Two Years Now

With Li Chuang on Feb 3

 Today Dinah and I celebrate the two year anniversary of landing in Hong Kong with 611 Bread of Life Church! Tomorrow we go to the Gardens by the Bay to celebrate, pray and bless the land : )   

 Yesterday I realised that February 2 this year is the day that marks  the beginning of a “new year” for trees in Israel. Known as Tu Bishvat, this day marks the season in which the earliest-  blooming trees in Israel emerge from their winter sleep and begin   a new fruit-bearing cycle.

 Its origins come from the laws of agriculture found Scripture. God's people needed a way to calculate the age of trees for tithing and agricultural laws so the sages established Tu BiShvat as the 'birthday' of trees. It marked a point when new fruit-bearing trees were considered to be a year older for the purposes of offerings.

 In Israel today, Tu BiShvat has taken on a new significance. It is celebrated as a day of tree planting, environmental awareness, and thanksgiving for the land of Israel.

Gardens by the Bay on Feb 3

One beautiful tradition of Tu BiShvat in Israel is the planting of trees. This practice fulfills biblical prophecy! God promised to restore the land of Israel, turning its once-barren landscapes into fruitful fields in Isaiah 35:1-2.

We remember that Lucifer has assaulted the earth since he fell from Heaven. In his hatred for life and the Life-Giver, he seeks to de-create and ultimately desecrate what was made to be beautiful.

God promises that life wins. The biblical story that started in a garden with two trees will come full circle with restoration and the Tree of Life, “whose leaves are for the healing of the nations” (Rev. 22:2). 

Today - two years later - my bride and I are back in Singapore. And planting the tree of life here. This new tree will grow and become a forest of trees of life. A garden city!

Commissioning

 

Isaiah 61:1

 Dinah and I are so happy to welcome our twins to HK on Friday. They rest a little before we join the rehearsal for this Sun. This is followed by dinner and Fortress Prayer. This starts off a very memorable weekend!

 Crystal and Eunice take the twins shopping on Sat as Dinah and I catch up with Michael and Kerry. Afterward the twins finalise their testimonies as Dinah and I join the Sat service. Our family reunite at dinner in Ting Kau villa. Later Dinah refines their testimonies as I firm up my sermon.

Starting from Punggol

Sunday morning starts with makeup then we rehearse and pray. The first service get going when the Nkhoma's are being commissioned. In the second service, we get right into the re-enactment segment. This is the first time we serve together in HK! It's super enjoyable : )

This is immediately followed by Deborah sharing her testimony. Then Daniel shares his testimony. Both their sharing touch me deeply. I am moved as I go to preach. Then I see my brother with his wife and their son on the second row. Now I'm choking as I start preaching.

Re-enactment

 I'm so excited to have my family and my brother's family present. I  speak from Isaiah 61. Then our spiritual papa, Pastor Joshua comes up to wrap up the sermon segment. He then invites our entire family onto the platform. He addresses Deborah and Daniel. Then we are invited to kneel. Each person from the leadership team prays for us one by one. I feel impartation upon impartation as pastor after pastor lay hands on me!

Pastor Deborah prophesies for us and our new church. It's so inspiring. Several areas are similar to the prophecy we received on 28th Sep in Macau.

Commissioning

Our spiritual mama C-Mo presents us gifts. Each one is meaningful. She addresses Dinah on her new role as C-Mo of Garden City. Pastor Joshua addresses me. The entire time is filled with joyful moments. There is much laughter : ) This commissioning is super unconventional.

A joyful affair

 We take photos together with the congregation. This is our family in Hong Kong! Our commissioning service ends with a song and a benediction. I'm still so moved!

 Right after, the Eagles team rush up to take photos with us. Friends come up with gifts. Our former cell group come to take photos. My brother's family just join in. Cos the next service is starting!

Family celebration

We join the third service where the Masons will be commisioned. Afterward there's an official photoshoot. Then photos with various ones. Incuding our cell group.

Finally we bid goodbyes, gather gifts and go back in a taxi. We leave the suits and gifts at home. We breathe then go celebrate with my brother and his family. And later with our housemates. 127 is a special, special day!

One year mark

First time

 Today is our one year anniversary in Hong Kong! We made it so far! Celebrations come later. 

 First we need to preach - four times! And this weekend is our debut at the Mercy Seat. After our first sermon on Sat afternoon, four pastors gave feedback. So we reworked our entire outline. Boy are we tired that night.   

 After the first Sun service, Pastor Joshua ask us to throw preaching notes away. With fear and trembling we did. And preached with freedom the next two services. First time without notes! 

Taiwanese Steakhouse

Are we glad it's all over at 230 pm : ) We change into civilian clothes and jump on a coach with Stella, Mimi and Miho. The coach takes us north to Shenzhen Bay in Guangdong

Well our 1-year training visa expires today. Our new work visa has been approved. But it needs to be activated.

Visa activated 

First we celebrate our one year anniversary : ) Stella, Mimi and Miho celebrate with us. It's all our first time at a Taiwanese steakhouse. The girls are happy. Dinah and I are also happy, but also exhausted.

  

 We finally make it back to Hong Kong late on Sunday. So touched that our friends go with us on this cross-border trip. Here's our photo right after getting our new visa activated. Now we really need some sleep. 

  It's been a long and very challenging weekend! And it's been a challenging but a very good year in Hong Kong - with our new spiritual family. 
 

The Day

Send off

Dinah had not slept much the past 3 nights, busy packing. I did not sleep well those same nights with my mind on the move. Today we awake early. And said to each other: "It's real!" This is really happening. 

We loaded luggage onto Teck Huat and Linda's car. And boarded Suzanna 's car to the airport. There was a sendoff party. And they prayed for us. We're touched and hug each one goodbye. As we walk into the secure area, the officer asked why there are so many people in the send off party : )   

My son and I

Dinah is so tired and falls asleep onboard. I feel glad to have shared my heart with the people earlier. 

Now we're onboard relocating to a Chinese city to immerse in a Chinese church! What will this 1 year be like?

Suddenly I experienced a moment of panic and felt like going back. Holy Spirit calmed my heart.. Then I prayed for a love for the Hong Kong people.

Weimin & Purple

 Boy was I glad to see Weimin and Purple at the HK airport! It's winter and the temperature is a nice 20C : ) We stop for a brief transit at his place to get a lugagge of ours that we sent over earlier. Here we meet Aleph, Jolyn, Basil, Ruby and Goodness : )

 Next Aleph and Purple bring us to check in to our service apartment. It's suite # 770. Aleph or Purple said: "Perfect! Perfect!" And it is just beside Ting Kau bridge, lit up with a red line. I said: "We're under the blood!"

We go in. The view of the cove is breathtaking! What a welcome sight : ) Going to enjoy this!   

Aleph & Purple

Then Aleph and Purple take us out to dinner. It's our first meal in our new home city! After a yummy local meal with long-time friends, we unpack. There are 6 large luggage to work through. Now we realise we do need groceries and household essentials. Plus there are tonnes of texts to reply. Exhausted, I sleep at 1:30 am and Dinah at 3 am.  

Grace upon Grace

Two Sundays ago, we were on the way to my sister-in-law's place for dinner when Dinah asked how I felt about the upcoming commissioning. This triggered a flashback. Memories started flooding my mind. I was brought back to 1996 when we discovered that Dinah was pregnant – with twins. We were going to be first-time parents. Everything was going to change. Just 1 month later, I was asked to serve as Senior Pastor of our former church. I had just turned 28. And this invitation came out of the blue. Everything was going to change for our church. After much prayer, my pregnant wife and I stepped into this assignment with fear and trembling. Looking back, God’s grace was on us as parents and for the ministry assignment.

In recent years, I was led to pioneer sexual wholeness and then whole life discipleship. Working with different churches was new. Again, there was grace. It was serving here when Dinah and I got reconnected with RiverLife Church through Pastor Lionel. Eventually Pastor Lionel and Elder Aaron would invite Dinah and I to serve with them in RiverLife. You can read that story here  http://benkclee.blogspot.com/2018/03/another-transition.html. Once again we were not expecting this – but it happened. Here is another perspective of the same story  http://www.riverlife.org.sg/leadership-succession.

After 5-10 seconds of flashbacks, I answered Dinah - "I feel God’s grace again being invited to serve as Senior Pastor the second time." (The difference this time: Dinah is not pregnant and I am no longer 28.) The moment I replied was when I realised the date of the commissioning was 05/05. Right then it struck me that the number five is associated with grace and redemption. There were two fives on the date so double grace. That's what I told Dinah - double grace. She replied, “grace upon grace”. And so we both came to this Scripture.

"For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace" John 1:16 (ESV)

Today is 05/05. This morning I was commissioned by our elders and senior leaders to serve as Senior Pastor. Our outgoing Senior Pastor Lionel Goh was smiling radiantly. He has been very happy for quite a few months. In his final message today as our Senior Pastor, he smilingly said that he and I are the happiest persons present. He was certainly very happy. The emotion I felt leading up to this morning and this morning was not quite happiness but a range actually.  

I do feel a sense of excitement for what's ahead that's mixed with the realisation of what's needed.This might have been how I also felt in 1996. I am sure there is happiness in there somewhere : ) Today I felt very encouraged. Our close friends were present, standing with us. Our twins could witness today's commissioning. They missed the first time because they were still in the womb during March 1996. Then the commissioning service today was very authentic and very honouring. Both services moved many hearts deeply. It felt like something shifted today.

In my message as incoming Senior Pastor, I encouraged our people that when everything seems to be changing, Deuteronomy 31:2-3 (from Pastor Lionel's message) reminds us that God remains the same. He never changes. He is faithful, and that:

“For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” John 1:16 (ESV)

With this assurance - I called our church to join hearts and walk together to prepare the Bride of Christ for the imminent return of the Bridegroom.

Another Transition

It was May 2014 when I joined Focus on the Family. I started with pioneering sexual wholeness. This morphed into pioneering the Whole Life approach to discipleship together with Dinah who was also at Focus. This initiative was well received. Over 30 churches have taken or is about to take the Whole Life Inventory. Of these, 6 churches invited Dinah and I to coach them in the Whole Life approach.

With Whole Life taking off, Dinah and I began waiting on our heavenly Father for longer-term direction. Our prayer: Do we go deeper with Whole Life - including sexual wholeness?

As we prayed, several things became evident.  The first were two words. 

Go Deeper

Over the past 4 years at Focus we have gone wide with Whole Life as we worked with various churches and leadership teams. For our next season, we felt that we will continue with Whole Life but that we needed to go deeper. The question was: Is Focus the platform to go deeper?

Church partners could not see Whole Life fleshed out in a local church. We can probably go a bit further in a para-church. But going deep in a local church will enable us to pilot Whole Life and implement the full outworking -- going right into the cell groups and homes within a congregation. We became more convinced that we had to go deeper. There was another development.

Prophetic Words 

My year of Jubilee started March 2017. Over that February-March period, I received prophetic words from three persons in random situations. The words received combined "50" (meaning 2018) with both "Pastor" and "Senior Pastor". One went like this – “You will pastor a church that will lead people in the narrow and winding path that leads to salvation.” 

Signs seemed to point back to the local church in 2018. Dinah and I intensified praying towards the fact we would deep dive -- into one local church. Our sensing was to move on in March 2018, with or without jobs. However, 1^st March 2018 would be the annual luncheon that Focus hosts for Lead Pastors and Senior Leaders. We both felt that that we needed to stay on until 1st March help at this gathering. Then we received another piece of guidance. 

Just Wait Upon Me   

As we continued to pray, we felt the Lord asking us not to apply for any positions. After all, we desired a calling and we already have jobs. At the same time, we sensed that the next assignment would involve both Dinah and I. This meant that the eventual church, where we would deep dive, would make the approach and invite both of us. We noted that the approaches since 2010 were for me rather than for both. Finally, we also sensed it needed to be a Whole Life church. 

Accordingly, I turned down approaches for me only. Several churches approached both of us. And some were Whole Life churches. These senior leaders shared their hearts with us. We shared our heart for holistic lifespan discipleship. Then we committed all this to prayer and fasting, keeping close friends and our children in the loop. We finally shortlisted after rounds of discussions. The best fit was RiverLife Church. It was end-Oct 2017 when Dinah and I said yes to RiverLife, just as Dinah entered her Jubilee. 

RiverLife Church has invited Dinah and I to be part of their Senior Leadership Team.  The church is part of a family of Singapore churches known as the Bartley Family of Churches (BFOC). There are 4 local churches who are part of this extended spiritual family.

Dinah and I approached our bosses at Focus to share all this. We gave over 4 months’ notice. Our last day was yesterday (sob). Focus was gracious and invited us to share our Whole Life journey with the 260 church leaders present at the event yesterday. The pastors and leaders present prayed for our transition led by the Singapore Anglican Bishop Rennis Ponniah. 

My jubilee will end today. Today will also be the start of Dinah and my mini-sabbatical. We will enjoy a breather before we join up with RiverLife in end-March. Another adventure awaits... 

Jul 2015

Our highlight in July is the North America annual conference. There was much work and multiple night-time meetings before the trip. There was the farewell for Paul. And JDOP was amazing. 

Dinah and I did not sleep on the night before our early morning flight. It was a blessing to be on oversold flight and to be upgraded - on one of the three flights. Then the Vegas airport with its slot machines was a bit of a shock. The dry 38C temperature was not fun. We checked in to the hotel room in Henderson and then caught up with the leaders over dinner. The sleep afterwards was :)

The next day was one full day of pastors with the pastors. The following day saw meetings and  evening time was our first session. I felt the Lord tugging my heart to switch messages during worship. It went well. Meal times were spent with different leaders. After conference, our friends took us to the strip for dinner. Then we flew home. We thanked God for the positive atmosphere of unity. Upon arriving, we rested and took care of errands. There was time with the twins.  

But there was one night where jet lag hit and sleep was disrupted. So my throat went funny. I tried out drinking freshly squeezed lemon juice. It was very sour but also very effective.

We resumed family prayer. Our car COE expired and we got a replacement. There was one day of heavy rain  when we went jogging. Then the Focus staff retreat was fun. Our family enjoyed VSION at the Esplanade. We watched 7 Letters with Li Chuang at the new Capitol. Later Inn Siew joined us. Elvira’s birthday party was a blast and I reunited with aunt Mui Lan. There was time with Lionel and Han Hui. There was dinner with Jan's family.

Ministry wise, there was global polity work and the NA follow-up matters.