God-given opportunities

This is what Mel Choo shared at the dinner:

Firstly, I want to thank God for the many opportunities to serve in both gkids, young arrows and GCYC. I really learnt alot from Him and learnt more of depending on Him for every of my needs. He taught me the importance of always coming back to Him to refresh my spirit and to spend time with Him. He really blessed me alot this year, for example, giving me strength when I really need it. I really didn't think I could handle kids well. But through gkids and YA, I really understand why God has such a big heart for the young children. He also taught and blessed me with patience and His love, especially during gkids and YA. He helped me to understand what it means to give out of my heart, and not expecting anything in return. There are many trying times in gkids and YA, but that's when His love and patience came through for me and this allowed me to hang in there. I may not be able to see the fruits of my labour now, but I believe that God has already planted the seeds of His love and kindnes in the lives of the kids.

Secondly, I want to thank God for answering my prayer for GCYC. Last year during GCYC, I thought to myself how great it would be for me to serve more in GCYC by hosting someone. But I thought that it would be impossible because I don't have my own big house to host the delegates. So when I heard Ps Yo asking us during the leaders' meeting before GCYC to help host the delegates in GBC this year, I was really pleasantly surprised! God really is good.

Thirdly, I want to thank God for giving me a few opportunities to step out of my comfort zone for Him. I remembered that during the gkids' encounter, I wasn't sure what to do as this was my first encounter as a leader and I wasn't able to attend the briefing before the encounter. But the Holy Spirit really guided me throughout the camp and used me to minister to the children.

God uses the small things!

It is the the period of the 100K has gone full steam ahead and truly I am so much more sensitive to people now, what kind of people are around, what needs they have and how open they are. It is a matter of blessing and knowing them, and from there to pray with them that the gates of heaven will open and they cannot help but be drawn to our God! Here is a testimony from Nicole, from Jiarong's cell as an encouragement for us all.

I prayed for my friend, like Jiarong challenged us, on sunday morning, before I came to church. At first I was quite nervous, because I don't know how to get around to asking the person if I can pray for them. so I prayed before I called my friend. For wisdom to know what to say and so on. Then when I called I didn't straight away ask if I could pray for him. We just started talking about everyday things. One reason why I had decided to call this friend particularly is because his relationship with his mother is very bad. In fact, she sort of kicked him out of her house and told him to go back to live with his grandmother. His grandfather, whom he was very close to, passed away last year and he was really very grieved. So I wanted to bless him. anyway, he is one of my quite close friends.
So I called him, and only at the end when he needed to hang up, then I told him I wanted to pray for him. It was very rushed, because he needed to go help his aunt with something. So I just said, dear God, bless Zhong Han. help him and his mom not to fight. Give him a good day. In Jesus' name, amen.

After that I felt that it was a bit wasted. to say such a short prayer. I didn't think it made much impact. and when you asked me if I had anything to share during the combined cell, I said no, because I really didn't have anything to share.

But when i reached home my friend smsed me and said he wanted to ask me a question. He asked, 'Why must you pray for people before you go to cell?' I think that's a misunderstanding. :) anyway I told him, it's not a must. but we wanted to call someone to bless them. And then he said, 'I want to understand more about being a Christian'. And so I asked him what he wanted to know and he said 'everything'. although he hasn't accepted Christ yet, I believe this is really a miracle because although he knew I was a christian for quite long, he never asked about christianity. So I hope that God will continue to work in his heart and so on. One thing to pray is that his grandmother is a very strong Buddhist and won't allow him to go to church even though he wants to go.

So I just want to testify that God sometimes works when we think we have failed or disappointed him or ourself. yeah. I think God is really building my faith, even in the first few days of the 100K campaign. :)

As we seek to bless the people around us, let us trust that every blessing will spoken will not return void!

Found by His love! - Xiuting's Testimony

My mum brought me to church since I was a little kid and I received Christ when I was 8. I had attended church regularly until Secondary 1 when I started to walk away from God. I came back to Him in Secondary 3 when Yoke Yeong brought me to FCBC in 1999. I persisted in Him until 2001 when I backslid.

But praise the Lord! For I have a friend like Yoke Yeong, who never gave up on me. In October last year, she asked me to return to FCBC. I obliged and I am so happy that I did. I needed a breakthrough in my life and felt that it was time for me to return to God. That I had enough fun and it is time for me to do the things that God wants me to. Yoke Yeong introduced me to Sharon, my funny and funky spiritual mother, and my fellow sisters-in-Christ, who treated me with such warmth and love on the very first day I got to know them. From Jia Hui and Joanna, I learned that chronological age does not translate into one’s spiritual maturity. I was so surprised by the steadfastness of their faith in God, despite their youth. Jia Hui, especially, showed much leadership and maturity in quite a few situations. Through Jingyi, I’ve learned that I could be freely open about my opinions and experiences with God.

These few months have been exciting for me because I've attended quite a few church activities in which God had shown His purpose & love for me.

During our network retreat, through Mabel, God pointed out to me and reminded me that before I was even born, He was already thinking of me, knew and understood who I was. That I was chosen (along with many others) and He is confident that I would be a good warrior of His light. He touched me so much with Jeremiah 1:1-10. How amazing is His love that even before I was born, He already knew me and had me in His mind?

During Encounter Weekend, God showed His immense love for me. The Holy Spirit revealed to me the anger that I had been accumulating because of my earthly father. He gave me this vision through which I was brought back to my grandfather's house where I spent most of my childhood. It was a very warm and touching scene. I saw myself as a small tiny baby wrapped in cloth as my earthly father gently picked me up from my pram and cradled me in his arms. Then he put my body to his shoulders and patted my back. It was a heart-wrenching moment for me. All these years I've been building a pile of anger because I felt that my father was very useless in contributing to the family. I've failed to see that he has been working so hard for us, I had never been there to see how difficult it is for him. All these years I've never told my father that I felt that he was useless. But God knew that I had to resolve my anger toward my dad. I believe He gave me this vision to remind me of my dad's love for me. So I'm really thankful for that.

The Holy Spirit also reminded me of the unkind things that people said to me. He also reminded me of times when I said to myself that I was ugly and fat and times when I didn't even dare to face the mirror for fear that other girls in the toilet would say things like "So fat and yet she wants to look at herself in the mirror”. It was a very painful process for me as I recalled these things. I just wept and released all of my hurt, pain and anger when my encounter guide ministered to me. Through her, God told me that I am beautiful and precious and He created me to be so, right from the start, in my mother's womb. That I am the apple of His eye. That He was always there for me by my side when I was hurt by other people even though I didn’t realize. That I no longer need to be afraid and no longer can be hurt by the words of man for what matters is what God thinks of me. I broke down even further when I heard these because I was touched through and through by His gentle words.

Now I know that I have a purpose in life because of God’s plans for me. Upon reflecting on all of these, I know I am so blessed because I can never ever escape God’s long long arms because of His deep deep love for me.