Was doing my year-end review and realised there was too much to say about the mission trip, so I'm putting it in a separate post. There's so much more to say about the trip, but I guess I have most of it down in my journal already, so nevermind. Maybe some other time I'll edit this post and add more stuff.
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Towards the end of September, I was due to go for a mission trip with my cell group. I was totally not feeling it. I also didn't feel like I could fully trust God yet. Despite the big turnaround moment God had just given me during my KL trip, there was still the whole year of doubting God's goodness and withdrawing my trust in Him since Dennis' death. I told Yang Hong about it after church one day, on a sofa at the Hotspot, and he simply said "take your time." I love how his responses are simple, light, and liberating. There isn't a need to strive to be okay. It takes time and that's just how things are.
I realised that I was afraid to pray for anything because I was afraid it wouldn't come true. So I took a step of faith and prayed for just one thing: that as a result of the mission trip / God's work through us, one person would give up (a specific thing I shan't say here), and dedicate him/herself to (a specific thing). This I did not witness during the trip itself, but two weeks later one of the people I had met in passing felt led to contact me (she got my number from someone else; I hadn't even given her my number, and why me specifically?), and through a phone call and subsequent texts God's work was done through her. God was faithful indeed.
Anyway, that was after the trip. So when I left for the mission trip itself, I was already jaded and not expecting much, not trusting that God would impact me or work through me during the trip. As soon as we got out of the airport and met the leader of my church's missions arm, he looked at us and said we were going to receive much on the trip or something like that. Then he looked at me specifically for a bit and said, "you too, but you need a bit more faith." And for every single person that I prayed for on the trip (except one as far as I can recall), I got a prophetic image. On Day 2 I prayed for someone to receive Tongues and she got it, just a little bit. (When I received Tongues it took me a couple of weeks to get it fully also. And previously another person I prayed for also had the same result, only in part at first. I think it's not a very good anointing I'm passing down ah maybe someone else should pray HAHAH) We also followed a bunch of homeless ministry workers around, walking through the streets giving out coffee to people around and inviting them to the service on Sunday.
On Day 3 I was scheduled to share a short message. I had prepared something about Ezekiel 16, about God as our Husband and our intimate relationship with Him. And WHO WOULD'VE THOUGHT, as soon as I stepped into the church I noticed a big banner across the stage that read "INTIMACY WITH GOD". The church was called BETHEL (the name I want to give my future child–"House of God"–we are all temples of God) and they had a lot of Jewish elements–the menorah, the star of David somewhere, and someone even blew a shofar. Day 3 was also the homeless ministry service, where Siyi shared her testimony (so blessed by her courage and vulnerability) and Jer shared about her own story of self-destructive behaviour, suicidal tendencies and abuse, and how now, God is fighting her battles for her: it doesn't remove the obstacles on the journey, but there is freedom and victory in knowing that you aren't fighting it on your own.
Many other things happened on the trip, including this one school where the demonic presence was so strong that all of us felt it individually while we split up and prayer-walked separately, eeps. But it was already better than the previous time the missions wing visited the place, and apparently now (a year later) it's much better.
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