My travel to Peru

Day 1: The time has finally come for me to travel to Lima Peru together with eelee, lixiong and walter! Thank God I managed to finish the work that I needed to do for RP before I left. Having woke up at 4 am in the morning to catch the 630 flight, I was super tired! It was a relatively good flight with Taka airline.

 When we reached lima airport, we were pleasingly surprised by the modern and efficient airport! Within a short time, we were out of the airport! We took a cab which cost 75 soles from the airport to our rented apartment!  It could be cheaper if we have taken another company’s taxi! But the ‘black taxis’ company was very smart to congregate outside the aiport, and we were not sure how to get other taxis as they were none in sight! Anyway, after bargaining from 80 soles to 75, we started our travel in Lima!

Eelee was always very good at getting information, so she took the opportunity to ask the taxi driver what are some of the places of interest to visit in lima! On the taxis, we were also taking in our first impression of Lima! It was quite similar to the cities like thailand or vietnam, a lot of traffic, people were warm! We arrived at the apartment, and everything was great! Praise the Lord!

 After resting awhile, we were on the streets with our maps, in search of something to fill our hungry stomachs! There was a street called Calle de los pizzas, where there were many many restaurants! Everything looks similar, so it was quite a tough decision! We finally decided on a restaurant called Los Incas! The reason was that we were offered 2 free drinks and a free salad! We had our fill of the delicious ceviche, papa de huankaina, seafood rice. Muy rico!

 

 We shopped awhile, then we made our way to Hope Lima church! When we reached the place, we were greeted by one peruvian sister who brought us to teck keong, siew yee and keng suan who brought us around the Hope place, the offices, the youth hangout place, the kids program resources! I was truly very amazed by how developed the church was! The brothers and sisters were so warm and enthusiatic to welcome us! We met Oscar who shared joyfully about how God has changed His life to us, showing us the pictures of the first church planting team which consisted of julian, serene, delia, aili, terry! Simply amazing! I was very touched by what God has done and is still doing in Hope Lima! We met Laura, the youth leader, and her CREW (Called to Reach the Entire World!), like Foirella, a super Joyful and serving sister, miguel, the drummer, jonathan, the guitarist! They were so joyful, filled with enthusiasm as well!

After helping to blow some balloons to be ready for the next day where there was going to be a children party! Though the preparation, everyone was involved!

Ha, day 1 is so long! After the preparation, teck keong, siew yee, keng suan brought us to a nice peruvian restaurant! For the first time in my life, I tried cuy (guinea pig), conejo (rabbit), and some other peruvian dishes! Super nice too!

 

Day 2: This day, we went to attend the church service at Hope Lima! We were early and we joined in the prayer meet! Teck Keong led the time of prayer and it was truly filled with the Holy spirit as the people strongly desired for God’s presence to be with them, and to touch the people during the service and the children’s party! I was very touched by the time of worship and prayer, as I could sense the tangible presence of God!

 During the service, I gave a testimony (which was a mixture of spanish and english!) It was really cool to be able to share my story of faith to the congregation! Ha, some of them even commented that my spanish was clear! Praise the Lord! Next time hopefully I can give a testimony in spanish, without any translation!

 After the children’s party, we went to a chifa (nearly all the chinese restaurants in Lima are called Chifas) to eat!  I had a nice chinese noodles! Yummy…the chinese food here in Lima is more authentic compared to the ones in Santiago.

Day 3: This day we were more like tourists, we went to walk around miraflores, the area which we stayed! We visited the parque de amor! Thank God for Walter who explained what those love poems meant as they were in spanish! When we translated them literally in English, it doesn’t really sense! But when Walter explained the essence of poems, they made more sense!

In the night time, we had dinner with the Lima team at Bembos, peruvian fast food! It was quite nice! After that, we wanted to visit the parque de las aguas, but unfortunately it wasn’t opened on that day! So we changed plans to eat ice-cream at Dove vai! nice! 

Day 4: We took a 3-hour tour bus, Mirabus, to have a view of Lima, and we had a stopover at a church san francisco, and the catacomb below the church! It was really a very big church, with a lot of paintings, statures. 

After that, we had lunch, eating pollo de la brasa. The chicken was tender and nice, so I enjoyed the meal!

At night, we went back to los incas for dinner! Ha, guess we are still creatures of habit! We even sat at the same table, each of us in the same positions. The food was nice and we got some freebies (2 free drinks and salads)! So why not!

Day 5: We started the day with breakfast at Bembos, then we went to visit barrio chino (like a chinatown in Peru), it was a nice place where we did some shopping! Then we went for a sumptuous buffet lunch, at a chinese restaurant! I was so happy to be eating all the chinese food after so long (cos the chinese food in Santiago was not really that authentic)! Here I could eat char siew buns, roasted duck, mutton curry, egg tarts, jian dui! Yum yum yum!

At night, we had a great time fellowing with at hope lima! While siew yee and eelee were cooking dinner, we joined the praise and worship practice, led by Oscar. Later, he prayed for walter to receive the Hs baptism! It was led by the spirit and jonathan played a moving song, God will make a way in spanish which touched the heart of our dear brother walter greatly!

Soon, it was dinner again! Ha, we kept eating so much during the trip! Anyway, this is holiday, so we have the excuse to eat and enjoy. The curry chicken cooked by siew yee and teck keong was great! There was another dish (papa rellena) which is made up of potato and sweet potato, marshed and the fried! Delicious! We drank a typical peruvian dish called chicha! Think the hope Lima team is very well adjusted to the peruvian culture, even adapted to their food!

Teck keong also shared with us a verse that he sensed from the Lord for our team in santiago! The verse is Jn 12:24! He encouraged us saying that God will give us the fruits as we submit to him, die to ourselves! He also shared that here in Lima, he experiences God much more, as he needs to depend on God, as he is at living at the edge of faith all the time! i could identify with him, as on the missions field, there are so many unknowns, challenges! But that is what made our chrisitan life exciting, as we pray and see GOd works miracles as we build his church!

Day 6: it was finally time to say goodbye to lima and hello to cusco! After about one hour on Taka airline, we arrived at cusco! This place was very unique, not like any places I have visited! It lookes like a very old town! There were houses on the mountains, and also quite a number of old churches around the plaza of armas!

 It was very beautiful! Looking at the surroundings, the mountains! 

At night, I suffered from a terrible headache, and thus I couldn’t sleep! I took 2 pandadol and prayed for healing! 

Day 7: Cusco! Thank God, I woke up feeling much better, not much headache, praise the Lord! We had quite a good breakfast at the hostel! Then after that we went out to explore the city! There were quite a number of churches and museums, ha, we just took pictures from the outside! Some of them were not open, some were not interesting, some were quite expensive!

Nothing much to do also, so we took some pictures, then we found a place to have lunch! It was quite a cheap meal, 5 soles, one hamburger and one papaya juice! Then we went to rest again!

In the evening, we went to the tour agency for a briefing of the inca trail! It sounded quite interesting but quite shiong! A lot of walking to do! Then we also need to climb quite a bit on the second day! Lixiong was still not feeling well, prayed for his healing! Hopefully he would be well to join in the inca trip! 

Day 8: One day before the inca trip! I slept quite well! This day should be a very relaxed day! We just needed to buy some stuff, and then pack our bag!

(this following part is written when I returned to Santiago)

Day 9: Start of Inca trail
The day started very early, as the bus to bring us to start the Inca trail was supposed to come between 6 to 6.30 am! Thank God for Kathy, the staff working in our hostel, who offered us some freshly baked bread and also COFFEE! praise the Lord for her! Finally, at 6.40 am (Latino timing), the bus came and we started our 4 days 3 nights journey on the inca trail!

The bus stopped at a place, with a few shops! We relieved ourselves and stocked up more water at one of the shops! I was still feeling quite sleepy at that time! Finally, the bus brought us to the start of the Inca trail. We carried our heavy backpack, and our walking sticks, snapping pictures along the way! The first day was quite ok, not too shiong! Most of the trail were quite flat, not too much climbing. Whew! After walking for quite a few hours, we set camp and then started to wash up a bit! As there were no shower rooms, we went to the river, to just wash our hairs and to clean up abit…Boy, the water was freeezzzzing…

During the night time, the porters cooked for us, it was quite a nice meal! However, after the dinner, I felt a bit uncomfortable in my stomach. Man…the toilet was quite ummm…unpleasant, so I was hoping I dun need to go to the toilet. Aiyo, then in the middle of the night, I had a terrible stomachache and I woke Eelee up to ask her whether she wanted to go and relieve together! Ha..thank God for her quick response!  That night, think we both din sleep too well cos of our stomachaches.

Day 10: Inca trip day 2. This day was supposed to be the “shiongest” (the toughest) day of the trail as we have to do a lot of climbing upwards to reach the peak! Ha, so Eelee and I actually engaged a porter to carry our backpacks for us! Hee…it was really a lot easier without the great burden with us! When we finally reach the peak, it was really a great feeling!

Then we started to make our trip, walking down… (the trail consisted of mainly downslopes from here onwards.) Walking down din seem to be as easy as it seemed, and I think I had too much impact on my knee..so it hurt quite a bit as I made my way down! Thank God, we finally managed to reach our campsite in one piece! That evening, it rained the whole night…

Day 11: The third day! Wah..that is fast, the trip is ending! yeah.. more walking this day… Whew, I was very glad when the day was finished! Got to wake up very early the next day at 4 am to travel to Machu Picchu!

Day 12: The last day of the trail! We had a quick breakfast and then walked to catch the view of Machu Picchu!

Day 13: We went back to Cusco to rest for one night before we head back to Santiago!

All in all, it was an eye-opening trip for me! Many new things to see, to experience… Thank God for the trip and for the company of Eelee, Walter and Lixiong!

Some updates

I joined twitter today! Ha…twitted 5 tweets! I think it is good for me, because I also have a lot of random thoughts! Should record them down so that I can recall what I have thought about!

Today is Saturday! I had a crazy but super interesting class with a group of very challenging kids! 4 of them actually! Only one of them was very guai! The 3 others are really very special! Sigh, maybe they are rich kids, so they are used to getting their way! I spent a long time planning the class but through the process I learnt a lot of things!

Firstly, I learnt something about myself:
I am very complaining! Ha, I think teaching Kids is something that is very new to me, so I find it very challenging and I had a very bad experience last week. So this week I really dreaded the class! I kept complaining to Christine, Shawn and Eelee that I didn’t want to continue the class! I think for me when I encountered difficult things, I would switch to complaining mode really fast! I remembered when I first took up the RP job, everything was new, emails flying around! I told God, I really couldn’t do it! But I think I am growing to complain less and to apply the “complaining to God” (or crying out to God through desperate prayers) tactic instead! God is really very gracious to me! When I humbly come before Him to seek His help! He would help me, and guide me I also know that when we are doing new things, it would be difficult in the beginning, but with time, we would gain experiences and also be more skillful in the things we are doing!

I also discovered that I like seeing people learn! Ha, although I don’t really like the planning part! I think I want my career to have something to do education! Thank God now we have a company for me to come out with curriculum and to try out different teaching and learning methods! For me, I like to learn new things! So, I hope to research on good learning strategies!

Secondly, I also learnt about kids! Thank God for Shunrong and also Xiuqin who gave me very valuable tips about handling them! I did some research on them too and found that teaching kids really requires a lot of patience, creativity and love! Really not easy! I salud the teachers!!!  Pray that God would give me the wisdom to handle the kids and to impact them positively!

Updates- thanksgiving points

Wah, time has wings! So fast, it is coming to the end of July! It is good to be able to sit down and blogged about what happened these few weeks and to give thanks to God!

Thank God for my new job! I think this is a job which is really developing my administrative skills. All along, I am quite a ”sui xing” person. Ha, one can tell when they see the way I saved my files all over the place in my computer! It is really quite hard to find what I want to find at times! But in my new job, I need to be really very organised! Really very difficult in the beginning, prayed a lot, and complained a lot too…

Recently, I heard through a mp3 sermon from a pastor, from New Hope church in Hawaii,Wayne Cordeiro who taught from the passage of Exo 15, about the time when the Israelites encountered water that was Bitter! They complained against Moses. But Moses had a different response, he cried out to God and God made a way for the water to be sweet and drinkable again! The pastor taught that when we encounter difficult situations in our life, we could CRY OUT to God rather than complain. So once, when my job gets very tiring and difficult, I complained to myself and to God..”why is this so troublesome! I dun feel like doing it!” More and more negative thoughts come. But suddently God reminded me that instead of complaining, I could CRY out to Him just like Moses. The word of God came as a comfort and so I obeyed the voice of God and CRIED out to him to help me! It wasn’t easy but I tried to put aside my negative thoughts towards the job and continue to persevere on. Gradually, the work became more managable with the help of some people like Lixiong and Yen Wah…  Thank God for them. Thank God for His words that came at the right time to help me through my difficult time!

I highly recommend listening to Wayne Cordeiro’s mp3 sermons! His sermons are very inspiring and entertaining as well. Somehow he has a knack of making God’s principles so clear and applicable in our lives!  Thanks to Ee lee who highly recommended him to me! I have been very blessed with his teachings recently.

Eating out at Mr Wu (Chinese restaurant)

What a blessing to find delicious Chinese authentic food in Santiago! It is not that expensive too! Thank God for MR WU!

Yeah, the great feast…

Good pose, Monica with the chopsticks!

Celebrating Estela’s birthday

Gracias a Dios por Estela, nuestra hermana en Cristo! Celebramos su cumpleaños la semana pasada!

Our dear brother and sister from Singapore!

Thank God for Julian and Serene who came to Santiago to bless us with their presence! Though it was a short time together with them, I am very happy that I can get to know this wonderful couple. Ha, in the past, I only knew them from afar, as church planters to Peru! Their lives are really inspiring, and I could see that they love God a lot and desire to honour Him with their lives. God has honoured them greatly as they honour God too!

Chao guo tiao!

Chao guo tiao in Santiago! Can you believe it? Amazing right?

Ha, only found in my house, cooked by our accomplished cook, none other than Shawn Liu! Muy Rico! (very delicious!)  With very nice presentation too…

Mr Liu's Chao Guo Tiao!

Thank God! Gracias a Dios!

SPANISH

As I look back at the past few weeks, I really want to give thanks to God that I am able to understand Spanish more! I am so happy cos last caregroup, I spoke in Spanish when I chaired the caregroup time! Ha, when I asked some of the Chileans whether they understood my Spanish, they actually said yes! Thank God for their patience! One of the brother even commented that I spoke clearly and my grammar was good! Haha…so amazing! ¿Cómo es posible?

Today I went for a meal with one of my students. Praise the Lord, through the meal, we spoke mostly in Spanish and I could understand most of it! It is so cool, to be able to speak and understand a new language! Pray that I would continue to improve in my level of Spanish! In Chile, I think if my spanish is good! There would be more job opportunities, and also opportunities to speak deeper into people’s lives! Spanish is still the heart language of the people! Ok, I want to spend more time to improve on my Spanish these 2 months. Thank God also for my new Spanish teacher that I am able to be more motivated to learn Spanish! It is so cool! I enjoyed the classes with him, because he is very enthusiastic and his lessons were interesting! He also gave me a lot of opportunities to speak and he would try to correct me as well!

FINANCIAL PROVIDENCE

I also want to thank God for his providence in the area of Finance! Recently, I have a new job! It is be more or less confirmed. It is a admin job and I am able to work from home! Praise the Lord because with this job, I would be more secure in my finances and I could even provide some money for my family in Singapore! Gracias a Dios. So I told my sister to withdraw some money to my mum. Ha, she said that mummy most likely would not take it because she would be afraid that I do not have enough here. Wah…I am very touched because I know my mum loves me alot. Ha, she knows that I do not have a lot so she would just live with less money as compared with when I was working in Singapore. Thank God for her support in this aspect, not expecting too much from me as I am doing missions here. So now I am very glad that I could afford to give her, as a testimony that God is good! Pray that my mum would be drawn closer to God through my testimony!

GOD IS GOOD!!!

Argentinian BBQ

My bicycle

A few months back, I bought a bicycle! I named it Xiao Yin, ha, because it is silver in colour. I had been using it to cycle to work to my English institute. It had been very useful because I was able to get to places faster without squeezing with others in a metro or a micro (or a bus). In the morning, it was a great time of travelling on it, because I could surpass many cars and buses! It is very normal to have travel jams in the morning. Furthermore, sometimes the offices that I need to travel to have my English classes do not have a direct bus from my house. The bicycle was truly a great aid!

However, last Friday, something happened… In the beginning when I bought the bicycle, I was very careful to lock it well and also to prevent people from stealing the bicycle, I would take out the seat of the bike. These few months, I had been parking it at various places near Las Condes, my house. After I parked it, I would say a prayer for God to protect my bike. Everytime, when I came back, I was always very glad to see that it was still there! So I let my guards down since I had been parking it for at least 2 hours without anything happening to it.

On last Friday, a fateful afternoon, I went to Providence to buy some food for an event for Sat. I parked the bike outside the Chinese shop! 5 mins later, I came back to retrieve it! It was gone!!!

Sigh…I was still shocked! In my mind, I was thinking whether I parked it there, or did I park it somewhere else? But anyway it was lost! There was nothing I could do! I learnt a heavy lesson not to be COMPLACENT!

Just like our spiritual life! We cannot be COMPLACENT! Ha, this story began a teaching llustration when I shared during the teaching on the same Friday!

First day in Santiago

The first day in Santiago passed quickly too!

The three of us woke up, a bit more refreshed! The jetlag hasn’t set up! Haha, I was telling Puisee that I don’t have jetlag. Well, think I said it too early. By afternoon I was very tired already!

We had breakfast (cake, milo) together and soon after, we had lunch together. It was a very nice meal prepared by Puisee. See photo below of the great feast we had!

First lunch at Santiago (yummy)

There seem to be quite a lot of cooking and washing done in the house. Haha, I have never done so much washing at home! Oops, shows that I dun really do housework in the past! Wahaha…now it’s gonna change! I would be doing a lot of cooking, washing of dishes, mowing the lawn (cos we stay in a semi-d, two storey)… I would be a good house maker when I come back, definitely much more confident in the kitchen! Now, I am a bit “ji shou ya jiao” (chicken hand and duck feet), learning to cut a whole chicken and also cook pasta (a bit eye -power).

There was a potential student who was supposed to come to the house to discuss about a chinese course. So, I was supposed to change and wear more formally. Haha, I even put on a bit of make-up (at home!!! Gosh! A first time for me). Think there are going to be many first times in Santiago! However, the person didn’t come in the end. Umm, a bit wasted effort to wear nicer!

After packing my luggage, soon it was time for dinner! Haha.. we seem to be eating and eating! Then after dinner, we went out to this hypermarket (Jumbo) to do our shopping.

Journey to jumbo (nice view at the back!)

 I bought a long pants to wear, cos it’s quite cold. Everything is in Spanish…the merchardise. Well, think got to get used to seeing a lot of latinos and to speak in the language. So far, I haven’t really spoken more than ”gracias” to any latinos. Got to buck up!

At night, David chatted with us and then told us to be observant in this first month that we are here. To be inquisitive to know the culture and understand the people more! That’s wisdom! Think I got to really pray more for God’s discernment! Day 2 would be our caregroup! Guess I would be using more spanish! Haha, first time meeting our people in the church! Pray that I would be able to connect well with them!

My 2nd day @ Santiago!

Hola todos!

Today is the second day in Santiago. I woke up to birds chirping again! Woahaha.. so cool right? A bit cold here though…

Yeah, in the morning Shawn prepared breakfast for us (hotdog bun) for us! So, in return, I cut some apples for them! It is a great morning, listening to spanish praise and worship! Finally, I have the time to write this blog, and to upload some photos.

Tonight, we would be having our first caregroup! Our first encounter with our caregroup here in Santiago. Currently, we do not have a church service cos we are still quite small! However, I pray that we would be able to see more people coming to know the Lord and experiencing the transforming power of God through us! Lord, may you use the team in Chile greatly to reach out to the Chileans.

Ok, I got to brush up on my spanish so that I can converse with the brothers and sisters later! Will upload some photos of caregroup later! Stay tuned!

Pray that the time later would be a fruitful one! Shawn would be playing the guitar ( I would be playing next week). May the Lord anoint Him greatly to minister to the people through his guitar playing. Pray for the Holy Spirit to come and dwell in our place! Speak to us and the people. Help us to be in tune with your Holy Spirit so that we can speak words of wisdom and encourage them! May we find favour in the Chilean brothers and sisters’ eyes. Yeah, looking forward!

Do keep us in prayers!

Prayers:

1)    Pray for the Visa application as Temporary Resident would go smoothly on Monday! We would be meeting the lawyer then!

2)    Pray that we would be able to be a good support to the current team as we adjust more to the culture here. Shawn and I would be helping to play guitar during praise and worship during caregroup. Pray for proficiency in the language as well.

3)    Pray for more people to join us as we cast our nets wide to get contacts during our cultural events.

More first times….

First time cooking in Santiago… learning from Master PUISEE….

Hohoho.. me cooking, that’s rare sight. I am quite unfamiliar in the kitchen, so a bit “ji shou ya jiao”. Puisee is a wonderful cook and she taught me how to make 4 dishes (vegetables, soup, chicken, cucumber with dried shrimps). A bit “bu xi guan” to do some much cooking and washing, but I believe that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil 4:13)! One testimony is that I overcome my fear to light a matchstick to lit up the stove. Somehow, I fear that the fire would burn my fingers…so I was very hesitant! Puisee encouraged to overcome my fear and to pray for God to help me! And after some struggles, I overcome it! Praise the Lord!

my first attempt cooking...

My First caregroup in Santiago! Hola Hola Hola.. Espanol all the way!!!

Ha, well…the first caregroup in Santiago went on fine! It was really quite amazing that I am having caregroup with so many latinos! They are speaking Spanish and most of the time I was pretty lost. Thank God for some sisters who are bilingual and are able to translate from Spanish to English.

The first person that I met with Belan and we conversed in English. She would be our Spanish teacher soon. A very pretty lady. Another regular visitor, Estella, a mother of 2, came to the house soon after. She only speaks Spanish, so we had to really squeeze our brains to figure out what she was speaking. Haha, a bit of “qi tong ya jiang”, but ok la, we managed to have some form of conversation. Well, gotta buck up on my Spanish liao…jiayou jiayou jiayou.

We started out to introduce ourselves (in Spanish) and to say what’s our favourite food. Me llamo Karen. Mi comida favorita es comida Japones. Jaja (haha in Spanish)! Not bad siah… one sister even commented that my espanol is good! She is too kind already! But thank God for the encouragement.

Then we had an ice-breaker game (2 truth and 1 lie). We played that in Singapore during caregroup too! Haha… so what we play in Singapore can be applied here. So cool! After which, the people welcomed us with a “Welcome to the family” song in English (and one visitor translated in Spanish). We sat down again to have a short game of charade before the teaching on light. It was fun! Hahaha..a fusion of Spanish and English during the game. In Puisee’s teaching, she shared about light! The functions light is to help us to see, to reveal, to cleanse and to transform us. She was very fluent in both Spanish and English! So cool! 

One brother gave a present, a sachet of rose buds as a welcome! That’s so kind of him! (haha, I was having a ji tong ya jiang with him as he passed me the gift and explained to me what’s the gift for. Diaoz..so funny). haha, hopefully, I can learn faster so that I can also understand the language! There were a few testimonies by some brothers and sisters (all in Spanish)…ha then the translation was lost somewhere. So me, Christine and Shawn just smiled, looked attentive and nodded our heads in agreement! They are really nice people, very warm! Hope to know them more in the days to come!

Sunday…

Today our team went out together to a church. It was an exciting experience, taking the metro (or known as MRT in Singapore) for the first time to go to the church which is Spanish speaking. Thank God for Puisee who translated for us. She was really good in translation, translating as fast as the person is speaking. The praise and worship was great, though the volume was a bit too loud as we were sitting right in front of the speakers.

Team photo near mercado central

We went to have a good meal together! I ordered seafood soup…and it was really full of seafood. Haha, Christine and I couldn’t finish our dishes, so we actually “Da bao” back. Now, it’s in our fridge. Well, let’s see what we would do with them.

First time eating out in Santiago... A soup swimming with tons of seafood!

Then after that, we went to the super market (Mercado Centro) to buy our groceries. It’s quite an experience, going around with Ee lee to ask the price “Cuanto cuesta?” to find out the cheapest stall. yeah, I even helped to ask the price and I can actually understand what the stall owners said. Thank God for our Spanish teacher Jonathan who trained us well. After that, we had to carry back all the stuff. Thank God for a bus which brings us close to our home!

 

Later in the evening, we had a meeting with David to find out more about the things we need to know about the ministry in Chile. It was truly not easy, for them to come thus far. I am truly impressed by how the team perserved and achieved many milestones throughout their years in Chile. However, Jesus is the reason why we are doing it. Pray that God would help the new team to continue the work here. The Lord’s grace be with us.

One week in Santiago…wow

There are so many new things to experience in Santiago. This whole week had been very blessed by God. Thank God for bringing us safely here and also helping us to adjust so far. I think my housemates are wonderful! So glad to be serving God together with them. Ha, I learnt my new things from them as well. For example, how to cook (including how to cut stuff, like dicing the garlic), how to wash dishes (in a way that saves detergent), how to fix the toilet, how to be very bold in trying new things, to be flexible, to trust in God, to put God first, to love people (despite a different culture and language)… wah. I am also spending more time with God during my quiet time, around 1 hour. Such a luxury. I am eating healthier, fruits almost everyday, jogging twice this week (more than my once a week in Singapore…haha, my jogging kaki Yuanli, miss jogging with you wo!), eating homecooked food (means no MSG), learning a new language too! I think this one week has been very fruitful and also enjoyable!

Today, we went to meet up a brother for lunch and we went to his office to have a look. Wow, he is a marine biologist and he has his own company. He is passionate about whales. So cool… din know that there are so many different species of whales. He went to the part of the antartica that belongs to Chile for around 5 months, and took many interesting photos with sea lions, sea leoparts, penguins… (*muy intersante). Haha, for now, we are still “ji tong ya jiang”. But amazingly, the spanish language is starting to make a bit of sense. He was very kind and patient to speak slowly for us. Thank God for Ee lee who translated for us as well! Haha, she was saying, never would she imagine that she would help others understand the spanish language!

Oh ya, I forgot to talk about my first telephone conversation with the local. There was a potential student who wants to learn more about our chinese course. Haha, gosh, I was so nervous, cos I dun understand him. I keep saying “Hola”, “Cual es su nombre?”, “Cual es su telefono?” which means (Hi, what is your name, what is your telephone number?). Then I couldn’t understand his replies. Finally, I asked him, “Habla Ingles” (Do you speak English?) Hoho..finally I can understand him, a little bit. Man, really feel quite lost. But then, I think it really helped me to be more urgent to understand Spanish. God, help me. (*Dios, ayudame!)

Ok… all my amigos en CIngapur. Cuidate (take care) y bendiciones!

My first phone call to a Chilean

Wah…que emotionate! (How exciting!) Guess what? I made the first phone call to a Chilean to fix a meet up. Hee, a bit cheapo, cos I used a bit of English. But most of it are in Spanish (haha, although I used very simple words, e.g. Alo! mañana, mediodia, estacion, hasta luego) Ok, I am so happy (estoy muy feliz). PTL. Well, hopefully I would be able to meet up with her successfully tomorrow.

We had a great time with a friend, during lunch time. Cool, she is such a nice lady. She treated us to drinks and empanadas. So blessed by her! Pray that we would be able to get to know her more in time to come.

Eating Empanadas with our sis-in-Christ, Ximena

Time flies

Wah, it’s so fast. I have been here for one week plus. This morning, I had a good time hearing from Christine about her life story, how she kept asking God how she can be involved in missions. God has truly been good in her life, led her to different paths until she finally landed herself in Chile, the missions field. She is a natural story-teller, very animated in sharing her life.

Yesterday, was an eventful day. In the morning, we had a prayer meeting. I led praise and worship and we prayed. It was a good time! I was very touched by God’s reminder that His grace is sufficient for us. That His strength is made perfect in our weaknesses. I believe that God has called us here for a reason to be his witness and to bring the lost to him.

We went to meet up with some uni students from U de chile. The place was a nice one, looks like a traditional university. It’s one of the top university in Santiago. I was talking to one Chilean, he’s quite patient person. We had another round of ji tong ya jiang. This guy is quite interesting, because he can understand English, but he speaks minimal English. When I speak to him in English, he replies in Spanish. However, I dun understand. So I got to ask him to speak slowly, to write down (his written english was quite ok too). Eventually, I managed to find out more about his life and we had quite an enjoyable conversation.

U de Chile

We went off to Ee lee’s student house after that. Before that Ee lee dropped by to collect her pay at her institute. Then, by God’s grace, her boss saw her and got her to discuss about a Chinese class that the institute is talking of starting. Ee lee grabbed the opportunity to introduce me to the boss and they started discussing more about the Chinese course. If everything goes well, I might start teaching chinese soon in that institute. Pray for God to help me to handle the teaching well. It is quite exciting to meet with the students.

The meet up at Ee lee’s students house was an interesting one. We get to hear from them about the life in Chile. The student’s mum was quite open about her life and shared with us. Haha, I tried to catch what was saying with some of her English and from Ee lee’s translation. Really hope to know the language faster so that I can connect to them. God, please help me to grow in my linguistic power! I can do all things through you who gives me strength!

At Paula's house

We ended off the day by watching Quantum for Solace, a James bond show. It was quite nice. The cinema here is very much like in Singapore, very nicely furnished. Suddenly, I felt like I am in Singapore. Oh ya, forgot to mentioned that we walked 1 hour from Paula’s house and kept asking for direction along the way. Haha, but the time we came back. It’s already quite late and tired. I “kong kass” after my bath…

Some updates…

Quiero aprender español. Voy a escriber un poco en español para practicar. Tengo dos testimonio, primero, quiero da gracias a Dios por su ayudar ayer. Él me ayudó a cocinar una comida para mis amigos en el equipo. Hallelujah! Véase la siguiente foto.

(I want to learn spanish. I am going to write a bit in Spanish for practice. I have two testimony, first, I want to give thanks to God for his help yesterday. He helped me to cook a meal for my team mates. Hallelujah, see the following photo.)

The first full meal I cooked

Looks good right? Haha, the soup was fantastic! (Zhi mai zhi kua) Learnt it from Puisee…she always appreciated her own food, probably, it gave her motivation to cook! The egg with long beans was almost a disaster. I throw away some of the “chao ta” egg. Thank God, it was still edible. The lemon chicken became tomato chicken. The sauce was saved by Master Puisee! Thank God. The one that I prepared was super sour! After mixing some onions and sugar, it became very very nice. Amazing. Now I know the trick to make delicious sauce. Yum yum. Thank God for ee lee who helped me to cut the chicken. She’s truly amazing, she actually managed to cut the whole raw chicken into nice parts for me to cook. Actually, she was my assistant yesterday. Thank God for her, otherwise I would have to spend double the time to cook (4 hours!!!) Gosh…

Segunda, quiero da gracias a Dios porque él me ayudó a tocar la guitarra en caregroup hoy. Aunque sólo hay tres visitantes hoy, doy gracias que era un agradable momento. Dios es bueno.

(Second, I want to thank God for he helped me to play the guitar in caregroup today. Although there were only 3 visitors today, I give thanks that it was an enjoyable time. God is good.)

Acting during caregroup today

I got to know two sisters, Belan and Monica much better. Thank God that they speak English, so I was able to communicate well with them. I would be taking Spanish course with Belan in the weeks to come! Hopefully, we would improve on our spanish soon! Jiayou jiayou!

Going out for dinner now. Chao.

God’s healing is on me!!! yeah…

Praise God, God is good…he has healed my stomachache!

This morning I woke up with a bit of stomachache. I was lying in my bed, feeling a bit sorry for myself. I decided to pray for myself and to claim God’s promises for healing. Then after that, I met Meirong, my prayer warrior cum my dearest xiao mei mei, she offered to pray for me. I was immediately healed after that! Praise the Lord. That’s prayer via internet and it’s still powerful! Praise the Lord.

God is indeed my healer! I pray that God would use me to pray for others for healing! I ask that God give me the gift of healing and that I could pray with faith for others to be healed by God supernaturally.

Today, we would be going to distribute the flyers for our company’s courses! Hopefully, there would be people who would respond to us!

I want to thank God for the caregroup last night. There were a few more people this time! I had a chance to connect to a sister who has joined us for the last 4 four months, but it’s the first time I have seen her. It’s quite interesting talking to her, thank God she can speak a bit of English. We managed to communicate a bit. I learnt that she has travelled to Europe and she likes Italy, and France.

David did the teaching which was interesting. It was on God’s blessings! Belen, one Chilean sister translated for him in Spanish. After that, we celebrated David’s 30++++++ birthday. Haha, just look at how many “+” signs for his actual age. Shhh….keep it a secret!  It was a good of mingling with the people after cg, and we have food and drinks as usual (the trick to bring people together)!

After cg, we had a good time of watching the next half of 200 pounds beauty together using our projector. Haha, church planting has its fun times as well. We have our team fun together! Think it’s important for us to stick together and care for one another. Cos in a way, we are a family in this foreign land together. Oh ya, we were watching the show half way on the day before. Cos David came back and we celebrated his birthday. Thanks to Ee lee who has the creativity to transform the living room into a very nice place, with tealight candles, with decorations (“Happy birthday David”) and also his favourite drink, nuts and donuts (bought by his wife Puisee) and jazzy music which was contributed by Shawn. It was a great time of celebration, where we let our hairs down and then chit chatted, talked about his birthday wishes, his plans and many other stuff. Haha, then we were starting to talk about ideas for Christmas. Wahaha… interesting how the conversation steered to talking about how we can reach out to the people using various methods, like healing meetings, play during christmas.

There are many exciting things waiting for us! Wah..but really need to depend on God! It’s not easy to connect to the heart language of the people, but God’s power and love transcend all culture, understanding and language! We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us! Ai zai! Bu yao pa! (haha, my blog is so “cha pan lan” in the use of language that I think only Singaporeans can truly understand…)

News about Chile…

David and Puisee on TV!

You can view the video at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/video - look for Singapore 27 Nov 2008: Singapore, Chile expand bilateral relations with educational agreements. (quite lagging though)

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/392567/1/.html 
“A 36-year-old Singaporean, David Lee, who runs a consultancy training business with his wife in Chile, said: “I’m homesick about food everyday.
I’ve eaten more bread in the past five years I’ve been in Chile compared to the 30 years of my life! So tonight’s dinner is definitely different!” “

Haha, the funny thing is David is a Malaysian…not Singaporean! “…so much so for accuracy in journalism..” (LOLz)

For those who wondered whether I was there! I wasn’t!!! sob sob sob!

It’s a pity, Ee lee, Shawn, Christine and myself din manage to go there! Even though David and Puisee said that the food was not too fantastic (not sure why…maybe the food is cold liao), I think it would be interesting to be there to see our PM in Chile! Hopefully, next time we would have a chance!!! We would just gatecrash… Muahahahah…..Chilli crab, satay, roti prata, … here we come…

From one of my caregroup member, JC:

“It was reported in the Chinese papers that the Singapore government is considering Latin America as a suitable place for business ventures. Perhaps this would mean that more Singaporeans could find themselves in Chile within the next few years.. It could also mean that more people going for short-term missions would have another avenue. Education as an enterprise? Educators might find themselves more ‘marketable’ or even being sent over. How about Socio-educators? For those who are interested, it might be worth checking out J “

 

My first birthday overseas…

Hoy es mi cumpleaños!

mis amigos en Chile se celebra para mí ayer.

It was interesting that the culture is to open the presents in front of the people!

My birthday cake and me...

A hug to Lorena

Walter and I Quite funny, I actually forgot to thank Walter the Chilean way... instead I shaked his hand! Muahahaha...I think I was too excited until I forgot...My presents...

 

Later after caregroup, my team mates prayed for me and also shared words of encouragement from the Lord! I was super touched by God and really sensed that God is leading me and looking after me. The love of God is truly tangible last night and I could not help but be moved to tears.

Thanks for all my singaporean friends who sent me birthday wishes! I am truly grateful to God for your friendships!

Here is one from my artistic friend in RP, a nice card from her

a birthday card from Yuanli... I love it! Thanks Yuanli for blessing me with your talent!

Yeah…going for a movie and dinner treat from my teammates later! PTL! Chao…

Dios es super bien en Chile

Yeah…I can understand more Spanish and speak more as well. Estoy muy feliz ahora. I am also very thankful that I have the opportunity to get to know more Chileans today during our caregroup. There were four of them today. I was talking to one lady, Carla and it was truly a wonderful talking to her, conversing with a bit of spanish and a bit of English! Wonderful experience!

Today was a super exciting day for me. I want to thank God for bringing a brother from Hope Auckland to fellowship with us during our caregroup today! He was truly very encouraging to us! After our caregroup, he prayed for us using the Word of God and the way he prayed…simply amazing, with so much faith and also authority that comes from God! He shared with us what God spoke to him and showed us the specific verses that God wants to encourage our team with, then we prayed together as a body of Christ! It was an edifying time when all of us were lifted in our spirit. Wow! Que emotionate! (how exciting in Spanish!)

When he asked us what else he can pray for us, I shared with him and the team about the faith goal that I sensed from God yesterday during my quiet time! The goal to see 150 people in our church, Hope Santiago by the end of next year! It was a big number to me, but after what he shared to us about God bringing many people to us from the verses Eze 36:8-11, I was very encouraged! I want to believe that it was something that only God can do and I am just a vessel in which he would use! After Bassey prayed with much conviction and faith for this faith goal, Shawn also shared with us that he sensed that God is going to bring forth much more people than Hope Santiago used to have (which was about 40…), which encouraged us very much as well!

During our evaluation after the caregroup, the team commented that I played the guitar well during praise and worship. Thanks to David who led well and also able to cover up some of my mistakes… Whew…! Thank God. But anyway, it was really an encouragement to me that people would actually say that I played well in my guitar! I mean for those of you who have heard me played over the past 6 years should know that my guitar skill is really quite limited. In the first few years, it was quite disastrous. Haha, thank God the people in my caregroup were still able to minister to God despite my lousy guitaring skills. I really have to thank all my “shi fus” (to name a few, Benaiah, Wenjiang, David Chan, oh ya, my guitar teacher from believermusic…) in Singapore who have taught me how to “tocar la guitarra” (play the guitar)! Especially to my recent two “Shi fus” – Tian long and James who taught me during a guitar word for life course before I left for Santiago! Without them, I think I wouldn’t have improved so much! Thanks so much! Ha, your reward is in heaven, amen!

For those who are reading this, I encourage you to persever in serving the Lord in what he has entrusted you to do! Even though you are not doing it very well yet, don’t GIVE UP! God will surely help you to improve and you would find yourself being used by God in a bigger way! Just be faithful to do all that you can! God is the one who would anoint you! If God appoints you, he will anoint you surely! Jiayou wor!

Next week would be an exciting time in which I would do the teaching part during caregroup, first time doing it here in Santiago and also having someone to translate it into Spanish! Woah… BACAN! (Cool! in Spanish..) I am going to need God’s help very much! God help me…Dios, ayudame!

Navidad en Santiago

Woah, time really has wings. It has been more than a month that I am here in Santiago. It is my first time celebrating Christmas outside of Singapore, my lovely homeland. We had a Christmas party called Navidad con las estrellas (Christmas with the stars). We had to dress up like some stars or celebrity! Ha, Ee lee, Christine and I are the…. Charlie’s angels! Jaja..cool right?

The Charlie's angels!

 

In the land of Santiago, it is interesting to celebrate Christmas as well. I just went to buy food for our Christmas dinner together with Christine and also Puisee. The streets and supermarkets are packed with people, rushing to buy gifts and food for their family dinners. It is very similar to the time of Chinese New year eve in Singapore when people are doing last minute shopping and stocking up food for the fiestive season!

Today, I went to meet a few Chileans together with Puisee and Christine. They are really very warm people. However, the lack of competency in the spanish language was a bit of a hindrance in really relating to them in a much deeper level. It can be frustrating, not really able to understand them as much as I wanted to. However, God is truly very gracious to me. He has allowed me to understand the language and to try speaking in the language more and more. I think the initial months can be difficult, adjusting to a new language and culture. But I believe that by the strength of God, I would be able to learn fast. God, help me to learn the language as fast as I can! Dios, Ayudarme! I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me! Do not give up, persevere on and I believe that a breakthrough would be coming!

I am actually filled with gratitude for God has allowed me to experience this different culture, and to serve him in spite of language and cultural barriers. God is a God of all cultures and languages! He transcends all differences! At the core of all human beings, we are all the same. We have the same need for God, the same need for purpose in life, for guidance, to be loved, to love… Wow! What an experience to see the plan of God for Man at a larger scale, beyond Singapore!

Singapore is truly very blessed! I have been very blessed in Singapore as well! Here in Santiago, I have learnt to give as much as to receive! As I have received from the Lord, I need to learn to give to others as well. It is truly a joy to give (though sometimes it can be hard as well…tiring also, to give of my time, my resources, my energy, my youth). God has allowed me to be able to give! It is so cool to see that God can work through me! God, draw me close to you to know your heartbeat for me and for the people that you would bring across in my path! Help me to be a blessing to them, to impact them with your living giving truth as well as to show them the love that I have received from you!

Here in Santiago, I have received many blessings as well. Here would be my thanksgiving list for Navidad!

1. To be able to learn a new language and to be immensed in a totally different culture! To enjoy the process of learning as well. Thank God that I can understand the language more. I am able to read the spanish bible now and understand about 60-70 % of it without the help of the English bible! Praise the Lord.
2. To be able to receive the love from my team mates (Shawn, Christine, David, Puisee and Ee lee), whether it is in the cooking from them or their encouragement for the little things that I have attempted for God or their grace for me when I forgot to do something (oops, I keep forgeting to wash the Classroom toilet in our house and to mop the living room)…I really give thanks for them.
3. To be able to get to know many Chilean friends who has showed me much hospitality as well as extended their friendship towards me even though they do not know me very well.
4. To my friends and family in Singapore who have been so supportive of me and their love and concern to me even though I am miles away from them.
5. To the growing relationship I have with God! I have been praying and reading the word of God everyday! I have been able to wake up with a song in my heart to worship God and also to experience the closeness of God throughout the day. I think nothing beats having this assurance that God is with me and he has a plan for me. God fills my heart with his love and that is sufficient for me to face any challenges along the way in this journey ahead here.

Wah… many things to give thanks to God for!

Feliz año nuevo! 2009!

Hoy es el primero día en 2009! 01012009! BACAN!

Jaja, guess what our team is doing on the first day of 2009! We were playing a game and trying to beat one another at it. For those of you who are interested to test your knowledge of geography and famous places all over the world, you can try the GEO challenge in facebook! 

 http://apps.facebook.com/geochallenge/?pf_ref=fs654715599

Last night we celebrated new year’s eve by joining the crowd at the countdown party together with a Chilean friend, Carlos! It was super duber crowded! We had foam, and champagne splashed all over us during the countdown! Nevertheless, it was quite interesting to be with the Chileans to welcome the coming of the new year 2009. It is interesting that no matter where we are from, we have a hope towards the new year! I believe that God is going to do a greater thing in 2009 in and through my life!

Countdown party at Entel tower, Santiago

One of my new year resolutions is to be able to speak Spanish fluently and also able to understand Spanish well in 2009. My litmus test is that I can understand the Spanish bible (90 % of the time), able to conduct a proper conversation with a local for 2 hours purely in Spanish understanding 80 % of the time! God, help me to learn the language well and be able to connect to the friends in Chile well!

I also hope for our church in Santiago to grow in strength, numbers and the quality of the people! Pray for transformation in the lives of the people, to love God more and to serve the Lord more! Pray for the Holy Spirit to dwell powerfully in our midst that we can see Him work miraculously to transform us to be more like Christ, to desire to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, to see signs and wonders in the church to allow people to see the glory of God in our midst, to see the fullest of lives in our people!

I strongly believe in the great commission -

Matt 28:19-20

 ”Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

God, we just do our humanly possible and we trust in you fully that you would use us to be a salt and light! May your glory be shown greatly through our lives!

Yeah, my dream came true!

This week, we bought a keyboard finally! Praise the Lord! We have been talking about having a keyboard for a long time, and finally this week we got it! To save money, Shawn and I decided to take the metro after buying the keyboard! Haha, I carried the stand and Shawn carried the whole keyboard! Man! With much difficulty and sweat, finally we got it to our house! Yeah…Por fin! (finally!)

Initially, it was quite difficult to coordinate and to play, but as I tried it more… I began to get the hang of it. Man, the feeling was just wonderful! My tempo and sense of beat is still bad, but thank God for Shawn who has a good sense of beat and he led using the guitar. During the first practice, it was quite ok though not perfect… Still I thank God!  It was a great breakthrough for me already! It has been my dream to play keyboard since my childhood, and so one year ago, I went to Believer music to learn how to play Christian music. This year, I can actually play in the church here in Santiago! Praise the Lord! As I was playing on the keyboard during the praise and worship time, I was so touched that I was actually doing it! I was almost moved to tears! It was a milestone in my life! Wah, amazing! Indeed, learning keyboard was one of my plans for my life. As I made steps to learn it and asked God to empower me, I saw the hands of God moving and he made it possible for me! Wahhh…

I have other dreams in my life as well, that I have planned in my 5 years life plan! I am excited! I believe that God is going do great things through me! For this year, I would want to learn spanish well and be able to communicate with the locals here in Chile! God, help me…give me the perseverance and motivation to learn it well! I am excited about what God is going to do in this land! Dios, nos ayudas! Por favor!

Today, I did something for the first time as well. Christine, Ee lee, Lorena and I went to do some volunteer work to teach English to some kids! We planned some songs and games, and some activities to teach them English. One of the songs that we tried was not well- received. Probably, that was too complicated for the kids. Thank God, Ee lee was very quick-minded to change the song to something that was easier and soon the kids were participating! It was truly not easy, but thank God we had a lot of team work! Thank God for Lorena as well, who helped us to find the place (cos initially we couldn’t find the place, and we couldn’t contact the person-in-charge) and to translate to the kids! After that we split into two groups, Ee lee and Christine took the younger kids and Lorena and I took the older ones. It was quite interesting as I had to think of how to adjust the activities to suit the kids. They were wonderful and participative, even though their attention were quite short! It was a wonderful experience! I think I love being a teacher, to see people learn and people to be impacted through my teaching. Some of these kids came from less-priviledged families, and I really felt very blessed to be able to give to them. They were really very sweet and cute! (Muy muy dulce!) Though I couldn’t really understand them, I was just very glad to be there! God, thank God for bringing me here to Chile, to experience all these!

Dog and bone game

 

As we walk to the left, as we walk to the right...(the game that din work)

Many testimonies…

Answered prayers recently:

Thank you God for the job offers! Shawn and myself are offered jobs to teach English last Thursday! Praise the Lord! And Christine even has 4 offers!

Thank you God for Carla who received the Baptism of Holy Spirit last week! Praise the Lord!

Thank you God for the fat cow season! We prayed for businesses to flood our doors in the midst of dry seasons and it came to pass! Praise the Lord!

Foto durante nuestro retiro

Yum seng (Saludos)

My lessons today!

Today was an interesting day! I have three lessons! In the morning, I had lesson with a university student teaching chinese! It was very rewarding to see her learn through the lesson and that she had improved throughout the time! I believe that it would be good to have some pictures for her to learn some of the new vocabulary! Hopefully, soon I would be very proficient in the spanish language and I would be able to share the meaning of the chinese words in Spanish, instead of English!

Next, I had lesson with a professional! She works as a manager in the Treasury department! A mother of one, very nice lady! The interesting thing is that she was from Paraguay and she told me interesting things about her country! It is truly enjoyable to interact with her! The one hour lesson always seem to pass so quickly!

The last lesson was supposed to be with a 5 year old boy, and a pair of twins, 2 year old girls! However, today the boy wasn’t around, and so I had lesson with the 2 year old girls! It was quite challenging, but yet interesting! They are very cute and they quite learn fast too! How amazing that even 2 year old can learn chinese just by listening to the songs and words! One of the twins, who usually wasn’t very participative actually was able to repeat shoes (xie zi) and some colours like green (lu se), cow (nu), pig (zhu) after me… wah, that is truly a big accomplishment to get them speak! It was just 3 sessions with them and they were able to speak some chinese! Ha, as the lessons go on, I believe that they can learn more! Images through videos, songs, actions, toys really helped the kids to learn much better!

Amazed at God’s created being!

long time since I blogged

Time really flies! I am here in Santiago for 4 months! Cuán rapido! será otoño pronto …hace mucho frio.en este
tiempo, aprendí mucho…gracias a Dios!

Hay muchas cosas que puedo dar gracias a Dios! Muchas! Mi vida es más lento! Mi salario es más barato, pero en mi corazón me siento muy bien! Gracias a Dios que puedo experienciar su gracia aca en Santiago! Cuando cuento lo que ha hecho por mi, mi corazón simplemente enamorame de él…mi señor, mi Dios, mi rey, mi todo…

Quiero ver más de obra del espiritu santo en mi vida y nuestra iglesia! En todo lo que hago, quiero alabarte!

Me encanta esta canción…
Enamarame de ti señor….

Quiero entregarte mis sueños
tu voluntad haz en ellos
mi corazon te lo entrego
enamorame de ti
quiero aprender a escucharte
quiero saber que es amarte
de tu verdad yo saciame.
Enamorame de ti señor

Que tu presencia me inunde
haz de mi un odre nuevo
cambiame, renuevame, enamorame
enamorame de ti, señor!

te amo, mi señor!

More testimonies

Yeah… gracias a Dios por los seguientes:

1) Finalmente tengo mi RUT y puedo recibir dinero en mi trabajo
2) Christine tienes su carnet! Aunque había poquito problema en los procesos, ahora está bien! Allelujah!
3) Mi español ha mejorado ahora! Yeah! (voy a estudiar más! Jiayou …Miss Mo Fan sheng …haha the name that my team mates gave me!)

Será otoño pronto! Ahora, la clima es poquito complicado! A veces, hace color, y a veces hace frior (cuando hay lluvia)

What is the purpose of life?

Author of “PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE”)

You will enjoy the new insights that Rick Warren has, with his wife now having cancer and him having “wealth” from the book sales. This is an absolutely incredible short interview with Rick Warren,
“Purpose Driven Life ” author and pastor of Saddleback Church in California

In the interview by Paul Bradshaw with Rick Warren, Rick said:

People ask me, What is the purpose of life? And I respond: In a nutshell, life is preparation for eternity. We were made to last forever, and God wants us to be with Him in Heaven.

One day my heart is going to stop, and that will be the end of my body– but not the end of me.

I may live 60 to 100 years on earth, but I am going to spend trillions of years in eternity. This is the warm-up act – the dress rehearsal. God wants us to practice on earth what we will do forever in eternity.

We were made by God and for God, and until you figure that out, life isn’t going to make sense.

Life is a series of problems: Either you are in one now, you’re just coming out of one, or you’re getting ready to go into another one.

The reason for this is that God is more interested in your character than your comfort.

God is more interested in making your life holy than He is in making your life happy.

We can be reasonably happy here on earth, but that’s not the goal of life. The goal is to grow in character, in Christ likeness.

This past year has been the greatest year of my life but also the toughest, with my wife, Kay, getting cancer.

I used to think that life was hills and valleys – you go through a dark time, then you go to the mountaintop, back and forth. I don’t believe that anymore.

Rather than life being hills and valleys, I believe that it’s kind of like two rails on a railroad track, and at all times you have something good and something bad in your life.

No matter how good things are in your life, there is always something bad that needs to be worked on.

And no matter how bad things are in your life, there is always something good you can thank God for.

You can focus on your purposes, or you can focus on your problems.

If you focus on your problems, you’re going into self-centeredness,”which is my problem, my issues, my pain.” But one of the easiest ways to get rid of pain is to get your focus off yourself and onto God and others.

We discovered quickly that in spite of the prayers of hundreds of thousands of people, God was not going to heal Kay or make it easy for her.

It has been very difficult for her, and yet God has strengthened her character, given her a ministry of helping other people, given her a testimony, drawn her closer to Him and to people.

You have to learn to deal with both the good and the bad of life.

Actually, sometimes learning to deal with the good is harder. For instance, this past year, all of a sudden, when the book sold 15 million copies, it made me instantly very wealthy.

It also brought a lot of notoriety that I had never had to deal wit h before. I don’t think God gives you money or notoriety for your own ego or for you to live a life of ease.

So I began to ask God what He wanted me to do with this money, notoriety and influence. He gave me two different passages that helped me decide what to do, II Corinthians 9 and Psalm 72

First, in spite of all the money coming in, we would not change our lifestyle one bit. We made no major purchases.

Second, about midway through last year, I stopped taking a salary from the church.

Third, we set up foundations to fund an initiative we call The Peace Plan to plant churches, equip leaders, assist the poor, care for the sick, and educate the next generation.

Fourth, I added up all that the church had paid me in the 24 years since I started the church, and I gave it all back. It was liberating to be able to serve God for free.

We need to ask ourselves: Am I going to live for possessions? Popularity?

Am I going to be driven by pressures? Guilt? Bitterness? Materialism? Or am I going to be driven by God’s purposes (for my life)?

When I get up in the morning, I sit on the side of my bed and say, God, if I don’t get anything else done today, I want to know You more and love You better. God didn’t put me on earth just to fulfill a to-do list. He’s more interested in what I am than what I do.
That’s why we’re called human beings, not human doings.

Happy moments, PRAISE GOD.
Difficult moments, SEEK GOD.
Quiet moments, WORSHIP GOD.
Painful moments, TRUST GOD.
Every moment, THANK GOD.

Yeah…yo entiendí

I am beginning to understand the spanish language more and more! Praise the Lord! It is really quite interesting to learn a new language! At first, the words all sounded greek to me! However, slowly, as I began to know more words, I find that I could understand more and more! Today, I felt very happy that I could understand what my spanish teacher said! Really thank God for a patient and effective Spanish teacher, Karlina! A very sweet young lady who is very steady and she could explain the concepts very well! Another thing is that when I jogged past a group of people, I could actually catch what they were saying… he said, yo estudié….Yeah…in the past when I overheard conversations, I wouldnt understand…now I could, more or less! So amazing!

Ha, in Santiago, one interesting thing is that there would be venders selling all kinds of things on micros (which are the internal buses travelling in Santiago), for example…there would be people selling pens, baby bibs, ice cream, jewellery, and also baskers performing on micros! Think really not easy to earn money here in Santiago! I think in Singapore, we are really very blessed! Oh anyway, I always try to listen out to what those venders or baskers are saying! I think I can catch more words now! Yippee…Praise the Lord!

I still remember that many times when we visited chilean friends or when they come and visit us in our house, I would feel very lost because I dun know what they were saying! Now, I actually can chat with some of them in SPANISH! Oh my Gosh! Isnt it wonderful! Today, two friends came to play ping pong and it was a great time! We counted the points in spanish! Hahah..and I could understand almost everything that we talked about! Praise the Lord!

Lord, I pray that my spanish would improve more and that I would be able to connect more with the locals here! I think they are really great people! It is such a privilege and joy to be here to know them and to experience so many things!

My encounter with the Lord

Recently, I have been listening to the teaching by Ravi Zacharias.

Ravi Zacharias

I was listening to a few of them… one of them that was particularly striking to me was on how we should worship God with our emotions…
He expounded on the verse in Malachi 1: 2 “I have loved you, says the Lord. “but you ask, “How have you loved us?” He talked about God’s love for us…that great love of God that would propel us to worship him with expressions of love for who he is in our lives. He shared in the book of Hosea, how God has love the Israelites despite their betrayal towards Him. He said that they were worst than harlots that sold their bodies, because at least they did it for money. But for the Israelites, they paid to give their bodies away. God chose the prophet, Hosea to marry a prostitute in order to show forth the extent of His love for them! That even though they had chosen to betray him by worshipping other gods, he will still forgive their unfaithfulness towards him and love them all the same.

Yesterday, as I was practising keyboard, I was very frustrated because I couldn’t play well..and I even told Ee lee that I din feel that playing for Praise and worship session during caregroup later. Then, God encouraged me through the time of prayer that I should play the music as if I am playing a song of love to him, to express my love to him through the notes and my playing. As I change the focus from my limited playing to loving God, my whole playing of the music changed! I could feel the joy of playing. Instead of being very stressed, I felt the love of God, the approval of God as I expressed my love to him through the music and my heart engagement to him! Very amazing! There were few glitches in the playing and Ee lee and I collaborated very well! It was so different from our practice time! I enjoyed the time of praise and worship tremendously!

LIVE FOR THE AUDIENCE OF ONE! — Our loving God!

a good reminder

Today was quite interesting, there was someone who talked to me on MSN, someone whom I do not really know! He was asking me quite a few good questions which serve us a good reminder for me!

After telling him that I am now in Chile, doing missions here. He asked me what does one do on the missions field.

I told him that basically in missions, it is about spreading the love of God, helping people to encounter God through His truths in the bible, and also to care for them.

He then asked me: what is my priority as I do missions? is it the third reason? He said that it should better be the third reason. He said that it is important to show unconditional love to the people around us because God loves people!

After asking a few more questions from him (e.g. what was my core values in life, what is the difference between Christianity and Catholicism), he commented that from my tone, it seems that I am more interested to spread the message of God than to help people!

I was quite indignant because I felt that there is nothing wrong with wanting to spread the news of God because I strongly believe that the good news is the best thing that happened to me and I know that Jesus is the solution to every mankind. I may be able to give money to help people, and I may be able to do kind deeds to help them, but ultimately they would only be truly satisfied when they have a close and living relationship with God! All of us are created to be with God!

After the conversation, I was pondering about my reaction and I think that I should be thankful that I have been reminded that in missions, it is ALL ABOUT LOVE! I remembered my ex-shepherd, Meiyan sharing to this teaching ALL ABOUT LOVE even before I had my first sheep! Thank God for the reminder to base what I do on LOVE! Apostle Paul also said that without LOVE, we are really nothing! I pray that the Lord will help me to always remember to love people in Chile, to be interested in their lives, to inspire them through my life to follow after God and to have a close relationship with Him! Help me O Lord to be a salt and light in this land!

Time flies…

It is nearly the end of the week again! haha… Ee lee and I always lament over the speed at which time flies! It is like we just started the week and suddenly it is over again! Thank God for the words in the bible that say outwardly we are wasting away, but inwardly we are daily being renewed!

There are many things to give thanks to God for this week!!! Thank God for the students that I met this week at my institute. I think my students are all very interesting people, each of them with their unique background and stories! There is one who likes to tell me about his big and strong family ties, another one who likes to talk about his new office in Valparaiso, another one who is the most interesting…cos he doesn’t like to follow the syllabus, but prefers to chit chat! Jaja..time passed very fast during his class, and he shared many interesting facts about Chile with me too, about the political parties, about the economy here, about HR strategies (because he is a HR manager)…

Although I do not have many classes in the institute, I treasure the times that I can get to meet with the people here, to learn about their culture, their thinking, their jobs, their lives… However, I hope to have more classes, so that I can earn more to substain myself here and also to meet more new people! I pray that God would use me to be a salt and light to the people around me! I can be an instrument of joy and encouragement to them as well!

This week, we had the chance to meet some people for follow up! I just came back from a meet up with a friend. It was very wonderful to hear about her story of how God reminded her to read the bible! What happened is that she used to keep her bible at the bottom shelf of her night desk, but her 2 year old daughter would take it out and then bring it to her every night since one month ago! Whenever she placed it back to the bottom shelf, her daughter would once again take it out and pass it to her! Thus, she decided to place it on top of the shelf instead and to read it at least once every two days! So cool! Ha, I think God uses anyone/anything (even a two year old) to remind us the importance of his words! Her story encourages me that God is constantly at work to bring us back to him and his promises in the bible! I am assured that God is at work in her heart!

She also shared that she would pray with her daughter almost every night. We also took the opportunity to share with her on what she can pray for in the book of Matthew, chapter 6, the Lord’s prayer! Ha, with my limited spanish, together with a mixture of English…It was a wonderful experience to be able to share with others about God’s words, in a different language! However, I truly hope to be better in my spanish, so that I could use the heart language of the people to share forth God’s words!

Woh…tomorrow I have a class at 7.30 am, I should go and zzzz…chao chao!

Our new family member… coco

Ha… a trophy in hand? Nope, that is our new dog, Coco! Ha, cos she is a female puppy, our chilean brothers and sisters in church suggested that she can be called Coca (because in spanish, feminine names usually ends with A). She is naughtier by the day, ha, she used to be quite timid, but now she is very energetic and always tries to come into the house! So, we would always tell her “OUT”! Haha… Today, she did something really smart! I was in the office upstairs, and suddenly she appeared! Wah.. she  actually came into the house and found her way up the stairs! Smart!

Yesterday, I accidentally stepped onto one of her paws! Ouch! She is always running very close to us, and sigh…so it is just so easy to step onto her! Not that I am making excuses! Ha, she has to learn not to come too close man! She was very cute, she went to Christine and Ee lee to show them her injured paw, by lifting it up, and cried pitifully! Man, I really felt so bad!  Well, think just have to be careful not to step on her again!

We were trying to teach her some tricks and manners! Well… more of Shawn trying to teach her! Ha, I don’t have any experience. Shawn got her to stay, then asked her to come and then sit! When she managed to do it, he will feed her with food! That is called conditioning, I think… to attach a reward to a desired behaviour we want her to learn.

It is interesting to have a dog! I have never had an opportunity to do that in Singapore! Well, she is quite a good destressing companion, always welcoming you when you get home! I used to be afraid of dogs (I think cos my mum is afraid of dogs… so it is passed down to me!) Actually, they are not so fearful after all! I think after getting in contact with Nicholas’ dog, when I was in Singapore helped me to overcome a bit of that fear! When Coco came, ha, I think she is so cute that my fear for dogs has been greatly subsided! Probably, the bigger size dogs, but small dogs like Coco…No FEAR!

Before we got Coco, we had discussions on what are the other options we have… the other breed of dogs. As a result, I get to know more about dogs, the diffferent types of dogs available! Not bad, learnt something new!

Wow…the first song I penned down!

Psalm 46:10

A song inspired by the Lord! The first one that I wrote!

Be still and know that He is God, the king of Kings of all.
Be strong for the presence of God, the Lord of Lords is here.
Be still, be strong, be still, be strong!

Ok…that is it! Very simple song that God has inspired me to write down when I was preparing for a sharing for caregroup! Let me write down that date so that I can remember it – Wednesday, 15th April! (Haha, on the day of my friend Puisee’s birthday! Umm… Puisee, maybe this song is for you? Haha…)

As I was preparing for the sharing, which is on the topic of worship on 15th April, I closed the door to the room downstairs! There in that room, the Lord inspired a tune in me, and then there was the lyrics. I did some slight changes to it to make it directly from Psalm 46:10 for this first line! So this song would be entitled Psalm 46:10. It was such an amazing experience for God to inspire tunes and lyrics together! Oh ya, and just before caregroup, I was thinking… umm, well don’t I put some chords so that I can play it during my sharing rather than just singing. So guess what, I just started to fill in the chords and then try to figure out how to improve a bit and DA DA! The song with the chords is OUT! This is something that I can never do before! Really by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I think the Lord really wants the people to hear this song and definitely also to encourage me! AHHHHHHH!!!

How can something so wonderful happen to me? Ha, as I was bathing just now…God also inspired another song, it goes something like that, I am fearfully and wonderfully made by you! I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made by you! Your works are wonderful, and I know that fully well! – inspired by Psalm 139:14! (haha, I will try to upload the song with the tune! Otherwise, hehe..just imagine it sounds very nice! Muahahaha!)

Ha, praise the Lord… this is truly a fantastic way of remembering God’s words! Through songs!

Lord, I pray that more songs would be inspired by you! Teach me to worship you in Spirit and in truth – John 4:23

Segunda cancion

This song is entitled: “The great commission, Matt 28:18-20

Hear the words of Jesus Christ when he gave us the Great Commission:
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations
Baptising them in the name of the Father, of the Son and Holy Spirit
teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you

Then he said: Surely I am with you always
to the end of the age.
And surely I am with you always
to the very end of the age

And I say: I’ll go and make disciples of all nations
where you send me, surely I will go
And I sing, Here I am, send me (x3)

 

This song is again being produced in the same room (here we named in Malaysia Room, one of the two classrooms we have in the house.) Here the Lord has enabled me to make music to him DE NUEVO! GRACIAS A DIOS! It is truly fun to make music to proclaim the word of God! I pray that I would continue to put a tune to the word of God!

mi tecera cancion

Praise the Lord! Today we prayed for one friend to recive the lord Jesus into his life! In front of a cross stature at San Cristobal hill!

This inspires me to write another song!

Salvation! Acts 4:12
Salvation is found in no one else, but Jesus Christ
for there is no other name under heaven
given to men by which we must be saved

Chorus:
Call upon the name of the Lord oh
Call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.
When one soul is saved, the heaven rejoices!
When Milton is saved, the heaven rejoices!
Hallelujah!

Ok… one can replace the name of the new brother or sister in the last line of the song! To praise God when someone comes to receive the Lord Jesus Christ and is saved!

An amazing Friday

Thank God for last Friday! We had 9 visitors who came for the caregroup and also two of our regulars! Thank God for the good turn out! Pray that they had been touched by the message being shared and would find it relevant in their lives! Thank God for Estela who was so enthusiatic to share about the importance of coming into the presence of God to listen to His words regularly to two of our visitors! Walter did a fantastic job translating the message for Shawn! Praise the Lord!

We had a sushi feast during the caregroup time! It was a great time of making the sushi and eating them as we were cutting them! Jaja… oh ya, think for some of the visitors, it was their first time trying out sushi!