Covenant Youth and Youth Adults

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Psalms 27:4

Becoming dwelling places for Him to dwell in

Monthly Extended Worship

Spend time soaking and being in His presence, talking to Him as He speaks to us

CG/BAG Time/Bible Study

Your weekly Cell Groups or Basic Accountability Groups, ploring over the word, journeying together

Our Core Values

Jesus is the focus of our worship.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Updates 4 - Here He comes!

This week has been a week of some
more of creating materials and being
with the kids. The Lion and Mouse story
was still ongoing and we did the craft of
a mouse finger puppet (seen here in
Joyʼs hands). I have become a regular
in starting off the welcome song section
for the smaller kids and I was invited to
read the story of the Lion and Mouse in
English. Taught the smaller ones how to
sing the “I have 2 hands” song which was really quite funny with my

limited Tetun. It is quite amusing watching how the kids program is done here with loads of songs, games, stories and repetitions.


I have also finished the drawings to the story of Aze and
Migi, and finally - I have got the storyboards done in a
sitting. Tedious in a sense that I havenʼt been drawing for
a long time and doing it 4 hours in a shot was intense but
very fun. The fat boy is Migi and the teachers decided to
make him fat because of the culture of how fat kids often
end up being laughed at and called names like - Panliero.
It is a word used for everything under the sun, teachers
pet, fat, loser but the word was meant to be used for guys
who tend to be more feminine. So the story tells of how
Aze, needed help (he fell from the Mikrolet) and how a rich man and a first in class classmate, refused to help him but an unexpected friend, Migi, helped him in the end.



The storyboards have been developed into worksheets for the kids, that will get them to color and to do handwriting exercises here like - friends, happy and sad. Haha, I completely do feel like a teacherʼs assistant here in which my teacher sister has giggled at me that I seem to be one sent on an “work” attachment from the big boss up there to where I am now.


Staff trainings are on Saturday mornings and I was helping out in teaching these teachers how to create a blog and the objective of the lesson was to help them realize that content on the internet is created by men and it can actually be factual or fictitious in that sense. See, coming here has made me realize (with explanations from SL)that the education system that we have, has built in us certain skills that we have taken very much for granted. How did we learn how to decipher how relevant the piece of information we are reading and I had this thought - I think our humanities subjects teaches us very well in that! So take heed all you students, weʼre learning good skills in school!


Highlights of this week will have to be our Bible Study we had with the student teachers - Francs, Alloe (as seen in the picture on the left) and Acasi. SL felt led to cook lunch for them and we had our bible study as usual. What soon became very obvious as the lesson ended and it was prayer time, was the presence of God that came and the spirit fell on SL as she
started praying for the Francs, how she sensed the Fatherʼs love for him and we managed to pray for one another. I joined in the prayers for the boys too as I sense their tender hearts yearning for the more of Him, that they will receive, experience and know the Fatherʼs love for them as they discover more of God, they will discover their identities in Him. I got prayed for too, Acasi prayed (among some of the things I can pick up with my small bits of Tetun) was that Iʼll pick it up soon, was a very heart warming time.


Team devotion prayer time on Saturday night was something too as we shared with one another what the Lord was doing in our midst and recognizing how He is moving (Ateto was really quiet during this week and super, duper well behaved, it is very hard to believe!) and just spent our time praying and worshipping, was again realizing who God is and who we are and allowing Him to have His way among us.
Things to pray for:
  • -  Continue to uphold the teachers and students in prayer, God is moving and working in the midst of them, that they will know and experience Him more.
  • -  Successful application of Cocoon as an NGO (the application processes here with the government tends to be very tedious), pray that the team will see through it and for a successful application result.
  • -  I should be heading off for the medical checkup real soon, sometime this week for the application of the work visa (yeap, Iʼm on my 4th week here already!), please pray that the medical checkup will be smooth (I have heard horror stories of the drawing of blood, they tried on SL for like 10x la!) and that the application will be successful!
  • -  I love prayers and do keep me in prayers very much especially for my health here, it is acting up here a lot (second bout of fever/sore throat in 3 weeks) and it takes a lot more effort to recover and to start on the rhythm of things again and having a clean bill of health, daily will help a lot. I have recovered from the fever from last night (thank you for praying :D), but yet to feel at my best.
  • -  And the usual of in all things, for His love, favor and grace to flow, as I work with the kids or work on materials or help out in the training or teaching of the teachers.


    Loves, Joy Joy 

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Surprise, surprise!

Updates 3 from Joyce Goh @Dili, East Timor

This is painful - I was supposedly almost done when my laptop died and my autosave
function wasnʼt turned on. So here goes the second time round!

This week has been filled with squirts of surprises, pleasant ones of course! Meeting with
the various ground workers working in Timor has always been an amazing experience for
me, hearing how God has called, kept them and is moving in their lives, always brings
such joy.

I met Naomi and Priscilla, whom I met the last time I was
here and we had a barbecue dinner out at the beach.
They minister to the PRC Chinese community here and
they live just a road down from where I am now, donʼt we
live in a very small world? They are such fun loving and
warm people to hang out with! The barbecued dinner
was amazing since we neednʼt have to do any cooking
and just dig into the glorious food which has such
amazing squids, fishes and 3 layered pork :)

Half of Saturday was spent at the beach (which I visited
last year too), with the youths of the Church of Nazarene
that SL, LS and me attends, every Sunday. You see,
where young people are, there is always bound to be
games and we played this ridiculous looking relay game,
where each team member had to grab an item that at the
end of the day, you have a team member decked out in a
helmet, sunglasses, jacket, a bag and running on the hot
beach with a pair of flip flops!

I have been getting busier with the kids too, after being invited to lead the kids into singing
the “I am Ready” song which is sung before the beginning of every lesson and is very
much a part of the Cocoon culture here. It is actually to
the tune of 3 tigers/三只老虎!

This is Caroll and Joy (我是大
Joy), and they are my
favorites:) Joy is special
because she only speaks
Bahasa Indonesia and the
classes are conducted in Tetun,
so I usually hang around her to
make sure she is comfortable,
helping them with their coloring or writing exercises. She hasnʼt
spoken anything to me yet and I am still waiting and wondering
what her first words to me will be! Caroll is special to me since he is
always in such amusement and childlike wonder whenever he colors
and looks at you. Cute right?!



This is Ateto! He was specially assigned to me last week because of
how special he is - He tends to go into his own world and it can get a
little disruptive during lessons and I will be there to quieten him down.

He was quite a handful last week but this week, he is much better and
has now won my heart, as we took a walk to the library as we held
hands together, and he showed me the coins he had in his hands, as I
watched him climbed unto higher platforms and then jump off to flat
ground again, makes him adorable :)

Apart from that, I have been busy making
friends with Mr Dictionary. I am still trying to
grapple and learn Tetun, heh and it reminds
me a lot of the days I was trying to learn
Chinese, and I practically have to search for every word of a
Friday weekly article to do my written assignments.


I was trying to translate a Tetun story that was written by SL/LS
and draw storyboards for the stories to go unto big books, to be
taught during the kids club.

So this is what I have been
busy and will be busy with for the upcoming weeks -
Illustrating the characters of Aze, a rich man and
Migi, the hero which has yet to be drawn. It has been
real fun creating these characters and bringing them
unto life as I discuss with SL/LS how they should
look like.

I actually havenʼt drawn at all since my failure of an
entrance test to a media and arts program at NTU, 4
years back. I remembered as I drew my first stroke
on a paper 2 days back, I remembered the failure but the thought of the kids (think of
Carrol and Atetoʼs faces) made me finish what I wanted to depict and I am just glad it was
well received by LS/SL who thought it looked really nice.

Just the start of the week, I was thinking how I could contribute and help in this Cocoon
project and I was looking at some childrenʼs book and was actually just entertaining a
random thought of - “wouldnʼt it be nice, if I could create/draw the pictures to a storybook?”
and towards the end of the week, LS approached me if I would like to draw the pictures to
a story they wrote, which is quite similar to the Samaritan woman but contextualized
towards the local setting of things here.

As I spend my quiet moments with God, I realized how much He actually bothered about
my random thoughts. It was not the first time but with it happening again always comes as
a reminder of how much He knows me and my thoughts, that if it matters to me, it matters
to Him.

I was looking at a word that was released to me 2 years back, from this lady (who doesnʼt
know me at all), who saw me in a very colorful and creative environment and how God
thinks I am a very creative person, how much joy I bring to Him and how proud of me He
is.



I have come to realize how much I do enjoy creating, colors and just like the word she
gave, “You are a creator, how much you like to go into new things, enjoy beautifying things
and bringing hope to others/drawing beauty into the areas of my life”, I completely agree
with the word and I think the greatest joy and fun is having the privilege of walking through
what was just a world of words, into having it become a living reality and I am currently
living in it and what I previously couldnʼt comprehend in full, now I am experiencing the
context and fullness of things.

Someone often tells me how I should enjoy my time in Timor, and I am glad to say now, I
am really living the time of my life, kids, colors, drawing, creating, blocks of quiet time to
journal and read. It has only been coming 3 weeks here and I have seen a promise come
to life! I am actually waiting for more to reveal and unveil to me, just wondering what else
lies ahead of me :)

Just another note of how God knows me and wants me to know myself even more, He is
faithful and has been ever so faithful and good to me here. Iʼve been having good reads
here - The Genesee Diary by Henri J.M Nouwen. I do have this current interest in people
spending some time of their lives in monastery and they journey on to realize the beauty
and the art of solitude, quietness and a prayerful life and their insights into the word.
Perhaps it is a reflection of what I am desiring and am seeking and working on in my life
right now.

Thanks for all the prayers, keep them coming. Do pray for:
- Successful application of Cocoon as an NGO
- The Bible Study/Discipleship groups SL/LS has been leading, has been having
breakthroughs, keep praying that the students/student teachers will experience Him and
His love and be transformed by Him
- I will be leading to teach a song tomorrow during the kids club, pray it will be good and
fun and in all that I do, be filled with His love and grace :)

Loves,
Joy Joy

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Prayer for our 2 YaYA missionaries

Dear YaYAs,

Last night, I  managed to talk to Shaun, and also got an update (which I posted below) and a personal email from Joyce. The two of them are coping well, and are clinging even closer to the Lord every day. Yes, EVERYDAY in their secret place with Jesus. It's an amazing faith building journey for both of them, as well as trying to understand cross cultural issues. Below are some prayer pointers, do continue to pray for them.


Shaun Ho
·       Pray against Mosquitoes
·       Praise God for seeing me through every day
·       Successful Launch of English Project (Every Wednesday)
·       Launch of Soccer Team (Next Wednesday, 14 September)
·       English Club
Joyce Goh
·       Thanksgiving for Joyce’s healing last week
·       Pray for Joyce’s ability to quickly pick up the Tetum language·       Pray for strength and wisdom
·       Pray for Joyce’s eyes being fixed upon Jesus.

Peace,
Uncle Henry

Joyce: Summary of 1st Week update in Timor

It has been a week and I figured a weekly update might do a better job of what takes place on a typical week. Hereʼs the neighborhood that I live in - Bairro Pitte. (Bai-ro Pit-teh) and that is Li Shan in the picture. Yes, it is kampong lifestyle with loads of dust, slippers, walking and chicken, pigs and dogs strolling around. We wear a cap around if you donʼt intend to get a tanned mark of your spectacles on your face, for vanityʼs sake.

This week has been observation week for me, of what takes place on a typical week at Cocoon as a teacher (Iʼm more of a teacher aide right now lah). Getting from home to our workplace is a short walk away, about the distance of walking from Little India MRT to church:) We donʼt really get around out of the area quite often unless there are some errands to be made and we will take a short taxi ride out, each at about USD$1-1.50 per ride, which runs by distance and not by the meter.

Thanks to the weather and lifestyle here, I usually am awake by 7.45am and by 8, I am sitting on a chair, chilling out with Li Shan (who is my house mate) and eating our cereal breakfast and a hot drink together. This new habit that I have cultivated, really took a couple of days to sink in, but once you got it, it actually isnʼt such a bad idea to start of your day, unhurriedly.

The day begins at 9, apart from staff devotion on Monday mornings, staff training on Saturday mornings and church on Sunday mornings, I will have my 1.5 hours of private Tetun lessons with Zeze every Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. Lunch will be at nearby Warungs with every of the Cocoon teachers, at 11.30am and by 12.15am, everyone goes off for their time of Siesta. Unknown to us Singaporeans, it is the entire nationʼs culture here, that from 12-2pm, it is an official time of rest. Everyone heads back to their homes and literally, head home to rest,
shower or take a nap and life begins at 2pm again. SL, LS and me usually ends up heading home, feeding Blackie with our lunch leftovers and eating some oranges and chilling around before heading back to the library again. Classes starts at 3pm but the kids usually are in the library before that. Kids club falls on every Monday and Thursday. Tuesdays are when the kids just comes in to play some educational games on the computer. The pre-teens takes up the Wednesdays and Friday afternoons.

Kids club was fun being around, as the library will take a theme/ story for the entire month and for this month, it is the story of the lion and the mouse. A big book gets read in Tetun to all the kids seated on the floor and activities will be carried out thereafter. We made lion masks on Monday and I lent a hand in helping them cut out the lion masks, putting on the rubber bands and poking the eyes of the lion. I love the games they have to teach the children on the numbers and words of the week. It is called hop scotch and the teachers will call out the
words on the floor for the kids to identify where to hop next - explains why you see sheep, 10, 19, written on the floor, old school huh? :)

The 5-6.30pm slots will be taken up by the adults and it is done at a nearby primary school. For many who do not realize what lovely classrooms we have back at home, the chairs might fall away! That is Francs teaching the Module 1 lessons. They are a bunch of young adults that SL and LS has groomed, from being their students, to graduating to now, becoming on board as paid staff, teaching English to the community.

Wednesday night was awesome as we had our Singaporean team devotion, where SL shared her thoughts and we worshipped. I havenʼt touched the guitar since I reached till that night where we sat together and just sang “This is My Desire” and “Jesus Lover of My Soul”. Somehow, in a foreign place and when I start singing something in a familiar language and something that has Jesus in it, always brings a refreshing take. LS went on to sing for me some
worship songs in Bahasa Indonesia and Tetun that led on to us singing Kit Chanʼs “Home” in a foreign land, that had such a nice feel to it. We had our team prayer nights on Saturday. It is quite cool seeing how these Cocoon leads this entire project with such a holistic and wholesome feel to things.

Adjusting here hasnʼt been at all that bad apart from feeling sickly on Thursday as I took a day off to rest, but the first few nights were rough, not because I was thinking of home, but because of how the time before sleep is spent in your room, and since it is relatively quieter and darker on this side of earth, you actually make a choice of what to focus your thoughts on. I have started developing my favorite habit of digging into the word and journaling and that easily takes up at least 2 hours of my time before I head to bed. Journaling used to be out of a need to clear my thoughts but over here, it has been more than a need but a want and an enjoyment of writing.
 
Dinners are home cooked daily, which alternates between SL and LS. I added my touch on Friday and that is fried chye-sim (vegetables are extra fresh here, they whither by the end of the day) and black sauce-sesame oil with diced chicken and rice, so you get to see my face. It has made the mark and I brought a taste of Chwee-Chian down to Dili (with all the years of feeding on my momʼs cooked food).
 
Signing off with a picture taken with Pastor Dong and Susantha! Pastor Dong touched down
yesterday and is doing his typical runs and called to meet us out for coffee. I thought I took a picture to commemorate just how one year ago, I was merely contemplating doing some missions here and now, here I am :)

Keep the prayers coming, for sustained good health and His love and joy to keep flowing, as I meet the kids/youths, learn the language and spend my own time being with Him. Maromak forbenza ita hotu hotu. (God Bless You All)! Loves, Joyce.




Shaun: Summary of 1st month in Singburi
Hi friends!
I know, i know. I haven’t been blogging. But honestly, sometimes I reach home its already 8 or 9pm and all i want to do is read a good book, and sleep. Switching on my computer is a hassle as well so I only open it when I really want to sit down for an hour or so just to blog.

Anyway, I want to let you all know I’m well, but I am feeding mosquitoes every night. Sigh, the bites on my feet and legs is quite ugly but I am learning new ways to tackle the biting problem! Pray for me that the insects will give it a rest and leave me alone ok? Other than that, Singburi has been awesome. I almost feel like a country bumpkin also. My home (Thanpraporn church) is quite far from Singburi City (Yes same name as the province), so whenever me and Air go into the City, I get all excited and in the city my eyes open big big and when I see things like KFC. *rolls eyes* haha!

Another reason why I haven’t been blogging is that my Internet dongle didn’t have anymore $$$! So that meant another trip into the city! But I always enjoy it as I can always enjoy guitiao and beef noodles at my favourite shop!!!

 Pi Gek and Nong Gong, Singburi City Church members!
 
And yes from the title of this post, I HAVE BEEN IN SINGBURI FOR 1 MONTH ALREADY! Praise God really for seeing me through every single day and always giving me wisdom and discernment. I have preached 0 times in Singapore but since coming here I have already preached 3 times! Twice in Sawingha Church and once in my own church! And God has always been good. I’ve never been to bible school, and I have only been a BAG leader only recently but God has used all my sermons to touch the Thai Christians! God is good. Without him we REALLY can do NOTHING.
Recently life has been good. Its been pretty much the same so I wont be telling you what I have been doing everyday. Only those that I think stand out.

Wednesday English project
Just want to thank all who have been praying for the English project every Wednesday! It has really taken off well! Every week I meet the English teacher of the school and she will hand me my “assignment” and teaching materials for the next week, and its always a different class and different level. At first I wanted to just stick to one class so I asked her if it was possible, since it would be much easier to foster a closer bond with my students. But she said the other students notice that I am around and they also want me to teach them! Hahaha! Wow, felt so encouraged when I heard that! So every week our team will be rotating among all the different classes so that everyone would have a chance to be taught by us! And these are the things that missionaries can offer when they are here. Because there was never enough competent English teachers in Singburi, so Ps Engkiat can’t really expand into the schools to do anything long-term or substantial. But now that I am here, I can go in to teach English and also make friends with the students and advertise our church and our Saturday English service! Its really a foot in the door! Another thing that is happening is that next Wed we will start our soccer team registration! Saiyan will be the “Alex Fergie” while Air and myself will just assist! Pray that it will be a good turn-out!

My Pri 6 class. Their English is the best so far.

Thank God for sudden inspirations during class. I noticed there was a bored atmosphere then I just decided we should place a game to put what we learnt into practice. Gosh they loved it so much. :)

This is the treatment we get as teachers each week. Super hospitable.
 
I am very happy and very proud of the above photo. Finally, after 3 weeks in the school and advertising our English club, we FINALLY SEE FRUITS OF OUR LABOUR! These 3 girls are from the school that we teach at and they really came! I really feel so so happy. And 2nd best part, they also came for church on Sunday!

But after talking to Qihui about this one night, I also realised something. If we compare this same process with Ps Engkiat’s mission in Singburi for the last 10-15 years or so, we can really see how difficult and discouraging it can be to be a missionary. Already each week we advertise our English club and all the kids will always nod their heads eagerly and promise me to come. But they never do.


Imagine how difficult it must have been for Ps Engkiat all these years. And if I do recall correctly, his first year in Singburi had ZERO converts! It can be very demoralising and discouraging but missionaries need to trust in God, be patient and just keep working the ground. The fruits will come!

Ok friends I’m going off now. I promise I will make it a point to blog each week. If I don’t, please forgive me! Can be quite tiring! But it is easier for me to update via twitter and facebook. Again, please add me at tigerdj@gmail.com. From my phone is so simple to just take a snapshot and shoot it to Facebook or Twitter. So that will be where most of my updates will come from! Cheers and Good night!

- Chawn (My Thai name) :)

Sunday, September 4, 2011

First Updates from Joyce - Arrival in Timor


 Ok, finally got here and the internet isnʼt really working really well, speed wise - will try to get
another sim for it and attach myself to a prepaid internet plan soon. Have gotten a sim card and is
one of the inexpensive ways of staying connected, not through data plans or whatsapp, but it is
back to old school style, of smsing (+6707641042). Iʼm running on my old SE W810i currently,
since the BB is just way too complicated to get it to work here.

Spent the first day making a quick trip to the supermarket to get our drinking water supply topped
up and being shown around the library and seeing how things run and attending a Evangelism on
Campus workshop for the church youths that I had a chance seeing how far my Bahasa would go,
since the trainers were from Malaysia.

Then it was home for a yummy dinner (flight food was bad)
prepared by Siew Lee. I have intentionally placed this picture up
to assure all my lovelies that I am eating and sleeping well here.
There is really good soup cooked as you can see and a nice,
thick comfy bed and a room to myself. It is where I managed to
get some good rest of a short nap, feeding off 2 podcasts and
some journaling and QT done today.
Starting out the habit of developing this inner sanctuary is still
taking some time used to, the new environment, culture and
language while keeping the old habits in.
Church was on today, so it is another experience of being in the
midst of another of Godʼs family, pretty determined to learn the
language, so I can understand what is going on and what is
being sung. They use Easy Worship too so it is quite cool!
Nights are usually dinners with Siew Lee (SL) and Li Shan (LS).
Sunday nights comes with prayers to pray for
Got a full week ahead while I start my first Tetun lesson this
Wednesday morning. Be hanging around to watch goes on as
an overview of what a typical week is like.
Pray for strength - I hope Iʼm not too old playing catchup with the
kids and starting up a busier rhythm again after a month of rest,
for grace and wisdom as I pick up the language (it can get a little
frustrating when I end up being limited on my communication),
and eyes being fixed upon Him.

When it is all quiet at night, it is not hard to be quiet, but a
harder thing is making sure I listen to the right voice. Perhaps
the frustrations/weaknesses/struggles starts making a point and
how I must and need to even more so dig into the word and
unto Him.

Having an ipod with music and podcasts is quite a life saver
over here for me. More updates in time to come on what it is
really gonna be like for a typical week. Bracing myself! Oh and
meet my she friend who is a great companion and friend too -
Blackie, reminds me alot of Lassie. Jesus knows what makes I
love and need :)