ben kc lee

Saying Farewell 2011

2011-12-31T22:56:00.027+08:00

Dec was a mixed bag in terms of weather and work. The month was not as cool despite several floods here. Weather-wise, I asked myself: Is this December? Then I was setting up a new office in SG. This meant visiting potential office spaces, advertising for and then interviewing candidates. And it's hard to interview in festive Dec. But it was fun to be in the MY office for our Christmas event and New Year briefing. The thanksgiving was having one overseas trip cancelled. This meant I had 6 instead of 7 trips in the quarter.

My personal highlight was our
family get away. The four of us took off for four days. With O-levels next Oct, it will be hard to go away in June so we went earlier. We are sure thankful for this memorable time out. Another family highlight was being at the movie premiere of Courageous. This is the ultimate movie on fatherhood... It was great having 7 Christmas and year-end celebrations with friends and family. Barely managed to squeeze time to ponder over decisions for the coming year.

Year-end was very meaningful.
On the night of 31st Dec, Richard and Yuet Mei hosted a farewell dinner for the Ongs. Our dear friends are relocating back to Perth very soon. The day was also Richard's last day of shift work and Pat's last day of work in SG.

That was the story of December and how we bade farewell to 2011.

You're still here?

2011-11-30T21:40:00.023+08:00

November is a tail-end month with that pre year-end atmosphere. Very early Nov it dawns on me that 7 overseas trips in this final quarter of the year is dreadful. It is exhausting just to think about it. Then the weather this time of the year is supposed to be nice. A few days was not as hot but it was mostly hot and humid. Nov in 2010 was nicer.

An interesting phenomena is happening more and more as I look back over the past 6 months. Dinah and I keep bumping into friends who go, "You're still here?'. They have obviously not been reading this blog. Or I have not been keeping in touch as regularly. So Dinah or I would naturally re-tell our tale of an extended transition. Most would marvel at the multiple transitions we are going through simultaneously. Our pastor friends are quite different. They would go, "So you can speak for us now". There are several doors opening. Now we ponder over the options.

Let me share some thanksgiving too. One thanksgiving this month was to spend one entire weekend with my brother and sister-in-law, in between a business trip to London (photo). Another was being part of the Ministering Spiritual Gifts workshop here with Serena Shim from Sabah. A third thanksgiving was to have spent one weekend with our Chiang Mai church in northern Thailand. Very memorable Nov weekends indeed.

A big thanksgiving is the privilege to journey with Vincent and Jenny as they leave an established church to plant a new church. It has been a joy to walk with them. I rejoice with them as they venture out to birth a new faith community right here in Singapore. There are exciting days ahead.

Oct in Montreal

2011-11-07T18:10:00.013+08:00

Oct is still warm and humid. The first two weeks of October was year-end (final) exams for our twins. I joined them on the study mode on weekends to do thesis corrections. The third week was a business trip to South Korea. This is only my second time in this fascinating nation.

Month-end saw Dinah and I making a ministry trip to Quebec in Canada. This is our first time here. Missing the three flights is a long story. I'll stay with the ministry side of the story. It is cold here even in the autumn. The location is Chambly in the south-shore of Montreal. We spend informal time getting to know individuals and couples on Friday and Saturday. Sunday was the house church worship service. It was a meaningful day that ended with us sealing a covenant by partaking the Lord's Supper.

Over the next 3 days, Eric took us
to the Gaspe peninsula where we meet with new friends in 3 towns. The journey took 9 hours one way but the landscape and scenery was spectacular. We finally arrived back in Montreal and spent our final night on Wed in Chambly with the team. Two guests including Harry joined us. The next day Eric took us to the airport. This was already 3rd Nov. We had 3 flights back to Singapore.

So Dinah and I spent 20 hours flying and then 5 hours in two different airports on transit. We reflected on this amazing trip and were so encouraged and blessed by Eric and the people in this new house church.

Virtual Home Office (VHO)

2011-09-29T22:34:00.003+08:00

September is the first month to work from home. I have done this before but now it is a daily reality. This new work environment is another transition. I am still getting used to the virtual office and constant skype conferences. One good thing is no more daily commute to work. Another is more time with our twins. The not so good part is that this was a mostly hot and humid month.

One highlight this month was to hear Gary and Barb Rosberg, a couple who are marriage coaches. Getting to meet them and getting coaching was quite refreshing.

Another high point was having extended time with my new colleagues. Port Dickson was hot and humid like Singapore, except for one rainy afternoon. But it was great getting to know colleagues, training and having fun together. It was so good that this multi-racial and religious team enjoyed each other's company.

One downer this month was having to write a 12-page Mission Outcomes Assessment. Its compulsory in order to graduate and we are given 30 days to complete. Thing is that no marks are awarded for this work! And this comes after completing the thesis, so psychologically you feel that you have completed.. then this comes along. So writing was very h-a-r-d going. But its finally done!

My daily September prayer was three-fold: a) Lord, save us from this heat and humidity, b) would you send cooler weather soon, and c) please help me with this 12-page paper.

Pretty Crazy

2011-08-31T22:40:00.014+08:00

August was pretty crazy. Dinah and I spent the first few days of August furiously preparing for a super long ministry trip.

First up was the regional
conference in Manhattan. There was actually a pastors' retreat followed by the conference. I remembered to take a photo with first-time conference delegates from Quebec.

Next up was Chicago. The people of Hope Chicago were quite fun. They took us bowling and to a barbeque. Somehow we did not take any photos :( Thankfully some of our friends did and posted them on our Facebook page. You can check it out there.

Final stop was Colorado Springs.
The landscape was picturesque, the people were friendly and the meetings were fruitful. Here is a photo from Dinah's phone.

The last few days of August was spent frantically packing up my office in Singapore. The massive jet lag did not help but our twins were a massive help. Lawrence, Pat and little Jonathan showed up on one Saturday to help. When I moved out on Aug 31, only 7 cartons remained. Not bad after 16 years.

The transitions continue...

July Adventures

2011-07-26T20:20:00.000+08:00

Towards the middle of the month, we got to meet Dr Wei-Jen Huang. I was aware that Dr. Huang is a clinical psychologist and a faculty member at Northwestern Uni. School of Medicine. Only later did I realise from Dinah that he is actually well-known especially in China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia for his work on couples’ therapy and relationship education... The three of us did discover a mutual fondness - for xiao long bao. It was a blessing getting to know this learned man of God over dinner.

The low point of the month must have been the sore throat in the second week and then the ulcer in the throat in the fourth week. I hardly get sick so being unwell twice in a month was quite sad... Continuing from May and June, the month of July felt exceptionally hot and humid.

One good thing about the hot and humid season of the year is jumping into the pool. Then this is also durian season with cheap durians. Sadly, the unwell throat restricted both swimming and durians. But I did get a good sweat this season (and in the process discharge toxins). The other good thing is that this will be the last of the hot and humid months. This only means cooler months up ahead...

A New Chapter

2011-06-30T20:56:00.041+08:00

The month of June in 2011 has been just an awesome month. It marks a new life chapter on several fronts.

The opening story is on rejoining the marketplace after over sixteen years. This caps a three-year journey of multiple transitions. This new career transition is a big learning curve, which I am told will take 6 months or more. Work projects in June included a business trip to Vietnam. This was my first time in this nation. I have never seen so many motorbikes in my entire life. This trip also accorded a special opportunity to visit several old friends too.

The highlight for our family is our annual visit to Sabah. I was so glad to visit my parents and especially to spend Fathers Day here. Dad turns 78 this year. He gives quite a few mangoes among other gifts to bring back to Singapore. (Here's a pic of the mangoes in my parent's home.) It was also a blessing to spend time with my brother's family and my sister's family. The church in Kota Kinabalu took the opportunity to get me to address church members on CATALYSE.

Another high point in June was handing in my 70-page thesis on Global Churches. This month-end submission effectively concluded the MA requirements, bringing my three-year academic journey to a sweet conclusion.

Another Transition

2011-05-29T22:51:00.024+08:00

Our family has been engaged in a three-year journey of transition. Dinah and I have spent much of that time reflecting and learning.

This season has been
particularly turbulent. The single biggest issue is the significant uncertainty over our longer-term future. Permanent relocation is very unsettling. This and being stuck in an extended transition feels like one of life's most difficult moments. Being neither here nor there has been our wilderness experience. (Talking about wilderness, here is recent pic of the Egyptian desert.) Practical issues such as visa matters added to the already-heavy human psychological adjustments that change produces. Facing constant questions from friends and family piled on to the mounting helplessness.

The biggest challenge has been to stay true to a sense of destiny. It is so easy to be knocked off course and very tempting to just walk away. But what would I do with this heart for the nations. Recent times have been tough. But it has been an honour to take care of people for 20 years. I desire to continue to live for the good of others.

Through all this the question of, “What next?” remained unanswered. So we found ourselves being brought to our knees so many times. Other times we found ourselves learning how to live positive amidst uncertainty. Through it all, I have just felt so thankful for the friends that He has placed around us who have stuck with us during this journey.

About just over half-a-year back, what seemed to be a glimmer of light began to appear at the end of the tunnel. Out of the blue, an opening came knocking. I was approached to join a mobility solutions firm. This came as a surprise, but a pleasant one. I explored this fascinating possibility. My attitude was to be open to what He might be saying, including through those around me and those over me in the Lord. We also considered the prophetic words received from different ministers.

The past three years
has been a long transition. But things are a bit clearer now. It is May and this brings yet another transition. (As I write, I am mindful that our nation experienced a political change in May too.) For me personally, I feel that the Lord has released us. In this new season, I will now once again serve in the marketplace. In fact, here is a pic of a very recent work trip to Cairo. I do believe that the Lord is repositioning His teams, here and around the globe, for a greater purpose. Within my heart, there is a rising anticipation for the new thing that He is doing in our midst.

Interesting People

2011-04-28T20:15:00.002+08:00

We have been crossing paths with interesting people in recent months. Recently we had dinner with HB London.

I had heard him teach in Singapore once, quite some years back. That one message made an impact in my life. This was the first time I met HB in person. Dinah and I went to his hotel and took him out to dinner.

It was an early dinner on the 5th April 2011. We got to know each other over a meal. He told about his life, his cousin James Dobson, his ministry as pastor in the Church of the Nazarene and currently in Focus on the Family USA. He asked about our family and ministry. He asked about Singapore.

After dinner we took HB back to his hotel. The next day was our early morning flight to the US for 2 weeks of ministry. We went home to pack but I will remember the time tonight.

Mar 2011

2011-03-31T20:31:00.025+08:00

The focus in March is my thesis. This is the final subject in my masters programme. Except for 5 days overseas, the bulk of the 31-day month is spent on this. My hypothesis is Global Churches: Connectional, coordinated and church-planting. I present the case for more global churches to make disciples of all nations in the context of a globalised world. So far one professor and two denominational leaders have said, "There is something here". I think so too :) Draft 1.0 was complete in March though it is 5 pages more than the 70-page limit. The reference list alone is already 14 pages. Well I will not be able to look at this paper again until May.

Another highlight is the trip to Bandung. The purpose was the HIM regional leaders' retreat. This was my first-time here. One memory is having time with Beng and Mel. We catch up. They also expose me to exotic street food. The volcano Tangkuban Perahu is another highlight.

I also turned one year wiser earlier in the month. Overall this was another good month :) This pretty much sums the month of March in 2011. Till the next post then...

Feb 1st in 2011

2011-02-28T21:35:00.008+08:00

Never did I imagine what a day this would turn out to be. It starts when our family pray in the car on the way to school. We pray for this first day of February and for the next two years ahead.

The day goes by and is turning out to be a normal Tuesday. In the afternoon my friend Tiong Howe calls. He had already asked to have dinner last week. So I think this call is a reminder about dinner (tonight). Instead he asks if I want to have coffee. I said, "Sure" thinking that perhaps he is busy tonight and has decided to have coffee instead of dinner.

In the next breath he says that we are going to have coffee with Ravi Zacharias. What a surprise.

I travel to the airport and call Tiong Howe. We meet up and the three of us have coffee together. Ravi and Tiong Howe know each other well and I know Tiong Howe fairly well. But this is my first time up close and personal with Ravi. He is such a gentleman and a Godly one too.

Later we send off Ravi to catch his flight. Now Tiong Howe persuades me for an early dinner since we had already set aside the time. We catch up over a meal. After dinner he insists that he needs new bibles. So we go to the Faithworks bookstore. Here he picks up new Bibles including for Dinah and I too. This friend is sure full of surprises. But what a day this has been.

CATALYSE

2011-01-25T12:06:00.021+08:00

CATALYSE means to produce fundamental change in or to transform. CATALYSE is also the name of our global master-plan for the five years from 2011-2015. This consists of 6 strategic priorities supported by 16 initiatives. This strategic planning process started in Nov. 2009 and ended in Dec. 2010. This whole process culminated in the recent launch of CATALYSE.

The Strategic Planning Team (SPT) arrived very early in Chiang Mai to prepare for the global CATALYSE launch scheduled at the Jan 2011 Passion Global Conference (GC) and for the implementation meetings straight after the GC. A total of 150 international and 120 Thai leaders joined this GC. An additional 130 Thai leaders joined the night sessions. Children ministry leaders flew in hoping to hear Pastor Bill Wilson, our guest speaker from Metro Ministries. Most delegates came keen to discover how our movement intended to move forward.

CATALYSE was launched on Friday, 21 Jan 2011 on the last day of the GC. The bright CATALYSE backdrop draped the entire wall on the stage. The Launch started with a meaningful Northern Thai cultural presentation. The Thai drums signaled a community going into battle. This drum presentation was a traditional victory declaration before warriors went into battle. The CATALYSE commissioning documents for our 16 Initiative Leaders were transported on the sedan procession. This procession is a traditional Thai practice for transporting someone or something important. These opening items blended the futuristic CATALYSE with the richness of tradition. The underlying message was a church planting movement that respects the diversity of cultures that God has created.

Next Pastor Simon rallied our pastors and leaders to get behind CATALYSE. He exhorted us to get on board this change process in the next five years. I then presented CATALYSE. I traced back to the Charismatic revival which started in the 70s and continued to the 80s. Our movement's first church was birthed in 1981. I reminded the conference that we are connectional rather than a congregational church. I concluded that our second-generation connectional movement is starting a transformational change process called CATALYSE.

Then Pastor Simon and Dr Wilson laid hands to commission our 16 Initiative Leaders. All our pastors also stepped forward to stretch forth their hands to pray. The CATALYSE Launch was the closing item of the first GC in this new five-year window.

The next day our Initiative leaders and members gathered for Implementation meetings. The room felt electric as excitement filled the atmosphere. God continued to reassure us that we are going down the right path with four prophetic messages. The break out sessions got better. This culminated with team lunch. Thanksgiving was the theme as SPT debriefed after lunch. It has been quite a long week but a very fruitful one.

The launch of CATALYSE was historic for us being the first-ever global master-plan in our movement’s 30-year history. The entire planning process took 14 months but the implementation and transformational change process will take 5 years. With the launch of CATALYSE, the Lord has sparked a transformation in our movement.

Nairobi-flavoured New Year's Eve

2011-01-01T21:45:00.007+08:00

Yesterday was quite memorable. It was Friday, the 31st of Dec 2010. This was the last day of the year.

I started the day working on a chapter of my thesis. Next we had a staff year-end lunch. We had Teo Chew porridge whilst catching up with co-workers. All of us were spread across four tables.

Then I welcomed 4 young men at the Punggol MRT station. Maxwell, Ernest, Kinoti and Gibson are from our church in Nairobi here for leadership exposure. We arrive at our place and settle down with afternoon tea. Eager to learn, they ask a wide range of questions over the time we met. They are such fine young men.

Next Dinah, the twins and I enjoyed an extended dinner with Li Chuang and Lisa. We are so encouraged that they have done such a great job with the men. We catch up till late and yes, we crossed into the New Year with Li Chuang and Lisa in a moving vehicle as we drove them home.

Yesterday was indeed special. It was a Nairobi-flavoured New Year's Eve. It is such a rare privilege to be with our young leaders from Kenya and our old friends who are missionaries, as time transitioned from 2010 into 2011.

Here's wishing you a happy New Year, saying good bye 2010 and welcoming in 1-1-11.

Transitions

2010-12-19T21:58:00.014+08:00

I still remember the day when my wife and I moved here in January 1991 from Perth. Our church started the following month. Time sure flies. We have already served for almost 20 years and I have served 15 years of that time on our staff team.

Then it has been almost two years that Dinah and I have spent seeking God. Our attitude is to be open to what God is saying, including through those around and those over me in the Lord.

The Lord has been faithful. Here is a recent encounter. Dinah and I just visited our Silicon Valley care group. There we spent time with Tom Lam. Among other things, we asked about how he coped with relocation and transition. He shared that a sermon "In Between Times" spoke to him whilst he was in Singapore.

Curious, I came back and discovered that this was a 2003 sermon based on Acts 18:18-23. The definition alone was quite encouraging. "In between moments are: a) Irregular times when we are caught unawares, b) After endings and before new beginnings and when c) Life is on hold." That sermon in its entirety spoke to me too. Thanks Tom : )

One of several questions that I have been asked a lot during this season is: "What have you been up to?". Well, in the year 2010 I have focused on three main areas. Let me share them in turn here...

1. Regional Ministry
Dinah and I are responsible for HIM region of North America and we make regular ministry trips to our churches there. We are thankful that our twins are understanding of ministry travel and Dinah's sister has been available to take care of them whilst we are away. And there's Simon who has been so helpful with trip logistics.
We are also very glad to be involved with the Canada missions and US missions teams in Hope Singapore.

2. Seminary Studies
Currently I am working on the final Masters subject which is a thesis. Jiadai from our uni service has been a big help with borrowing reference books.
I am so glad that the lectures, assignments and exams phase is over. Pastor Jo has been a big help as exam invigilator. Cara, Kam and James has helped too while Dinah has helped with vetting assignments.

3. Strategic Planning
Dinah and I are part of the HIM Strategic Planning Team. Our team of six is charged with developing the first-ever global master-plan for HIM. With our movement now in 41 countries, guiding this process has been quite exciting. I am thankful to Adeline for her help when we first started out. You can get updates on this 2011-2015 strategic plan at byHim.org

In closing, this season has been quite a journey. This has been one of the longest transitions for me and my family. Being neither here nor there has been very unsettling. We thank God for the precious friends He provides in our lives who support us as we face the stress and psychological adjustments that uncertainty brings. But I know in my heart that this season will prepare us for what is ahead.

In this season, let me also wish you and your family a Merry Christmas.

Looked like the Danube

2010-10-12T21:39:00.005+08:00

Like many guys who have reached shaving-age, I've cut myself shaving on more occasion than I would like to admit. Today I topped that. I cut myself showering... during my regular morning shower.
Today was not unlike other days. I was showering. I was squeezing the bottle of liquid soap. After a few squeezes, the soap bottle somehow flew out of my hand and into my face. Boing!!
Like a man, I continued lathering after keeping the bottle. The water felt good. Then I began to smell fresh blood. Perhaps I scratched my scalp, I thought.
My lathering continued. The smell of blood persisted. I had to look from the corner of my eye into my face. It was then that I saw redness flowing down my face. It looked like a mini-version of the Danube images I've seen on the news. In an instant I jumped out of the shower to inspect the mirror. My nose was bleeding. I looked closer and saw it... a gash on the ridge of my nose.
No choice. Had to dry myself, leave the bathroom and get a plaster to put over the wound. This should do! This I did this and then continued showering.
Just as I finished showering, I was sure there was someone at the door. There was. I open the door and there was our new part-time cleaner. She sees me in a towel with a plaster across my nose. I welcome her in hoping she will not choke. Then I call Dinah.
Today is also my beloved's birthday. So far, the day is turning out to be quite a day : )

Tentmaking

2010-09-28T11:43:00.005+08:00

Our Tentmaking Approach
Love Singapore Missions Summit
Benjamin Lee on Thursday, 10th May 2007

As a church we practice church planting through tentmaking. My wife worked in Public Relations and I worked as an external auditor when our church here started.

As a new church plant we started to plant churches. Let me share five lessons on how we turned the corner from a church with missions into a missions-driven church. This journey began in 1997.

First is vision. We articulated the vision to turn the unchurched into church-planters.

Our goal was to be a missionary church rather than a church with missions. Missions would be the main thing rather than the side show.

We kept talking about the church's 'S' capacity. This is not seating, speaking, singing capacity but sending capacity.

Second is infrastructure. We set up a high-level, cross-functional leadership task force. We put up a budget and recruited two missions staff.

We mobilised our small groups to pioneer care groups in the city and mid-size groups (100 people up) to pioneer in an overseas city. Mid-size groups would prayerfully select cities with our missions staff.

I was encouraged that our students also began to do missions through overseas education.

Third is outreach. Our mid-size groups started clubs such as Friends of South Africa and Friends of Peru.

Our staff organised Missions Conferences, Missions Week and Missions Month. We featured regular live tent-maker testimonies during worship services.

Fourth is preparations. We focused on equipping, exposing and engaging.
For example we held mission classes and children mission lessons, language classes in Spanish and business workshops. We encouraged Teaching English as Second Language and even driving lessons.

Our staff held monthly briefings with potential and to-be tentmakers and with mid-size group leaders.

Our mid-size groups also started home missions. We began reaching and discipling internationals so they in turn touch their nation. We currently have Nepalese, Filipino and Vietnamese groups.

Fifth is communication. Missions work is far away and so easily falls to the bottom of the agenda.

So we ensured all communication avenues emphasise missions. There needed to be a constant stream of missions news and tools. Bulletins, website, brochures, book store, camps, banners keep missions at the forefront.

We also challenged each member to give more of their lives to international missions every year. We constantly looked to provide diverse church planting opportunities for members constantly. For example we started Weekend Missions. We started three church plants in South Malaysia. We promoted Holidays for Jesus for further away cities so we published annual brochures with airfares and holiday ideas. Now we have various Short-term missions (a week) in Thailand, East Malaysia and Indonesia.

Let me conclude. The next phase for us is organic church planting. This is based on the belief that living things grow naturally. Kingdom things are organic things. They start small and reproduce.

Organic church-planters don’t think about planting a church. They think like the apostle Paul – to church an entire region.

World Missions Church

2010-08-27T13:04:00.008+08:00

How to Build a World Missions Church

Our church started with 5 people in 1991. We started planting churches in 1992. Initially we planted within Asia and Oceania. From 1998 onwards we started planting in all continents of the world. We started as a local church, then we became a regional church and now we are becoming a global church.

Before we go into how to build a world missions church, allow me to debunk common misconceptions about world missions.

First, it is simply not true that some churches have a call for missions but others don’t. God calls all of us to make disciples of all nations. When you read the Bible, you get a clear sense that God loves the whole world. That He thinks globally and He redeems globally. Jesus was and is pre-occupied with the world.

There is only one instance in the Bible the church is told not to do missions. It was in Acts 1:8, where Christ told the disciples not to go out into the world until they had received the fullness of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told all of us to “go”. Some churches miss the word “go”. Jesus told us to start at Jerusalem then go to Judea, Samaria and outer parts of the world. Some churches get stuck in Jerusalem.

Some Christians resist missions actively ("I'm already meeting many needs here") or passively (applauding church planting enthusiastically with minimal personal response). What is the risk of being inward looking? When a river has no outlet, it becomes a dead sea. It is important to personalise Jesus’ heart for the nations.

Second, it is not true that only larger churches can plant churches. Every 100-person group in our church targets to plant a church in an overseas city every 3 years. A small church can partner with another small or medium church to plant churches.

Third, it is said that “we can’t possibly go to all the 238 countries and territories”. No one said to go to the whole world at once. I will answer this in the next section.

Now allow me to share some key elements to build a world missions church.

A world missions church has missions-hearted leadership. The top leadership has got to be convinced we have a responsibility beyond our home shores. Our leadership, teaching and modeling is what makes this work. That’s why it is said “as the leader does, so goes the church”.

“There is only one among the twelve apostles who did not become a missionary. He became a traitor” Adam Brown.

Here are four practical tips. Plan the annual church calendar around missions. Missions work is far away and easily falls to the bottom of the agenda. Always set missions goals first since local issues will always get prioritised. Ensure every local ministry and church department has a global vision so every one becomes a global outfit. Start every management and leadership meeting with a global missions review. Ensure there is a constant stream of missions news in your website and church bulletin and missions testimonies in your worship services.

A world missions church has a world missions strategy. Most churches just do Short Term Missions (STM). People come back excited. The question is always ‘so what next’? How do we move them to the next level? Here are three pointers. Prayerfully adopt a city for church planting. Make a commitment that we are going to do whatever it takes to see this people coming to Christ, and being discipled and churches planted that will lead to other churches being planted. Develop strategy with your Regional Missions Coordinator. Form a team.

A world missions church is sacrificially funding missions. We thought we were doing quite well in world missions. Then we realised that another local church in Singapore spends 50% of its annual budget every year on world missions. That blew my mind. Here is the lesson - Don’t use God’s blessings for ourselves. Give your best leaders for missions. If you take care of the world, God will take care of your church.

A world missions church cares holistically for church planters and churches. Be willing to take the responsibility of mothering. Giving birth is hard but mothering is harder. It is also for life.

A world missions church is thoroughly preparing church planters. Offer introductory missions courses in Word for Life, special seminars and specialised training for language acquisition.

A world missions church grows global Christians. Challenge members to give more of their lives to world missions every year. Ask members to stop and think about how their purpose in life fits into God’s purpose of making Him known, praised and enjoyed among all people of the earth.

The current global era now upon us is a new kairos. In the final analysis, what brings radical change and transformation in a city is two feet walking into a city.

“What are churches for but to make missionaries” Augustus Strong.

First published in the August 2007 issue of the H.I.M. Advance newsletter.

Overload

2010-08-05T15:32:00.003+08:00

Living in Overdrive
By Ben KC Lee
Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2009

What is living in overdrive? Perhaps this may give a clue - the average office worker is interrupted 202 times a day. Then Ecclesiastes 2 talks about anxious striving.

In the past, most people took two weeks off work, went back to work and were okay for a year. An Israeli study on burnout I read some time back showed that people take two weeks off a year, return to work and after three weeks in the job, they are on baseline burnout.

Living in overdrive is like overloading an electrical outlet and blowing a fuse. It happens when anxiety grows for fear of being unable to accomplish all the tasks at one's usually high standards. As anxiety grows, a sense of hopelessness sets in. Insomnia, especially awakening in the middle of the night and worrying about the uncompleted tasks, leaves one exhausted the next morning. Many are exhausted but do not drop activities because they want to avoid the stigma of being a quitter.

Watch Out For

The symptoms are insomnia, depression, anxiety, and chest pain. For some it is migraine headaches, withdrawal, irritability and work dread.

The thing is we have got threshold line called a 24-hour day. Health problems are nature's way of saying, "slow down". God designed our bodies to be very adaptable. He also invented the stress mechanism. Low or no stress can be very boring. Hyper-stress can make a person very sick.

When we are going too fast, we cross a line of dysfunction called hurry. This hurry sickness is the new epidemic in urban society. When we are going at the speed of light, there isn't time to think, reflect and pray.

Some times it is the schedule. Sometimes it is an internal workaholic compulsion. Overload takes the spiritual vitality out of us. When God taps us on the shoulder, and we give him the busy signal. We don't have any more emotional fuel to give to family or friends.

Usually the hardworking, previously optimistic people are most prone. They are most often asked to take on extra roles. Know any one like that?

Defusing the Overloaded Life

That Israeli study shows we can't store up all our needs for holidays. We got to learn the secret of renewal on an ongoing basis. Here are three ways to restore emotional, physical, spiritual and time reserves to overloaded lives.

01. Come to Christ

He offers solutions to those whose lives are out of control.

Jesus: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

Jesus offers resources to make our lives worth living. He says, "Come to me." When you feel depleted and wonder how you will face another day; tell Jesus how you feel. Recover some green pastures and still waters where He restores your soul.

The habit of quiet keeps balance in a frantic world. Schedule conversation times where you offload stresses unto the shoulders of Jesus and leave them there. Prayer times can be therapeutic. Enjoy time with Jesus.

02. Learn from Christ

Jesus: "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11:29

Trusting Jesus is learned behaviour. And learning takes time. There is no quick fix for a life out of control. Jesus constantly withdrew from the frantic pace of ministry to a lonely place where he would recharge.

If we are angry, grumpy most of the time and dream of escape, these are the cries of our soul, reminding us of our limits. No one can continue running on empty and not suffer the consequences. Perhaps it's time to start learning the life of Jesus.

03. Rest like Christ

Jesus: "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Mathew 11:30

Schedule times for rest and for relationships. Jesus spent time in a safe house with Lazarus, Mary and Martha. Friends save us from sinking under overload. Schedule times to be with family. This is our natural support system.

Hebrews 4:10 remind us that we need God's rest inside my soul and we also need physical rest. It's wise to rest like Christ.

In closing, we all live in overload from time to time. The point is not to live there all the time. This does not mean avoiding additional challenges when they can be managed adequately.

This means to ask God for an awareness of our priorities.

Have you noticed that ministry, for Jesus, was the person in front of him? He did not heal every sick person. He healed the person in front of him. He loved the person. Similarly God wants us to love this person in front of us. In the end, it's about love.

"This is all that I have learned: God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated." Ecclesiastes 7:29 (Good News)

First published in The Christian Post Singapore. Online: http://sg.christianpost.com/dbase/editorial/419/section/1.htm

The Singapore missions movement

2010-07-19T18:37:00.004+08:00

Reflections on the Singapore Missions Movement
by Ben KC Lee
Monday, Apr. 26, 2010

Like most Singaporean Christians over the years, I have been to my share of mission conferences. We have all heard the prophecies that Singapore is "the Antioch of Asia". It is also likely we have discussed what this means for the Singapore missions movement.

Recently I thought about this again and began penning down reflections. I noted the positives and then some challenges. Here I share them with the hope that it can stir us all towards greater participation to fulfill our role as “Antioch”.

The first positive is relief work. I notice that Singaporeans readily give towards natural disaster funds. We even send medical mission teams. Second, many churches set aside ten or more percent of giving towards missions. This is positive. Third, more churches are doing more outreach among internationals living and working in Singapore. My friend Chris Cheah tells me the Methodists call this “Reverse Missions”. After all, two thirds of the people in Singapore (me included) were not born here.

Fourth, churches are sending more missionaries as compared to mission agencies. These are mainly medium or larger churches. Fifth, a 2007 SCEM (now SCGM) survey discovered that over thirty percent of churches here have missions-dedicated personnel. This means that these churches already have missions staff or a missions board. Sixth, tentmaking missions is a huge opportunity. Singapore must rank as one of the best places to explore tentmaking – great access to job markets, a well regarded workforce and English speaking people. My home church is actively involved in church planting through tentmakers.

Challenges also exist. The first is vicarious missions. We can be tempted to send money or train others rather than do the strategic things like sending qualified people long enough to learn the language and make an impact. The second risk is missions by proxy. We can be tempted to put up money to pay a person from the two-thirds world to go to Africa or South America in our place. Third, life is good in Singapore. This creates inertia making us reluctant to rough it out overseas.

Fourth is the emphasis on short-term missions. Our Antioch Call is not a 2-week in a year calling. When I was at Urbana ‘06 in St Louis, short-term mission is defined at up to two years on the field. Fifth is the expansion and multiplication focus. Many churches naturally focus on church growth and expansion. Church planting or multiplication may not always be on our radar. Sixth, pastors are so busy. Missions seem distant compared to the ‘real’ pressures of weekly worship services, problem-solving or fund raising for new facilities.

Overall, things are looking up because the positive factors are growing. There is an acceptance of our call to be an Antioch nation. From GoForth NMC, I also see a great resolve among the Singapore missions fraternity. Several reports show that Singapore is sending many overseas missionaries per capita of Christians.

I thank God for the many pastors and leaders with the Antioch DNA. I encourage all pastors to intentionally put missions on the fore-front of church life and ministry. We can expect great things to happen through our church. My home church started planting churches eighteen years ago, just one year after we started. We have never looked back. I also encourage all Singaporean Christians to invest more of our lives for missions every year. Get behind your pastor, church missions board and missions pastor for world missions. Together with God, we can anticipate a very bright future for the Singapore missions movement.

First published in The Christian Post Singapore. Online: http://sg.christianpost.com/dbase/editorial/624/section/1.htm

Personalising missions

2010-07-01T15:27:00.002+08:00

Missions and Me
by Ben KC Lee
Saturday, Jul. 18, 2009

Strangely, the word 'missions' does not appear in Scriptures though the whole idea pervades the Bible. From the Old Testament God sends His messengers to call His people out of sin back to a right relationship with Him following to the New Testament the Bible's symphonic theme of mission. Jesus was a missionary from heaven coming to earth.

Christianity is defined as a missionary religion according to a popular encyclopedia. In other words, Christianity is missions. Missions is Christianity. In this article you will notice that I mean church-planting when I say missions. A church was always planted when Paul did missions. Missions is church planting because wherever evangelism produces converts, churches are planted.

The church is to cross all barriers to reach out to all ethnic groups, clans, tribe, social classes, and cultures. The great message of salvation is to be shared with all people everywhere. Since the Great Commission is a mandate, the church is expected to be obedient.

How does world missions specifically relate to the Singaporean Christian? Consider seven areas.

The first and foremost reason is simply that there are over four billion people in the world yet to know Christ (Rev. 7:9). People need Christ. This is our business. If it is not our business, we need to make this our business. We need to stand and be counted.

Second, Singapore presents us with a reach of 4.5 million people. 15% of Singaporeans consider themselves Christian. This is good considering that there are negligible number of churches in large cities and countries (Gen. 1:28). With over 560 churches in our city alone, you could say that there are already many players here.

Third, we cannot concentrate on national missions and downplay world missions. We cannot because there are no states or provinces here. Singapore is a city state.

Fourth, the emphasis on a bilingual school curriculum has benefits. Many folks here are bilingual. A related benefit is the development of bicultural people and therefore bicultural Christians. We are comfortable or at least sensitive to multi-lingual and multi-cultural environments. We are people ready to go into new cultures.

Fifth, is the high level investment in education and training of its people. Human resource here is highly educated, highly skilled and highly motivated. Such human potential when humble and harnessed well can be a potent missionary force (Eph. 2:10).

Sixth, is the strategic location of Singapore as a platform for launching church-planting teams. We reside in a nation that has excellent infrastructure, telecommunications and is a financial hub. We have every reason to build powerful missions churches in a country where everything works.

Seventh, is the spiritual growth from missions. Our personal experiences in the starting of our home church and starting churches in Asia would have taught invaluable spiritual lessons. The process of directly participating in missions has brought the Bible alive. Now, we know Biblical truths intimately because we have seen it come to life. We can speak with a great deal of conviction because I have come to know and trust the Lord much more. Now we can go beyond the region to go global.

I believe that a Christian misses our basis for existence when we do not participate in discipling the nations. I believe that our churches will plateau and face dryness when we do not enroll in God's plans for the whole world. When the river has no outlet, it becomes a dead sea.

Some may say, "I will send money". Others might say, "I will pray". God wants our heart. Let's pray, "Lord, please let me go". God is looking for people willing to obey His Commission. Pray for a vision for church planting. Missions is our life. 'M' does not just stand for 'missions' but it stands for 'me'.

First published in the Christian Post Singapore. Online: http://sg.christianpost.com/dbase/editorial/488/section/1.htm

Engaging contemporary society

2010-06-06T23:04:00.000+08:00

Christians Engaging Society
By Ben KC Lee
Monday, Jun. 8, 2009

Lobby groups promote their agenda in the public square. Some push whilst others are militant. The term "culture war" describes the clash of values and worldviews. We see this conflict between conservatives and liberals. For instance, "Don't judge" has become a slogan to avoid facing the issue of right and wrong and used to allow a tacit acceptance of a moral wrong like cloning or prostitution in modern culture.

It seems that each generation of Christians struggle with the relationship between their faith and culture. We try to make sense what Jesus said, “Be in the world, but not of the world.” How do we tackle issues of the day in a civil society? Here are some ways we can effectively engage.

First, pray continually. Bless the city. Stand in the gap. Pray over the city together with other churches in the city. Prayer leads to action. God's Word also calls us to intercede for those in authority (I Tim. 2:1-2). Ask God to give wisdom to our leaders often besieged by pressure groups. We pray also because the issue of the day cannot be separated by the spiritual issue that accompanies it. Call out to God to intervene. Continuous fasting and intercession leads to community transformation (2 Chro. 7:14).

Engage with a compassionate attitude. Participate in nation building. Serve the poor and those who need help. Bring forth Christ's character in society (Rom. 12:21). This is different from promoting harsh attacks or quick judgments on the culture. This is to go beyond moralising. After all, we don't have a monopoly on values or on morality. We are called to make a difference in society and this will primarily come by example. The call to be salt and light is not a moral assault on society but a call to be distinctive. For example, one of the best weapons against open marriage or sexual perversion in society is a happy marriage.

Get trained to articulate a relevant and convincing apologetic in the public square (I Pet. 3:15). Churches need to equip members with the ethical tools, thinking skills and Biblical perspectives to address contemporary issues rather than dismissing cultural forms we dislike based on hearsay mentality.

Here are key Biblical perspectives to emphasise for those who equip others:
a) We can confuse doing good in the world with making the world good. We can’t make the world good with legislation. The world needs to encounter Christ.
b) Our enemies are principalities and powers in high places rather than flesh and blood. The enemy is not the anarchists, homosexual lobby or the licentious.
c) There is a balance between religious and secular values. Ours is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society. If laws are based on one religion, it creates a problem with citizens of other faiths. Laws should accommodate diversity in culture, ethnicity and religion. The spirit of the law should respect pluralism and protect citizens from moral decadence. Ours is a secular democracy. Legally, religion is supposed to stay out politics. Biblical values can be present in all aspects of life without shifting to theocracy.

We have an obligation to speak prophetically about the issues of the day. Confront moral indifference. Here are some crucial issues. There are displaced people due to war and natural disasters. There are child labour, child prostitution and child soldiers. There is debt bondage where poor governments have to make large cash payments on foreign debt. There is lack of economic justice. There are sanctity of human life issues such as abortion, euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research. There is no religious freedom in many countries. Standing against injustice, exclusion and oppression requires courage but we do it (Mk. 9:50).

Finally, stress universal values which must find expression in national policies if society is to survive. Ask, "What is good for our community?" Express the view with concern about the health of people in our community and the kind of environment we desire to foster for fellow citizens (Mic. 6:8). We ought to have a community that represents a certain standard of dignity. This doesn't emphasise any partisan "morality". When speaking in the public square regarding cultural and social issues, start with the common good argument and then work from there. Come from the perspective of the public good. Engage culture with traditional virtues. Virtues always lead us to higher ground. One traditional virtue is that marriage has been between a man and a woman for all time, in all cultures, religions and civilisations. This is why we encourage natural, traditional marriage.

Engagement is clearly a Christian mandate (Jer. 29). We are empowered by the Spirit and released to live out our faith where we are. We certainly can’t engage without involvement. Society will feel the consequences if Christians sit out.

This article first appeared in The Christian Post Singapore. Online: http://sg.christianpost.com/dbase/editorial/469/6%7C10/1.htm

Loving People?

2010-06-04T11:40:00.001+08:00

Living as Loving People
by Ben KC Lee
Thursday, May. 14, 2009

Jesus said, "By this all men will know you are My disciples, if you have love one another" (John 13:35). In other words church should be characterised by love. This is the number one characteristic of a Christ follower.

Love is not a feeling. Agape love is active, not abstract or passive. It does not simply "feel patient." It is patient! It practices patience. It does not simply have kind feelings. It does kind things. Love is fully love only when it acts! It is Christ-like character in action. It is a lifestyle of selfless service.

The power of love is awesome. Imagine when we increase our love for God, for each other, and for those far from God. We will see some great and mighty things take place for God's honour. When Christians begin to really love each other the way God wants us to, the world will be won. Love is the foundation for our relationships, relationships with other believers, with pre-believers and with difficult people. The basis is love. All the spiritual gifts, all the works of service, our very life together as Christians, are governed and held together by the principle of agape love. Without love, everything is meaningless.

There is only one person whose name could be substituted for "love" in Scripture. His name is Jesus. His self-giving is what love is. Our purpose is to demonstrate this kind of love one to another.

People are looking for love. The question is how do I love? The real issue is not what does love mean but am I going to love?

We need to learn to love each other. It is the heart of discipleship, described as 'a long obedience in the same direction'. It is the job of the Christian community, the church, to form this character in you and me through the power of the Holy Spirit. Through the proclamation of the Word, the work of the Spirit, and the devoted life in the body of Christ, you and I are shaped so that we can love one another like Christ.

Christian community is about how to grow a loving people. This is a lifelong process. In this life we start that journey with a commitment to allow the Holy Spirit to use the local church to bring us into conformity with the character of Christ. May God help us to be loving people and may our life be marked by love.

First published in the The Christian Post Singapore. Online: http://sg.christianpost.com/dbase/editorial/462/section/1.htm

Urban Missions

2010-06-01T14:50:00.018+08:00

Urban Missions: Lessons Learned
By Ben KC Lee
GoForth National Missions Conference 2008
Morning Plenary on Thursday, 17 July 08

Today more and more churches do missions in villages, typically in the two -thirds world that are often poverty stricken. It is common to run an orphanage. Cities may be seen as too comfortable for missionaries. It may be seen as having a good life. Truth is the city also has poor. There is spiritual bankruptcy in a city too.

In Genesis 4, Cain went out from God’s presence and built the first city. Cities became the habitat of fallen people and cities have become places where people seek significance outside of God’s presence.

Our new mission frontier today is not the tropical jungle of lions and safari hats but the urban jungle. Our cities are the stage of drama between the principalities and powers and the forces of good within the church. We ourselves live in a city called Singapore.

Our church started with planting churches in Asia. Since 1998 we started planting churches around the world. We focus on planting churches in cities. Let me highlight some lessons we have learnt from urban church planting.

1. The Singaporean is an urban dweller

I was born in a small town. Now I reside in Singapore, a city state. Most churches here can be considered as urban churches.
In fact Singaporeans are accustomed to a very clean city and where everything works.
Not many of us may thrive in the two-thirds world with laid back lifestyles, roundabout communication, red tape, slowness, time delays, inefficiency, nonprogressive attitudes and even corruption. Not many of us can live without air conditioners. Not many may enjoy showering in a river.
Singapore is a city-state. We are a city church. We are urban dwellers.

2. The international job market is growing with education as the single largest vocation

Teaching English as a Foreign/Second Language is a viable vocation overseas. Our teams teach Conversational English and discover that the demand for Business English is growing.
Also, teaching Mandarin as Second Language is growing. One of our leaders is going to Peru next month. She has been studying at the Chinese Chamber of Commerce for a Diploma in Chinese Teaching. She goes for 2 evening classes for 1 year.
Teaching mathematics is also a growing industry. The city of Bellevue near Seattle uses the Singapore math school curriculum. The Singapore brand is helpful.

3. The capital city may not always be the most spiritually responsive place to start missions work

We learnt this the hard way. We started planting churches with the administrative capitals in the country.
The administrative capital in a country can be different from the business or commercial capital. For example there is Pretoria and Johannesburg in South Africa and Guayaquil and Quito in Ecuador.
The business capital may be a better option for tent makers who are businessowners.
It is important we do the ‘Country and People Profiling’ as part of our missions strategy.
We must consider where people are responding to Christ.

4. The middle classes are an effective means of reaching the city

The middle classes often have greater mobility, both up and down the social spectrum. They usually speak English which is an advantage for our church planters.
Our team in Chile takes effort to rent a house near a subway station and in a neighbourhood that middle class will come. The Chile subway follows the Singapore subway system.

5. The bridging strategy is to start with an international service

One strategy is to start with English service pitching to internationals and bilingual locals. The second phase can be starting a local worship service in the local/native language. We experimented with this in Europe and South America.
The Assemblies of God US is one denomination that uses this approach across Europe.

6. The urban approach is a longer term & more comprehensive mission strategy

The city has a hinterland. It’s called the entire country. For instance university students come from towns and villages to cities for further education.
We got to reach the nations. We got to reach every nation.
We start with global cities, next to cities with regional influence then towns then villages or shires.
In our North America missions, we target regional or hub cities for church planting due to the population and immigrants.
Immigrants are responsive. Then there are 700,000 international students in the US.

In summary, these are some things we have learnt on urban missions.
Today over 4 billion people are still far from Christ. Many of them live in the city or will be moving into one.
We got to ask: ‘What is God up to in the world?’ Since God has been bringing people to cities for a century, obviously God is bringing people to where they can be reached.
We remember that the apostle Paul always had a base for churching an entire region. That base was called “the city”. From the base, from the city, the Gospel spread to the whole region. That was his church planting strategy.
The apostle Paul started from a city called Antioch. Singapore has been prophesied as, “The Antioch of Asia”.
Today it is clear that the church faces an urban future. It is clear we need to respond to God’s love for the city. It is clear we need to go forth with God as He continues to work through people in cities across the world.

First published by the Singapore Centre for Global Missions Catalyse newsletter 2008 vol. 3. Online: www.scgm.org.sg

Should I care?

2010-05-21T16:37:00.003+08:00

Why Bother?
by Ben KC Lee
Sunday, Apr. 13, 2008

"Are we a complacent people?" That was the question that I was asked recently. I wondered about this question. I asked two of my co-workers. Firstly it seems that we have all we need in Singapore. That's probably why expatriates don't get "hardship allowances" when posted here. Then because times are good we always expect them to be always good. Good times can lull us into complacency. After all we are told "Everything works in Singapore." We are reminded how efficient the civil service is. We look around and we see that Touch Community Services does a great job in the community. Many other churches and agencies also do a great service. Personally we have more than enough problems of our own. The Christian may say, "I am already so busy". It is not difficult for anyone to be unintentionally complacent and go into the "why bother?" mode.

Scripture tells us there is a direct link between a Christ follower and being actively involved in living our faith in the community. We need to serve the most disadvantaged as part of our witness to God's inclusive love. Jeremiah 29 challenges God's people to involvement, to seek peace and pray for the welfare of the city. Our role is to engage culture as Jesus did. We can't engage without direct involvement.

Here are some specific reasons why we should bother.

1. Keeping Families Together

Parents are busy working to meet the physical needs of the family. Kids are busy studying. Families are just not just spending much time together. Very often emotional needs are not met.

Parents are so busy they can't afford to take annual leave to see the principal when their child misbehaves. Many feel helpless with teenage kids that are described as "out of control".

Marriages are at special risk in this fast-paced society. There are several young families including us who live on our level at our apartment. A third of couples on our level are divorced. I understand that this ratio is about the national average.

As a church we are seeing this growing trend as we minister in the community and we are also seeing this with new people coming into our church.

The family is the central unit of society and marriage is the glue that holds it together. We should care about families and marriages.

2. Engaging Youth at Risk

Many at-risk youth come from dysfunctional, single-parent families or wealthy but emotionally-deficient homes. Youth cannot cope with separating or divorcing parents. They just cannot handle it when their mom brings her boyfriend home. They do not want to go home and see a stranger there.

Others don't want to go home because there is no one at home. They say they lack parental direction and guidance. Others tell us they have poor parental models. Smoking is one habit they pick up from home.

Many cite peer influence as a big influence in their life. They hang out with peers. Sometimes out of sheer boredom, they do acts of vandalism or shoplifting.

As a church we work with Hope Centre (S) on compassion initiatives. In a recent survey Hope Centre (S) conducted among North East youths, gangs and bullying (including verbal bullying and name calling) were rated as top concerns. We realise many youths join gangs for a sense of family.

Our young should grow up with a sense of purpose. We should care about the future of society.

3. Helping Low-Income Households

My wife and I were ministering in the US and Canada recently. We remember this ad, "I work for gas." It would have been funny if it was not true. Recently the top five US oil companies admitted that high fuel costs are hurting people but added their $123B in 2007 profits were "in line with other industries". Where is economic justice when capitalism goes wrong?

Back home the gap between the rich and poor just continues to grow. First it was the housing and rental market in a state of irrational exuberance. Now it is the global rise of basic food prices. Already food riots have broken out in the Philippines, Morocco, Yemen, Mexico, Senegal and Uzbekistan. The Haiti Prime Minister was just ousted due to soaring food prices.

Escalating costs are just increasing the already high tension in low-income and single-income families here. Two nights ago a brother and a sister came knocking at our flat. They were trying to sell us ice cream explaining they come from a low-income family. The brand of ice cream did not appeal much but we bought. This is the second time we have had school-going teens knocking on our door selling ice cream to supplement household income within a year.

Jesus' heart is with the stranger, homeless, poor, the sick and the prisoner. When we touch someone who is down and out we are touching Him. We should care about those struggling to cope.

In summary, I am still not sure if we are complacent. But I do know we should care.

Well I guess all of us can be complacent. That's why I remind myself that compassion is not an option. I remind myself that feeling sorry for the marginalised is not an act of compassion. And it goes deeper than giving a dollar to the beggar. We actually need to serve the underserved.

Christ followers share responsibility for the future of our society. Society will feel the consequences if we sit out. At the end of the day God is not asking us to live a heroic life or do miraculous deeds. The things Christ highlight is quite ordinary. He is asking for acts of kindness. Then He will take it from there.

First published in the Christian Post Singapore.
Online: http://sg.christianpost.com/dbase/editorial/238/16%7C26/1.htm

Ministering to Men

2010-05-07T10:37:00.000+08:00

Manly Mondays
But Weren't The First Disciples All Men?
by Benjamin Lee

Monday night is Man’s Night in our home. Throughout the year 2006, seven groups of men, totalling 38 in all, would take turns to come to our home. While most were Singaporeans, we also had Filipinos, Malaysians and one from Hong Kong. My wife would prepare special treats and drinks and our twins would serve the guys.

It started in December 2005. On a plane trip back from Quito, God spoke to me about men. I thought we had already taught on manhood and our groups already had some men’s activities. But God seemed to say that I needed to make a more concerted effort. So I sat down with the church staff and planned for our first ever men’s conference in May 2006. Personally I would spend Monday nights with key men in church.

Let me start with my journey as a guy in church. I don't get the wedding picture. Ephesians 5 talks about the bride marrying Jesus. But I don’t want to marry a man. Besides, I wouldn't look nice in garters and lace. There is a song by HillSong which goes “Darling of heaven crucified…” It’s weird trying to relate to Jesus as “darling”!

Growing up in an Anglican church, I used to hear terms like “Ladies’ Fellowship” but don’t recall ever hearing about “Men’s Fellowship”. Many of my Sunday school teachers were female. Dedicated ladies gave us our earliest and deepest bonding with Bible stories. We learnt that Jesus was a nice boy, a polite boy, who always obeyed his mom, always brushed his teeth and always put the toilet seat down. I wondered why the priests wore frocks. This ‘feminised’ brand of Christianity was confusing.

So one of the first things I asked the 38 guys was, “Tell me some of the difficulties in discipling men.” Five themes came through:

Men like to apply. Sit-down singing and discussion seem to be more suited to women.
Men count the cost. They do this when deciding to serve. They think, “Ministry means less time to grow in other areas of life”. They feel their calling is their career. If there is a choice between a career-enhancing event and care group, or between getting 4 A’s and serving as care leader, the choice is simple. The career wins out every time.
Men are more practical. Everyone could be crying during worship but he does not feel much except out of place.
Men take time to bond. Many bonded with their mothers when they were boys. Dads were always busy with work. Those boys have grown up and they now say, “Only girls understand me.”
Men do ministry differently. They realise masculine submission and feminine submission to spiritual authority are different. Some rise up to serve but get discouraged - more than women do - when people don’t respond. They encounter guys who tell them, “I spend time at home so I am a godly example to kids,” which is not always helpful.

Then I asked about guys’ needs. The answers were fascinating. It was a combination of what they thought guys needed and what they felt they needed too. Four needs kept surfacing:
Men need spiritual victory. They need a God-thing personally and corporately. It is hearing God’s voice, receiving a prophetic word or healing.
Men need more mature men who are open to them. Then they learn to open up. We are inspired by role models. The church needs to make role models more evident. Guys need to see a man whom they respect, praying and taking Christianity seriously.
Men need to taste victory in ministry. Then they will want to do more for God. We are achievement-oriented.
Men need to taste close friendship. Most men change within the context of friendship.

The final thing I asked was the kind of guy-things that were effective. Sport is a big thing. Our guys do bowling, jogging, soccer, tennis and trekking. The younger guys do LAN gaming, PS2 and XBox. One group is into jamming. Many enjoy projects like helping people move house or planning a challenging event. One group scours the city for good eating places. One had an ‘Amazing Race’ with a rented bus to various locations for competitions that started at 10 pm and ended at 6 am. The one I liked was called ‘Ransom’. It was held on Pulau Ubin involving kidnappers, hostages and rescuers.

Here is the observation. God’s great outdoors often brings out the ‘man’ in us. There is something about corporate Singapore that can rob a man. He doesn’t get out in the fresh air. It’s more than sports and the fresh air. It's about getting outdoors, with people important to you. We need masculine places.

I have learnt a lot from Manly Mondays. More than ever, I believe men want to take Christianity more seriously. Men don’t want to play church. They want to be hot for Jesus. They want their hearts to pump with the things the heart of Jesus pumps with.

The Christian church started with men but currently there are more women in church. This can change. That’s my prayer.

This article first appeared in Impact magazine vol. 31 no. 4 (Aug/Sep 2007). Online: http://www.impact.com.sg/

Leave from Blogspot

2008-05-12T20:29:00.003+08:00

Yes I did mean to write. Then the month of March went crazy. April was no different. It's already May.

Before I went on leave from Blogspot, I was introduced to Facebook. It's quite different and I find it better in some aspects. You can find me there.

Be All You Can Be

2008-02-21T22:01:00.018+08:00

It's Valentine's morning and Lawrence calls me on the phone. He and Pat are leaving Terminal 3 as I reaching T3. I talk on the phone being amazed by T3. Its just spectacular. It's like nothing I have seen for a long time.

Chris picks me up from LAX and takes me to Manhattan Beach for lunch. The beach is beautiful even for a jetlagged person. I wash up and rest a little before a Valentine dinner at Lee and Lin's place.

The camp theme is 'Be All You Can Be'. There are many firsts. It's the first Hope Irvine and Hope LA's combined camp. Well there was one person from Hope Portland. It's the first time at the Oaks campsite. They have aimed for this top-rated site for 2 years. It's the first that camp is over-subscribed. They reserved 62 places. Actual turnout was 81 adults & youths with 14 kids. It's the first time the camp is 3-night instead of 2-night. It's the first time there are 2 dads coming to Christ (both on Sun). It's the first time most of the cell phones have no connection.

Jetlag was rather bad on Fri. Lee and Cyn saw me yawning a lot. The campsite in Lake Hughes being in a beautiful mountainous forest up helps overcome jetlag. On one of the days I even saw a herd of deer walking past the cabins.

The winter camp is from Fri evening to Mon noon. Its great to see 5 persons who are first-time ever in a church camp. The pastors are the judges the Sat night 'Do You Have Talent?'. This event is creative, captivating and well-thought of. Sunday night sees an extended response time goes well. My throat is well worked and hoarse after this.

It's so great to catch up with Tom, New, Joshua, Al, Doreen, James and Chai and to meet new people. On Monday we bid goodbyes. It's sad to leave Lake Hughes. Everyone is tired on the 2-hour drive back to urban LA. Then it's catch-up time with Chai and Crystal on Mon night.

On Tue morn Malay calls from Chicago. Next is a meeting at the US Center for World Missions. Then Cyn and Judy bring me for early dinner. Its Taiwanese food and then PinkBerry. James drops by later. Then it is the airport for a late flight home. I spend Wed transiting Taipei and crossing time zones. Thank God for the much-needed sleep on this flight.

I arrive on Thur and cab home. It's answering e-mails after doing my laundry and shower. Later we have a Lunar New Year dinner with our leaders downtown. Its good to reunite and relax with all these good people. We realise tonight is the 15th and last day of the Lunar New Year.

Lunar celebrations continue

2008-02-13T20:19:00.001+08:00

Dinah and I join our Mandarin service on Sunday. For one particular song, a 70-year old man plays the keyboard. Today some members are still in Malaysia for the Lunar New Year. Sau Hoi tells us that we have been here for every Lunar New Year service since 2006 at the Phoenix Hotel. Here's the photo taken on Andrew's PDA phone.

Vincent and Jenny is the host on Monday night. Melvyn & Linda, Henry & Pansy, Boon Hup & Catherine, Dinah and I visit the Luns. Danny and wife can't make it. This is the first time we gather with spouses. We forget to take photos of this 'historic' gathering.

Tue night is when KG, Stan, Wilson and Chris come to our place for visitation. This is their first time at our place. Unfortunately James is overseas and Lawrence is unable to join. Well this SCEM team is quite different but we do have a good time together. Here's the photo taken by Dinah.

Lunar Holidays

2008-02-09T22:08:00.001+08:00

Wednesday is the eve of Lunar New Year and it is very hot. Our family have a late lunch at Parkway Parade. We come home and relax. Later I chat with Cyn on Skype. Then it is off for our Reunion Dinner. This year's host is Derrick and Grace. Its like a pot-luck where each family brings a dish. We catch up with siblings with so much food over a long night.

We sleep in on Thu. We awake & enjoy a leisurely breakfast. We call my parents. I speak to my brother, sis-in-law & dad. Mom & my sister's family is in Seoul. Dad says Seoul is too cold for him. Dinah does a simple lunch. We do reading in the warm afternoon. Dinner is at her mom's place till late. We return & the twins compile hong baos. I realise no one took photos last night & tonight.

We sleep in on Fri. Terry skypes a greeting from Guangzhou. We read in the morn after I do some laundry. Then David skypes from Portland. Dinah does lunch. Kids prepare for next week's test. Thankfully today's not as warm. We swim & have dinner at Jan's place. We enjoy the movie "One Night with the King" at home. This is the story of Esther in Persia, a good screen drama.

Sat starts with sermon preparation. Then Chai calls on Skype from LA. After lunch we visit David & Lisan at Lakeside. Lisan gave birth to their first child, Kaelynn two Saturdays ago. They used to be our neighbours until Dec. Then we visit Sharon's family in Marine Parade. Her mom overfeeds us. Dan notices their coasters are the same as ours - its all from Sharon. Its great to meet with her parents & her sis comes home as we are about to leave. After dinner at home, our neighbour drops by to give hongbaos & chat.

I remember Lunar New Year in Sabah. But this year has been more of a Lunar Holiday for us. Well Dinah has just completed a major spring cleaning. We've lived here since May 02. This clearing started late Dec till early Feb. She has been amazing & quite exhausted too. On top of that the twins have morning supp. classes at school since mid-Jan. We have been waking up even earlier each morning. Yes, we're all quite thankful for this break.

CN & Christine: The Wedding

2008-02-05T21:58:00.000+08:00

Friday, 1st Feb begins a cool spell that lasts till Tuesday. It is cloudy and sometimes rainy.

Saturday starts with Jean coming to our place to help with makeup for Dinah and Deb. Then we are off to the wedding. I just officiated Teck Keong and Siew Yee's wedding in this same church 5 Saturdays ago. Here we are again. Deb and Dan participate in the march-in bridal procession. Shirl and team leads worship. James and Selina is the MC. I do the wedding exhortation. Dinah officiates the wedding. CN and Christine give moving thank-you speeches. It's the first time I have non-Christians coming up to thank us for a "moving" and "touching" service. One say it is "so pure". In fact Dinah and I also say that this is a special wedding. We enjoy mingling with the guests during lunch. Later Dinah joins the wedding dinner.

Next I do 3 sermons on Sunday. We see CN & Christine in the second morning service. After evening service I'm truly exhausted and sleep early. Before that, it strikes me that Dinah and I spent the first weekend of the year with CN, Christine and JEDI. Now we do their wedding on the first weekend of Feb. And what an evangelistic wedding!

The reunion before the Reunion

2008-02-01T21:02:00.000+08:00

1st Feb starts with a Skype call with Betty from Pasadena. Then it is a morning get-together with Pui See back from Santiago. She is back for Chinese New Year. Her hubby Dave happens to be on a different flight. Charmaine and I spend the morning with our friend. This is the reunion before the Reunion dinner.

Later Charmaine and I go to the wake for Alvin's late dad. Guess what? Dinah arrives shortly. We spend time with Alvin and Elaine. Its like another reunion. It pours as we go back to the office. The three of us have a late lunch. Then Cyn calls from Hope LA. I go on to complete my wedding exhortation and Sunday sermon. This is a fruitful and rainy Friday.

One Wednesday in January

2008-01-31T21:10:00.000+08:00

Wednesday, 30 Jan starts with sermon preparation. At noon time our team celebrate Hong Teck's birthday. He actually turned 34 on 1st Jan. So we're a little late but... Today Kam picked the place. We go to this coffee shop that I notice has been renovated. It seems the birthday boy enjoyed the lunch treat. Here is the photo of guys in our team. Desmond is the newest member. The last time we did lunch was November when we had bak kut teh. We really need to get together a bit more.

Next I walk over to meet Lawrence and Omar. Lawrence arranged for this some time ago. Omar is also 34 and is from Peru. He told us he wanted to be a Catholic priest. Now he is doing a Masters degree (civil engineering) in Sao Paulo and desires to be a missionary. He is here to improve his English during the uni break and has been with our church since Dec. He shares what he has learnt in our church. Today Lawrence buys him a Brazilian lunch. Pity that I have already eaten.

Next I meet with Jeff in the office. Afterwards I clear e-mails and return phone calls. Then there is CN and Christine's wedding rehearsal tonight. This last Wednesday in January is quite a day.

The changing weather

2008-01-27T21:45:00.000+08:00

Dinah and I both feel the increasing humidity and heat. The story starts on Sunday. Dinah and I see Lalita at the Team Rally and say hello. I hope to catch her before she goes home. Sun night sees me with an episode of sneezing in between munching chocolates.

Dinah and I are on leave on Monday. I awake with throat infection and still sneezy so spend the day resting. This 'flu' knocks me out much of Tuesday. My throat still hurts on Wednesday. I try to talk less when someone calls on Skpye or on the phone. Dinah shuttles the twins around as I try to rest and drink water.

Its Thursday and there is no sign of the pain leaving. Its time with Steffen. He spent 5 months with us several years back. Now he is a pastor in Stuttgart. Daniel and Tobias from Stuttgart are also here with us. Today Lawrence and I assist in Steffen's initiation into Indonesian food. Later my wife says I should have avoided fried chicken. That cold pink guava drink doesn't help either. Thank God that Lawrence help answer Steffen's many questions.

Charmaine arranges lunch on Friday with Lalita. Her flight home is Saturday morning. Lalita was with our church for 5 years. Now she is back in Nepal. She misses Hokkien mee. Well I had breakfast with her in the recent conference with a bunch of leaders. Its good to have a smaller group today even though I can't talk much.

I see our doctor after seeing Lalita. He says to stop talking and start resting. I tell him that I have 5 sermons on the weekend. He says, "I'll give you strong medication". It is potent as I spend Saturday and Sunday preaching without any pain. After all that its good to have lunch with Chien Meng. Yes l I feel 'spent' on Sunday evening and can sense a hangover coming.

It hasn't been fun being sick this week. Its probably because of the changing weather. It was cool but its been hot & humid this week. Or maybe it's the chocolates. But I do miss the cool days.

My 1st conference in 2008

2008-01-19T15:14:00.000+08:00

On Sunday afternoon Dinah and the twins send me off at HarbourFront. I get on the luxury coach to KL for the first time. The ride is smooth and comfortable. It takes us under 5 hours to reach Sunway Pyramid mall. Here is a photo of this large mall. An old friend Huo Yu picks me up at 11:30 pm. She takes me to the hotel where I check in. My room mate Prakich is already there.

We spend Monday in planning meetings. The leaders conference is from Tuesday to Thursday. I do a workshop. Here is a photo of my room mate and our German friends from Stuttgart. We know Steffen well because he spent time in Singapore. He is the guy on the right. Willie takes this photo for us.

One of the cool things is to catch up with old friends. Here is a photo of university buddies. Charmaine (left), Arlene (right) and I did Accounting at university in Perth. We have a great time catching up at this pool side dinner. We say we must have a reunion. I think we have said that before.

I take the Friday morning flight home. Micaiah drives the Okumuras, Masami and I to the airport. He told me he spent 3 years in our church in Singapore. He said the defining moment was his water baptism in Singapore. He remembers Pastor Lawrence baptising him. He is now a Unit Leader in Hope PJ. Masami is an old friend. I first met her in Hope Seattle in 1998. The Okumuras spent 3 months in our church some years back. This is a photo taken by a police officer at the KL International Airport.

1st time in Indonesian Service

2008-01-12T21:47:00.000+08:00

Saturday is when I speak at our Indonesian service at the Meridien Hotel. I'm excited to meet our people here. I'm encouraged to see a good bunch of young Indonesians and a good core of leaders. I'm told that currently we have 50 Indonesians, 4 Malaysians and 1 Singaporean.

The worship service uses some English words in a predominantly Indonesian environment. The service is just under 2 hours. It's a lively worship service. There is photo taking afterwards and people stay around to relate. Then some go for sushi. I decline the dinner invite simply because Dinah and the twins are waiting at the church office.

This is my first time at our Indonesian service on the second weekend of the year. After saying goodbye I fetch my family from the office. We come home and pack for tomorrow's overland trip to a conference. Here's a photo with some of the leaders at the conference.

First Weekend in 2008

2008-01-07T22:13:00.000+08:00

It's the first weekend of the year. It starts with Saturday in the church office. Cara is on duty today. Dinah is around. I'm finalising a challenging passage to preach tomorrow.

Guess who we bump into? Six leaders from our Mandarin service are having a full day meeting here. The junior photographer in the family (spell 'Daniel') helps us takes a photo. Dinah was here earlier but left before this photo. We catch up with these wonderful people and then we leave them to get on with what they need to do.

Dinah tells me that after lunch, a couple come to the office to spend some time with her.

Later the JEDI (Jesus Empowered Disciples International) group of comes. This overseas returnees ministry was started about 5 years ago. The ministry reaches Singaporeans who return from overseas studies and foreigners who studied abroad and start working here. Today they have a leadership session here with 2 Indonesians, 3 Malaysians & 4 Singaporeans. Dinah and I spend some time with this group. Cara takes this photo for us. It's a full Saturday here at the office.

The first Sunday of the year is also a cool day. Addy tells me backstage that our church's Hope Premier League starts this evening. I told him, "Play well." Then I do two sermons and rest a little as Dinah spring cleans. Lawrence sends me a SMS that the first soccer game ends with a 4-1 score line. That's a feast of goals. In the evening our household goal of spring cleaning is done. We rest, bidding goodbye to the first weekend in 2008.

Crossing Over

2008-01-03T21:02:00.000+08:00

Here's the story of crossing over to 2008. We do year-end break spring cleaning. We haven't done so for 2 years. So there's quite a few bags for the Salvation Army and for the chute. The cool weather is nice for consolidating, cleaning and clearing. In between we have get-togethers. There is Teck Keong and Siew Yee's wedding on Saturday. It is very meaningful to be here.

On Sunday after our evening service, our family join the year-end thanksgiving dinner at the Singapore Centre for Evangelism and Missions (SCEM). Up to this point I just know the board members & staff as we serve together. This dinner is the first time when we meet everyone's spouses and children all at one time. Chris, Fang and their family are the lovely hosts. We all have a great time Sunday evening together.

We spend New Year's eve with old friends. Quan, Imy, little Sarah and baby Ethan are from Dallas but Quan is currently working in KL. The family spend their year-end break in Singapore. We said hello after Sunday morning service. Then we spend Monday afternoon together. Next is our family haircut appointment. Sadly we have to wait a long time at the hairdresser because of many party goers who want their hair done for New Year's Eve parties.

We spend the first day of 2008 celebrating Claudia's birthday. Her birthday

is actually before Christmas but Tuesday was the best time for all of us. We gather around Indian fusion food. It is so good to catch-up after being away and after the festivities. After lunch it is back to consolidating, clearing and cleaning. Our neighbour drop by in the evening. We spend the rest of the night is preparing for the first day of the school year and the first day of the ministry year. 2008 here we come...

2007 Thanksgiving

2007-12-31T22:21:00.000+08:00

Our staff had a thanksgiving lunch on the 28th December. Here is the message that I shared with our staff team along with some photos of the day.

My Greatest Satisfaction in 2007

01 Serving with my wife and the twins
We remember going to people's homes, speaking at events, going for meetings, days in the office and ministering overseas. Dinah and I just enjoy times meeting with and talking with new members at Discovering Membership. We did enjoy serving as a family at the 16th anniversary. Most other times the twins are beside us, reading quietly. There is always much to do but we are often together.

02 Serving alongside the staff team
I remember going into the water with you at water baptism, answering questions with you, brainstorming for the Breakthrough campaign, ministry discussions, doing weddings and fun times at the staff retreat. There is also the time Simon and I drove to KL for that visa, Pastor Jeff and I at Elim Church, and celebrating together when the church became debt free on 30th April.

03 Finding old friends I thought I had lost
I just met an old rugby friend from Junior College on the plane back recently. I keep bumping into old friends more and more and in places I would never imagine seeing them. It has been exciting.

04 Serving the community through Hope Centre
I remember opening that bank account with Pastor Lawrence, the Hope Centre meetings at our home, planning and poring over detailed proposals and joining board meetings. I remember going to speaking with authorities about funding our local projects and about potential overseas projects.

05 Traveling internationally to strengthen churches overseas.
It is vital that we visit our overseas tentmakers. Dinah and I love to encourage and spend time with our tentmakers in faraway places. These are special times. Dinah's sister and Simon has helped a lot in this regard. So has Yean Shien, Elaine, Limei, Cara, Pastor Jeff, Claud, Pastor Lawrence and Pat to make this possible.

This has been a year of great joy doing new things, meeting and serving with friends old and new.

My 2008 Wish

01 Enjoy the favour of God
I've had over 12.5 years on staff. But we have been doing church for over 16.5 years. We are so grateful for the grace of God every step of the way. We look forward to His continued grace and His favour in the years to come.

02 Walk in His Wisdom
One thing that has been hard is to switch gears constantly. I have not switched well on more occasions that I would have wanted to. The phrase "my cup runneth over" has also come to my mind on more than one occasion. Going forward I need a lot more divine wisdom.

03 See the birthing of many new things in Hope Church (S)
I am excited about the New Ministries initiative. We got to encourage pioneering and innovation in a growing church. I am also excited about our Youth Centre. We are moving from once-off projects to ongoing programmes. I am excited about developing missions internship. You will be hearing more about this. I am excited about the Full House effect. We will see our care groups and worship services becoming fuller and fuller.

04 Help the twins do well in PSLE
Early October will be an exciting time especially for the twins. This is true for the students doing national exams in October too. Dinah and I will adjust to this new adventure.

05 The Blackberry phone software will be un-crashable....
Yes its been giving some problems again recently. I am sure we'll figure it out soon.

2007 has been another good year. My prayer for the new year is that our source will be from above as in Psalm 123:1 and that our strength is in the name of the Lord as in Psalm 124:8.

Thank you for the privilege of being part of your journey.

Seven Luggages

2007-12-21T21:52:00.000+08:00

Preached the final time in Hope LA today. This is my eighth Sunday sermon in a trot. After service the church prays for us. Some members take farewell photos with us. Next is lunch meeting with Jarred, Jonathan and Golf which is followed by the Care Leaders meeting. Then Dinah and I meet Chai and Crystal in their office. Finally is the Ministry Leaders meeting till 8 pm. Dinner is with Golf.

Monday starts with breakfast and I. Dinah packs 7 luggages. David, a new friend calls from Atlanta. Then Al calls from Irvine. Next we drive to return the rented cello and have a late lunch. Then we pack some more before farewell dinner with the LA leaders. Then Dinah and I have a final discussion with Chai afterwards.

Tuesday is our last breakfast here. Lee and Cynthia arrive. We take 7 luggages and 9 carry-on items on two hotel trolleys onto 2 cars. The 3 airport trolleys cost $3 rental each. It's a full flight. Security is very tight because the Israeli airline is flying today.

We arrive in the Tokyo airport at 6 pm Wed for an hour transit. On the way back to the plane I meet a guy I used to know from junior college. We arrive at the Singapore airport at 1:35 am Thu. We are surprised to see Simon waiting for us. Dan and I take 1 taxi whilst Simon takes Dinah and Deb. We step into our place just after 2 am. Its a blessing to live near the airport. We unpack the perishable items and wash up and are in bed at 5 am. We're all awake at noon. We do the laundry, get fresh groceries and unpack. Dan gets feverish. We sleep early.

I get up 3 times. The twins don't sleep much thanks to jet lag. Its Fri morn and Dan's fever seems higher. We put him at Jan's place and we go to office. Its good to see the staff. We catch up over Marsli and Maureen's pies. We are off in the evening to bring Dan home. David, Alice, Daniel and Charmaine come to our home for a meeting.

We are adjusting back. This year's three and half week trip is shorter than my six-week trip last year. Well there was Urbana '06 last year. We've learnt a few things about being out. One is that LA speaks 127 languages. So it's hard to speak of a LA culture. Another is tipping. This means an additional 10-20% of top of the restaurant bill depending on the service. The third would have to be managing jackets. We check the temperature forecast before we go out. We lug 4 jackets around... Its different back home. As we adjust I am thankful for the cool and rainy days here.

Final Week in SoCal

2007-12-15T20:48:00.000+08:00

The story of our final week starts with Sunday. The church sanctuary seems fuller today. Many people come up for ministry after the sermon. Then I have lunch with Rob and Paul. Jarred then Mike tried to fix my notebook but... Next Dinah and I meet up with Chai and Crystal outside. Finally comes the ministry leaders meeting. We leave at 8 pm for our next appointment. Dinner is with Chris, Cyn and Annie till 11 pm.

Mon begins with breakfast with Dinah. The hotel atrium is stinky with one sewer pipe broken. So we eat a quick breakfast. Then Al calls from Irvine. Next we drive 1 hr 15 min east to the San Bernadino county. The snow-capped mountains are beautiful. We shop at the factory outlets for clothes and gifts. We eat here to avoid that evening rush-hour traffic. We take turns to shower and I am last so I clear e-mails and vet documents till 1:30 am.

Tue morn is clearing Singapore church work after breakfast. Then we go to Orange county. We spend time in the Crystal Cathedral. It is just a spectacularly beautiful campus. Here is a photo of their sanctuary. We also join the guided tour then we have lunch at the cafe. We spend time in their book shop. We go to the city of Irvine and spend some time with Al and Doreen's family (till past 11 pm). Here's a photo of our kids. We get back at midnight and clear e-mails. I shower in a choked bath tub and finally sleep at 2 am.

Wed morn sees the maintenance guy fixing the clog in the bathtub. We go see Derrick at USC campus. The uni is in exam mood. Derrick is from Singapore and he leads the Youth group here. Derrick as an international student isn't complaining about the weaker currency. After we spend time together and say good bye I make a wrong turn and end up with a 30-min drive around the city. Next we are with Cyn. Finally we drive to the Kusumo family in the city of Walnut. Josh was studying for a exam. So he're a photo of the family without Josh. We leave at 11 pm despite Hadi asking us to eat ice cream. Its 2 am when I get to bed.

We skip breakfast on Thu. Then we clear e-mails. Then its off to lunch with Anthony, a new member. Puk who works in this Thai restaurant hosts us. So we talk to Anthony and to Puk. Deb starts coughing. Then we drive to the west side of LA. I make a turn and end uo with a 20-min drive around in downtown. We finally arrive and its our first time in James and Christine's apartment. Its our first time trying her nice cooking. We arrive late again. Its our third late night in a row.

We skip breakfast on Fri. Next is morning devotions. Lee arrives for lunch and discussion. We come back and swim. We haven't swam for ages. Then David calls from Portland. The forecast tells us its 5 degrees tonight. We have a quiet dinner nearby after a series of long nights. I start working on a new sermon.

We resume breakfast on Sat. We come up and Vern calls from Seattle. Next we go to meet Wendy. She is from Hope Irvine church and arranged with Emmy to meet up with us. We arrange to meet at a mall but can't find parking. So we have to meet at the jammed carpark then go back to our hotel. We park and walk to a nearby Greek place for lunch. We go get groceries and Wendy comes along. Finally we say good bye to a new friend. We prepare for ministry tomorrow. Then JR calls from Seattle.

Here's a discovery for us. You would have heard news about the sub-prime mortgage crisis here. Naturally we assume that home prices are dropping. Our friends here tell us that prices in homes in some California cities are holding steady although sellers are taking a longer time to sell. Crisis?

Week 2 in SoCal

2007-12-08T21:54:00.000+08:00

There is a large Catholic street parade around the church today. We circle round to get parking. Guess who we meet in the service? It's Cindy who is going home from Santiago to Singapore via LA. Dinah and I have lunch with her. Then we join the Care Leaders meeting before meeting up with Pastor Chai and Crystal. Next is the Ministry Leaders meeting plus planning. Our family has dinner nearby our hotel. We get to speak to the waitress from Tennessee. Then we go back and four of us take turns to shower.

Monday starts with breakfast as a family. Next is devotions. We spend the morning confirming and making new appointments. This is followed by laundry and then a swim. Lunch is snacks and fruits. We pack then have a early dinner. Then it is a 1 hour and 45 min drive to north of San Diego. Bao's place is a nice 3-storey condo. We catch up a little and settle down. He puts us in his bedroom. In the middle of the night I get up as the heater is too warm.

Bao gets breakfast for us in the morn. The strawberry cream cheese is yummy. We drive to the San Diego Zoo. Pandas are the star attraction here. Bao loves the polar bears. This is a world-class zoo like the Singapore zoo. Food and drink is expensive here.

Then we drive to Coronado island. The water front overlooking the San Diego skyline is pretty like in Vancouver. We meet an elderly couple on the Trikke. They invite us to try. Dinah, the twins and Bao try it as I take photos. Then we go to Hotel del Coronado. Its a luxury hotel next to a beautiful beach. We walk along the beach as the sun sets. Then its an early dinner. Dinah and Bao want American but I want Vietnamese. We end up with Persian food. Its the first time for all of us having Persian food and it's good. After dinner we go back to Bao's place and then say good bye. We get some coffee so we can stay awake on the drive home. The journey takes 1 hour 45 min again. As the twins shower I call Emmy to confirm the Care Leaders retreat details.

Wed morn starts with a phone call from Minneapolis. Next is breakfast followed by devotion. We do some ministry preparation time before going out to get more drinking water and sundries. We spend the evening with Annie, one of the leaders.

Thu is a meeting with Four Square Church. Dinah and I spend 2 hours with their missions executives Lee and later with Raul at their central office. Here's a photo. This church is very similar to our movement in terms of doctrine, ethos and philosophy. We also learn that they have 1,800 churches in the US. They have 120 staff housed in this 8-storey building that they own. Thu afternoon is a conference call with Malay of Hope Chicago. It is snowing in Chicago. After that is a meeting with a US Center for World Mission executive. Thu night is a dinner meeting with Sam and Sung, church leaders. We get caught in the rain as we walk back.

Fri morn is cold. The forecast is 9-15 today. Golf calls to postpone our meeting. I am nauseous and sleep in. Then we meet Judy. It rains and is so cold as we walk back. Our Care Leaders retreat starts with Friday dinner and discussion in a private room of a restaurant. Lin takes the twins out. Towards the end of the night my stomach begins to run. Dinah feel the onset of flu.

On the way out Sat we see a stretch limousine at the hotel driveway. The doors are open and the driver allows us to peek. It's our first time seeing the interior of a 20-seater. We go to church. The retreat continues on Sat with stretching. Lin takes the kids again. The leaders have fruitful discussions and we end after 3pm. Dinah and I go back to prepare for tomorrow. We are feeling better. Later Lin brings the kids back. They enjoyed watching the "Enchanted" movie. Sure hope Lin enjoyed it too.

South Cal 2007

2007-12-01T21:40:00.000+08:00

Nov 23rd begins our second missionary journey to Southern California. This is the home of Hope LA church and Hope Irvine church. We fly off on a Friday evening. The twins meet a familiar character during our transit at the Taipei airport. As for me, I am fighting a cold since Wed night. We arrive on Fri night.

On Sat I drive out and forget which side to turn into so I wait for cars to go by to get the direction. The GPS is not quite working. We buy drinking water and basic utensils. Then I realise I did not bring my sermon. Later Pastor Chai comes with his boys and my sermon notes which he prints for me. We go to sleep but only for awhile. All four of us are up at 4 am thanks to jet lag.

We are in Hope LA church from 10 am to 7:30 pm preaching, having lunch with members, meeting Pastor Chai and Crystal then having leadership meeting and planning. There are 90 people today with 2 converts. Its the long Thanksgiving weekend and we are flat out. Besides the time difference we are adjusting to the cold autumn nights. We have dinner nearby our hotel then sleep soundly.

We awake late on Mon. Thank God that my cold is gone. We swim in the hotel's heated pool. A pastor calls us from Atlanta, Georgia. He is a friend of a friend. We do laundry, then drive to the music store to rent a cello and have dinner at a place next to the store. Later we speak with Maria on the phone. We sleep well tonight thanks to the swim.

We spend Tue preparing for the coming ministry. In the evening we drive to William Carey International University for a conference with the US Center for World Missions (USCWM). We meet Dr Ralph & Barb Winter of USCWM, leaders of the Third World Mission Association, Asian Mission Association, Global Network of Mission Structures, Institute for International Christian Communication and Cross Global Link. Later that night, Cyn comes with Lin to take the twins to stay overnight with Lin.

Lin takes the twins to her school on Wed as Dinah and I spend the whole day and night at conference. After our conference Lin brings the twins back at night. She is so kind.

Our family goes for the last morning of the conference on Thu. Barb takes our family on a personal tour of the campus then to their home. There we spend time with her and her husband. Dr Winter even gives us two books as a gift. This is an amazing guy. Then we go buy more drinking water and then we swim. I drive to church for Young Adult men's night. 10 guys join in and it becomes a very transparent session.

On Fri, we rearrange our schedule. We do laundry. I drive to church for the College care group in very heavy rain. It does not rain much here. Betty takes Dinah and the twins to the Young Adult ladies' night. We all come back late.

Sat papers report many road accidents yesterday due to heavy rain. We drive to church where Dinah teaches at the Thai unit event. We celebrate grandma Urai's 91st birthday. She has been with the church since the first day. She is joyful and tells me she is only "19" when I pray for her. During this time Derrick gives the twins a music theory lesson. Then we spend time with Jason and Emmy, leaders of the family ministry. Then there is a monthly prayer in church. We have a late dinner tonight.

A special Thanksgiving

2007-11-23T07:18:00.000+08:00

Dinah and I spend 15-19 Nov with Hope NA pastors and spouses. Hope Chicago church is the host for this pastors' retreat. This is our second visit to Hope Chicago church. Our flights to and from Chicago are full because of the Thanksgiving celebration on 22 Nov. Here is a photo with the Hope Chicago church. One lady's face is covered and one more was not in the picture. We arrive back in Singapore on Wednesday.

Next I spend Thursday with Methodist pastors and church leaders in Singapore at their Trinity Annual Conference. It's my time speaking in a Methodist environment. After addressing the conference, I have lunch with several pastors. It's quite an eye-opener to be part of this.

Whilst I imagine our American friends having turkey on Thursday night, I am with our church leaders on Thursday night. Some stay back to ask questions making this a full day indeed.

In Phuket

2007-11-11T23:08:00.000+08:00

It is our first time in Phuket. We arrive in Phuket on Sun night with our twins. We stay at a hotel overseeing Kata beach.

The next day we take a speed boat to Hay Island. The Andaman Sea is beautiful. We snorkel for the first time.

The next day Cara and I present papers at the leadership meetings while the twins enjoy story books. Here is a picture by my wife. Seated next to me is Pastor Mark and Pastor Ian both from Hope Melbourne.

The Leaders Conference start the next day. My wife and I lead workshops. We catch up with friends. We spend time with our team from Johannesburg. It is so great to see Henry, Lerato, Mpho and Elvis. On the final night we get to enjoy a barbeque on the famous Patong beach.

Circle of friends

2007-10-07T21:16:00.000+08:00

This year is the 5th anniversary for living in Punggol. This year is also the 5th anniversary of a group of buddies. Here's the photo of our recent July get-together. From L-R is Melvyn, Henry, me, Boon Hup & Danny. This was the first time Danny joins. Vincent couldn't make it.

It started in 2002 when several pastors including me were at a lunch briefing for the first Fire Conference with Reinhard Bonke in March '03. Among others I met Vincent Lun of RiverLife church. He asked if I had pastor friends who would be keen to get together. I thought of Boon Hup of Paya Lebar Methodist and Henry Tan of Full Gospel Assembly. I asked them. They both agreed. So the four of us had our first pastors' breakfast at Upper Serangoon.

Since that session in Oct '02 (I think), we got together every 2 months. We take turns to host breakfast. In 2004, Vincent asked if he could bring Melvyn Mak, Faith Community Baptist Church. He also said let's call this "a circle of friends". In Jul 07, Melvyn got Danny Han, Victory Family Centre to join. He's the newest buddy.

What keeps us together for 5 years & counting? 2 are in their mid 50s, 2 in early 50s, 1 in late 40s & I'm almost 40. Well, we've become buddies. It was Melvyn who first started calling us "buddies". Besides breakfast we call & talk on the phone. Dinah has met Jenny (Vincent's wife), Pansy (Henry's wife), Catherine (Boon Hup's wife) & Linda (Melvyn's wife) at various events. Hope to meet Danny's wife soon. Second, there is commonality as senior pastors. We are peers. Well Melvyn is Deputy SP of a very large church, Henry has since moved to become an itinerant & Boon Hup is now at TRAC (like a denominational office) but we still love them. Third, we often share ideas & tips. Several of us have ministered at each other's churches.

There are many positives. I joined Melvyn to minister in the prisons. That was a first for both of us. Once Henry took me for lunch at this awesome duck place. He knows his food. There was 1 evening when Vincent called. He said he's got durians & if I could come collect some. It happens that Dinah, the twins & I were nearby so we swung by to his place. It was our first time there. That night Lawrence & Jeff got blessed as we dropped some off at their place on the way home. Indeed, the blessing overflows.

Our friends

2007-10-04T21:45:00.000+08:00

This is the 10th anniversary of a unique group of friends. Here's how it started. In 1997, Dinah signed up for a 10-week course on marital counselling at the Counseling & Care Centre. When the course ended, a course mate Swee Tin organised a breakfast at her place. 8 course participants & Anthony (instructor) came. The breakfast continued every 3 months. It's been 10 years now.

I would drop Dinah off for these get-togethers. Dinah introduced me to Paul from Geylang Church of Christ. I met the whole group with their spouses at Swee Tin's daughter's wedding.

In 1999, Kevin & Siew Choo from the circle relocated overseas for his theological studies. They are now Brethren missionaries in the US. In 2000, Dinah asked if I was keen to join . I said "yes". The group agreed. Sometimes Anthony reminds me that I'm adopted.

This recent photo, from L to R, shows Swee Tin (Trinity Christian Centre), Paul, Glen (Elim church), Anthony (MustardSeed Community Church off-shoot of Yio Chu Kang Chapel), Dinah, me, Andrew (New Hope Family Church). Denis isn't in the photo. He's an itinerant minister with AG & isn't in town too much.

What sustains the group for 10 years? One reason is that we have become friends. We get together in smaller groups in-between the quarterly breakfasts. Another reason is candid discussion over current issues. There hasn't always been agreement but we continue to dialogue & sharpen each other. A third reason is that we're quite different. In a strange way we're fascinated by what the rest are doing or thinking. 2 are heavily involved in counseling & therapy, 1 heavily in social work, 1 itinerant & 4 in church work. 2 are in their early 60s one being a grandparent, 4 in their early 50s whilst Dinah & I are just under 40.

It's going to be interesting to see how this bunch of friends will develop as we walk through transitions in the seasons of life.

Preparing for 2008

2007-09-29T23:41:00.000+08:00

Tuesday starts with an appointment with our lawyer over our overseas community work. I go to the International Plaza instead of City House. So I have to run down the Central Business District on this hot day to get to the appointment.

Next stop is office to complete my handouts and Powerpoont slides for our planning retreat, which is from Tue noon to Wed evening. Here are the photos.

This is the first of two planning retreats we have every year. Our first planning retreat was back in 1997. This year's retreat is different because there is no overnight stay.

There is a dramatic incident. I arrive back in the office on Wed evening and realised I did not have my digicam.

Thankfully Hong Teck was in Funan so he walked back to the function room. He could not find the camera. It is my birthday gift from the staff and it is only 6 months old. My heart sank.

Fenny called the banquets staff to look out for it. She told us the staff would look out for it. I was disappointed.

About 7 pm, Fenny called and said they found it. Thank God for honest hotel staff!

She even collects it on Thur morning. Thank God for Fenny.

Later Wan Leng said, "Thank God you didn’t lose the Fujifilm F20. It’s a very good point & shoot camera. They stopped selling this model in Singapore. Hong Teck and I have the same model."

16th Anniversary

2007-09-16T11:29:00.000+08:00

Sep 15th was the day of our church anniversary celebrations. In fact Dinah and I just came back from sending our guest speaker Pastor PN to the airport. There we met Yean Shien and Mabel who just sent Vivien off. Even in the airport, our hearts are still filled with thanksgiving from yesterday's celebration. Here's a photo from SiewQin taken in between the 2 anniversary services.

Here are memories and thanksgiving (all mixed up together). The anniversary logo is eye-catching, bright and contemporary. Our celebration itself was at the d'Marquee @ Downtown East. Our first time at the place was the night before for rehearsal. It's nice but smaller than last year's. Overall this year's set up is less elaborate. For example we had to assemble 1,500 light bulbs last year.

The big day finally came on Saturday. We arrived in the morning for the final rehearsals. We were approached for makeovers almost immediately . The Image team did a good job on Deb and Dan's hair. They applied makeup on the twins especially on Deb, for which Dan was thankful. It took some persuasion why he even needed any stage makeup.

This is our first anniversary to feature a guest speaker and a guest worship team. Both came from Hope Bangkok. The passage Romans 4:16-18 chosen by Pastor PN was appropriate for the event. The Hope Bangkok lifted the worship atmosphere several notches.

The two young hosts almost steal the show with their welcome lines. The mime item was a good intro. Then the remix of "Psalm 78" song was so good and I liked the way we had short video testimonies and Snapshots of Hope incorporated in. It was a challenge to have our worship team lead and then transit to Hope Bangkok team but it went well. The tango item sure got a rapturous welcome.

This year was special also because we served as a family. (Here's a photo sent in from Junming.) The twins hosted the starting segment of the service. And I only found out about this 2 weeks ago. Then Dinah and I did a short dance routine as part of hosting. It was our first time ever doing the tango. Thanks to Kin Wee for giving us two lessons and choreographing our routine.

This year we may have had close to 3,400 people celebrating. The second celebration service ended on a big high with us totally warmed up. This finale was absolutely rousing with stage ministers all excited. The Bangkok leaders enjoyed themselves in God too. Shirley led us in one more praise responding to the congregation. It was a wonderful close to 16 years of wonderful ministry. The celebrations continue today and tomorrow with our JUMP conference and concert. Happy Anniversary!

Durian-deprived

2007-09-11T22:40:00.000+08:00

CK and Pei Ching are our church missionaries in Rome. The third team member Annette is from Hope Prague. The first time we spent time with CK and Pei Ching was in Rome back in Aug '06. They are back for summer holidays. We had lunch 2 weeks ago.

We catch up again on Sept 11th. CK and PC offer to cook for us and talk strategy. We meet at Cold Storage to get the right groceries. On the way out, we get a box of creamy, small-seed durians for them.

This is their first time to our place. We show them around. Then they cook pasta and salad in our kitchen. We enjoy this lunch with friends. Yes we talk church planting strategy in Rome. They also refresh our memory how to do Expresso the Italian way.

We enjoy the durians except Dinah who is recovering from illness. At this point PC and CK admit that they haven't eaten durians for over 2 years. That's what you call a durian-deprived missionary. Later Dinah bring out a box of American chocolates. Then PC and CK admit they both actually have sore throat... The four of us wrap up the strategy part and I bring them to the MRT station. PC has another appointment in town.

We haven't cooked a proper meal for 2 years. They haven't had durians for 2 years. Guess you could say that this is a day we ministered to each other.

More on Travel

2007-09-08T14:32:00.000+08:00

It's school holidays this week. Here are more reflections on travel.

In our last long-haul flight, Dinah slept well. She often sleeps well. But I had difficulty sleeping. I did try to sleep. Well one clear solution is to fly business class. We'll discuss this in the next life.

Thankfully God provides. There is a tap on my shoulder as I pace up and down the aircraft. It is Esther. She is on the same flight going home from a business trip. She recommends I try a relaxing peppermint essence. I apply it just like she tells me to. After all she is a registered nurse. It is quite pleasant. Later I see Esther asleep in her seat. Well at least I feel more relaxed. A few hours later I sleep too. I must ask her where to get this...

There are other solutions for people who can't sleep on planes. While on holiday in June, I read a very short but interesting article in Newsweek June 11, 2007 issue. The article was titled 'VIAGRA helps jet lag'. University tests conducted on rats in Argentina shows that Viagra helps relieve jet lag. (source www.Slate.com ). No I haven't tried it yet. Why haven't I? Let's put it this way... I might sleep well but there might be other effects.

The good news is that I am able to work while traveling. My last sermon (based on Micah 7:1-7) was developed almost entirely while traveling. I began on it while on transit at LAX from South America to Singapore, continued on it in LAX while on transit from US to Singapore and some more while on the plane to Singapore. I stopped working on it when Esther's peppermint took full effect.

One final note on travel. I have noticed my wife going to the dry cleaners more. Then a dry cleaning place springs up on the same street as the church office. I notice that my colleague Kam goes there. Now my pullovers and warm jackets also goes there after coming back from ministry in cold places. Yes Dinah and I have invested in winter clothing. We got to keep warm in cold places. Yes we are doing our part for the Singapore economy.

Berachah & Bellevue

2007-08-22T23:59:00.000+08:00

After arriving in Seattle, we have regional meetings on Wed night to Thu evening. The camp at Berachah in Auburn starts Thu night and I preach. Its an unusual cloudy summer with rain & temperatures between 12-21 degrees.

Camp worship includes the use of a harp. Fri sees sports in the afternoon. Here are key results: Soccer (M) - NA pastors 1 - 1 International pastors. Captain ball (F) - Members 6 - 1 Leaders. Captain ball (M) - NA pastors 6 - 5 International pastors. Then we sit on grass, rest and chat. After shower, I feel the aches.

Camp has 150 people. There is experiential learning on Saturday. Its loads of fun. This is followed by water baptism at the heated pool. Our camp ends with lunch on Sunday. There is a massive tear-down and long good byes.

Our NA Pastors' Retreat goes from 3 pm to 1 am at Berachah. On Mon we drive to have brunch at Top Gun in Bellevue. Folks begin to leave, we adjourn to Vern's place in Bellevue. We talk with David and Ann till 3 pm, then David, Malay, Moses & I take a walk as Dinah catches up with Warinda. Finally Warinda drives home at 8 pm, David and Malay leaves at 11 pm, then Dinah and I speak with Vern and Eureka till 1 am.

Its raining and its 21 degrees on Tue morning. This is a real cool summer. Dinah and I chat with Eureka over breakfast. My wife has to get luggage today. We get a call. David and Malay missed their flight. They will stay with us tonight. I suspect they are quite happy about this too.

It's time for a personal disclosure. I'm into extreme sports - I'm an extreme traveler. My travel luggages have been damaged, misplaced and spotted. My wife has bought so many check-in luggages. We've learnt that carry-on luggages are not so critical. We've helped the luggage industry. So invest in stocks that do luggage manufacturing.

Dinah and I enjoy this breakfast with Eureka. Then its off to go the mall to get luggage. Afterwards Dinah and I have lunch with Eureka and Connie. Then I catch up on e-mails. Next Dinah and I go out with JR, Warinda & Jada for dinner. Then Dinah and I talk church with Lan, William then Eureka and Malay till 1 am.

Wed morning breakfast is with Dinah. We talk with Ian and Daisy from Melbourne. Next is extended lunch with Dan & Dee. We come back and I speak with Bill in Virginia then David in Portland. Then we join special service in Hope Seattle where I preach and we pray for people. Then we visit the children's hospital to pray for Jada who is being treated for breathing difficulties. Then Tab brings us back and I get dinner. We talk to Vern, Eureka, Ian and Daisy till 1 am.

Manly Mondays

2007-08-15T00:57:00.000+08:00

Impact magazine in Singapore invited us to write an article in February this year. Manly Mondays is the article I managed to write in April. This is a perspective on men's ministry. I believe its the first time we are featured in Impact. The amazing thing is this particular issue is out 5 days before our church's men event. I got hold of this issue just before leaving for US. You can read it on their website http://www.impact.com.sg/Monthly_Article.asp

Springfield Visit

2007-08-14T21:41:00.000+08:00

Ann drives Dinah, baby Faith and I to the airport on Mon morn. I fly to the Denver airport. Pastor Simon arrives & we fly to Springfield in Missouri. Its both our first time to Springfield.

We arrive in the small town of Springfield. Its 37 degrees. Somehow a lady & I miss our luggage. And the United Airlines counter is closed. Thankfully two United staff just fly in from Chicago and help us. They locate our luggage in the airline office.

Relieved, Simon and I have dinner at the only restaurant in the airport which closes at 7:30 pm. Our hotel has no restaurant. We call the hotel for the car to our hotel. The driver tells us this town has 153,000 people. We check in and Robert at the front office says he remembers Limei calling him.

We settle down and shower. The TV forecast for tomorrow is 38 C with a "Heat Warning". We reply e-mails and plan for tomorrow. Dinah and I communicate on Skype. She just finished meeting Portland church team - David, Ann, Preaw, Chris, Davene, Autumn and Lekorn. David's sister Iris join in too.

It's Tuesday. Simon and I have breakfast at the hotel. We get on a taxi to US Assembly of God Headquarters downtown. We spend the morning with Cary Tidwell (Administrator World Missions) & Russ Turney (Asia Pac Director). We get lunch & check out the Gospel Publishing House bookstore. We join the AG HQ tour with three other persons. Two are AG pastors from Chesapeake, Virginia. One was a AG HQ staff on her day off.

Later we buy gifts at the Battlefield Mall, the largest mall in town. We grab dinnner here and go back to the hotel. Simon and I evaluate our day. Then I think of my wife at the PSU care group. Then we pack. This is quite a short visit.

Portland Commissioning

2007-08-13T21:37:00.000+08:00

Dinah and I fly off on Friday and arrive in LA on Friday night to sleepover at the airport hotel. We check out and Lee takes us for lunch on Sat then we check in for our flight. We arrive Portland on Sat night quite jetlagged.

There are 13 adults and 6 kids excluding us at the worship service. There are 2 first time visitors from another church. David leads worship, I preach then Dinah and I commission David and Ann as the new coordinator of Hope Portland church.

After lunch with church folks, David suggest we visit PSU. The view as we drive through Portland city is breathtaking. The Willamette River separates the river into East and West. Our church service is currently in the south east part of the city. The north east section is a red light area.

After this, we drive home and talk about the strategy to reach Oregon. There are 7 counties in Oregon. We go out for dinner. After dinner we continue to talk till midnight.

Last Day in Santiago

2007-08-06T11:54:00.001+08:00

It is 1 degree cold today. Despite this, 15 local people come for our self-management seminar. Five are first timers. They all give good feedback. We enjoy hot tea after the seminar.
As I pack, Cindy offers to wrap my gifts. The team presents gifts to Dinah & I. I shower before my long flight to LA, Tokyo then Singapore.
We have a long dinner at the airport. The team asks for feedback and for advice. In between David and I walk over to check in. Thankfully my bag is checked to Singapore direct though I will take different airlines home. We rejoin the dinner table. Pui See asks for prayer. Its time to say good byes and go in.
The flight leaves at 10:55pm for LA. As the plane takes off I thank God because we have such good people in South America.

Friday in Santiago

2007-08-06T11:54:00.000+08:00

It is 3 degrees cold today. I start the day on Skype with Dinah and the twins. Today my notebook computer isn't working properly. It's only 8.5 months old and the battery has conked out. It must be the cold? I discover later that the warranty for the battery is only for 6 months.
Next is breakfast with Ee Lee. She briefs me on the people coming for tonight's service. Then I try to do e-check in for tomorrow's flight. But I have to resort to the phone. Apparently all I can do on this leg is to book my seat. We have a quick takeaway lunch. I answer emails then start packing. We take an early dinner.

For our Fri night service, we have 12 local adults & 1 child joining. There is a first-time commitment to Christ, a healing and re-commitments to Christ. We have a short evaluation afterwards.

Shopping & Preparing in Santiago

2007-08-06T11:50:00.000+08:00

I call my family on Skype. Then Ee Lee & I discuss potential tentmakers from Singapore church over breakfast. Next I talk on Skype with Wee Leng and several US church leaders.
Then Cindy brings me shopping for gifts at an artisan market. Thank God for Cindy who helps me shop. We have a local lunch & catch up.
In the evening all of us prepare for tomorrow and Saturday. David and Ee Lee are rehearsing the worship. Pui See is translating my sermon in Spanish. Cindy is preparing for the Saturday seminar. Later David, Pui See and Ee Lee and I talk about previous and future short-term missions to Santiago. I read http://www.tcgnews.com/santiagotimes/

Wednesday in Santiago

2007-08-06T10:58:00.000+08:00

I make a Skype call to Dinah and the twins in the morning. Next is breakfast with Pui See. Then Ee Lee is so nice help me work the washing machine to do laundry.

We go out to meet Gonzalo. He takes us to a local place for lunch. Chile food seems distinct from Ecuador and Peru. After lunch, Pui See goes back to work. Ee lee & I spend time with him in his office. He is a marine biologist.

We come back and I update my blog on Quito. Then I spend time with David and Pui See. Later the team has extended group intercession. We end with a late dinner at a restaurant. Its a beef place. The atmosphere is positive and mood is upbeat.

Tuesday in USACH

2007-08-05T13:54:00.000+08:00

I cannot sleep for hours on Mon night. After putting on socks I manage to get some sleep. Groggy and cold in the morning, I have breakfast with David. Later I clear e-mails and communicate on Skype. Then Ee Lee does a quick lunch.

We spend most of the day in the University of Santiago Chile (USACH). There are 10 key universities in Santiago. This is the biggest with 18,000 students here. Cindy meets us there. We spend time with Paula & Walter who are both studying here. They show us around. They also ask many questions about God and the Bible. We notice there are a lot of stray dogs.

In the night Ee Lee take me out for dinner. Later I chat more with David. I really need to get used to the cold in Chile.

Hangover in Santiago

2007-08-05T11:59:00.000+08:00

I am so exhausted that I sleep till noon. Ee Lee is at home and she cooks instant noodles for lunch.
Later I chat with Pui See and then with David. David briefs me that the nation of Chile has 16.2 million people in 14 regions, 51 provinces & 346 municipalities.
Later five potential members & leaders join us on Monday night.
I get to meet Gonzalo, Estela, Monica, Belen and Walter. Paula can't make it tonight. The team asks that I pray for each of our local friends.
Later we debrief and celebrate Ee Lee’s birthday again with the cake Estela brought. I sleep at 2 am.

Mendoza not Santiago

2007-08-05T11:01:00.000+08:00

Our flight is meant to arrive 5 am Sunday. Then we are supposed to join a local church service. Ee Lee & Cindy were at airport at 5 am. But Santiago airport was closed to aircraft due to heavy fog. Our plane was diverted to the closest airport. This is my first time in Argentina. I don't even have a visa! After touching down for 15 min, the captain announced we have to wait 1 more hour because Mendoza airport services are not open yet. I spend 4 hours on transit. It's a small airport and we could have walked out and no one would have known. It's also cold.

We arrive in Santiago 7 hours later. David is present and he tells me the girls waited from 5 right up to 9 am. Now it is 7 degrees C. He says this is the coldest winter in 70 years. He's also coughing. The airport taxi brings us to their apartment in the city. Pui See comes out after having quiet time in the waiting room. Later Ee Lee and Cindy join us. We catch up and then go for a late lunch at the Central Market. It's very cold and my tired body is adjusting. We walk into the Cathedral of Santiago briefly. I am very tired walking in the cold. We join the evening service of Tempo de Dios church (Church of God’s Time).
Finally we get home to rest and I shower. I hear stray cats meowing in the cold. We catch up further and spring a surprise birthday for Ee Lee. I bring out her birthday gifts from Singapore.

Last Day in Quito

2007-08-05T10:26:00.000+08:00

The worship service starts with ice breakers. Lennin co-leads the service with Sharon. Sharon leads worship with Ricky and Alehandro on the guitars. Then I preach with Wee Leng translating. Today there are over 20 local adults with one first timer. This first-time law student commits his life to Christ. It is a good time.

Luis and Lennin organise the barbeque. This barbeque has a unique local touch. Overall its a really fun day out in the garden .

The members hang out long after the barbeque. Some ask me to pray for them. Then I spend some time with Sharon. Its good to have extended time with old friends.

Four members wait till evening to say very touching good byes. Lennin and family stays to drive us to the airport. I feel sad on the way to the airport. We say long goodbyes. The airport is also strange - once you go to check in, you cannot come out.

Then I am so tired I actually fall asleep at the boarding gate. The plane flies to Guayaquil then to Santiago.

Friday in Quito

2007-08-05T10:07:00.000+08:00

We gear up for today's full day seminar. People come still excited though a little tired from a long night. Some come about half hour later.

In total 13 locals came for the four sessions of church Vision and Philosophy. 2 university students came later. Later I realise 1 of them actually has exams tonight. There is a lot of good discussion going.

Wee Leng and I challenge the people to have a vision for Ecuador. Ecuador has a population of 13 million people is in 22 provinces, 219 cantons and 1472 parishes. There are 4 million Ecuadorians overseas. We also challenge the 4 students from Central University to have a vision for their campus. They are excited.

We have take away dinner together. After dinner , Wan Phing leads us in corporate worship. Then I do the fourth and final session. It has been one and half days of teaching, worship and bonding. It has been a good time.

Thursday in Quito

2007-08-05T09:59:00.001+08:00

I have breakfast with Wan Phing before she goes to work. Then the Lima team arrives. Today we have lunch with Lennin and his son. He is part of the local leadership. We discover over lunch that Wee Leng’s version of ‘light’ lunch is dubious.

Next Serene conducts a music workshop for Alehandro, Ricky and Sharon in the afternoon. The rest of us prepare for the night session.

In total 15 local adults join in the night session. Wan Phing takes care of 3 kids, Serene lead worship, Delia shares her testimony, I teach with Delia translating. I ask for response.

Julian and Sharon lay hands on one group whilst Wee Leng and Ai Lay lay hands on another group. I take the third group.

Two locals present have already been baptised in the Spirit previously. Tonight five persons are baptised in the Spirit and manifest in tongues almost instantaneously.

We end at 10 pm. People are excited. Some people only leave at 11:45 pm. The Lima team leaves at 12 am. We say long goodbyes to each other. It is sad.

Then Wee Leng, Sharon and I have dinner and debrief at the same time. I go to bed at 1 am.

More Indian food & birthday celebrations

2007-08-05T09:59:00.000+08:00

Wednesday starts with breakfast with Sharon before she goes to work. The Lima team arrives soon after. I manage to catch up with Delia and with Ailay. Later we discuss Thursday ministry events.

Wee Leng brings us for Indian food again as per Lima team's request. Then Sharon brings the girls shopping as Julian, Wee Leng and I have a drink. The girls come back and persuade me to get a new leather jacket. They including Wee Leng argue that the one I am wearing is 18 years old. I talk about something called sentimental value! The girls volunteer to help choose one then Wee Leng bargains shamelessly. We get it for USD75 with their guarantee that it would cost USD130 in Singapore.

After parting with my money, we go for dinner. We meet with the Hope Quito local leaders. Here is a picture of Alejandro snapping a picture. Yes, we celebrate Julian's birthday again. They call him "hulian" in Spanish. Hulian is the one smiling broadly...

Return to Quito

2007-07-27T03:50:00.000+08:00

The visa application process to Ecuador was like a bad dream. That's an entire story in itself...

Dinah and the twins sent me off to the airport on Sunday afternoon. I fly to LA, Miami and finally arrive in Quito on a Monday night. It was the 23rd of July. I am very happy to reunite with Wee Leng, Wan Phing and Sharon. We have a very long dinner on Monday. This is my second visit to Quito. Its colder this time. They have a much bigger place now.

Team Lima arrived on a Tuesday noon. Wee Leng brings Julian,

Serene, Ailay and Delia to the house. We greet then go out and spend the whole day together. Its great to be able to catch up with our people individually. For lunch, Team Lima asked for Indian food. Wee Leng bring us to a nice Indian place downtown. Later I suggest they try the local handmade fruity gelato-equivalent at the Andean artisan market. The Lima team took an instant liking to thist just like my wife when we were first here in Dec 2005.

It is such a joy to reunite for the eight of us, half way around the world. At dinner time Sharon arranges an early surprise for Julian. His actual birthday is this coming Saturday. He will be 36 soon.

Why I'm travelling

2007-05-15T09:26:00.000+08:00

Our twins have been asking why we travel. We have been explaining. Recently our church had thanksgiving services on 6th May. A member said to me backstage that I travel quite a bit. I recall a similar comment by Keng Suan on this blog back in April.

Well its not because I'm a global city guy. Here's why...

Because our church is global. Initially our church plants were in South East Asia, then in Asia and Oceania. Then in 1997 our team landed in South Africa. In 2002, our team landed in Peru. Since then our teams have landed in Kenya, Chile, Italy, Ecuador and two other countries that are best unnamed. Today our tentmaking teams are spread across several continents.

We manage across distance, cultures, continents and time zones. This makes the ministry even more complex and difficult because the boundaries of distance, country borders and cultures are in constant motion. We do our best to provide prayer support, logistics support, financial support, communication support, ministry support and re-entry care. We use e-mail and Skype a lot. We also need to visit our teams, so I travel.

Because we are part of a global movement. In Jan 99, Dinah and I were asked to oversee churches in Europe. This role lasted till Aug 04. For almost 6 years Dinah and I traveled to support churches there. We made many good friends here. Then we were asked to help North America churches in Oct or Nov 04. We politely declined because of our involvement in Africa and South America on top of local church ministry. We were asked again in early 05. We politely declined again. Our leaders finally persuaded us in Jul 05. In a family of churches, we help one another.

Because like you our overseas churches consider Dinah and I as their Senior Pastor. All our overseas churches have a coordinator or pastor. We have a special bond. In Johannesburg, we were introduced as "Our Senior Pastor based in Singapore". In Chicago we we were introduced as "Senior Pastor of North America". In Quito, it was a similar introduction in Spanish.

We now have members across the world. Each person has a special place in our heart. We love them and consider them part of family. Together with our missions staff and leaders, we keep in touch with as much as we possibly can.

Those are pretty much the reasons.

As a boy I used to think that traveling was glamorous. That's probably because mom always did the packing and unpacking. Also I never traveled far enough to be stuck in transit or experience that terrible thing 'jet lag'. Amazingly the reheated airline food didn't seem to bother me.

Now I'm quite sure that I can't sleep on planes even when I get a row of four seats all to myself. Some time ago I got a book titled, "Why I Hate Flying". I haven't read it yet but I think maybe I should have written it. If not for the Great Commission...

Easter in 2007

2007-04-27T20:10:00.000+08:00

Dinah and I flew to Vancouver on Thursday via Seoul. Discovered I don't enjoy bilingual flight announcements. We are glad to see our friend, Steph Zee at the Vancouver airport. Its a cool 10 degrees here. Its our first time at the Hope Vancouver church conference. Its also our first time at their church service.

Their conference starts on Good Friday at Port Coquitlam. This is also the venue of their Sunday worship. My eyes are heavy despite having sufficient sleep. Its jet lag attack. Pastor William suggest we go to the hot tub in the afternoon. It is a feat to preach at night with jet lag in full swing.

After the Sat morning session, William says, "Your jet lag is over". So I guess yesterday's session must have been lethargic. Then we get news that both our kids are sick so we pray. Later in the afternoon, William's son Andrew take me to the back yard where I try out his paint ball gun. It is so fun. We go back for preaching. The night session ends late

Easter morning is rainy. Over ten homeless people come for the special lunch. The conference resumes after lunch. Then we pack up and do a visitation followed by a dinner with church leaders. Catch the camp stories and photos at http://www.hopeofvancouver.org/

We spend Monday with William and Lan discussing church. We spend some time with Victoria too. Dinah seem to have caught a cold.

Tuesday is spent with Lan, Marilyn and Chris. Marilyn and Chris are leaders and both came to Christ through our church in Singapore. Dinah gets quite sick but maintains a positive countenance. We join their regular Tuesday leaders night meeting.

William and Lan bring us to their saloon on Wednesday. They insist of doing our hair before driving us to the airport. Its our first time on Air Canada. In LAX, our friends Judy and Cyn are on hand to take us to the hotel. We settle down then have dinner with them. We're excited to hear how the LA church is doing since Dec 06.

On Thur Cyn take us for a meeting. Today LA experiences a wind storm. After lunch with Cyn she takes us to another meeting. Later Jason and Emmy take us to church. We have dinner with church leaders. Afterwards we get good news that the twins are getting better.

On Friday our old friend Beh from San Diego come around with Pao and Cyn. We drop stuff off at church and drove to the camp site. We take the anti motion sickness tablets Crystal gave us. It knocked us out for the one hour drive up the mountain. Its cold up here. I try to shake the effects of the tablets to teach at the night session.

Dinah is much better on Saturday. Thank God because she starts teaching today. It is so cold up here that it actually snows for an hour. The winds up here are 32km/hr. We had to find the heater switch in our room to sleep that night.

We are getting used to the mountain but its time to go. We are glad because overall the church seems to be in better shape. Going downhill without anti-motion sickness pills, we get a headache. At least the conversation with Beh is stimulating. We check in to the same hotel before Chai and Crystal take us for an extended dinner.

We are glad to have Monday off. Everywhere we walk today, TV screens report the Virginia Tech killings. It's tragic news unfolding... Its overwhelming. Later Sam, Sung and baby Grace arrive at 4 pm to take us out. We get gifts then have dinner together. At night David calls from Chicago.

Tues morning has a twist. Lee take us for breakfast and we actually meet Sam and Grace in the same place having just bought breakfast for us. What a blesssing! Then Lee take us to the airport. There's heavy security presence in LAX today. El Al, the Israeli airline has flight today. SIA is doing a manual check in to simulate when computers are down so the line moves slowly. We finally get on the half-empty plane but get stuck on the run way for 2 hours because a part on the wing is loose. We finally take off. I try to lie down on 4 seats but I just can't sleep. That's the story of my life. Thankfully I get some sleep flying from Seoul to Singapore.

Here is a group photo of the LA camp.

Portland, Oregon

2007-03-08T20:41:00.000+08:00

We leave Singapore on a wet Thur morn. Could not call a taxi as we normally do. Jeff comes to the rescue. We make our 9 am flight to LA. Once in LAX Cyn helps us check into a hotel near LAX. She leaves then comes back with drinking water and Starbucks coffee. She's so kind. We make calls then have dinner with Andrew, Cyn and Lee. They even bring a cake.

On Fri we take a 8:30 am domestic flight to Seattle. Dee take us from the airport to downtown Seattle for a pre-arranged meeting. We get Seattle coffee before the meeting. Afterwards we go to JR's place just north of the city. From there JR drives us to Portland. JR's baby daughter Jada cries, not accustomed to the long ride. The rain makes our journey 4 hours instead of the normal 3. It's works out well as Dinah catch up with Warinda and I with Vern and JR. I also call Rach, my friend from Urbana.

We arrive in Portland at 7 pm. Most of the NA pastors and wives are here. We greet each other. The hotel suite is US$74 per night and it's luxurious. The cost of living is low. We go out for dinner. Chai & Crystal bring 3 kids along. These are the kind of people who lead our churches.

The complimentary breakfast is American. This retreat theme is church growth. Lunch is out where the wives do a baby shower for Ann who's expecting her first child this June. At dinner, they celebrate my birthday with 4 big candles. I get a text message from LA saying, "Happy 21st birthday." My real age is somewhere in-between those two figures.

Sunday is check out. At Hope Portland, David from Chicago lead prayer, David and Ann from Portland lead worship, Dinah shares testimony and I preach. Later we lunch with church folks then resume discussions at David and Ann's place. At 5 pm, pastors and wives start to leave. We spend time with David and Malay before meeting Chris and Susan Ward. They have come from Seattle to meet. We get back to David and Ann's at 11 pm, totally exhausted.
Mon is time with David and Ann. They take us to a Christian book store before a dim sum lunch. Next they bring us to shopping outlets before an American dinner. We get home and pack. After I help David set up Skype, Dinah and I pray for the couple.

David starts work at 4:45 am. Ann send us to the Portland airport on Tue. On board Dinah sleeps but the grandma next to me tells me her life story. It turns out she is a pastor's wife. We arrive 1:30 pm at LAX. Lee take us to north of LA then to east of LA for pre-arranged meetings. Then she takes us back to LAX. She' a blessing. Our flight to Singapore is 11:30 pm. The flight transits in Taipei and arrive in Singapore on Thu. Simon is there to take us home where we unpack, do laundry and then swim in the evening. We catch up with the twins over dinner. Jet lag creeps up. Or maybe its age.

No matter how old I am, I never fail to be amazed with people graced by God. Leaders who serve with 4 kids at home, or with 3 kids in tow, or with a young infant or while heavily pregnant. Leaders who drive 7 hours to serve, or serve when their job is uncertain or serve even with multiple sclerosis. Seeing all this first hand is what makes this birthday special.

Life after Urbana '06

2007-01-05T21:26:00.000+08:00

New Year in 2007 started on a Monday. It was an early rise at 5:30 am to catch the flight at St Louis airport. In my haste not only did I miss breakfast but I also left my phone case in the hotel room. Next up was a very cold transit at the snow-covered Denver airport, my first time here. I arrived in LAX after Cynthia and Judy. Derek (from Hope LA) and Chris (who just moved here from Dallas) was on hand to welcome us. We had Cambodian food before I checked into a neat hotel that Cynthia had booked. Sleepily I started on Urbana follow up work. Before long Chai came over and we went out for dinner. The rest of the night was just packing and updating my blog. I started missing the Urbana team.

In the morning Derek & Cynthia arrived to take me to LAX. Cynthia was there when my family first arrived, there when my wife & kids left and was here now. She's so sweet. Saying goodbye, I thought, "I'm really going to miss the Hope LA people".

My Wed was spent crossing time zones. On the Tokyo to Singapore leg, I was seated in front of a family of four. The younger child cried and kicked my seat intermittently. It was sure hard to sleep but it must have even harder for the parents.

After the transit and flying for what seemed like ages, I arrived in Singapore at 1:30 am Thursday. My dear wife was on hand to welcome me. (To think that she had to get up again later to send the twins to morning school.) Without complaint she drove us straight to Punggol. It sure felt strange to step into our flat after 6 weeks away.

Eventually I got up and did my laundry. I tried to clear e-mails but I couldn't send because I've exceeded my server space. Then I drove, on the right side, to fetch the kids for lunch. After a haircut, we were meant to swim and I haven't swam for 6 weeks. But the evening rain got very heavy. At least it wasn't like the biting St Louis winter. Dinner was that long awaited taste of curry. Then was that familiar humidity followed by that familiar jetlag. Think I managed 5 hours of sleep.

On Fri morn I mistakenly turned into oncoming traffic before quickly reversing. We dropped the twins off at school. On the way the car felt like it lacked power. Then I realised that I'd been driving a 2.2 litre car for 5 weeks and here was a 1.6 litre car. Also the California freeway speed limit was 105 km/h but here the limit at home is 90 km/h. Today was also my first day in office after 6 weeks. It was so good to see the staff team. But there were tonnes of follow up matters even as I tried to finalise this weekend's sermon. Later we did manage to swim but in cold water. That night I managed 6 hours of sleep before my system 'awakened'.

Day 4 Exhibition

2007-01-02T14:50:00.000+08:00

Sunday is the last day of convention. We have breakfast together. We take photos at the arc by the waterfront. 93 students leave their contacts with us. Its 6:30 pm and we tear down the booth and pack supplies into cars. We celebrate with dinner at TGIF. We bring stuff to our room for final debrief. We debrief to 2 am but watch the Times Square countdown on TV. I haven't seen TV and read newspapers for weeks.
We distribute what is left of 12 luggages of stuff, talk about Urbana 09 then check out. We sleep at 3:30 am

Day 3 Exhibition

2007-01-02T14:07:00.000+08:00

Sat is the third day. We have brunch planning session. JR needs to go back to Seattle first as we go to the booth. More walk up to our booth today. The additional signs about "churchplanting thru tentmaking" and listing of NA churches is working. Being the only organisation registered from Singapore helps too. We have dinner at the America Center and join the night session. Rick Warren spoke.

Day 2 Exhibition

2007-01-02T13:26:00.000+08:00

Fri is the second day. We approach more students. Some ladies come to our booth to get the grey bag. I lead a seminar with Dave Tucker on next steps after short-term missions. I have corn soy porridge dinner with 3 students from Seattle Pacific University. Later I join our team at the night session. Ray Bakke is impacting. Bono gives a video greeting. Cross movement does a concert. At 11 pm, we have dinner and debrief at Denny's. 54 students leave their contacts.

Day 1 Exhibition

2007-01-02T12:46:00.000+08:00

Thursday is the first day of the exhibition. We are a little excited yet nervous as first time exhibitors. The booth doors open at 1 pm. We approach scores of students browsing. Its energising. At 6:30 pm there is an announcement that the exhibition time extend by 30 minutes. So we miss dinner at convention. At the end almost 50 students give us their particulars. We go eat out and its cold and places here close early. We take the metro back.

405 at Urbana 06

2006-12-28T02:22:00.000+08:00

It's Wed at St Louis. At 9 am we load our exhibition gear in the cold mid-west weather onto our passenger van at the Marriott Airport. We stop to grab a quick breakfast at a fastfood place (Jack in the box). Then we're off to downtown and see the landmark 'Gate to the West'. Its just next to where we going - America's Center convention hall. We eventually locate the exhibitors' unloading bay. This place is totally huge. We wander across 18 monstrously huge aisles. We find booth 405.

Our Last Week

2006-12-23T22:42:00.000+08:00

The days are short and they are cold. When we got here it was quite hot but not anymore. We are adjusting to the climate. Then Deb said on Wednesday, "I'm beginning to get used to people here." I felt the same way too but this is our last week here. Here's the story of the final week.

Dinah and I wanted to go for a jog on Sat but it rained. This is the second time we have seen rain. It hardly rains here. Jason and Emmy came to take the twins to a birthday party for one of the church kids. Dinah and I speak with Dee from Seattle. Once Jason and Emmy brought the kids back, we had dinner out. It rained again.

Dinah preached at the pre-Christmas service. After service, I met with the church admin team leaders as Dinah conducted a training for service leaders. Then we met Chai and Crystal as usual. We led the DMM and at 8:45 pm we left for a quiet family dinner.

Mon started with a conference call with Dave Tucker from Michigan. We're doing a seminar together in Urbana '06. Then there was a call with David from Chicago. Next was time with Angela (Hope Irvine), Betty, Lee and Cynthia (all from LA) at Camarillo city out in Ventura county. This is north of LA county. We had a great time despite the 10 degree temperature. Later I had a conference call with Elaine from Singapore. But I had to pump the washroom later. Well this is something I won't miss.

Tue was another fun day. We drove 2 hours to San Diego. All of us enjoyed SeaWorld though San Diego seemed colder than LA. We hope to come again in future.

I had to rework my Urbana '06 seminar on Wed. Though it's been 5 weeks but four people in a studio is not conducive. Dan was playing his cello, Deb was reading whilst Dinah and I are working on our notebooks. Also this getting dark early, the dryness and the cold does require getting used to. Night time was our farewell dinner at Lee's place. The steam boat was nice. The church leaders gave very moving testimonies even about the twins. We've made some good friends out here.

Thur was the day Dinah and the twins hoped to fly back to join Christmas services in Singapore. Their wait listed seats just did not materialise into firm seats. We are thankful for confirmed seats on Christmas day itself. Today the twins were in a local school at Fullerton city. Lin got her principal and administrator to okay this. She said this has never been done before. Dinah and I could wrap up some work. There was corporate prayer then I had a conference call with our Urbana '06 team.

The twins were in school on Fri too. They were nervous yesterday but they were just fine today. For us there was follow up from last night's conference call. Then we spent time with the student leaders - Derek (from Singapore), Pao and Cynthia. Later we started preparing for Christmas eve service this Sunday.

Hang of Things

2006-12-16T23:34:00.000+08:00

It's been 4 weeks. We're beginning to get the hang of things. We're beginning to understand the road systems better. I'm getting lost less. I'm beginning to like not perspiring much. Here's an account of week four.

Sat was LA church leaders retreat. It was a day of dicussions on 2007 ministry. It was quite fun. Before we left, Jason and Emmy gave us home cooked food. Back at the studio we enjoyed their delicious cooking. Later William called from Vancouver. The rest of the evening was spent preparing for tomorrow.

Dinah led the Sunday service well before I preached. Next Dinah conducted a workshop for couples as I met with the kids ministry leaders. Suddenly Dan came running with a bleeding nose and we had forgotten to bring his nasal medication from Singapore. Thankfully the bleeding stopped after a while. Following was a session with Chai and Crystal before the church leadership meeting. We came out at 8:30 pm and Crystal has a warm dinner dinner prepared. So we ate together before leaving.

Mon started with Dan unwell. We prayed for him and decided to spend time at the nearby Knotts Berry Farm rather than going to San Diego.

Dan's temperature got higher on Tue. We had to cancel our appointment with a senior pastor of a local church here. We drove out to get porridge. Later Chris Ward called from Seattle. At night the kids joined Dinah as she taught the women's group while I taught the men's group.

Dan was better on Wed but I got a sore throat. The day started with a conference call with Peter and Linda from Leithbridge, Canada. Then JR called from Seattle as the twins enjoyed a DVD movie. At night we spent time with Hadi and Maria at their place till late.

We were meant to leave LA on Thur. Our leaders have asked us to extend. First Lee accompanied us to extend the car rental. The journey took 1 hour. The new company offered the exact same car - Chevy Malibu. We had lunch afterwards. After lunch the short journey back took a whole hour. We were exhausted but needed to go to care group in North Hills. On the way the GPS insisted we take a ramp onto a highway that was closed. It kept making us turn back to the same ramp. This 90 min journey made us very late. Eleven persons waited for us (if you don't count a bunch of toddlers and infants).

We had Friday to ourselves because Nancy couldn't make it. We drove out and had Carl's Junior burgers for the first time. Later we spent time with Jason and Emmy. We're beginning to feel that we're more oriented after 4 weeks here.

Rush Hour

2006-12-09T23:08:00.000+08:00

We've been here 3 weeks. More meet-ups and conference calls are still being added. The tough part isn't the discussions, planning, ministering or counselling. It's the commuting. LA traffic drains you. It ravenously consumes time each day. Here is the story of week 3.

We spent Sat with Annie before meeting Chai and Crystal. Then we go to their place to meet with the Unit Leaders. Then driving back I turn into the oncoming traffic (the first time). Praise God there were no cars coming behind me when I backed out.

The next day Dinah and I met Ronald, a member from Singapore church. After service Dinah and I did workshops for the parents and the worship team respectively. This was followed by the Care Leaders meeting. Later Dinah and I helped the leadership team. All this time Deb practices at the church piano. Finally we enjoy dinner with Cynthia. As we return we try out the replacement GPS. This one uses "yards" just when we were getting used to the previous one which spoke in terms of "feet".

On Mon we go off to Legoland. This resort is more for younger kids. At least the drive there was scenic.

Tue starts with a conference call with JR from Seattle. Next we meet with the Vineyard International missions director. In the evening Dan and I go to the men's group as (Deb and) Dinah teaches at the women's group.

On Wed, Vern calls from Seattle. We try to cook but our stove doesn't heat properly. Next we drive to Irvine to meet with an executive from Assembly of God South Cal. We drive again to meet Jason and Emmy Betts and then we join their care group.

We get stuck 1 hour in rush hour on Thur. Never go on freeways from 7-9 am! We are late for Sam and Sung. Later it was good to speak with Dee from Seattle. Next we drove almost 1 hour to the west side of LA to meet James and Christine. Then we drive to Irvine and got stuck in trafic for 2 hours. Never travel on the freeways between 5-7 pm! We spent some time with Al and Doreen.

Fri sees us have a quiet breakfast. Next we get the maintenance guy to replace the stove. Later Lee brought us shopping for gifts. Tonight is the first night that we are in. We recover from weeks of driving up and down this huge metropolis. Tomorrow marks 3 weeks of serving here.

Still Adjusting

2006-12-03T22:12:00.000+08:00

We've been here for two weeks. We're still adjusting to the size of this place. Metropolitan LA has 10 million people and California state has 36 million. There's just so much commuting here. We're adjusting to the meal portions and the cost of living here. Our skin is adjusting to the dryness. Ministry is picking up though. We're adjusting to the church. It's different in a smaller church. I'm also adjusting to pumping washrooms.

Here's an account of our week two. Dinah awoke on Sat dreaming about Singapore. Probably homesick? Bible Conference resumed in the morning of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. In between sessions I caught up with James Loke, Nancy from Thai care group and the youth members. The guys won the team building games. After the conference the GPS malfunctioned on the way back. We figured out the freeways but got lost on the roads nearer Arcadia. We finally get home and we pray for Dinah who is feeling sick from our late nights.

Sunday was cold. Dinah travelled with the twins to preach in Hope Irvine church. It was great to see a Latino convert in LA church. It was great to lunch with Hadi, Maria and their son Joshua. They are old friends from Solo, Indonesia. The rest of today was spent with university leaders, followed by the church leaders preparing for 2007 ministry.

This week, the church here blessed us with a two-day Disney passes. Needless to say, the twins enjoyed themselves at "The Happiest Place On Earth" - the tagline of Disneyland.

We met with more Hope LA church leaders one-on-one. We also spoke with external leaders. We spoke with the Cal state churchplanting leader for the Southern Baptists and met with an associate professor from Fuller Seminary.

Dinah and I joined the Thai care group on Thu morn. We also visited a church in LA city with Chai.

Friday evening, I preached at the students service as Dinah joined the young adult care group. When we got back, the toilet bowl is stuck again. It's back to more pumping.

Thanks for Praying

2006-11-25T21:38:00.000+08:00

We've just spent a week in LA. We arrived last Saturday, 18th Nov. The night before the flight Dinah slept only 1 hour due to packing. I slept a lot thanks to medication. Altogether we had 6 check-in luggages. Dinah and I slept quite a bit on the plane.

Chai and Cynthia picked us up at LAX. We rented a car and went off together with Chai's car. I drove on the left side for the first time with Cynthia beside. We made it to Acardia (city). This is in greater LA (metropolitan LA). On the way we saw that LA smog. We checked in to the studio apartment and slept at 10 pm after unpacking and takeaway dinner.

Thanks for praying. The throat infection and blocked nose that started on Wed night was virtually gone when I got up. There was more Sun drama. We awoke to a choked toilet bowl and there was no maintenance guy on duty. We asked front office for another studio but they asked us to move then but we had to go. In the morn I preached my first ever Thanksgiving Sunday sermon. There was ham and turkey Thanksgiving lunch followed by the Care Leaders meeting. Next Dinah and I met the pastor and wife followed by church leaders meeting. The twins enjoyed their books during these times. At 7:30 pm we left for dinner with Sam and Sung before coming back to pack and move to another studio. Lee and Cynthia was so kind to come help. At 12am as we were about to sleep, the toilet bowl here also flooded. I used the pump and finally went to bed at 3 am.

The four of us woke up late on Mon. It was a combination of jetlag, the full Sunday and just general exhaustion. The first thing was to get the maintenance guy to fix the toilet. Cynthia offered to come help with grocery shopping and to rent a cello for Dan. At night we answered e-mails and had Skype conversations to tie up this weekend's LA Bible Conference.

Tuesday was our off day spent at Universal Studios. Just before we left, I realised the digicam was in Singapore. We got a use-and-throw camera. After all this was the twin's first time here. They wanted to go for themed rides (roller coaster) but Dinah and I said "Woah". We settled for shows and tours instead. We had a good time. Today we also experienced the infamous LA traffic.

On Wednesday we used the coin-operated washing machine and dryer. Our first appointment was with Betty. She showed us nearby shopping and dining places. We went to her place as she insisted to loan us her printer. After saying thanks we took the long drive to Irvine (city) to meet Albert, Doreen and family. Pre-holiday traffic isn't fun. People here sure spend a lot of time commuting. But we did get to taste a 25 pound turkey. The twins enjoyed playing with Al's younger kids. This was our first Thanksgiving experience.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. Chai and the boys visited in the morning with pastry. They are thoughtful. Then David called from Chicago and we had a good chat. Dinah and I spent this holiday afternoon preparing for the weekend Bible conference and preaching. Most places were closed. We found a place for a quiet dinner before meeting James and Christine. Cynthia offered to take the twins to check out Christmas lights. Like the last few nights, it took some time in bed before we actually slept. Our bodies are still adjusting.

I drove in circles on Friday before meeting Andrew. Then our next appointment with the college leaders was postponed. It worked out well as I revamp tonight's lesson. The twins were out with Cynthia for a movie. In the evening we joined all these folks who signed up for Bible Conference on Thanksgiving weekend. It was good to see Terry who's on transit to Singapore. Later on our way home, Daniel asked me why this church has so many meetings. Perhaps this has something to do with having Singapore guest speakers here?

Teaming with Strangers

2006-10-22T15:33:00.000+08:00

Monday, 23rd October marks our second-ever Team Leaders Gathering. Our theme is Team Building.

We will start with the premise that positive team experiences are not common. There are many kinds of challenges to volunteer team building. There is mangled communication, duplication of effort, missed opportunities and even finger pointing. Volunteers lack availability, are free at different times or their coaches don’t release them. Volunteers who have availability may not serve with excellence. Some send substitutes, come late for duty or leave early from meetings. They feel your thing takes them away from their ‘real ministry’.

Then we serve across the church with people from various services, people-groups and life stations. This is lateral rather than vertical ministry. We touched on 'Lateral Leadership' at our first-ever Team Leaders Gathering on 14th March this year. Here's a photo of that event.

How do we team with lateral volunteers? It's almost like teaming with strangers. It's much easier to work alone. It's more straightforward to serve in a homogeneous grouping. But God in His wisdom puts us in diverse teams to accomplish the Great Commission. No more lone rangers!

So what can you expect tomorrow night? You can look forward to positive interaction. Because you need contact with peers to generate synergy and share encouragement. Isolation slows momentum.

You can look forward to a team building message by me. There will also be a slide show, a team quiz and a surprise element. It's going to be the eve of a holiday so I sure hope it's going to be a lot of fun. Till then...

Happy Anniversary Part II

2006-09-18T21:19:00.000+08:00

Here are more posts on our 15th anniversary celebrations...

i'm so excited for hope church singapore fifteenth anniversary !
i'm really praying hard that my group & i have visitors ! lets not waste such a great opportunity to invite & through this event , i dare say that there's alot of lives that God gonna touch & changed . if you wanna see your family & friend's life being transformed , invite them ! i'm praying for visitors ! GOD SEE MY HEART ! =D you know who i wanna see coming , i shan't announce here =D
http://into-your-presence.blogspot.com/2006/09/alot-has-been-going-through-my-mind.html

happy 15th birthday hope singapore!!
i totally love you, my dear church. the place where i grew the most, who i met amazing people.

i thank God for everyone who is involved in transforming and impacting lives.
i salute you, the servants of God :)

what a busy anniversary week! choir practices nearly everyday till late and coping with my never ending cough. (it's healed today, praise God!)

expo service was great. i enjoyed praising and worshipping the Lord on stage with all who love praising and worshipping Him again and again. you can feel a surge of joy overflowing in and through you.

it was a great exposure and experience. standing in front of 3,600 people, playing a part in everything.

it was wow-ed. and i definitely love the lightbulbs history maker!! :))

i wana affirm people who spent their sleepless night for the lightbulbs. it's gorgeous even though some technical faults. God saw your hearts & diligence! thank God for all your willingness.
http://thehugfrombehind.blogspot.com/2006/09/happy-birthday-hope-singapore.html

His Spirit in me: a life transforming story
Yesterday saw the 15th anniversary of HOPE Church Singapore, since its inception in 1991, with just 5 members in the midst. Since then, the church has grown in membership and strength to a number of nearly 3000, planted numerous churches all over the world, changed tonnes of lives, one of those changed life is me. It's hard to imagine: a church that started when I was primary one, when I did not think that I would become a religious person or at least convert myself into another religion, and now I'm serving in that church.

It's really hard to imagine though, think only God can see that at the time when I was running around, running my own life, running my own business, thinking that I run the world. It used to be a time of perceived fulfillments and purposes, when I thought that my purposes in life seems to be .... I dun know what. I thought it may be the things which I want to do in life, that is the purpose of my life. I looked around, looked at all the girls, thinking maybe one of these girls is the purpose of my life. There was a lot of times when I thought I know how to live life to the full... yeah right. What a lot of people, or even myself did not know is that many times when I was alone, my heart was desolate, I didn't know what I was doing, though I thought I knew. And I was still running around. I didn't believe that any god can do anything, in the first place, there was a lot of doubts here and there. How do you know the thing that you are worshipping is really there, is really real? I tried to make sense of the rituals we have at home, till I was tired of it, but I did not realise. I tried to keep faith in the Bugis Guan Yin temple, but heck, why do I have to travel so far everytime I wanna pray to a goddess or whatever statue? I wanted to go to China, to Pu Tuo Island just south of Shanghai, but heck, why do people have to travel all the way there to pray?

Then along came the tertiary ministry of HOPE Church Singapore. Along came a bunch of people... who were organising a matriculation event for uni freshmen. To make the long story short (for those who are interested, you can browse through my 240 plus previous posts to get a better idea of what happened), this bunch of people eventually became the core of my spiritual family in HOPE Church Singapore. They brought me to come to know God. And after me, I began to see a new bunch of new believers together with me as well, such as Calyn, Kaili, HongTao, Yishyan, Zhenzhu, Yuan Tao, John, Jiahao, Xingchong, Yanteng, seeing them growing together, as I grow along with God. Today, I have grown to be a stronger believer in HOPE, taking care of Yuan Tao together with Qiaoping and Shuyi. I read the blogs of my brothers and sisters and I must say that I was very encouraged by God's power in their lives. Behind every faces in the ministry is a story of their own lifes, tells the story of God in their lifes. People may not see, people may not even wanna care, but behind each and every smiles is a story of how God transforms lifes to the better. The glares of all these eyes tell the story of this HOPE Church, tell the story of how people in this family struggled and pulled through till this day.

I thank God for these people in my life. I thank God for Claramae and Robert and Qiaoping for making the effort to bring me to know God, though ironically two of them were not around on that fateful day. I thank God for the caregroup, past and present for the wonderful few months I have had and for the wonderful months and years ahead. I thank God for Benaiah, my shepherd for his willingness to take care of me. I thank God for what You have done in my life, and other people's life. I thank God for Jesus. I thank God for the HOPE movement. Amen.
http://naynauh.blogspot.com/2006/09/his-spirit-in-me-life-transforming.html

Hope Church Singapore 15th Anniversary Celebration at Singapore Expo Hall 2, 16th September 2006
From a group of 5 young people, a church called Hope of God Singapore was thus born in 1991. 15 years later, now known as Hope Church Singapore, we are a vibrant church of 3,000 over history makers committed to fulfilling the Great Commission in their lifetime by building strong and biblical people to plant strong and biblical churches in Singapore and all over the world !
http://ng5a1.multiply.com/photos/album/22

It has been a long time...
It has been a long time since I last wrote on my blog. Since I started work, life has been quite intense. I am currently going through a sharp learning curve in my work. Yesterday is Hope Church Singapore's 15th anniversary. Work and choir practices took up a large portion of my time last week and I was glad that the celebration service ended. We had a great celebration at Singapore Expo. I was part of the 100-people choir. I enjoyed the moment on stage. To see all on the floor worshipping God brought great joy to my heart that all the hard work was worthwhile.

I was reminded of these verses from 2 Cor. 4:16-18 recently.
"Therefore we don't lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light & momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

I thank God for what He has done in my life all these years. There are many more great years ahead ;-)
http://deelohyh.blogspot.com/2006/09/it-has-been-long-time.html

History Maker
it was a leisure sunday. It kinda feels wierd that there's no regular sun service to attend coz. Sun has always been Church Day for me. So, spend some time with my family and we went to JB in the afternoon.

Sat was Church 15th Anniversary Celebrations. It was great to be able to be involved in choir and at the same time, got to know more people. As in most events, the most memorable time is usually the preparation time while the most satisfying time is when you see the end result (that is .. the actual day). That's when u know that all the hard work pays off.

It has been fun with all the choir people from various congregations coming together week after week for practices. The laughters from all the warm-up sessions, learning of the actions etc. Hope we will have more opportunities to perform together.

Church Anniversary Celebration
how nice if we have 50,000 people coming for our service. Can u imagine the number of people that will come to know Christ? Wow .. that will be tremendous.

I've invited afew friends to come, including mom. Mabel say she'll ask MJ. Hopefully they can all make it coz. that will mean alot to me. It's not that i want them to come and see me sing but hopefully, they will be touched by God through the service.
enjoyed all the practices so far and it's great to see everyone from various congregations coming together. I particularly like the young ones from the youth service. They are so cute and adorable.One of them actually looks like my cousin. Alot of time & effort has been put in by various groups and ministries. From musicians to the dancers, MM team etc. And not forgetting from our choir side, there's HJ, Rachael etc who led us week after week. And now, there's Tricia who's busy with our costumes.

Anyway, hope that Cheryl (Ng), my dear friend & shepherd will be able to come too. She's actually on maternity leave but mentioned last week that she may be able to come. That will be great.

Talk abt it, i've not passed the gift to the newly promoted parents. Anyway, i hve plans to visit her this sun. So maybe on sun then.

After this busy period of practice for church anniversary, i wonder what's next in the pipeline? Christmas sevice prep? Anyway not sure abt others but for me, i've always been use to being busy. Usually feels weird when the momentum slows down. It feels as if something is amiss…
http://wendtan.blogspot.com/2006/09/church-anniversary-celebration.html

Yesterday's 15th Anniversary for Hope Singapore.
Simply wonderful :) Reminded me the power and impact of individual life's story... eveyone has a story to tell and that story can change another person if we want... everyone will have trials of their own and how they overcome it. Not one on earth has no trials. Even the rich, they do. Today God reminded me again the power of everyone's story... to touch, to restore, to empower, to add courage and hope...
http://beautifulord.blogspot.com/2006_09_17_beautifulord_archive.html

Happy 15th anniversary ! Hope Church Singapore!!
history makers celebrated with a bang at expo! love the praise n worship songs and everyone dressed to their best! enjoyed the celebration loads and it continued with the coach to town...
http://heavenlyzenith.blogspot.com/2006/09/historymaker.html

Happy Anniversary

2006-09-17T22:07:00.000+08:00

We celebrated our 15th Church Anniversary yesterday. It was an occasion that left me humbled, proud, happy & wet-eyed all at the same time. There was a spontaneous outburst of joy throughout at Hall 2. This morning I bumped into three members who were still in high spirits. I wished them a 'Happy Anniversary' and was curious about how other members felt about our birthday party. So I did a simple google search and found a few posts.

Here is what I found and by no means is this comprehensive. Remember that I read the articles about our anniversary and not their entire blogs so I'm unable to endorse all articles in these blogs. I must warn you that what you are about to read contains (unedited) standard English, short form, sms language and Singlish. But it is heartfelt though. Also, this listing is in no particular order.

This Is My Life
Our church Hope Church Singapore will be celebrating our 15th anniversary this Saturday. I was gutted that I wouldn't be able to attend as I would be on duty at the IMF and World Bank meetings. Still, as we stand on the threshold of a 15-year milestone, I think it's a good time to take stock of my life since I took the epoch-making (haha!) step to become what I would previously term "a certified nutcase" - becoming a Christian...
http://peishanyeo.blogspot.com/

HAPPY 15TH ANNIVERSARY TO HOPE SINGAPORE!!!
yest was my church's 15th anniversary... thank God for blessing Hope Singapore for the past 15 years n i know He'll continue to bless us for the next 15, 30 or even 100 years! Lord, i pray tt U'll continue to grow us n add to our numbers!

yest was really veri special n memorable... my 1st time experiencing such a big church gathering at expo n watching thousands of pple ard me praising n worshipping God... 1st time singing Mandarin P&W song... 1st time listening to an English sermon being translated into Mandarin... 1st time seeing Joyce dance! she danced veri well even though she fell... no worries sis, u did a great job!

after the whole thing i was telling huijun tt having such a big event is ok if it's done once a year... if every sat is lidat i can't take it cos listening to both English n Mandarin during service abit messy n i couldn't really concentrate...

but overall it was really great! Pastor Jeff was veri enthu n Pastor Ben delivered a veri powerful sermon... deco did a veri good job in lighting up the words "History Maker" n filling up the whole place wif balloons... veri pretty! the singers n dancers n musicians performed veri well! the videos were done veri well! even the goodie bag is veri cute... i feel veri glad to haf come to noe Christ thru Hope! :)
http://samheart.blogspot.com/2006/09/happy-15th-anniversary-to-hope.html

A Few Good Men and the rest is History
Makers' was the theme of the 15th Anniversary of Hope Church. A few good men, fresh grads from the land of Oz, returned to Singapore with a vision to plant a church.

This week end, 15 years later, we witnessed how that celebration had to take place in the Expo, because our own sanctuary can not hold the complete congregation in one single service.

It reminds me again of how simple the Great Commission is, when only we would obey and trust God for the outcome and it only needs : ... a few good men (and women) who are willing to fulfill what is closest to God's heart.

History Makers...
Among the 3,000 men congregation, was also the youngest attendant at less than one month! Zoe enjoyed her first time at a church celebration. Even the loud worship music did not bother her. She was either amuzingly moving in her prem, sleeping or being fed by mum in the hall.

After the service we joined our ex care group for a great tasting Vietnamese dinner. At the end, Zoe became a bit impatient, her face turned red and that was the signal for dad to take her out for a diaper change. She was so kind to us to let us enjoy the dinner in length that immediately after the change, her face kept red as now was the sign for mum to feed her again. Actually, quite easy those infants: sleep, feed, cry and then there are two options: either she is hungry or needs a clean up!
http://janjourney.blogspot.com/

Hope Church Singapore 15th Anniversary
It was a great celebration! =)) God will definitely move in greater greater ways in the world! So great until it's unbelievably believable.

Sidenote: wah! EXPO so big! need to take alot of time to run from one end to another, because there are so many things happening at the same time, then you can't even hear each other on the fone and everybody would be too busy to notice their hp buzzing with msgs. whoo~ me exercised ALOT today, now so suan, next time must remeber to do warm ups before decor. Other than that, now both my toes are blistered. *pain* and i've got one finger blistered too, and my fingers all got tiny tiny skin tearing out...again *pain*. Further, thank God for the decor team and all other willing volunteers, you guys really have a super servanthood spirit. All the volunteers (sun-tanning, balloon tieing, cutting, wrapping packing etc.), must have been taxing for you all- but we made it! and we've done to our best. yipee =))
http://sopravvier.blogspot.com/2006/09/hope-church-singapore-15th-anniversary.html

on the big dae of anniversary..
went to expo at 1030 liddat den did the balloons decoration for the path way n stairs sits... we use helium to blow balloons.. hmmm as wad i've saw n done on tt dae, i can sae tt the balloons is definitely more den 3hundreds in total.. isnt is great to see the holy place be filled up wif balloons deco to lighten up the atmosphere? i think is real cool!!!!! wheeeee.. i love it.. alot of deco ppl came to do the balloons.. veri veri soon after tt, the door was open for the time tunnel.. . hmm.. i din get the chance to walk in it.. nvm la.. is still good serving!!! =D after the tunnel, was the celebation!! the dance came 1st n worship, praise, video, n so on n so on..!! pastor Ben preached.. it was wonderful.. is abt generation to generation.. din take photos on tt dae big BUT the pictures of winning the whole world is all in my MIND N HEART!! amen.. it is reali reali a veri amazing n WONDERFUL dae praising God in the anniversary dae of Hope Church Singapore!!
http://incompleteme.blogspot.com/2006/09/on-big-dae-of-anniversary.html

Church Anniversary
Yes... Thoroughly enjoyed the celebration!! Love the stage decor, love the 100-men choir, love the sight of "rally" that is really happening in Hope Church Singapore!!!

It is such rare occassion where the whole church gathers!!!
http://willie-whalie.blogspot.com/

Hope Church (S) anniversary
Yesterday my church celebrated their 15th anniversary at Singapore Expo, Hall 2. I reached there around 1020am in the morning, because need to help up in the decor, but Joe said enough people already and if i went to help, i will smell smelly. In the end, I did full time usher the whole day. :)
http://introextrovert1.multiply.com/journal/item/18

16 September 06
I just came back from Singapore Expo hall2. Its really a long trip there. First I started from boon lay mrt after work then to expo then from expo to yew tee. It's really great to see all the people there giving their time to Jesus though! The dancers practiced hard at the foyer, the 100 people choir were there, many many were there for the deco & time tunnel and I was moved at the many people willing to do the minor jobs such as preparing goodie bag & bulletins etc. Awesome bunch of people!

Spent some time interceding for anniversary tmr. The place is rather huge, it after the event was over. One thing I prayed just now is that 15 years is not the end & we're not celebrating because we just hit 15 a rounder no, but since its rounder let's make it a better year to start off totally anew. It's a brand new beginning. A beginning for the next 15 years, a beginning to grow from glory to glory.
http://burdenforpeople.blogspot.com/2006/09/i-just-came-back-from-singapore-expo.html

HAPPY BIRHTDAY HOPE SINGAPORE!!
LEMME SING U A HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG~!
happy birthday to u,
happy birthday to you,
happy birthday to HOPE singapore,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU~!

okok..tell you about wad happened today..its my church 15th anniversary!! ya..then as everyone knows (or be told now), i reaccepted christ 3 weeks ago..ya.. then i wan to bring ppl in ma.. i juz go in church, I FELT HIS GREATNESS! I FELT HIS MIRACLES! I FELT HIS GRACE!!!! HALLELUYAH~!papa rocks...he rocks the whole world..yes..he's the world..amen? AMEN!!

ya..then today i brought nigel wid mi!!! (actually its him and barry ders..but his father dun let..rarhrarh.. *oOps*) ya..then at first i met him at je..then all my fwens dere..he was like asking,"eh, y all ppl so warm der?" then i said,"sure lah..our church is like a big big big big FAMILY with PAPA!!!" ..yeah..i felt that he was feeling quite good about this..

then on the way he was very warmly welcomed by us..yeah..he felt good. THEN!!THE EVENT STARTED!!! yeah..at first nigel was feeling bored.. and when i asked him to convert, he was like i dun wan..yeah..dun force him rite..GOD PLS SHOW HIM UR MIRACLES!yeah..but after tt he started asking things about christ, i was elated to answer his questions la..THX GOD FOR LETTING MI BRING NIGEL IN!! then at the last part of it, there was a part when new believers who wan to accept christ to go in front of the stage to accept christ..i asked him. he said he duno..i guess he wasn't prepared. yeah..then i asked god, "pls let nigel accept u!" then god said "the time has yet to come, but it will come in due time."
NIGEL I HAVE FAITH IN YOU!!!
http://lightistrue.blogspot.com/2006/09/happy-birhtday-hope-singaporelemme.html

Saturday, 16 September 2006
Woa...I've actually never experienced this Hope Church Singapore 15th anniversary. Pastors from Hope churches came to Singapore Expo to celebrate this anniversary. Hope church started since 1991, and started with only 5 people. Visit this blog, he is one of them who build up the church from 5 people to churches all over the world: http://benkclee.blogspot.com

Hope Church is now all over the world, including Singapore, Thailand, Africa, Europe...
http://uniqueness1993305.blogspot.com/2006/09/woa.html

2006/09/16
ahwell. expo hall 3 ((:

haha i like the anniversary booklet! :D there's this strap i like to wear around my neck, and i don't care that it makes me look like a retard. i like the bag too. no matter how many times we changed seats, i always ended up with black. x)

anniversary celebration was great today, i don't really know how to describe/ explain it. although it was cold haha.

happy birthday hope church singapore! HISTORY MAKERS
http://-found.blogspot.com/2006/09/i-wish-that-you-would-bring-back-all.html

Sunday, September 17, 2006
.... -Next I would like to talk about deco =] on fri and sat, we were rushing for deco like siao and all the deco ppl will say AMEN! really very busy + tired, however it was great to do something in Gods house =] we really enjoyed ourselves and I’m sure everyone become closer too =] really want to thank God for my deco leader MS Faith Yiyo (nickname: starfish) without her is like without a guide in deco thanks for her that make the anniversary a successful one for deco and the rest of the deco group like the adult and tertiary ppl without them the tunnel will be just a empty one = beco I saw the before and after tunnel =] DECO PPL you all rock =]

-now let’s talk about my HOPE CHURCH anniversary celebration=] it was so cool =] my first time going to expo =] going to hall2 from MRT it was really a long trip becoz hall6 is the nearest to the MRT and hall 2 is furthers I love to see the place where it’s filled with ppl becoz you can see how God has worked in this church =] like wow so many ppl and I got to know when our church started too. It was on Feb 17 1991 =] not only that all the leaders were dressed up, they are so beautiful =] really esp my idol, PS Dinah she looks gorgeous =] from now to the next 15 years I want to see how God moves in this church =] Happy Birthday HOPE CHURCH SINGAPORE =]
http://nothingexcepthim.blogspot.com/2006/09/so-sad-i-don-know-what-i-pressed-then.html

Writer Fatigue?

2006-08-25T21:00:00.000+08:00

My last post was towards the end of June. That means its been 2 months that I've not updated my blog. Well I did find two unfinished articles in July that I started on. Can almost hear someone referring to my sermon on procrastination or that sermon about not finishing what you start. I 'hate' it when they use my preaching against me.

The last post also means that its been 1 year that I've been blogging. Hong Teck initiated the idea and he helped me get started. Thanks buddy. On average I may have managed 3 posts per month. That probably means almost 40 articles so far.

Do I attribute my non-writing over these two months to increasing workload? Is it due to the fact that it is hard to churn out good articles week after week? The most likely diagnosis is writer fatigue.

Here's what I mean. Cara, my colleague just commented last week on the sheer number of forewords I need to write. And that's just the forewords. You don't want to know about the other things.

Do let me recover from this bout of writer fatigue. This lull will allow me some time to ponder the focus of my blog. Do I write about my adventures or do I post articles? Till then...

Lessons from holidays

2006-06-24T21:43:00.000+08:00

We just came back from our holiday. This trip was special also because my brother was getting married. The lessons I learnt from this vacation can be spelt R-E-S-T.

Holidays have RHYTHM. There's a cycle to it. The work day before we go off and the first day we are back at work are often traumatic. Also after a holiday we can get back into the thick of action in an instant but it takes time to get into the holiday swing. Dinah and I couldn't sleep well the first three nights of the holiday.

Rhythm includes down times. On Monday we checked out of a chalet to wait for our taxi back to the city. We called the driver after waiting half-hour. He said to wait another hour. After another hour, we called but there was no signal. He finally arrived over 2 and half hours after the agreed time. He apologised but it was so hard to speak on the trip down. We got to my parent’s place at 3:30 pm for lunch. Later my brother drove us to the hotel. The system hung as we checked in. That day was unforgettable.

Holidays have ENJOYMENT. I enjoy our annual getaway because I look forward to catching up with family. My parents, my brothers and sister look forward to our annual pilgrimage. We enjoy each other's company much more than when we were kids.

Our twins look forward to seeing their cousins whom they meet once a year. They play so well together. Last year the twins joined this party of a friend of their cousin. This year we were back at about the same time so the twins were at the same birthday party as last year.

We also enjoy the company of my in-laws. My siblings have incredible spouses. May's husband, Johnson takes us for seafood each time we're back. Stan's wife, Anthea booked the chalets this time. She even packed groceries for the cabin. We are so happy because their first child arrives this September. We got them a nice stroller for their baby. We finally met Wendy, the latest addition to our family. Harry’s a fortunate guy.

The whole family enjoyed many extended dinners with home-cooked dishes and plenty of fresh fruits followed by wedding arrangements. I definitely had too many mangoes from my parent's garden. One night we had food tasting for the dishes before the wedding banquet. We enjoyed two seafood dinners. Dinah loved the baby lobsters. My sister brought us for local beef noodles. Dinah and I spent an evening with Stan, Anthea, May and Johnson as Harry met his in-laws with my parents. Most of our lunches were with my parents at their home. One exception was on Sunday when we lunched with old friends Chiew Bong and Dora.

Harry’s wedding banquet was very grand complete with live performers. I met once again with long lost cousins, relatives and friends. My old friend Martin came with his parents.

Holidays involve SLOWING. Modern living include overload, but we can't always live in overload. I need sanity breaks. Up in the highlands, both our phones had no signal. This was a good thing. We experienced unhurried reading. I prepared simple breakfasts.

In the day we explored nature trails. Deb picked acorns from oak trees and wild mangosteens from the cloud forest. We strolled around the cool and misty botanical garden.

At the cabin, we enjoyed devotion times by the verandah with the sounds of the running stream and birds chirping. Later at the hotel, we enjoyed devotions at the room balcony. The scenery of the blue sea, islands in the background and the landscaped pool by twilight was just majestic.

Holidays are also THERAPEUTIC. They soothe the soul. We savoured the weather at the National Park. I just love the view of Mt Kinabalu. This is the tallest in South East Asia at over 4,000 metres. I've been here several times and climbed the peak once but its Dinah and the kids' first time. (Here's a photo) The 2-storey chalet we had was well equipped. We drifted off to sleep to the sound of crickets accompanied by croaking.

We spent one night at Poring. It’s the first time for Dinah and the twins here. It’s a natural hot spring where the water is supposed to have cleansing properties. The Canopy Trail was a tough climb followed by three linked-bridges that joined very high trees in the rainforest. It was scary but Dan loved it. We trekked to a water fall where we sat around throwing smooth stones into the clear water.

In the city we made full use of the hotel's Olympic-size pool. It was a beautiful hotel. In the room, the kids challenged us in board games. It must have been therapeutic for the kids to beat us.

On the last day, we were sad to leave. We miss our family already. But we are thankful for the time we had and look forward to next year. We love our annual North Borneo escapes.

2½ weeks

2006-06-18T20:56:00.000+08:00

You would have noticed no recent postings. That's because we have been away. I'll write about the vacation soon. Let me start with the 2½ weeks before that.

One highlight is lunch with Steve and Judi Lane. They are a couple who has been with our Sunday service and small group for the last 3 months. This is a great English couple. Dinah and I enjoy a good time getting to know the Lanes before they return home. Another memorable lunch is with Jo who's back on vacation.

A second highlight is our family excursion across the causeway. We spend the day here as Dinah conducts a camp workshop. We mingle with people till late. Thanks to the slight jam as well we sleep very late that Sunday.

Then we have the guys from our Mandarin service at our home. Geno from Filipino service also joins in. In between all these happenings is the writing of position papers, forewords, preparations for leadership lessons, chapters for our all-new Team Ministry course, and planning for the North American pastors retreat and the convention after that.

The highlight for the twins must surely be 29th May, the first day of school holidays. Dinah and I get to catch the Over the Hedge animation movie with them. We also get to hang out with our neighbours. Simon gets to help us with this recalcitrant light bulb at our apartment. My wife gets the excitement of organising us for the family vacation...

A family divided

2006-06-05T21:08:00.000+08:00

The school holidays are here. The first Friday (2nd Jun 2006) is our first-ever staff Family Day. Staff spouses and kids are all invited. Set in Sentosa, it is a bright hot day with no cloud cover.

Today sees a family divided. Dinah is in the yellow team, Dan is in red, Deb is in blue and I am in green. Since Thursday the Blue team has been declaring all over the office that they rule. Red team respond by declaring that red is the colour of victory. Yellow and Green teams exercise sober-mindedness and Spirit-controlled demeanour.

Family Day starts with team joke telling. Next is the guess this thing you-never-knew-about game. One particular revelation almost knocks us over. When we recover, it's time for morning tea. Then its team games. The first few are typical tele-match type games. But in the hot sun.

Then comes the water bomb game. Several start releasing bombs on their supervisors, colleagues and event organisers. For about 5 minutes all hell breaks loose. Somehow I manage to side step the aggressors. After the wet and wild episode comes the frog game. Teams are to grab a frog and have team members kiss it. One female colleague kisses a frog thrice. She seems disappointed it does not turn into a prince.

Somehow Wan Leng and Pastor Lawrence are not competitive and agressive as before. Have they mellowed? Well they are probably rebranding themselves. They have a successor. A normally gentle staff member turns totally competitive. Her gentleness is nowhere to be seen as she releases water bombs with a fury not seen before.

Its so good to see staff playing together and letting their hair down. In the end, green team wins by a very large margin. Overall team scores were 88, 65, 59 and 47. But we keep a magnaminous spirit. We remember we're Christians.

Outpouring

2006-05-28T23:21:00.000+08:00

I look forward to next weekend. It’s Pentecost Sunday.

This year is special. This is the centenary of the Azusa Street revival. This was a glorious outpouring of the Holy Spirit that began in Los Angeles, California in 1906. This outpouring rocked the world. Many call this the second Pentecost.

In the days of old, God poured out His Spirit on selected individuals for specific purposes. But God promised He will pour His Spirit on all His people. This is a prophecy of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost on every Christ follower. Just fifty days after the resurrection, God’s action through the Holy Spirit erupted on Pentecost. This is one of the most important spiritual experiences in the life of a Christ follower.

Scriptures tell us that the Christian today shall encounter the presence of the same Spirit who came with power at Pentecost and fanned the message of Christ into a flame. God not only wants us to have the Holy Spirit living inside of us, He wants to completely saturate, overflow and baptise us with His Spirit. Out of our innermost being will flow rivers of living water. Life giving! Endless! Pure! Our salvation and eternity doesn’t depend on us having the baptism in the Holy Spirit. But without it, it’s our big loss. We miss out on a dynamic, powerful Christian life!

Before I was baptised in the Spirit, I feared witnessing. But I desired the roaring fire of the full power of the Spirit instead of glowing embers. I longed to live this life. I am grateful to be taught the complete picture about the Holy Spirit from Scripture. When I got baptised in the Spirit, the words of a language I don't know came into my lips. Thank God for the release in prayer and the praise in tongues. I became bolder in witnessing.

Being baptised in the Spirit is to receive God's enpowerment to witness. It is a personal experience of the divine. Praying in tongues as enabled by the Spirit is the initial physical sign of being baptised in the Spirit. Baptism in the Spirit is a one time occurrence but being filled with the Spirit is not a one time experience. If you have been baptised in the Spirit but your relationship with God seems stagnant, ask God to give you a fresh filling of the Spirit. Be continuously filled with God’s Spirit.

If you haven’t been baptised, what does it take to experience the overflowing fullness of God? Jesus said just “Ask.” Believe God is going to do it. Believe you will receive it the moment leaders lay hands on you. Expect to speak in tongues. Receive this release in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit loves to come and take truth about Jesus and turn it into an experience of Jesus.

I encourage you to honour the Holy Spirit. Be hungry for more of Him. Pray for an outpouring of the Spirit. This is the key to an effective life. May Pentecost happen in your life and in your family.

What a month

2006-05-21T22:05:00.000+08:00

It's been four weeks since I last wrote about my world. Here is an update of what's been happening from 24 Apr to 21 May. In that month were two long weekends, our kids prepared for, sat for and ended their mid-year exams and much more.

There were celebrations. It was a joy to conduct Frank and Lyn's wedding. It was on the day of General Elections. We also celebrated the first milestone with our campaign team and had appreciation time with our Competency task force.

There were interactions. Dinah and I were glad to catch up with our friend Tonje from Norway. She was a church intern in 2000. It was good to catch up with old friends and meet new ones at the AGM of the Evangelical Fellowship of Singapore. It was good to meet up with family and young adult guy leaders at our place.

There was newness. I joined Mandarin service at the new venue which is normally a karaoke joint. A place where people slaughter songs is now a place where we offer songs to God. Then we organised a special event to prepare people for the Da Vinci Code movie. It was standing room only.

The highlight of the month was probably our first men's conference. The fact that the guys got together was already good. The all-male worship was powerful and the covenant was meaningful. The entire atmosphere was rich and very masculine. What a month.

Truth is stranger than fiction

2006-05-14T21:44:00.000+08:00

Several staff and leaders have been getting prepared to respond to the upcoming Da Vinci Code (DVC) movie. Tze Wei and I spent Saturday finalising material for our Monday night seminar.

Movies have such a powerful influence on our society that many people's views of reality and morality are shaped largely through their entertainment choices. 'The Last Temptation of Christ' was a controversial movie. The DVC is more controversial. Many are getting ready to see this one.

The DVC is based on Dan Brown's best selling mystery novel. The novel is well-written. It's an entertaining, exciting and page-turning thriller. He crosses over into multiple genres - suspense, fiction and religious.

Although a work of fiction the book claims to be meticulously researched and goes to great lengths to give the impression that it is based on fact. It is not clear how many of the acknowledgements in the book are credible. For example, Project Gutenberg is an online library of public domain texts. It may mean no more than that he used their facilities and they did nothing special to assist his research. Then the hero in the novel is a 'renowned Harvard symbologist'. Harvard has no department of symbology.

The author also uses occult, feminist and Gnostic fantasy. Some titles in his bibliography represent New Age speculation that run counter to history. Historians and scholars do not take these works seriously. Yes he tries to use the reputation of brilliant men such Leonardo Da Vinci to help make its case that historic Christianity is a pack of falsehoods. Using a painting as a historical record?

Although unoriginal in its allegations, the story proves misguided theories don't fade away. It is imaginative fiction combining half-truths, distortions and historical inaccuracies. It misrepresents some currently popular but silly ideas of the life and teachings of Christ. It is ignorance at best and falsehood at worst. It's a grand conspiracy story. In the conspiracy is heresy. Heretical conspiracy disguised as a suspense novel.

Does anyone take these ideas seriously? Would anyone pay money to read this? About 40 million people around the world! Brown has a way of making the novel's theories about Christ and the early church seem credible. So why do people want to believe or are at least open to the bizarre claims?

Well the story appeals to modern secular sensibilities. It corresponds with what people want to believe. We desire a Jesus who is more like us. This is a world that rejects absolute truth and reconstructs truth.

Another well known feature of today's culture is that many can't tell fact from fiction. Some who believe in the speculative theories of the DVC will hold on to them whatever the evidence. Truth is stranger than fiction.

There is also a need to feed the public taste for conspiracy. I've read that the way to increase any blog readership is to be controversial. Conspiracy is always controversial.

It doesn't help that many Christians are not aware of the church's history. We need to learn our story.

Beneath the surface, our culture is fascinated with spiritual topics. From the 'Gospel of Judas' to DVC, our culture is responding to God-shaped vacuum in our hearts.

Nobody needs to burn books or do loud protests outside cinemas. (Negative publicity only helps the movie). This cinematic event is an exciting opportunity to clarify real history. Talk to people the truth of historic Christianity. Turn an anti-Christian story into an opportunity to some helpful conversations.

"Rather than protesting the DVC, why not invite people to read a better book - the Book that tells the dramatic story of God who sent His son, who lived a perfect life, died on the cross and who rose again to break a curse, not a code." Ed Stetzer

Here's the first step. Be equipped to know the truth so we can proclaim it clearly and graciously. Know the truth. That's why we're having tomorrow's seminar.

Second, don't be afraid to ask our friends, neighbours and co-workers, "Do you understand what you saw?" They might reply, "What does it all mean?" We need to be sensitive to such a question. Remember Philip asking the Ethiopian eunuch, "Do you understand what you are reading?" in Act 8:30.

A follow-up question we can ask: "Does the novel match up with the facts of history?" In asking, be humble and gentle in our life.

Finally, be confident in our faith and allow that confidence to overflow in genuine concern for those around us who may be struggling with spiritual decisions. I read a great opener: "Now that you've read the fiction, read the facts". II Timothy 4:2 encourages us to be ready to share our faith in season and out. Share and see some of our friends come to accept the truth of Christ.

So when did I become a man?

2006-05-07T21:14:00.000+08:00

This Friday is a public holiday and we are gearing up for our first men's conference. As I started developing conference lessons, I wondered when I became a man.

First I have a confession to make. I'm a man. No, that's not the confession. The confession is that I don't know when I became one.

I've been male since my mother's egg was fertilised. At birth I became a boy and that was affirmed frequently all the way through kindergarden. Bad boy. Good boy. Boys will be boys. What do you expect from a small-town boy?

So when did I become a man?

At age 10 I got kissed by a girl. She was a year older and she was my neighbour. Then I caught a crocodile when I was 11. I trapped it with chicken pieces in a large mouse trap with a knife. Our gardener and maid knew what I was doing and the risks involved, but let this 11-year-old kid go ahead and trusted me not to injure or kill myself. The next morning I was surprised that it worked. It was not a small reptile. Our gardener, my brother and I hung it so we could skin it from the underbelly. Mom cooked it with herbs. It tasted like kampong chicken. When it was all said and done, no one proclaimed me a newly made man.

Then I was sent to an overseas boarding school. This was a boys school. At ages 17 to 18, I played competitive rugby. If I had committed a crime then, I could have gone to jail since I was no longer a minor. In the eyes of law, I was an adult, yet I know I was still was very much a kid.

I got my drivers license when I turned 19, as many guys did. For some, this is the defining event. It wasn't for me, though there are aspects of that day that could be considered an initiation into manhood. My mom, my instructor and the entire system trusted me with the operation of a 1-ton piece of machinery that could go 200 km an hour. I could have done some serious damage but showed enough maturity to handle it. For the most part, I was careful. For all the stupid things I've done behind the wheel, I never did anything worse than knock into a trash can. But driving didn't make me a man and wasn't recognised as passage into manhood, despite the fact that I gained rights and responsibilities.

At some point, I became a man, without any clear indication it had happened. The obvious thought would be that since I was a boy all through school, the transformation took place in university. Or did I become a man when I first took a job, paid my own rent and put food on my own table. Was I a man then?

Society doesn't seem to notice the lack of transitions until we do something wrong that proves we aren't the men we should be. This will be the starting point of my discussion with the guys on Friday.

Highly-strung anybody?

2006-04-30T18:20:00.000+08:00

My wife has reminded me on more than one occasion that my blog is titled 'Perspectives' but is mainly anecdotes. She know it's easier to write anecdotes since I already keep a journal. But she's right.

Just as well that I've been wondering if perhaps I'm highly-strung. Like sometimes I startle too easily. I can be overwhelmed by bright lights, strong smells, coarse fabrics, or sirens close by. Some days I can feel more highly-strung than usual, more likely to snap. If you are a laid back person, you may not relate to this.

Highly-strung people worry about details, can be emotional even nervous and often want to be in control. They tend to be on edge, over-sensitive, irritable and can jump at people. Many animals are highly strung too. They are easily excitable.

Here's a definition. Adj. 1. Being in a tense state, edgy, in suspense, jittery, jumpy, nervy, over-strung, restive, uptight, tense, in or of a state of physical or nervous tension.

Know any one like that? Sometimes I wonder if this the national psyche. We are often reminded in the media that we lack natural resources, that neighbours are catching up economically and that we must leap frog the region. This creates a siege mentality with paranoia all-round.

Dinah and I used to be involved in family ministry. I remember we got the moms to go out for ice cream while husbands stayed home with kids. There would always be one or two moms who kept calling every few minutes to ask how the kids were doing. I thought this was chronic. Then I saw them before school exams.

Many who commute on the MRT are typically highly-strung, stressed-out Singaporeans. Some think it's a duty to irritate them even more by walking really slowly, standing on the wrong side of the escalator and so on. However the wiser amongst us will not want to be snapped at.

How do we calm the highly-strung? If you exhibit some of these traits, how do you avoid going over the deep-end to become certifiably obsessive compulsive?

For starters I make it a point to avoid horror movies. It's not good for the nervy heart. Positive comedies and feel-good dramas are much more therapeutic.

Reframing is a useful technique. This is to think different. Like some who refer to their overstrung state as having 'a heightened sense of awareness'. This is so well put.

To reframe is important because, like it or not, there are bound to be things that annoy us to no end. Like I can get worked up when people stare at me in lifts, in restaurants or in public places. I've also read that fights have started from staring incidents. Lives have been lost. So I had to quickly learn to reframe.

Eventually I figured it out: "Perhaps I do have an interesting face. I must have presence. Maybe that's why heads turn every time I step onto the scene." It's probably true as well.

Life and ministry can get tense at times. Relax, chill out. I'm learning. Lying on the lounge with our twins is fun. So is listening to good music. Or a catch up with friends over coffee. Try it. You'll like it.

Down Under

2006-04-23T20:22:00.000+08:00

It's Tue the 11th Apr. We do errands, swim and pack. Our new modem arrives on Wed. Tonight our family has dinner at the airport. On the flight to Down Under, the Aussie couple next to me is surprised they have the exact wedding date as me.

We arrive in Brisbane at 7:30 am Thur. Wilson pick us up for breakfast at the motel and we are off for meetings. The Vietnamese dinner is good. Otherwise it's a sleepy affair for me. My room mate is Prackich. It's the first time we're room mates.

The convention starts Friday night and ends late. Then I conduct a workshop on Sat and later there is a Multicultural night where we don national costumes.

Easter Sunday is eventful. It starts with breakfast with 7 Singaporeans from Hope Sydney. Later it's lunch with Alan and Jessie. Alan and I were both from St Andrew's boarding house. Jessie is Albert's sister. Later it's dinner with 12 young Africans from Zimbabwe, Malawi and Ethiopia. Then I give a missions presentation at the convention.

After the Convention ends on Monday, we spend 2 hours at Sunshine Coast. Here I catch up with Peter Truong. He was in our church during 1996. Next we are at the pastors dinner at an Aussie steak house. Tonight I bunk in a ministry house. Lead Tao, Han, Pei Xiong are from Singapore. They are an interesting and inquisitive bunch.

Tuesday is breakfast with with Han, Pei Xiong, Ming Hang (from Indonesia) and Sunny (from Macao). Later Ming Hang gives me a lift to the airport. It's good to get an empty row on the flight but it's a day flight. It's great to see Dinah and the twins at the airport.

Wed is when I finalise the leadership lesson. At night I teach 'Spearheading A Spiritual Revolution'. Thur is time at the lawyer's office. Fri is just tonnes of follow up matters. It rains on Fri so there is no swimming.

Sat is interesting. I call for taxi and the automated voice says one will arrive in 15-18 min. Normally it's 5-8 min. So I try to hail a taxi to no avail. The booked taxi arrives in 10 min. But the taxi driver takes a wrong turn. When we do get on the highway, it's congested. I'm praying I won't be late. We finally arrive and I do not ask for discount on the fare. He discounts $1 and I responded by asking him to keep the change. I go right in to preach at our student services.

The next day sees two more sermons on the greatest secret ever revealed to the minds of human beings. I have been touched by developing this message. Later we manage to swim in the evening. I haven't moved in the water for a long time.

A really big bed

2006-04-10T21:40:00.000+08:00

Wed the 29th Mar is good. Our old friend joins care group again. At devotion time, the twins ask about Solomon with 700 wives and 300 concubines. They say he must have had a really big bed. I have never thought of his sleeping arrangements before.

Thu is breakfast with pastor friends. Later I reply a question on yoga. The rain means no evening swim. But the twins give us a special massage in their room. They call the place the Lee Twins Spa. Deb shows Dan the right moves. Dinah and I agree to bunk in their room tonight.

Fri is their school Founders Day holiday. Dinah and I are on leave today & tomorrow. We plan a seaside picnic but the forecast is for thunder storms. Instead we enjoy a leisurely breakfast followed by a swim. Next we renew passports before going to The Cathay Cineplex. This is the first week of its opening and we catch 'Ice Age II' here. We try the couples seats - meaning the arm rest can be raised.

Sat is when Dinah and I have a traditional breakfast. Then its errands and a special lunch. We go to Punggol Park for the first time but it rains. Just then my brother calls with really big news. Next Vivien bumps into us. Then Chien Meng, Choon Yam and the whole leadership team shows up. It's pouring leaders.

Sun lunch is with Pastor Richmond from Ghana and Sunny. Next is a roaring good time at the leadership rally. Then Dinah and I spend time with Quan, Imy and Sarah at the airport. Later we discover our home modem dies (so I will post when I get a chance).

Mon is full of surprises. We lunch with colleagues when they spring a surprise birthday gift. This is one month after my birthday. Three other colleagues join in this gift. Later I reply a question on New Age music. There is another surprise as the Filipino guys come to our home quite early for our appointment.

Tue is when we book airtickets to Sabah. Dinah files our tax returns before we swim. Wed is a long day like last week. It's a really wet day too. The day becomes longer as a tree falls on the highway. We are stuck for 30 mins in crawling traffic. Thur is meetings galore. It's raining meetings. The kids like the cookout of sandwich dinner.

Fri starts with a really big surprise. A long lost friend calls after getting our office number from the website. She came to church when there were 10 people in 1991. After 15 years comes this call. She said God spoke to her last night to call. She reminded me how I used to encourage her to know God. What a week.

Sat sees a pre-Easter preaching slot at the tertiary service. This is followed by 3 more sermons on Palm Sunday. Dinah convinces me to swim in between the morning and evening sermons. I go along and it turns out well in the end.

We spend time with counsellor and pastor friends on Mon morn. I spend the rest of preparing for the upcoming trip. Tonight there is more men mentoring.

Goggles isn't on my mind

2006-03-28T16:24:00.000+08:00

Mon is the start of a new school term. It's traditional to be early for the first day. We follow tradition. Later five male youth leaders come over and we spend time together. They would have stayed all night.

It's Tue. We meet our neighbour on the way down and discover his son is unwell. So we get breakfast for their boy. Later Dinah and the kids take me to lunch. It's my belated birthday celebration. Next we drop by at the optometrist before swimming. Later we get dinner for our neighbour's child and we have an early night.

Wed night gets exciting. We've been in contact with an old friend for 3 months. We are so excited that our friend joins Lan Sim's care group. Thu starts with an online chat with Terry. Lunch is with Hong Teck. It's a strange evening. I plunge into the pool without goggles then have to pull myself out. The few onlookers around try not to look so shocked. There are many things in my mind and goggles isn't one of them.

Fri is the final day for weekend preparation. There's corporate prayer at night. Then it's all systems go. There are 3 sermons on Sat and 2 on Sun. Fuzhen's testimony is just awesome. Dinah and I are so happy to see our old friend at service. Later Dinah conducts a child dedication in the evening service. This is a fruitful weekend. We (me especially) wind down on Sunday evening.

Mon is when I start preparing for Easter. Somehow tonight's session with male leaders from Mandarin service is off. So I resume reading the pre-Easter materials. On Tue morn we catch up with another friend and listen to a sermon CD. Then the twins tell us Deb has been appointed as Health Ambassador for the class. They've got the right person - she loves her fruits. Somehow I suspect that this appointment signals the end of greasy meals for the family.

Two weeks away is a long time

2006-03-19T16:01:00.000+08:00

Fri is time to finalise the Sunday message. Then I take a melatonin tablet but still can't sleep. So I wake up Sat feeling like a zombie but try to internalise sermon neverthless.

I awake Sunday having had good sleep. Two sermons later, I'm exhausted as the long trip take its toll. We still have a 4-hour membership class ahead. Whoaaa. As we we arrive and see the people (all 153 of them) Dinah and I do our best to serve.

Mon is a another furious day. Got to complete the Lateral Leadership lesson. Later five guys from tertiary ministry come over to spend time together. This starts Monday night men's mentoring.

Tuesday is errands day with haircut and grocery shopping. Thank God for Swee Ching who offer to take the twins out. She proposed the Asian Civilisations museum but they end up spending more time at the National Library. At night, Dinah and I join over 90 members to launch Team Ministry. Everyone is excited and it turns out to be a smashing success.

Wed is a long day as we follow-up matters from our trip and local matters. Two weeks away is a long time for stuff to pile up. An ulcer starts to appears. Thur is a more normal day except for lunch. Fenny get takeaway for herself, Dinah and I. She loves chilli and her beloved chilli expands my ulcer and upsets my tummy.

This week is school holidays. Dinah is preaching this weekend so I take Friday off to spend time with the twins. They both opt to hang out at home. Cartoons and ice cream is why. Dinner is at a great place in Defu Lane with the Ongs and Chongs for my belated birthday celebration.

Daisy is our good friend's sister. She takes the twins out for a movie on Sat. She's also their maths tutor. God provides all these great people who are a blessing. Then Sun, Dinah preaches so well. In between services Dinah and I bump into Sharon who's back on vacation. She and her husband now live in Toronto and have started a small group. We're so inspired to meet our people who are making a difference all over the world. Our church members are awesome and we're so proud of them.

In the west coast

2006-03-09T14:09:00.000+08:00

Wed and Thur (22-23 Feb) is hectic. I work on the team ministry lesson and membership class notes. There's packing and tying up loose ends. On Thur we check-in online for the first time. We feel the lack of sleep now. The flight to LA is half-full and it's nice to have a row to ourselves.

Church Camp near LA
We arrive on Thur night in winter. Pastor Chai greets us and puts us up in a motel. Here we notice that our well-used luggage cracks. It's served us well. The next day Chai and Crystal take us for breakfast. Here is a great couple. After catching up, he drives us to the camp site in a beautiful valley (Rancho Ybarra). Late that night Dinah and I take (very) winter-cold showers thanks to the non-working water heater.

On Sat, Dinah and I teach lessons and do workshops. Later the campers enjoy games as we prepare for night sessions. At night Derek shares his testimony. He came to Christ in Singapore. We continue to have very cold but very short showers late that night. (Here's a photo of one of our meals at camp)

On Sun, Dinah and I teach. There's lunch fellowship and long goodbyes. Next Chai checks us in the same motel. Then he brings us to the night leaders session at the church premise in East LA. That night we thank God for the warm shower.

On Mon (it's 27th Feb), Sam and Sung (and baby Grace) from the church spend some time with us. Later Cynthia joins us for lunch and take us gift-shopping. Next it's raining heavily as we have an extended dinner with Chai and Crystal. Dinah tries virgin pina colada. I discover that virgin here means without alcohol.

On Tue, we go with Lee to the William Carey missions library. Cynthia re-joins us for lunch. Then we pack before our final night session with LA leaders. It's another long night.

Leaders Retreat in Vancouver
On Wed, Betty drives us to the Long Beach airport. We fly Alaskan Air to Seattle. There we spend time with JR and Warinda. From Seattle Chris and Jeng drive us 3 hours to Vancouver. (Chris actually came to Christ in Singapore.)

It's our first time in Vancouver and the winter is not mild as in California. We're told the seafood here is fresh so we try fish and chips. The leadership retreat starts the moment we step into William and Lan's place. That night we sure sleep well.

On Thur, Marilyn does breakfast. Now she also came to Christ in Singapore. Dinah and I do several sessions. At evening they take us downtown and to Stanley Park for a view of the waterfront city before a sushi dinner. Here they spring a surprise birthday cake. My birthday is actually tomorrow. It's a nice gesture.

Pastors Retreat in Newport Beach
Lan isn't well. Neverthless William and Lan drive us to the Seattle airport on Fri morn. They tell us Vancouver is one of the most livable cities in the world. We arrive in LA and Chai brings us to the beach house. The rest of the North American pastors and wives arrive that evening. Here the wives decide to go out for dinner as the guys order pizza. Later they spring a surprise birthday cake. They get the date right.

Sat morn starts with testimonies before a lesson. After lunch we visit Balboa island and then we experience beach volleyball. My wife laughs as I almost put on my shorts. It's winter-cold at the beach. We discuss ministry matters all night as I try to ignore aches from volleyball.

Sun (5th Mar) morn starts with men and women sessions. Then we travel to the university community hall in University of California, Irvine. It's a long while since I have seen my wife prepare elements for the Lord's Supper. We have Sunday service. The church hosts a big lunch and even games. Then the ladies have a baby shower as the guys get the barbeque ready. Quan sure cooks awesome steaks. Later we enjoy extended worship and prophetic ministry.

Dinah and I take the Mon morning sessions. Then it's cleaning before we drive to Albert and Doreen's home. We dine together and complete our final discussion. Some leave as the rest have extended fellowship. JR is the last to fly home. Then it's a Mexican dinner with the Ngu family. After showers, Dinah and I talk with Albert and Doreen late into the night. David calls from Chicago.

David calls again on Tue. Then it's an extended lunch with Albert and Doreen. Afterwards Doreen and Dinah go grocery shopping as Al and I talk at home. Then we pack and join the care group at the Uni of California, Irvine. We gather in a class room. Afterwards Albert drives us to LAX to catch the late flight to Singapore. We spend Wednesday on the plane.

We arrive in Taipei at 6:30 am Thur and it's 17 degrees. We arrive in S'pore after noon. It's 34 degrees, 33 if there's wind but there isn't. We unpack in humid conditions. Later the kids get home (thanks to Simon) and we're re-united. It's been a memorable 2 weeks in the west coast of North America. We're glad to be home.

1st Milestone

2006-02-22T13:53:00.000+08:00

It has been a very full fortnight. Here's the story... After corporate worship at Mandarin service on 12th Feb, several of us visited the new premise at CineLeisure. It's a cool place.

Monday saw a very long campaign planning meeting at Wan Leng and Mabel's place till almost midnight. We were getting ready to celebrate the 1st campaign milestone this weekend.

Tuesday was Valentine's Day. I bought Dinah a special lunch. (Yes the twins got blessed as well.) Next I got her flowers which she really liked. Deb liked it too. The rest of the day was spent on campaign matters.

Wed to Fri were long days preparing for the 1st milestone and for our upcoming overseas trip.

Next I preached on breakthrough from I Chronicles 14:8-17 on Sat and Sunday. Das did a really good job with the deco. Many liked the opening when I broke through the screen. The choir did very well. Here's a photo from Junming.

Sun afternoon was hot. We celebrated with 106 people who got water baptised at Big Splash. A 56 year old man got baptised.

Mon was spent tying up various matters and making final preparations for the long trip ahead. We manage to rest and swim on Tue before campaign planning at night.

Flying carpet

2006-02-06T10:15:00.000+08:00

Lunar New Year must be still on since Dinah is still feeding us Mandarin oranges every night. This is a fifteen day celebration. Here's the rest of the story.

The 5th day is a mixed day. It starts poorly as I slip and fall early in the morning. I step on the rug which moves so I fall as it moves. Deb says it's a flying carpet. This would have been so funny except that my elbow is swollen and my bum hurts. Have to walk slowly out to lunch as we celebrate Cara's birthday. It ends with an nice evening with Jo, Kris and Alesha over for dinner.

Weekend messages on 7th and 8th day is 'Sex and Spirituality'. Gained a lot from putting this message together. It's great to pray with eight people who give their lives to Christ. Then Maurice says I look like a hong bao in the red shirt. We cap the day with a yummy dinner at Jeff and Claud's place. The elbow and bum pain is almost gone.

Monday is the 9th day. Traffic on the roads is back to normal. Guess all businesses are up and running again. Tonight is visitation to Joel and Evelyn's for Breakthrough campaign planning. Tomorrow night we host our leaders and Delia for dinner. The kids are excited. Hope to squeeze in a leadership message in the midst of the festivities. (Here's some of our party guests)

We are going to visit old friends on Friday night. Sunday is going to be the fifteenth and last day of Lunar New Year celebration.

It's a happy New Year

2006-01-31T21:36:00.000+08:00

This is the time of Lunar New Year, which is celebrated for 15 days. This is a family affair and there's an almost total shutdown of schools and businesses for the first two days. You feel the shutdown much more than during Christmas. This time it's a long 4-day weekend, probably the longest of the year.

There was good build up. Monday was breakfast with 5 of our Christian counsellor and pastor friends. Tue and Wed was time on global ministry, with pastoral staff and with Pui See. Thur was spent drafting a position paper on 'Inter-Generational Curse'. Fri was corporate worship, the first time the weekend service was brought forward. Dinah's Lunar New Year message was 'A New Me for the New Year'.

The holidays begin Saturday. Ours start with shopping for seasonal fruits. Next is the 'Game of Life' in keeping our promise to the twins. Pat got this board game for the twins and also so that she could play it with them. We discover Dan is competitive, Deb is a kind player, Dinah is the most honest and I get fourth place. Our Lunar New Year celebration begins with an all-night reunion dinner with Dinah's side of the family.

We awaken on Sunday by the sounds of a lion troupe. Dinah dresses us in red to join our Mandarin worship service. James starts the sermon saying the first visitation is to our spiritual family on Sunday service. Indeed! The service has a great family atmosphere. Afterwards, we bump into an old school friend whom we're supposed to visit tomorrow. So we catch up at the mall. Then we get home and call my parents with New Year wishes. Our tradition on the first day of the Lunar New Year is a visitation to Dinah's mom. This visitation continues to dinner.

Our tradition for the second day is to visit my mom's aunt. But she moved to LA last July. Instead we enjoy a leisurely breakfast with New Year goodies. We all catch up with reading before lunch with our neighbours. Later they come over to our place for visitation. The weather is just great for an evening swim. Mon night is cartoons night for the kids as we do more reading.

Today is Tuesday. It's another leisurely breakfast with New Year goodies. The kids watch Justice League cartoons. Next we host lunch for my brother-in-law who turns 47 today. Then we help the kids with social studies research on continents, with Dinah reminding that we've churches in all the inhabited continents. The afternoon gets more interesting when we are riveted watching 'Hotel Rwanda'. It's truly moving and we totally recommend it.

This is how it tapers off... The kids just love the rare home-cooked meal. So the holiday ends with a simple home-cooked dinner as promised. We enjoy every bit of this meal time thanking God for time with family and friends. It's a happy New Year.