A word from heaven.

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My Day 2

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Hi people. Today was an exciting day for me and Eelee. Its really cold though. Think its hitting zero degrees.

Eelee washing plates

We stepped out onto the streets for the 1st time today since our ride from the airport. It was well, cold. David took us to view an apartment which the team is thinking of getting. Well, its a bigger apartment, definately more elegant, but location wise we may have to consider again. Its further away from the city center and more inconvenient to travel.

Their MRT but they call it Metro

Me @ the bus stop

The house we viewed

We had a nice talk over coffee with David. It was well, an inspiring talk to say the least. Just a short 15 mins and i've learnt so much from him. Before the talk, to me, David was the team leader and a church planter, but after the talk, got to know him personally to a deeper extent and he is simply a Man of God.

Here are some from excerpts from David:

On planting a church in different culture -

"When we church plant in a cross cultural context, the cross cultural part a lot of times becomes a bigger challenge in itself compared to the ministry."

On the lessons learnt -

The four things i learnt from being here in Chile:

1) Love the people

2) Communication is key

3) Forgiveness is important
4) Don't be reactive

On his career -

"When i compare myself to my peers back in Singapore and Malaysia, they are getting really high paying jobs and if i had continued in Singapore, could easily have gotten one as well. In the eyes of the world, what i did was what they call professional suicide. I studied mechnical engineering with a masters degree, and have a nice paying job in the banking sector. In 1996 IPC (International Pastors Conference), i made a commitment to God that I want to plant one church in my lifetime. It has carried me on ever since."

On tough times -

"There are times when the minstry is not doing well that you start to ask yourself questions. Questions like whether you are the man for the job; if I could turn back the time, what would i do."

"Coming to missions is like a baptism of fire. It builds your character in ways that my peers back home would never have had. The experience of a different culture really helps to broaden your view about the world."

I guess everytime these thoughts come in, the chruch planters will have to reconcile with themselves first. First on their relationship with God then on their purose in Chile.

I guess after hearing all these, i was simply blown away. These church planters are not people who had no job in Singapore or some average singaporeans but they are actually high flyers who decide to exchange the comfort in Singapore for the adveture in some far away land. Who else but God.

He's a man who does not talk much, but his wife compliments him well. He's firm about what he believes in and have an undying spirit of trusting God and despite all the circumstances eventually focus on why he is here in Chile.

Observing their life these two days, I could really see that the burdens of ministry, work and household chores is really taxing on the physical body. They sleep @ like 1am and wakes up @ 5am. It is so easy to be pulled away by all the businesses and one of their challenge is to be focused on the minstry here.

David says, "Ultimately, we are not here for money, it's the church which God has called us to build here in Santiago."

Yesterday, I saw the sacrifical side of the church planters. Today, I saw glimsp of their spirt and thought process. The fighting spirit and the Godliness behind it is amazing.

After the viewing of the house, me and eelee were left on our own and we decided to be adventurous and walk down the street. Walked from shop to shop looking for a friendly shop which will not laught @ us for not knowing spanish. But i guess it was impossible so jst walked into this western outlet and tried our best of order. There was a lot of pointing, akward silences and laughs. We were jst two "goon do" Chinese in the shop. so the food came in the end and we had a good laugh @ ourselves.

@ a park

I "pointed" out this burger

Had a good chat with Eelee over lunch. About her role in the church, building relationship with the team, living together with people you do not really know, expectations of herself in chile and others. It was a good chat i guess, hope it helped her.

After that, we went to meet a contact at an ice cream shop. Yes, and ice cream shop. why in the world would anyone want to eat ice cream when the weather is like 0 degrees. I had hot tea. The name of the girl is marcarina and she is gonna become a vet but she hate animals. so she's gonna to work @ the slaughter house. All sorts of people around in the world.

Something i learnt today is that when times are tough and when it is inconvenient to serve God, and after we decide to give our all to God, it is so easy to look back and have a spirit of self-pity. But i guess what i learnt from these people is that God is always in control and it is a privilege to serve him in such a manner no matter how bad the circumstances are.

Its freezing cold here.

Best of the day: The talk with David

Worse of the day: Bathing in Ice cold temperatures

Joke of the day: Trying to order food.

Quote of day: Its a privilege to be here serving God. (By Eelee)

Nightex

Jie Hui

Thank God for this.

Labels: My Chile Experience 1

The kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.

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Wednesday, June 06, 2007