Andrew: Inside & Insights

Picture taken with Rev. Dr. Loren Cunningham, Founder of Youth With A Mission (YWAM) at the Go Forth Conference on 18 July 2008.

Picture taken with Mr Chiam See Tong, Chairman of the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) party on 25 April 2008.

In this second installment of “Jesus and the marketplace” series, Makota Fujimura is a Christian artist who paints Christ-centred arts. He lives and works in New York City, and is an elder in a Presbyterian Church.

There are no crosses in Makoto Fujimura’s paintings. No images of Jesus gazing into the distance, or serene scenes of churches in a snow-cloaked wood.

. . . After the 2001 terrorist strikes on the World Trade Centre, three blocks from Fujimura’s home, his work explored the power of fire to both destroy and purify, themes drawn from the Christian Gospels and Dante’s “The Divine Comedy.”

“I am a Christian,” says Fujimura, 46, who founded the non-profit International Arts Movement to help bridge the gap between the religious and art communities. “I am also an artist and creative, and what I do is driven by my faith experience.

“But I am also a human being living in the 21st century, struggling with a lot of brokenness _ my own, as well as the world’s. I don’t want to use the term ‘Christian’ to shield me away from the suffering or evil that I see, or to escape in some nice ghetto where everyone thinks the same.”

By making a name for himself in the secular art world, Fujimura has become a role model for creatively wired evangelicals. They believe that their churches have forsaken the visual arts for too long - and that a renaissance has begun.

Read the full article here>>>

Proudly presenting the first story for “Jesus and the Marketplace” series that will hopefully inspire and empower us, Christ-followers to live our faith relevantly and powerfully in our marketplace. Here’s Linvoy Primus’ testimony told by Jeremy Wilson for The Guardian.

Primus was 27 when he found his faith and is convinced that the correlation between that event and a dramatic improvement in his football career is no coincidence. The likes of Sol Campbell, Glen Johnson and Lauren have joined Portsmouth over the past year but he remains an automatic choice in a team who have been in the Premiership’s top six all season. Among Pompey supporters he is the club’s most popular player.

“I know that, win, lose or draw, life will still carry on,” he said. “I do my job properly and to the best of my ability because God wouldn’t want me to misuse the gift he has given me.”

His faith initially made him the subject of dressing-room banter but he never hid his beliefs and praying has now become routine for a growing group of Portsmouth players before matches. “The people who have found the Lord at this club have had their lives changed - Kanu, LuaLua, Sean Davis, Andy O’Brien, Benjani,” he said. “We are not scared to say we pray together before games. We’ve got the laundry room at the club - there’s two washing machines behind us and about 45 minutes before a game we link our arms and just pray that we can glorify God.”

Read Linvoy Primus’ full story here>>>

Here’s a blog entry by Pastor PK’s blog who serves Hope London Church. I am very much encouraged by his passion for God’s Kingdom and vision for His Church in being a powerful instrument of change in the marketplace. I pray that fellow Christians will be inspired to live out their faith in God more boldly from Mondays to Saturdays at work, just as they would on a Sunday. 

The Archbishop Rowan Willaims, Head of the 80m Anglican Communion worldwide, provoked outrage when he suggested on February 7th that the adoption of elements of Islamic sharia law in Britain was “unavoidable”. This undermined further his authority in trying to bring unity to the Communion which has been divided over the issue of homosexuality between the liberals and the conservatives in the Communion.

This also weakens the position of the state church which has been seen by the increasingly secular Britain as privileged yet irrelevant. By trying to extend religious rights that Christians enjoy to the Muslims, it actually upsets the secularists further. They are already calling for a smaller official role of the church in Britain. At present 25 bishops sit in the House of Lords.

I personally believe that Christians have to find their voice in society like anyone else, without any advantage over non-Christians. To demonstrate our faith and the greatness of our God, we have to reflect God’s greatness in our lives.

This means that Christians have to raise the bar in our performance in the classroom or in the workplace, wherever God puts us. There is a greater need for us to shine for Jesus in the world in order to attract people unto Him. Whilst the classroom continues to be a fertile ground for harvest, I believe that the marketplace is where the biggest battle for souls is fought.

The challenge is immense; serving God, not money. The key is living out the Gospel with the help of God. (cont’d)

Read the rest of the entry here>>>

Last night, I was reunited with an old friend who was arrested with me for the same offence in 1996.

He was released just 3 weeks ago as he was convicted for some other offences after our release. I was really elated to see him after so many years!

Read about our case here>>> 

The BEST news was when he shared with me how Jesus found Him and saved Him when he was serving his time! And now he is with a prison after-care cell group in FCBC.

To think that in the past, we were at the same ABC coffeeshop talking about getting high, girls and our fights. But this day, we are talking about GOD!

Awesome! What a drastic but welcoming change!

Only Jesus can truly change lives!

Over the weekend, I finally caught up with my defense lawyer, Ms Teo Soh Lung who represented me during my criminal appeal case. She is also my family’s friend.

This meet-up was long overdued since it has been 12 years since we last met. And now she has retired from law practice.

Though looking petite and harmless, don’t mess with this spunky lady beside me as she packs a punch!

If she’s in the mood, she will sue your pants off until you pok kai (bankrupt in Cantonese)! Ha ha…

Oops… I think that description should belong to another retired lawyer who is now a MM =p

But on a serious note, it was over this session that I had learnt (for the first time) she actually took my case without asking a single cent!

I thank God that I was able to share with her my side of the story during the case and also to sincerely thank her for being an instrument of God in winning my appeal case.

Read the newspaper article on my appeal here>>>

If you didn’t get to read X-Hooker, Annie Lobert’s testimony, here’s an interview with her open sharing how she got trapped into prostitution in the sex industry.

But the incredible part is where she shares with tears on how she got out from that lifestyle after 11 years!

♥ GOD LOVES YOU! ♥

Somehow divinely, I have been meeting old friends over the week. It is good to catch up over old times and remember the times- good and bad- together that had impacted my life.

One of them was Joshua (picture below). He was my first appointed shepherd or spiritual mentor in Hope Church. And this was the first time we got to sit down to talk after 3-4 years.

My first shepherd

If my memory serves me right, I really gave him hell back then. I came in as a newbie-in-Christ carrying all of my past attitudes, beliefs and habits. And somehow, he managed to take my crap =P  

With him, I recall many conflicts we have had as my carnal nature was challenged by the word of God he taught me and tried to impart on many occasions. But basically, I understood that had long and thick “horns” that had to be sawed off.

Being a shepherd

Going thru everything that I did with Joshua and gaining revelation through the word of God, I have learnt to embrace the call of God in being a shepherd to others (c.f. John 21: 15-17).

Without the unconditional love and godly guidance,  sheep like me would get have gotten lost.

Therefore I thank God he (Joshua) loved me just enough to persist and faithfully followed up on me all the time. Or else I’m pretty sure I would not have remained in Hope or with God growing strong and biblical.

It is seeing and catching up with friends like him that reminds me of God’s goodness and faithfulness in my life.

Thank you God =)

Here’s an ‘exclusive’ interview with a brother who has returned from his churchplanting stint at Equador. His identity has been withheld upon his request.

Regretfully, this is as much (picture above) I can reveal. But I guess he was afraid that his good looks would work against him here. Ha ha ha… (This is my joke)

However, if you do your math and your research, you would be able to know who this brother is. Especially those from Hope Singapore Church =)

May this e-interview bless you by providing useful insights of a global Christian’s life and adventure with God.

1.   How long have you spent in Equador? What will you miss?

I’ve been in the field for 3 years and 11 months. I’ll miss the warmth of the church there; not only the church, but the person on the street.

The culture: It’s a culture where it’s normal to spend 3 hours just chatting with a friend. In Singapore, you’re lucky to get even an hour with your friend.

I’m not a very extroverted person, and each time I have to go out with a native of that country, sometimes I get irritated and think, “I could use that time to translate more materials! I need to prepare the sermon for Sunday!”

But the truth is, I’ll miss that.

2.   Was it worth it despite having to disrupt your prospective and stable career with Creative? Why? 

Firstly, I believe my career in Creative 4 years ago was not ‘prospective’. Perhaps it was stable, but it was not offering any future excitement or improvement for me.

Now, I speak for myself, and surely there are people whose current position in Creative, and whose personality, would prove otherwise. But I always wanted something fun. I always knew I wanted something that would be fun all the way in my career (E.g. in 10 years when I reach a senior position), I would be able to enjoy that senior position, and not long for the ‘good old days’ as a junior, nor think about changing jobs, nor think that everyday is so borrrriiiiing. I admit I get bored very easily. Ok. End of Rant. 

It was worth it to forsake that career. If nothing else, you know who you are.

I remember a show called Fight Club, in which Tyler Dryden (played by Brad Pitt) said “How much can you know about yourself, you’ve never been in a fight? I don’t wanna die without any scars. So come on; hit me before I lose my nerve.” (Google is such a fantastic search engine ).

Now I’m definitely not advocating violence. Read me correctly; its so easy to take this wrongly. So let me rephrase Tyler.

How much can you know about yourself, if you’ve never pit your faith against the devil?

Now again, another caveat: there are many people in church, whose EVERYDAY is a battle of faith against the devil. These men and women know about hardship, loneliness, and the occasional (dare I say it?) anger towards God. And if these people exercise their faith in these situations, they truly know themselves.

But for me, I’ve always had an easy life. I never worried about the really essential things, like food, rent, money. So I stepped into the ring. It’s fine to be punching bags all the time, but the reason you punch bags is to step into the ring with the other guy, to hit and be hit. So I stepped into the ring. So I said to myself, “I’m going to hit him, before I lose my nerve”.

You gotta do some damage to the other side. You won’t get that in Creative.

3.   What is the best and most valuable thing you have gained from your churchplanting experience?

Trust in God. To stick to your guns, perseverance. To keep breathing. To keep praying. Ok, ‘best’ and ‘most valuable’ that indicates just one.

I’d say Trust in God.

4.  Share with us how this experience has changed you as a person?

One, I learn to embrace stillness. I’ve always been an introverted person, but that doesn’t mean I take advantage of my times alone. I do now.

Two, I learn that people often fail you, but that I’ve frequently fail others too. That I always hurt people and I don’t even know it. Relationships are like playing with dogs: you always end up with scratches everywhere, but you HAVE to do it, its just too fun.

Three, I totally respect those guys who bring us the services every Sunday. You’ve NO IDEA what goes into the entire service experience. And our church there was only 30+ people. Here in Singapore, we’ve more than 500 per service (my own estimate). Imagine the amount of work that goes into that. It’s just an awesome team behind the scenes.

5.   So what would you be looking forward to with your return? Any plans for a wife??? Ha ha…

I’m not sure. One day at a time. I’ll need to figure out my future plans first. I wish I knew. It’s kinda strange to have so many life options available after these years.

Suddenly I’m no longer tied down. It’s like stepping out a foreign airport. Everything looks do-able. I can swim in ANY direction. I’m treading water for the moment.

NOTE: Any interested parties who wish to contact him or know him better, please drop me an email which you can obtain from this site. Hee hee…