Keng Suan's Bday Celebration

There were 3 birthday celebrations for Keng Suan this year. She was really blessed....

The celebration with the core team was in an amusement park....some of us wanted to try Viking but because we had a great dinner earlier on, so to keep our food in the stomach, we did something else...dancing and car racing in the front of the arcade centre. Keng Suan was full of her "gan cheong" and "cool" expressions when it comes to racing.. mind you, this girl passed her driving on first attempt in Singapore...

The youth also gave her a surprise celebration and without fail, they asked her to do silly things. These things are better shown than described. SY & I treated Keng Suan her favorite KFC...Somehow we felt the chicken are bigger sizes...we thought it was a gift to her birthday....

Her life is a blessing to the church. Her likeable personality brought a lot of joy to us. Her personal conviction is to help the young, be a role model of biblical values and purpose-driven life. She has indeed made great effort and sacrifices to help the youths and the young adults. We pray that God will use her greatly, add to her deeper understanding of people and God, that her love for people will even be more impactful in the coming year.

One Salvation, One Great Party in Heaven!

As I am writing, I almost can't keep my joy within me!

Although I know in South American context, many people said sinner's prayer yet did not start following Christ due to poor understanding of salvation and cultural pressure. Today when we were doing a mid-week Bible Study with a regular visitor named Miguel, he said the sinner's prayer and received Christ!

He shared with us that he said this prayer before when he was 16. During that time, he was concerned for his father's health, that's why he received Christ and went for baptism right after. But today, he understood the meaning of salvation. Upon saying the sinner's prayer, he felt the forgiveness and grace of God through the Jesus. Because of that, he broke down. With the other guys (a male Bible Study time), we were all teary over this great work of salvation by our amazing God!

I am joining the great party in heaven now in rejoicing over one salvation. How wonderful to bring heaven down to Hope Place!

"In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." Luke 15:10

Upgrading and Beautifying Works

In Hope Place, besides Sunday and CG activities during weekends, private English, Chinese and Matematics tuition classes during weekdays, we also organize youth and kids programs through an NGO. These programs aim to develop the underprivileged Peruvian youths and kids in English and value-centered education.

So on any single day, there are bound to be classes, church activies and the NGOs' activities. To update the various activities, we decided to upgrade and beautify our information systems - the notice boards! This to be done before many youth activities happening in 2nd week of March. So we pulled together a whole team of strong youth members to do up the notice boards....with the art directorship of Oscar and SY and leadership of KS of course.....

The notice boards are, I must say, in my humble opinion, FANTASTICO!

Another Maiden Attempt

We usually prepare some snacks for our DMM. The last DMM, a maiden attempt to bake a butter muffin by Siew Yee. This Blog must be balanced in journalling the successes and failures within Hope Place (Peru).... haha...I shall sacrifice my wife to account this first attempt. The butter muffin came out hard and too sweet, by majority comments! I will encourage my wife through a famous quote: Success is a journey, not a destination...... I still ate the buffin noentheless:)

God's Tremendous Blessings

God's tremendous blessings continued to flow into the church. Just to name 2 in particular in Feb.

We received a big sum of tithe from some new regular visitor. We were very shocked to receive such big sum from a local who didn't earn a lot. She gave the sum by hand so we know it is a genuine giving. God really touched our hearts through this sister. We can't help but feel the greatness of God who works wonders in the hearts of people.

We also continued to receive financial blessings from overseas, even in Feb. We are grateful for the blessings. But even more, I am reminded what Pastor Seaward shared on one ocassion, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be. If your money is invested in God's mission, your heart is in God's mission." Those brothers and sisters who continue to give to Hope Lima and missions, I believe with all my heart that their hearts are in God's mission. They may not be at this point able to GO but their financial giving only tells so loudly that they are global-minded Christians with the world in their hearts like God. Wow.... I really love to partner with many brothers and sisters in global missions.

God, thank you for blessing Hope Lima tremendously. It's my and my wife's privilege to be your witness and proclaimer till our term ends "on earth"......