HIM FAMILY NEWS
Hope Bangalore, India - Annual Camp
The first day I committed my life to the vision of God to build strong and biblical people to plant strong and biblical churches in Johor Bahru, Malaysia and all over the world, I knew my life would never be the same again. This commitment was made 16 years ago but the vision is still fresh in my heart.
Church planting in Bangalore, India
In 2002, I was in a pastors’ meeting and one of the agenda items was about church planting in India. Suddenly, Ps Kwong Lie turned to me and said, “You go.” “Yes,” I replied. That was the beginning of a search for an entry vehicle into this huge nation with numerous cultures intertwined.
- In July 2007, my family and I landed in Bangalore. We knew no one and we were testing the water to see who would respond to the vision. No one seemed to be responding. Then we prayed together as a family, believing that God would have reserved for Himself a group of people who are zealous for His vision, just as He reserved 7000 people who did not bow down to Baal in Elijah’s time.
In September 2007, Sharin and Justin approached me to start a prayer group. I took the opportunity to share about God’s vision to them and their hearts were touched. On October 7, 2007, we started our first Sunday Service with ten people. Eight of them only intended to support the service on that day. The other two were my wife and I. By God’s grace, three of them are in my core team today.
A Word-Centred Church Camp
On September 23-27, 2009, we had our second annual camp, “A Word-Centered Church”. We were blessed with 29 brothers and sisters from Hope Johor Bahru, Batu Pahat, Segamat, Jakarta, Bandung and Medan. The last day of the camp was also our second anniversary celebration, with the theme, “Answer the Call”.
In the beginning, finding the accommodation to house all these people was challenging and expensive. However, a week before the camp, God provided us with a big double storey house with a surface area of almost 5000 square feet, four toilets and a solar water heating which was not working at the time. The monthly rent was only Rs7500 (about 150USD). Therefore, we named the house as Jireh House.
Many in Bangalore struggled to join the camp and they succeeded through trusting God. One sister who was working and studying at my college was granted permission to join the camp just one day before the camp. Another brother was allowed to go the night before the camp. Before the camp, the only two motorcycles we have encountered consecutive accidents forcing us to manage with public buses for camp preparation. Those who did not have sufficient money to join the camp were challenged to trust God for providence while others were challenged to help.
Just before the camp, we had a brother and a sister baptized in water. It took a long time for us to search for a suitable river bank to hold the baptism. Thank God for the patience of everyone.
Many Indian brothers and sisters were amazed to find brothers and sisters from abroad willing to lay down their comfortable lives to join our camp. Not only was everyone encouraged by the presence of God and the Word of God during the camp, the sacrificial lives of many brothers and sisters inspired us to live for the vision of Jesus.
Two brothers from New Delhi came to join our camp, after they came to know Sharin who did his Hotel Management Training in New Delhi in the first six months of 2009.
Sharin shared the vision with them and they were so eager to join us. The two brothers started Sunday Service in their home with their mother and an uncle. The service would last four hours, with one and a half hours of worship led by one brother and at least two hours of sermon shared by another brother. They are only 19 and 22 years old.
Thomas from Hope JB is now studying in Chennai and we believe God to have a seed group there soon. God is advancing in India. Join us in believing and praying for this land that is hungering for the truth to be unleashed in the power of Jesus’ name.
In His vision,
Joshua Wong
Hope Bangalore, India
Chiang Mai Bible Seminar: The Life of Christ
The Bible Intensive Course (B.I.C) at Chiang Mai, Thailand was set up by Pastor Chuchart to equip the church members and to help them grow in being bible-based people. The “Life of Jesus” was the topic of the 19th BIC.
There were 400 people participating in the two day seminar. The Next Step Church members with Pastor Prasong from Lampang province came and joined with us in this seminar.
[Light of Chiang Mai Church anniversary]
Pastor Prakich encouraged the church with his anointed teaching. He shared on Jesus’ life and ministry. We examined His life chronology to reveal the strategic mind of Jesus and His wisdom in how he spent his time. This allowed Him to finish His task within three-and-a-half years.
[Pastor Prakich sharing at bible seminar]
Pastor Chuchart & Dr Siriporn
Light of Chiang Mai Church
Hope Calamba, Laguna News
- Water baptism at River View Resort
- The first Members’ Night
Our goal is to run the race with great perseverance and aiming to become an overcomer in order to be fruitful in the end. On top of all the fun we had on the night, we were praising and we were thankful hearts to God for everything that He has been doing in our lives, individually and corporately.
Pastor Henry & Hani Sevilleno
Hope Calamba, the Philippines
The 13th Hope Eastern Region Bible Conference in Kuching
There were 479 members from the Eastern Region of Hope Church met for a weekend of being refueled and recharged by revisiting and making a commitment to wrestle back the core values of the movement. It was a weekend where the participants were refreshed by the Word of God.
Bible Conference Video
Pastor Denis taught on the core values of a Bible-based Life and a Holy Spirit Empowered Life.
All present were awakened to the fact that the Word of God has to be the final authority in their lives and that their ability to have a kingdom mentality lifestyle would depend on how much one lived out the truth of the Word of God. The delegates were taught to see crisis situations as a catalyst for change towards a kingdom mentality life by factoring in to the Word of God. Everyone understood that the empowerment of the Holy Spirit is an individual journey each person needs to take. They realized that the Holy Spirit has to work IN an individual before working THROUGH him or her.
Ps Kwong Lie, the founding pastor of Hope Johor Bahru, in his three-hour teaching session on a Christ-Centered Life shared a proven life testimony that the power to live an exceptional life is not defined by an individual’s education, occupation or family but the deposition of one’s heart.
Participants could really see the truth of the statement “God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things”. All the participants were awakened to the extraordinary God has planned for their lives as they step into the unknown and embrace a kingdom mentality life.
The participants also took on the conviction that to aspire to a level of living out the other values: being a covenantal people and life-enriching community, one needed to be a person that does not take the comfortable option, but sees the people God has placed in their lives. It is no longer about their own needs or desires because they have been crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20). There was a great silence in the whole hall when Ps Kwong Lie stressed that there should be no separation between one’s spiritual life and one’s everyday life. How one behaved and related to people in church should not be confined to Sunday services only but outside of the church as well.
The Bible Conference ended with a tribute to the Eastern Region’s Pastor. Sunday, September 13 was Pastor Denis’ birthday. The church leaders gathered around him and prayed for him, showing their love and warmth to him; a person who preaches and also lives out the core values. Amen.
Pastor Denis & Hai Eng
Hope Kuching, Malaysia
Hope Melbourne Church Anniversary
The theme for our Bible Conference this year was “SHINE: A Glorious Church”. It was held from Friday evening, September 11 to Sunday afternoon, September 13, 2009. This year, we also had the privilege of Ps Brendan Kirby from Hope Adelaide being our guest speaker alongside Hope Melbourne’s Ps Ian Foley and Ps Mark Rusic. In the opening session, Ps Brendan inspired us to believe that God’s people are expected to shine and this only can be done through Jesus’ life in us.
“….Glorious church has nothing to do with us, but it’s to do with embracing the King of glory (Jesus) into our lives more and more and walking with Jesus more and more, allowing His life to be lived in us and through us….”
On Saturday, we had fun with the games “Word Power” and “Trivia” which was held in between the teaching sessions. Selected individuals from across the four centres in Hope Melbourne (Darebin, Frankston, City and Waverley) were mixed to form two teams for both games. In “Word Power”, they were required to state verses word for word, fill in the blanks for chosen verses and were tested by applying the correct verses to selected case studies. Both teams performed very well and inspire the crowd (at least the judge anyway!) to memorise verses too. For the trivia competition, the team called “Brainiac”, a name destined for victory, won against “Fire Starter”.
For the Sunday service, it was also the time for Hope Melbourne to celebrate her 19th anniversary. From Revelation 19:5-8, Ps Ian exhorted all centres to seek to shine the glory of God. In closing, Ps Brendan challenged us to continually shine in the end times. God is restoring His church together with His people and we simply need to have faith in Him to claim what is already ours in Jesus name.
Written by Ferry Dharmawan
Hope Brisbane Multicultural Fiesta
Hi there, I am standing in front of the auditorium where we are going to have our multicultural fiesta. This event was created to celebrate the different cultures not just in our church but also in Brisbane and Australia. This is the event where we invite our friends from different cultures to come to celebrate multiculturalism with us. Our hope is that they understand God’s love is not just for a single culture, but God’s love is for all.
Multicultural Fiesta Video
The Multicultural Fiesta 2009: United Colours was organised by the Afternoon Service in Hope Brisbane on the 2nd of August. The program included performances by an African Drum and Dance team, Islander Dance team and our own dance team, a cultural game show and costume competition. [View Multicultural Photos Website]
The event is designed to celebrate the unity and diversity of different cultures, act as our open door in this outreach season. We brought in more than 500 university students and working professionals. Many of whom made their first contact with our church and we are seeing people pour into the evangelistic services that are following this month. We have seen 31 salvations, since our outreach season in July and we are believing God for more.
We had a wonderful time at the multicultural fiesta and we really thank God for that.
Pastor Wen'an & Lillian Zhu
Hope Brisbane Afternoon Service
