1 week to retreat...

Let us all arise and pray:

1. Remember to put on the armor of God as we go about the preparation for the retreat and our daily lives
2. Pray for the blood of Jesus to cover us and our love ones from the crown of our head to the sole of our feet.
3. Pray for unity among all the people involved in this retreat
4. Pray that all logistics to be available and ready
5. Pray for the hearts of everyone who's going fof the retreat ( to be open, sensitive and receptive when God speak to them)

Dont know about you guys but felt more and more excited about the retreat as the day is coming soon as really having this inkling that God is doing and going to do something during the retreat. SO, while waiting to see what God is going to do, let's partner Him in prayers and start praying NOW if you haven got down to doing it!!! :)

Serving with you,
Mummy Ho - Prayer IC of The Retreat 2007 Committee.

A special thanks from Ms Lim Jing En

RETREAT 2007 - A PASSIONATE LIFE

We are about 6 weeks away from our zone retreat which will happen on 8th Nov till 11 Nov.

Once again, we urged all of you to join us for this annual event and start applying your leave for 9th Nov. :)

The retreat committee has worked hard to recee for the best venue that is affordable to all at Singapore Vision Farm and we are in the midst of firming up the program plus ordering new zone t-shirt for all of us.

The study books "A Passionate Life" have been ordered too.

We are committed to make this retreat a success because we truly believe that all of you will be able to encounter God as we spend 4 days together, setting aside time to learn His word and to rest in His presence.

WHAT TO EXPECT?

1. Doing "A Passionate Life" book study by Mike Breen and Walt Kallestad

This is a 8 sessions group study and we will complete 4 sessions during retreat and finish the remaining 4 sessions after retreat. (Details to be confirmed of post-retreat)

http://www.lifeshapes.com/

Introduction from textbook

Countless people today are disappointed with the way their lives are going.

Although they truly believe they were created for a Divine purpose, deep in their hearts, they wonder "What's so great about knowing God?"

Perhaps you can relate.

Do you have friends who talk about how wonderful God is and what he's doing in their lives and secretly long to know him the same way?

Maybe you go to church every week, only to go away empty and thinking There's got to be more.

There is more!

Mike Breen and Walt Kallestad want to show you how to live A PASSIONATE LIFE!

You will learn how to live your faith the way God intended.

You'll learn what it means to be a true follower, and by using easy to recall shapes (Called Lifeshaped),

you'll learn to apply those steps to every situation and relationship in your life.

Soon the enthusiasm you'll be feeling will be real.

You will have a PASSIONATE RELATIONSHIP with the Creator of the Universe.

You will have a PASSIONATE conviction to impact the lives of the people in your life.

You will have A PASSIONATE LIFE!

2. SILENCE TO FIND GOD

Have you been busy with your work and trying to juggle your church commitment and ministries?

Finding it hard to rest and instead of growing in your spiritual walk, you are getting burned out physically..

Instead of hearing from God and resting in His presence, you are frustrated with your duities and responsibilities?

Then it is timely for you to learn to hear God in retreat.

Yes in silence, right in a farm, we want to devote few hours to rest in His presence and renew our sense of hearing His still small voice.

3. WORSHIP EXTRAVAGANZA

God gives us different stories and unique life experiences.

Worship extravaganza is a wonderful opportunity for you to MAKE A DIFFERENCE in a small and fun way. :)

Share and express your story or your worship to God in anyway you are comfortable with.

You can do it alone. Or you can grab someone else to create an item to bless the rest of the zone.

THIS IS NOT SELF-ENTERTAINMENT. IT IS A WORSHIP.

We have been deeply blessed by the transparent sharing and authentic worship put up last year.

I am sure this year will be another year of breakthrough for many of us.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO

4. ZONE T-Shirt

I think we are the only zone in Ang Mo Kio Methodist to have a Zone Tee Shirt? :)

We see the need to have a lighter colour teeshirt since the weather is getting hotter in Singapore. Ha!

Which is why we are going for a brand new white colour T-shirt. Design will be the same as the black-one (design by Aichoo) :)

We encourage the whole zone to order the new Tee-Shirt and this will also help to reduce the cost further with more quantity purchased.

Cost - $12.50.

Sizes will be the same as the black t-shirt the previous time.

For those without forerunner t-shirt presently, to ask a friendly cell member of approx the same size to gauge size :-)

Please let your cell leaders know your size in COMING WEEK.

Deadline: Cell Leaders to let Jiahui know by 12 Oct 07.

THANK YOU FOR READING TILL HERE!

LET US PREPARE OUR HEARTS TO MEET GOD IN RETREAT! :)

FROM 2007 RETREAT COMMITEE

God comes through once again!!

This is an update from previous prayer request by Sister Ching Yen.

Hi everybody,


Camper registered to date: 5216 (numbers are still growing, we have about 200 cards have yet to key in).

Well, we will normally cater for a 10-20% drop-out rate, but we foresee we will have some to turn up on the spot to register.

Funds received as at 11 Sep : RM1,074,681.00

Interestingly, the moment we invite God to help us on the week of 21 Aug, and send an SOS message to you all, the funds and numbers came in with a double - triple jump from last week.

The camp is on this Sat, and i am reminded by Him again to learn from Moses. "If Your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here." - Exodus 33:15
Unless God goes with us, we will not move.

Tomorrow we will have a final staff brief, i will make it a point that we will keep this verse in mind. Some of us will have a prayer walk the day before the event.

And yes, i will fast and pray starting tomorrow onwards.

Thank you for all the prayers. May His will be done. =)

chingyen

A Testimony of Melissa Danielle Brown (A friend of Jessica)

A testimony from my friend, Melissa. May it be an encouragement and inspiration to you as well.

.

I developed Hemiplegia Cerebral Palsy before birth. The doctors did not detect cerebral palsy until fourteen months after birth. Hemiplegia means that I have choreoathetosis, or uncontrollable movements. The words "cerebral palsy" by themselves mean brain damage. Cerebral palsy affects your fine motor skills. Most people with cerebral palsy are unable to walk, talk, write, or do any of the other things that a normal person can do.

Since my disability was undetected until I was fourteen months old, it was at that time that my parents were told that I would never be able to walk. However, created in the image of my Heavenly Father, He has a plan for me. Since He has a plan for me, I was only unable to walk for the first six years of my life.

When I was seven, God performed the greatest miracle of my life. My family and I were at one of my brother's soccer games. It was not quite time for the game to start, so my brother carried me over and sat me down next to the field. He then went over to the playground and started playing with my sisters. I was fine by myself for a few minutes, but then a desire started to grow deep inside me to be with my brother and sisters. As a result of that desire that started to grow deep inside me, I got up from where I was sitting, took two steps, and fell down. I did not give up. I got back up and started all over again. With every two steps that I would take, I would fall down. I still did not give up. Taking it two steps at a time, I eventually made it to my brother and sisters.

I moved from Charleston, South Carolina to Greenville, South Carolina my seventh grade year, and at the time, I had a dislocated kneecap. As a result of my dislocated kneecap, I could not walk at all and needed surgery. After I had the surgery and had recovered enough to start walking again, I was praising God and thanking Him for my ability to walk again.

One of my favorite verses, Jeremiah 32:26-27, says this: Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: "I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?" This is one of my favorite verses because it reminds me that there is nothing in this world that is too difficult for our Heavenly Father to handle. There is nothing too hard for Him.

Since we all fall short of the glory of God, we need to try to remember that He gave us forgiveness through the Ultimate Sacrifice, His one and only Son, Jesus Christ. Romans 3:21-24 states: "But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."

Our Heavenly Father forgives and still performs miracles today. His love for us conquers anything that the devil tries to throw into our paths. When we rely on God's strength, nothing will be impossible for us to accomplish when we believe in ourselves.

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 4:37-38 that "Because He loved your forefathers and chose their descendants after them, He brought you out of Egypt by His presence and His great strength, to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today."

When you have your mind set to doing something, believe in yourself and you will find that nothing is as hard as it seems. Learning how to walk all over again after I had my knee surgery took a lot of hard work, but it has paid off. I have noticed that when I have a surgery and have to sit in my wheelchair, it drives me up a wall. Life is full of overcoming obstacles and hard work. If we are never trying to overcome obstacles and work hard, we will never get anywhere. Allowing certain things to happen in our lives is God's way of showing us how much we really need Him. So I give God all glory for the events that have happened in my life. I pray that you will find Him in your circumstances too.

Thanksgivings and Updates from Ching Yen

This is an update on the prayer request posted for Ching Yen on the 30-Hr Famine event.

I had a very busy week last week, thank you for praying and asking me for an update. When i saw ur mail, i do not have the info still for update from finance dept.

To date, we have 4140 registered campers, and the numbers are growing still.

God sent us last minute break-fast meal sponsor last week! Gardenia has graciusly sponsored 6000 packages of cakes to us, and we manage to get in some free merchandise to sell in recovering the t-shirt printing cost! Praise the Lord for His provision!

I am reminded to fast and pray for this event as it can be a spiritual famine that we are eperiencing here and God may have intention to restore the broken-hearted people who are coming for this event with His spirit working in the midst.

I will fast and pray, really hope to see His works done beyong our human understanding. =)

Kindly share this with those who are praying for me, thank you so much for upholding me in prayers when i am weak. ^-^

For those interested to find out more about the 30-Hr famine program by World Vision, the website is http://www.30hourfamine.org/

An Exhortation - Romans 12:5

1st Corinthians Journey – Phase 1 conclusion

An Exhortation : By Swee Ching

As we came to the end of Cafe Charis and the teaching on Sectarian Spirit, just feel the need to do a sharing on some of my thoughts which I hope can encourage us to apply what we have learned from cell.

This is a long email so please take time to read. Thanks!

Verse from Roman12:5

..so in Christ, we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

The key word here is belongs. Normally when something or someone belongs to us, we own that that particular subject.

Eg. the Mazda car belongs to me, so I am the owner of the Mazda and I am responsible to take good care of my car.

So the above verse says "EACH MEMBER BELONGS to all the others".

So when each member belongs to all the others, it will mean that the rest own the member!

What I want to touch on now is the sense of OWNERSHIP.

I'm going to break this ownership into 2 levels.

1. Personal ownership

- Take ownership over your own spiritual life. All of us have personal responsibility to do our own QT and to seek God for answers in our prayers. On Sunday, Pastor Leslie taught that when you remain stagnant, you risk backsliding. How many of you know that you are stagnant but you are not doing anything about it? Start now!

Practical steps:

a. Tell someone! Be accountable and take action.

b. Go back to the fundamental and build your spiritual disciplines and fundamentals with word of God.

c. Start serving in cell and ministries and mix with people who can help and spur you in your spiritual walk.

2. Ownership over the rest of the cell group/zone/church.

- Once you understand the personal level of ownership, take on a 2 ^nd level of ownership for your cell/zone/church. The verse says that we are a body of Christ and a member belongs to us! What are we doing about this ownership that God has given to us? Are we pro-active in helping the weak in faith and are we a blessing in cell/zone/church? Or are we simply there to receive?

- Start making a positive difference in our cell group.

a. Transparency/ accountability. Pastor Stanley taught about having a spiritual friend. Be one and look for one now! Start sharing authentically and be accountable. If not, start with your cell leader.

b. Lack of people serving. Start encouraging people to share testimony and to start serving and bless in small ways. Offer your help in small ways! Start small! Affirm one another's spiritual gifts and service.

c. Being serious in word of God. Come prepared for cell word. Read Corinthians and anticipate God to speak through Adrian. Listen attentively and meditate and chew on the truths you learned.

Infact it is natural that cliques are formed. There are healthy cliques and unhealthy cliques (like what Xinhui shared with me). Healthy cliques support one another spiritually and challenges or rebuke one another in love. It includes others unconditionally and uses its strength as a clique to be a blessing to the others. Unhealthy cliques stick to themselves only and are selective in who they want to bless.

We are a big group and we are diverse because God created us differently. However the beauty of unity is to see it in diversity and to see His people standing together in times of blessings and in times of crisis. Do we stick together or do we run away when there is a need for help?

God bless and may we stand together in good or bad times.

love,

SC