HOPE FAMILY NEWS
HOPE SINGAPORE : ADULTS CAMP “ACTSperience”
I have just returned from our Adults Camp in Shah Alam (Malaysia). There were so many blessings from this camp. There were 636 adults attended the camp. I will just share a few of these moments:
One distinct thing in this camp was the yearning in many hearts to seek God. From Day 1, the hunger and the desire for God was so evident. Many people were worshipping and praying with all their hearts. God will surely bless us when we have a hunger and seeking heart.
The next blessing was the closeness in the fellowship that I could sense throughout the entire camp. The time in KL city was really fun. Many people told me that it had been a long time since they enjoyed themselves so thoroughly with their care groups.
Mark and Sarah’s BGR testimony was superb. I shall never forget the honesty and humour and openness. It was such a blessing! Mark shared about how he trusted God to provide a life partner for him and God's faithfulness in bringing Sarah into his life. He also shared about God's blessings as both Sarah and he continue to allow God to lead them in this relationship.
Pastor Simon & I generally shared about the importance of care groups (CG) and challenge all of us step out in faith to build our CG to be strong, biblical and united to do even greater things for God.
Next, Pastor Simon’s altar call was really powerful. The presence of God was so tangible. If it was not for time constraints, we could have gone on for hours.
Special highlights at the camp:
- ACTSperience KL where each CG roamed around KL and did things together as a CG for a time of fellowship and fun.
- The mascot and flag parade during the Opening Ceremony where each CG displayed and showcased the mascot and flag they have created which represents their CG.
- Praise & Worship Nite where we all had an extended, intense and spiritually charged session of Praise & Worship.
Many thanks to everyone for making this camp a crowning glory for Jesus! Our adults group and the whole church are certainly moving forward with Jesus. Great Kingdom work awaits us all. [View more camp photos]
Pastor Jeffrey Chong
Hope Singapore Church (Website)
HOPE SANTIAGO : CHILE MISSIONS
Hi everyone, my name is Ee Lee.
I’ve been in Santiago, Chile for one year now. Here are some of the pictures taken in Chile. Here are two of our sisters with our church banner. Next are some of the activities we do together.
Watch Video Testimony
Establishing a strong core team
We had a spiritual retreat in which we had some experiential learning and did some community work together. At the retreat, we also cooked and ate together. There were also many special events held like our Chinese cultural event. The church went through some rough patches two years ago, but thanks to God, things have been picking up since. We are seeing new people joining us consistently and growing in the Lord. One of them is Walter; you can read his testimony in our church missions website. We are currently in the process of establishing a strong core team.
This trip has been very rewarding to me. I’ve gone through some ups and downs over there. Today, allow me to share with you some of my struggles and how the Lord encouraged me through them.
Adjusting to the new culture
The first few weeks were bliss; it was like a honeymoon for me. However after the first month, the reality of living in a foreign country sunk in. I had to learn everything from scratch. It was quite a humbling experience for me. I had to learn simple things like taking a bus, ordering food, making new friends, learning how to work etc. Learning the language was a great struggle for me. I enjoy talking, thus not being able to communicate is difficult for me. I also had to adapt to some of the differences in lifestyle and culture in Chile. For example, in Singapore, we can just takeaway food from the hawker centre; there is no need to cook. Over in Santiago, I didn’t realise that I had to spend so much time doing mundane things like housework and cooking. Despite not being a particularly good cook, I had to spend a lot of time cooking and cleaning, week in, week out. Once while I was cutting carrots, I was murmuring. I kept complaining, ¨God what am I doing here? ¨ I started comparing my new life to the one I had in Singapore. I complained, “God I am not here to cut vegetables, I am here to build your church!¨ Then I heard the voice of the Holy Spirit, “Ee Lee, are you only willing to do the big things for me?” That really struck me. It was the moment of truth. Am I only willing to serve the Lord in the things that I like or the seemingly big things?
The verse in Colossians 3:23 says: Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men spoke to me. That means even when I am cutting carrots, I am cutting carrots for the Lord. The Lord calls me to be faithful. I learn to be content in whichever situation I am in.
Encouragement from the Holy Spirit
Another major aspect is my inadequacies and my expectations for myself. I realised that I could be quite hard on myself at times. I remembered feeling very down one night after a care group meeting. I taught in the care group and the teaching was flat.
It did not connect to the Chileans. I prepared the teaching for a long time but it still did not turn out well. At that point of time, I felt like a loser. Besides the teaching, I felt that I could not do many things well. After so many months, I still could not communicate with the Chileans. I tried playing the guitar but it did not turn out as I had expected. My cooking was bad. And I felt inadequate in my new job too. I just felt very lousy. Again, the Holy Spirit spoke into my heart. This time I heard his reassuring words: “it’s ok, Ee Lee. Don’t take yourself so seriously.” I realised that I indeed had been taking myself too seriously. Hearing the Holy Spirit saying “it’s ok,” these words seemed to liberate me. The encouragement from the Holy Spirit helped change my perspective. I learn not to be so uptight and learnt to laugh at myself. Thus when things go wrong or whenever I did not perform up to my expectation, I just tell myself “its ok, try again.”
If given a chance, I would do it all again! I’ve learnt many lessons that I wouldn’t have learnt if I stayed in Singapore. I’ve enjoyed this experience very much, especially getting to know and live with the Chileans. We believe that together, we will build a strong biblical people to plant strong and biblical churches in Chile, in South America and all over the world.
By Ee Lee Tan
Visit Hope Singapore Missions Website
HOPE HONG KONG: NEW CHURCH VENUE
On May 25, 2008, we finally ventured into our new realm! Over 500 brothers, sisters and friends excitedly gathered at the new Hope Centre at 5/F Chinachem Tsuen Wan Plaza on this special Sunday morning. Our graceful God has blessed us with this wonderful, well-equipped and spacious place, and also gave us a united team of faithful brothers and sisters who has been working and praying so hard to make this happen. Praise the Lord!
The new Hope Centre, as Pastor Gavin says, exhibits God's greatest love, kindness and providence to His church, infiltrating it with His majesty, magnificence and marvellous deeds. We shall make good use of this blessing from God to expand his great Kingdom!
The service opened with a very powerful session of Praise and Worship led by Brother Allen. The Holy Spirit filled this new house of God while brothers and sisters praised the great name of our Lord. Afterwards, Brother Louis shared with us how God has blessed him financially. Although he lacked faith in tithing at first, Brother Louis, through God, overcame this weakness. After that, God faithfully provided him with all his needs. He even received an 11% pay rise! Praise our faithful Lord. As He has promised, when we first seek His kingdom, He will provide us with everything that we need.
Pastor Gavin then gave a sermon titled 'Your Obedience: to build the house of God'. To build the house of God, obedience to God's will is very important. It takes the obedience of the whole church to do so.
When all ministries join together in unity, we can build up the body of Christ to the full. Obedience must also be coupled with reverence to God, so that we will genuinely obey God's commands from our hearts, out of love for God's church and people. Even when we have everything, the most important thing is that the Holy Spirit does not depart from our hearts. If we walk with Him, we can promptly obey and allow God to lead us. When the whole congregation are united in genuine and prompt obedience, God will lead us to the right direction, and we can truly build the house for Him! Are we ready?
At the alter call, seven new souls were touched by God. Praise Him! Let us continue to pray for more men in our army to build God's kingdom! This is truly a great beginning. We are sure that God has planned much more great things ahead for us! We are ready!
Pastor Gavin & Pastor Arlene Toh
Hope Hong Kong (Website)
HOPE PENANG: NORTHERN MALAYSIA CAMP
This year’s Northern Malaysian Camp was held at the Eagle Bay Hotel in Langkawi from the 6th to 8th of June. The theme was “Back to Basics”. We were truly blessed to have Pastor David Chen from Hope Bangkok as the keynote speaker for this camp.
Pastor David’s life testimonies were superb. We will never forget the humour and all the amazing things that God has done in his life. We were really amazed at the great love that Pastor David has for God which drives him to serve God fully despite of the persecution he endured. “If you love God and if you love yourself, then serve God”, he challenged us. Pastor David’s altar call was very powerful too. He spent extra time ministering to the people after his preaching on Saturday night. Most of us responded as God spoke right to our hearts.
The Praise and Worship sessions were awesome. The energy level was so high, we rocked the whole island! It was great to praise and worship God in such an energetic manner. The workshops were such an eye opener. We were deeply encouraged by Sister Christine and Pastor Kenawang’s sharing on how we can maintain a consistent spiritual walk with God.
Pastor Laurence taught us how to love each other as a family in the church. Pastor David’s workshop on the discipleship process and the five fold ministry has further motivates us to do better for our care groups.
Finally the B2B night (Back to basics night) was a night to remember. The competition was great as the teams tried to impress our judges, Simon, Randy and Pauline. All the four teams came up with very creative sketches, entertaining and with a clear message:
“Let’s go back to basics” which refers to the 7 characteristics of Hope:
- A church of vision,
- A church of teaching,
- A church of prayer and worship,
- A church of training leaders,
- A church of love and fellowship,
- A church full of the Holy Spirit
- A church of evangelism and missions
In a nutshell, the camp was very refreshing as our Pastors imparted to us the core values of Hope Church, something that binds us together in this happy family of God. [View more camp photos]
Written by Fong Wai Mei, Hope Penang
HOPE BRISBANE: A COMMUNITY CHURCH
Building God’s Kingdom together
June 27-29 saw all the services from Hope Brisbane and Hope Gold Coast gather together for a time of fellowship and learning about it means to be part of ‘A Community Church’. Members had been given a preview the week before with sermons on the Significance of a Community Church.
Watch Video of "A Community Church"
Saturday saw Pastor Willie, Pastor Lai Ling and Pastor Wilson talk about various aspects of a community church ranging from relationships principles in God’s community to signs of disunity in the church.
Church service on the Sunday was held in two rooms at the University of Queensland to accommodate for the large attendance. Pastor Willie Tan shared on the "Advantages of a Community Church. Lunch after service was an excellent opportunity for life groups to put what they’ve learnt into practice.
The importance of balance was highlighted in the final sessions with Pastor Wilson preaching about the need for appropriate portions of activities to avoid going to extremes. Pastor Lance concluded the Conference taught about the activities that are effective in building a Community Church and the need for these activities to accommodate the spiritual, physical and emotional needs of members. [View more photos]
To end the conference, Pastor Wenan handed out gifts to all speakers plus awards for the best life group stories to the talented writings in the congregation. A Community Church Conference was extremely relevant for all ministries in Hope Brisbane and paved the way for unity and devotion to a united body of Christ.
Testimony written by Trung Tang
