HOPE FAMILY NEWS
The Euro Leaders’ Conference (ELC)
[Pastor PK with Pastor Simon Eng in Hope London]
Hope Europe was privileged to receive Ps Simon, the president of Hope International Ministries, and his wife, who visited the UK and Germany from 31 July to 11 August. The main purpose of his visit was to speak at the Leaders’ Conference of Hope Europe.
Their first stop was London, where Ps Simon delivered his inspiring message in Hope London, Ealing, and the city centres.
The Euro Leaders’ Conference (ELC)
The ELC is an annual event of Hope Europe. ELC 2009 occurred in Berlin, Germany, for the second consecutive year. Around 80 leaders representing seven nations in Europe participated in the conference held at Rock Berlin, a cosy place used by Hope Berlin as its Sunday meeting venue. “Godly Authority” was the theme. Apart from Ps Simon, Ps PK of Hope UK and Ps Marcus of Hope Germany were co-speakers with me.
[Europe Leaders Conference in Berlin]
Mission is the heartbeat of Hope Church. Everyone who was in this meeting would agree that one of the most faith-lifting parts of the conference was the testimonies, which were all mission-related. The participants were inspired by mission stories from Germany, the UK and the Czech Republic.
Hope London Mission Trips
A team from Hope London led by Vincent Ong gave exciting testimonies about their mission trips to different cities in the UK and neighbouring countries as part of the campaign Urban Knights for Christ or UKFC.
This project was birthed out of our vision to obey Jesus’ Great Commission by “planting strong and biblical churches” in every nation. Several groups were formed and visited different cities including Glasgow, Manchester, Dublin and Paris. The mission explorers were greatly encouraged as they researched the history of these cities and discovered that many of them had been founded by devout Christ-followers desiring to build their cities for Jesus. They returned from the exploratory trips with a strong passion to build strong churches out there for Jesus.
After the ELC, Ps Simon and his wife returned to London to catch a flight back to Malaysia. The night before they headed home, the Hope London eldership had a chance to fellowship with them over dinner at a fabulous Chinese restaurant. As we enjoyed the choice food and joyful conversation, the lights were switched off and a beautiful cake was served. It was a surprise birthday cake for Ps PK. I am so grateful to God for this godly man who courageously planted a church in London almost eleven years ago.Pastor Prakich
Hope Europe Churches Website
Canada Missions Night : Live in Singapore
The home of Richard and Yuet Mei was graced with maple leaves of sorts on an extraordinary Friday - Sept 11, 2009. The event was “RESCUE 911: Canada Missions Night”. Almost everything from food to literature was stamped with the iconic symbol of a maple leave. The Canada flag was hung by the living room. One could almost feel Canada.
Members from Hope Singapore who were interested to live, work, study or be involved in missions in Canada came together. We took away amazing facts of Canada and deepen our burden for the land through a time of fun-filled interactive quiz. It was interesting to learn that Mr. Joseph Pope, the then-Under Secretary of State proclaimed the dominion of God over Canada since 1921. We see the phrase, A Mare usque ad Mare (Latin)" from sea to sea" inscribed on Canada's coat of arms, a motto taken from Psalm 72:8 "He will rule from sea to sea and from river to the ends of the earth"
Our special guest, Pastor Ben KC Lee shared the vision for North America and Canada:
- 1) North America is the largest English speaking continent in the world. It constitutes over 5% of the world population. That's 335M people in a world of 6.6 billion.
- 2) By igniting church planting here, we influence the world for Christ for years to come. U.S. is the world's sole superpower. Hollywood is a culture capital. Montreal is a key French-speaking global city. Toronto is an influential global city.
- 3) NA is the only continent where Christianity is not growing. Since only China and India have larger populations, U.S. is the 3rd largest mission field.
- 4) NA has a huge spiritual vacuum created by three generations influenced by secular humanism. But people are searching for meaning, security and significance. In a 2000 survey, 10% of adults in Canada regularly attend a church worship service.
Live Testimonies on Canada
Next David Kong and Richard both gave first hand encounters about their recent trips to Toronto. One get the home-away-from-home feeling knowing where to get Asian groceries, inexpensive and very good Japanese food and that food court is actually available in Canada!
Then Jabez gave a stirring testimony on how God moved him to trust him time and again for his preparation to land in Montreal.
That night, sweet memories filled our hearts (sweet cookies and Nanaimo bars filled our tummies!). We made meaningful conversations among new found friends. Many of us looking forward for the next gathering - where Friends of Canada would come together, with one heartbeat, join together for the work of God in the golden land of maple leaves.
Source: Sharon Tay in www.iwannagotoronto.blogspot.com
Hope Prague English Camp
We have just returned from our English camp. We are very thankful for the team of people from the United Kingdom (Jo, Rebecca and Max), Germany (Chrissie, Diana, Silvana) and Singapore (Daniel) for their help in this project.
I was encouraged as we saw 12 newcomers: six of whom were mothers and another two were fathers. Altogether, we had 16 guests, who usually do not attend our church meetings. Apart from the visitors, some people who attend our care groups came to the camp as well. Overall, we had around 50 people registered along with eight babies. One girl decided to follow Jesus at the camp while others made major steps towards believing in Jesus.
We are currently following up some people who are from Prague. I personally believe we can also work with others who are not from Prague to help spread our influence beyond the city. We have a promising group of four families, who would like to continue to meet together and continue participating in the discussions from the camp.
After running our second English camp in the Czech Republic, I can testify the blessings from reaching out to new people for Christ. Therefore, we do not want to stop this project in the upcoming years, but continue to develop it. We are also thinking about a similar project in German language next year.
God bless you!
Dr Ondrej & Jana
Hope Prague, Czech Republic
Hope Norway News
Six people got baptized in Oslo, Norway
Sunday 24th May.
Hi all! My name is Tor and I am serving God in Hope Norway nearby Oslo. I just turned 42 years old and accepted Christ as a student at University of Oregon in USA (19 years ago). Since then I have seen the importance of spending time with people and letting them know who Jesus is.
More specifically, I have experienced great growth and change in peoples life by being involved in 1:1 discipleship where friendship building and reading Bible together are key . The last two years I have been friends with a newly saved brother, whom I have taught the book of Matthew. This spring 2009, I shared about water baptism and asked if he would think about this step .
When I was on a business trip to Germany a few weeks later I got a call and he had decided that he wanted to be baptized. I had during my 1:1 time, shared with him about being a disciple. The great thing was the this brother began to live this out by sharing about his upcoming baptism with others. He actively asked if friends and family wanted to join. The outcome was that another five Norwegians decided to join him and be baptized as well.
Sunday 24th May it was time for baptism in the Oslo fjord, at Vollen in Asker. All the believers who was going to be baptized met early in the morning at the beach so that they could share why they wanted to be baptized as well as being taught from the Bible about baptism. So it was teaching in the morning for all six, then worshipping and preaching. A special experience was to teach and baptize a Norwegian teenage girl (14). She was the only one in her class to believe in Jesus, but she was brave and very ready to follow Him 100%.
Two fathers were baptized and they wanted to make a step to follow Jesus 100% that day. Two women, one of them newly saved, were also baptized. I had great dialouge with all six and later I could preach to all the friends and family who came to the beach that day.
(Written by Tor Håbrekke)
Våler activity Center.
Sunday 7th June there was a lot of activity at Våler activity center outside Moss. There were about 60 participants and a lot of them were teenagers. This place has capacity to receive several 100 in the future and the owner Ole Paulshus is ready for this. The are fun activities for youth.
JP leaders on ”Harrytur” to Sweden June 09.
The JP leaders had a really good time on their trip to Töcksfors in Sweden. We bought almost 300 cans with various kind of soda to JP. A large amount of candy was also purchased, both for private use and for selling. (of course we did not buy anything above what was legal). Later we went to the Kristiansen island and bathed.
ULF – Network meeting for youth leaders in Follo.
In June 09 we started the first network meeting for Christian youth leaders. It was an exciting meeting with 8 participants. We have challenged a lot of churches to join and we believe that cooperation between churches makes more fruit for everyone. ULF coordinator is Hope Follo with Helene T. Engebretsen helen@dknett.no
Tonje K. Marken
Hope Norway
Hope London's Annual Sport Day
Hope London’s annual Sports Day is one of the biggest outreach events for the church and is held in summer. It is an opportunity for the whole church to come together and most importantly to invite our friends to come and participate in the competition with us while having fun at the same time.
The 2009 Sports Day took place at the Wimbledon Athletic Track, an Olympic size track, not far from the famous Wimbledon Championship tennis courts. About one hundred people came to the event, including many of our friends. By the grace of God, it was a warm and sunny day, which allowed the whole programme to take place smoothly.
All participants were divided into four teams: Red, Blue, Yellow and Green. The event kicked off with a parade where all the teams marched under their respective banners and flags around the track accompanied by their cheerleaders. Events included the individual men and women races, tug of war, men and women relays, mixed relays, team sports such as captain ball and the balloon relay race. The highlight of the Sports Day was the cheerleaders who gave a truly amazing presentation at half time.
The atmosphere was incredible during the different activities. The participants were competitive while keeping a spirit of fair play. Everyone did their best to win for their teams while their cheerleaders and the other team members were cheering and supporting them. Those who did not take part in the activities were just hanging out on the pitch taking pictures, playing football and Frisbee.
At the end of the day, all the winners were awarded gold medals and the winning team (the Red team) were given the Sports Day trophy. The Hope London 2009 Sports Day was a smashing success. Our people and our friends really enjoyed themselves and are looking forward to next year’s Sports Day.
Hope Kuala Lumpur Bible Conference
The Bible Conference (BC), held from the 21st to 23rd August 2009, saw more than 500 participants. The BC theme “Moving in the Spirit”, covered one of the difficult subjects in Christianity. We were blessed to have Ps. Brandon Kirby from Hope Adelaide, Australia to share on the subject. Besides Ps. Brandon, our own Ps. Simon was on hand to compliment the teachings.
The first day of the teaching was an introduction of the Holy Spirit and His purposes. Some of us may have a sense of apprehension and bewilderment from the word “spirit”. It sounds like it is contrary to normal human perspective. It was our hope that we would gain a better understanding about the Holy Spirit after the conference. To summarise, we learned from the introductory session that the purposes of the Holy Spirit is always for the fulfilment of God’s purposes. There was also a ministering and healing session at the end of the evening.
The next day, we had high-energy praise and worship sessions. The organiser trusts that your enthusiasm was rekindled through singing praise and worship songs and being ministered to from the Lord. The BC was also a time for fellowship. During the breaks and meal times, the participants had the opportunity to fellowship with other members of the Hope family. Our delegates came from various parts of the country: Seremban, Ipoh, Kuantan, and Kuala Terengganu, just to name a few. Other delegates were previously from the Klang Valley and we welcomed them back.
In the teaching sessions, we delved deeper into the theme topic. They covered the aspects of walking and moving in the Holy Spirit, obstacles that hinder the Holy Spirit and observing and responding to the Holy Spirit. There were also ministering sessions where there were prophecies, prayers for various needs, and prayers for healing. Through the prompting of the Holy Spirit, various illnesses, including those afflicted with physical pains, wer
e prayed for. The Holy Spirit works to heal and this is one way to participate with God.The last day concluded with a teaching on discerning the manifestations. After the time of ministering and prayer, the BC came to an end with a time of appreciation to the many people (the teachers of the Word, the translators, the leaders, and the BC organising committee) involved that made the BC possible. A special appreciation was also given to our beloved Ps. Moses and his family for their dedication to serve the Lord and us. Pastor Moses, we are very grateful for all your sacrifices. The BC team trusts that the participants benefited from the conference and the team really hope that you can continue to participate in more exciting upcoming events.
Hope Auckland Multicultural Sunday
On the 26th of July, 2009, Hope Auckland took the opportunity to throw a celebration to honour the various nationalities in our church. We have people from New Zealand, Ghana, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Japan and Nigeria, to name a few.
Our members arrived in colourful costumes from their respective home countries and were armed with delicious food. Our walls were decorated with information about each of the countries and their flags, thanks to the hard work put in by the Young Working Adults LG. The service was packed with performances, including a debut performance by SPARCK (Special Performing Artists for Christ’s Kingdom), our newly established performing arts ministry. They performed two high-energy dances: a South American speciality followed by Jai Ho.
Our Kids Church sang “One World, One God” written by two of our own members. Charles Dwamena (from Ghana) delivered a powerful message, refreshing our views of unity and diversity. Both members and visitors alike were challenged to not only appreciate diversity at a group and cultural level but also between individuals. They were also encouraged to embrace their God-given uniqueness.
Following this, we feasted together with our visitors on the scrumptious food. All in all, we believe each of us walked away with a new found awareness and appreciation for the diversity we are so blessed to have in our church.
Pastor Bernard and Angela Soh
Hope Auckland, New Zealand
