COCM’s South England Easter Conference (SEEC)

2007 is the second I went to SEEC. It was different and yet similar to 2006’s. So, why did I go in 2006? Well, this is mainly due to testimonies of sisters who went in previous years.  To be honest, the experience in my first year did fall short of my expectation.  This was in part due to the stress from taking up a group leading position, which in hindsight had in parts sinfully to do with my personal pride.  However, the Lord was gracious and guided me throughout SEEC2006, allowing me pick up and learn from things I never have done before, like leading a discussion group straight after each talk, with no guidance, for instance.  I remembered the sleepless nights and the tight schedules as well as the group leaders’ meetings that at times went through midnights. But I learnt:

1) I should be a humble servant

2) I grew in faith

3) SEEC is packed with strong teachings

4) A lot of people experienced God and converted to Christ there

5) SEEC is “exhausting”- full of Christians from all over the UK.

 So when the time came for 2007, you wonder what my responses were? 

1) I want to encourage (younger) fellowship members to go, so they can learn

2) I don’t want to go, because it is too exhausting and I am too old.  In the end, I did sign up to SEEC and also volunteered as a group leader, musician as well as first-aider, although they didn’t need my help with music. I only had one regret of not responding to the call to full time ministry! 

It really has been a truly enjoyable SEEC and it was such a privilege to lead such a wonderful group of 5 brothers and 5 sisters, where we had wonderful sharing.  My group is blessed to have a pastor from HK’s who is currently studying towards a PhD spending so much time with our group. I asked my group on the first day what they want out of SEEC, and frankly for me, there was not a lot other than wanting a good meditation on Good Friday, but God has graciously granted me more than that!. So this is what I got out besides reminders to STAND FIRM as Paul urged in his letter to the Ephesians:

1)     Reinforcing earlier learning about science and Christianity the Lord has planted in my life earlier this year.

2)     Learning from the boy/girl relationship workshop that we should always rejoice in the Lord whether single, dating or broken up.

3)     Open, deep and frank discussions on the subject of Holy Spirit and Evil Spirit with my group and also Pastor Li.

4)     I wanted a good meditation on Good Friday! I have never been ‘sentimental€, but the Lord has touched me at the Good Friday meditation:

l           The hymn The Servant King€ touched me and I want from then on to follow Him to be a humble, servant King.

l           Although I have heard This is the blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins€ many times, but I have not been truly touched by this until Good Friday, 2007.

l           I have grasped the theological meaning behind Jesus saying My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?€ on the cross is because he bore our sins, but again I have never felt so much that he bore my sins.    We were asked to write down the sins that are standing in between us and God and nail them onto the cross.  I knew that with the help of God, these sins would be killed off and I now pray for me to put on the full armour of God 24×7 and Stand Firm.

5)     Another group member and I at one of the group discussion shared that we often come out of these camps with ‘Spiritual high€ which subside, but Dr. William Ho pointed out that we don get the strength from the Lord like getting him to fill a fuel tank only to find it being used up, but we get it In Christ.  I pray that all of our spiritual lives will only grow but not die!

6)     4 of my group members responded to the calling to full time ministry

7)     A sister from St. Martins committed to Christ, and another truly touched by the Lord’s salvation.

8)     Totally exhausted- no doubt- in fact I had 2 nights sharing/praying till beyond 4am with less than 4 hours’ sleep, but with no regret! So, what happened with the calling?  Well, I do have an interest in missionary work and got a good insight from the Missionary workshop.  But my heart struggled when the time came for calling.  I was of the view that if I hear God’s calling, I will respond, but I wasn’t in a state to ‘volunteer€ as Isaiah responded ‘Here am I, send me€(Isaiah 6:8).  Satan was attacking me, saying ‘surely my biblical foundation is not strong€ and ‘you had hardly evangelised€.  So, my heart sank and I had no peace at all.  I was ‘shocked€ to see my 2 group-mates seating besides me stood up immediately upon the calling, but I didn’t have the urge/courage to stand up.  My peace were further disturbed when I saw another sister in my group stood up 5 minutes after the rest have done so, but still I had no courage to stand up.  At the end, I knew I need to speak to someone.  Thanks be to God that OMF’s Rev. Dick Dowsett kindly agreed to speak to me and pray with me.  I have regained my peace and now pray for the Lord’s guidance to stand firm to serve Him.

Photos taken at SEEC can be found at my photo gallery.

Read if interested (even if you’re BUSY (or perhaps especially if you’re BUSY))

What does BUSY mean??

Satan called a worldwide convention of demons.

          In his opening address he said,

>> >           “We can’t keep Christians from going to church.”

>> >           “We can’t keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the

>> >           truth.”

>> >           “We can’t even keep them from forming an intimate

>> > relationship

>> >           with their saviour.”

>> >           “Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over

> them

>> >           is broken.”

>> >           “So let them go to their churches; let them have their

>> > covered

>> >           dish dinners, BUT steal their time, so they don’t have time

>> > to

>> >           develop a relationship with Jesus Christ..”

>> >           “This is what I want you to do,” said the devil:

>> >           “Distract them from gaining hold of their Saviour and

> maintaining

>> >           that vital connection throughout their day!”

>> >           “How shall we do this?” his demons shouted.

>> >           “Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent

>> >           innumerable schemes to occupy their minds,” he answered.

>> >           “Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow,

> borrow.”

>> >           “Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the

> husbands

>> >           to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can

> afford

>> >           their empty lifestyles.”

>> >           “Keep them from spending time with their children.”

>> >           “As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no

>> >           escape from the pressures of work!”

>> >           “Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that

> still,

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>> >           small voice.”

>> >           “Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever

> they

>> >           drive.” To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going

> constantly

>> >           in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant

>> > in

>> >           the world plays non-biblical music constantly.”

>> >           “This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ.”

>> >           “Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers.”

>> >           “Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day.”

>> >           “Invade their driving moments with billboards.”

>> >           “Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogs,

>> >           sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional

>> >           offering free products, services and false hopes..”

>> >           “Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and TV so

> their

>> >           husbands will believe that outward beauty is what’s

>> > important,

>> >           and they’ll become dissatisfied with their wives. “

>> >           “Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at night.”

>> >            “Give them headaches too! “

>> >           “If they don’t give their husbands the love they need, they

> will

>> >           begin to look elsewhere.”

>> >           “That will fragment their families quickly!”

>> >           “Give them Santa Claus to distract them from teaching their

>> >           children the real meaning of Christmas.”

>> >           “Give them an Easter bunny so they won’t talk about his

>> >           resurrection and power over sin and death.”

>> >           “Even in their recreation, let them be excessive.”

>> >           “Have them return from their recreation exhausted.”

>> >           “Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God’s

>> >           creation. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events,

> plays,

>> >           concerts, and movies instead.”

>> >           “Keep them busy, busy, busy!”

>> >           “And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in

>> >           gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled

>> >           consciences.”

>> >           “Crowd their lives with so many ‘good’ causes they have no

> time

>> >           to seek power from Jesus.”

>> >           “Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing

>> >           their health and family for the good of the cause.”

>> >           “It will work!”

>> >           “It will work!”

>> >

>> >           It was quite a plan!

>> >           The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing

> Christians

>> >           everywhere to get busier and more rushed, going here and

>> > there

> .

>> >           …

>> >           Having little time for their God or their families ….

>> >           Having no time to tell others about the power of Jesus to

> change

>> >           lives ….

>> >

>> >           I guess the question is, has the devil been successful in his

>> >           schemes?

>> >

>> >           You be the judge!!!!!

>> >

>> >           Does “BUSY” mean:   B-eing (or Burden) U-nder S-atan’s Y-oke?

>> >

>> >           (Are you feeling that life’s pressures are hardly bearable?

> If

>> >           they are, you are probably not bearing Jesus’ yoke, for His yoke

>> >           is easy and His burden light.  (Matt 11:28-30)

>> >

>> >           Please pass this on, if you aren’t too B-U-S-Y!

>> >

IDMF conference 26-28 January 2007

Four of us from St. Martin’s Chinese Congregation went to the Intentional Discipleship Making Fellowship conference at the COCM Mission Centre at Milton Keynes.

These 3 days are one of the most memorable days in my journey with the Almighty Lord.  I went with igorance of not knowing what IDMF is, with doubt on the credibility of the speaker, but these 3 days are just amazing “holiday” with God.  I call it a holiday because it is a truly enjoyable experience, but not to say it is anyway “relaxing”.   Rev. Edmund Chun enlightened me with his compassion for the Word of God and his ministry journey as well as his sound teachings, which not only drew us back to the living the bible out provoke thoughts.

My dear brothers and sisters, the talks, etc. will be uploaded shortly, but these memorable experience is not something that can be reproduced with these words or the MP3, the teaching and sharings from Rev. Edmund and others in the conference has truly revitalised me!  Thanks be to God!

CRISIS @ 2006’s Christmas!

Spent 3 shifts with the West Day Centre of CRISIS‘ Open Christmas for the homeless this Christmas- 13:45-20:30 on 23-Dec-06 and 07:30-14:30 on 26-Dec-06 and 30-Dec-06.

It is truly a remarkable eye opening 3 shifts and it changed my attitude towards the homeless.  Some of guests I met were rough-sleepers, though a lot a “hidden” homeless people, which is within CRISIS‘ charter.  They live in temporary accommodation such as hostels.

Without God’s love and guidance, I think I probably would not have the courage to shake hand with guests who had dirty hands or hug them.  OK, some guests obviously have a problem with alcohol, and a small minority of the guests are drug users, but I see true companionship amongst the guests, which is arguably deeper and more genuine than that amongst our society.  The image of a very well spoken and courteous elderly guest who just left hospital with a size 10 feet from water retention and couldn’t find in a flip-flop and could not find any shoes big enough for him at all charity shops he tried shocked me most, and I so wanted to help him on that very first shift ever with CRISIS.  Regrettably, the most I could do for him is to take down his needs and passing it to the people responsible for the clothing store, which was not ready on the first day.  Thank God that on my return to the centre on Boxing Day, I saw him in a reasonable pair of shoes!

SEEC 2006

During Easter of 2006, a group of us from the Chinese Congregation of St. Martin-in-the-Fields went to the South England Easter Conference which is an annual Christian conference for Chinese youths co-ordinated by the Chinese Overseas Christian Mission.

It is an intensive 5 days conference with young Christians from all over the South of England.  This year’s topic is “No Other” and I truly learnt that even Christians could have many idols, not necessarily something physical one “worship”, but anything that stand in between us and the one and only one true God.  There were also numerous workshops and discussions sessions where I learnt from brothers and sisters from other churches.

I would post some photos up in the near future.  I will also go again to next year’s SEEC and recommend anyone, Christian or non-Christian to go.  It’s a truly rewarding experience!