My two-year contract with OCF has ended. With God’s leading, I have renewed my contract for another year. Thank you all who have been faithfully praying, supporting financially and journeying with me these past years. This also marks a time for you to consider if you’d like to continue partnering me in this ministry, as your initial pledge was for two years.
Tribute to Miss Noeline Cheah
I’d like to take this opportunity to pay a special tribute to Miss Noeline from my home church who has recently gone to be with the Lord. While I did not know her very well (one of my regrets), for the past 2 years in my traineeship, she has been one of the faithful few who would write a short encouraging note to me every time she receives my newsletter. I thank God for her as an encouraging partner in the gospel.
Overseas Christian Fellowship
All centres have had their AGM and God has blessed us with a new team of enthusiastic student leaders. Praise God for them.
“K” the ‘student missionary’ – an OCFer from UWA who has decided to leave her ‘comfort zone’ in UWA to join OCF Murdoch in their leadership team. Praise God for her ‘missionary’ heart.
Training: I am looking for more opportunities to train & equip students, particularly in 1-to-1 ministries & Bible study leading. The goal is to work myself out of my job! Pray for students to be interested in this.
Preaching opportunities:
Gospel talks
- Luke 15: 1st time in OCF Curtin
- Rom 5:6-7 OCF Murdoch
“God chooses the weak” (1 Cor 1:18-2:5) – at OCF WA Winter Retreat. One of the speakers had lost his voice. Thankfully, I had an appropriate sermon for the occasion prepared & delivered it.
Bible study/workshops:
- The Bible Overview
- Outreach & evangelism
- Bible study on Ephesians
1-2-1 Discipleship:
- E & B: I meet them together. Both girls are from Malaysia.
- J: She is starting to disciple another girl, hence beginning the ‘multiplication’ phase of our discipleship process. Praise God!
Prayer group: Started meeting with some ex-OCFers for a few Sundays to pray for OCF. A conscious effort to remind ourselves that God is the one who works, not us.
Vose Seminary
I passed my first semester of Greek! So this semester, I will be continuing on to New Testament Greek (Part II) with a whole lot more (complicated) grammar to learn. And the exciting thing is that I will be translating the whole book of Philippians by the end of this semester!
I am also sitting in lectures for the Introductory Preaching unit and have been learning about many aspects of the life of a preacher. It is hard work! I am also cross-enrolling in another theological college and sitting in lectures for the unit Ministry in a Culturally Diverse Context. This is in preparation for cross-cultural mission work should God lead in that direction.
Reflections
Intimacy with God: One of the things God seems to be nudging me consistently about is to be intimate with him. Over the years, while I have grown to understand the Bible more and more, yet reflecting back, it is 80% head knowledge. There is a growing restlessness within me that there is an imbalance in my growth. Do I really know God relationally, intimately?
Part of what God has put on my heart is to spend a lot more time in prayer with him. It is through this wrestling and communing with him that one grows in deeper relationship with him. I must admit that cultivating a dynamic prayer life is more difficult than I thought (due to many years of bad prayer habits), but it is vital to continue in this pursuit.
OMF Missions Conference: David & I recently attended the annual conference in Sydney. OMF, founded by Hudson Taylor in 1865, is a missions organisation primarily involved in gospel work in East Asia.
We had the privilege of meeting many missionaries either preparing to go or who have returned from the field. It was both an encouraging & sobering experience. There were many stories of God’s faithful providence, but also of hardship & loss.
The missionaries were involved in very diverse ministries: from direct church planting work, to Human Resource roles, to teaching high school maths to missionary kids! This goes to show that there is simply no lacking of capacity for anyone interested to serve in the mission field. Often the more poignant question is, “Am I willing to go?” And this is the question I’m faced with daily. Please pray.
Coming full circle: Revisiting one of my earlier letters, I wrote about being challenged to “live a life of reckless abandon for the Lord”. Coming to the end of this initial term, I find myself being challenged by it all over again, this time in relation to cross-cultural missions. Am I willing to be totally abandoned to God’s purposes & will? The struggle continues, but the fact remains: I am no longer my own, but am bought by the blood of Christ & belong totally to him. Please pray that my life & choices reflect this fact.
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