HOPE FAMILY NEWS

Hope Seattle : 3^rd Anniversary of Hope Seattle

The theme of this year’s anniversary is “The Purpose of Life”. All of us were so excited in inviting people to this event and celebrate this occasion with us.

Our excitement must have been contagious! There were 34 people who attended the service and a total of 50 people joined us for the BBQ feast. The event started off with rain, but praise God that despite this, people still came. We also thank God that the rain made the weather so cool and nice.

All of us felt the presence of God in our midst, as we were worshiping the Lord and also listened to the harp from Connie Lim, God touched us in our spirit. We were also honoured to have a guest speaker, Dr. Bryan Johnson, who is the Dean of Seattle Bible College to bless us with an impacting and inspiring message about purpose of life.

Most of our visitors were seekers and the theme really caught their attention. One of our visitors told us that in his heart, he had always wondered about what was his purpose in life. Therefore, many questions were answered and we hope that he will make a step of faith to believe in God who gives him the purpose soon. The service ended with a great BBQ feast with lots of food to feed people. It was a great time of fellowship and everyone went back with their stomach full and their spirit uplifted.

Our family is truly blessed to be part of planting a church. It’s really a privilege and there have been many wonderful experiences seeing God’s hands upon people’s lives and witnessing transformation in the lives of so many people, even in ourselves. We believed it is God’s plan and purpose in our lives to be here and pastor this church, it’s truly an honour. We can’t wait to see what God has planned for His church in Seattle in the future.

Ps.JR, Warinda & Jada
Hope Seattle Website

Hope Hong Kong : Mother's Day Sunday Service

After a powerful praise and worship, there was a special presentation dedicated to our loving mothers. The kids from Sunday School sang a song to appreciate all the mothers.

They were very energetic and they sang with lovely actions. After the presentation, Chairperson Vicky invited the mothers to stand up and they all received flowers prepared by the care department.

A touching testimony was given by Candy and her daughter Man Yee. Candy shared how God had blessed her family. When Man Yee was 2-3 months old, she threw up suddenly after drinking milk, the vomit ran into her nose and her face turned purple as she could not breathe properly. Candy immediately removed the vomit without any hesitation; Candy thanked God that Man Yee was saved after this action. Man Yee also thanked God for the love and care of her mother and family. She had travelled to different countries and cities such as Seoul, Canada, the United States, Beijing, Bangkok, and Malaysia etc. She had also visited Hope of God Singapore and fellowshipped with the brothers and sisters over there. In 2004, the day she and her mother were baptised, her father accepted Christ. The whole family had accepted Christ and they always encourage one another by the word of God. Lastly, Candy gave thanks to the Lord that she could learn guitar with Man Yee together and glorify Him.

Before the sermon of "Mother's Love", Pastor Gavin blessed all the mothers by a prayer. Pastor Gavin shared the unforgettable and sacrificial love that Christ had given to us. The love and care of our Lord is unconditional and always full of compassion. The sermon concluded with the well known story "Footprints” that God always carries us to go through all suffering and trials, He never forsakes us.

After the service, we joined together to have lunch at a Chinese restaurant. During the lunch, all the mothers were asked to take photos with their children, and instant photos were presented to them as a gift. Praise the Lord for all the mothers and we were thankful for this memorable Mother's Day.

Dr Gavin & Ps Arlene Toh
Hope Hong Kong Website

Hope Kuching : Church Planting in Kazakhstan

Deric Law shared his vision for church planting and Kazakhstan. The church planting team landed in Kazakhstan in May 2007.

World mission has always been my burden ever since I joined the Hope of God movement; I believe church planting is the most effective way to fulfil the Great Commission and every Christian must play their part, either directly or indirectly, in planting a new church either. I had made a personal commitment to God to plant a strong and biblical church locally, nationally and internationally eleven years ago after the world mission church convention in KUCHING. This decision was the beginning of my conviction to plant a church in another country. I set out a goal to plant a church internationally before I turned 30. Initially, I chose Mongolia after having a vision of Jesus feeding the 5000 people and believe that God would enable me to help the 170 000 children with living in hunger in Mongolia.

The conviction to plant a church grew even stronger after my graduation and the mission trip to Ulan Bator, Mongolia in 2004. Then, I redirected my focus to plant a church in the land of Kazakhstan because Kazakhstan shares the same struggles of Mongolia and is strategically located in the centre of Central Asia, which would allow more churches to be planted in the region. God had brought different people who shared the burden for the nation to form the Kazakhstan Mission team. We prayed for God to add to our numbers and provide the goers with different gifts. One by one, God added to us people who were serious in planting Hope Kazakhstan. God never failed in providing us with the people and I know we can't do anything without His help.

I believe God has all the manpower and resources He needs in order to plant 1 million churches all over the world; only if we are willing to obey Him fully.

Hope Malacca : Outreach to African students

In November 2006, 100 students from Botswana, Africa came to study at the Multimedia University in Malacca. We were overjoyed as we received a vision to reach out to this group. We started with one Bostwanian brother, Lazarus, who has joined us for a year and we were all very excited.

We organised a Freshies’ Nite on the 1st week of the new semester. The Botswanians were very friendly and kind. We managed to reach out to about 30 of them. We invited them to Care groups, prayer meetings, Sunday services and most of the other church events, such as BBQ night, Bible Conference, MNC including the time of ministering with Brother Peter Troung from Brisbane. Some of the Africans were healed by God during the ministering time with brother Peter Troung.

We have seen the African brothers and sisters grow in their love for God and ministry involvement. Some of them gave their lives to God and rededicated their lives and commit themselves to the church.

Currently, we have more than 10 Botswanians that have started to capture the vision from God. God also blessed us with some Nigerians who came to our church without any formal outreach to them. We hope all our Africans brothers and sisters will continue to serve together with us in this vision and fulfil God’s plans for them in their lives.

David Lai

Hope Malacca, Malaysia