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re. the My Hope Singapore Project.
The national coordinator for this Project has invited friends to his house alr. Below is a recollection of his account
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ
I share this primarily to give encouragement to everyone involve in the My Hope Singapore project and to give all glory to God for his goodness and faithfulness.
I was to be away for a men’s retreat from 21st to 23rd Nov. But before I left, my wife told me that she had arranged for 4 of her Filipina ex-colleagues from a music school to come by to our home on the 23rd evening for dinner. She would like to show the Tagalog prog and run a My Hope party because one of the Filipina friend was going to go back to the Philippines on 1 Dec and so we cannot wait for the launch date. I agreed and made sure that my wife filled up the prayer card for me to bring along so I can pray for them while I was on my retreat. I had only met one of the 4 friends before.
I reached home on the 23rd evening and was told by my wife that one of the Filipina couldn’t make it but another Chinese lady was coming instead. I was a little bit concerned whether I should still screen the Tagalog prog. During the dinner, I found out that 1 of the Filipina lady was already a believer and her church was also involved in My Hope.
Because, they were all ladies and English speaking, I finally decided instead to screen the “True Prosperity” English prog (Olivia Tay’s testimony – sample copy only with sound not smoothened out yet). After they watched it, I started to share my short testimony (like we were taught) and at the end I invited them to receive Jesus. There was silence and no reaction from anyone. As I sat there looking at them, I could sense something stirring in my heart that gave me a prompting that I must try again. I press on and took out the “My Decision” brochure. I gave a brochure to each of them and then explain how God created us perfect but because of sin we are separated from Him and how Jesus is the only way to be reconciled to God.
I ended by saying that we only need to pray a simple prayer to receive Jesus into our lives and asked if thay would like to pray this prayer. One of them raised up her hand immediately. I turn to look at another girl and she nodded her head. I then turned to the Chinese lady and she said “I think I would like to give it a try” and she nodded her head. I then ask them to repeat the sinners prayer with me and while they were praying 2 of them cried. I was trying very hard to hold back my own emotions….
Friends, let me confess that even though I am the so-called “National Coordinator” of the My Hope Singapore project, I am no less immuned to doubts and fears that assailed us all and I too worry about what is going to happen when I host such parties. But praise be to God, just by being obedient to act in faith, I was privileged to lead 3 sisters to the Lord Jesus Christ. In my 20 years as a Christian I have only led 1 brother to Chirst. My score has improved 300% in one night. Hallelujah.. ……… All glory to God indeed.
Mrs Matthew’s testimony (from my wife Eileen)
- No need to be overly concerned about food – Select dishes which can be prepared beforehand, so as to have time for other things and prayer.
- The house need not be in perfect tidiness – It was one of my busiest weekend with Chee Onn’s absence. So I did not have much time to tidy up the house.
- No need to be too concerned about the DVD and story details – The Holy Spirit works in miraculous ways in convicting the hearts even when the program is not perfect.
- Be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading – we decided to switch to an English DVD instead of the intended Tagalog show when the unexpected Chinese guest showed up.
- Rally for prayer support for the party – Our BGEA colleagues and my pastor were praying for the party.
- When inviting guests to receive Christ, stating that they only need to say a simple prayer to receive Him helps pre-believers understand better what is expected of them.
Friends, you can still be a part of My Hope Singapore. Just obey the call to rise up and trust God for the outcome. There is a harvest that God has prepared. Without the workers they may not be brought into the Kingdom. Don’t hesitate anymore. Together we can make a difference and bring in the harvest….. .
Yours humbly
Chee Onn
You can go to this website to find out more about the MyHope Singapore project:
http://www.myhope.com.sg/myhopesg/index2.html
What do students struggle with nowadays? What do they wish were a part of their life? How do they view God? And very importantly, are there students out there who would like to know more about God?
The Student Venture staff decided that instead of just thinking about it, it would be better to go to the streets to find out and that’s what we did.
For the past 2 months, we went to several locations like the Plaza Singapore, Tampines mall to hear from the students. Many were in the midst of exams but still they were willing to participate in our surveys/questioning. From our findings, we found out that many students wanted freedom and wished they had more time with their family and friends. Earning money and traveling abroad were also among the top wishes from many of them. But more importantly, we found many who could describe vaguely who God is and wanted to know more about God.
There have been many testimonies of how we were able to bring the gospel to share with students who were interested to find out more.
Below is a testimony from one of the SV staff, Geraldine:
20th August (Wednesday)
After last week witnessing at Plaza Sing, I really hope that there will be opportunity (for me) to share the gospel to the students I met. We have been using Soularium (a new evangelistic tool where it uses pictures to start conversations) and it was very good in engaging students in meaningful conversations. It’s amazing
how they open up to share about their life and dreams they have.
However, the difficulty I had was, how do I transit from their sharing and share to them about Jesus?
I was reminded this week that God is an all-knowing God and has a greater plan in reaching to his lost children. I managed to share the gospel not just once but twice! And one of them, a RGS girl, even prayed to invite Jesus into her life. It was really amazing to see how God had prepared her and I was able to bring her to know Jesus.
Looking back at my second sharing of the gospel, I was amazed at how God brought a girl who was so open to my path again. Jeanette (a graduated SV student volunteer) and I did the questions in the Soularium with a CHIJ girl, and we were suprised to learn that she was actually looking for answers to religion at
this point in her life! We were really encouraged! Encouraged that she was so hungry to know more and also
encouraged to see how God has led us to talk to herself and her friend.
Another testimony by another SV staff, Esther:
10th September (Wednesday)
Met 2 sec 1 girls from Singapore Sports School today outside Plaza Singapura. 1 is a Christian, the other is a Thai mixed blood who received Christ today! After we went through the “Soularium”, the set of 50 photos to open the conversation with them, Geraldine and I decided to share the “What You see is not all you get” aka 4 Spiritual Laws booklet with them.
As I was sharing with them I felt the tension between having to assure the Christian of her salvation and the other how to receive Christ. But in the end, the girl still received Christ! They also agreed to find out more about Christianity, so I will be thinking of ways to follow-up with them through e-mail.
In total, we have surveyed with about 100 students and it has been a great journey to find out so many things about the students and also to be able to tell them something more about God. Though not all may invite Jesus into their lives, but we believe God has planted a seed into their lives.
Using Soularium to find out what students wish
We are still currently doing this project. If you are interested to join us, drop us an email and we will let you know when and where we are going next! 
“So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:6-7 (ESV)
What does it mean to “walk by faith, not by sight”? God is someone whom we cannot see with our eyes, feel or touch with our hands, hear with our ears. Yet we still believe Him. We still place our faith in Him. The author of Hebrews defined faith as “…the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Heb 11:1)
How often have you felt like shouting at God, “Show yourself to me!”? How often have we neglected Him just because we can’t see Him? How many times have we felt like giving up following Him because He isn’t in a physical form? I have. Many times. But God has revealed Himself to me over and over again. Though not in a physical manner, like some strange, supernatural face-to-face encounter with God, but all the evidence in each circumstance points me back to God. And so we are always of good courage, because of the assurance that God is with us.
So, what will it be for you? Will you put your faith in God whom you cannot see? Or does your faith depend on what you can see from or of God?
Just last Saturday SV had our very own Cafe E! What’s that? Well, it was an evangelistic event held in a cafe (bubble tea shop). And the theme was “Am I loved?”
Our original plan was to have an interactive time over games, a testimony and a short clip from “Aladdin” about the issue of self-worth and significance. So we gave out postcards and trusted God to bring 30 students to the event. We called up students from RI, RGS, NYGH and HCI but in the end, none turned up due to prior commitments and CCAs.
We had already booked the place, ordered the food, got helpers to come down. Since none of our contacts are able to come, we decided not to let all these go to waste and invited
secondary school students who were in that area to join us. We managed to invite 11 sec 4 girls from Crescent Girl’s School. We carried out our plan and here’s what some of the girls said:
“Interacting; got to know more people who are really nice and have been through what we have too.”
“fun and motivational”
We didn’t get to share the full gospel with them but they were a testimony of God’s provision. And we hope to be able to see them again.
Special thanks to Joseph, Yvonne, Silin, Qingwen, Ivan and Chin Ai for coming down. You guys have been a great help to us!
Last weekend (21-22 Sep) we had Connect Conference, a joint event with The Navigators.
The programme started on Friday night with a time of worship, led by a band comprised of Forerunner volunteers. And then we had the privilege of hearing God’s word through Rev Edmund Chan.
On Saturday we heard more from Rev Edmund Chan in the morning and Rev Wee Boon Hup in the evening. Afternoons we had workshops.
Here’s what one SV student (Annabel) had to say after the conference:
One thing that happened to me (or should I say one thing that I chose to let happen to me?) during Connect Conference was a re-reminder and re-calling to give my life to God, fully. It was a time of re-discovery of God’s love for me and His purposes for my life. And nothing beats knowing that I guess (:
Something that Rev Edmund Chan (one of the speakers) highlighted was that the gospel that we preach is not the gospel of salvation (believe and you will be saved) but rather the gospel of the kingdom (obedience – to God, because He loves us – that comes by faith) [Romans 1:5]. This reminded me that we are not only to tell people about God through proclaiming the gospel with our lips but with our deeds/actions as well.
Rev Edmund Chan also spoke of the need to give our life fully to God. In his words, “It is easy to ask God to change us, because we all want to be better people. But what is hard is to ask God to change us totally.” (a relevant passage about life change would be Philippians 3:7-11). This was what convicted me to once more give my life wholly to God (cos I had been holding bits and pieces back after deciding to give it to Him) and entrust Him to change me totally. Yeah. Would like to encourage you all to do so too, and trust God to keep you running and striving for Him! (:
I enjoyed the entire process of planning the outing as well as the actual day itself. Even though many of us did not really know one another, we came together as brothers and sisters in Christ and had a day of fun and laughter, through games, singspiration and sharing. I got to know more people better through this and enjoyed the time of fellowship. I also saw that I was part of a bigger mission, working alongside other christians, being trained for God’s work and spreading His Name; it added colour and a sense of purpose to the usual DG sessions and home gatherings. I definitely hope there will be future outings for more of us to come together, unified in Christ.
love,
Sophia
The hot n blistering Saturday morning saw a group of fellows enthusiastically trekking the dangerous roads of Singapore, led by the daredevil Geraldine. In spite of the furious speed at which the vehicles zoomed past us, she led us through it all with gusto and little sweat(just kidding, it’s a hot day rmb!), what a journey!
We played icebreakers and got to know each other better. We have a musical prodigy among us who is well-versed in more than 5 instruments!!! N we have a lazy kid who hates to exercise! Haha! Last but not least, we have an artist who is more than happy to exhibit her talents by vandalizing the arms of the innocents…
But more importantly, it was a time to connect with fellow Christians! A wonderful time spent together with people of similar faith, people who you know you can trust to converse with intellectually, spiritually and casually. I look forward to the next outing, and hopefully the sun will have mercy on us mortals n not leave us with sunburns!
Speechlessly yours,
Andre
