Missions to T.Balai

Blue: Events in order of timing
Green: Thanksgiving

I know with such a "grandmother" thanksgiving "story" to read, it's going to be tough so just scroll down and read the green coloured portion if u know u haven't the stamina to read everything. For those up to the challenge, may the writings help u recall the trip and your own personal thanksgiving to the Lord. Blessed reading.

The slideshows are still available, at the btm of this post thats all, LOL !

29th- 30th Sep 07

The trip was an eye opener filled with so much to remember of various teachings and to apply back home as well as giving thanks for the blessings God has showered upon his creation. I recalled i did mention to a few ppl b4 the trip and said that everyone who is going there will be having different agendas. From the thoughts of blessing ppl to witnessing God @ work to having a feel what Missions is abt to many other reasons, everyone nevertheless took a step of faith and travelled to T.Balai from 29th to 30th Sep'07. For me personally, going there was a challenge God placed to me as i knew i would face some objections going overseas. In the end, God saw me through and not only were my parents supportive of my trip, my dad wanted to tag along to soak in the culture of a foreign land, woohoo, praise the Lord. Of course, end up didn't come cos my mum wasn't as keen as he was. And therefore, i went to Balai just to be used in whatever way God will deem best for the extension of his kingdom.

Saturday

I guess just like during the retreat where i could survive on 4 hrs of sleep, this time round, since i was so used to waking up @ 7am in the morning, i was actually up for an hr when Suz called @ ard 8am. She asked me to info the guys abt the change in departure timing so i took my time to call them and searching for their home no. since not everyone's HP was switched on. Oh well, by 9am, managed to info all of them although 1 or 2 were still asleep so i kind of asked their family members to pass the msg to them. Was really taking my own sweet time especially since i havent even pack yet ! Managed to do so within 10mins and the only thing i was frustrated with in the morning was that my manga hasn't come out yet. For my readers who don't understand, manga is jap for comics. They publish 1 chapter a wk and it comes out on monday in Japan itself! Shows u how slow things are done when they are free!

Managed to persuade my dad to give me a ride down since i was still @ home by 930am. Suz is going to "kill" me right, haha since we arranged to meet at 950am! Arrived quite late, SORRY, and passed some of the cash over to purchase the ferry tickets b4 the 4 of us proceeded to Giants to shop for some items to bless the pastor and Phei Phei with. Had a quick shopping trip which was efficient and decisive b4 we proceeded to Mcdonald's to meet the rest. After most of us had a hearty breakfast, we moved on to catch the 1220pm ferry. Everything was going along smoothly from the customs to the waiting of the ferry arrival. I believe it was God's intention that we arrive earlier so that we could have more time to rest and settle down, prepare mentally and soak in the local air.

The ferry ride itself was abt 1.5 hrs. Most of us slept during the journey though we still managed to kick in some time of chit-chatting and catching up with one another. The ride felt like to me, a bit like travelling on the MRT with all the movements u experience when u stand during the travelling betw stations. So reading a book was a great way to pass time and yup b4 i knew it, we arrived already. Managed to go onto the deck to catch a glimpse of the harbour and the surroundings itself b4 we disembarked.

Felt a lot like the bad old days of going to army again, taking the fast craft to Tekong on sunday evenings, those were the days though i hate it a lot, haha. Anyway, so many ppl were waiting to board the ferry at the pier and the custom was so packed. My 1st impression of the place is how simple and quiet the entire area is. Custom was done fairly quickly with no problems occurring and we managed to exchange some of our money for their currency. Some of the Indo. BnS including the pastor and PP were there to receive us and we had our 1st of many rides in the van to our hotel.

U just have to really give thanks for everything really. From the earlier than expected trip to a safe journey to Balai to the trip to the hotel, everything will smoothly and we were able to settle down in our rooms after saying a prayer for our rooms @ ard 245pm. Had a short briefing by Gail in regards to the nite program afterwhich we went for lunch @ the coffeeshop just beside the hotel. Most of us ordered Indo.mee or bak kut teh. Did some simple maths and wooo, $1+ meal. U can never find that sort of price back home. The only problem was that just as much as the meal itself was cheap the drinks weren't. Meaning we spend abt $3 per person in total. Oh well, must spend to stimulate the economy, S'pore theory, haha!

We proceeded back after a wonderful lunch to the guys room where we had a time of corporate prayer to ask God to guide and lead us through the next 2 days. With the remaining time we had, we set it aside to listen and modify the word that GR was going to share as well as having a short time of rehearsal for the skit tmr morning for the children service. The word was taken from Matthew 19:14 - Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Wz acted as Jesus, JX, Marcus and me as the disciples and the rest as the people who are coming to Jesus to ask for his blessings for their children. Had a fun time acting it out and using our very bad and broken Hokkien to speak the words. But God is gd, sometimes actions speak louder than words and despite the language barrier, we still took things in our strife and did the best that we could for the play.

We had a short time of rest in our own rooms as we waited for Angeline and Gail to come back from house visiting. Wanted to catch a quick power nap but ended up chatting with JX. And just as we were wondering when we were suppose to depart for the church, the knock on the door came. We split up into 2 grps since the van couldn't take so many of us and it was a time of viewing the surrounding and the lifestyle the ppl here are going through. I must say the area is pretty run down and ppl r simple, something which u cant find back home. It's almost like a trip down memory lane where u turn back the clock.

We stopped outside the main road and walked into the inner parts of the district and there was the church, or should i say shop house. It was exactly like those shop houses u find on the ground floor of our HDB flats. In the surroundings, there were 2 outlets where ppl played pool, but other than that, the place was pretty deserted. We just mixed ard and in our best form of Hokkien, talked to the locals who had arrived early. We even greeted the ppl who came for the service and learnt to say "peace" in chinese and offer a handshake as we greeted one another. Maybe, we could do this back home and offer God peace to one another as we come for cell grp every week! Dinner came way too early since we only had lunch like 2.5 hrs ago. Most of us didn't really eat much and a few went to do house visiting as well which wasn't to be since the person wasn't @ home.

As more and more ppl arrive for the service, u could sense that despite the ppl here being layback, they were so hungry for God's word. They came from near and far places but all of them had the same mindset and that was they really wanted to seek the creator and asked for his empowering upon their lives. Well, we werent able to join them for service as we were tasked to be babysitters and had to take care of the children as their parents attended service. That's where we really had our 1st interaction on a more personal basis with the local ppl.

The children were quite quiet initially since they didn't know us very well. However, most of them warmed up to us pretty quickly after the 1st ice breaker game led by Diana which was blow wind blow. They really had a fun time of running ard and even if they weren't called, some of them still ran. U could see how happy they were to be able to have fun and laugh as much as they wanted. We moved on to more games such as what is the time Mr Wolf? and AEIOU. U could see it was similar to police and thief and they had so much fun running and screaming ! AEIOU was an interesting time as well. Though we had to change the AEIOU wording to something else since they couldn't speak it out. The most fun part was seeing their acting and posing. Making them laugh and in their case, trying not to is a great sight to behold. As the night moved on, the Lord added to the number of children coming in to join us and i would say we ended up with roughly 30+. Now U know why God called 14 of us here, to help distribute the load!

Next up, we gave them a time of colouring activity and it's with such an activity that one can witness a child creative side to the max. In their world, there's no such thing as sticking to the specific colours of animals, plants or things we see everyday. Anything goes ! We made use of this colouring to tell them a story as well which was Noel's ark and have them come forward to paste their colouring on the walls below a rainbow we coloured out. Xinyi with Nicodemus's translating, presented to the children the events of the great flood and Noel's obedience to God.

U could tell that at the end of the nite baby-sitting session, a lot of them were very receptivity to us already. They really had a fun time and i was quite surprised when 2 of the girls who didn't show much interest and enthusiasm came up and shook all our hands. From their action, one could say that they really appreciated what we did and i'm thankful that God has pulled the cell together with the different talents we have to bless the children with the little we have and giving us the energy to perserve on to reach out to them.

A little side track here, as a kid, u will remember for life some of the happy moments u had experienced during one's childhood and i do pray that this night will be one of them for these children here in Balai. That they will remember the love and care we have showered upon them so that they too can care and love those ard them from this point onwards. One can call and name this as kindness evangelism. That the way we treat the children would hopely rub off on them and they will in time, display kindness to their peers and ppl they come into contact with on a daily basis.

We had a short time of thanksgiving prayer b4 we waited for the adults from the main con. to join us for supper. So jubilated were we that we even sang the song "God is good" in Hokkien of course, on the mini-bus we were travelling on. Sep was fasting mth so even at 10pm, the place was buzzing with activities and ppl selling food. We ended up going to a place near the hotel for some supper with some not too bad food, can still make it la! Had a great time of chatting with uncle Ben as well who joined us on the table and enjoying the evening away.

We headed back to out hotels @ 1125pm where most of us were deadbeat and just wanted to quickly bath and hit the sack. However, we had to wait for Gail and Angeline though as they had to confrim whether there was any children service tmr due to some unfortunate event. Had a time of sharing which started from 12mn to 1230 am, not bad, 16 ppl, short and sweet, although some of us were a bit reluctant to share initially not because we didnt want to give thanks to God but we know everyone was tired and wanted to wrap up the debrief asap. Oh well, sometimes one just has to respect authority and let them do what they want. Maybe only when they realise they hit the wrong nail then they will know that the method they are using isn't the appropriate one.(I'm not saying that anyone did anything wrong to offend ppl in the 1st place{they don't know our working style anyway}) Anyway, its a give and take thing, we are human beings and we do make errors/wrong judgements so its all abt learning to live in harmony under 1 roof with different characters and working styles. Is that so difficult to adapt to if someone were to ask this? Almost everyone including myself will say Yes and yup that's the challenge God has given to us here in this cell grp. One must learn to place others b4 self and alrighty let's stop this topic here, cos this will expand to a whole new thingy which is not the focus of this post.

Sunday

Sunday morning le! Nicodemus's alarm woke me up and i was super tired and zoned out ! Went to give the rest morning call although this time rd unlike the retreat, i knock and said a few words and left le, didnt bother to wait for reply. I assumed that the determine ppl who set their hearts on waking up and going off early will do so with just a little push. Early morning, my engine really hasn't started. Managed to catch a short time to do QT and lol, Nicodemus, great places u sure can find to do your QT, i thought u left the room on both occasions.

Quite a gd no. went for breakfast and some sight-seeing of the place. Abt 11 in total met up with the adults and had an eye-opener wet market walk. A very large market that sells things that are similar to what u do see back home somewhat. The adults bought their passion fruit along with other items and the rest managed to purchase some items they also like. An interesting walk and seeing some items on sale that u dont find in our markets back home and thats including the livestock. Had breakfast @ the coffeeshop across the market and waited like ages for the indo.mee to come. Spicy and salty somemore. Bad for health! We should really start our sat evening runs asap. By the time we finished, it was abt 9am+ and we went sunglasses and cap shopping.

Dropped by the supermarket on our way back to purchase our indo.mee. Wow, things sure are cheap over here. Of course, we arrived back pretty later and well, someone wasn't happy abt it. The only injustice i see here was that Angeline took the bulk of the scolding on our behalf on the way to church in the van. Was thinking abt coming in to explain the situation but in the end, decided not to. Will only be adding fuel to fire. When ppl are angry, just let them rattle till they lose steam and thats that. In the end, we did get lectured abt it as well.

In this case, God is teaching us once again to put others b4 self as well as being more puncture for him like eg: coming to cell grp/service on time and so on. Will we learn from this, i'm sure we will since the Lord always allow certain things to happen to shape us for the better. The only problem is when will we truly change? Only U know yourself best so it's up to U to stand up and be counted to change for the better, that's assuming that in the beginning one does desire to change the old and bad habits we have and its not just punctuality only.

Sunday morning @ service meant that we were going to be having children service. After the previous nite of interaction with the kids, some of them know us pretty well so it was so much easier to interact with them. And yup, with kids, activities must be action based to keep them focus and interested. So what better way than to make them move around with musical chairs. Just by seeing the delight on their faces, u can tell how much they enjoyed themselves as well as playing other games like blow wind blow. We then started off the time of P&W by singing 2 songs followed by the word and skit. Both GR and Nic did a great job of getting the kids attention as well as translating the word. 5mins, max attention u can get from them b4 they lose it all. May they understand God's love for people of their age.

Afterwhich, we proceeded on to some art and craft where we gave the kids some time to paint some small and nice acrylic. Children just love to colour and its the more and merrier for them. We even helped them to tie stoppers on their crafts so that they could stick it onto glass doors,etc when they went home. Nicodemus spent some time after we had machine dried the crafts to explain the different items and meaning behind them to the children.

As time flew, we were down to our last segment already! Wenzheng taught them the Speedy Gonzalas Dance. And boy, did they love and enjoy it. The different actions and the pace of movement combine with the music really made them move like nobodies business. And it's something which children love to do, that is move around ! But, it is something adults dislike to a certain extent somewhat when it comes to babysitting kids since they are so energetic, makes u feel old right when u try to chase them all around, haha ? Point to note as well, the cell was having lots of fun and enjoyed totally doing the dance along side the kids. As a parting gift, we gave them balloons, courtesy of Chiman and everyone else who helped to inflate and tie them up, of various animals and shapes and you could see the delight on their faces when they receive them.

Imagine if Sunday children service was like this every wk all around the world, kids will be begging their parents to send them down for church! Even parents would be impacted by their enthusiasm. Through it all, the 5 loaves and 2 fishes we have, we gave to the kids and the Lord graciously multiplied the blessings many folds to them. May they continue to have a hunger to seek God's word and delight being in his presence as well as the company of brothers and sisters in their midst.

It was already about 1pm by the time we settled down and took a breather. We walked out together to a nearby coffeeshop where we had some nice muslim bee hoon soup. The size of the fishball is incredible, don't u agree? God is awesome even though we overspent our money alrdy but still there was more available from our own pockets which ppl among our midst gave so willingly. We had some free time left b4 the adult service started @ 3pm so we split into 2 grps with 1 that went back earlier and the other to have a walk around the area.

For those of us who went back earlier, we had a short time of sharing as well as setting aside time to pray for the service that was abt to began soon. And once again, the ppl came in the van loads, hungry for God word. Managed to listened to a small portion of the sermon and testimonies b4 i went off to spend time interacting with the kids. Their simple way of playing and having fun reminds me a lot of our own childhood where we will play with sand and any other items we can find as well as spending tons of hours just running around having fun doing anything we can think of. It's so different from kids at this present era in S'pore! Anyway, a few of us like Wenzheng, Linfeng, Esther and Elena spent time to have fun with the children. It really was a wonderful time of playing with them all the various games especially those the children themselves came out with. Tired we were especially Wenzheng of carrying so many of them around but truly satisfied trusting that God will indeed build up this new generation of his people to carry on his works in their hometown.

Service was over around 5 odd and i'll wait till sharings from the rest to find out what happened exactly during the time where i was away. It was a mad rush after the service, our ferry was @ 545pm so we had to fly down to the harbour. Thank God for the van and bus which drove like lightning to send us there on time safely.

We managed to arrive earlier and even had to wait for the ferry as well. Going through custom was without any problems so yet another thanks upon the Lord to give to. Finally boarded the ferry at ard 615pm and everyone was zoned out. Almost everyone KO out and had a good recharging session.

We arrived back safely ard 750pm and after a short prayer of thanksgiving, we went to H.B. foodcourt for dinner. It was deserted which made it so much easier and faster to grab our dinner. Had a great time of fellowship and joking around, looks like the 1 hr+ of rest was great for everyone. Close to 9pm, we went our seperate ways, knowing that God has guided us through these 2 days and may the ppl there continue to shine for him in T.Balai.

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There's a lot of other things to give thanks for as well as seeing his works up close and personal: God's hand of protection was upon us, given we were foreigners and speaking so much english all the time, we could have been targetted but God didn't allow that to happen. No lose of items and pickpocketing incidents. If anyone noticed, i was walking with hands in pockets most of the time since half the money was with me, very stressful! An uncle from the adults side was sharing with me last wk abt his experience here and how he was almost pickpocketed on the van that we travel ard in. So had to be a bit more careful here.

Another thing to be thankful for is the focus of the end goal God has placed in our hearts. That despite the differences and having different talents, God used us to the best possible way in his eyes and allowed others to add on to our individual efforts so that his glory can be witnessed by the people here in Balai. Despite the many difficulties we have in communicating and expressing ourselves, God allowed our love to shine through and speak his words to those that we come into contact with. So let's continue to walk this life journey, holding tightly onto his promises as well as one another. To be a strong family of Christ, everyone needs to play their part and contribute in their own unique way things God has bless one with, only then we can really grow as a cell for God. Thus, seek to be encouraging and sensitive to one another needs and move forward together as one body.

We overspent our budget but we didnt have to use the love gifts that ours in the cell have bless us with financially. Somehow, though the accounts won't balance, God has provided in this area and it's really great to witness it, knowing how much God can provide if we truly trust in him.

Lots of us came from a week where we were physically drained from work, was falling sick as well as other incidents that happened which were weighing us down. Yet, God refreshed us and allowed us to cling onto him for strength & wisdom to endure through the 2 days. Everyone managed to give to the best of their abilities and by his grace and mercy, we perserve on knowing he is always there for us especially in our times of needs.

Paul energetic personality and enthusiasm in helping set up the place for sunday morning as well as the conversations we have, showed me how much he was on fire for the Lord despite his physical disability. It's something which we can all learn and try to be. Contagious christians that are always on fire for God.

Simplicity, just 1 word only but to us sporeans, it's something we all struggle with. As u look at their lifestyle and compare it to ourselves, if u start asking and placing yourselves in their shoes, would u be able to lead a simple life away from all the gadgets, materials, holidays and other things of the world that we chase after and just be contented with what's available? Is this a challenge from God to change our way of living?

Personal thanks would be the aftermath of the trip. Managed to complete my presentation on monday and despite no rehearsals at all, we still managed to pull it off. How i wish things would run so smoothly all the time, but haha, if everything is going well in life from start to finish, how's God ever going to reveal to us his grace and mercy if there is nothing bad to experience in this world in the 1st place?

Whatever we set out to achieve, i'm sure each one of us have been touched, moved and blessed by what we saw and the interactions we have. Though we might not be able to see the big picture that God has in mind for this land, still lots of things are happening behind the scene and u'll never know, maybe in a few years time and if one has the chance to go back again, maybe an encounter with someone will bring back memories of the trip and how he/she was impacted by you back then. God works in mysterious ways, don't u agree?

We all learn, it's part and parcel of growing up as a Christian so may we continue to be used in the many areas that God will place us in even if our own individual passion isn't in overseas Missions. Let our families, friends, workplaces, schools and the army be the start of the mission field where we are called to reach out to the lost here in S'pore.

Hallelujah to Our King