A word from heaven.

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Jia You Eelee!!

Really thanks for being such an inspiration, Eelee. She came back in June and in its merely July and she is off again. This time round she is committing to stay there for 1.5 years.

Really want to keep her in our prayers that she'll be able to lead the spiritual charge in country as the replacement team arrives in Chile in sept, oct.

Also do keep Puisee and David in our prayers yeah? Pray that God will really protect them as they run the last leg of the race on this missions adventure.

The Chile church is so important. If Singapore is the gateway to Asia, Chile is the gateway to South America. Please continue to pray that there will be a spiritual breakthrough and outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the church soon.

Do read up more about missions from our hope webbie!! In it, there is also a video of Eelee sharing about the church in Chile during our Sunday service.

http://www.hopesingapore.org.sg/missions

Regards,

Jie Hui

Labels: Missions

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

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Thursday, July 10, 2008

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Welcome home Cindy!!

It has been 3 years since this wonderful lady left Singapore for Santiago, Chile for the 1st time to go church planting. Went with Yinshan, Choon yam, Charmaine and two brothers from young adults brothers to fetch her from changi airport this morning. Knowing her story, it was never easy for her to go in the first place. Somehow she persisted and God blessed her. Will try to help her to settle down back home as soon as possible. :)

Here are some of the photos

Cindy with 4 hunks

With Cindy back, it also means that our efforts to get someone to go there needs to intensify. I guess it was never meant to be easy at at the moment, we need to pray more and i somehow have this feeling that things will work out well.

Regards,

Jie Hui

Labels: Missions

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

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Tuesday, December 04, 2007

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Missions

I get excited whenever i talk about missions. Before i come back from Chile, i told myself that i have a mission to fulfill back home. I have a story to share and a task to accomplish. Basically it is pushing foward the missions momentum in the church.

I guess pushing up the missions momentum is more than just going to adult service and share a testimony to encourage everyone to join you on missions. It much more work then that i guess.

For myself, my burden for missions started when i went for my first missions trip to thailand, khon kean. I think its spelt like that. After that it was two trips to Malaysia and a few LCs that fanned the flame even more.

When i told a sister yesterday that i really want to go for missions, her first reply was did God give you a vision? I mean no offense to that, and nothing wrong with God giving you a vision for missions. I mean its possible to sit @ home, buy a world map, stare at it and pray day & night on whether you should go for missions. My stand is that, sometimes, the more you expose yourself to world missions, the more God can put in your heart the burden for missions. Remember, Jesus went, he saw and he had compassion on those lost sheep.

With that, i'm committed to build the next generation of world changers. We've set this goal in the NS ministry that everyone who come through the NS ministry will have to go for missions at least once in their 30 months with us. It can be as near as Johor, or as far as Santiago, we want everyone to be given a chance to develop the burden for missoins. Whether they are leaders or members or relatively new believers, as long as they have they heart, we'll find suitable trips for them. That is our commitment to our members.

Can i urge leaders of the church to set goals for sending people on missions trips according to your group circumstances. For the youth, don't see it as a bonous, see it as a need.

I told Shirley this before that if we build a generation of guys who does not want to win the world, we have failed the church. I'm sure we won't fail.

Regards,

Jie Hui

Labels: Missions

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

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Wednesday, September 12, 2007

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Every one is a VIP

Today i hosted a thai brother from Hope Bangkok who is here on a business trip. Was quite down with flu and cough but guess in Hope everyone is a VIP.

It is the first time this brother is out of his country and the leader in thailand was really worried that he can't find his way around so they contacted us. As i fetched him from the airport, he shared with me that he has been a believer for one year and he is here for training.

It really hit me about the Hope Family Spirit. Wherever you go, no matter how old you are, how spiritual you are, we will take care of one another. As long as you are from hope, and there is a hope church in that land, rest assured that the people will go all out to take care of you as far as they can. It doesn't matter if you are a big name pastor leading thousands of people or a rich business man on a high flying career, or if you are just a simple blue collar worker, as long as you are from Hope, you are a VIP.

Will be visiting CG with him on wed, and bringing him to our operation bear on thursday!! No one gets left behind yeah?

Regards,

Jie Hui

Labels: Missions

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

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Monday, August 06, 2007

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Some myths about going on Church Planting Misssions

Myth 1:

Church planting is burning all bridges with the life you are having now.

Response:

We're not going to shave our head and be shaolin monks. Looking at the church planter's life, they are basically very much still connected to the world and Singapore. Technology has made the world very small. In fact my shepherd commented that he sees me on msn more when i was in Chile then i was in Singapore. Jokes aside, obviously, there will be some changes to your life right now if you decide to go, but relax, look at it as a progression to your life now instead of a total change. The local church will still very much keep in touch with you and look after your family back home to the best of our ability. It is not denying our family or your life right now to go church planting. In fact, when they buy tickets to fly there, they normally buy a one year open ticket with means that they will fly back within a year to rest for a month or so befroe they fly back.

Myth 2:

If possible, church planters are encouraged to stay in their adopted countries permanently.

Response:

On the contrary, church planters are encouraged to rise up local leaders as soon as possible and they can come home after that. Nothing beats having local leaders. So next time when God calls you to Russia, don't be too quick to throw away your swim suits cause you will be back. Normally, church planters are asked to commit a minimum of two years but most of them stay between 3 to 5 years.

Myth 3:

Its a great sacrifice to go on church planting.

Response:

I'm sure there are something you need to give up. Things like the singapore food? Things like being able to meet up with your parents everyday. But will God not be faithful and provide as you decide to take the step of faith and go on this adventure with God. In fact, God being God, you can ask any church planter, they'll tell you that you come back a richer person and that as they have given to God, He has never short change them. Nothing can replace the global expereince, nothing can replace what you expereince with God on the missions field. It had been a great blessing and privilege to go on church planting for many of them.

Myth 4:

Church planting is definately professional suicide.

Response:

Companies nowadays are looking more towards people with a global experience. I'm not going to say that when we go on church planting, we'll improve our lifes financially but i'll say that going on church planting may not do so much harm to your career as at first thought. Depending on your profession, it varies with how God will work in your career, but trust Him, he will move.

Myth 5:
Church planting is all work and no fun.

Response:
Relax, trust me, the church planters do know how to pamper themsevles on the missions field once in a while. God did not call us onto the missions field to be slaves and keep working everyday. There are retreats, there are fun times, there is joy on the missions field. However, i also don't want to paint such a rosy picture without balancing it out. Obviously you can expect to work hard, to be out of your comfort zones at times, to be always challenged to do new things. Its not too different from minstry in Singapore isn't it?

Myth 6:
Church planting is going full time

Response:
Its not yeah. We believe in sending church planters as tent makers not as full time missionaries. Tent makers basically means that they will go into their adopted country and look for secular jobs and assimilate into the local culture, to get to know the people, friends and through that spread the gospel.

Myth 7:

Church planting is only for leaders.

Reponse:

The skills the are most common used on the field are skills you learn when you are a coreteam or a careleader. You don't need to know how to preach to 50 or 500 people to be a church planter. At pioneering churches especially, you focus alot on evangelising, on sowing, on caregroup skills. Having said that, church planting is also not for anyone without a spiritual statue. The thing that needs to hold firm is that our relationship with God needs to be strong. It irks me when people use their "L" to define their relationship with God or how much they serve God. We must not confuse between the capacity in which the Holy spirit uses us with how much we allow the Holy Spirit to use us and partner with us. There is a huge difference here.

Myth 8:

Church planting only concerns church planters

Response:

This is so not true! Church planting is a team work which involves a network which includes the missions department, the missions support team, the local church when we give to the missions fund to assist our church planters financially, the prayer support from friends and family. We can be involved in church planting as well. Shepherds, Leaders, keep talking to your people about church planting. Keep the missions awareness up. You may not go, but you may be producing many church planters after you.

Hope church has a global vision. If we want our ministry to be biblical, our vision must match God's vision. Since God's vision is for the whole world to be saved, we need to bring it in line. Let's win the world people.

Regards,

Jie Hui

Labels: Missions

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

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Monday, July 23, 2007

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Supporting Our church planters

Finally got off my jet lag. Spent the last two evenings visiting our church planters' family in Singapore. Think when we send off the church planters as heros, it is important to take care of their families as well so that when they will have an ease of mind on the missions field.

Yesterday, i visited Eelee's parents together with Shirls. Think naturally they will be worried and concerned about their daughter. Brought back some Chile wine for them and some photos we took in Chile and Brazil. Gave them the assurance that their daughter is doing well there and that Chile is a safe place to live in. I guess hearing from us was assuring for them. Slowing getting used to life without their daughters being around i guess.

Today, visited Cindy's parents with Yin Shan. Brought back some of her stuff to pass to them. Cindy has been there for almost 3 years already so the parents are more adjusted with their daughter not being around. Think they are looking forward to seeing their daughter coming back at the end of the year. But i guess Yin Shan has done a great job taking care of them with Cindy not being around.

The house visits brings me back to my own story on whether someday, my leaders will be doing similar visits to my households and how my family will take it. Think it'll take some time for the reality to sink into the families but guess, sooner or later, the families will have to move on with their lives with or without the church planters. It is not that these people are not filial people. They really care alot for their families. But i guess sometimes when the priviledged call comes to leave your family to receive the mission to plant a church overseas, a biblical decision must be made. And we have to trust God that He and the church will take care of our family.

God Bless

Regards,

Jie Hui

Labels: Missions

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

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Tuesday, July 17, 2007