Myanmar Day 5 - Revival!

It's Sunday and half of our team had to go to another province to speak at one of the daughter churches. Janice, Jonathan and Candy went and they came back with some funny stories. Not forgetting, God moved mightily in the service there, lives were set on fire and a lady was wonderfully delivered! The rest of us spoke at the morning and evening services back at Cornerstone Yangon. Again, it was wonderful to be worshipping God together with the Burmese people. God moved in the services, we were all deeply impacted, Singaporeans included. God gave some of us a deep burden for Myanmar. I was feeling weak and sick the whole day but God sustained me through the 2 services. It was amazing, i felt strong the moment worship started and the moment the service closed, i just slumped onto the pew, totally weak and faint. It was our last night at the church, we spent a long time taking photographs, exchanging and email addresses. We went back straight to the hotel without going for dinner as i was too sick. The rest of the team had to order the expensive room service!

Myanmar Day 4 - D.L.S.

We attended 2 of the church members' wedding. It was a traditional ceremony, nothing like the sort we have in Singapore. After the ceremony, we had some pastry and ice cream! The first time i had ice cream in Myanmar! It was really nice, milky with some nuts and fruits inside, i had 3 scoops! Next we visited one of Iron Cross' guitarist and took a photo with him. They are the most famous band in Myanmar. Most of us were tired and i was starting to feel sick so we went to the church and rested till the youth service in the afternoon. It was an awesome time worshipping with the Burmese young people. The presence of God was stronger than what i had felt for a long time. It's worth every cent just to fly all the way there just to be in the presence of God with them...

(my camera ran out of batteries today so no photos..will upload some soon from the others' cameras)

Myanmar Day 3 - Jesus loves the little children..

We visited 3 of the Ignite churches, it was a good time fellowshipping and connecting with the pastors and leaders. It was really inspiring to see their heart to win the youths of this nation despite the many challenges. The highlight of the day was the visit to the orphanage. It was a long day and night has already fallen when we reached the orphanage. We were all tired physically but spiritually revived to see the simple faith and exuberance of the children. 5 of the kids' parents died in the cyclone Nargis. We sense God's loving presence with the children, many lives were deeply impacted that night, including ours. We prayed for a boy who couldn't hear and he could hear after that! He was happy and so were we! Prayed for a boy who was HIV positive, believe that Jesus had healed him. The lady taking care of the children was healed of a pain in her arm as well! We left the orphanage with tears in our eyes, wished we could spend the next few days with the kids..

Myanmar Day 2 - Pom! Pa! Ling!

Breakfast at the hotel, then off we go to the church. I was so excited to be back at the church again! Met up with Joseph, Mary, Thandar, Mo Mo, Arnold, Phyo Lay, Soe Moe, Ko Phyo and Rosy. We prayed and set off for the zoo. The zoo wasn't fantastic, but the fellowship with the youth leaders was! This was certainly one of the best parts of the trip. Having fun together and sharing hearts and dreams together...

Myanmar Day 1 - Hotpot Dinner

We arrived in Yangon at about 4pm Yangon time. All six of us squeezed into one taxi and set off to our nice and "not-so-mission-trip-like" Parkroyal Hotel. We checked into the hotel, rested for a while and went for a nice hotpot dinner with Joseph, Mary and Mo Mo. One of us ate lots of crabs!

There's no victory without hearts of purity

Joshua on his face before the Lord
Frightened by the Amorites' swift sword
God said Joshua take a stand
Remember my command:
There is no victory without hearts of purity

Spirit of God
Spirit of purity
Spirit who knows
Spirit who sees
Fire from Heaven, come
Redeeming presence, come

You and I have heard the
Tempter's plea
That sin will only hurt if
Someone sees
So we fight the fight to win
Forgetting once again
There is no victory without
Hearts of purity

So before we go to battle
We want to make sure
That we're clean
We want to get our house in order
And have hearts of purity

Affirmation VS Correction

I realised what a negative creature i am. I never fail to see the negative and the bad points quicker than i see the good and positive.

Yesterday morning i met up with one of my girls before service and i greeted her not with a "Good morning", "Good to see you", "You look wonderful today", or even a "Hi". I greeted her with "Your skirt today very short hor?" It's another one of my "oops, what did i say, what did i do?" moments. It's one of those times when the words just fly out of my mouth faster than my brain can process them. Immediately after i said those words i was like "argh, peh han, must you be so critical, must you spot her bad point a thousand miles away?" Her skirt indeed is short and i'm not wrong in telling her that she should not be wearing such a short skirt but why can't the first thing that comes to my mind be a praise and affirmation?

This reminds me of another one of those "oops, what did i say, what did i do?" moments that i had. I was giving Maths tuition to 2 girls, so i asked them how did they do for their exams. One of them scored higher than the other so i said to the one who scored higher, "So you are the better one." I tried to grab the words and stuff them back into my mouth but i failed, they travelled at 330 metres per second. I was like, "peh han, what have you done again? Thanks for battering the self-esteem of the other girl and making her feel inferior." I am a priest of those i lead and i'd better bless and not curse, lift up and not put down.

How many of us have been reprimanded in our lives for not taking the trash out, for not washing the dishes, for not tidying our room, for not handing in work on time? Most of us i guessed, but how many of us have received praise for doing the right things? We will say that it's only their duty and responsibility to do right so no praise and commendation is needed. We never fail to criticise, correct, rebuke, discipline for the wrong that people do but we don't praise them for the right that they do. I have discovered that if we praise and affirm ten, even a hundred times for every correction, rebuke, disciplining we dish out, that single correction, rebuke and disciplining will be treasured and received much, much more.

I remember growing up as a believer even until today, those times when i come to church with issues in my life, areas in which i have fallen, completely sure that anyone with just a drop of prophetic gifting in their lives will tell me how displeased God is with me, how much much i need to change etc etc. However, each time when i feel like i have 10000 areas in my life i need to change, He surprised me by telling me how much He loves me, giving me words about the greatness of my destiny, giving me words of the great things He will use me to do. Maybe God is not like us negative creatures at all...

Ho Chi Minh City Day 5

Our last few hours in Vietnam, we had breakfast at the hotel then went shopping for a while, went back to the room to take a rest then checked out and left for the airport. I must admit i'm very impressed by how nice the airport is. We had lunch at this food outlet that serves Singaporean food, then went to a cafe for 'illy' coffee.


i'm back and raring to go...

Ho Chi Minh City Day 4

Our fourth day in Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon as the locals call it. We went to a place they call "fashion street" to shop. Basically today we just shopped, ate, shopped, ate..i'm amazed at how developed this city is. They have KFC, Pizza Hut, Gloria Jeans coffee, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Mango, Bossini, Giordano, Adidas, Nike, Kappa, etc, etc, stores here. The shopping malls are nice and there nice big cars on the roads. What a big difference in affluence levels here and a neighbouring country not far away. I guessed it's Vietnam's open-door policy that made the difference. The people here seemed happy, carefree and surprisingly trendy. On the other hand, i realised that the young people here are more exposed to the worldly and materialistic culture...

Ho Chi Minh City Day 3

We went to the Mekong River today, enjoy the photos. As a sidenote, there are 4.5 million motorcycles in Ho Chi Minh City, as many motorcycles as there are people in Singapore!