A LIFE ENRICHING COMMUNITY BY PS SIMON ENG

[ The 13th Hope Eastern Region Bible Conference, Kuching]

Hi, HIM family, I would like to once again connect with you about how we can continue to build our community, how we can be a life enriching community. It is one of our core values. It is one of those things that we have been talking about, living it out and I like to re-emphasise and highlight again some of the things that we should not forget and that we should be continually doing to one another in our community life together.


Pastor Simon Eng Video Message

We are a life enriching community.

We are committed to being people who become a blessing to one another, that through our fellowship together, through relating with one another, our lives are mutually being enriched. I would like to share on this thought.

First of all, we like to embrace people from all cultures, we like to embrace people in our local vicinity, our local community and also have a view towards the international community in our cities.

[Hope Prague mission trip to Lativa & Lithuania]

Building life enriching family

Brothers and sisters, the Word of God teaches us that we meet each others’ needs holistically in small groups as we see in the book of Acts. However, we are also able to touch one another as a larger group, corporately. I like to encourage us that in all levels of our groupings of people; as students, we try to enrich each other’s lives in the holistic small groups, in our shepherding and in our corporate meetings together. As working adults, we face the struggles, the stress at work. In the church, we can be a life enriching community by showing mutual care, by being able to fellowship with one another, caring for one another, to build a community that is able to envelope each other.

In our families, we are able to build up this life enriching family together by sharing our needs, our concerns; by helping, strengthening one another in our natural aspects and responsibilities, and our spiritual growth as well.

Care for one another

[Hope Singapore Water baptism]

Brothers and sisters, we are a life enriching community. I like to encourage us to really go out of our way to care for our people. We are people who desire to really minister; desire to really be able to receive others. We want to show that we are a pastoral caring people and through that pastoral care, through the things that we do for each other, we are able to enrich each others’ lives.

For example, remembering each others’ birthdays, remembering the anniversaries of our couples, remembering activities of our church, our children etc.

All these details show us that we are able to care for one another, we have concern over our people and we are able therefore to put into our thoughts and our hearts what is going on in our peoples’ lives. Remember we are a life enriching community meaning that through our interaction with one another, through our relating with one another, week by week as we meet in care group, as we meet in church, as we go into camps and have activities together, we are blessing each other’s lives.

We are made a better person and we are made a stronger person through our fellowship together.

[Hope Singapore Men's conference]

Sharing with the underprivileged

I also want to encourage us not to neglect some of the people in the community who may have more serious needs than we have. For example, the orphans, the underprivileged, those who are in old folks’ homes; the ones who may be feeling neglected, who may be feeling that life has dealt them a harsh blow. I think we are also a community that can visit them and through the different sharing or bringing gifts to them or giving them time to hear them out, we are able to enrich our community around us.

Brothers and sisters, think of some things in your vicinity or in your neighbourhood that can really bless the people.

Hope Vancouver homeless ministry

[Pastor William Ao in Hope Vancouver, Canada]

I like to encourage us to put into action plans on how we enrich other peoples’ lives, how we can show care, concern and love to other people who may not receive any of these things in our city.

There are some places I travel to that do this. Like I went to Vancouver, there are the homeless who wander around the street. Some of them have no permanent place to stay. Our church in Vancouver prepares lunch on a Sunday, when the church has lunch, they invite these people to come and have lunch and they have a hot meal, they have a wonderful hot drink and they are blessed by just interacting with our people. Our people sometimes pray for them and not just for spiritual things all the time.

[Hope Vancouver Homeless ministry]

Our people feed them; our people look after their welfare as much as they can. It is wonderful to be able to see that happen and some of our other churches are doing that as well. I like to encourage you to continue to be able to do some of these good works in our community and reach out to touch a section of the community which no one cares about and which is easily neglected and forgotten.

We are a life enriching community; through us, through our presence in that city, we bring blessings, we bring life, we can promote a united community. We can promote a more enriched community through our presence.

[Hope Bangalore, India Annual Camp]

14th MNC and Global Conference in KL

http://www.seeklite.com/mnc2009/

Next month, we are having our Global Conference again in November and we are going to be combining with the Malaysian National Convention. I hope some of you will be there. I hope some of you will be able to make it with your leave, with your planning etc. We are going to share on an interesting topic called “Core Values: 2”.

• We are Vision Driven
• We are Disciples Makers
• We are Leadership Developers
• We are Church Planters
• We are Apostolic Oriented

We are preparing the place, preparing the people, accommodation etc and the notes and the teaching. It will be an exciting time learning together.

I hope to see you there. God bless you til the next time that I communicate with you. Have a wonderful time, wonderful quarter and the presence of the Lord be with you to enrich you too.

Pastor Simon Eng
President of HIM

Click here for 14th MNC - GC 2009 Workshop Topics