TMT 2012 Day 3

TMT Day 3

Dear Concerned Parents and Valued Stakeholders,

Your children are doing very well. We have slept well; eaten very well (too well); and have managed to poop regularly. We want to thank you for all your prayers back home in Singapore, as we continue to experience the Holy Spirit’s work during this trip. God is truly amazing.

Please find a breakdown of today’s activities below:

Teaching at Wat Pra Prang School

The day started with a three hour lesson with primary school children (Primary 4 – 6) at Wat Pra Prang School. The lessons were very engaging across the levels, and the children enjoyed themselves tremendously. Elaine shared that she was not very good with children, however, her primary four class, loved her so much that she had mini-bodyguards with her the entire time! The children were enthralled by our impromptu games during the classes, especially Sean ‘BOOMZ’ Tng’s “Oppa Gangnam Style” impersonation.

We mingled with the children and even managed to squeeze in a quick game of football. Joshua was the star player, showing off his football prowess against a whole horde of younglings (children). During the game, Ps Henry, forgetting he was 50, took a tumble and injured his shoulder. Please pray for complete healing, and alleviation of discomfort in his shoulder.

Concert at Wat Pra Prang School

After a very tasty lunch of fish, egg and soup, we proceeded to hold a concert at the school, for the children that we taught earlier that day. It was amazing that we could openly bring a Christian themed concert to the children in the school, as Wat Pra Prang School is a temple school, much like how ACS and MGS are mission schools in Singapore. The children loved our dance and the skit that we prepared for them. Gift and Wesley gave an Oscar-worthy performance, earning them critical acclaim from the skit critics in the audience today. Elaine gave her testimony and we also invited the children to the English camp that will be run this Saturday. We were pleasantly surprised when the children presented another skit for Team Singapore. Please pray for the Children, that they will be responsive to the gospel and that they will be able to attend the English camp.

Rest at Thanpraporn Church

We were presented with a well deserved break at Thanpraporn Church (homeland of the Shaun Ho). As it was quite a hot day, we set out in search of cold drinks and desserts. Vanessa and Daryl came across the same lady that we prayed for two years ago, this time she was walking and did not need her wheel chair, a stark difference from her condition before. Hallelujah.

The team was divided into two groups to go for visitation.

Visitation at the Hospital

Due to hospital regulations, a smaller group visited the hospital. Loong Thong Lok (the fish farm guy) was warded because of kidney and lung infection as his the wound on his back had not recovered since his fall a few months ago. He had an oxygen mask on and the doctors were not sure how long he would have to be warded for. We did a short worship in the hospital ward and the boys – Wesley, Sean, Alex and Joshua - all laid hands on him to pray. Alex gave a word that God was pouring forth his anointing oil on everyone present. Vanessa saw a vision of calm waters and assured him that God has given Loong Thong Lok peace. Loong Thong Lok said that he had difficulty breathing the past few nights but he actually managed to sleep during our prayer. Wesley said that he also felt that Thong Lok’s breathing improved after the prayers. PTL!

Visitation at Ba Yuan’s Home

The team had a taste of Ps Eng Kiat’s work by visiting Ba (Read Auntie) Yuan’s home. We caught up with the happenings in her life, and found out that she had a fall preventing her from attending church regularly. Please pray that she will be healed and be more able to attend church regularly.

Children’s Club at Pakathan Village

After the visitations, we ran a children’s club session at Pakathan Village. We were reunited with familiar faces and also had a good time catching up. The children really enjoyed the programme and had a lot of fun learning about Samson and Delilah. At the village, Ps Eng Kiat took the opportunity to ask the team to pray for Gaey’s father’s new motorcycle. This was also a divine to pray for him as he is a pre-believer. Gaey inspired all of us as she is only 12 years old, yet she stands up for her faith in school and her father’s cyst was healed because she persisted in prayer for two months. Mark, Grace, Wesley, and Carissa stepped up to pray for two older ladies, blessing them with prayers of healing and encouragement. The presence of the Holy Spirit was strong and a few of them were moved to tears.

Dinner and Christmas Setup at Thanpraporn Church

After a filling dinner, we proceeded to pray for Pii Som Sii, who has had a bad back and thigh. Qihui felt that Som Sii was like a strong pillar for the church and that we should sing our TMT song and march around her seven times. After some prayer, the pain that she usually felt was much reduced. Praise the Lord. Please pray for her healing as she is one of the elders of the Thanpraporn Church. We also helped Air with the Christmas decorations in the church.

Our God is Amazing!

Daryl and Vanessa

30 Nov 2012

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DAY 2 YAY!! EVEN LONGER POST AHEAD WAHAHAHAH.

We woke up at 6am and headed to SawaengHa High School for our day of teaching. It started with assembly where all the students, Secondary 1-6 gathered to sing the national anthem and recite their pledge. The Thai National anthem was relatively short but their pledge was extremelyyyy long compared to Singapore's! The students there were generally very polite, greeting everyone with the waii (Thai greeting) whenever they walked past us.

The TMT team were split into 6 teams and allocated to teach different classes. We definitely have to thank God for the great favour with the students and teachers and the rapport we managed to built within the short few hours! :) After finishing our lessons, their English teacher gave us feedback saying that their students really enjoyed themselves and some even requested for us to stay to teach them everyday!

The amount of favour God poured forth for us was really beyond what we had expected or asked for. Despite it being a predominantly Buddhist school, God allowed us to pray for 2 of their teachers! The girls prayed for the English teacher who has been suffering from diabetes for the past 20 years while the guys prayed for the male teacher. Elaine shared her vision she got with the English teacher and she actually affirmed it, agreeing that the picture and descriptions Elaine drew looked exactly like her. Overall, the teachers appeared to be really thankful for our visit to the school and even, for our prayers. They even presented us with locally hand-made fans and small pouches for souvenirs!

After school, we proceeded to Lek's house to pray for her family who were recovering from their son’s death. They were a family who came to Christ only after the accident occurred; hence it was so heartwarming to see that rather than being bitter towards God, they were so faithfully and earnestly seeking God, knowing that they will meet their loved one in heaven one day. They even opened up their home for cell group meeting every week! After praying and seeking God, the group had a small sharing session where we shared about what God wanted us to bless the family with. Charissa shared a short passage from Psalms 23:5-6: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. This verse was also very much relatable to the vision that Uncle Henry saw, which was of a river overflowing and streaming through their household. Charissa later reiterated with sentence from a song that goes: “though the sorrow may last for the night, my joy will come in the morning”. Qi Hui also shared a verse from Romans 8:28 that goes: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Afterwards, we went to the nearby Sawaengha church and Ps Eng Kiat explained how this new church started as a children club 4 years ago. Since then, God has brought many new believers to this church. As we were about to leave the house, Grace, Qihui and Arunee came back with an amazing testimony. When Grace was in Singapore, she had a vision from God that she should pray for a limping man with different leg lengths that would be walking by. As she was outside the church toilet, she saw the exact same guy!!! Qihui and Grace then proceeded to run after him, and stopped him just in time before he drove off with his wife. They prayed for him, and found out that actually he had not been attending church regularly. After praying, he said that he was very encouraged, God had sent a messenger to bring him back to Christ! It was a divine appointment. Teary eyed, he promised to come on Sunday J PRAISE THE LORD! KOP KHUN PRA-JAO!!!!!!!!!

We then went to Tachang Church to have dinner!! Phi Naa made us a very very gooooooood dinner J We had Thai curry, lemon soup and stir-fried vegetables. The taste that exploded in our mouths was unparallel to any delicacy we had eaten in Singapore! After dinner, we then prayed for Phi Naa and her family. She has a slipped disk and experiencing excruciating back pain L As we prayed for her, the atmosphere was suffused with God’s Holy presence, and she was truly exultant. She could turn her back without any pain. However, she was still wearing the back brace when we left, so please continue to keep her in your prayers!! J

We then prayed for her son, who was recently released from jail. While praying, many of us got a ‘download’ from God. Aunty Carol received a word of knowledge that his life with similar to the design of his shirt. The shirt was half tattered and the other half was normal. Aunty Carol felt that it was like he was running away from God and moving to another phase of his life. She felt that he should turn back to God; even while facing all the struggles in his life, God was always by his side. Sean also had a phrase from God, ‘You’re all I need’. Elaine had a vision of a yellow carnation, with dried and wilted leaves falling apart from the budding flower. The yellow bud was blooming and growing, larger and larger, under an immense light which represented the favour of God outpouring upon the man. Whereas, the blooming flower represented the man whom God was nurturing and growing under His favour.  The colour yellow, in relation to the yellow ribbon, also represents acceptance.

We also prayed for Phi Naa’s daughter-in-law, who was a pre-believer. While praying, Charissa had a vision of a beautiful red rose, enclosed in a fence. Grace’s word of knowledge was also related, the daughter-in-law was resistant to becoming a Christian because she feels that she is unworthy to receive God’s love. God wants her to love herself as much as He loves her.

We ended at around 8pm and went back to rest J
Prayer update for today: please pray for Pii nan, a worker at the mushroom farm who was just bitten by a snake! Pray that the snake is not poisonous.

That’s all for today, we’ll be going to Wat Pra Prang Primary tomorrow! Pray that everything goes smoothly JJJ TATAAAAAA

Reported by: Elaine and Carissa ;)
p.s. Thanks to Ps EK who translated for us!!

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TMT2012 Day 1 Update

28 Nov 2012

We had a short and easy flight to Bangkok. Immigrations clearance was extremely good - there was nobody in the queue so we breezed through the Immigration counters.

Cheng Kie was there to greet us when we stepped out ! The team members were pleasantly surprised and Cheng Kie should be back at home now. He was waiting for his flight back to Singapore.

We headed straight for a long awaited meat feast at our usual Macdonalds. We had big macs, or double big macs ? and lots of fried chicken.  All of us were extremely happy with the feast.

We reached Ps EK's house and after resting for a short while, we spent some time worshipping God and did group devotion.  

Jerone shared :

Be the best that we can be . 

Lay down the stuff that is hindering us.

His plans are better than ours.

Mark shared :

Lay down whatever things  that are hindering  us and to reflect on  what is it ? Felt that the team were physically and spiritually tired, asked them to ask God for renewed strength for the trip, that their cups will be filled!

Qi shared that during the devotion, she felt very warm and saw a vision of a 

water fall -and we are under the water that is flowing. It was refreshing and cleansing.

She also saw a stone, akin to everyone of us, and it was being cut into a diamond, revealing our valuable identiy in Christ.

She saw a black veil lifted up as we worship and signified a new and pure beginning

Elaine shared that she rec proverbs 6: 9-11

How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep? 

10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, 

11 and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want like an armed man. 

Alex shared that we think we are like a  small green shaker but actually we are the big green shaker.

Cas - heard the song lyrics -hungry I come  for I know you satisfy 

Psalms 23: 5-6

Cup overflows, similar to waterfall sensation as shared by Qihuu

Have to drink deep from Christ to be filled as His vessels

Battles been won - we start being amazing henceforth 

Henry heard the word "open heaven", and remember in John 2,  Jesus told Nathaniel that he will see amazing things - an open heaven and angels going up and down . This signifies the dawn of something very important.   'kJust as Jacob saw a similar vision in Genesis 28 at bethel, it was the beginning of his struggle to find out who he really are and who he belong to ? Two important questions to ponder on for the trippers:

Who are you ?

Whose are you ?

we headed to Tesco for our usual loading of goody bags, food for breakfast and toiletries and more. We bought 7 trolleys of stuff.

During the night we prayed to God for :

Pi Cristina - she is having bad pain now. Pray for complete healing for her.

Pi Som Si - she is having bad pain too - pray for complete healing for her too 

Sawengha school -

We are the 1st group to teach in this secondary school and this is the 1st time that Ps EK has access to the school.  Pray that we will follow God's leading and that we will have loads of favor.

And that's all for tonight !!! 

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YaYA Biking + Stayover

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YaYA EXtended Worship (30 Sep 12)

Jennifer Heng’s difficult years as a young person have given her a passion to help people find confidence and security in God. A prolific communicator, she was a radio presenter, copywriter and marketing professional before becoming a pastor. 

She is currently Lead Pastor of Good Gifts City Church, which started in November 2010. From 2007 to 2010, she was Head of the Youth Division at Church of Our Saviour. Jennifer is married to John and has an amazing one-year-old girl, Alexis

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Sell all, Live Meatily Together (SLMT 2012) Day 2

Day 2 (this is a backdated copy!) Woke up bright and early, had an awesome breakfast lovingly prepared on the bus. Yes, I mentioned prepared on the bus. The chaos that ensued can be left up to your imagination, but whatever you imagine prob won't be far off from what happened. So many firsts on this trip haha. Thank God that we all didn't get a tummyache despite our lack of sanitary conditions :) anyway day 2 is a busy day, with lots of stories to share! Had 3 visits to various different places, 4 in total. First one was to Roshan, he's like a real cool surfer dude who owns like a surf school cum restaurant at the beach. Rebuilt it after the tsunami hit. Sang for him (imagine: sun sea and guitar music) to encourage him, and I think attracted a few of his colleagues/friends attention! Haha we really wanted to have a beach concert there, but that pending discussions with our tour manager haha. Hopefully our arrival is a step to sth greater, I think PL released a prophesy that he is a lighthouse to his friends and Auds corresponded with the image of an umbrella reflecting the sun rays in its seven colored splendor to his friends. We then went to visit Gomez, in a history filled (300 yo) church quite near like some colonial administerial district. He has a testimony that is really colorful (read also: long) and was really sleepy then so pls forgive if I don't do it due justice. He was actually a Buddhist chief, but one day  had a dream where he saw the temple being destroyed and the church built in its place. So he decided to join the winning side and told the monk he could no longer be a buddhist. Naturally being a Christian in Sri Lanka is one fraught with difficulties, society, family and communities just dont support you. Told us abt his struggles to balance societal commitments with Christian expectations.  Also had the caretaker told us abt her story in the tsunami, super drama and cool! If you want to know, go to Sri Lanka yourself.  Joyce had a WOK for back pain. Couldn't quite figure out who had it, until a woman came in suddenly. Prayed and she had no more pain, even broke out into song praising God. Realized that the Slankans really enjoy praising God, haha we should really learn from them!  We also visited the hospital to visit a nurse returnee and also, Ps Sunil's (a pastor in a church near Kataragama) church. Ps Sunil was one of the four young men who came out to start churches after the senior pastor in Kataragama died. Will tell you abt the story of the wife who is an awesome woman one day, am really tired right now. Anyway ps Sunil is a really welcoming chap, and Ps Keith had a cricket exchange with the kids. And the church is being built with funds from farmers, so just can imagine the seasonal nature of the funds. We then went to the Agape children's home, met the coolest, wittiest pastor (Ps Dayak, if i didnt get his  name wrong) I have ever met. And our pastors in church are really awesome already so yea you can imagine! Haha he had a really interesting story to why he opened this children's home, it all started with him being asked to bring a kid to the orphanage. But he didn't as he couldn't find one. Abt one week later a guy brought a kid to him, saying the kid drank pesticide as he was suicidal. The kid died in his arms, and only later did he realize that it was the same kid that he was supposed to help earlier. Prayed for a second chance and abt a week later the first kid of many (103 in total) came into his life. Had lots of struggles in the way, but God has provided much, such as a friend giving free milk powder when he ran out, so much so tt he had to resort cutting down on milk given to the children under his care, and tt included his own children. Also, a van (which he didn't order to come) delivered like two fridges and cupboards and towel racks one day just out of the blue, when they required supplies to build up their home. Also he has like a Road Runner Coyote like relationship with a Buddhist monk, it's really funny but God always comes through and wins the authorities over to his side. Ask any SLMT member and I'm sure they would duly relate the details to you.  The Programme we ran was good I guess, many children came for prayer. Just glad we could just play with them and show some love and attention to them, am pretty sure they are in good hands  under Ps Dayak.  Also met Ps Don at agape, a ps from US. More stories were told, shall not delve into them here. Interesting it seems like this mission trip we have really come to be ministered to, ourselves be refreshed and inspired by all these people in Sri Lanka. Good stuff mans. Join SLMT next year if you feel as if you need refreshing in your life.  Okay signing off now, Louisa.  P.S if you want the full stories, just approach me after I come back okay!

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