Shanghai Trip Reflections

Here are some thoughts from the Shanghai trip I would share with my sisters:

1, We are sent primarily as an instrument to pray.
On the very 1st day after arrival, about 30 of us encountered an incident of two men fighting and quarreling while we had dinner in a small restaurant. At that point of time, I felt very sympathetic for the men, and God compelled me to pray quietly in heart for the people involved. Through the whole trip, there are many times when I saw people living in poor conditions or with misery and indifference in their hearts. I realized that God wanted to use me as a vessel: use my eyes to see, my ears to hear, and my spirit to pray as I see and hear. This is a mission more important than the service-learning projects.

2, Daily devotion keeps us close to the Lord.
For the first four nights of the camp, we lived in hotel. The 5 Christians in my group spent about half and hour every morning to worship the Lord and pray in the hotel room. I also spent quite some time every night before Scene Che (my group leader who shared the same hotel room with me) came back from debriefing to read the 40-day-fast-n-prayer guidebook, read the Bible, and pray aloud. As I prayed, I indeed felt that He was right there with me in the room, and in every thing I do. I felt very encouraged and secured. However, in the last two days, we shifted to live in a school hostel, and shared rooms with our Shanghai friends. We couldn’t really do our morning worship and quiet time freely then. Although I knew that God is still with me, but I did feel distant from Him and even less dependent on Him.

3, Keep the Vision in mind.
Interacting with new friends has been something I was least confident in. Before, I would feel very unnatural to start talking to people unless necessary. I think something Scene Che said when we started an “angel game” (in which each Touch volunteer was to be the angel of on Shanghai volunteer without the latter knowing who the angel really was, and to give encouraging message or small gifts to the Shanghai volunteer secretly to bless him) encouraged me a lot: to think of the Shanghai volunteers assigned to you as the people you want to disciple. It changed my mindset. The purpose of making friends is not only making friends, but to create a channel to give and bless the people. Giving is the goal and the posture we take. With this driving force in mind, I would naturally want to draw close to the new friends, to know more about them and to let them know more about me.

4, We are very different!
The Shanghai friends were very impressed by our passion, kindness, selflessness and the attitude towards our work. We may not even realize how much our lives have been transformed, but once God starts to use us, we would see how greatly He has been at work in us. So I would encourage all of us to keep running for God, for He does reward all those who seek Him in order to testify His glory.

Love,
Yang Chen

More Info on GCYC

Dear all,

Christian youths from neighbouring countries are paying on their own accounts to come to Singapore for GCYC. More specifically, they are gathering at FCBC. It's awesome for Christians from nations to come together, what's more, gathering at our Home!

We do not need to spend much money nor time to travel so that we can be at this International gathering. Therefore, I urge you sisters, to fork out that few hours to gather together to meet these extraordinary youths - more importantly, we belong to the BIG Family of GOD. I hope to get to know at least one of the foreign youths!

Certainly, I hope you can catch the spirit of GCYC!

Love,
Eunice Lim

Pray for "Take the City Walk"

It is no more than one week before "Take The City Walk". We have prepared for its coming? Yuh, a 4-hr walk across the city may become our unforgetful experience because the purpose of this walk, helping the needy, encourages us to walk. As what the sheep did, we give the needy what we can give. The walk will be a fruitful one as we pray for in Jesus most precious name, Amen!

Cell Meeting dated 7th July

Whether you have attended cell, it’s good to read through:

Take the City Walk
Everyone will get a pledge card from me. Get donations from your family and friends for the 18 services TOUCH provides. If you were to go door-to-door, please only go to the neighbors you know.

On the 29th July, let us take part in the walk together. Yes, it’s very early in the morning. But please come. Bring your friends along for this healthy exercise!

SFSA Tribal Gathering 21st July (Friday)
SA tribe will be leading worship while Pastor Serene will be sharing a message. Let’s pray for Serene that she may receive the rhema word of GOD that will minister deep into all our hearts.

Meanwhile, the current arrangement for worship, pertaining to our cell, is as such:

Yang Chen, Siyang and Angeline will be my dancers
(small) Michelle, Jingwen, Lin Nan, (small) Eunice, Jayne and Vivian will be part of the choir.

As our tribe is running the entire gathering, I do not expect anyone to miss it. Please kindly discuss with me if you have other reservations or if you are not pleased with the worship arrangement.

Shanghai Trip 8th – 14th July
Yang Chen is fulfilling the G12 ‘calling’ – go out to the nations to preach the Gospel. Yes, this is not a church event. However, as much as possible, we hope to impact the 100 Shanghai students through our 100 representatives from TOUCH, including Yang Chen. Clap Clap! Yang Chen’s fund-raising has been miraculous. In a span of a week, more than $300 came to her!

Prayer requests:
Pray that wisdom be with Yang Chen that she may rise up and speak in boldness at appropriate times. May she ooze out the fragrance of GOD and her counterparts to see JESUS in her.
Pray for Senior Pastor that as he performs MOL there, the audience catches the gist of the show – love between the Father and daughter. May the Spirit of GOD move freely!


Senior Pastor’s (SP) new series of sermons
Divinely, SP’s new series of sermons on ‘JESUS is LORD’ is inlined with the 40 day prayer and fast booklet, which, to date, mentioned about Idolatry and Individualism.

Question: How do we prepare ourselves for this series of sermons?
--> Read, pray and fast according to the 40-day prayer booklet. The booklet guides us in identification and repentance of Idolatry, Individualism, Intellectualism etc
--> Reflect on your lives after reading each entry in the prayer booklet. No point reading through it without any reflection.
--> As you reflect, ask yourselves if JESUS is magnified in your
(1) Studies
Do you prioritize studies before GOD?
Are you non-chalant about your studies?
(2) Work/ Friendships
Do you conform to the patterns of the world? Gossips etc?
(3) Family
Do you honor your parents and love your siblings?

Miracle Catch Processing – by SP
SP didn’t concur to the idea of having 7-8 services during Miracle Weekend. He felt 3 is enough. Sounds oxymoron – SP wants us to rise up in faith, yet he seems ‘faithless’ that the church will not be overflowing. Is this so?

There are three types of people among our midst.

- Those who responded to take up the Miracle Catch challenge but didn’t have the faith to believe nor done much work to make it happen (a moment of excitement)

- Those who responded to take up the Miracle Catch. Truly believing GOD will make it happen and worked hard. But he/she lack certain skill sets which hinder the revival to come. For instance, he/she does not have an oikos. (A group of people whom you meet up weekly)

- Those who responded, prayed fervently and worked hard. Invited 20 friends but only 1 or 2 turned up. SP suggested that it could be because the ground is hard, and hence much more prayers need to be done. Also, unity of the Body of Christ is essential. We need to speak in one language, especially as a church.

Questions to ponder:
Which group do you belong to? Therefore, what is lacking? Faith, work or more prayers and unity is needed?

I sense dis-unity in this cell group due to nationality differences and age gap. Yet, I believe the Blood of Christ is all that we need to claim upon this cell group to birth forth a new level of unity among us.

Challenge yourself to spend some time understanding each other more.