The personal God who loves all - Philippine II

This is a different approach from my last write up on the Evangelism Campaign I am on as it is more of a personal account of what has taken place for myself in Bohol as I have got more time for personal evangelism. However, the Lord has been good as doors were open for the 1st time on Bohol for class room evangelism. 2nd stop - Bohol!

21 Jul, Mon
I managed to speak with the driver who was driving us around for the first 2 days. To begin with, we prayed for his Salvation and half way through the journey, I got to sit besides him and started to talk to him about God. Our conversation was cut off as we had to buy lunch. After lunch, I managed to catch up on where we left the conversation and God is always good as the driver made a profession in our Lord Jesus Christ.

22 Jul, Tue
Our amplifier broke down due to our carelessness but the Lord is good as He showed Himself strong by providing us with another amplifier. This is the night where we see the mass evangelism packed to the brim for the movie night and many entering into the Kingdom of God!

23 Jul, Wed
The Lord lead me to talk to a waitress who served us dinner and I found out that she is a Pastor's daughter. She has been discouraged by some events and people which many of us find ourselves in at times. God was gracious as He used me to be an encourage to this sister-in-Christ. In the midst of encouraging her, I am reminded that I too need to fix my eyes on the Lord regardless of the circumstances.

24 Jul, Thu
My knee started to sore on me due to certain reason and the fatigue was running in. I didn't managed to do much but God is still good as I managed to talk to 1 guy and 2 gals respectively. It is always a honour to be able to do personal or to a smaller group evangelism as joy will fill your heart upon seeing their eyes light up after they received the Lord as their Saviour.

25 Jul, Fri
I didn't managed to do much today as well as I had to go extend my visa in the afternoon. However, the Lord is good once again as He led me to this girl who had wanted to join our Gospel night but couldn't make it as she is staying rather far away. She is definitely seeking and had wanted to know the truth hidden behind the traditions in which she is brought up in this country. Immediately after accepting Christ into her heart, her face light up with appreciation as she tells me, "Thank you". The truth indeed will set us free!

26 Jul, Sat
I went into a classroom by the invitation of the students as their teacher had not arrived yet. Half way through the sharing he came and I asked him for permission to continue. He graciously allowed me to continue and even joined in to listen to the Gospel. He too chose to depend solely on our Lord Jesus!

In the midst of another sharing, at the end of the invitation, a teacher came and wanted to stop it all. By the hands of God, I managed to round it up at the right timing and only to find out about this incident after we left the school.

Our God is a Sovereign God!!!

27 Jul, Sun
We said our "Goodbyes" to the SMCI and their Uth group in Bohol as we headed to Cebu. If there is anything I can say about this Uth group, it is passion! Without passion, we will just continue to be luke warm and not be able to excel for the Lord! Continue to keep this Uth group in prayer!

In Bohol:
Number of souls who heard the Gospel: 8,640
Number of souls who trusted Jesus: 6,219

Total Number of souls who heard the Gospel thus far: 24,032
Total Number of souls who trusted Jesus thus far: 17,437

Half the team has left us on Saturday. We are taking a 2 days break today and tomorrow from the campaign before we start work in Cebu followed by Leyte and Davao.

Prayer Request:
a) Recovery for Yu Fei down with fever
b) Recovery for Jeremy down with cough
c) Recovery for PM down who just hurt his toe today
d) Recovery for myself as I am down with a headache as I am writing this

Continue to keep the whole team in prayer especially for strength and good health. Will try my best to keep you updated next week.

The Faithfulness of God - Philippine I

I am at Philippine now on an Evangelistic Campaign with a team of soul winners to proclaim the Gospel - the Good News that our Lord Jesus loves you and He wants to have a relationship with you! My 1st stop - Negros!

13 Jul, Mon
We prayed for rain in 1 of the Campus because we needed them to go to the shelter as their cleaning up of the school compound schedule was changed from last Friday today due to the heavy rain. God answered our prayer immediately after we prayed - raindrops just started falling from the gates of heaven!

14 Jul, Tue
1 of the bridge that was washed out due to the rain last Friday and it usually take longer than usual to fixed the bridge which will result in a longer travelling time. But God is good as it was fixed and fit for travelling and thus, we had a shorter travelling time!

15 Jul, Wed
We see more than 3,000 souls making a profession for Christ as the Gospel was preached to around 4,000 souls! Pentecost?

16 Jul, Thu
The Gospel campaign night was packed up to the brim at the last moment which God once again showed Himself strong as it was expected to be a night of low attendances as the next day, the school was in preparation for a major event!

17 Jul, Fri
Saudi, a guy who we spoke to last year appeared and we had a heart to heart talk with him. Do pray that he will be able to break free from the bondage of sin that he is in and that he will be able to trust the Lord whole heartedly with his life.

18 Jul, Sat
We had opposition form 1 of the school for our mass Evangelism campaign. We prayed and once again, the Lord opened the door! At the other campaign, it started to drizzle a little but we prayed, and once again God holds back the rain so that the Good News can be preached!

19 Jul, Sun
We got on the ferry which was supposed to be on servicing. Without the ferry, we would have to do a midnight ferry or take a 8 hour bus ride on Saturday to our next destination. Once again, God is just faithful and so good to us!In Negros:
Total Number of souls who heard the Gospel thus far: 15,372
Total Number of souls who trusted Jesus thus far: 11,218

This week, God is good to us as we see how He shows us miracles after miracles and most importantly, that He loves the people in Philippine which is why He did what we asked of Him!

I am currently in Bohol, do continue to keep us in prayer as we continue to share the Good News to a harvest wide and ready!

Recap – The 1st of July

“Yesterday marks the end of half a year. Today marks the beginning to the end of the year. Is life all there is to what we see of it?”

Date: 1st July 2007, 12:22am

It is approximately 1 and a half hour when I started writing this journal in which the last day of half a year will pass. Like the saying goes - times really flies! Just another half a year more and we will bid this year goodbye and welcome another brand new year. Half a year consist of 184 days which is 4,416 hours which is 264,960 minutes which is also 15,987,600 seconds. That's a lot of seconds if you look at the figures but seconds are just like the air we breathe; the air which our hands are unable to grasp; the air that will just slip us by.

How will you like to live this 2nd half of the year then?

I have come to realise that through the past few years whatever I have achieved in life such as how I managed to move up with the ranks on the corporate ladder of my career or the few relationships I have been through or etc. I have never been able to solve the mystery of the heart. Thus, returning back to ground zero once again. To the origin and beginning in a search for what lies in life itself? Where will it lead to? What is the meaning to it? What is the purpose of it all?

After writing this, I might again bury myself in the midst of the busy and hectic schedule in this little city. However, I am sure this will come and hunt me again. For I have been running away from this for years only to find myself returning to pose the same questions over and over again. Perhaps I do know the answer but am just unwilling to conform to it. Human nature, we just want our ways, don't we?

Sometimes, we just have to get ourselves slap in the face in order to reckon the truth and answer which we have already know since a long time ago. We just choose to ignore or to find a thousand and one reasons there are to put away what we should do. Because we like to think we are wise enough to know what is right or good for us. Or maybe we are just pure wilful? Will I finally be able to put an end to the merry-go-rounds which I have been running about? I am not sure but I guess it is time. This time, hopefully I will submit my heart to put things right and will it in the direction it should go.

The Last Day of June... the Last Day to which Half a Year will be gone... How will you want to live the next half to the year? How will you want to live this life from this second on? For the minutes and seconds of the First Day of the second half of the year has started to tickle away...

Date: 1st July 2009, 10:10pm

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. James 4:13-14

I would love to continue on what exactly happened a year later but this entry will be far way too long. Thus, I should leave you with an ending question:

Have you ever felt the same way like what I have written 2 years ago?

(If yes, I will greatly encourage you to continue to my previous entry which is just below – “Life’s Answer” and please read on)

Life's Answer - Because You love me

“Ever felt lost in life and unsure of where you are heading?”

Well, you don’t have to be suicidal to wonder if your life is worth living. You don’t have to be deep in debt to feel bankrupt. You don’t have to be locked behind bars to be imprisoned by your own desire. You don’t have to be walking down the streets to sell your body to others. You don’t have to be a millionaire to be in bondage to the love of money. You don’t have to be living in the garbage to think that life stinks. You don’t have to be homeless to feel lost and out of place in this world. At one point or another in our life, everyone – rich or poor – struggles with the meaning of life!

The above is an extract of what I read which is very true as this has been a month through the connectivity and the power of internet network in which I saw friends struggling in the search for meaning and purpose of life.

The reason why we are so connected in this day and this age is also because of loneliness and we try to fill this loneliness in whatever ways possible but failed again and again. There is this God-shaped hole in everyone’s heart because we are made to have a desire to know the One who made us. We want to discover the purpose He has for our existence in this big world we are living in. We might try to deny against having this loneliness or emptiness but it will only surface again and again. Just asked yourself how many times have you feel more miserable after a short time of temporal time of craziness and fun? This is because this is a “loneliness” for God and can only be filled by having a relationship with Him.

I am going to leave you with this song which I wrote on the exact same date last year:

Because You love me

I was lost and wandering
What am I doing?
What’s life is all about?

My heart feels empty
With lots of maybe
With darkness all around

Then You came and save me
Reach out Your hand, and show me how You love me
You give me hope to live again
You died for me, because You love me

Now You’re all I am, for who You are
Cause You made me who I am
You’re all to me, and You set me free
Cause You gave Your life, and now You live in me

And I was asking
Where I’m going?
Not knowing you are just around

When life seems nothing
Without a meaning
You show me what it’s all about

Cause You came and save me
Reach out Your hand, and show me that You love me
You give me hope to live again
You died for me, because You love me

Now You’re all I am, for who You are
Cause You made me who I am
You’re all to me, and You set me free
Cause You gave Your life, and now You live in me

Now You’re all I am, for what You’ve done
Because of what You’ve done, I am Yours
You’re who I am, cause You live in me
Your life You gave, so that I will live, a life of love in You

So that I will live, a life of love in You
Jesus, I will live, a life of love in You
Jesus, I will live, a life of love in You

Lyric / Composer: Rei

Then Jesus said to them, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10b

God loves us and He wants to have a relationship with us. He also desires that we can have a rich and satisfying life in the plan He has for us. But only by knowing Him who has created us, are we able to know the plan He has for us.

If you are interested in finding out how you can have a relationship with God, you can either contact Me or click on the link on Left Side – “two ways to live: the choice we face”.

Now a choice is set before you now...

Choose life, that you might live,

the life that He gives!

define LOVE

“Just like the teddy bear lying on the sea shore, so are the view of True Love slowly disdain with time by the views and deceits of the world.”

“… and they live happily ever after.”

This is the common ending of the fairy tale stories which we have read so many times in childhood after the prince having overcome many obstacles finally was able to save the princess destined to him from the hands of the evil ones. This is also the ending which many when in their marriage have desired to accomplish once they finally ring the wedding bells but I have seen many of my friends ended otherwise. So, what exactly went wrong?

I used to conclude in the younger days of my observation that the generation of this age no longer knows how to love. Or should I say we perhaps love ourselves more than anyone else which results in many failed marriages. Love is the essential key in a marriage. It is not only the essential key in marriage but also the key to all kind of relationships in life.

“And though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.” I Cor 13:2b

If love is the essential key to marriage, why is it that so many have failed to love then? Perhaps it is because we have a disillusion of what love is all about? We have been reading too many romance written by great novelists be it the present or of the past into having a wrong expectation of an experiential life about love. Even authors of the past have confirmed this truth in their writings:

“Writers of novels and romance in general bring a double loss to their readers; robbing them of their time and money; representing men, manners, and things, that never have been, or are likely to be.”
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 1689-1762
British Society Figure, Letter Writer

“And what's romance? It is a usually a nice little tale in which you have everything as you like it. In which rain never wets your jacket and gnats never bite your nose and it's always daisy-time.”
D.H. Lawrence, 1885-1930
British Author

We have been greatly duped by the screens we have been watching and have mistaken love to be even lust just to please ourselves for a moment of the pleasure which will only lead to further emptiness and disgust in life. TV drama series and movies of this age has only brought more pollutions to our mind sending the message that it no longer matters if relationship can be taken lightly all for the sake of fun or one can just betray one’s partner due to the consummation of the selfish desires within. And believe me, the list can just go on and on of what we have mistook love for.

So, why don’t we look at what is LOVE then?

“Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” I Cor 13:4–8

This is the best expression of love and to cut the explanation short, the opposite of what is written of the above is definitely not the definition of love. However, one may question, “How can we be able to love as what is written above then?” The truth is we CAN’T. Not till we have developed a relationship with the Author of the above. It will only be by knowing the Author then will we be able to have a better understand of what the Author is writing about. Make sense?

The Author is none other than God Himself in which He has chose to reveal His love towards us with the Bible.

“Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” John 15:13

Jesus Christ has demonstrated this love towards us when He came to this world 2000 years ago and demonstrated this SELFLESS LOVE towards us by laying down His life for us on the cross so we can enter into a relationship with Him! Have anyone ever done that for you?

He sure did!

Thus, if you so desire to truly love as He has loved us, why not come to a personal relationship with Him so that He can teach you how to love?

Looking Beyond

“The frog said to the other frog in the well, ‘We have the biggest reservoir in the world!!!’. But it is only because all the water that they have ever seen is the one they are living in.” Rei

4pm – I was struggling if I ought to continue with the topic which I had wanted to write since the week before but yet just couldn’t find my brain and fingers working well with it. Took a 15 seconds time out, said a little prayer and here I am writing on the contrast of the lives of people just by reading the paper today.

I read with much regrets how the ex-president of Seoul had committed suicide due to corruption scandal involving his family and how the police might put charges of fraud against him. How this man had put in “tireless effort “ for the country in the past years and retired last year in the rural home town only to commit himself to such an end.

I also read with sadness about the state of Colombo where houses were shattered, vehicles fell to its side or overturned due to the shelling of the warfare between the government and the rebels. The result of the war in which at least 7,000 were killed and at least 300,000 people living in refugee camp which people are staying in tents.

Then I read of how our government is putting in $68 millions boost for the students. How the government is aiding families with kids still going to school to cope with the recession which has hit globally. How blessed!

The contrast between the 1st and 2nd account – there are people who are fighting to survive and yet there are people who simply take their lives. Some people take their lives out of the pressure they created in it and some out of purely the root reason of the emptiness of live.

The contrast between the 2nd and the 3rd account – While other people are suffering in a condition beyond our imagination, there are also people who are ignorance of how blessed we are in a condition that people can never imagine.

I am not making comparison here but am challenging all of us (myself included) to look beyond being the frog in a little well that we might be in.

It is simply because of how blessed we are that we sometimes no longer count our blessings. We take it for granted that there will always be enough food and go on wasting it out of the abundance. Sometimes, do we not buy things not out of necessity but just out of “wants” or maybe it is just “cheap” to us?

“Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.” Luke 12:15

It might be because we are living in a country of access, we are never satisfied with abundance that we have. Or maybe it is because of our upbringing, due to the competitiveness of the system, we have developed the attitude of wanting to be better than anyone. Regardless the case, do you not realize that at the end of all that you can contained or have attained in this lifetime for yourself alone, you will not be able to bring it along with you when your time is up?

"A generous man will himself be blessd, for he shares his food with the poor." Proverbs 22:9

Will you open our eyes and look beyond where you are? Will you start to look out for all the little blessings that you might taken for granted and give thanks for it?

Will you learn to treasure the little that you have and in turn be a BLESSING to others by sharing with them what you have instead of wasting it unneccessarily?

What are You Living for?

“Just as the number in age goes up and never comes down. So it is with TIME. It slips us by and never returned. Are you too busy for the wrong reason?” Rei


3rd of May 2008, it was work as usual, but the headline on the newspaper had an impact in my heart as a Cyclone had hit Myanmar the previous day in which we saw many thousands dead, homeless or helpless. Perhaps then even as I can recall now, I have tried to live life as it is just by following up with the news and having a sense of sympathy for the people. But on the 12th of May, the plates of the earth moved again. This time it is China, Si Chuan. It was a horrendous sight as we see many young lives taken, homeless, disabled or orphanage due to a major Earthquake. My steps grew heavy as I stepped out of the door having read the headline with many thoughts running through. But once in the office, I had to be back to the usual self as I battled through the day once again in the corporate world of sales with a team I was leading. It was just the usual routine in which the clock ticked away late into the night with myself all exhausted, longing to be in bed and putting all my thoughts or feelings away.

The next day, as I was having lunch with one of my colleague and I asked if her husband is fine as he works in China that I came to the realization – “My dad is in China!” Yes, he is not staying with me and we don’t communicate frequently. Even so, that was not a reason for me to forget that he is in China. Shocked – I was. I remembered tears were piling up at the tip of my eyes even though I did not cry. Those tears were not because of shock, it was simply because of disappointment. Disappointment with myself as how can I forget my own dad’s where about?!? I quickly picked up the phone and tried to make contact with him but both the China and Singapore number didn’t work. It was only in the later part of the day that I managed to contact him to know that he is safe and sound and just returned to Singapore! At the end of that uneventful day, I was frustrated with myself. I had to face the question which had been asking me for the past 2 months or should I say be avoiding for the past 2 years or more – “What am I doing with my life?”

As the news of the tragedy continued to escalate, at the end of the month – I left my job (I have state clearly that this is not the main reason why I left my job then though it did play a part of it). It is not that my boss doesn’t pay me well. In fact, I must say I must be thankful for the salary given as it almost doubled my previous employment (not to mention I still had commission and bonuses). Within a short period of corporate working experience and with the qualification I possess, I must say I went up the corporate ladder rather fast to attain the position I was at and I was thankful for it. But it was also clear to me that I know how I have chose to allow myself to be robbed of the time and energy in things which I know one fine day, will just be of no value and vanished away. Was it worth it all then? In addition, have I become a salve to money or follower of the trends of the world? Isn’t there a more meaningful way in which I can devote myself in?

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that we have to quit our job or it is not good to work. In fact, we are made to work! We should also give of our best at work but work should not be all that there is in life. We do not live only to work! It is the balance we have to attain that matters. Is your work getting so overwhelming that your mind thinks only about work? Is all your time so consume with work that you have time for nothing else? If it is, it is a major out of balance! It will be good for you to question about the motivation in which you are working for? It is perhaps good to take time and sit down and re-evaluate your life. I am not cursing you but think with me. At death bed, is work all you want to recall at the final moment of life? Are you going to regret over the people you have failed to treasure more?

You have to remember that all that you can attained, be it wealth or accomplishments or recognition or success cannot be brought along with you when it is time to depart from this world. In this world that we are living in, it is so often said, “Time is money”. Time is indeed the greatest commodity in our hands because it can never be reverse.

“See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:15,16

How can you spend time more meaningfully then? Would you then invest your time more wisely in the light of eternity?