HOPE FAMILY NEWS MAY

Hope Utrecht, The Netherlands Bible Seminar



I recently spent a weekend with Kim in Utrecht, The Netherlands, speaking in a Bible seminar organized by Hope Utrecht. It always gives me great pleasure to see Albert and his dear wife Claire and their lovely children Samuel and Salome.

Hope Utrecht Church Video

Albert is one of the early church planters in Europe. He joined the Hope Vision after attending a Hope Leaders Conference in Asia in 1999. In the first few years, he came to London to be trained whilst planting a seed group in Utrecht.

Albert had different people joining him over the years, but many left. Some returned to Africa after their study and some went back to their local churches in the Netherlands. If God were to give an award for the most persevering church planter ever lived, Albert would win it. His church had been 3 people for many years, yet he never gave up, when most people would.

Hope Utrecht Website

Albert has a vision to reach the local Dutch. I believe it will happen in God’s time. At present he has a diverse group comprising Dutch, African, American and Chinese. Albert and Claire are also contributing to Hope Europe as IT Coordinator and Intercession Coordinator respectively.

We met in a very nice conference centre in Utrecht for the seminar. Some 14 people attended. During the weekend, besides teaching and worship, we had very nice fellowship at meal times and walking and playing in the park adjoining the Conference Centre.

I spoke on the issue of Faith based on Hebrew 11. I shared 3 teachings based on [Heb. 11:1-10], covering the Definition of Faith, Why Faith and Living By Faith. I believe Faith is a vitally important topic to teach God’s people as we get closer to the Day. We will see greater deception in the days ahead when even the elect will be deceived [Matt. 24:24].



In the Bible seminar, a Hungarian man also attended. I actually met him last year in a similar setting. This time I had more time to talk to him. He was clearly a highly intelligent man, teaching in universities in Utrecht and Geneva on learning strategies. He boasted that he could learn a language in a matter of days. He believed that the world would be a better place if everyone would be eager to gain knowledge like him. This is nothing new. Since Adam’s time, man has been looking for gaining knowledge and wisdom [1 Cor. 1:22]. The problem is that knowledge without the knowledge of God would make men proud and reject the true God [1 Cor. 8:1-3].

At the end of the seminar he came to talk to me and informed me that everything could now be explained scientifically or mathematically including the existence of God, the origin of mankind etc… I told him that Faith to me meant that I would not believe anything that contradicted the Word of God. I think my “stubbornness” had shaken his “faith” a little bit. :o)

I believe the teachings have also equipped the people to stand against the influence of people like the Hungarian who shared his thoughts with everyone he met! Amen!

“We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.” [1 Cor 2:6-7 NIV]

Pastor PK Tse
Hope London, United Kingdom


Hope Manila : “My Family My Church” Camp



Hope of God Church Philippines held a very special event on April 9-11, 2009. It was our local camp at Camp Peniel, Capas. Our theme this year was “My Family, My Church”. Many people along with their own families came for this event. We had 163 participants for this event, including our family from Hope of God San Pedro and Calamba and Ps. Wakki from Hope Davao. It was an opportunity for every individual; whether single, married, youth or child, to be encouraged and to understand the values and principles about building a strong family foundation.

Hope Manila Church Video

The Trip to Camp Peniel



Camp Peniel is almost a three-hour bus ride from Manila, our capital. God blessed our family by providing us three buses that helped us reached our destination safely. During our travel, a program was prepared for us where we were able to strengthen our relationship with one another. There was much sharing of lives and a lot of laughter. When we had reached our destination, we were excited to explore our campsite and get a good rest.

Our camp speakers



We had the privilege of having four diverse and enthusiastic speakers for our camp: Pastor Soradej Meesaengtham along with his wife sis. Eunice Meesaengtham was a great source of encouragement to all of us as they taught us with such passion and anointing.

In addition, we were honoured to have a special guest speaker from Australia: Pastor Garry Tobeck and his wife sis. Catherine Tobeck who shared many inspiring testimonies about their family – particularly how God brought them together and how God has been Sovereign in providing for their needs.

The sports activities



Not only were we blessed with wonderful teaching from our special guests, but we were blessed by our sports event during the camp. We formed four teams: Red Judah, Green Levites, Blue Benjamites and Orange Joseph, which was composed of Hope of God San Pedro and Calamba) who showed great passion to be the winning team for this year. Our sport events were composed of basketball, volleyball, badminton, table tennis, darts, billiards, obstacle courses, cheerleading and parlour games for our Senior Citizens. This event brought much excitement and enthusiasm.

The Reaffirmation of the Wedding Covenant

One of the most anticipated events of the camp had been renewing of covenantal wedding vows by every couple of Hope of God Church Philippines and daughter churches. This was one of the highlights with the renewing bringing some couples to tears. Even our very own Pastor Soradej Meesaengtham and sis Eunice along with Pastor Henry Sevilleno and sis Hani participated in the event.



The Covenantal Vow of the Singles

The reaffirmation of the wedding covenant was as much of a joy to the singles as it was to the couples. The singles that day made their covenantal vows to the Lord in keeping themselves pure for their future spouse and in waiting upon the Lord for the right time in marriage.

The Water Baptisms

Our camp would have not been complete without having individuals testifying of wanting to follow Jesus as their Saviour and Lord. We had seven members who committed their lives to Jesus through water baptism in the pool of Camp Peniel.

The Testimonies

There was a sense of anointing in the place as many lives were transformed by God’s goodness. Many families and couples were brought closer together. Their encounter with God at Camp Peniel was memorable as our Lord gave many revelations.

Pastor Soradej
Hope Manila, Philippines


Hope Penang: Breakthrough in prayer



Hi, I am Zechariah and this is my wife, Phoebe. Both of us are from Hope of God Penang. Currently we are leading the church. Pastor Laurence handed over the church to us last November, 2008. God has been really good. At first when we took over the church, we did not know much about leading a church.

[Photo: Zechariah & Phoebe, Hope Penang]

So we decided with the whole leadership team to come and really improve the spiritual atmosphere of the church. We decided to start with a prayer meeting, which we had very early in the morning every Saturday. We would gather together and pray starting from 6am. It was really amazing. Initially it was only about a few of us from the leadership team who prayed together.

Hope Penang Video Interview

Later on, as we continued to open up for more members to come, we had about half of the church joining us together to pray early at 6am on Saturday for the last few meetings. We could really see tremendous growth ever since we started this prayer meeting. For example, we’ve seen conversion after conversion; people coming to know the Lord week after week ever since we started this prayer.



We want to thank God for the spiritual revival we are experiencing in the church currently. We see more and more people hungering for God more and more. They learn to pray longer, they are praying more.

Even on our prayer meeting night, we’ve seen the majority, more than 80%, of our total people in the church coming together to pray and seek God. We’ve seen many care groups experiencing the blessing of God in terms of new converts. We’ve seen new converts week after week, month after month. And even in our mission ground or local mission ground, we’ve also seen many come to know the Lord and we’ve seen people accepted Christ in our mission ground. We truly believe in the power of prayer and the power of intercessory.



Another blessing that we received was in terms of mission work. We have a pioneering group in Perlis. For a while, we didn’t have many visitors and did not bear much fruit in Perlis. But ever since we decided to pray together, guess what? We had one salvation just a week ago and it was really tremendous seeing the lives of the people being revived.

Now we’re really excited to pray more, to see more revival not only in Penang but also in our mission ground in Sungai Petani and Perlis as well. As a church, we truly believe that more and more people living out the statement of “Work hard, and pray hard”.



So we would like to encourage all of us here to really put priority in prayer. I think that seeking God and prayer are really important for the growth of the church and also for the lives of the people to be revived.

Zechariah & Phoebe
Hope Penang, Malaysia

Hope Hong Kong: Filipino 3rd Anniversary




Time flies fast indeed! It's been 3 yrs. since the very first Filipino Service on 5 Feb. 2006. Through the years, God has been faithfully nurturing the Filipino Group to grow in number and develop a deeper relationship with our Creator!

"Close family ties" is one of the strong characteristics of the Filipinos, and being miles away from our loved ones takes a great deal of sacrifice and pain. So, to alleviate our homesickness and focus on the bright side of life, the DMM came up to a plan of organizing more Filipino-style activities and fellowships whereby we are all encouraged to take part and bring out our God-given talents in singing, dancing, cooking, sports, creativity and art. Glory to God, these activities have always been effectively drawing new visitors, which contribute to our quantitative growth.



22 March 2009 marked another milestone in the history of Hope HK Filipino Group when we celebrated our 3rd year Anniversary - Filipino Style! From the simple yet breath-taking decorations, flamboyant costumes, jolly cultural music and mouth-watering native snacks, the atmosphere were unmistakably "Philippine Fiesta". The vibrant emcees kept the program running smoothly with their flawless Tagalog; and the whole stretch of 4 hours had been so entertaining with encouraging Biblical Drama, graceful cultural dance, informative Tagalog poem recital, heroic solo song number, and fun-filled games that triggered so much laughter, filling everyone's heart with joy and praises to the Lord for such a wonderful event.




The afternoon's highlight was the contest for home-made native delicacies, with 4 TLC groups plus I.F. vying for the Best of the Best prize. Undoubtedly, the panel of Judges, armed with fork and spoon, had a sweet time sampling the creatively designed and well-presented delicacies. The spirit of joy surely overflowed upon us that the whole afternoon seemed too short. We're aiming for more fruit this year in order to have more Brothers and Sisters to take part and double the celebration and fun next year.

On top of all the fun is our praises and thankful hearts to God for everything that He has been doing in our lives, individually and corporately, because "...apart from the VINE, we can do nothing." Special thanks to our dear Pastor Gavin for his Word of Encouragement & support, and Glory to God!


Hope Gold Coast, Australia 4th Anniversary



Hope Gold Coast celebrated its 4 year anniversary on the 26th of April which turned out to be an incredible night truly blessed by the Lord. There were around 50 people attended this special event. The theme for this year’s anniversary was “The Power of God” where people were encouraged to wear something red that represented the fire of God.

[Photo: Ps Wilson, Ps Lance & Belle ]

What a sight it was!!! And what’s a party without food? Dinner consisted of food from all the cultures in our church including Asian, African and Aussie dishes, yum!

Hope Gold Coast 2nd Anniversary Video

God’s anointing was truly there from the beginning of the night where the Holy Spirit’s presence came and moved hearts during worship. Judith from our Acts 29 lifegroup shared her testimony of how God has bought her through many tough times and was able to perform a song she had written called “Put a Smile On My Face.”



Pastor Wilson Lim shared a message that as Christians, now is the time for us to SHINE, to rise in prominence, live in God’s ways and ultimately bring change to the community. There was also time to pray for healing for our brother Jason whose left eye had been suffering that night and praise God he is healed!

Hope Gold Coast was able to honour Pastor Lance and Belle with a token of appreciation and really thank them for being such a huge blessing to the church. A short media presentation was also prepared by a team that showed us the good times Hope Gold Coast as a family has shared so far.



This year’s anniversary was a night for Hope Gold Coast to reflect on what has been achieved in the last 4 years and a time to get excited about what God has in store not only for the church but every individual. All we can say is, IT’S GOING TO BE EXCITING. PRAISE GOD!!! (Written by Elise Mueller)

Pastor Lance & Belle Wolter
Hope Gold Coast, Australia


Hope Brisbane: Eureka Outreach "Ready Steady Cook"



Eureka is a fellowship within Hope Brisbane Church aimed at reaching Australians. Eureka is better known for the church planters sent out to Busselton, Hobart and the Gold Coast in the first few years since its inception.


[Photo: Puji Silva leading Eureka group]


Ready Steady Cook Video

On Friday 27th March, Eureka held it’s own Ready Steady Cook E-week event. Based on the cooking gameshow broadcast on Channel 10, participants were divided into four groups, each required to prepare a separate gourmet dish (meat, vegetable, rice and salad). Meals were to be judged with the criteria of presentation, hygiene, safety and nutrition.

With the allocated time of 20 minutes, competition was fierce as participants set out to prepare their respective cuisine with restaurant-quality precision and quality. With over 50 participants, each team member was put to the test of their culinary skills in the kitchen.




Once the meals were cooked, prepared and the winner decided, we all sat down for the best part of the night: dinner! Not only was this a great time of, but it was also a rewarding experience for those who were willing to share in the gift of hospitality. Last but not least, Peggy Tan a qualified nutritionist from the family group concluded the night with a short lecture of proper nutrition and healthy eating that proved to be highly educational and practical.

The event attracted between 15-20 visitors, many of whom local Australians and first time visitors, while others had joined Eureka in previous events.




Eureka has been focussing the monthly outreach events towards attracting unchurched local Australians through engaging them in the event, so as to foster a greater sense of closeness with the Eureka members, through participation. Let us pray that we will have those opportunities to be hospitable whenever Christ sees fit to allow us.

Puji Silva
Hope Brisbane - Eureka Group