HOPE FAMILY NEWS - MAY

HOPE SERDANG: NEPAL MISSION TRIP 2008

The mission trip to Nepal from the 26th of January to the 1st of February was the result of two businessmen from Hope Kuching, Brother Anthony Chiew, Jeff Leong, and Hope Sedang’s Pastor Kit Siang and his wife Shara’s response to the call of God.

The objectives set for the trip were:

• To strengthen the core team in Kathmandu;
• To scout for business opportunities in Kathmandu; and
• To encourage our seed person (Bro Pawan) in Pokhara.

The team encouraged Hope Kathmandu during the Saturday Service in Bhaktapur. Ps Kit Siang inspired people to be faithful to God and His church from the life of Ruth. At the end of the service, Bro Jeff Leong prophesied on each member. The congregation consisted of about 30 adults and 20 children. He also shared a vision from God and urged the members to continue to advance God’s kingdom there.

Over the next few days, the team visited the Malaysian Embassy, Nepal’s Department of Commerce, Bank of Kathmandu, schools and business places. The team also assessed the business acumen of the church members in Kathmandu. Bro Anthony and Jeff gave them basic training on how to run a business. They challenged the people to discover whether they have God’s calling to be a businessman. They also shared various personal testimonies concerning God’s blessings when they served God wholeheartedly according to God’s calling.

At the end of the training, Bro Prakash (Hope Kathmandu’s coordinator) responded to serve God wholeheartedly in building Hope Kathmandu and trust God to provide financially for him and family.

Apart from the business training, the team also visited one of the care groups. Sis Shara also conducted a sisters’ fellowship with the core sisters. She encouraged them to be supportive to their husbands, especially in the ministry, and to take up greater roles and responsibilities in serving God according to their giftings. Bro Pawan came to meet us in Kathmandu. We encouraged him to fulfil his desire for God which was to start a care group in Pokhara.

Indeed, it is the grace of God that enabled the team to complete the trip joyfully though they faced the cold winter, dusty air, the garbage littered surroundings, chaotic traffic and physical illnesses. Through this trip, God renewed all of us with a heart of compassion for the poor and those who are lost without hope in Him.

Reported by: Shara Tan, Hope Serdang

HOPE EUROPE: MISSION TRIP TO MOSCOW

This month marks a major milestone in my life because 20 years ago, on the 27th of March 1988, I came to know Christ at Hope of Bangkok Church. The moment I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Saviour is still clear in my mind: a tremendous sense of peace and joy overwhelmed me. I celebrated my 20th spiritual birthday with a mission trip to Moscow.

Before the flight to Moscow, I joined Hope Western Europe’s Easter Fest at Northamptonshire, England, on the theme “Kingdom United”. With 142 participants, it was the biggest Easter camp ever for Hope Western Europe. Throughout the four days and three nights, the campers enjoyed the tangible presence of God, life-transforming Word of God and joyous activities. It was one of the most memorable events so far this year, for not only me, but for many people. Following the Easter camp was my journey to Moscow, the capital city of Russia.

The most populous nation in Europe

Covering one sixth of the earth surface and home to 142 million people, Russia is the most spacious country in the world and the most populous nation in Europe. The country has been a significant influence on the former Soviet states for seven decades. Russia is therefore absolutely a prime target of our church planting. The purpose of my trip to Moscow was to get to know the people, the culture, and the church life in the country and to visit a sister from Hope Malaysia who is studying there.

The only official religion is Greek Orthodox while other religions and beliefs are more or less considered cults. I had a chance to visit an Orthodox church on Sunday and found that most of the attendees were elderly people. The younger generation have become more materialistic with Moscow recently being ranked as the most expensive city in the world for expatriates. Though the cost of living is high while the average income is not, Muscovites enjoy spending money for pleasures. My visit to Moscow lasted eight days. A brother from Hope Bangkok who had a passionate burden for Russia flew from Bangkok to join me there.

The first challenge a foreigner will face when arriving in Russia is communicating with the people. Most Russians only speak Russian and not English. All the signs are only in Russian which uses Cyrillic and not Roman alphabets.

Do you have any idea what the metro station sign is? It reads PARTIZANSKAYA.

International Christian Assembly

I was invited by a Malaysian sister to share the Bible at two meetings of the Malaysian Fellowship, belonging to the ICA (International Christian Assembly), most of who were medical students. The topic of my message was unity.

Later on the leaders of the group shared with me that the theme was timely and relevant. Praise be to God for His divine guidance. I had the privilege to learn from Ps Kevin, the church’s senior pastor; and his wife, Sandy, who also visited the group, about the mission in Russia. As per his kind invitation, I shared a testimony at the church’s Sunday services about what God has been doing in Hope churches, and especially in Thailand. Many people were touched and approached me at the end of the meetings.

Divine appointments in Moscow

Before the trip, I prayed for divine appointments and the Lord graciously granted my request. At the hostel where I stayed, I got to know so many nice people. Among them were a German man from Hamburg, a city where we are working hard to start a group; a friendly Irish lady from Dublin, another target of our church planting in the near future; and a Serbian man who’s planning to move to Barcelona, Spain, another mission target in the next few years. We exchanged our contact information. I even had a chance to share the love of Christ to some of them. Also, one of my Singaporean roommates turned out to be a friend of a sister in Hope London. This is amazing, isn’t it?

I have learned from this trip that we never know what God has in store for us. Think smart, work hard and pray hard. Do your best and God will take care of the rest.

May God bless you all.

Together in the Vision,
Prakich Treetasayuth

HOPE LAGUNA, PHILIPPINES’ 5TH ANNIVERSARY

We celebrated our 5th Anniversary with over 170 people on a beautiful Sunday in the Philippines. The atmosphere was powerful, filled with excitement and expectations.

We were truly blessed to have Dr Eunice Tan (wife of Pastor Soradej) from Hope Manila to preach on the topic “Being Rooted in Christ.” The sermon was taken from Matthew 13:3-9.

Dr Eunice shared some practical thoughts on how to have a more blessed life by building a strong relationship with Jesus and being deeply rooted in the word of God.

Thank God for eighteen people who decided to surrender their lives to Jesus and accept Him as their personal Lord and Saviour.

Henry & Hani, Hope Luguna, Philippines

THAILAND REFUGEE CAMP MINISTRY

Hope Brisbane and Hope Gold Coast Centre sent a mission team to Thailand for two weeks (31st December till 10th January 2008). The mission team ministered in an orphanage called Bann Fan Sighy, a two hour drive from Chiang Mai. They also conducted healing meetings at a Karen refugee camp called Maelaoon in the mountains, near the Thai and Myanmar border.

(Photo: Thailand Mission Team)

Thailand Refugee Camp Ministry (Video)

Pastor Lance and Belle Wolter were leading a multicultural team of 12 people born in Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Malaysia. The mission team worked with Effective Aid organisation in the refugee camp. .

[View Mission Photos Website]

Preaching Good News at Refugee Camp

The whole team preached at the refugee camp; some members preached for the very first time! We were all captivated by 1000 people who came to the meeting place at the refugee camp. Some sessions saw the whole meeting place full and overflowing!

Renee (an Australian university student) and Ngoc (a Vietnamese physiotherapist) made everybody cry with their real stories that the Karen refugees could really connect with. Renee’s shared how God helped her trust him through the sudden and tragic death of her parents two years ago. 38 orphans who had lost parents in the war responded with many tears to ask God to heal them. Ngoc, a former refugee from Vietnam and now serving God as a physiotherapist, shared how the Lord helped her forgive the Vietnamese government for the hardships they caused her family. She also shared the hope that was made possible by God to succeed in a second country.

The Power of God came down

According to Pastor Ian, we were apparently the first team ever to come to the camp where none of the team got sick: we created HISTORY! Apparently, it has been many years since the meeting place was this full and the children had never worshipped that passionately.

There were two, three year olds who were in tears as they worshipped Jesus with all their hearts! This camp had never seen so many miracles and neither had we!

The miracles at refugee camp

• Many people’s bad/partial hearing was restored and we saw people who were completely deafness fully healed!
• Chest pains were healed!
• Skin rashes, infections, irritations were healed!
• Sore joints, backs, ankles, knees, bones were no longer sore
• Kidney pains gone!
• Hips back in place allowing people to stand upright!
• Countless headaches disappeared!
• An Animist gave his heart to the Lord!
• Feeling and nerves were restored so people could feel again!
• Ear infections or water ears were healed
• Eye infections/diseases healed
• Lumps/tumours removed
• Various swollen joints and lumps were removed
• Stomach and pelvis pain healed.

There was one man with severe burn marks on his face and pus-filled sores on his head. Lance felt challenged to place his hands on him and show Christ’s love and pray for him. Praise God that the man’s face was healed from the scars and the sores dried up.

We prayed for a blind animist, who has yet to be healed, but he received Christ as his Lord and Saviour! We also prayed for an ex-Karen soldier who lost his leg in the war. His leg is still missing, but by faith, we gave him a pair of shoes to try on each day he prays!

Many refugees responding to Jesus


Furthermore, the alter call was so big in the first session that we actually broke half the stage!

Elise cut her foot but amazingly the people were so desperate for God, they stayed on the terribly slanted stage as if nothing had happened! Apparently they didn’t want to lose their place in the crowd of people waiting to receive prayer.

On the last session, Lance held an alter call for people wanting to be trained as
missionaries, evangelists, leaders and to go back to Burma, or sacrifice their lives for Christ. Over 130 people dedicated their lives for service. And God is still blowing us away with the testimonies from the team.

A fulfilled Prophecy

Ps Lance and I recieved a prophecy confirming we would get a breakthrough in miracles and healing at the Prophetic Conference a year ago.

In fact one of the team leaders called Julie played me a tape of prophecy she had received in 1997. The prophet John Jack stated that he saw her serving in a village with children and people who had faced turmoil and hardship. He even described her going up a hill on a mountain and described in detail the colour of their clothes. She did not plan for the mission trip to fulfil this prophecy and in fact she only remembered the prophecy while she was at the camp. When she went home to find the tape she was completely overwhelmed with God’s sovereignty and grace for her life.

The grace of God

God is sovereign; I am constantly amazed by God’s grace. The journey and stories we shared has had a wonderful ripple effect: telling our bosses, our workplaces, and people on the street, and telling of the wonders that God has done to friends and family.

Pastor Lance & Belle Wolter
Hope Gold Coast, Australia

HOPE BANGKOK MUSIC MINISTRY: MISSION TRIP

BLESSINGS FROM OUR WORSHIP TEAM MISSION TRIP TO MAHASARAKHAM PROVINCE April 5-6th, 2008.

Asher, along with the rest of his team from Hope of Bangkok Worship Team was sent to share their knowledge and skills on worship to the worship teams of Hope Bangkok’s daughter churches in Mahasarakham, Roi Edd and Yasotorn.

They spent several days together imparting the spirit of worship as well as teaching various skills and techniques to the musicians, dancers and singers.

God was with the team from the very beginning as they started to worship; people started to sense God’s strong presence. Hearts began to be transformed and people were inspired to devote their lives to serve God and be willing to learn and develop more skills to serve God and their church.

Worship Ministry at Hope Camp 2008 (Video)

Hope Bangkok Worship Training

The session on “How to move in spirit through music?” was full of content. Asher and his team taught the group how to play music with dynamics. They also shared tips with the singers and trained them in how to sing harmony and use their voices to support the worship team.

Everyone in the session had a great time as they warmed up their voices, performed ear tests and sound balancing, and learning to sing songs in alto, tenor and soprano. All who took part in the class really enjoyed themselves.

The dance team was given basic training how to warm up before performances, basic foot pointing and hand positions as well as many meaningful poses for praise and worship songs.

Hope Bangkok Music Training

The acoustic guitar team shared on sound control and how to adjust their playing to suit the different atmospheres in worship through using the appropriate chords. They also taught how to make the music sound more dynamic. The Drum section taught basic beats frequently used in praise and worship songs. In the bass guitarist section, people learnt the correct finger positions. The electric guitar section taught scales. The keyboarding session shared on chords, scales and to choose sounds for different worship atmospheres.

The whole band spent more time focusing on how to move in the spirit through various worship atmospheres with four chords, two chords, and single chords.

Life transformation through worship

Through the deeper atmosphere of worship, people truly had a deeper intimacy with God.

Even the worship team itself has been greatly encouraged while the teams in daughter churches have been challenged to give their lives and put more effort in serving our God. Many have told the team that they learned a lot of new things over the two days. This trip has been one of their greatest experiences and their vision has been broadened. PRAISE THE LORD for this fruitful mission trip! You will never know how much God can use you until you step out in faith. So let all of us take part in extending his kingdom through the gifts that God has given us and bring God's love to others!

For for information about Worship Ministry:

Pastor Prayuth Sariman
Email: kenny_letsworship@yahoo.co.th
Worship Ministry Website

“WHAT PROMPTED YOU TO TAKE STEP TO BE A TENTMAKER?

This is the question we asked of our seven tentmakers who are replacing our teams in South America. They are in the midst of preparing and are landing between August to November this year. Continue to support them in prayers and may they inspire you to take a bold step in your walk with God.

Timothy Ho Shen Teng, Hope Quito

As a Christian, my primary goal in life is to know God better and I believe that I should be obedient to the Bible’s command to be involved in missions and building churches.

I have experienced the goodness of God in many areas of my life in Singapore and I hope to grow deeper in my walk with God by taking up more challenges in the missions field. I read Jim Elliot’s biography of how he sacrificed his life in Ecuador while doing missions work and how his wife returned to the same tribe who killed her husband to share the gospel. The theme of forgiveness is so strong in this real life story and it inspires me to forgive and love people. Reading stories of such missionaries stirs my heart and propels me to do something more for God. I believe my experiences with God will be deepened and broadened as I exercise the faith to obey the Great Commission in another nation.

Liaw Peiru, Hope Quito

I enjoy understanding new cultures and learning new languages. So receiving Christ in Hope Church, a church with a huge vision to plant strong and biblical churches around the world, seems very much a part of God's plan for me!

Having experienced so much of God's goodness and love, I desire to live a life that pleases Him and to share His love with others. As I take steps to share Christ with others, I have experienced the tremendous joy of seeing lives touched and transformed by God. I know that it does not stop here as God's desire is for the world. I believe that the best way to fulfill the Great Commission (to not just share Christ, but disciple them), is by church planting. It will not be an easy journey, but I definitely look forward to the many wonderful experiences of faith and intimacy that I will have with Jesus as I serve Him in another country!

Teoh Teck Keong, Hope Lima

During the Global Community Church Camp in 2002, God spoke to me. Back then I was serving as a core team member in the care group. God revealed to me that many times I served out of convenience and chose what I liked to serve and THAT was half-hearted serving.

God’s word came to me and challenged me to die to my personal preferences, desires and plans. “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” That word really shook my world because it is a hard thing to do. I loved myself too much. At that point the Holy Spirit touched me. I was overwhelmed by the great immensity of God’s love for my life. I then submitted to the Holy Spirit and chose to obey Him fully, by serving others and fulfilling the Great Commission. To respond specifically, I committed to God that I would devote to training myself in character and skills to build strong and biblical people and churches in Singapore and all over the world. I made a personal commitment that by the age of 30 I would step out in faith to plant the first church for God outside of Singapore. I am landing in Lima one month before I turn 30 this year. While I keep to my commitment to God, the more important thing is that God has changed me from being self-serving to God-loving. I love to serve God’s people now. I love to see God’s vision come to pass in my lifetime. I do NOT want to be a spectator from afar. It is so much more exciting to be in it and to be a part of it. I want to be in that excitement….

Chong Siew Yee, Hope Lima

God is not silent in calling us to touch lives if our heart is eager to hear His direction. During the 2002 Faith Church camp in Thailand, God spoke to me to plan for my life. Since then I committed myself to going church planting in 5 years’ time.

Two years after the camp, the passion and spirit of going died down and this made me feel a lack of purpose as a Christian especially during the first year of working life. But I never forgot my commitment. I prayed and fasted to confirm my plan with God again. In 2 consecutive years, God spoke to me through Matthew 28:19-20, and Acts 1:8 regarding spreading the Good News to the “nations” and “all over the world”, it once again confirmed God’s calling for me to go out of Singapore, to any part of the world to share His love. It was so timely that our church was looking for a replacement team for Peru and other South America countries. So I decided to join the Peru church to continue the works and effort that our pioneer team faithfully put in. My decision for going is simply a result of obeying His Word and seeking His plan for my life continuously.

Shawn Liu, Hope Santiago

There are actually many reasons for me in making this decision, but what recently caught my thoughts and reaffirmed my tent-making decision was a chapter in the book, Ready For Battle by R. Arthur Mathews.

The author emphasized on the issue of urgency in the teaching statement Christ made in Matthew 9:37, ‘Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.’ The harvest is in fact ready for harvest, but the author noticed that while many churches are confused over priorities, the enemies of Christ are already out there reaping with sharpened sickles and infusing societies with false religions, materialism and all sorts of heresies. Therefore, we need to see the urgency in Christ's following statement in verse 38, "Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." and start reaping lives that belongs to the real owner!

Christine Ng, Hope Santiago

I have always seen myself as a globetrotter. Since young, I have been fascinated by different cultures and I have always felt that I was made for more than just living life in tiny Singapore.

I had wanted to do global community work - to contribute and do my part for this world as I just didn't quite see myself as a tent maker then. However, during one church camp, I felt challenged by God – to impact the world for a greater cause. I was hesitant initially and I struggled with the idea as I didn't think I was up to it. But eventually I decided to obey Him because He has called us all to go and fulfil the Great Commission. And that wasn't going on my own strength and abilities but the Lord's. His Strength is made perfect in my weakness. And I am able because He has enabled me to.

Karen Wong Jiexian, Hope Santiago

The first time I was convicted to go church planting was during a church service some years back.

I heard a video testimony of a brother from Hope Johannesburg who shared how he came to know God through some brothers and sisters who went all the way from Singapore to South Africa to plant a church there. His testimony really moved me and inspired me to play a part in fulfilling the Great myself prepared to go by then. In March 2007, during the missions Commission. Throughout these years, my desire to go church planting continued to grow. In 2004 I wrote in my 5-year plan that I would go church planting in 2009 and also planned what I needed to do to get conference in our church, I was praying for God to reveal to me a country to go to. I vividly remembered that it was during the praise and worship that God impressed upon my heart to go to Chile! God is indeed amazing! Somehow He opened the door for me to go to Chile at the end of 2008 (one year earlier than my plan)! Praise God!

Their testimonies reveal that it was in church camps, missions conference, books and testimonies that they first were convicted of a call to missions. They also personalised passages in the Bible. And for many of them, they set a timeframe as to when to go as they continually respond to God’s prompting and directions. May their examples inspire us to be always open to God’s call and be deliberate in realising them in our lives.

Source : www.hopesingapore.org.sg/missions