What's the Point of Church?

I was laughing and brought to some simple deeper reflections after listening to my UK friend Jason Clark talk about "What's the Point of Church?" (download the Mp3). He asked a great question, "What if community is a by product of being and doing church?". A great antidote to the consumer streak in us!

See You on Christmas Day!

We're having a Christmas Worship Gathering on 25th December 2005 Sunday 10am at The Father's House!

After that we'll have a special Christmas Lunch .. please finalize with John Cheah if you are coming and how many guests!

I think these girls will welcome you at the door ... so come early .. at least be on time - there won't be traffic jams!

let's come with hearts prepared and ready for worship.

World Vision Update

We got some news recently that one of our sponsor children had been able to leave the program as he was working. We asked WV for an update on the child and how the sponsorship had helped him so we could let BLC know how the money was being used. I got the following reply:

Zhang Jun Fu graduated from junior secondary school in July 2004. After graduation, he helped the family to do the farm work. After a while, he went to Lijiang to work in Nov 2004. In the past, the child was benefited with the help of World Vision in the following areas: subsidization of school fee, 6.1 children's day and body check. When he was studying in primary school, World Vision repaired the primary school. He could study in the new classroom when he was primary 4. When he studied in secondary school, World Vision had provided beds and desks to the school, and also with some repair and toilets. Zhang Jun Fu lives in poverty in Yunnan. The economic status is bad. Under the support of the sponsor, the child learn a lot after finishing his junior secondary study. The child could get a job outside. With education, it equips the child to be more independent to serve the community and know about the world. It's a treasure to the child to have education. Zhang Jun Fu's family members include father, mother, 2 elder brothers and 1 elder sister (already married) and himself. These years, there was work on storage for drinking water in the community of child. With this, the drinking water can be drained to the house for use. Also there was a repair of channel to ensure the irrigating water. The child's parents also joined the training of agriculture and breeding, they learnt some new knowledge in the area. With the help of World Vision, the life of the child and family had been improved.

This is a great story and we will now adopt a new child whom we hope we can see graduate from the program as Zhang has.

The Lord be With You

Trust and Obey

For there's no other way

This comes from a Lutheran hymn I haven't sung since we came to KL (it's a bit old fashioned *smile*) but today I am reminded of it. We had an event planned with the kids from Rumah Hope at a park so we could play some games and let them run around a bit. When we got up though it was raining and it stayed that way until we got there. We started calling each other to see what alternatives we could put in place but there were not many at late notice.

Then as we arrived at the park we saw the sun peeking through

So we had hope and started some games

The kids enjoyed trying to stone the dragons tail

Uncle Keat Lim did a great job of leading them

Everybody wanted a turn

And the worm was just as popular as it busily swallowed children

During refreshments we were surprised by a clown ( who is it ?)

the kids were rapt

smiles were plentiful

There was plenty of fun about

And we couldn't have wished for a better gang of God's children

So why trust and obey ? he made the rain to make things cool, he stopped it when we were ready to start, he left us with joy.....

Good Job (2 thumbs up!)

Excellent work from David Berry and the outreach core in terms of planning and coordination. Special welcome and thanks to the Shell team that came along. And all the LiFE Group reps who came. A special mention for the "clown" that showed up - awesome! (I want a balloon too!)
Feel free to comment on how you felt about the event...

For me .. with smiles like the one below whom I shall call the Rumah Hope dynamic duo .. I think waking up early, getting through the rain (with extra prayer that it will stop on time), sweating it out by playing with them in the games as well as enduring some heat :-), having a slight sun burn ... is worth it! What a great way to start Advent and prepare for Christmas!