FOR THOSE ATTENDING WORD FOR LIFE, NEW TESTAMENT SURVEY CLASS

Please click the following to download the teaching material:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/k5jb86

This 21st September 2008, Hope of God Kuala Lumpur has turned 15 years old. Starting as a child through a few humble pioneers, today Hope of God Kuala Lumpur has become a vibrant teenager with several centres in the Klang Valley, towns and cities around Malaysia and branching to other parts of the world as well. The celebration was held at Dewan Mutiara, situated amongst the rustic-feel section of Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur. The theme for this anniversary “For Such a Time as This” was very timely in view of the many troubling events happening both locally and around the world. It was a time to celebrate and remember God’s goodness and faithfulness throughout the 15 years that this movement was established.

It was a nostalgic event as it kicked off with some slides featuring pictures of veteran Hope members; some dated back to the mid-90s.  It was a celebration of diversity with a blend of world cultures. At the start of the celebration was a dance to the song “Shalom, Shalom Alechem, Havenue Shalom” (Greetings of Peace unto You), Malaysian style with a Middle Eastern music blend. A group of African brothers and sisters from Hope Serdang gave their rendition of praise songs in three languages (Igbo, Setswana and English) with an African beat. As with much African-style music with its pulsating beats, these songs makes us feel like swaying and tapping along too. Hope of God PKC children came on stage to express praise to God through body gestures to the song “Hallelujah to the Lamb”. Indeed, it is amazing how God can work though diverse people with different background, cultures and ages.

We are certainly blessed to be part of this international movement. Thanks to technology we are able to hear greetings from Hope families and friends all over the world; from Kota Kinabalu, Singapore to even further nations such as Somata, Ibai, and Tukara. Even though we are physically distanced, we felt close to one another in heart and spirit, with the same love and vision for our Lord. We appreciate all our leaders for their love and efforts to God and His people. It was indeed their hard work to see members remain faithful for the past years. There was also an award session for members in Hope of God Movement that have joined us for 10 and more years. Each recipient is given a plaque as an appreciation of their time they spent growing with the family. It was an encouragement to see so many members who held on to the family vision.

There are still many tasks to be done in the times ahead till Christ’s return. We were once again reminded in the message to recognise our purpose and destiny in God. The sermon took on the model of Esther as an encouragement to the congregation for the coming years.  After the sermon the congregation was presented with a metaphorical multimedia, “Looking to the Future” depicting life through the different seasons. The rendition of Whitney Houston’s “When You Believe” is indeed pertinent for present times and the seasons ahead.

Overall this celebration is a tribute to our Lord who has so faithfully blessed us in so many ways throughout our time with the movement. Starting from a seed in Hope KL, it has branched out to touch many lives. We will continue to remember His blessings for the coming years. Once again we give praise to our Lord.

Reported by: Andrew Chieng (Hope PJ, WA)

Please click here to download photos

After 3 months of planning and coordinating, Hope KL Tertiary Camp had finally come to pass. With the theme of One Life, Live it to the Max! The objective of this camp is to encourage everyone to live life to the max by being excellent in all that we do. The camp committee came out with the concept of a “Boot Camp”, the reason being the fact that all comrades have to go through seriously tough training before they can join the military. As part of the army of Christ, we too need to go through strict training before we can start to fight for the advancement of the kingdom of God.

All participants were divided into 4 interesting task forces, namely the police force, the fire fighters, the air force and the navy with each team named with different country names from various regions. Besides that, unlike any of the previous tertiary camps, each team was formed based on their care group or unit from each centre. The objective of this is so that, after this camp, each care group or unit may gain greater unity and love for one another. Pastor Jeffrey and Brother Joshua from Hope Singapore, was invited to join this camp to share on how to lead an excellent life.

Indeed, God has been good in blessing this year’s tertiary camp. 8.30pm, 29th August marks the official opening of the camp as the commanders, namely Daniel and David, gathered everyone together and gave us a warm welcome. The first activity requires each team to create a 2D human figure with 3 pieces of mahjong papers. Each person within the team has to find a body part in the figure to represent him or herself and to state what their expectations are in the camp. Finally, the masterpieces: 12 colorful human figures were pasted on the doors of the hall, with different expectations stated on the paper figurines. After this “Get to Know Yourself” session, Pastor Jeffrey shared his first teaching on the subject of excellence. Day 1 officially ended around 12am.

Things get more competitive by Day 2; each team does not only need to win points through games, but marks will also be given based on their unity, teamwork, politeness to one another, cleanliness, etc. These points will be given by the warden of each team. On day 2, the first open competition is human foosball. This is a teamwork game combining 3 teams from different centres working together on the 2 large fields on the beach able to accommodate up to 72 persons per field! After this game, the next game was crab-catching. What a surprise for majority of the comrades when they found out that they had to catch crabs under the hot noon sun. Nevertheless, with much zest, everyone rushed down to the half empty sea to catch crabs. Amazingly, as this time the sea is in a low tide condition, the beach was filled with tiny crabs! There were thousands and thousands of them running around the beach to escape from the heat within the sand. Because of this, some teams managed to catch a total of 2000+ crabs within just half an hour!

In the afternoon, a more challenging activity, titled “Top Secret Loot”, a treasure hunting activity was commissioned to all teams to look for a national treasure that had been stolen by a group of pirates. In order to find this treasure, each team had to go through different challenges like doing pumping hundred times, solving hangman questions and arranging Bible books in sequence. Little did they know, the committee had planned a catch in this game. Midway through this game, some members were kidnapped by the pirates, marking the start of the next session called “Missing in Actian@MIA”. This game was not stated in the itinerary, but it was created to teach everyone the importance of friendship and teamwork. The pirates tied the victims and blindfolded each victim, then had the victims walked to the beach blindfolded. The remaining team members were to build a human pyramid in the sea to save their teammates. Through this game, the unity in each team was clearly evident as each team braved through the challenging, salty sea water and bearing the risk of being hit by the waves anytime! After this grueling session, everyone was rewarded with a much deserved 3-hour break.

Due to the taxing activities during the day, the night session were more relaxed and laid back. All teams were given an opportunity to show off their stunningly impressive costumes designed based on the country they had chosen to represent. Many had chosen to use recycled items to form their uniform and one team even creatively modified a raincoat to make it into a jumpsuit! Besides that, we also had talent time to test our acting skills and creativity. Inspired from the comedy “Whose Line Is It anyway”, each team has to come out with a storyline based on the scenarios given by the committee team. When the clock strikes 12 am, everyone gathered to sing ‘Negaraku’ (meaning, my country), to commemorate the 51st Independence Day of Malaysia. Day 2 officially ended at 12.30am with a prayer session to bless Malaysia.

The 3rd day, which happens to fall on a Sunday, was a stormy day. Nevertheless, this did not dampen the mood of the participants to attend Sunday service. In fact, there were 3 who received Christ on that day. The next activity involves a lot of running around and going from one station to another in different locations. God was good. The moment the game started, He stopped the rain and gave us the sun. The afternoon session for Day 3 was called “Command and Conquer”. 4 stations were created to cater to the 4 different professions in each team. The last activity on the last day, Day 4 was a surprise one. The committee members woke all comrades up at 5.00am in the morning and made them gather at the beach by 5.30am to build their own campfire and make their own healthy breakfast. In the dark, each team had to fulfill certain tasks to earn ingredients to make their own breakfast. Knowing that this is the last lap everyone strived for their best in the final pursuit for points. By 7.30am, each team presented their own special “secret recipe” to the panel of judges. David, the camp commander, had to brace himself to taste all the food and gave marks to each team. Indeed, it was a new experience to many, but a fun one to experience. After that, we had a session of water baptism at the beach. Praise God for the 21 who were baptized! The camp officially ended with a graduation ceremony. Each team was awarded a badge to signify they had officially passed the tests. Besides that, awards were also given to the best gamers and best-behaved teams.

Overall, the camp was a success, not so much due to the interesting programs but the profoundly evident greatness of God in our midst. What would have been a rainy season in the peninsular turns out to be glorious sunny days throughout the camp, especially during the outdoor activities. Besides that, 8 gave their lives to God and 3 rededicated themselves to God again. Many claimed that this camp had awakened them to be a better person and the realization that they need to purposefully live this one and only life they have. The unity among many groups was enhanced too. All glory and honor and strength and power belong to our Great God Almighty! Amen!

The photos can be viewed through the following link: http://picasaweb.google.com/teongseng/OneLife_Day1# 

July 16 was certainly no ordinary Sunday morning for us sisters from WA group. Well, it’s not only due to the refreshing sermon that touched our hearts that special Sunday as There’s Something About the Brothers that day that also made us go WOW!

As usual, we walked into the Sunday Service after a pre-fellowshipping at mamak and getting our hearts prepared to meet God together expecting the usual routine; welcomed and ushered, getting the bulletins and taking our favourite seats. But the brothers proved our expectations wrong as we noticed an unusual ‘air of uniformity about them’..something about the way they look that day. Well, physically, they’re still the same, but definitely a revamp has been done to their attire…

All of them were seemed to be ‘dressed to kill’ with their new, professionally dashing dress code. But what impressed us was not only this aspect, but the evident spirit of unity connecting them which enables this Dress like A True Working Adult effort a success. We found out later from them, this effort requires all brothers  to put on their best working suits every 3rd Sunday as a sign of respect to the Sunday Service.

Truly, we are impressed and these brothers really deserved a standing ovation for their effort. Praises be to them, to our Father for blessing us with this gift of unity..keep up the good work, fellow brothers and may all of us continue to stand United!
Psalm 133:1 “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!”

FOR THOSE ATTENDING WORD FOR LIFE, NEW TESTAMENT SURVEY

Please click the following to download the teaching material:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/k5jb86

What a blessed 2008 church camp! The working adult groups from various locations in Malaysia came together to meet at Selesa Resort, Bukit Tinggi in Pahang from 30 Aug to 1 Sep. Our Pastor David Chen who is from our mother church flew all the way from Bangkok to Malaysia to bless us with a sharing of his wonderful experiences with God.The first day when we arrived at the resort, our senior Pastor Simon gave us an opening sharing focusing on continuous development in our life; covering aspects such as career, personal relationships, social life, resources, spiritual life and correct thoughts. The teaching guides us on how to be an all-rounder and be the head, not the tail in the society we are in. Subsequently, we had games to test our fitness and mind. At night, Pastor David shared the importance of having personal testimonies (Revelations 12:11). He termed the personal testimony as a ‘love story’. We were not only encouraged but also had our faith lifted to a new level on his ‘love story’ of how real is God in his life and how God helped him through the many difficult challenges he faces.

The next morning, Pastor David ran through with us the information in the booklet handout. He touched on the topics of God’s love and the building of God’s house. He mentioned that the love of God in us will cause us naturally to do God’s will and to serve Him. We also had a mind and eye-opening session called “He says and She says” which addressed the issues that working adults typically face; for example, career and life partner. We were welcomed to share our point of view too and from here we can understand the differences between a male and female’s thinking and how to resolve them. The spiritual atmosphere reached the climax on the final night after praise and worship. Pastor David shared and reminded us about knowing and fulfilling our vision. Later he made an altar call to ask everyone to respond in renewing our relationship with Jesus, forgiving others, and even challenged us to venture into mission fields. Many who were there responded and prayed in eagerness. God visited us and moved our hearts wonderfully. Spiritual breakthrough came about in us and we broke forth, praising God joyfully without any heaviness in our heart. Praise God!!! Amen. We were so in vigor, praising God that we don’t even feel any tiredness or sleepiness!

On the next day, Pastor David taught an interesting topic about discipleship process. This aided us to identify any rooms for improvement and address failures in certain sub-processes of discipleship. Finally, we ended with a closing ceremony and a group photo-taking session with everyone. Later, we went back to our separate destinations, of course with heavy hearts.

and the time is coming again for us to reflect upon the journey that has brought us this far. Do join us in reminiscing and celebrating the myriad colors of HOPE that has painted that journey. Even if you’re a newbie, take this chance to find out more about our church:)

The third quarter of each year marks one of the busiest times of the year for Hope PJ’s College Group students. This is because almost every university and college is having their new intake drive at this time. As this is also the time that we are able to haul in the largest catch of “fish”, we will usually plan in advance for the kinds of activities that need to be done in order to draw them into our circle. 

This year, our leaders chose to do something different. Instead of going for street evangelism like almost every single year, our leaders came out with an amazing plan of drawing this pool of “fishes” with a competition. Hence, the “Big Fat Life” event was born. The idea behind this competition was that, as we draw these students to come and join us, it will be a good opportunity for us to build friendships as well as share Christ with them. 

So, why “Big Fat Life”? Well, as a student, we do not have a life that just put us under piles of books. In this new generation, students are more creative, and they tend to be more adventurous. It is all about whether we really live our lives to the fullest by having a big fat life! Therefore, a team of creative brother and sisters came out with the ideas to test several aspects of students’ life.  They came out with ideas to test their general knowledge, their creativity as well as their courage.  

We kicked start our event on the 2nd of August, 2008. God had been faithful along the way. He blessed us with 18 teams of participants, with 3 persons in each team. Through this event, we manage to gather 54 new friends! In order to win the RM1000 ringgit reward, the contestants will have to go through 4 sessions of challenges. Each is not without its difficulties, mind you. The contestants were led to drill their brains with really tough questions, bring out their talents through singing and dancing and they even had to face one of the fear-challenges by eating worms! 

All in all, the event was a success. Many had commented that they have had fun. Some even mentioned that they will come back and join us if we were to hold this event again next year. Now, if you ask me whether this is the greatest reward that God has given us, I would beg to differ. In fact, I would say that the icing of the cake comes after the cake has been consumed. Why do I say so?

The hands of God can be seen from the beginning of this plan. He brought together different units to work together for the success of this event. He then provided just the right amount of participants (initially, we targeted 50 teams! That would have been too large for us to handle). Besides that, He poured His favor upon us, so that the participants can click with us. After the event, the friendship continues. Many had decided to join us for our coming tertiary camp. Isn’t this marvelous? Indeed, God is faithful and wonderful. I believe that He had granted all these plans so that His name may be glorified and that His Kingdom may be advanced! Praise be to our Lord Most High!

Please go to Our Sweet Memories in our homepage for glimpses of our memorable moments

Hi, everyone, my name is Marlene. I’m from college group and currently studying nursing in Assunta College. I thank the church for giving me an opportunity to be on stage and share my testimony. Today I would like to share how God brought me back to Him and how He has blessed me in my life.

Before I share about that, allow me to let you have a glimpse of my background. Born in a Christian family, I had been staying in my auntie’s house at Melaka for quite some time since childhood. My cousin and I were regulars in the Sunday school; therefore, Christianity and Jesus are not strange for me. However, when I finished primary school, I shifted to KL back to my family. You all might assume that I would stay with my family. But no, I did not and the hostel became my home instead throughout my secondary school life in KL even right till now. During that period, my parents and I didn’t attend church because they were busy with their business and I wasn’t sure which church to go to. My life went haywire, made worse by the strained relationship with my parents. We didn’t understand each other. Whenever they gave me advice, I won’t listen to them. They put me under a strict regime during school time and limited my activities such as shopping with friends and staying overnight at their house. But the rebellious me disregarded all that and I even cheated on them. All these caused much hurt to my Mom. My studies were a mess too and I failed to get any good results. Despite all these trials, praise the Lord that He still loves me and so does my Mom. My Mom finally understood later on that perhaps school is not a suitable platform for me to further my studies and forcing me to continue with it might affect my future. Therefore I left school after SPM and continued STPM in TARC. While I was there, I started joining Christian Fellowship. My parents also brought me back to church.

Back in church, my life started to have a turn-around. My relationship with my parents grew better and my Mom and I even started opening our hearts to share our feelings. Because I came from a Chinese school, I’m not very good in English. I didn’t even know how to construct proper sentences and communicate with others in English. This caused a major struggle in my studies during STPM. But praise the Lord, I managed to overcome this hurdle at the end with God’s strength. Without Him, I wouldn’t be able to be here right now to share my testimony in English. Even though I didn’t manage to further my studies in university after STPM, studying in TARC managed to improve my English, and this is also what my Mom hoped to see by sending me to that college.

Studying nursing in Assunta is also I believe, God’s plan for me. Why I said so is because of what happened one day during my STPM exam when my Mom came to my hostel to look for me. She passed me the student intake form for a nursing course and asked me whether I’m interested. She knows that I like biology very much and also that I like to help people. Actually I wanted to study bio-tech after STPM, but she advised that this is not a good time to study bio-tech in M’sia. She suggested to me nursing instead. She told me nursing is not only about biology but also helping people at the same time. Most importantly I will be able to use this profession to share the Gospel. I took some time to think and finally decided to take up this challenge, filled up the form and went for the interview. Before the interview, I pray to God and said to Him, “If nursing is really Your plan for me, please let me go through this interview successfully. Whatever Your plans are, I will obey.” After my STPM exam, I received an offer letter from Assunta. So I obeyed His plan and joined nursing January last year even though my STPM results were not out yet.

God blessed me tremendously once I started the course in Assunta. Throughout my 3 years there and 5-year contract with Assunta, I continuously prayed to God and told Him my desire to find a local church to serve Him because I have already wasted much of my time in unfruitfulness. I don’t want to waste anymore time. My prayers were answered when my seniors Patricia and Xin brought me to church and their care group. So I started to join their activities there and praise the Lord, my Mom and I were even water-baptized last year. My Dad also gradually followed my Mom to church every Sunday. I believe that God will touch my Dad’s heart one day and he will accept God as His Lord and Saviour. I also became an official member of the church effective from last year 3rd quarter. Early this year, I told God that I want to serve in a ministry and become a shepherd. God again, answered my prayers. I currently serve in the Registration ministry and I’m doing follow-ups on the visitors and I believe, God willing, my prayer to become a shepherd will be answered by end of this year. God really opened a lot of doors for me to serve Him through the Registration ministry, my care group, and church events.

On the other hand, God not only blessed me in ministry, but also in my studies. From not knowing how to speak English to be able to communicate in that with people now; from not being able to read English newspapers to be able to read and understand English books now. There’s still room for improvement though in terms of vocabulary. But I’m still continuing to learn. Not only that, there’s major improvement in my exam results too and my scores are much better regardless of theory or practical; another remarkable evidence of God’s blessings on my life.

I’m very thankful to God for bringing me back to Him no matter how worse I was before him. So, I want to use my testimony to encourage all brothers and sisters, no matter what happens in your life, God still loves you, He won’t leave you alone because we are all His children. His promise never changes and He has the best plan for you.
I would like to end my testimony with this verse from the Bible: Jeremiah 29:11-14. Thank you

The First Mission Preparation & Pre – Launch Operation was launched in Hope PJ from 12 – 13 July 2008.  The reason for the event was to serve as a platform to gather all brothers & sisters who have responded to the call for missionary during the last Malaysia National Convention.

Approximately 95 registered brothers & sisters from all over Malaysia gathered in Hope PJ for this one-and-a-half day event, with the main objectives as stated below:-

1.    To engage the potential Goers in the overall mission planning and training activities
2.    To communicate the requirements for the involvement and partnership between the Goers and Sending centers
3.    To provide a platform of interaction between Goers across the nation
4.     To build the catalyst for team recruitment and formation across the nation

The event consisted of presentations by Pastor Simon, Pastor Willie and Sister Cara.

The event consisted of presentations by Pastor Simon, Pastor Willie and Sister Cara.

The Chairman of Hope Malaysia National Council, Pastor Simon Eng kicked - start the event with a short sharing from the Bible.  Pastor Willie shared on Biblical Missions Strategy and Planning with the right spirit, vision & perspective as well as the calling for a united effort in mission-pioneering, to shape relevant strategies & plans for the next 7 years to come.

The next presentation was conducted by Sister Cara. She presented an informative overview of “A Goer’s Preparations and Responsibilities”, shedding light on aspects such as ownership to local church and global movement and change management during periods of transition in the mission field.

3 forums were held to cater to 3 different groupings, Central Asia (by Sister Erin), South Asia (by Sister Yim Fong) and Middle East (by Brother David)

The evening session began with Brother Elijah’s powerful praise & worship session where everyone praised & worshiped God with excitement & overflowing joy, followed by Ps Simon’s meaningful preaching entitled “One Man/Woman Can Change the World”. The powerful message touched on the qualities of a world-changer; emphasizing on the aspect of faith through seeing the possibility of God using anyone who would avail themselves for HIM.

Ps Kung Ching and her ministering team later took over the preaching session. The participants felt exceeding joy as they allow the powerful word of prophecy to bring forth reconciliation and inner healing.

Judging from the participants’ response on the mentioned event, most of them benefited from this useful and informative guide, which enabled them to be more ready for the mission field.  For those who missed the event, please visit www.seeklite.com to download shared materials, but we certainly hope to see you next year!
[Reported by: Lim Chooi Nee, Mission Department, Hope KL]

On 16th June 2008, we rented a local micro-van to Pokhara to visit Tribhuvan University and Pawan’s family. During the journey; there was a minor demonstration due to the passengers’ dissatisfaction with the bus fare hike. We lodged at Hotel Gorkhali Dhee and had a night stroll along the streets.

Our dinner was a Western one at an interestingly named hotel:“Once Upon a Time”. During our stay in the hotel, we managed to share the Gospel with Moraj & Ganesh (hotel owner) and both of them accepted the Lord, Praise the Lord!

On 17th June, with 3 rented bikes & bicycles we visited Tribhuvan University for an evangelical session with the local students and fellowshipping with Gee Sun, Bumi, Pawan and his relatives. After a long but exciting journey, we relaxed with a boat ride amidst the beautiful sunset at Phewa Lake. We started out early on the next day at 4.00am to hike up Sarangkot and capture the splendour of the famous snow-blanketed, needle-pointed, Machhapuchhre mountain. (Fishtail mountain)

On 20th June, we prayed and prepared for OJT, our street evangelism to the neighborhood. Praise God for another 4 conversions! Furthermore, most of the visitors we invited turned up for the Saturday service and two of them even gave their heart to Jesus. On the last day, we had a warm farewell with our very first “buffalo-lunch” that one of the contacts in the family group has blessed us with. We truly experienced God’s amazing grace throughout the whole trip.

Prayer needs:
1. Pray for a strong core team, an established membership system and God’s provision for the growth of the leadership team. (Prakash, Lalitha, Kashi, Indra, Surya Prakash)
2. Pray for wisdom in the new government to lead and build a proper system to bless the community. (the 3 political parties will pursue a path of consensus)
3. Pray for God’s provision for a second-hand van for Hope Kathmandu.
Reported by: Erin Tang, Mission Department Hope KL

More on Part 1 

A group of vibrant members from Hope PJ has launched their first Nepal trip on 13th June 2008 (Kian Wee, Erin, Soe Kian, Chloe, Rekha, Jin Chuan, Elaine, Bryan Su). Upon landing, Prakash, Lalitha and the team welcomed us and brought us to the church. We met with Sis Nirmala, Indra, Kashi, Sagar, Alisha, Uncle Dhan B. and family.

We managed to board a bus to Thamel for sight-seeing, exchanging currency and a Chinese meal at Hwa Tai Restaurant. Along the road to Thamel, there were a lot of street-kids mingling around and begging for love and money. The dusty and congested road caused us to wear a mask whenever we travelled at the town. The familiar honking sound from the street life accompanied us throughout the 45-minute journey back to the church.

10.30am marks the start of our very first local Nepales’ Saturday service at Kathmandu. By that time, people started to crowd the small tiny room in the two-storey building where we stayed. The room was packed with nearly 30 plus people which consisted of families, working adults and some children. Bryan shared an inspiring story about how his transformed after knowing God and KW preached on a topic based on a chapter in Matthew. (how the Gospel will prosper the nation when it spreads to Nepal) We believe that as God’s children, when we pray, He will move the government and change the nation. There was an on-going strike which has lasted for a number of weeks due to the petrol price increase and demonstration by the local bus company. Most of the transportation systems were ceased, roads were blocked and people have to walk for 2-3 hours to travel from one place to another. After the service, we shared to the members about the importance & urgency of evangelism. We did pray for them for the empowerment of Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8) and many were ministered. The locals really have a great eagerness to learn and to be touched by God deeply.

God is good indeed! He allowed us to savour the local delicious (Sua-dilo) food prepared by Indra. On Sunday morning, Sagar’s classmate came to join us and he accepted the Lord after a sharing session. Praise God!    To be continued…