Andrew: Inside & Insights

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…

This is Patrice. He was my leader from Hope church. Though it has been almost 3 years since he left Hope, we still make effort to keep in touch.

We had dinner last night and whenever I think of him or meet him, the memories of our times together serving comes flashing naturally. I truly enjoyed those times of serving under his leadership. However, things happened and changed.

Looking back from where I am now, I know somehow it was God’s will for me. The period of shaking off the dust of that episode has built His word deep in me and refined my heart with God as His servant. 

Somehow the cascading affects of the change worked to His purpose in allowing those trials to train me as His leader. Now I can dare to say (with His grace) that even if no one else would be serving God around me, I will still choose to serve Him. My motivation is no longer determined by the approval of others or by any title like CL, shepherd or whatever L…  I am a Christian and I follow Christ. I obey His word. That simple. 

Till now I love this brother and have this deep respect for him. Back then, he looked beyond my appearance and background, and believed in me. He saw enough to see what God could do through me and discipled me. 

So a large part of who am I today is because of his impact in my life.

Thank you Patrice =)

Here’s the testimony of Pastor Ben and Dinah’s children that was shared over Hope Kids service last Sunday…

Hi! Today both of us are going to share wth you our testimony on giving. It started outlike this: before the Lunar New Year celebration, our mother asked us what we intend to do with our hongbao collection.  

At first, we told her we wanted to give some money to mum and dad, some to church building fund and save the rest.  

She told us that whatever we plan to give to our parents will go to the church building fund because they want to see our church be debt free quickly. Our mother told us to consider giving all our hongbao collection to the church building fund, only if we are willing.  

Deborah and I discussed and finally decided to just do one thing: that is to contribute all our hongbao money towards reducing the church debt.  

“When you give, you feel a little sad because what you have given up is no longer yours. But on the inside, you experience the real joy of giving.” I feel that is true. Giving is seldom easy, but when you give with a willing spirit, you will feel true happiness. 

“We were so excited to exchange all our money for a $510 cheque which we can offer to God.” 

We would like to encourage you to give generously more often. We hope you will learn something from our testimony.   

DEBORAH & DANIEL LEE 

Updates on the Breakthrough campaign can be found here>>> 

This evening our cell group had the privilege to have an upclose and personal session with one of our married couples- Hong Teck and Mag, from our church over dinner.

Hong Teck* is a full-time staff with Hope Church Singapore in the Hope kids ministry and has been married with Mag for almost 10 years with 3 wonderful kids.

It was a great time as not having many close ‘married with kids’ friends, I brought back many insights in what goes on in a marriage. Much thanks to them taking the time to be with us.

Many various questions were asked…

• How and when did you both met and how did it hit off?
• How do both of you resolve conflicts?
• What are the common issues of conflicts?
• How do you balance between ministry and family commitments?

And the lesson I learnt most: To be committed in co-supporting one another; when either party is weak or down, the  other should provide support instead of being impatient or selfish.

I truly thank God for godly married couples in our midst who choose to obey God and serve His Church despite the adverse difficulties pounded by the demands of parenting and providing the family.

Thank you Hong Teck for your obedience to His calling and thank you Mag for your great example as a sacrificial and supportive wife and mother!

* Hong Teck is incidentally another fellow Hope blogger. Visit his blog here>>>