FAMILY NEWS APRIL 2009
Hope United Kingdom Festival 2009
Hope Fest (Feast / Festival) is one of the highlights of Hope UK churches, held during the Easter weekend. This year, we had a record attendance of 205, which included a member from Hope Utrecht (The Netherlands).
[Hope Fest photos website]
We had 4 days & 3 nights in a very scenic and peaceful camp site in the middle of England, which was ideal for our churches coming from different parts of the UK – Leeds, Birmingham, Nottingham, Ealing, Hatfield and London.
Watch Hope Fest 2009 Video
The theme of the Fest was Radiance, and the teachings were based on A Glorious Church. As it happened, our very first camp 10 years ago was also on A Glorious Church, but the attendance was a humble 23 people then. Looking back, we were grateful for God’s help in growing our churches. When I looked at the leaders of our churches today, they had been faithful with very small things since day one, and I could see how God had honoured and blessed them!
The camp had a full and balanced programme of spiritual and fun-filled activities. Evening sessions were always great time in ministering and challenging. Through high worship and inspiring teachings, people’s hearts were open and responsive.
- 13 people came to faith in Christ, and many were baptised in the Holy Spirit. 15 new believers got water baptised in front of a large gathering of witnesses. It was a joy to see how God’s people were so excited about Him!
This year’s Easter also coincided with the Songkran “water” Festival in Thailand. Our Thai people had a lot of fun spraying one another with water guns and other implements they could find. They also surprised me as a “senior” by taking turn to pour scented water on my hands out of respect. It was quite a touching scene!
It was a spiritual holiday for all our people. It was a blessed time for us to come together in celebration and thanks-giving to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. People were already talking about next year’s Hope Fest. We might have a nice problem of having to look for a bigger camp site!
Your brother in Christ,
Pastor PK & Kim
Hope London - UK
Hope Hong Kong Easter Service
It is the time of the year to celebrate the victory of Jesus over death! On Easter Sunday, over 400 brothers and sisters and friends gathered together for this special event at Hope Centre in Tsuen Wan. It was a combined service with HK, Youth, Filipino, and Thai Group. In light of the worldwide financial crisis, the service was themed 'A Blessed Return' it was a surely blessed one.
We were welcomed into Hope Centre and we all received a copy of the 'Blessed Return' publication a collection of more than 70 powerful testimonies of our brothers and sisters who have experienced God's wonderful blessings in different ways. Thank God for all the hard work of our brothers and sisters, and most importantly our Lord.
After partaking communion, we enjoyed a short drama, it portrayed a television show which analysed the effects of the worldwide financial crisis, illustrating how it affected the lives of many, no matter whether one has invested in the market. The skit brought much laughter among the congregation. Praise God! Towards the end of the drama, the 'host' poses the congregation a question how can we invest in order to get a good 'return'?
With an idea of where a 'good return' can come from, Pastor Gavin then gave his sermon 'A Blessed Return', telling how we should invest, explaining what were unwise investments, as opposed wise ones. In the world today we will always be facing all kinds of 'attractive' investment opportunities and other things of the world. But Pastor Gavin warned us to watch out for greed, as it would bring danger and inevitably disappointment. In fact, the wisest investment is to be a giver and a follower of Christ! Jesus has laid down his life for us. Why can't we give a small effort to bless others? God has promised us a great return that we will receive full blessings, confidence, power, providence, prosperity, love, hope, peace, joy and reward in heaven. At the altar call, 13 new souls were touched by the Lord on this special occasion to receive Christ! Praise the Lord!
Pastor Gavin & Pastor Arlene Toh
Hope Hong Kong
Hope Taipei, Taiwan: Bible Conference
Hope Taipei held the Spring 2009 Bible Conference from February 27 to March 1. The topic was “A Mission-Driven Church” and the guest speaker was Pastor Kwon Lie Wong from Hope JB, Malaysia.
There were eight brothers and sisters, in addition to Pastor Kwon Lie and sister Swee Min, from Hope JB’s professional and student groups visiting us. They encouraged and inspired us greatly with their personal testimony in the Kingdom of God and their fervent mission spirit
We were all blessed abundantly by the teaching as well as the fellowship time with them. Through the teaching, we are so much more challenged and filled with the zeal for the vision to fulfil the Great Commission together with God. We are also inspired to devote our lives to go onto the mission field to save the lost souls throughout Taipei and all over the nation of Taiwan. Pastor Kwon Lie Wong and his team imparted the wonderful spirit for mission into our lives through their sharing and experience in mission works.
Many of us are willing to be commissioned to other cities and towns to plant the new seed for the Kingdom of God. The Pastor further challenged us to maintain a right spirit and pure heart attitude in following the Lord Jesus Christ. There were some brothers and sisters, assured of their personal value in the Lord, are willing to be further stretched by the Lord. All of us are willing to commit further to serve the Lord and the people whom He loved in the land of Taiwan.
Jessica Jen
Hope Taipei, Taiwan
Hope Kuching, Malaysia: Reaching out the community
The Good Samaritan Ministry (GSM) of Hope Kuching has once again organized a Blood Donation Drive following the success of a similar drive in December 2008.
Reaching the hearts of the people is always the church GSM’s primary task. The main objective of the Blood Donation Drive is to help cultivate a Holistic Church by meeting the physical needs of the community – in giving a glimpse of hope to the sick and vulnerable whose future is dependent on blood transfusion being available.
The event which ran from 1.30pm to 4.00 pm on Saturday 28 February 2009 took place at the main sanctuary of the church where a team of medical officers were deployed from the Sarawak Medical Department to take charge of the event. As the volunteers for this meaningful charitable event reached the main sanctuary they were amazed to see that the place was being turned into a mini hospital. Blood pressure and goose pimples began to rise for those who responded for the 1st time and were afraid of needles. But praise God that the very warm handshake and warm smiles which blended with those beautiful welcoming songs had indeed encouraged and raised up the confidence of many nervous people.
It started with the formalities of registration followed by the first screening on weight; blood pressure and the physical fitness of the volunteer. Those who passed that screening were further screened on the hemoglobin level and malaria parasite.
61 persons from all the different language groups volunteered for this meaningful charity event. 33 persons accomplished their mission “To Save Life” while 28 persons were deferred. Within that hopeful 2 ½ hours 33 pints (i.e. about 19 liters) of blood was donated.
Considering that an average adult has about 5 liters of blood living inside of their body, the volume collected would be sufficient to course through the vessels, delivering essential elements, and removing harmful wastes for at least 4 persons.
All who donated really experienced instant gratification that his/her one pint of blood could be put into a good cause in saving life. But however most , if not all, of those who were not qualified felt such disappointment and started to reaffirmed their determination in preparing themselves for the next round. The “under-weights” planned to go into a weight-gain program; the low in hemoglobin would go on a course of ion tablets with lots of pig lever and those with high or low blood pressure also promised to come back with a difference. See you at the next drive in three months time.
Pastor Denis & Hai Eng
Hope Kuching, East Malaysia
Hope Brisbane: Working Adults Getaway (WAG)
Hope Brisbane annual working adult getaway (WAG) is held at Bardon Conference Centre with 74 full time participants (13th Feb - 15th Feb, 2009). The keynotes speakers were Pastor Jeffrey Chong (Hope Singapore), Dr Wilson Lim (Hope Brisbane) and Pastor Wenan (Hope Brisbane).
The event kicked off to a good start with a nice dinner catered by Bardon followed by a short sharing session and keynote from Pastor Wenan of Hope Brisbane Afternoon Service. The first night ended full of expectation for the participants.
Working Adult Getaway Video
The next morning, breakfast was a quick affair before the treasure hunt started. There were some concerns over the intermittent rain outdoors but even that failed to dampen the high spirits of the participants. The treasure hunt involved solving cryptic clues and teambuilding types of challenges.From the intense looks on the participants, everyone was very serious on winning the game.
En-route, Pastor Jeffrey Chong would have just landed and making his way to the venue with Pastor Wenan driving.
Pastor Jeff shared a message on “Pathways to God” which talks about 7 different ways most people relate with God.
It was something that was fresh and invigorating for working adults that gives a better understanding of how people relates and draw closer to God.
After lunch, we had Dr Wilson Lim shared to us about “Work, Life and Ministry balance”. It was enriching to learn about the different aspects to fine-tune the balance in our life.
After that, participants had the opportunity to attend different elective forums. Examples of these forums are stress buster, workplace outreach, serving as a family etc.
In the evening, we set aside some time to have a pleasant candlelight (Valentine’s) dinner. The food was delicious and the organizers set aside some time for games as well as prize presentation for all the speakers.
Following that, Pastor Jeff spoke about “How to overcome the fear of the future”. Many responded to the altar call after that.
Sunday service, Pastor Jeff shared to us about “More than work” and gave us fuel to run the race.
Filled with hope and deep conviction, we broke for lunch, had a short time for questions and answers with Pastor Jeff and all of us packed up and went our separate ways. Although it was only for a short time, the working adults of Hope Brisbane had a sense of new found purpose, hope and promise for the marketplace, ministry and life! Amen.
We look forward to 2010 WAG. Hope you can join us!
For more information about Working Adult Ministry in Hope Brisbane write to
- Chen Chee and Joan (Email: ccnjoan2@yahoo.com.au)
