Dear friends,
We are halfway through 2017. We thank God for what He has been doing in helping people grow deeper in prayer. We have exposed people to different methods of prayer, one or two of which would appeal to each member. We did this through sermons and through the Holy Week program. We believe in training our members how to feed themselves spiritually. More members are seeing the value of silence, solitude and prayer for an intimate fellowship with the Lord. They are incorporating new wine prayer practices into their life.
In addition, we are pleased to see what God is doing in leading God’s people to serve Christ outside the church walls. The 2017 Bangkok church camp is a watershed in that close to 150 people have now been exposed to teaching on bringing God’s compassion for the lost and the poor, and get involved ankle deep in serving the poor in a cross-cultural situation. It will be exciting to see how and where the “cloud” moves in the coming months. The SPO keeps in touch with Joseph Chean to co-discern with us the next step to take.
Overall all the congregations (English, Mandarin, Deaf) had heightened interest at their respective church camps and increased interest in missions, and all these accompanied by stable attendances with the Lord adding new members in the last six months.
In the English service, one of the prominent features of God’s work is the way more multi-generational teams work together to serve God’s purpose: the young adults leading with their seniors, as demonstrated in the pastoral team.
In the second half of the year, the English congregation will focus on developing two other important traits of a disciple: Members who learn to speak the truth in love, admonishing one another in gentleness and love (1Thess 5:14) and members with an overview of the Bible. We will revisit one of the greatest lacks in the modern church: the ability to speak the truth in love through “clean fighting”.
We look forward to our church anniversary service which we will hold in October. It will be a special time as it is our 45th year since the Lord planted this church. Great is Thy faithfulness, O Lord! We praying and seeking God about the expression it should take. We have a thing or two that we are praying about.
Pray along with us in our church discipleship journey. Pray for the worship services and teams as it is the most well attended and regular meeting which God uses to shape our faith. Pray also for our cell leaders, core teams, and cells – this is where the Word is applied, life change takes place, and people cared and prayed for. Shalom!
KENNY CHEE
SENIOR PASTOR