A different trip to a land previously unknown
So I'm finally back from one of the most 'xiong' mission trips that I have ever gone for. The ones I went during my times in Japan were physically tiring but they were never this spiritually and mentally exhausting.
Due to the need to protect the churches that I was serving, I will not mention the name of the country and the names of the churches in this post. My friends who know me will know where I have gone to.
This trip was my first one with AGBC, and perhaps one of the many to come. For the first time in all my mission trips, I was to give teachings and handle all worship related stuff during all the ministering sessions. The preparation was on top of my normal ministry and schoolwork, so I had little time for myself to prepare the teachings, not to mention, I have to do the teachings in another language. But whatever my team has prepared, God seemed to have other plans for us.
We flew off on 17 Nov and reached our destination sometime in the evening, after 10pm. Our coordinator there arranged a meeting with us and the leaders of the churches that we were about to serve and minister in the next morning. After confirming the schedule with the leaders, we were shocked that things were not to turn out the way it seems to be as both sides had different ideas how the things would turn out. There were three churches, so I will narrate what happened in each church.
For church 1, it was the largest church in the area that we were at. We were supposed to organise a three day conference with the members in the church and help out in one of their prayer meetings, and join in with some of their cell group meetings, and teach in one of their young adult meetings, and preach in two of their weekend services. On top of this, they invited us to do some visitation and counselling with some of their members. This was the church which we were involved the most, but also the one which I feel the most equipped of them all. We faced difficulties in our ministering, primarily because we were struggling to get our materials ready, but also because we realised afterwards that the church was 'looking' for something more than the materials which we prepared. Language was an issue with the members as well. As such, I was asked to share my teachings in two of the sessions, one on the motivation to serve and one on the reason to worship. We did a lot of adjustments in our arrangement with the programme since we needed to meet their needs.
For church 2, they wanted to learn how to praise and worship from us, hence I was involved in their prayer meeting on Wednesday and their discipleship class on Friday, as well as their two services on Sunday. In almost all the sessions, I was the guitarist for their sessions (I was the only guitarist in the whole team) except for their discipleship class where I taught a lesson on how to overcome trials and temptations. The request to learn praise and worship from us was only made known to us there and we only got to know that they needed us to help them with their services after we met up with the pastor.
For church 3, I was supposed to conduct a new believer class on Tuesday night and a young adult meeting on Saturday night. Some of my team members were supposed to conduct a discipleship class on Wednesday night and join in with some of their cell group along the way. But this was the church which required the most energy from me, primarily because I had to throw away all the teachings I have prepared for the church and redo everything from scratch over there. While I wanted to do the cross value with them on Tuesday, I found out that the Tuesday session was for their leaders and they wanted me to share about serving the church (and hence the teaching on motivation to serve appeared). I had only one afternoon and one night to prepare for that teaching. After the session and talking with their leaders, I was so burdened by the state of the church that I decided to do a teaching on spiritual gifts and serving during their young adult meeting.
So, what are my thoughts with regards to the whole trip?
Firstly, the whole experience reminded me of what Ps Jeff said when he went to Africa last year. He told us that when we are led by the Holy Spirit, it's like writing our plan on one side of the paper and allowing the Holy Spirit to write His plan on the other side. When we first arrived and learned about the schedule, as well as the topics required from us, I guess we were all in shock. My first teaching was supposedly a new believer class but I learned that I had to share with the leaders on why we serve. I had to lock myself up in my room and spend the afternoon and night to get my teaching done... in the language that I was supposed to teach in (and that is not English). And after teaching in the church on why we serve, I felt prompted in my spirit to change my teaching for the young adult meeting from worship to spiritual gifts. Again, this meant that I had to redo all my teachings all over. Moreover, I was asked to stand in and teach in one of the conferences that we were in charge of. I was not the only one who had to go through this, as my teammates were also subjected to these changes. As we went through the experience, we learned to be led by the Holy Spirit, as we discussed each night our ministry for the next day. Our arrangements and schedules, in short, were never as fixed as we thought it was to be. We never knew what the next day holds for us. Furthermore, we realised that we could not just teach whatever topics we like and we need to discern their needs and tackle accordingly.
Secondly, we learned not to underestimate the churches there. It is true that the resources that they have over there were not as much as what we are used to in more developed and open countries. However, they are certainly village pumpkins who could not differentiate spiritual milk from solid food. In short, you cannot expect to smoke your way through and take them for a ride. I was impressed by the knowledge of the church pastors and the church staff, especially when I heard one of the pastors talking about natural revelations and special revelations. It is true that they are thirsty for the Word, but it doesn't mean they are not taught properly, since they do receive foreign guests to preach and teach at times, and they do get to study theology over there.
Thirdly, while the churches there were knowledgeable, I saw the lack as well. This was especially in the case of praise and worship. We ministered in three churches, and only in one church where I saw a proper working guitar (more than one actually) and that church was large enough to have its own worship team apparently. However, in the other two churches which we ministered to, they had the drums and the pianos, but no plug-in guitars. More importantly, they do not have the trained musicians to play the praise and worship music. As a result, one of the two churches actually asked us to lead the praise and worship so that they could learn from us. However, cultures and practices run deep and it seems a long way for them to be able to worship in spirit and truth.
Fourthly, there was the state of family over there. In the place where I was ministering, I had the chance to participate in the counselling of a married couple. The guy had an extra-marital affair a while back and the wife had made a conscious decision not to divorce him. He eventually repented and decided to go back to his wife and daughter. However, looking at the case and observing some of the behaviours of the husbands whom I had fellowshipped with, I realised that there exists an unhealthy trend where the guys were not taking responsibility in their families! And these are Christian guys. Not to mention also, the guys in the area have a lot of opportunities to get into extra-marital affairs primarily because there were a lot of KTVs around (and they are not Kbox). While I wanted to slap those Christian guys for being 'nua' and not willing to take up spiritual leadership in the families, this seems to become one of my burdens for them as well. In fact, the need for marriage counselling was so great that two churches asked us if we could return to conduct marriage-related teachings in their churches.
Fifthly, I thank God that I had the opportunities to serve in these capacities over at the land where Facebook is unavailable. I got the chance to encourage the churches over there with the Word of God, stand in front of a congregation (three actually) to teach on stage what it means to serve God, what it means to worship Him and what it means to exercise His charismata in the church. I had the chance to share my gift of music with the churches there, as I played guitar for praise and worship. In some cases, the teaching opportunities, I would never be able to experience these stage experiences in Singapore. But more importantly, these were opportunities to experience God's grace and the leading of His Holy Spirit as we sense what He was doing in the lives of the congregation. These were indeed valuable experience.
Sixthly, I had the opportunity to think about what I want to contribute to missions over the next few years as I contemplate about my own theological education. The trip certainly gave me more determination to get a more complete theological education, which will jolly well mean that I upgrade my current programme to a full Master of Divinity. In the meanwhile, there exist opportunities from my work in the past week for me to return and continue to equip the churches over there, or at least play a part in strengthening them - especially in the area of worship and perhaps one-to-one mentorship which my teammates were thinking of helping the churches to implement. This requires more prayer but the signs as of now seem to suggest for a full upgrade beyond the grad-dip programme I am in now.
A mission trip can definitely open up our eyes to many things in life. I was talking to a colleague earlier today and her recent mission trip also opened her eyes to what God is doing in her life. My recent one is certainly the first of many potential trips that I will be making as we are already planning to return next year. And it has certainly clarified further God's current calling in my life. I am definitely excited over what He has in my life for the next few years, as I know that He is not done with me yet. Thinking back on this, I can only be reminded of Acts 20:24 - However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task that Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace.
Amen.
Due to the need to protect the churches that I was serving, I will not mention the name of the country and the names of the churches in this post. My friends who know me will know where I have gone to.
This trip was my first one with AGBC, and perhaps one of the many to come. For the first time in all my mission trips, I was to give teachings and handle all worship related stuff during all the ministering sessions. The preparation was on top of my normal ministry and schoolwork, so I had little time for myself to prepare the teachings, not to mention, I have to do the teachings in another language. But whatever my team has prepared, God seemed to have other plans for us.
We flew off on 17 Nov and reached our destination sometime in the evening, after 10pm. Our coordinator there arranged a meeting with us and the leaders of the churches that we were about to serve and minister in the next morning. After confirming the schedule with the leaders, we were shocked that things were not to turn out the way it seems to be as both sides had different ideas how the things would turn out. There were three churches, so I will narrate what happened in each church.
For church 1, it was the largest church in the area that we were at. We were supposed to organise a three day conference with the members in the church and help out in one of their prayer meetings, and join in with some of their cell group meetings, and teach in one of their young adult meetings, and preach in two of their weekend services. On top of this, they invited us to do some visitation and counselling with some of their members. This was the church which we were involved the most, but also the one which I feel the most equipped of them all. We faced difficulties in our ministering, primarily because we were struggling to get our materials ready, but also because we realised afterwards that the church was 'looking' for something more than the materials which we prepared. Language was an issue with the members as well. As such, I was asked to share my teachings in two of the sessions, one on the motivation to serve and one on the reason to worship. We did a lot of adjustments in our arrangement with the programme since we needed to meet their needs.
For church 2, they wanted to learn how to praise and worship from us, hence I was involved in their prayer meeting on Wednesday and their discipleship class on Friday, as well as their two services on Sunday. In almost all the sessions, I was the guitarist for their sessions (I was the only guitarist in the whole team) except for their discipleship class where I taught a lesson on how to overcome trials and temptations. The request to learn praise and worship from us was only made known to us there and we only got to know that they needed us to help them with their services after we met up with the pastor.
For church 3, I was supposed to conduct a new believer class on Tuesday night and a young adult meeting on Saturday night. Some of my team members were supposed to conduct a discipleship class on Wednesday night and join in with some of their cell group along the way. But this was the church which required the most energy from me, primarily because I had to throw away all the teachings I have prepared for the church and redo everything from scratch over there. While I wanted to do the cross value with them on Tuesday, I found out that the Tuesday session was for their leaders and they wanted me to share about serving the church (and hence the teaching on motivation to serve appeared). I had only one afternoon and one night to prepare for that teaching. After the session and talking with their leaders, I was so burdened by the state of the church that I decided to do a teaching on spiritual gifts and serving during their young adult meeting.
So, what are my thoughts with regards to the whole trip?
Firstly, the whole experience reminded me of what Ps Jeff said when he went to Africa last year. He told us that when we are led by the Holy Spirit, it's like writing our plan on one side of the paper and allowing the Holy Spirit to write His plan on the other side. When we first arrived and learned about the schedule, as well as the topics required from us, I guess we were all in shock. My first teaching was supposedly a new believer class but I learned that I had to share with the leaders on why we serve. I had to lock myself up in my room and spend the afternoon and night to get my teaching done... in the language that I was supposed to teach in (and that is not English). And after teaching in the church on why we serve, I felt prompted in my spirit to change my teaching for the young adult meeting from worship to spiritual gifts. Again, this meant that I had to redo all my teachings all over. Moreover, I was asked to stand in and teach in one of the conferences that we were in charge of. I was not the only one who had to go through this, as my teammates were also subjected to these changes. As we went through the experience, we learned to be led by the Holy Spirit, as we discussed each night our ministry for the next day. Our arrangements and schedules, in short, were never as fixed as we thought it was to be. We never knew what the next day holds for us. Furthermore, we realised that we could not just teach whatever topics we like and we need to discern their needs and tackle accordingly.
Secondly, we learned not to underestimate the churches there. It is true that the resources that they have over there were not as much as what we are used to in more developed and open countries. However, they are certainly village pumpkins who could not differentiate spiritual milk from solid food. In short, you cannot expect to smoke your way through and take them for a ride. I was impressed by the knowledge of the church pastors and the church staff, especially when I heard one of the pastors talking about natural revelations and special revelations. It is true that they are thirsty for the Word, but it doesn't mean they are not taught properly, since they do receive foreign guests to preach and teach at times, and they do get to study theology over there.
Thirdly, while the churches there were knowledgeable, I saw the lack as well. This was especially in the case of praise and worship. We ministered in three churches, and only in one church where I saw a proper working guitar (more than one actually) and that church was large enough to have its own worship team apparently. However, in the other two churches which we ministered to, they had the drums and the pianos, but no plug-in guitars. More importantly, they do not have the trained musicians to play the praise and worship music. As a result, one of the two churches actually asked us to lead the praise and worship so that they could learn from us. However, cultures and practices run deep and it seems a long way for them to be able to worship in spirit and truth.
Fourthly, there was the state of family over there. In the place where I was ministering, I had the chance to participate in the counselling of a married couple. The guy had an extra-marital affair a while back and the wife had made a conscious decision not to divorce him. He eventually repented and decided to go back to his wife and daughter. However, looking at the case and observing some of the behaviours of the husbands whom I had fellowshipped with, I realised that there exists an unhealthy trend where the guys were not taking responsibility in their families! And these are Christian guys. Not to mention also, the guys in the area have a lot of opportunities to get into extra-marital affairs primarily because there were a lot of KTVs around (and they are not Kbox). While I wanted to slap those Christian guys for being 'nua' and not willing to take up spiritual leadership in the families, this seems to become one of my burdens for them as well. In fact, the need for marriage counselling was so great that two churches asked us if we could return to conduct marriage-related teachings in their churches.
Fifthly, I thank God that I had the opportunities to serve in these capacities over at the land where Facebook is unavailable. I got the chance to encourage the churches over there with the Word of God, stand in front of a congregation (three actually) to teach on stage what it means to serve God, what it means to worship Him and what it means to exercise His charismata in the church. I had the chance to share my gift of music with the churches there, as I played guitar for praise and worship. In some cases, the teaching opportunities, I would never be able to experience these stage experiences in Singapore. But more importantly, these were opportunities to experience God's grace and the leading of His Holy Spirit as we sense what He was doing in the lives of the congregation. These were indeed valuable experience.
Sixthly, I had the opportunity to think about what I want to contribute to missions over the next few years as I contemplate about my own theological education. The trip certainly gave me more determination to get a more complete theological education, which will jolly well mean that I upgrade my current programme to a full Master of Divinity. In the meanwhile, there exist opportunities from my work in the past week for me to return and continue to equip the churches over there, or at least play a part in strengthening them - especially in the area of worship and perhaps one-to-one mentorship which my teammates were thinking of helping the churches to implement. This requires more prayer but the signs as of now seem to suggest for a full upgrade beyond the grad-dip programme I am in now.
A mission trip can definitely open up our eyes to many things in life. I was talking to a colleague earlier today and her recent mission trip also opened her eyes to what God is doing in her life. My recent one is certainly the first of many potential trips that I will be making as we are already planning to return next year. And it has certainly clarified further God's current calling in my life. I am definitely excited over what He has in my life for the next few years, as I know that He is not done with me yet. Thinking back on this, I can only be reminded of Acts 20:24 - However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task that Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace.
Amen.
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