GO4TH Conference 2011, 26-28 May has sure been quite a memorable experience for me as I was exposed to missions like never be for. Hearing amazing testimony sharings of real missionaries in the field just encouraged you so much at how our God is so Faithful in their lives! And the inspiration night rallies and deep teachings at the morning bible studies by Bishop Robert Solomon & the prayers for emergent countries like India & China certainly did sink in deeply in me.
(The wesley ym delegates at GO4th 2011) (The younger half of the YMOVE comm who were at the EXPO earlier) (The GO4th Schedule!) (Love The content of the GO4th file!)
WORSHIP (Amazing sessions of worship! Where the opening night worship was led by people from different countries across the world)
48 Mission Booths! (The 48 Mission Booths!!! Never seen so many mission organizations in one place before!) (All the brochure, flyer a FREE thick MISSION BOOK, A Free Reinhard Bonke DVD, and many other mission information from the one visit to the GO4th exhibition!)
DEEP BIBLE STUDY- BISHOP DR ROBERT SOLOMON on Day 2 & Day 3 Morning... (Some of the deep teachings & quotes from Bishop Solomon bible study on Judges 4 & 5 on Day 3 of GO4th! Hope you can read my handwriting!)
"Responding to Missions is like Falling in Love with God... "Yes God use me"- Bishop Dr Robert Solomon (GO4th)
"One step forward in obedience is worth years of study about it."- Oswald Chambers
"We have too many Christians doing too many calculations, with whatever knowledge we have we just need to make that commitment." - Bishop Dr Robert Solomon
"I have been chosen by the Father to be obedient to Jesus Christ by the Sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit" Can we declare this? Derived from 1 Peter 1:2. - Bishop Dr Robert Solomon
Why we obey God? 1) Fear of Him 2) Knowing God can be Trusted 3) Knowing that He Bring Joy to your Heart 4) Because we Love God (Pastor Peter Tsukahira heartfelt final night rally sharing!)
(The YMOVE team there! Jon wasnt there on the final night)
(The GO4th trippers from wesley!)
(The Wesley YM rep at GO4th 2011)
Found the recording of some of the key GO4th Sermons!... Really encourage by Pastor Peter Tsukahira amazing testimony & sharing on Urban Missions & his Final night rally!
Met up with Paul Ooi, Mag Phua, Andrew Lai just now to catch the lecture by Rev Dr.Eddie Fox,World Director of Evangelism, the World Methodist Council as he gave a message on "The Wesleyan Way of Revival"
Rev Dr Eddie Fox who has been preaching for 56 years since he was just 16! One can see such great passion & convictions as he delivered a true blue Methodist message!
He shared from this article which John Wesley wrote when he was 83 years old preaching in the open...
August 4, 1786, an elderly John Wesley wrote an article entitled, "Thoughts about Methodism." This article is reflective about the vitality of the movement. He wrote, "I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case, unless they hold fast both the doctrine, spirit, and discipline with which they first set out."
A Classic Hymns that he sang to the congregation in his sermon & the congregation just join in together singing in great harmoniously!
Everybody ought to know.(X2) Everybody ought to know who Jesus is.
He's the lily of the valley. He's the brighter morning star. He's the fairest of ten thousand. Everybody ought to know. “We are called to spread the Good News of the Gospel by Word, Deed and Sign in the power of the Holy Spirit so that the world may know Jesus Christ,”...“We, the people called Methodists, are followers of Jesus in the company of the Wesleys. John Wesley made it clear the Wesleyan Way for the Methodist Movement is to be alive, vibrant and growing.” - Rev Dr Eddie Fox The last hymn we sang as he end of his beautiful Sermon on the Wesleyan Revival!
Hallelujah, Thine the glory Hallelujah, amen Hallelujah, Thine the glory Revive us again
Just came back from an INTENSE Tchoukball workout! Massive trashing from one of the top tchoukball team & yet the only 5 wesley people who attended stood strong together to hit our target of 25 goals! =) Ho Song Yang, Yang-Jian Lim,Joshua Daniel Elisa, Brandon Khoo! It was fun playing with u all! Personally my favourite match of the Crossroad tournament! =)
Some of the scores for our last game for the guys!
Wesley A 26 - 78 YDC, Wesley B 60 - 36 YGOS.
The girls team beat Bethesda Depot but dun have the scores for that match yet.
(This is an old photo of one of our pre prayers before the match)
Monday 16 May 2011 Below are a couple of old blog posts which I wrote all the way back at the start of 2011 which led me to taking this YM programme coordinator role.
After waiting for 5 months since Jan!!! I have actually begun my first step into Full time ministry by coming on staff with the YM team!!! From an SAF PC(Platoon Commander) to a Wesley YM PC (Programme Coordinator) =)! (My cosy corner desk)
Tuesday- VESAK DAY@ SENTOSA!!!
Had quite a fruitful public holiday! Where I had a good outing in sentosa with the "PAINTS" from my batch of TP crusaders! & at the same time meeting the LETS SNAP grp of ymers at the same batch on the other side of the island! (We had a lovely picnic at Tanjong beach! With Mich making some delicious Tuna Sandwich! And with other food that we brought along!)
(Watch this cool dog playing with our volleyball, & later on a BIGGER dog came in to join the fun! =)
(Wenhao vs the DOG!) LETS SNAP@SENTOSA, YM grp! (The ymers @the other end of Tangjong beach too!) (Swam across this sea a few times to get to join the ym grp!) (Found this new fun thing, preventing the bubble from bursting & keeping it afloat by producing some air at the bottom!) Dinner & Bible Study@ Justin's House (The lovely dinner atLaPetite @ Serene Centre, Confit de carnard avec Gratin meal)
Ended the day with a wonderful time of bible study with my beloved small grp God's Clay on Hebrews ch 5 & 6 as we went deeply into the Word & encourage each other with the sharing of our lives!
Completion of Full time National Service from 13 July 2009 to 12 May 2011 =)
It sure have been quite a experiential & life changing journey in those 1 year 10 months of my NSF life!
Going through the various milestones in my NSF career! Which actually molded me quite a bit to who I am today...
9 Weeks- BMTC Sch 2- Leopard Coy PL 2 section 2! 9 Months- OCS- Tango Wing Platoon 3, Signal Officer Cadet Course (SOCC) 11 Months- Alpha PC, 10 C4I Bn 5 Weeks- 81st Company Tactics Course (CTC) Below is a link to a post which i once wrote of my NSF journey for some NS portal.http://benlau89.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-nsf-journey.html
13 JULY 2011 The day I enlisted in the army & surrendered my pink IC at the tekong ferry terminal...
OCS A new journey at the Officer Cadet Schoo (OCS) in SAFTI MI, where my life & character was challenge to a whole new level!
Service Term- Tango Wing!- OCS
Below is a verse that Pastor Ivan shared with me yesterday that he kept to & memorize in his days in OCS, which I too kept to for the rest of my NSF life...
ACPC- The day we got our Swords http://benlau89.blogspot.com/2010/06/acpc.html (BUNK 7 from SOCC! We call it the "BEST" bunk because of various award winners from the course & other achievements each of us were known for)
Watch an amazing powerful movie today on how the famous song "AMAZING GRACE" came about, now singing & hearing that song again would definitely have so much meaning knowing the history of that song.
A man who had a great vision from God and actually fight till the end for it!
William Wilberforce (1759-1833) led the twenty-year fight to end the British slave trade, a victory now regarded as He finally succeeded in March 1807 and continued to fight for abolition until, days before his death in 1833, he saw the institution of slavery abolished throughout the British colonies. Not limiting himself to just abolitionist work, he dedicated his life to what he called his "two great objects:" abolishing slavery in the British Empire and what he called "the reformation of manners [society]." To this end, he advocated for child labor laws, campaigned for education of the blind and deaf, and founded organizations as diverse as the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) and the National Gallery (of Art). "Good causes," it has been said, "stuck to him like pins to a magnet."
A prayer that Pastor Ivan shared with the YM leaders recently...
Taking the time to just pause from our busy life, and to pray this simple prayer, pronouncing it word for word slower... and slower... slower... & just keep repeating it....
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me...
Paul sent me an sms this morning to "challenge me to pray & reflect on what happened last night, that it might not be lost into the nothingness in our soul as simply a good feeling: If so, there would be nothing gained. What Fruit did you pick from yesterday's tree? "
And as i took a step back to reflect on it this morning before my quiet time, i open up to today's devotion, and WOW! God just struck me right in the heart again from today's reading which just left me in awe to the follow up from my note from last night!
Today's devotion on What is God like? -Selwyn Hughes- Everyday With Jesus
1 John 4:1-21 (New Living Translation)
1 Dear friends, do not believe everyone who claims to speak by the Spirit. You must test them to see if the spirit they have comes from God. For there are many false prophets in the world. 2 This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet[a] acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. 3 But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here.
4 But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. 5 Those people belong to this world, so they speak from the world’s viewpoint, and the world listens to them. 6 But we belong to God, and those who know God listen to us. If they do not belong to God, they do not listen to us. That is how we know if someone has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of deception.
Loving One Another
7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. 14 Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.
18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. 19 We love each other because he loved us first.
20 If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister,that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? 21 And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters.
This was the actual devotion that i was reading from today 6 May 2011..
(Today's devotion on What is God like? -Selwyn Hughes- Everyday With Jesus)
To add to this, was reading the further study readings and it was taken from John 15:9-27 on the Vine and the Branches...
John 15:9-27 (New Living Translation)
9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. 16 You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
The World’s Hatred
18 “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. 19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. 20 Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. 21 They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the One who sent me. 22 They would not be guilty if I had not come and spoken to them. But now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Anyone who hates me also hates my Father. 24 If I hadn’t done such miraculous signs among them that no one else could do, they would not be guilty. But as it is, they have seen everything I did, yet they still hate me and my Father. 25 This fulfills what is written in their Scriptures: ‘They hated me without cause.’
26 “But I will send you the Advocate—the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will testify all about me. 27 And you must also testify about me because you have been with me from the beginning of my ministry.
Today "ENCOUNTER" gathering at Yangshen's place wld probably my most memorable yet!
First it was an unprecedented type of free worship session for me with 4 different worship leaders, playing with 4 guitars each, Paul ooi, Matt Ho, david luo and yangshen, just coming together to lead us all in a free time of worship, prayer and sharing!
With like the 11-12 of us there from different small grps & sub-ministries just coming together with the same intention to just have this encounter with God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit all together in one place! One can really sense this deep presence of God just moving so strongly in the midst of us! And it was during the heartfelt sharing from each of us which God suddenly just reminded me, giving me a strong and deep renewed vision & message for Wesley YM again! =)
As we were sharing, the thought of loving others and the importance of spending our-self to serve others just kept coming to my heart so strongly! It reminded me of just last Saturday when i was called to introduce Tchoukball ministry to this grp of TPCMC YF grp! To be honest it was a little challenging at the start, with me just recovering from a wisdom tooth op & was almost losing my voice as i was teaching a large grp of 30 odd people Tchoukball from scratch! But as i serve together alongside, Hans,ernest and janine that day, we were in the end bless so much more by the people there! And just talking to them & spending time with them over supper really just encourage us so much! Which was worth all the time given! =)
And the Lord then just showed me this verse which reaffirmed why we sld love one another!
"34So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.35Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." John 13:34-35 (NLT)
And the more as i was sharing this, I cld really sense the Spirit prompting me back to the vision again of why i'm willing to give so much of my time for this year for the year end ym camp! It all started from this great burden that God has place in my heart in recent years seeing the reality of how i actually see YM. Although i can see YM moving slowly but surely to the direction of God's intended calling for us over the years. There's still elements of this "inward-looking" in us! Maybe its this strong culture of how we are quite sheltered from the world and sometimes we just get too comfortable within the 4 walls of the church. We just feel best to stay close to our grp of friends, and just seem to look only at ourselves, asking questions pertaining to us only, "like how we can be set free in Christ", "how God can meet our needs etc, etc." Instead of the other way around, when we first look at the needs of others! And how the LIGHT of Christ already living in us can be SHONE out to this people who are lost and in need more of this Light! We are living in this world of darkness, and the more we just look at our self, we are only hiding that light already given to us within our self! And that's not what we are called to be! We sld be that LIGHT that Shines Out Brightly to the World!!!
And then as we were praying at the end, this Words from God just flash before my eyes again! The amazing divine global strategy that God instructed Jesus to tell us before he left earth and how His Holy Spirit would come next to the picture to empower us to fulfill it!
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28:18-20”
This is what GOD has called us all to do! Its being called to be that TRUE AUTHENTIC WITNESSES for Him in this world! "Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person." Colossians 4:6. And this is what it means to let our speech, action and life do the talking! And i really hope that the very least is we be able to cast what it means to be KINGDOM minded at our year end ym camp! I really believe so strongly and clearly that this deep convicted message that God has revealed to many of the leaders in ym, the camp comm and me is what I really want to share from the bottom of my heart to the youths in wesley ym today!
At 1550pm.. My surgery began! And it didn't help when the surgeon told me that my left side is gonna be much tougher as the angular impaction at the top seems to be quite deep. And the bottom left seem to be very near the Nerve, if damage may cause further complication.
And indeed! Once the Local Anesthesia was jabbed in! I cld immediately sense it was a little more discomforting than the first surgery.
During the operation, It didn't help with the surgeon telling me during the surgery that he had a hard time taking this one out which was quite deep in! And I could actually feel the drillingggg sensation pain at some moments! There was this gripping pain when i cld actually sense the drill deep into my gum! The Local Anesthesia although seem stronger didnt seem to fully cover deep in.
(Horizontal Impaction bottom 2, Top Right Wisdom tooth which was Vertical Impacting, Angular Impaction in the Top Left which was the hardest out of the 4 to extract as it was impacting a root of my other molar! The bottom left was quite near a nerve) (The bloody wisdom tooth on my left side)
Anyways as i write this post, the painkillers which i took right after i got home has kick in now! So i dun feel the pain which i had the first time! Phew!!! Hopefully this will recover fast, as it seems abit more painful than the first if i didn't take the painkillers early
