GDOP – Global Day of Prayer

What does the Global Day of Prayer look like?  Well, where are you? This week we were invited to attend a prayer and preparation meeting for the Global Day of Prayer in SINGAPORE.  People from many ethnic groups came together to put the finishing touches on the GDOP Singapore.  This year the theme is:  FIRST THINGS FIRST. Worship of our Lord was our appetizer which began the session. That was followed by encouragement from one of the local pastors. And PRAYER was the main course. On Sunday, June 1, 2014, believers across Singapore will come together in multiple venues to pray.

They are praying for God to deliver us from 3 things that definitely have a tremendous impact in our lives: 1. BUSYNESS:  the overcrowding of the soul.  Satan seeks to keep us engaged in noises, hurry and crowds.  If he can keep us engaged in “muchness” and “manyness” he will rest satisfied.  Everywhere we turn, we are engaged with busyness. Psalm 27:4 Will we put our house in order?

2. BARRENNESS:  the sufficiency of self.  We have relied on ourselves and depended on our own resources more than God. BUT we can resolve to live centering in CHRIST. We can be faithful. We can be fruitful. Leaders are urging Singaporean Christians to take a look at their own lives and pray for God’s cleansing. Will we put our house in order? John 15:5 3.

3. BLINDNESS:  the searing of the conscience. We are guilty of injustice, inequality and indifference. We can love God by loving others. We have called good evil and evil good. BUT we can return to God in holy fear seeking His cleansing. We can be salt and light. Will we put our house in order? James 1:27

In Singapore on Sunday, June 1, 16 prayer locations will be provided for people to gather:  6 English groups; 1 children’s group; 1 youth group; 1 Mandarin groups; 1 Indian group; 1 Korean; 1 Myanmese; 1 Thai; and 1 Filipino (on June 8). AND this year for the first time, 1 group will be for Hokkien Christians. PRAY WITH SINGAPORE as they come together to pray and seek God for a great movement of His Spirit across this city of Singapore and beyond.

♥LOVE MORE♥

Recently, one of the small groups in our church worked together to prepare a message to encourage and also spark a fire in our church that would help us all to be more like Christ. Last Sunday each person at church was given a paper heart to wear that read “MORE.” They also prepared a special song for the worship time.  Then they rolled out a video produced by the group.

What’s the bottom line?  Well, it encourages us to LOVE MORE.  Whether we’re in tough circumstances, faced with challenges that irritate the life out of us, or are faced with people whom are difficult to love — what’s the answer?  LOVE MORE!

Most of the people in our church are first generation Christians!  THEN on top of that, the gifts that God has blessed these young adults with is amazing.  What a privilege to watch them grow in the Lord.

Now that’s exciting.  However, the real excitement has come this week as young and older alike have taken this challenge seriously. We have stories from all over the place where they have stepped out of their comfort zone to LOVE MORE.  Even if you don’t understand the language of the video, I think you’ll enjoy it.  There is abundant life in Jesus . . .

Click HERE to see the video.

CELEBRATING A VICTORY!

Thank you soooo much for your prayers.  For some time now, we have prayed for a rural area in Southern Taiwan, Lau-pi.  Weekly, we and the Hok-tek Church have partnered together with another Taiwanese worker to take the gospel to this area.  We previously shared about our ministry as we meet under trees nearby two temples in the village.  We travel about 45 minutes to reach the village. This is a unique opportunity because a large Taiwan University has also been built in this area, so it is a real mixture of the old and the new — today’s generation in a very traditional Taiwan setting of rural Taiwan families.

Our real concern has been to find local workers from the nearby area who would be able to continue the ministry there.  Local workers would be able to carry out on-going ministry during the week to reach these students and families.  Also to our surprise, in the last few weeks, we have also received a request to partner with a church who is ready to start a new Taiwanese work about 1 hour and 20 minutes north of our city, Kaohsiung.  It’s not often that we’ve had a church here ask us to start another new church, so to say the least we were excited. HOWEVER, what about the work in the rural area.  So we have prayed to the Lord of the Harvest for more workers in the harvest.  AND He has once again provided.  He has such impeccable timing!  Last week one of our partners cast vision to a local church in this area, but we weren’t sure how they would respond.  In addition to that, we are leaving for an extended trip to Southeast Asia on Saturday, so we’re trying to figure all of this out . . . Well, on Sunday just before we arrived at the temple area for our ministry, we received a phone call ——- “Where are you?  We’re here waiting for you.”  It was a group from the Cornerstone Church in the area calling to connect with us.  This is the church that our co-worker had contacted!

The team was prepared to lead with adult and children’s ministry tools all in place, AND they did a fantastic job. God is so on top of everything.  His timing is perfect.  We watched as this team of people loved on these senior adults — they led with some senior adult exercise activities, music, testimonies and stories. They also had ministry with some children nearby.  Their testimonies were so touching —- transformed lives that glowed with the love of Jesus.  I sat there with tears in my eyes —- God’s answer to our prayers was greater than anything I could have imagined…right people…right place…right time!

Thank you for your prayers.  Please continue to pray for the Cornerstone Church as they reach more deeply into this rural community to share the love of Jesus with children, students and adults.

LIFE is what happens while you make your plans . . .

Life certainly has its ups and downs and unexpected happenings; however, these last few weeks have been unique for sure.  Just hang out with us for a minute to get a bird’s eye view of life around here.

I wrote last week about ministry challenges, so you get the idea.  All of us returned home from our church outing expecting to get a little break —- after all, it seems that we all need a vacation after our vacation.  However, when we returned home we were also faced with unexpected challenges.  One of our youth, also from a dysfunctional home, attempted suicide on Monday.  Then one of the 7 year-old children also from a home in crisis, was diagnosed with pneumonia and placed in a local hospital.  No one to care for these two . . . so that mobilized just about the whole church to get involved to — someone had to stay with them, consult with physicians, provide food, clothes, etc. . . .

Sunday, the story continued as we listened to hurting children from other homes and reached out to adults who also have needs, and praised the believers who stepped up to the plate.  Now how do people feel about this? Well, to be honest, many are really exhausted, but grateful to reach out.  The more we reach out, the more we learn of hurting people who are drowning and crying out for help. Then we received the word about the missing plane from Malaysia that also included some people from Taiwan as well.  You may be far away, but your prayers are a lifeline for us in Asia.  Please pray for:

1.  Physical and emotional recovery for this young person in crisis

2.  Recovery for the young girl, but more importantly, healing for their family

3.  Daily wisdom and strength for church leaders as they connect with families

4.  For an awakening in this community that will bring families to Christ

How to do CHURCH?

What does CHURCH really look like?  Well, I think that depends on what church you’re talking about.  This last weekend, we went on a weekend church outing with one of our Taiwanese churches.  The events and happenings that took place along the journey were BEAUTIFUL pictures of what church is all about.  We had young and old alike — from a one-year-old up to 60 year-olds as well. We toured, played games, worshiped, sang karaoke, and spent a lot of time hanging out together. We saw a lot of living portraits of God’s love. Here is just a glimpse . . .

One young man almost died in a motorcycle accident because of serious head injuries about 9 years ago.  Doctors gave no hope and told them to let him go — a year ago he came to church in a wheelchair and had halted speech.  This year he is walking and running and joined us in the games.  I watched how this “church family” loved on him and his family.  They made sure that they were included. His mother and father also joined us — his father is not yet a believer and has health issues. Praise God for this miracle and join us in praying for his father.

Four sisters from 4 years old to 14 also were part of the group.  They are in a family crisis; however, the church has risen to the occasion to love on these beautiful girls.  We caught a glimpse of one of the young ladies in the church grooming the hair of one of the girls.  That’s what love looks like.  God has miraculously provided a job for the father.  He struggles in life. Pray for life transformation and for these four young sisters.  Pray for a miracle for the mother to be changed.

We could share a lot about the others who attended — many are the only Christians in their family — almost all of them are first generation Christians.  Pray for them as they live out the Gospel.  Life impacts life!

While on this mountain journey, church leaders received a call from their sons to say that three children from the church neighborhood were at the church and refused to go home. They fed them and took care of them, and they were waiting for us when we returned.  This is just the tip of the iceberg to get us started to better understand this community surrounding the church.  It is full of dysfunctional families.  Recently, the church leadership became aware of 12 young people from our community who were locked up on the local juvenile facility.  All of these youth at one time had come to church activities; however, without family supervision they have made some very bad decisions and joined gang activity.  The church is now reaching out to these families.

Oh believe me, we could share a LOT more, but you get the idea.  People need the Lord. People are desperate for love and for family.  What a day for the CHURCH . . .

Challenges?  You bet.  HOWEVER, these are also OPPORTUNITIES to share God’s love.

Click on photos to enlarge.