Reflection and Thanksgiving for Youthnet Israel Trip 2007

3 words that sum up my trip:

1) Restoration

I am so thankful to God and give Him all praises for His love for me. He spoke so personally to me on several occasions during the trip with regard to the areas of my heart that needed His restoration. During the morning bus worship sessions, He came so personally to bring healing in my heart of the pain of losing 2 close friends this year. Indeed, God knows our hearts far better that we do. And He knew I just needed that complete healing. At the Church of Annunciation at Nazareth, I was very blessed and ministered by Pastor Eugene’s sharing on how God never despises the small things and of how with Him all things are possible. It ministered to me a lot about my life, my ministry. I never expected God to use this trip to minister to such personal areas of my life, honestly. But He cares, He loves, and in His might and grace, He brought forth restoration. And for this, I give all thanks and glory to Him.

2) Revelation

The pre-trip session we had where Pastor Eugene spoke about how important it was to be close to the Cross, set an important foundation for me for this trip. I was reminded that in order to see God in this trip, I had to be found close to the Cross. The session with Pastor Peter, at Mount Carmel, built on this, where I was taught the importance of revelation to see God’s Hand in this nation. Before this trip, I knew I had to always pray for Israel and the peace of Jerusalem. But I never did quite fully understand why. I thank God that He used this trip to bless me with revelation to understand why this nation needs prayer and how God is using this nation as a powerful tool for His glory. After this trip, indeed, reading the Bible takes on a different and deeper meaning. Through this trip, God revealed how very much He is a covenant-keeping God. His promises towards Israel stand to this day. Some have come true, and we are seeing it! As God revealed this to me, there was a breakthrough in my heart to apply this revelation to what I want to believe in God for.
Through the Masada visit, God spoke to me through the story of the Jews at Masada. This was a group of Jews who rather die for their freedom than to be slaves under the Romans. (whether it was right to die or not is not to be judged I guess.) But through that visit, I was reminded how in Christ, we are always called to die to ourselves to live in the freedom of Christ, and not to be slaves of sin. And I prayed to the Lord that day that He will constantly help me to be desperate to rather “die (to myself) for freedom” rather to be a slave to sin.


3) Renewal

Through this trip, and all that I have received, seen and learnt. I believe God has done a renewal work in my walk with Him. God has shown me how much greater He is, and have Him being magnified gives me faith in my life. Through the nation of Israel, He has shown me His own heart for His people and nations, and this trip has sparked off a new interest in me for matters concerning Israel.

One prayer I ask of Him before the trip was that I wanted to really end the Year of Victory well for God, in spite of the setbacks this year. Now I know God has positioned this trip and planned for me to go. And I give thanks to Him for this trip for I know now He has used it to show me His victory and that in Him, I am more than a conqueror! Thank you God.

Mabel.

Year of Victories- Jiahui’s Testimony

2007 has been an exciting year of victory after victory! =) One of my greatest thanksgivings is the start of a Prayer Point group in NUS. I remember writing in my Warrior of Light matrix at the start of the year 2007; that one of my “Ask Bigs” is to lead a prayer meeting in NUS.

God wonderfully answered my prayer! As I took the step of faith in obedience, together with the support of my leaders and friends that God sent, the NUS prayer meeting was birthed. It was amazing to see how God changed the spiritual climate of our school as we prayed and prayer walked the land. I still remember seeing a rainbow at the very spot we prayed at, where God really assured me of His faithfulness – that He will use us mightily to transform our school.

[2 Corinthians 2:14] “But thanks be to God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.”

The call from our Senior Pastor, Lawrence Khong, was to be LIGHT in our marketplace. I’d like to share three specific instances where God used us to be a blessing to our school.

During Teachers’ Day 2007, 1 September, I sensed the Lord asking us to bless our teachers. So I sought the Lord for a word, for two of my lecturers and wrote a card to them. Thank God, the cards really brightened up my lecturers’ day. One of them even emailed me in return to thank me for the word that I released to her! It was indeed a timely word for her life that season. Indeed God works in amazing ways! =)

On another occasion, during our Mid Term tests, our prayer point group gave out JC plus bottled water in the heart of our school – the Central Library. We initially planned to give out the 100 bottles in 2 hours… but a miracle happened! All the 100 bottles were gone in under an hour, even though it was very early in the morning and there were supposedly very few students in school at that hour! We even had the opportunity to pray for one of the students we blessed. I believe that the Holy Spirit used this to change our hearts – to show us that indeed the spiritual climate of our school is receptive and to encourage us to dare to pray a blessing for strangers.

Just right before our exams, we had an “Exam Time Blessing” where we gave out lollipops with scriptural verses attached, in the different faculties in our school. As we went forth with a bold and courageous spirit to bless our school, the students of our school were surprised and received our gift with a smile. Some even offered to pay us for the lollipops! Most of all, I thank God for changing our hearts. Many of us took the step of faith to pray for strangers, during this Act of Blessing. I believe that through this act, we’ve been the LIGHT in the marketplace that touched the students with the love of God during those trying period.

I thank God for using me to begin leading this prayer point in NUS. Although not everything went smoothly all the time, He was always there to assure me to press on. Truly as we step out with a willing an obedient heart, in step with The Holy Spirit, He will surely use us to bring transformation to the arena He has placed us in. =)
Thank God for all victories!



Jia Huyi.

Victories for 2007-Yoke Yeong’s Testimony

2007 had been an interesting year with many Thanksgiving and Victories, with one of the year’s greatest victories rushing in on the last few days before we crossed over into this New Year of 2008.

• As I am completing my education in NIE (National Institute of Education), I Thank God for allowing me to Cross- Over from the Diploma course to complete my Degree course in Biology (yay Bio rocks! haha). It was really a miracle considering my not-fantastic results. This was something that I’ve been praying and hoping for as my Ask Big goals on my Warrior Matrix.

• I also Thank God for my results!! I feel that it has been my most difficult Semester so far in terms of the amount of scientific facts to remember. Yet God has blessed me to let it be my best results so far!!

• On the 28th Dec 2007 (Friday), my grandfather was admitted into hospital due to stomach problems. I was really disturbed and could not sleep that night. In fact, that was also the weekend that I was rehearsing for the Countdown Party with the choir. I remembered, at first, I really didn’t want to be in the choir. Partly because I could not really coordinate or remember the actions well, as I’m the 慢半拍kind.

But when I received the news of my grandfather’s hospitalization, this thought came to my mind; “I’m not just there to be part of the choir, worshipping there will be a spiritual battle I fight for my grandfather and my family.” Hence, it really changed my whole outlook of things. I still 慢半拍la but never mind because I’m doing it for a different reason.

During that weekend, on a Sunday, my mum & I went to visit my grandfather in the morning. My mum and my auntie (who is a Christian) were in the room talking. When I went in, my aunt told me that my mother wants to believe in Jesus. I was so very excited. So I told her to join me Youth Service later. At the end, I asked her again and she said that she wanted to receive Christ into her life. I was overjoyed. There wasn't an altar call that day, but I just asked her to go to the consolidation room anyway. I met Ps Yo there and she spoke to my mum and led her to say the Sinner's Prayer.

I was initially quite upset that my Year of Victory would end with such bad news. However, this unexpected victory was a marvellous twist to end the year off with! My grandfather’s condition seems stable at the moment. But I’ll continue to believe and pray for his health as well as my grandparents’ salvation

Indeed, I claim God’s word in Romans 8:28 ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’


Yoke Yeong.