God's heart for missions

Pastor Boey (Asst Pastor of the JB church) & The Team! (: He really is an inspiration,
A man of God!

As the last week of training approaches, there are a number of fluttery butterflies in my stomach combined with lots of excitement too! God has been showing up so much more this week, it gets better as the weeks pass :D Been very blown away by the things He has been doing through confirmations and visions from others. Remember during one of the intercessory prayer sessions (happens daily instead of lunch time) where I was just standing there feeling tired, distracted and not very focused. I just stood there and then the presence of God just swept through that room of 9 people! I was so overwhelmed by how God would come in the midst of us despite how we disappoint him and despite all our imperfections. He shows up! I was truly in awe and almost felt arrested by His presence, got straight into prayer right after that. That time of prayer that day became so powerful (:

On friday, our teams got an opportunity to see the fruit of VFC's heart for missions in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. The church there was set up in 1980 and now has a congregation of 3000 people! We were there to visit the social works that the church started there, 32 in total. They are fully supported by the government which is rare for a church because it is a muslim dominated country. But the government has acknowledged that the homes and rehab centres they set up works and have such a high success rate that now, even the government is behind them! (: If God is with you, who can be against you!


That was what VFC used to be called in the old days!


While waiting for the pastor to come back we went for Prata!
[left] Yuan Yee looking happy!
[right] Pei pei really wanted a picture like this to show how she does not have a body or something like that, it was quite hilarious :D


Picture of the ladies who are in their 30s! HAHA okay if they see this I am doomed.

The JB Church:






All the vans we saw that was owned by them had these words like, "Jesus is Lord", or for those that we used by the homes had, "Jesus is Hope". Pretty cool (:


On the way to the first home, we drove past a really cool home with this driveway! Wasnt fast enough to catch the house itself but it was NICEEE. Very Orange County-ish.



The first home that we stopped at was a Drug Rehabilitation Centre. Outside they had these signs!
[left] The name of the centre - Calvary Care Centre. Was really proud of being from our church seeing the name of our church everywhere! (:
[right] Chinese for "Jesus Loves You" (: He really does! (:




This room I THINK, means Prayer Room, I THINK. It's for those who just entered, they'll be put there to pray, separated from the rest until they are ready to live with the rest of them. Inside there, the chinese words are a verse i think :D


Two extremely beautiful puppies on the compound!


The guy in blue is Bro Raymond from the R3/4 team to Remexio. The other guy in brown beside him is one of the head supervisors of the place. This place takes in addicts and also mentally unstable individuals. This guy in brown used to be from this centre as an addict, but through the transforming power of the Lord Jesus Christ, he was completely set free from his addiction and came back to the centre to serve those who are still working their way there (: His testimony will surely encourage those in the centre that there is hope for them too! On one of the walls right at the front of the centre, it says "Nothing is impossible for Jesus". How powerful for each of them to know that there is hope! They learn and memorize verses everyday because the supervisors can stop them anytime along their way to test them. The Word of God is life for these people and they believe that if they can continue memorizing it that one day this very Word will become so embedded in their hearts and mind and be the key to transforming them!

Combined home - A stretch of houses for the elderly, the adults and the children of every need:



This guy serves at the combined home, heading it if I'm not wrong. He also used to be living in this home but all Glory to God who changed him and now he is married and back here to serve those who are still struggling (:


Looking at this granny makes me sad already :( She is the oldest female in the home, 95 years of age. She was spreading kaya on the bread when I walked in and I smiled at her, said Hi and shook her hand. To my surprise, she speaks fluent English! She told me she was Eurasian and she started talking about her life (: Very sweet lady who is so grateful for what the home has provided her (: When I had to leave, she was like "SO SOON?". I mean I'm not very good with old people but I think for her to have someone talk to her and spend time with her meant alot to her already (: So I just had to say bye with a smile and ran off quickly :( Jesus take care of her from the top of her head to the toes on her feet! May she be able to stand up and praise You! (:


Kids who were preparing for school (: The little indian girl beside me probably couldnt understand 99% of what I was saying but she kept smiling at me whenever I said anything! She's a little shy here (:


Pei Zhen (: This extremely intelligent young lady lives at the home with her aunty. Her birth mum had triplets and she was the oldest, but her birth mother didn't want her. So her aunty took her in and now she's inseperable with her! The aunty lives in the home and loves Pei Zhen like her own, I'm thinking she'll eventually adopt her! (:


The boys there do this curriculum called the Alpha & Omega. It is one where they learn their subjects and also bible lessons at the same time (: So they get free education and education on the Word of God too! (:


In another classroom, they were very fascinated by the camera. Kept wanting to take pictures! Jesus loves the little children!!



TEH TARIK :D SO NICE :D


The couple who takes care of a boys home somewhere else, very selfless, all for the furtherance of God's Kingdom! (:







It was there that I'm like people need to see this to see where their Missions Faith Pledge money is going! Because of their giving, the JB church was started and through them all these lives were touched! (: God's heart is to see the nations of the world touched by His love, through His people. How will they know if nobody tells them! We had the opportunity to speak to Ps Shane Comiskey and he shared with us something that really changed my perspective of missions. He shared about how when his wife and himself were in Uganda, they had a translator who were with them the whole time. The couple was there to check on the churches there and the translator wanted them to go to his village to tell his village about Jesus. So Ps Shane agreed and the translator warned them about how his brother was quite anti-christian so he may be a little hostile. They accepted that and just went in, so halfway while Ps Shane is sharing the gospel, this brother of his broke down and started crying! WOW, he asked "What took you and christians so long to tell me the truth?" because Ps Shane told him he has been a christian for then, 20 years and this brother wanted to know why he kept the truth for 20 long years without telling others about it! WOW, missions is not just a programme or something that VFC pushes you into doing, it is really an expression of passing on this freedom of knowing the TRUTH about Jesus Christ! That is why we need to go and tell others, whether in school, your family, at work or out of the country! Not because we need to make numbers for our cell groups or the church, but because they NEED to hear it! (: How can we keep it to ourselves!

What I've learnt even from the short trip to JB was the reality of the transforming power of the Lord Jesus Christ to affect lives and completely turn them around (: You dont need to be someone big with a name to yourself to make a difference! Many of those who serve, you might never know who they are, but to those whose lives have been touched by them, these names they will never forget (: All they did was allowed God to do His will in their lives and look at how many children now have homes that they know are safe to go home to, or elderly who now know they can have a bed to rest on or just men and women who can live in a place where they will be cared for (: God is truly an awesome God!

[By the way, i'm flying on the 28th of Feb instead (:]

Love God, love others, that's all (: