OUR GOD IS IN CONTROL
Kevin & Elaine Suit, Li Yanrong, Yong Soe Han, Rachel Toong,Pat Shum, Janice Quey, Joyce Wong and Larry Wuan.
It was such a joy to be able to again respond to God’s invitation to join Him in His work at the Children’s Summer Camp in Guangzhou from 15th to 20th August, 2007. The team of six comprised Janice Quey, Joyce Wong, Larry Wuan, Li Yan Rong, Rachel Toong and I. The purpose of the mission was to edify God’s church and encourage our brothers and sisters to keep their light shining for Christ. The learning objective for the children was ‘understanding the beatitudes as the attitude of God’s children, and understanding them through discussion, singing, games, stories, mini post lesson quiz and drama.’ I thank God for availing Rachel to conduct a “Temperament” workshop for the house church workers and assisted by Janice especially for post workshop ministry to the participants.
I am thankful that although many could not go on the mission trip physically, their hearts did go with us. The evidence was their prayers, encouragement, sponsorship of materials used at the camp and transporting us to airport or seeing us off at the airport.
Without fail, at every team preparation meeting, we asked for God’s protection. As we drew near to the date of departure, I received prayer request items which carried disturbing news. A couple of house churches that were visited by local police for security checks resulted in the detention of their leaders and the foreign speakers. During my private devotion time, I prayed hard that there would not be such surveillance checks while we were at the camp. Praise the Lord! We learnt on the second day of our stay, that they had done the check two days before we arrived! Our God is in control!
One of the afternoon sessions involved the children in a drawing activity to demonstrate team spirit. Each group was supposed to jointly draw a big picture of anything, i.e. could be food, fruits, vegetables, animals, people, relatives, etc; that they liked most (“wo de zui ai”). As I walked from group to group I overheard statements like, “Let’s draw “snow white”, eagle, etc, etc. Guess what? God is in control. The titles of each drawing were of similar theme!
The first prize picture was entitled, “Garden of Eden” while the second one was entitled, “God the Creator of Everything” and the third one was entitled, “God’s Creation.” Surely God took delight on those who love Him, acknowledge Him as God, the Creator of the Universe!
By Pat Shum
Covenantors 6 SG
To me, language is not a barrier as I come from a Chinese-speaking background, but what I believed to be real communication was through the heart. We spoke through smiles and hugs, prayers and tears. Our cultures may be different but we are all God's children. The kids in China are very appreciative of the time spent with them, the lessons we taught, the gifts we brought and the joy at play. And I really thanked God for them. Praise God that many young lives (and team members) were impacted by this mission experience! If I had known how much of a blessing it is to be a part of what God is doing in the mission field and how it would touch and change me, I would have said, "Yes" sooner. I look forward to the next opportunity!
By Rachel Toong
Praise Works 2 SG
“Go and minister to the co-workers in China.” Ok…God, if that is what you want me to do. “Go get materials that they need.” Sounded easy but buy what? I managed to buy the materials as the Holy Spirit led. Though some of the stuff bought seemed frivolous at the time of purchase, all the materials were used at the camp. Thank God I heard and obeyed! Our God has a delightful sense of humor. He has let me experience how obeying the promptings of His Holy Spirit (instead of leaning on my own understanding) enabled me to do something useful and beautiful. The so-called most frivolous purchase was stationery used as “graduation” certificates for the children at the camp!
Team leader was Pat Shum, and team members were Larry, Rachel, Janice, Joyce and Yan Rong. The team was very supportive of one another and managed to help when help was needed. Other than that, we had lots of food, fun and laughter, not forgetting devotions and prayers, too.
The children enjoyed themselves as they learned the Beatitudes. You should see them sing the Beatitudes, all like little angels.
God provided all the resources; all we needed to do was to obey His calling to do His will. Amen.
By Janice Quey
CBC’s Full time worker
The following day was the day I departed to China with the team. On our flight to Shenzhen, we encountered some turbulence which was quite serious to the extent no one was allowed to enter the washroom. I started praying, and I believe others did too. Later, the flight was back to normal and we arrived at Shenzhen airport. I really thank God for protecting us when we are facing troubles. From Shenzhen we traveled to Guangzhou arriving around 2 a.m. in the morning.
Our theme for this mission trip was ‘The Beatitudes’. Our day started off with daily devotions. This was followed by teaching, games, activities, drama and memorizing ‘The Beatitudes’ also. All the little kids were so eager to memorize the verses by singing it. The children really did enjoy themselves learning God’s Word. Besides, we also had some art and craft. The children were supposed to draw their own favorite things on a piece of paper, but they all drew God’s creation. The team and I were so amazed by their thoughts. There was much laughter and sharing of thoughts with each other.
Throughout this mission trip, I really
thank God for the things He had prepared for us. Don’t be afraid of
Satan, because God will be there for us, He is our Comforter and
Helper. Psalms 27:1 says “The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom
shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I
be afraid?”
By
Joyce Wong
KingDomUth Member
(Youth Fellowship of Kota Damansara)