Pearl's Insights

Hello to you who are reading this! My name is Pearl and I've just been on my first trip to Living Waters Village in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. I've been reading and hearing about the ministry for the last two years and this time round, to witness the progression of the work going on there was an eye-opener.


Right from the beginning of the trip to the time we were almost due to leave the place, surprises seem to keep knocking on our door. Communication was lagging between team members as half of them resided outside of Singapore. The ticket we were supposed to book for our flight to Kuching was fully booked, so we had to fly without the team leader. The day before overseas team members were to fly in, one hasn’t got her passport, another was stuck in the floods of Bangkok. How very exciting.

Nevertheless, with the exception of our beloved team member who stayed back in Bangkok, the rest of us made it safely to Living Waters Village :-) As I mentioned, surprises knocked on our door pretty often. On the morning we were due to conduct Sunday school for the kids, we realized there was no available interpreter! How’s that for a start? Thank God that He brought Laura to us. We met over breakfast and realized she’s one- Malaysian, which means she can speak Bahasa Melayu and two-she’s the main person for children’s ministry in her own church. She was definitely God-sent because I had no prior experience in conducting children’s ministry! Was I grateful to both she and God.


Now, if the morning episode was not enough, another surprise came in the afternoon. The team met up with Rachel and Marlinde, both whose families are based there. They liked what we taught in Sunday school on creation and wonder if we could teach English in the school next week (which is the very next day) riding on that theme. Well, that didn’t sound very exciting for me – not for me who thinks she has goofed up badly earlier in Sunday school. Moreover, we all came with the mentality we were here to do intensive labour work. No where did my team leader ever mention in the meetings that we’re going to teach but still – we taught.


Can I share with you something I learnt on this trip? No matter how bad we think we goofed up. No matter how unprepared we are. No matter experienced or not experienced, if it’s part of His plans, His grace will carry us through and carry us did it. Five not-so-familiar people gathering together to try to plan a teaching curriculum with very little background knowledge (we know there are 5 classes and their age groups and that’s about it), that sent P-A-N-I-C running across my face. Apparently God knew me better than I know myself. Just as I was doing my reading before bedtime with my Daily Bible, Exodus 3:1-4:31 was waiting for me. Moses met God, whom wanted to send him to Pharaoh. Moses, like me and some of us in the team, weren’t too excited. He out rightly told God, just as I did that “I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” Yet the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? Now therefore, go, and I will be with your mouth and teach what you shall say.” There was no argument.


So Monday came. We worshipped, prayed, planned and prayed. We had a good start though the students were shy in responding. Still, it was good. We did more planning and praying. By His grace and anointing, we managed to plan out the teaching a day at a time, everyone taking different responsibilities. There were no major disagreements; we worked well on a whole, just as how the body of Christ should work. The students were also warming up to us. Before we knew it, Friday had come! There are so many more things I would love to share (which I would on my website at telawi.multiply.com) but in a nutshell, this journey was simply amazing.


On this journey, God was speaking to every one of us. He was reminding one of His faithfulness. He was showing one how planning is essential (as the saying goes: we fail to plan, not plan to fail) Showing another how time could be better used than just having fun. Renewing the strength of one. Revealing the destiny of another. Isn’t it amazing what God can do on just this one trip?


We saved no souls on this trip but we built relationships and I look forward to seeing them grow when I go back. That’s where making disciples starts... in building relationships. In your backyard, build relationships. At your workplace, build relationships. In school, build relationships. Personally, this trip taught me that missions starts in the heart. And it can be wherever you are, not just when you step out with your passport. God bless.

Kimberly's Thoughts on Team Trip to Indo

the place

Spending time in West Kalimantan, I realised how being so low tech has made me see the beauty of God's creation and feel so much closer to God and His work.

what we gave and how we served

now this was one big eye opener. i was actually amazed that we took 3 to 4 hours to plan one day's lesson for 5 classes (for kindergarten, Grade 1,2,4 and Packet class), and that was 5 of us in the team working together!!! can you imagine if it were just one person teaching - me? it would be much worse! i should be spending like what - 5 hours per day's lesson planning? arghhh it goes to show my lack of commitment and effort i have in my job compared to some others without the certs and degrees.


besides the talents and creativity some people have, it was really the unselfish efforts of some of my teammates that made me wake up and ask myself,

"Am i giving only THIS little to God?"
"Why am i not rising and giving my all or my very best or even trying hard?"
"Have I been too critical or questioning of my motives to notice what I CAN DO and CAN GIVE and then give my best efforts to it?"


The d-day (testimony)

that was the day i worked my hardest and God showed me His power thru weakness and gave me strength to live the whole day and survive through, what I considered, an embarrassing testimony. i slept 3 hours the night before, being stressed about teaching the next day. and i didn't feel any one in my team contributed ideas to my lesson. which was frustrating and tiring. then i had to share my embarrassing testimony about my 14 year old experience about being suicidal, to these 300 people! arghhh! though not all would be there. there would be at least 200 in the hall, including missionaries from everywhere in the world who had just met me. what if they saw me differently, just as i'm making friends with them? what if the kids think i'm weird and don't talk to me or be my friend any more? what if i was blacklisted as "lousy" "bad" weird" "different", and they couldn't accept me as I was?


but i don't know how or why, but my whole team was SOOO encouraging. Pearl prayed for me before the evening meeting. she shared her testimony to me too.

i was amazed that 3 people came up to me AFTER my sharing to thank me and encourage me that it was a good testimony. Eddie opened up a lot! We had a long and open conversation where he shared his past experiences, and that it took God and Jesus to heal the wound and walk beside him to get over the hurt.

my deep conversation with Him

i was hungry to connect with God, seriously on this trip. the Lord reminded me on a solo walk down to the pri sch one morning, when i felt abandoned again by my teammates, who had gone ahead walking without me.

He reminded me of what my mentor said in 2006 in NTU. "Why does your security and confidence lie in people? Why is it not in God? Why is it in what you receive from others and what people say? Where does God come in?"

with that, i took a deep breath, tried to digest it, and walked on with my head held high..... knowing that my worth and esteem and who i was didn't rest in how many friends i had, how much applause and gifts i received from man, but rather rested in remembering God's love and unconditional acceptance He had for me, despite ALL my weaknesses and SINS and all the love He had for me??


I begged to hear more from God. then on the bus ride home toward kuching, for some weird reason i just couldn't sleep like the others did, snoozing away. i said "ok its gotta be you God. i want to really talk to you anyway." then HE FINALLY spoke. it was linked to the children's sunday school material each of our team took turns to teach when we taught the lesson of adam and eve's sin. "You will hear me speak....if you are obedient" came the voice. this time it sounded almost audible. like the burning bush voice in the prince of egypt movie. i was just gazing ahead at the trees in front and the long road. so hearing you stems from my obedience. that's a lot of work God, you know the condition of my obedience a LOT of times. "you will hear me speak clearly when you read the bible too, if you are obedient"

obedience

so here i am.........typing this, learning from great role models and examples of obedience too from teammates. as they despite some conflicts with authority are still mostly obedient to them, unlike me, who constantly wants to fight, mostly with my parents and most of the time this leads to spilling over to work supervisors as well, which is very bad. i didn't see the link till now, that God still honors those who respect authority despite whatever.

I see Pearl's obedience in serving and being with her family no matter what circumstances they go through. I see David's obedience in serving You despite no salary. I see Hemdi's obedience in being meek, not demanding for attention nor people's approval or friendship. I see Chris's obedience in sticking to his own church and not church hopping, and serving You in music.

At the end of the whole trip, I just think that God is using me specifically in Friendship/Bonding evangelism. I like sharing my life with people and hearing about their lives. I hope to be that friend to people (pre believers), who can reach that point of bonding / friendship where I can't help but keep on praying for them that they will be in the same place with me and with God, when our physical bodies depart the earth.

Passionate Grace

At nineteen years of age, I’ve lived in five countries, thirteen houses, and attended seven different schools, including homeschooling. Compared to some MKs (missionary kids), my life has been fairly stable. We’ve always lived in first-world countries, i.e. Germany, Israel, US, The Netherlands, and UK, with access to “Western culture.” I suppose I’ve grown up with a cross-cultural awareness. I don’t remember any moment of revelation where I tugged at Mama’s skirts and asked why those people looked so different from us. Actually, I was encouraged to search out different cultures and strive to better understand the people by embracing who they are as created by Christ. People were created to live, thrive and grow in relationships with one another; in that sense, as I have discovered, there are no boundaries, cultural or otherwise, besides the walls we ourselves erect. The following is an account of one of my most recent cross-cultural experiences:


I want to tell you the story of a man called Samuel, but my knowledge of his life is limited to a fifteen minute exchange in an alleyway in Accra, Ghana. We (Thomas, our Ghanaian pastor, myself and a team of students recently arrived from the UK) were driving home from a prayer meeting at the church when Thomas decided to show us the church’s first sanctuary. He stopped adjacent to a dimly lit, narrow street in the heart of the Okaishie Market. Here, the congregation had worshipped, studied and prayed. Preparations for the morning service had included shoveling out the piles of refuse, which had accumulated during the week.

Thomas parked, hopped out of the car, and walked over to talk with some people sitting on a tabletop, who were eyeing us curiously. I followed, along with one other student. After introducing myself to a young woman and one of the men seated nearby, I wandered over to the group that had initially grabbed my attention. A man holding an old, manual Canon camera with a large flash attachment was photographing a man in a wheelchair holding a baby girl. His studio was a white cloth thrown over a support beam under the awning at the entrance of a dilapidated factory building. Lighting was a single bulb dangling low overhead. The wheelchair-bound man was clearly another of the multitude of polio sufferers in Ghana. His body was completely withered from the hip down and he sat with his legs curled beneath his thin frame. My eyes were drawn upwards, however, to a pleasant face and a ready smile. I asked him his name. “It’s Samuel,” he said.

The photographer asked if I would be in the picture with Samuel and the little girl. I agreed with pleasure, kneeling beside Samuel and taking the baby’s hand in mine. The camera flashed and Samuel smilingly relinquished the petite, wide-eyed infant named Grace. Making herself at home, she nestled into my arms and took a generous handful of my red curls with a firm purpose to explore and discover. I’m not sure what she intended to find, but her eyes were unblinking as she examined every line of my face and routinely stroked my tresses. This was probably her first exposure to a white face, and though barely a year old, her desire to make sense of this puzzling apparition was evident in every crease of her thoughtful little brow.

It was getting late, and Thomas indicated that we had to leave. As I began to say my goodbyes and restore Grace to Samuel, a man in his early twenties walked up and introduced himself as Grace’s father. He had seen her in my arms, and noted my obvious pleasure in holding her. As I attempted to loosen my curls from Grace’s clutching hand and return her to Samuel, her father asked repeatedly if I would like to take Grace with me. Of course, that wasn’t possible. It’s the unconscious response we all would make in a similar situation. But in the car, on the way home to a bed, shelter, and food, I couldn’t help but note the stark contrasts of my life and that of Grace’s. I felt that I had denied her a “better life.” But then I checked myself. God had not said I was to remove her from that alleyway in Accra. He determined exactly where she was to be born and He knows the type of life she will lead. I am to pray over her and trust that He holds her securely in His hands. I believe the key in such situations is to be prepared at all times to act according to His voice, and never question it, no matter how ludicrous His commission may sound. If He had said, “Take Grace home,” I would have somehow found a way.


I returned home from Ghana three weeks later, and was approached by many well-meaning people with this question: “What did you learn?” Well... Where would I begin? How do I describe the young girls selling bananas on the streets? Or the elderly men kneeling on a strip of cloth praying to Allah at sunset? Or the joy in the eyes of the street children when you smile and wave to them? What about the beggars with polio, literally crawling among the cars, asking for change? There aren’t any words to describe what happens in your Spirit when you come face to face with the broken heart of Christ. Please don’t limit what I’m saying to the boundaries of Ghana, or even within Africa. His blood was spilled for all. And that includes the next-door neighbour with a Mercedes, the Mexican girl working at McDonalds, and the commander of the Taliban soldier in Afghanistan; the brothel owner in India, the sheik in Dubai, and the child who bullies your children at school. They all are God’s people.

During one of our Sunday services in Accra, the pastor made this statement: “Our real capacity as followers of Jesus Christ lies not in how much we retain, but in how much is poured out.” We are not saved so that we might live with the assurance of heaven and Christ’s blessings or grace. We are saved because we are loved by Him. And because all are loved by Him, we have been commissioned as His children to love as He loved. This love will never spring from emotion or by reasoning. He has given us His capacity to love through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Hanging on that cross, Jesus was not enraged at the soldiers who drove the nails through His hands; He was moved with such love and compassion for them in their blinded state, that the anger created within drove Him to usurp war and simply offer Himself to the enemy before the first arrow was drawn.


Yes, there is pain on earth. Yes, there is death. Yes, there is injustice. But we were called to be in the world, not of it. We are to love as if there is no hatred, live as if there is no death, and to be just in the face of oppression. To love so intensely requires an attitude of selfless intent to reach the nations (and our neighbours) with the message of Jesus Christ. Every word He spoke was truth, no matter how hard, or radical, or politically incorrect. Paul gave us a good idea of what the life of a follower of Jesus Christ will look like:

“But in all things, we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in sleeplessness, in fastings; by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the Word of Truth, by the Power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honour and dishonour, by evil report and good; as deceivers, and yet true, as unknown, and yet well-known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.” 2 Corinthians 6 : 4 -10


If we choose to live this way, we will come into contact with some of the “least of these.” It may be messy and a little scary at first, but this is exactly where Christ said He would be. Look past the sorrow and despair - as followers of Jesus, we have the Truth that will bring joy to every soul! Don’t live in such anticipation for Heaven that you are blinded from seeing the Kingdom of God among us today. There is so much to be done while we’re here! Embrace the opportunity to live each day in imitation of our Saviour.

"I can’t see myself living any other life except for the one HE had prepared for me."

My name is Beth, I am a self-supported missionary living and working in Dubai. Today, I am so glad that I have not rejected Abba’s leading to come to the Middle East.



My 1st ever mission trip was in December 2006 with World Outreach to Borneo (West Kalimantan), lead by our brother David Elliott. The trip had been a life changing effect on me and thus after the following year, in April 2007, I sold majority of my stuffs in order to relocate myself to Dubai, UAE.


At the beginning of my move here, I was still devastated with the choice HE had opened for me. My struggles were real enough that I went thru a period of depression, coping with stress and not knowing why I was in the middle east and experienced a lack of close Christian fellowships, which created a huge hole in my heart thus more questions surfaced, and I directed them to HIM.

It took me almost a year to settle down and start building my life back into the system that I had been used to when I lived in Singapore. I began serving in the youth ministry and taking every opportunity I could to serve HIM in areas of mission to surrounding countries.

Since my 1st mission trip in 2006 with World Outreach, I have thus far served in the following countries:

Ghana, Brisbane, New York, Las Vegas and Switzerland: I went as a visiting guest to bless the full-time missionaries based in the these countries.



Kenya and Egypt: As a Lecturer in the areas of Performing Arts, I taught church goers and pastors on how drama can be used as a unique tool to spread the gospel to the un-reached in their city.









Dubai (Emirates Baptist Church International): In the church which I am with now, as part of the Youth Leader team for my church youth group. And we had recently brought in 2 of our brothers from Egypt from an organisation known as AWEMA (Arab World Evangelical Ministry Association) to share and inspire the youths on how to reach out to the Arabs with the use of short comedy plays.





Fujairah: In the process of planning and getting a plan together for more opportunity to serve HIM in the areas of Women Ministry where the gospel was introduced to the wives of the Arab families through story telling while they are recovering in the hospital after childbirth.

Who can imagine that God will use my life experiences to help others in their journey to know HIM.



HE had thus used my testimony of being saved from Islam to Christ and my miraculous healing testimony to inspire many in Egypt. I can’t see myself living any other life except for the one HE has prepared for me. To me, knowing Jesus and knowing that HIS plan is to build up HIS kingdom in heaven, I got motivated to GO and meet people of various nations. I had learned thru serving HIM that God’s people are similar in every corner of the world and that worshipping HIM in various languages just gives me joy.

My perspectives in cross culture ministry have been opened wide and I am surprised that this ministry has actually caught the interest of my heart. Below is a ministry that I have been serving in the Arab world: http://awema.org

“Look. That's worship right there.” - West Kalimantan 08 Trip

I have a full time job as a web content producer and photographer. I've been to the Living Waters Village in West Kalimantan three times, twice with World Outreach. Here's one account of my experience during a short, one-week trip there.

The Living Waters Village project started out as a shelter for abandoned children to provide them accommodation and the opportunity to go to school. God gave Ronny a vision to purchase a large plot of land to build 10 children's homes and their own school. So far, three homes are up and running, and the school has just started its first semester with its pioneer batch of first-graders. The older youth whom Ronny has sent through university and teachers' college are either serving as teachers in the school or leaders in the ministry. The plans for this project include building another primary school, a high school, a medical facility and a praise and worship centre.

We did a lot of painting. The staff quarters near the school are being built. I have never seen so much purple paint in my life. This time round we were painting houses from 8am to 4pm, six days a week, and we took charge of the program during the praise and worship nights on Tues, Thurs, and Sunday. We also conducted Sunday School the day after we arrived, shared at a leaders' meeting on Friday night and did village outreach on Sunday afternoon.



It was crazy tiring – no wonder the stipulated lights out is at 10pm – but so crazy good. I'm so amazed that each team member was hand-picked by God for this trip and that our giftings and talents complemented each other down to the last detail.

What a privilege it was to be able to be a part of this building work, a work that will ensure that a new generation knows and begins to serve Jesus from a young age. My heart was filled with gratitude for the God who so valiantly saved us and, and for the good works that God had prepared in advance for us to do.

For someone coming back to West Kalimantan for the second time, it was great to see how things had progressed since my first visit. The children’s home I helped to clean and paint in 2006 is now being lived in. I thought about what worship looked like. Painting walls yellow or purple is worship. The sound of tiles scraping bits of cement off walls is music to the Holy Spirit's ears. I listened to the gentle chink of tambourines coming from the Sunday school room as some girls practiced their dance item for the official opening of the school. I watched Jachin and some of the little ones playing basketball nearby. Then the Holy Spirit spoke. “Look. That's worship right there.”





A short term trip does provide some insights into the daily running of the centre. It makes you appreciate the grace that God dishes out so generously for someone in Ronny's position, and helps the rest of us who are on the sidelines to pray more specifically.

I had the opportunity to share a message with some of the leaders and the teachers at the ministry. I wanted to encourage them to persevere in their responsibilities even though they were young, and also to remind them that they were incredibly blessed to be living at this centre where they were so immersed in the Word of God, amidst other material comforts, and had the opportunity to train and encourage the little ones to follow Jesus too.

There were a few girls at the centre whom I was able to spend a little more time with. I practiced my limited Bahasa Indonesia with them, and they practiced their English with me. I really enjoyed the interaction. I was so humbled by the fact that God used my lousy grasp of the language to really affirm them in their walk with God.

In all of the things we did in one week, I really sense God's affirmation. I really feel like my Dad is proud of me. And I know it isn't a pride thing or me trying to prove anything about myself. I understand a little more of the joy of being obedient, of learning to lay down my rights and to trust that He knows what to do with my heart.





The next time I head back, I hope to bring more people along with me to paint some walls, hang out with some kids and speak into the lives of a younger generation who have the privilege of knowing Jesus from young so that they can be the history-makers of their generation.

God bless,
Hannah Zhang

Cross-Cultural Ministry Opportunities!

Here's our cross-cultural trips opportunities for the rest of the year, do read through the details and contact us if you're interested! Please click to enlarge the image for the details, etc. We will love to answer any queries regarding the trips.

Making Him known,

Leon

A month in the UK & Europe

In April this year I spent a month in the UK, Germany and Romania to observe, experience, and mobilise the Church in Europe in the area of cross-cultural ministry. It was my first time ever in the UK or Europe. I had a wealth of learning experiences while I spent my first week in the UK (Loughborough), my second week in Germany (Oldenburg) for the Missions-Net Conference, third week for my first taste of Eastern Europe in the form of Romania and my last week and half in the UK (London, Harpenden, Reading, Bradford, Liverpool, and Manchester).

The two main things I took away from my memorable time in these three very different nations was that:

1) The huge shift over the last couple of decades of migrant populations from the Middle East (Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran etc...), South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka etc...), and Eastern Europe (Romania, Ukraine and the former Soviet States or ...stan nations) has changed the face of UK and Europe and opened the doors of cultural diversity so much so that the white Europeans in Europe are quickly becoming a minority. This challenged my whole understanding of the opportunities around the Body of Christ in Europe to do their part in fulfilling the Great Commission, and revamped my understanding of the role we can play in being the salt of the earth and light of the world in many cities of the earth.


2) There is a lack of understanding and vision amongst most mainstream UK and European churches to take advantage of this ripe harvest field on their doorstep. Many of these migrant communities represent many different least reached people groups that have no or little access to the gospel. Most churches I observed are not specifically targeting migrant communities of this nature (heavily due to the cultural barriers needed to be overcome), rather they are catering for the dwindling number of white Europeans and the occasional foreigner that is motivated enough to visit the church or fortunate enough to be invited by a church member or through attending a church outreach event.

Observing and experiencing these two phenomena for myself was a wake-up call. Europe is no longer a European’s continent. The masses of the people moving to Europe from outside of Europe are growing faster in population than Europeans are able to produce babies. If you do not believe me, check out: www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU

Also if you want to check out my pics from my time with World Outreach in the UK, Germany and Romania, visit: http://community.webshots.com/user/Trying2ChangetheWorld

I’m interested to find out what you all think about this, and feel free to leave comments on this post and any other posts that interest you.

Blessings,

David Elliott

2009 Teams

Several teams are going out this year to destinations such as India, Indonesia and Vietnam. Sign up for a short-term trip listed on our www.nations2reach.com website.

A team from Brisbane, Australia visited Bethany Childrens Home in north east India during Easter and had an incredibly fruitful time. Ministry included encouraging staff and students in the remote school/orphanage, maintenance around the campus and supplying much needed equipment and books. We were humbled by many locals sacrificing their finances and time to see this Home flourish. A truly memorable trip!

Steve