Inspired to Blog

Today, 2 miracles happened. One was less exciting than the other. Both were miracles nonetheless.

First miracle was actually more than a miracle it was just a mind-blowing experience and just totally topped all expectations I had. I went down for the Zone F Praise & Worship to support Winifred and Weihong, the 2 new worship leaders being released today. I ended up deep in the thick presence of God, worshipping along with the rest! The team was totally awesome! They were a team! They were carrying each other from glory to glory. They really brought people into the presence of God and it was fresh and pure worship emanating from fresh and pure hearts. Totally amazing!

They really reminded me of David worshipping God bringing the ark back into Jerusalem. They took upon themselves the responsibility to really worship God and carry the presence of God on their shoulders! They worshipped with all their strength and led the people into the Holy of Holies. Awesome!

So proud of both of them... Then Charleston pointed out something that Roy pointed out to him... all the worship leaders are from C Zone... hehehe... :) Happy to be in C Zone. :) We rock! We will produce the people who will lead people into the presence of God in the house of God. :)

Second miracle was not so exciting... I exercised (really!) for the first time in ages today! Haha... :P I played a friendly 3-on-3 basketball with the other female leaders and even scored 2 baskets! :P It was fun though being the Summer program finals, we were kinda the lousiest game of the day? More like entertainment tee hee... :) *grin* Well, at least we ended of in a draw and had a good game. (I was panting like mad for a 7 minute game though)

Third miracle will be when I play soccer tomorrow in the finals for Soccer Summer Programmes... I have never played soccer ever. The Philippines doesn't play soccer. :S

Expectation

Just finished B&C Zone Camp! What a way to start the week! I cannot believe it is only Monday! Pheno really brought down the house and we had awesome worship then Pastor Troy preached an amazing word on the prophetic gift. The ministry time that followed after was a great way to end the night. Growth is gonna come! I can just feel it! Tonight was a confirmation of all that's been on my heart the last few weeks. There was such an air of expectation tonight and because God is a God who meets faith and is able to do above we can ask or think -- He truly went past all our expectations!

Something that really struck me tonight is the fact that there were over 260 people in the auditorium today! B&C Zone rocks! That's the true strength of the zone, that we are mobilizable! AND that is considering there were no C3 people in the audi (coz they're going for the G Zone camp tomorrow). We are really quite an amazing zone! Woohoo! :)

So, the week started out well and I am going to remain with an expectant spirit for the rest of the week...

Never Satisfied

Yesterday I had a powerful session with some of the people from C1 & C3 CEGs. It all started because Bong (Tingli not the lights one) and I kept trying to arrange to meet up--this has been going on since she finished follow-up like a month ago. Then there was Clement who I discovered to be very talkative online! :) So, after a month or so of not meeting up to pray, we met up to do something different--listen to sermons by powerful men and women of God.

The meeting we just had was on the Holy Spirit and basically we listened to the sermon "Why Tongues?" by Pastor Kong. After we just spent time praying and talking and I was totally blown away by how everyone prayed! Everyone just went up another level! The best part was that it was just me, Randy, Zhiyu, Bong, Lix, and Clement. None of your usual people were there! But we prayed loud and we prayed strong!! Woohoo! It was powerful! Something really broke in the spirit and everyone just overpowered my normally loudspeaker-like voice! hahaha :P

All of this just reminded me that although we reach another level we can always grow further. I am feeling happy but not satisfied with where I am and with where Operations and the CGs are. A holy dissatisfaction and desire for more... Not willing to settle for anything less than the promise, the best. I had a powerful revelation on this just last Tuesday but I will write about that another time.... :)

I'm Not a Very Good Blogger...

I realize it's been more than a month since I've blogged...

I think I'm not a very good blogger... haha... :P

I shall try not to make it verbal diarrhea... *grin*

The thing is I have been busy... Things have been quite busy with Mother's Day and Red Rain over the last few weeks! Mother's Day was awesome because a lot of us got to invite our moms (and even our dads!) I got to meet Seetoh's mom who is exactly as cool as her (!) and Wini's mom came with her godparents! There was Aggie's mom, Li Xuan's mom, Weien's parents, Pan's mom (who is gorgeous! looks like his sister!), Henry's mom and even Hong Bin brought his mom and sis! It was super cool!

As if that wasn't enough, Red Rain came rolling happily along 2 weeks later!

We are really a very exciting church!

Some interesting facts about this year's Red Rain...

... This was the first year we did not rent any moving heads or lights, but the Ops team is fantastic! It was as good if not better than the previous years! Kudos and hats off to Dawn, Bong, Colin, Soo Yee and the whole team that put this together! (The team is truly innovative!)

... We had to put 14 sandbags on the LCD truss because we are in true Singaporean style KIASI hahaha :) (thank you to Colin and the army boys for filling the sand with fresh sand from East Coast Park!)

... We had a record breaking youth attendance over the 2 days of Red Rain!!!! WOOOOHH!! :)

On top of all of that, I met a lot of awesome new friends like Linh! She's this super fun girl studying at OPSS and she's Alex's friend! :) 

Stella, Linh and Alex at the hangout after Red Rain!

I didn't get to talk to everyone, but I had fun with C1, C10 and C3 during the Hangout. On Saturday, Zac and Kai Xiang stayed behind and I think we all just ate and ate and ate and then after stuffing ourselves, we celebrated Ming Jian's birthday complete with poppers and guy groupies holding up signs on cardboard saying "Happy Birthday Ming Jian" So, Ming Jian, although you're not that happy to be 20, at least you had a fun birthday... and if you really are depressed... think of Desmond (!) LOL hahaha... :) It pays not to be the oldest in the CG :)

Overall, C1 & C10 & C3 had an attendance of 80! But it's more than just a number because every number is a person; every person is a life; every life is a destiny. God is good! :)

Happenings

Okay, so my idea of writing here more often didn't exactly happen... but I guess this is due for an update... what's been happening?

Mong went to army today and it feels totally weird to have him have to go to bed at 10PM and wake up as I am about to go to sleep... Mong, C1 & C3 misses you! Come out soon!

I went bowling with some of the staff today! I must say, for someone who lugged 2 bowling balls to Kallang Leisure Park and back I think I should have scored higher hahaha! I will seriously not try that again... especially the carrying two 13 lb. bowling balls up an overhead bridge.... :S

Greatest ever Easter service! Pastor How preached an awesome message... 7 Things I Hate About Christianity! Haha... that was so different to hear -- refreshing! Heart of God Church Rocks! Do not believe in Christianity, believe in Christ. Do not become a Christian, become like Christ! Heart of God Church will never be hypocitical, judgmental, irrelevant or any of those things that everyone hates about Christians!

Oh! C1 & C3 hit 85 this Easter!!!! :) Plus the 10 parents and adults we brought we were 95 all in all! The best thing is not the number though, we had tons of fun! Met some really cool people like Zac, Jordan, Diane, Gwan Yong, and everybody's friends :) Was good to see people like Alex and Mei Jun too! And of course the crazy C1 & C3 people are the best to hang around with on Easter! :) hehe... :)

Let's not leave G Zone out of this G1 had 15 new friends! Who says the University people can't be happening?! Haha... Oh, I must make a comment... Jeremy Wong does look like Kung Fu Panda! haha *peace man*

So... much has been happening but more is to come! :) I'll sign out for now, but I promise to be back soon... :)

I love praying with the C1C3 peeps

On Thursday, we had an awesome time praying in the C1 & C3 weekly meeting... It was great to see JO finally POC-d! Yeah! (they say it's POC because he's not fit to march (?!?!) and so for him it's a Passing Out Ceremony not a Parade) Then Ruo'En and Joshua looked adorable (?) in their matching AJC uniforms. Mong says uniform colors are chosen by going to the cloth shop and choosing the cloth with the most quantity being sold at the cheapest cost haha :) But yesterday's group was BIG--so big we couldn't fit inside the tent!

We talked about prayer. Actually we prayed! And many people really broke through in their prayer! :) It's really different to pray strong from the Spirit... I would compare it to going to the gym? Kinda like when you want to get rid of the tricep flab under your arm (hidden frustrations haha!) you do tricep pulls and other exercises that focus on those muscles. When you want to get slimmer inner thighs you get onto the weird looking torture machine that isolates that muscle and causes you not to be able to walk the next day. It's also kinda like studying for A-Level Maths... the reason you do the tutorials and the exercises is to get your brain used to doing that kind of question. That way, when you take the exam you will be able to do it in the allotted time. When we pray in the Spirit, we bypass our limited language and the limits of our mind and it isolates our spirit building it up.

Jude 20       But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.

Of course, we don't just pray in the Spirit, after all Paul says that it's about praying with understanding and praying with the Spirit but it does help because sometimes when we pray we're just distracted and can't focus. The Spirit is always willing but the flesh is weak so it was just great praying in the Spirit.

In any case, I am looking forward to our next adventure of praying together. :)

Always Believe in People

I came across this story, not surprisingly, from a video a friend posted on Facebook. It's about a young autistic boy named Jason McElwain... I won't talk so much, watch the video yourself... :)

Can you imagine if the coach didn't put Jason on? I think more than not being able to witness such an awesome feat, more importantly, Jason never would have known what he was capable of doing. 

As I watched the video, I am reminded of Heart of God Church and how Pastor How and Pastor Lia really believe in young people. I think back to the past more than 3 years I have been in Heart of God Church and it is so obvious that without Pastors willing to take a "risk" on people who may not seem the most capable or experienced. They gave so many of us a platform and an environment to do things we never thought we could.


There are the famous stories of people like Charleston who started leading at 13 or 14 and how now, at just 20, he is a Senior Zone Leader overseeing so many cell groups, preaching in services and representing young people in the Festival of Praise. There's Daniel and his love for music and how Pastor Lia raised so many musicians and singers by giving the worship team an encouraging platform and believing in them. Today, Daniel is... hot! hahahaha... at least on his guitar. :) (peace, Dan!) There's Jian Ming who used to be a naughty school boy sawing tables during D&T but Pastors really just taught him, discipled him, trained him and now he's the head of all the Customer Operations in HoGC! And these are just the famous stories... there are so many more lives in HoGC that have been brought to a higher level because someone chose to believe in them. 

I love Heart of God Church... 

A Shrinking World

Today, we just had quite a time with Pastor Josh and Georgie Kelsey from C3. I must say, talking to them makes me feel like the world is getting smaller and smaller. They introduced us to this thing called Twitter... which basically allows people to know what their friends are doing. You can even receive messages on your phone if your network allows it.

First it was Friendster--now hardly anyone goes on there. I heard someone comment that only the "ah-bengs" and "ah-lians" still stay in touch with Friendster... now I don't really know whether that is true or not, but surely Friendster is no longer the in-thing.

Next, it was Facebook--now, I am not saying I am giving up Facebook. How could I? After Ming Jian and Mong got me stuck on Mousehunt I can barely leave my computer alone... Hmmm.... maybe I should take a facebook fast so that I can practice not being distracted every 15 minutes by the temptation to make a horn call...

But, okay, so now it seems like Twitter is getting wired... So, if it really does take off I think it will be interesting to be able to follow what certain people are doing... like the people in the CG or the leaders... 

Well, let's wait and see the fate of Twitter in Heart of God Church.... :)

P.S. Have you guys checked out the Heart of God Church facebook? :)

post-CNY thoughts

I haven't written in ages and I guess being too excited to be back in Singapore has had its effect on disappearing from the written electronic world...

Anyway, just wanted to say my first ever CNY in a country that actually celebrates it has been a blast! It's true, I've never actually celebrated Chinese New Year before... Yes, I've missed out on many of the great CNY traditions that you guys have such as:

1. Lor He (did I spell it right?): I honestly have never heard of this outside of Singapore but basically, I have grown to like the taste of this Chinese salad... I do however pity whoever has to clean the tables after haha

2. Reunion Dinners: the perfect excuse to stuff yourself with delicious food night after night after night with the same people! :)

3. Ang Paos: Yes, I have never received red packets for CNY and didn't even know that married people were supposed to give them out before I came to Singapore. I always thought the old people gave out red packets on birthdays and weddings because they couldn't think of anything else to give or were too tight on time to shop. My only question -- if you never received red packets as a single person do you still have to give them when you get married? haha :P

This CNY was quite awesome - starting off with a great G Zone CNY service and ending with a G Zone reunion dinner on the 1st of Feb (we are like China, we celebrate for 1 whole week) and a lot of exciting stuff in between, it was a year to remember! :) I must say that I have not watched so many movies in the span of 2 weeks as I did these last 2! 

One thing that I didn't expect to do this year was go bowling for the 1st time since I reached Singapore! I must admit, I thought that the 2 13-pounders (bowling balls) would never see the light out of the bag in the store room again haha :P But the best part of it all was more than just putting on the familiar white and red shoes again, but it was the company that made it all special. In fact, the great part about CNY is really the company kept. Cheers to holidays that bring families and friends together! Hip-hip-hurrah! :)

So, as the CNY period comes officially to an end and 2009 is in full-swing whether you're Chinese or English, I'm off to new adventures--most of them not having to do with physically leaving Singapore. Excited... :)

Ciao!