here are the photos taken by CN.

Those who are not in the photos are Priscilla, Jonathan and Tony. They are also part of the pastoral DDMM team. Fenny, Ah Long, Steven & Bernnise take care of the ministry groups. They are part of the team as well.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all in the district for doing your part in advancing the Kingdom by growing our YA family. Thanks people. God sees your hearts, prayers and labours. On behalf of the DDMM team we also want to really affirm every care leader in the district for caring and leading your people well.

We will continue to trust God and work hard together in seeing every care group in our district to grow by at least two precious people by the end of June or slightly later. We want every single care group in our midst to experience victory so that we all can trust God for bigger victories for the second part of the year.

As YA family we will work towards our new milestone which is YA330 and beyond by the end of August or earlier.

Jesus, we give You all the thanks and glory and we know that You will continue to be with us!

Camp Highlights

Many of us went to the Adults Camp in Shah Alam last week. The theme of the camp was "Actsperience God". That was exactly what happenned. God visited us tangibly in the camp.

Here are some of the camp highlights for me:

1. God's tangible presence in the camp

It was so good lingering in the tangible presence of God in the camp.

It was so good to see people experiencing the touch of God tangibly.

2. May Hoong stepped out by faith to exercise the gift of tongue

I could sense God's anointing as she spoke out in tongue. People started to clap without being invited to do so. It was awesome.

After she finished speaking in tongue I looked at her. My facial expression was basically telling her, "please interpret". Then I discovered that she didn't have the interpretation. :) But God was in control. When May Hoong broke out in tongue I heard a message in my spirit. As May Hoong didn't have the interpretation I stepped out by faith to interpret.

Later on I discovered that there are several people who had the interpretation of that tongue. As I listened to their interpretations I got worried and excited at the same time. I got worried as I was wondering if my interpretation was only partial. I got excited as I discovered that our interpretations were along a similar theme.

I spoke to Ee Lee during the camp. She had moved in the gift of tongue before. She said that she did some study on it. Apparently it is possible to have several interpretations of the same tongue. However, they would revolve around the same theme. It is like covering it from different angles.

I am really very encouraged by May Hoong's courage to step out by faith to exercise her gift. What if each person in the church steps out by faith to do what God wants them to do? I trust that it would be a truly awesome sight and more.

3. Fruitful time of fellowship

During the camp I went around to spend time with many different groups and individuals. I enjoyed my time with them. I learned some new jokes from some of them as well.

I cherish the opportunity to interact with some of the district people in closer manner. It warmed and refreshed my heart.

Thank you people.

4. Singapore Idol Friendly Contest in a Malaysian Coach

During the bus trip from Shah Alam to Kuala Lumpur, the wonderful people in the coach I was in took turn to sing. Wow, they could really sing.

They almost got me to sing as well. But they kindly allowed me to settle with sharing a joke. Give me one more year. I may be ready to sing by then. :)

5. People making covenant with one another

I believe in the power of covenantal relationships.

In the camp I had the opportunity to witness a group people making covenant with one another.

It was a moving sight.

6. The workshop that Jasmine and I conducted

Jasmine and I conducted a workshop on "Moving in the Spirit".

It was good working together with Jasmine.

One highlight for me was the practice session of the second class. The class stepped out by faith to pray for a sister who had some pain in her hand. After the prayer she was partially healed. The class prayed again and the sister was completely healed. Praise God!

7. Jinqi stepping out by faith to pray for our coach tour guide publicly

Sometimes in the midst of our joy going to and coming back from our camp we may forget the presence of pre-believers around us including the coach driver and the tour guide.

But what an opportunity to make an impact with a coach full of on fire believers.

Thus it was very good to see Jinqi boldy prayed for our tour guide publicly in Mandarin. Our tour guide later on shared that it was her first time that somebody prayed for her and that she was very touched by it.

I did my part by thanking the uncle driver at the end of our journey. :)

Conclusion

There are definitely many other good things that happenned in the camp. The above are just some of the highlights for me.

I praise God for a Spirit-filled and faith-filled camp.

I want to thank Eugene Phang and his committee for working so hard to bless all of us by making the camp possible. Three cheers to Eugene and team.

In the camp Lean Choo & I did two dedications to two groups of people. Somehow this was our first time using the dedication service provided by The Blessing Point ministry. The person-in-charge has kindly sent our dedications to us so that we can send them out to the relevant people in case they missed them during the camp.

Our dedications are as below (with some minor editing):

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Dearest AG1 District,

We love each one of you.

Thank you for being part of the family.

Let us continue to love God and fulfil His vision for us and for the world.

Love,

Michael & Lean Choo

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Dearest AG1 Leadership Team,

Words alone can’t express our appreciation for you.

You have poured out your time, sweat and tears for the sake of your flock.

Thanks Thanks and Thanks.

With much love,

Michael & Lean Choo

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District WFL - "A Faith Church"

I should have blogged this entry earlier. But a little late is better than never. :)

Last Tuesday, some of us completed our district WFL, "A Faith Church". This time round we only had one course but we may have more courses the next round.

I really want to take this time to affirm those who have invested their Tuesday nights (3 Tuesdays) to come and learn the Word of God together. I want to affirm those who invested their nights for Hope Sem, CLC1, CLC2 and ULC courses as well. Thank you for investing in Christian Education. I really believe that this investment is one of the most undervalued investment in the world.

I was trying to compose a song about faith and got somebody to sing it during the last session of the WFL class. However, I didn't manage to do it. But I did manage to come out with some raw work on the possible lyrics of the song. :) I think I should continue to work on it and get somebody to sing it one day.

The raw lyrics are below. Please feel free to give me ideas for improvement.

My Faith

Though my stomach is hungry
I will still praise Him
For my faith is not in food
My faith is in God

Though my boss scolds me
I will still praise Him
For my faith is not in my career
My faith is in God

Though I am sick and yet to be healed
I will still love Him
For my faith is not in a life of no pain
My faith is in God

Though no girlfriend/boyfriend appears before me yet
I will still love Him
For my faith is not in life partner
My faith is in God

Though my sheep and follow-uppes wound me
I will still serve Him
For my faith is not in rosy times
My faith is in God

Though my care group hasn’t seen new souls for years
I will still outreach
For my faith is not in failures
My faith is in God

Chorus

My faith is not in blessings
My faith is not in circumstances
My faith is not in failures
My faith is in God
My faith is in God’s Word
My faith is in His will and plan for me

It is my sincere prayer that each one of us will have the kind of faith that performs miracles. However, it is also my sincere prayer that we will also have the kind of faith that will sustain us through life trials and challenges.

There is one movie (not a very new movie) that I look forward to watch. The title is China Cry. It tells the true story of a lady of faith by the name of Nora Lam. Though she had to go through incredibly trying time because of her faith in Christ her faith remained strong and steadfast.

Do watch the movie as if you can (VCD or DVD) and do let me know where you got it from. :)