A note.. Who writes a note on facebook these days? I don't know the answer to the question, and I don't even know who will be reading this note. All I know is that God left an impression in my heart for me to write down what I have experienced during the three days at Batam Mission Trip here..
This is long overdue, so perhaps my memory might fail me. But I pray that God might refresh my memory to the events that He wants me to share, and may every word I type here not come from me, but from Him and only Him alone. All this I pray, in the mighty Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen! =D
I also don't know what prompted me to go for the Batam Mission Trip. All I know was that I was extremely excited for it after knowing that there will be one through the Speedlight leaders whatsapp group, and that was way before it was confirmed and announced in church. Perhaps not being able to go for the OCIP to Yogyakarta, Indonesia back in 2010 due to the Mount Merapi volcano eruption has something to do with it. Thinking back, imagine what would have happened if the volcano decided to erupt some time later, while we were there?? Thank God we weren't there at that time. Anyway, back to the mission trip. As usual, I excitedly asked Sandra whether she could go as well, and she said she wasn't sure as she might need to go back to school for meetings during the holidays. I managed to persuade her to just sign up for it together with me, and if sadly she isn't able to make it, we can swoop places with someone else who's interested in going but hasn't signed up. Thank God nothing clashed with the dates of the mission trip.
However, it wasn't all smooth sailing before the mission trip. Sandra and I, just like any other couple, had our fair share of arguements, and at some points it got really bad, till I almost didn't know how to go for the mission trip with her anymore. As this was a first mission trip for me, I have no idea (until a later time that is) this was actually part of satan's plan to keep us from going for the mission trip. Had we not gone for it, we might have just missed out so much of what God is trying to do in our lives.
One day before the mission trip, well, not surprisingly, I have not packed for the mission trip yet. I was never good with packing, and hence I took a long long time to pack - all the way to the wee hours of the night. I slept late, so the next day it was totally crazy in trying to wake up to take train to harbour front ferry terminal. So I got Sandra to get a cab from her house and come over to my house to pick me up before going to harbour front ferry terminal together. Guess what? I forgot that my wallet had very little SGD left and Sandra usually doesn't carry much cash around! And we're on a cab which doesn't allow payment via anything else except cash! Although there was signs on the cab saying that they accept ez link card payments, through my bad experiences I know they don't, so I thought I would play it safe and whatsapp the other leaders in woodlands to see whether they have spare cash that I can borrow, long before we reached harbour front. Well, no one saw the message I believed, and no one answered the calls when our cab reached. Thank God, that with every cent (quite a few 5 cent coins) in our wallets, we managed to make up very close to the cab fare (Praise God! =D) and thank God the cab driver was nice enough to let us off, and even apologise for not being able to accept any other forms of payment! =D
So we met up with the others, collect our boarding passes, wait wait and wait and we're off to Batam. I tried to sleep on the ferry and on the bus to the hotel, but I didn't manage to for some unknown reasons. We arrived at the hotel and we had praise and worship session. By then, I wasn't that much alert already, so it didn't got into me much when the two Pastors (can't remember whether is it them or someone else) mentioned that satan might try to sabotage our mission trip. At the back of my mind, I just thought maybe satan will use the weather (haze included) or something like that to sabotage, so I just prayed for the weather together with the group.
After a not so filling lunch (well no complaints since we're on a mission trip, not some 5 star holiday eh? Plus I set with a table full of guys), we set off in our respective teams to the church. At that point of time, I still had no idea why Sandra and I ended up in the visitation team. I still remember during the briefing on 11th May, I was wondering how come Sandra's name and my name were not included together with the rest of the speedlighters, and only to find out later we're in the visitation team together with the other adults! =O We're the only non adult team (technically we're still under 21), and the closest was Alina and Wilbur's team but they definitely have much more experience than the both of us. I wasn't very sure what to expect so I held Sandra's hand and we prayed together about the visitation.
We were blessed to have Pastor Iskandar and his brother Calvin as our interpreter. We went to our first house, which was a Muslim house. They didn't have a very nice house - no furnitures, and it was incomplete as they did not have enough funds to complete it. Though they might be poor, the impresson that I got from them is that they are very rich in spirit. Despite being Muslims, they are open to being prayed for, which we did for them. Perhaps they might just want the blessings, or have other reasons for not accepting Christ, but I know God has sown His seeds in them, and I pray that they might come to Him in His perfect timing. Oh and they have a son who's doing very well in his studies in school (third in class or something like that). He has a dream of coming to Singapore to further his studies. I pray that God will provide him with a way to further his studies in Singapore, and may his passion to excel will not be extinguished by his financial situations.
The second home we went to was slightly better off. They were a Christian family. The husband was a Christian and because the wife married him, she became a Christian as well. Praise God that she grew to in Christ and even opens her house for cell group. However, sadly her husband backslided and started giving excuses to not attend church. The husband wasn't around when we visited and the wife shared that she has been praying for him, and we prayed for the him and the family as well. Thinking back now, it reminds me how easy it is to lose our way even though we might claim to be Christians. The devil will always be there to whisper to you lies so as to lure you away from the Shepherd, so we must constantly listen to His voice so that we can follow Him and walk with Him closely.
Third family was a Catholic family. They seemed pretty good to me compared to the other two (Praise God! =D). Nothing much I remember from this family, except this small girl who's so shy and refused to let Sandra lay hands on her to pray for her healing. We still prayed for her though. =D
And then came the movement back to hotel and then preparation for the night service. Some things happened and we got delayed, but thank God it was ultimately resolved! =D The service was awesome! =D We had quite a big venue, and initially I was quite worried. I kept looking back (we were sitting in the first few rows), and the numbers that were there were quite disappointing. We barely filled half the seats available. I kept praying for more people to come but seems like no one else came. When Pastor Barb finished preaching the message, and there was an altar call, no one came up. My heart kind of sank.. Oh no! No one at all! I was quite disappointed at that time, but I thought we still have the healing message. So when Pastor Rachel went up and asked whether there's anyone with a sickness in need of prayer to step up, again no one.. If you remember I was quite exhausted throughout the day, and at that time I had a huge headache. But thank God Pastor Rachel mentioned something, that we have to claim healing through our spoken words as well. So I just kept saying I have no headache and I am not tired and without me realising, the headache and tiredness just seemed to disappear! =D Thank God!!! =D
I can't remember what exactly Pastor Rachel mentioned again, but people started walking up to the front. I'm not the kind of person who usually takes the initiative most of the time in an unfamiliar environment but I don't know why I just walked up and started to prayed for a guy, just like what I was told to do. Thinking back, it seems to invoke some deja vu feeling. It's just like how I asked Sandra, "eh now altar call ah?" And then I started walking down the stairs to the front and received Christ back in 2010! =D I have never prayed for someone in that kind of setting before. I just prayed and prayed in tongues and the guy just started trembling and shaking and crying and.. yea you get it. The pastors kept walking around me and even talked to the guy, most probably because they saw how he was reacting and afraid I couldn't handle it. Thank God I just prayed and prayed, in tongues and in English, and worshipped Jesus as the song comes along. It was so awesome as I felt God's presence so strongly, so overwhelmingly.
After the service things happened, and one of them I only got to know after returning to my room. Thank God for the mini praying and sharing session in my 'apartment' with the rest of the guys. Never heard anyone else mentioning specifically about how satan creeps in and spoils our plans until then. It's really a good reminder that we're constantly in a spritual warfare with the devil. "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood,but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 6:12) Therefore, we constantly need God to help us fend off the enemy!
The next day was pretty much the same so I shall skip the morning part. Visitation again, and this time we got Novela as our interpreter. We went to our first house, and it was a Chinese old grandmother. Sandra and I were kind of shock when suddenly she said "jiang hua yu" (speak Chinese) these three words. So we ended up conversing with her in Chinese. She shared with us her life story, and how she came to becoming a Muslim just because she claimed that a mosque was nearyby her house and there wasn't a church nearby. God prompted me to share with her the stories about my maternal grandparents, and how they came to Christ. So both Sandra and I shared and shared, but she refused to even let us pray for her. Oh well.. But I can sense that she understands what Sandra and I shared about the love, grace and mercy of God, but there's still a bit of resistance. I know that God has sown a seed in her heart and I pray for a harvest to be in God's perfect timing. The old lady was very welcoming, which kind of reminded me of what most old people wants - company. Someone to talk to and visit them would be good enough. And God is the only one who will be ALWAYS there for them and will never be "too busy" for them.
As we spent too long in our first house, the parents of the second and third house was not around. I was a little disappointed but we got to pray together with the kids from the third house. =D And then we got back and prepared for night service.
We had a surprise awaiting us when we reach the venue for the night service. This time round it was at the place where they held their service. Oh gosh there was a blackout! The power was off and we gathered as a church and started praying. We prayed and we trusted God and we sang worship songs as the Spirit guides us. It got dark and we kept praying and praying. The power didn't come back on and it was getting late. Someone suggested shifting the service to the 'carpark' outside where we lay newspapers and the headlights of the car was used as lighting. I was helping out to lay the newspapers when suddenly I heard screams of joy! THE POWER HAS RETURNED!! =D HALLELUJAH!! =D =D I was still in my blur state when I looked at the lights and it took seconds for me to register that "OH! There was a blackout just now!" Haha it just seemed too normal for me to see the lights on. Anyway, it's really a lesson to not run ahead of God. God has His own plans, and it doesn't always coincide with ours. Just like we might think it's too late, God doesn't think so, so it's really important to hear His voice! =D The service was awesome just like the night before and this time round Sandra was praying for a girl and since I had nobody to pray for, I prayed for her as well while standing behind Sandra.
Throughout this mission trip, I really learnt a lot. Thank God that He prompted me to type this out. It actually reminded me of the lessons I learnt, which I think I conveniently forgot most of them. I just want to say I feel the youths there in Batam really express out their feelings for God! Yes it might be a personal relationship with God but I feel that when we come together as a congregation to worship God, there isn't a need to feel shy or be reserved. We could just bask in God's joy together! =D Thank God for this awesome mission trip! =D I look forward to more mission trips and experiences with God! =D HALLELUJAH! =D God Bless! =D
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