After almost three weeks

Wow, it has been almost three weeks since I last blogged. I would need to catch up in the next few days.

Let me start with where I left, UNVEIL.

We did UNVEIL. It was indeed an entertaining night. I am confident that we have also sown some good seeds into the hearts of around 21 pre-believing visitors who were present that night.
I want thank CN, committee (Jinqi, David Chua and Yoppie) and team (many people) for anchoring the event. I salute all the contestants including those who went for the auditions. We appreciate the judges (Kin Wee, Jaclyn and Angie) and our guest performer (Nel and band). Thank you also to those who were there and for inviting your friends to join us as well.

Congratulations to Megan (the winner) and the Butterfly (the runner up). Cheers to August Rush, J & J and Tian Tian & band for putting up a wonderful show as well.

Here are some pictures of UNVEIL courtesy of Penny. Thanks Penny. You are a faithful servant of God.

For more photos of UNVEIL you can go to Penny's photo website at the following address:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pennypoon/sets/72157607023494468/detail/

Thank God for UNVEIL: THE STAGE.

UNVEIL: THE STAGE

I am excited about our YA Event 2 this Friday - UNVEIL: THE STAGE. CN and team has been working hard in the planning and coordination of the event. The auditions have been completed. Six contestants (a mixture of individuals and teams) have made it to this Friday.

For those in AG1 district/YA group now is our turn. It is our turn to give the committee and contestants our very best support. One way we can support the committee is by being there and by bringing as many people there as possible. Nexus auditorium needs to be filled up by people to create the kind of atmosphere we need.

We can support the contestants by giving them our votes that day. On Friday, the judging criteria would be as follow:
60% - Judges' decision
30% - SMS voting
10% - Fans/audience support (banner, cheers, etc)

May the best man/woman/team win! :)

For those in AG1 district/YA group it is good to remember the objective of this event. UNVEIL: THE STAGE is a kind of outreach event (Matthew Party). Also, we are in our final week of our Adults region growth and YA360 charge. As such, brothers and sisters, this Friday let us bring as many friends and family members, believers (contacts, visitors, those who have slidden away) and pre-believers (those who are near and those who are still afar) to UNVEIL. Let us fill at least 3/4 of Nexus Auditorium this Friday.

You can download the e-invite from my blog to send it out to your friends and family members.

For those outside AG1 district/YA group we covet your prayers. Pray for us. We will definitely need it. Thanks in advance.

I definitely look forward to a highly entertaining and impactful time at UNVEIL this Friday.

snaphots of the past few weeks

Many things have happenned in the past few weeks. I could have blogged many entries on those happennings. But I am still on my way in becoming a more frequent blogger. But at least I am a regular blogger? :)

The past few weeks?

Once again, we made various trips to Changi Airport. Changi Airport can be our fourth home after our CCK home, church office, Nexus.

We sent Bairang off. She had been with us in Singapore for years. She was leaving to France to further her studies. May God use her greatly in a new land.

We sent off Leslie and baby Nathan. Leslie was joining Ronald, her husband, in Perth. We look forward to meet this amazing couple again in December in Singapore. I didn't take Leslie's picture. But I took Nathan's pictures. Sorry Leslie. :)


We sent off our STM team to Nairobi, Kenya. There were seven of them. I was pleasantly surprised to see many people sending them off on Thursday after midnight. The team was just going away for 10 days. What will happen if they were going away for some months or years?

Lean Choo, I and my young cousin joined the 4th Indo Service Celebration. It is great to see how the Indo group has grown from strength to strength.

We attended Albert and Marsli's wedding. This is one of the largest wedding dinner I have ever attended, around 60 tables. I do not have the picture of the couple. (becoming a bad habit?) But I have a picture of some friends from Melbourne who attended the wedding as well. (Two of them are from Hope KL)

On Saturday, we had some leaders and friends from the district gracing our humble home. It was great to have Lean Choo's younger sister joining us as well. The game of CITADELS once again captured the attention of some individuals. We also did a pyschological assessment for almost each one present in the gathering. If you want to know what kind of guy or gal they are looking for you can check with me. :)

Well, those were some of the happennings in the past few weeks. Just one more before I sign off. One day when I went to a NTUC supermarket there was . . .

A Memorable Night

Last Thursday was indeed a memorable night for me. It was our YA combined care group meeting. Some of us were praying and fasting believing for the Holy Spirit to move powerfully that night. I could sense the hunger and the faith of various individuals for the move of God in our midst.

When we had our prayer meeting at 6.30pm I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a number of people there present for the prayer meeting. Some of them were not on duty. They skipped their dinner just to be present for the prayer meeting.

During the care group meeting we could sense a strong presence of God in our midst. Fenny gave a word of prophecy that flowed very nicely with my short sharing that night. May Hoong prophesied about each individual receiving a personal word from God. Her prophecy came true for later on we heard about people indeed receiving a personal word from God that night. I also heard of people really being ministered by God that night. Praise God and praise God!

The worship team lead by Ah Long and Lean Choo did well that night. Fenny praised the worship band. Even though they were new to one another, having many songs to play and practicing only once they managed to pull it off. Kar Wai , Helen and Wynnie also presented a beautiful dance item in between the praise and worship. Technically it wasn't a presentation as they danced unto the Lord and allowing God to minister to the people through their dance. They danced with grace and beauty.

This morning when I joined Florence's morning devotion I heard one of her members giving a very encouraging testimony. He applied what he learned on Thursday about consulting the Holy Spirit. He wanted to approach his director with some anger in his heart over his paycheck. However, he refrained from doing so. Instead he withdrew to a place and prayed. He asked the Holy Spirit to guide Him. He then heard the Holy Spirit giving him a practical idea of how he should speak to his director. He followed the Holy Spirit's instruction and everything went through very smoothly. Imagine if he had followed through with his anger instead. The Holy Spirit is indeed our Great Consultant and Great Counsellor. I commend this brother for being a doer of the Word of God.

I want to thank Jasmine and team for making thursday night possible. In fact many people served hard behind the scene to anchor the event. I want to thank everyone who were hungry for God and fasted and prayed for the Holy Spirit to move that night. I believe that the God saw the hunger in our hearts and graciously poured a measure of His presence and grace. Thank You Holy Spirit! Thank you people.

I really believe that our Adults Camp was just a beginning. In the recent weeks or even months we have been experiencing a greater presence of the Holy Spirit in our Adults services. We sensed His presence strongly in our combined care group on Thursday as well. I look forward for exciting months ahead.

Come Holy Spirit! We can't enlarge without You. However, with You we won't be able to stop enlarging.

Lewis

Last week my third nephew was born into the world. He is my sister's second child.

My brother, his girlfriend and my cousin visited my sister and Lewis in the hospital. Lean Choo visited Lewis a few days later.

Anyway, it was a very interesting hospital visit. In short, the room was very noisy for an extended period of time. But to my amazement Lewis remained very calm and peaceful. There were times that he looked like wanting to cry but somehow he calmed down again.

That incident reminds me of having peace in the midst of a storm.

Here are some pictures of Lewis.

Welcome to the world Lewis.

May you grow to be a man after God's heart. :)

Weird Dreams?

The last few days have been pretty eventful for me. I will take some time to blog about it this week. But for now I would like to blog about dreams.

Last week I woke up remembering my dreams. The dreams were very interesting.

The first dream is about a kind of large animal/monster/creature (octopus, snake or both) that is destroying the city and the house I am in. I see the large creature destroying things in the city. I see part of the large creature appearing in the house. I remember seeing Lean Choo and I running away from the house to escape from the creature. There are two twists to the dream too. The first twist is about me seeing some crews (possibly film crews) in the house signifying that the entire thing is a movie production. The second twist is the discovery that Lean Choo and I are the only ones who can stop this large creature. Cool right? :)

The second dream is about one of my aunties and I. We are in Jakarta. I am helping my aunty to carry her bag. I can even remember the colour, white and pink/red. As I cross a road and reaching the end of the road somebody took away the bag by force. I attempt to get it back but the person takes out a knife to threaten me. Later on I report to my aunty on the lost bag. My aunty says that there is $26,000 in the bag. I think my aunty is bringing the money on behalf of somebody to be passed to another person. In my dream I am wondering to myself about the matter of paying back the money, by installment?

I do dream a lot. But I don't always remember the details of my dream. Sometimes God speaks to me through dreams especially when I was a younger believer.

I am wondering if the above two dreams mean anything or if they are just weird dreams. May be only time will tell. For now what I can do is to record it in case I need to refer to it in the future.

Just Acia

I seldom blog about food. But it doesn't mean that I don't enjoy eating. Today let me introduce to you Just Acia.

Around two weeks ago Lean Choo, May Hoong and I had dinner together after our meeting on Sunday afternoon. May Hoong brought us to this place in Dhoby Ghaut MRT. That's right Dhoby Ghaut MRT.

She told us that the area (the shops in the MRT area) used to be quiet. However things changed after Just Acia started their open concept restaurant.

The ambience of the place is good. It is good for meetings and mentoring sessions too.

Their set meals are reasonable in pricing (sorry, I forgot how much) and tastes pretty good. (do note that I am not fussy about food though)

One pull factor for me to come back again is below. They give free flow of drink and ice cream for just $2.95. I think that's a pretty good deal.

If you around the area next time you can give it a try. Any queries can be directed to May Hoong. :)

One Tough But Wonderful Week

Last week was one tough but wonderful week.

Last week was the first week of our new district structure. Whenever a new structure kicks in the administration load would go up (e.g. new floor plan, restructuring forms, etc) I thank God for Lean Choo who shoulders most of the admin work. We are excited about our new structure. We know that this new structure will benefit everyone in the long run. My heart and prayers are for those who are adjusting to their new groups. May each one adjust well and may God bless them greatly!

On Monday, I had lunch with Ee Lee with some others. Later on some of us spent some time praying and prophesying over Ee Lee as well. We are proud of what Ee Lee has done and will continue to do in Santiago. At night Lean Choo and I were in the airport sending off two people to Australia. Wynnie flew to Brisbane and Jia Yin flew to Melbourne. Both for their studies.

On Tuesday, Barnie flew to Adelaide. I didn't manage to send him off. I was spending time with a friend. I do not know this friend for long but God has allowed our paths to cross. I appreciate him for spending time with me and for sharing his heart with me. I am praying for God to continue to lead him and guide him. He is precious to me.

As various ones are furthering their studies overseas I have been communicating with our Hope Churches overseas as well to ask their help to embrace our people. It is so good to have spiritual families in different parts of the world.

On Wednesday, I had my first ever singing class. I signed up for this course just to help me to sing a little better (e.g. it's important for a service leader to know how to sing a little so as to flow better with the worship leader) and to accompany Lean Choo. After the class, I had the privilege to join Ps Jeff to share some thoughts with some upcoming church planters.

On Thursday, I was rushing to prepare for my sermons on Saturday.

On Friday, I was working on my sermons and on the Combined Team Rally (CTR) chairing. I had a good time praying with Ps Jeff and also some others preparing for the night. The CTR was certainly prayerful. After the CTR, many people stayed longer to be prayed for. It was so good seeing many people hungry to receive more from God. After finish praying I went back home and do more preparation for the following day sermons.

On Saturday, I arrived in Nexus slightly before 12pm preparing myself to preach in the two Youth services and Tertiary service. Thank God for helping me through the three sermons. What struck me most about the three services were the many people who came to know Jesus that weekend. The last time I was in Youth 1st Service around 3 people came forward to receive Jesus into their lives. Last Saturday, I was pleasantly surprised to witness so many people wanting to receive Jesus that the front area was filled up with people. In the second service, many people also responded to Jesus. In the Tertiary service, we ran overtime. Thus at the end we just led everyone to pray along if anyone would like to receive Jesus into their lives. At night Jasmine sent me a text message that six people from the Poly group responded to Jesus. Praise God!

I am so happy seeing so many people receiving Jesus into their lives over the weekend. I really want to affirm my brothers and sisters in the Youth and Tertiary Services. "Thank you for not keeping the love of God for yourself. Thank you for loving your friends by inviting them to come to service so that they can have the opportunity to know Jesus."

Last weekend services have stirred up my compassion for the lost once again. It is just so good seeing people responding to Jesus. God has been blessing our young adults ministry with salvations. But I believe that God wants to give us a lot more in the near future. May God continue to enlarge us in every way!

After the Saturday services Lean Choo and I went to CN & Christine's place for their housewarming. It was so good seeing many new friends there. Many of them are internationals. I was reminded about the first care group that I led in Singapore in 99. Lean Choo was in that care group as well. Our care group then had many international friends as well. The difference is that CN & Christine's groups have a lot more labourers to care for their international friends. :) I am excited seeing what God is doing through CN & Christine and their wonderful team.

On Sunday, it was a good service. It was so good having people going for their baptism as well. (I will blog separately on this). I had some fruiful meetings in the afternoon before spending the evening with my aunty and cousin. My cousin just arrived in Singapore to further her study. I was impressed with my young cousin's faith in God. God is going to use her to touch lives.

Last week was one tough but wonderful week. Sometimes the work is hard but the joy is great. Though I have been a believer for almost 14 years God has never failed to surprise me with new experiences again and again.

As I thank God for last week I now shall look forward to this week. The same God who was there last week is the same God who will be there this week.

Some Recent Photos

I just downloaded some recent photos taken with my simple Samsung mobile phone. It is said that a picture speaks a thousand of words. Behind every photo below there is a story. Can you guess it?

Clues:

1. My regular weighing machine (1 photo)

2. Farm visit with Church Staff Family (7 photos)

3. SBS Bus with VIP Seats (1 photo)

4. Sending Ronald off to Perth (the baby boy's name is Nathan) (3 photos)

5. A personal water dispenser (the number "8" refers to eight glasses of water per day) (1 photo)

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. :)