God is faithful…

Another testimony of God’s providence as we obey His call to give to His Kingdom. (By ZJ)

In September 2007, the Lord led me to begin praying for the church redevelopment project. This was before the plans were firmed and anything was announced to the church.

At the same time, the Lord challenged me to be prepared to give $10,000 to the church redevelopment fund on top of my monthly pledges and tithe. This amount was way beyond my imagination but in my Spirit, I was very excited because this meant that God would once again be magnified as He has to be the one to bring the finances in (what is faith pledging if no faith is required?). This was on top of the expenses that I would be plowing into my wedding in 2008, the house and other debts incurred by my family. In order to help me keep track of my savings and set aside the money which belongs to God's kingdom work, I started a savings account for the building fund. (in part, also to capitalize on whatever little interest that may help increase the funds.)

Time and again, God showed Himself faithful and mighty. In 2008, He provided me with unprecedented pay increment and bonus. The wedding was also over and abundantly covered from the gifts we received. (On top of that, God threw in a wonderful honeymoon package and photo shoot experience overseas.)

In Nov 2008, the church began to call for worshippers to begin pledging for the building fund. By this time, my building fund savings account, though growing, was far from the $10,000 target. Given only 6mths, I had to stagger my giving. So I decided to split up my pledge by the thousands and give a lump sum of $5000 in the final month.

The first $1000 was easy to give, since I had ample in the account to cover for it. But over the months, the money was going out faster than it was coming in, and the amount of money in the bank account was dwindling. It became more and more challenging each time I had to write the next cheque, trusting that God will honor His Word.

5months have passed now and we’re nearing the end of the church redevelopment funds. Once again, God has broken through and multiplied my finances! This year, despite news of the economic crisis, the Lord blessed me with over $6000 bonus! This is truly His great grace as #1) I’ve already tendered my resignation in January and the company could easily have reduced the amount of bonus paid out; #2) Base on my salary scale change from the last increment, I was no longer eligible for bonus scheme A (where the bonus is tagged to local office profits and personal performance.) My bonus was suppose to be calculated base on the scheme B (this includes global performance) – which has been badly affected by the economic crisis, especially so when our company is based in United States. Yet, God granted me favor with my bosses and they decided to calculate my bonus so that I get the higher of the 2 schemes. In addition to that, I was entitled to claim tax relief this year due to my earthly father’s retirement.

I give God all the praise and honor for helping me fulfill the pledge for the building fund. More than that, I praise Him for being a faithful God, and always ready to take our faith to the next level, if we were to trust and obey!

We serve a living God!

Hi all, want to share a thanksgiving with you guys!

 

It started when church asked for pledging 5 months ago. At that time, i dont think i can pledge cause I'm not working. I told God that I'm not working and has no income thus no need to pledge But my heart was not feeling at peace. Then marchze told me he wanted to pledge this certain amount and I was like 'wow', are you sure???

Then we decided to pray about it and see what God say. Our prayer:
1) God do you want us to pledge?

2) How much?

3) As individual or only Marchze?

God showed me malachi 3:10-12 and He specifically say to bring ALL into His store! 'ALL'??? 'Are you sure???' and He said "YES!"

He said 'you can pledge from the monthly expenses from the grocery.'

I said 'ok, if you say so.'

So we pledge as individuals, preparing to dip into our reserve (our children's saving) till it drop to 10% or maybe 0 by the end of the six months but at the same time, I know that God will provide us the money though i dont know how.......

 

5 months down the road, God provided ALL. Marchze received a bonus for year 2008 on his birthday. The amount is more than ALL OUR pledging + fund raising dinner payment + tryphena's homeschooling curriculum. (for those who have yet to know, we've just started our homeschooling journey for our kids, after much prayers also) :)

 

BUT the most amazing to us is not that but how God sustained us these 5 months. We've not once dip into our reserve and now we have this amount of savings in our bank. If we did not pledge in the first place, we would never have save this amount. In a way, God helped us to save!

 

Thank you God!!! We really serve a living God!!!

 

The Chngs

Building A House by Faith

Building A House by Faith…

A testimony by ZJ

We have been married for almost 2 months now and looking back in our journey, we are overwhelmed at the faithfulness and goodness of our Lord and how our heavenly Father has provided for us everything that we need as we embarked on the journey towards being husband and wife. This testimony is quite overdue but it is still needful for us to pen this down as a reminder to ourselves and an encouragement to others that God is indeed faithful in every step and every season of our lives.

As with typical Singaporeans, our journey of marital union began with the hunting of our new home. When the holy spirit worked within our hearts to confirm our desires to tie the knot and enter the covenant of marriage, he has already gone ahead of us to prepare a dwelling place for Himself as a sanctuary of worship for our new family unit. A couple of weeks after we have decided on getting married, the Lord provided the opportunity for a walk-in selection of housing units in the Yishun/Sembawang/Woodlands area. Through the years before as we talked about where we would like to reside when we got married, staying in Yishun has always been the desires of our hearts. But we were uncertain how that would be possible, as there were no new units coming up, and we foresee that we would not have the capability to buy from the open-market. There were previous walk-in selections before and there was always talk that it would be the “last” walk in selection for Yishun area. But in those earlier times, the Holy Spirit had not led us to join the frenzy of application. Still, the Lord knew what was in our hearts and in his divine time, he led our hearts to confirm our commitment to marriage and opened the door to apply for a house at Yishun!!

So we went forward to send our application. With the vast number of applicants, our balloted queue number was in the range of 300 (out of over 2000 applicants). We waited patiently for our turn to select the unit of our choice, and in the mean time have made a list of the top 50 units we would like to consider. On the day of selection, it was quite an interesting experience as we head down to HDB hub and sat at the waiting area, our eyes fixed on the TV screen, watching closely which units were still available. The first choice on our list was quickly taken. Our second and third choice remained available as we waited – one was in Yishun, and the other was in Sembawang. Based on our limited research from the floor plans given online, we were quite drawn to both. We asked the Lord to guide our decision and make the choice clear and simple for us. We decided that we would choose the Yishun one if it was available at the time of selection. We prayed that if the Lord so willing, to keep this unit for us, if not, to make it clear to us by letting someone select it before we go in. We give God praise and thanks for providing us with this Yishun unit and making it clear to give up considering the Sembawang one. (It was selected by someone else just moment before our turn!)

Now, being a walk-in selection, we only have the generic floor plan to look at. As this Yishun unit was a re-possessed unit (2^nd hand unit that was taken back by the government and then released for sale), we did not know the condition of the place at all. After selecting the unit and paying the deposit, we arranged for a viewing with the HDB branch office. To our pleasant surprise, the house was wonderfully tiled with marble flooring and kitchen cabinet! This meant that we would not need to do major re-works! How the Lord knew what we needed and provided so graciously for them! There were also the many bonus factors like it being a corner unit, having nice and friendly neighbors, being a lift landing floor due to the lift upgrading that was completely just as we began renovation works, and having an open view in the living room – all the little nitty grittiness that we did not really know to look into. In our inexperience, the Lord covered us.

We praise God also for the smooth transactions and finalization of the paper works involved. There were tiny bumps here and there due to our inexperience in working with HDB, but the Lord graciously guided us through each process. We were eager to collect our house keys, but the Lord has divinely spoken to our hearts that the keys will come in December! True enough, we finally collected our keys on 1 Dec 2007, having completed our marriage preparation classes. Despite our anxieties on timings and finances, the Lord assured us and provided for us at every step of the way. In our weakness and knowing that we are not savvy when it comes to housing, renovations and stuff like these, the Lord sent His aid through friends and His divine grace covered us at every moment and through every decision that had to be made. We give God praise and thanks for the resources He provided through our parents, friends, and his divine acts.

Truly as we reflect upon this journey of building a new home, we can’t help but give Him thanks and all the glory for He is the true builder of our house and our home. There were just so many factors that could have come into play and not within our control that we know it is God who was never changing and holds all things in His hands. Our trust and most confident reliance had to be upon Him alone. We pray that just as He has graciously provided this dwelling place to be our home, that we will remain faithful stewards of this grace and build unto him a household of faith and a sanctuary for His glory.

God of all possibilites...

Another thanksgiving to share :)

Our wireless keyboard suddenly stopped working. Mun Loong thought it was battery problem so we changed new battery but it didn't work. So Mun Loong went to buy a new one today. However, it didn't work too. So he called Meng Piow to borrow a cabled keyboard to try to trouble shoot the problem. The cabled keyboard also didn't work.

He was on his hands and knees with tools, opened up the desktop system and tried to fix the problem. At that moment, it was time for me to fetch Samuel back from taekwando.

Samuel asked where was daddy. I told him fixing the keyboard problem. He was hopeful (the boys needed the keyboard to play computer games) and asked if the keyboard could work. I told him cannot.. Buy new one also cannot.

So, I suggested to Samuel to pray. He shook his head and said keyboard is non-living thing To that I replied, "So? Our God is a God of all possibilities. Non-living also can pray." He said Mommy prayed.

As we were walking up the stairs, I prayed and asked God to help us solve and fix the keyboard and just finished praying when we reached our doorstep.

After Samuel changed, we went to the study room and then Mun Loong exclaimed with relief that the wireless keyboard can work. Hallelujah! Prayer works :) I told Mun Loong that we just prayed and related the incident to him about Samuel's response about non-living thing cannot pray for God to work.

A seed of faith has been planted in Samuel's heart today, I believe, that God can answer our sincere prayers, whether living or non-living things. He saw with his own eyes his daddy with tools all over, system opened up and trying to fix the problem. He experienced first hand experience that it's not our human effort that counts. It is God who works through our simple faith in prayer.


John 16:24 in BMC we learnt that, "until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive and your joy will be complete."
We are grateful to God for allowing us to share this testimony to Samuel.. And tomorrow morning, Daniel and Gabriel will hear about this miracle as well :)
With A Grateful Heart,
Lucy

God provides...even the tiniest needs.

I wanted to give thanks for God's goodness.

Since I lost my handphone and handphone pouch last Dec, I was looking aorund for one that has the same quality that I lost.

On Thursday, 17 Apr 08, I saw my eldest son, Samuel brought home a brown Hello Kitty handphone pouch. I asked if he could give to Mommy. He said no, lend me on a daily basis. Fine, I borrowed it.

During BMC group discussion that evening, Roland asked us what does the Father God do to us. I answered, "God as a Father provides for all our needs".

I came home that night, my children were already asleep. Early the next morning, Friday, 18 Apr 08, I came home after sending my husband to work. Samuel greeted me at the door and handed me a handphone pouch - a brown and plain one! Exactly what I like! He said he found it on a red chair below my mother's block on thursday night!

See how God knows and provides for my needs. Hallelujah!

From: Lucy