HOPE FAMILY NEWS
A New Yorker's vision for New York City
When I first stepped back into New York City again after 5 years of living in Thailand, I felt a little overwhelmed. In my heart I could see the vision that had driven me to come back here, to plant a church in NY. God had showed me a strong, growing church in NYC, raising up people of every nationality living in NY, and sending them out to plant churches all over the world....
But with my eyes, I saw thousands of incredibly diverse people, each with unique needs, and wondered how to reach them. I prayed,
"God, no one can reach this city but You. Please move in these people!"
Now, after living here for 3 months, we're starting to see God move- praise God! Within a month of my return to NY, Derrick arrived from Singapore and Ps. Albert and his family arrived from CA.
This is our core team as we're planting the church here. Everyone arrived by the end of August, and we started our care group at the beginning of September. God anointed our first care group by sending us a visitor from Columbia University. We continued to have a new visitor each week for the first 3 weeks. Since we had no room for Sunday, we met each week in the park but God blessed us with good weather! By the end of October, as soon as it got cold, God provided a room for us to use in Hunter College for Sunday service, and a room at Columbia Uni for care group.
In the past few weeks, we've had 5 visitors from Columbia at the care group! We believe that God will help us reach our goal of 15 people by the end of the month, and 25 people by the end of the year. We already have over 10 people who come regularly.
New York is a city with amazing potential. There are over 8 million people in the city, and about 20 million in the NY metropolitan area. There's incredible diversity here for example, on the lower east side alone, over 170 languages are spoken. There are about 2 million Jews here, the largest Jewish population outside of Israel. We also have the largest Puerto Rican population outside of Puerto Rico.
- Pray for wisdom, anointing, and more divine appointments as we plant the church here.
- Pray that we will be able to reach out to Americans effectively, as well as other nationalities in NY. If God is for us, who can be against us? Pray that the Spirit of God will bring freedom to NYC and God's vision will be fulfilled in this land!
Joan Collison
Hope New York, USA
Hope London 10th Anniversary
To celebrate our 10th Anniversary, we held it in a very nice hotel in Central London. We decided to glory God by putting on our best clothing – men in lounge suits and ladies in night gowns / dresses. This made the evening so much more special – most fitting for a very special occasion.
[View more photos]
Watch Anniversary Video
The raffle time was always a blast and we also gave out prizes for Outstanding Service and Outstanding Leadership to honour those who deserved them.
In lieu of a gospel message, I shared my story. I encouraged the members and guests that my story is also their story and everyone has a story to tell the world. They are God’s story and God gets the glory.
Our 10th Anniversary brings back so many memories. Since the first meeting of 4 people in May 1998 in the small living room of our 2-bed flat in North London, we had many firsts - our first public meeting in London City YMCA in August 1998, our first church camp in the same month and our first Christmas celebration in December 1998.
Although the memories of the many distant events are fading in my mind, the faces of the hundreds of people that came through the church are still vivid. Some were just visiting while on holidays; many, who were students or working in London, were with us for one, two, three, even five years. I thank them from the bottom of my heart for their contributions to the growth of this Hope family in London.
By God’s divine plan, quite a few have now got residency status or 5-year working permits. Together with the many locals who have joined us over the years, we now have a stable base to move the church forward.
In these 10 years, we have changed and matured into a local international church that is more relevant and attractive in 21st century London. We are excited about the next 10 years, because we believe that God will do greater things in the years to come. Amen!
Pastor PK & Kim Tse
Hope London, UK (Website)
Hope Kuala Lumpur 15th Anniversary
This September 21, 2008, Hope of God Kuala Lumpur turned 15. Starting as a child through a few humble pioneers, today Hope of God Kuala Lumpur has become a vibrant teenager with several centres in the Klang Valley, towns and cities around Malaysia, and branching to other parts of the world as well. The celebration was held at Dewan, Mutiara, situated amongst the rustic areas of Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur. The theme for this anniversary “For Such a Time as This” was very timely in view of the many troubling events happening both locally and around the world. It was a time to celebrate and remember God’s goodness and faithfulness throughout the 15 years that this movement was established. [View Anniversary Photos]
It was a nostalgic event with some slides featuring rarely seen photos of veteran Hope members; some dated back to the mid-90s, kick-started the event. The anniversary was a celebration of diversity with a blend of world cultures. The first event was a dance to the song “Shalom, Shalom Alechem, Havenue Shalom” (Greetings of Peace unto You), Malaysian style with a Middle Eastern music blend. A group of African brothers and sisters from Hope Serdang gave their rendition of praise songs in three languages (Igbo, Setswana and English) with an African beat. Like other African-style music with its pulsating beats, these songs made us feel like swaying and tapping along too. Next was the Hope of God PKC children came on stage to express praise to God through body gestures to the song “Hallelujah to the Lamb”. Indeed, it is amazing how God can work through a community of people from different backgrounds, cultures and ages.
We are certainly blessed to be part of this international movement. Thanks to technology we are able to hear greetings from Hope families and friends all over the world; from Kota Kinabalu, Singapore to beyond: such as Somata, Ibai, and Tukara.
Even though we are physically separated by distance, we are close to one another in heart and spirit, with the same love and vision for our Lord. We appreciated all our leaders for their love and efforts to God and His people. It was indeed their hard work that has seen many members remain faithful after all these years. There was also an awards session for members in the Hope of God Movement that have been with us for 10 and more years. Each recipient was given a plaque as an appreciation for their time being spent growing with the family. It was encouraging to see so many members who’ve held on to the family vision for so long.
There are still many tasks that need to be done in the times before Christ’s return. The sermon once again reminded us to recognise our purpose and destiny in God, using the story of Esther to encourage the congregation to plan for the years to come.
After the sermon, the congregation was presented with a multimedia, “Looking to the Future” which depicted life going through its different seasons. The rendition of Whitney Houston’s “When You Believe” was indeed pertinent for present times and the seasons ahead.
Overall, this celebration was a tribute to our Lord who has so faithfully blessed us in so many ways throughout our time with the movement. Starting as a seed in Hope KL, it has branched out to touch many lives. We will continue to remember His blessings for the coming years. Once again we give praise to our Lord.
Pastor Simon Eng
Hope Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (Website)
Hope Johannesburg : Women’s Conference
The conference brought together different women from various locations in Johannesburg. The theme of the conference was “Transformation through Christ” and covered topics from salvation to learning about how to transform our finances.
The total attendance of the two days at the Rand Park Golf Club was 84 with a handful of men also participating. The four Speakers were our very own Ps Lerato Sebata whose focus was financial transformation. The conference ended with people responding to the Word of God and praying for transformation of their personal lives. We are following up on the participants who have said that they don’t attend a local church.
Pastor Henry & Lerato Sabata Hope Johannesburg, South Africa
Hope Hong Kong: Couples's Day
Facilitated by the Care Department, aimed to strengthen the relationship of couples with Christ at the centre, the Hope Couples' Day was held at the club house of Apex with over 15 couples participating.
After the joyful and lively Praise and Worship session led by Brother Tony, Pastor Gavin opened the event. He enlightened the couples by introducing the theme of the day, "What do you have to do to fill the love tank of your spouse?" He started with
1 Corinthians 13:4-8, "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."
He stressed that the couples needed to learn from the Lord and worked together to fill each others’ love tank. He also showed us the various practical ways to fill our spouse’s love tanks.
After the orientation, the couples were divided into four groups: husbands' groups and wives' groups and then divided into married for more, and less than 5 years. Each group had to share and brainstorm suitable activities that would be good to fill the love tank of their spouses.
The followings lists out what each group presented:
- Wives' group (Married for less than 5 years)
- Wives' group (Married for more than 5 years)
- Husbands' group (Married for less than 5 years)
- Husbands' group (Married for more than 5 years)
The presentations stimulated the couples to further the discussion with enthusiasm. At the end, Pastor Gavin urged the couples to put what they had learnt into practice. He also poured water into a tank to show how it worked. His wish is that all the couples will always have a full tank filled with the love of the Lord. Surely, the couples were joyful and left with a filled tank and a wish that the next gathering would come soon!
Pastor Gavin & Pastor Arlene Toh
Hope Hong Kong (Website)
Hope Brisbane Afternoon Service
Hi everyone, my name is Wen An. This is my wife Lillian. We are part of the leadership team of Hope Brisbane Christian Church Afternoon service. In 2004, we were commissioned by the leadership team to pioneer another service for our church and we started out with about 100 people.
Over the last few years, God has been adding to our service and we now see about 300 and more at our weekly service. Since the very beginning, we realised that the target group that we wanted to reach out was people aged between 17 and 35 years old. That means it comprised mostly of young people and working adults. As such, we realised that this group of people value friendships and relationships a lot and thus we were determined to build many small, vibrant, faith-filled and God loving communities within the larger community of the service.
Video Interview
We’re very glad to say that by the grace of God, we have numerous group meetings in 14 locations every single week. Over the years, God has blessed us with a number of married couples and babies and in the future, we pray that God will teach us how to impact more young families.
We had prayed to be used by God to plant churches in Brisbane, the whole of Queensland and to the ends of the earth and God has blessed our prayers. Last year, a team of three reinforced Hope Gold Coast, this year a team of four set out to plant a new centre in a city called Ipswich, which is 30 minutes from Brisbane.
Next year, we have a sister joining the Hope Montreal team and we’re preparing to launch another team to plant another centre at Chermside in Greater Brisbane. Whew….what an answered prayer with so many young people wanting to fulfil God’s Great Commission. If you asked me whether it was possible a few years ago, I would have said “only in God with His possibilities”.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the leaders and mentors in our midst. Without their efforts, I don’t think we will be where we are as well and most importantly, we just really want to thank God for the wonderful opportunities that he has given us.
We truly believe that we in a ground that is very fertile and just ready for God to use (All the young people and the young professionals). Our prayer is for God to use us to touch many in the workplaces and to bring us to different parts of the world. We really believe that God has placed us in a good place. So, we really thank God for that and GOD bless.
Pastor Wen'an & Lillian Zhu
Hope Brisbane, Afternoon Service (Website)
