Charis - Dare To Dream!!!

The days spent at Living Waters would always be etched deeply within me. During the trip, God once again proved that He is indeed our faithful God and He never fails to open doors for us along the way. Our trip to Living Waters wasn’t all smooth (both literally and figuratively). We encountered problems with the custom officials on two accounts but God intervened!

After 11 hours on the roads, we finally entered the Miracle Zone: such an apt name for this place, where literally every single building was provided for by God. We were ushered into the training centre and were greeted by almost 400 children. Its amazing how God has brought each and every single one of the faces I saw that evening to this place to just be able to experience His goodness and love.

Early next morning, we joined the children for their daily early morning prayer. A guitarist started strumming simple chords on his acoustic guitar and all the children started singing in unison. Tears welled up in my eyes, even though I did not know the meaning of the song at that moment, the voices of young kids early in the morning singing at the top of their voices just touched me so deeply. From that moment on, I knew that God was showing me that He could do great things, even through kids. I was ashamed of myself really, for putting God in a box, for limiting His ability to work wonders. Back home in Singapore, in my own youth group, I used to pray that one day the kids will express their love for God so freely through worship. But as time went on, nothing seemed to happen and I was discouraged. I stopped expecting breakthrough of any kind. But throughout the trip, God had reaffirmed me that He is God and He can do great things if we put our trust in Him.

Through the trip, God has really stretched my faith level. Being tasked with planning and conducting music lessons for both the musicians at Living Waters and the children at the primary school was really challenging. I was initially pretty apprehensive about how to go about conducting these classes. But God is good always: He sent people along my way to suggest ideas, and to help me conduct the lessons, He sent an awesome interpreter/friend/musician (Kalis!) to help out throughout the entire week’s lessons. Indeed, when we avail ourselves to be empty vessels ready to be used by Him, He will work mightily through us and I am glad to have been part of God’s work over at the Miracle Zone. One thing that I will never forget is the kids’ hunger to learn. During the music lessons, we assigned them simple tasks to practice at night. We happened to walk pass their rooms late at night, and to our pleasant surprise, they were practicing and revising what we had covered earlier!

I just really thank God for this chance to witness His Kingdom being built. As one of my teammates said, His kingdom is being built brick by brick, paint stroke by paint stroke, brush by brush. And I’m glad to have been able to experience His love for the children there through the missionaries over at Living Waters. The trip allowed me to dream big once again, to want to do big things for God. Of course, I am very thankful for my 21other teammates: working together with them, painting, cleaning, sweeping, teaching and all was made so much more fun with them around :) God is indeed great and I know one day, I will return to the land of Kalimantan and visit this Miracle Zone I’ve come to love. :)