"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