Team Outing

We had a team outing today! We started the day visiting a local church. The P&W session was great though everything is in Spanish. I love their exhuburance in worship! How great the day will be when every tongue, tribe, people and nation worship together! I can see this vision approaching.

We took a picture with the pastor.

After the service, the team treated Jiehui and I to seafood! So sweet of them. Haiz.. I thought I could lose weight here but I end up eating even more! Over here, its bread, bread and lots of bread. Plus the winter makes me really hungry… excuses…hehee

After the meal, we went to watch Shrek 3 together. It was fun just spending time together. But we are quite “Singaporeanize”… always looking for the cheapest deals and rushing here and there 😛

 We ended the day with an extended time of worship and prayer. It was a refreshing time. God reminded us of many things. One thing that He spoke to me was not to insult Him. Often I insult God through my unbelief. He reminded me that He can do imaginary more than what I can ask or imagine. I shall not insult God by asking him for small things or asking and not believing. Mi Dios es grande, poder y fiel! He is more than able!

 

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Divine Encounters

ok no pictures but God has been good to us. 

We had been interceding for the church. One of the aspects that I feel is needed is the Presence and the leading of the Holy Spirit in this place. I feel that the Chileans need to experience God in a tangible way. There seems to be a lack of encounters with God and spiritual hunger in this place. The conversations we had tend to be surface and shallow. We were praying that God wouldl lead us to the right people. People who have spiritual hunger for Him. I was moved to pray for the people to be Holy Spirit baptised. Holy Spirit baptism and speaking in tongues is very strange over here.

Last night, we had dinner with PS’s 2 friends. She met one of them a few days ago. One of them is a translator thus she can speak English very well. Before the dinner, PS and I prayed that we could go deep in our conversations, we were so tired of shallow conversations. We prayed that we could talk about spiritual matters.

During the dinner, the translator initiated the spiritual conversation. She and her friend started to share with us about their spiritual lives. She shared that she didnt believe in attending church alone. She believes that Christianity is about a relationship with God, not receiving Jesus as Saviour but as her Lord as well. She shared with us that she took 7 months to make this decision and how her life was changed ever since. She believes in walking with God and dying to herself everyday. She said that she and her friend prayed before meeting us. She was very tired of meeting people who dont love God!  While she was sharing, my heart just skipped with joy and excitement! I were like “yes! yes! I know what you are taking about!”

We told her that we prayed before that meeting too. I could really feel the connection between the 2 of us. Then she asked us if we were filled with the Holy Spirit. We shared with her our testimonies and they requested us to pray for them. They were so passionate in their prayers and so eager to receive the Holy Spirit. I was very moved just by praying for them. We prayed for a long time. Finally they spoke in tongues. Their joy and excitement were very contagious! All of us agreed that this meeting was very divine. God heard our prayers.

PS and I met another 2 gals for dinner tonight. Again we managed to talk about spiritual matters. I shared with them about all the healing stories in Singapore and they were very amazed by all the stories.

It’s very divine how God leads us this week. Please continue to pray for us. We are having youth English lesson tomorrow and CG on Monday. Pray for good turnout and lives be impacted. Gracias 🙂

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Pictures!

We had a youth English class last Saturday. The turnout was not bad. We had English games with the youth and we are starting the lesson proper this Saturday. Oh there is a guy that looks like Harry Potter. We were quite stunned when we first saw him.

 

 

After which, we walked a long way to hunt for good and nice dinner. We had a pot of meat and my favourite, pisco sour. Its veryyyy nice!!!

 

On Sunday, we visited a small church for their Sunday Service. The people here are very affectionate in their greetings. On that night alone, I had cheek to cheek greeting to about 25 people. Thank God the weather here is not humid! Managed to “kidnap” some kids to take pictures with me. Cindy said that there are no skinny babies here… all are so chubby and cute!

 

 

 

ok she is not a baby but a babe…heheee

 

 

So far so good. Many people have asked me if I miss home. I dont really miss home as I am quite occupied over here but occasionally when I walked to school, I will miss my friends and my parents. My mom was so worried about me that she got my cousin to email me. She told her to tell me not to use the contact lens solution as its contaminated. You can hear her relief when I gave her a call and assured her that everything is fine. I am still a small girl in her eyes. Hmm.. kind of miss her nagging 😀 So dont complain when your mom nags at you.. hehee…

 Oh other than people, one thing that i miss most is the food! Laksa, dao gua pao, chilli crab…. yummy!!! Over here, its bread, bread and more bread…hehee… Oh I have not been drinking coffee for a week cos the coffee here is different.

However I was telling JieHui that I am really thankful that I am here. I know that I will gain so much and mature so much as a person, through the good and bad experiences. I feel that I am too sheltered in Singapore. Its an eye opener for me over here. To experience a new culture, seeing how people live and think… its great! I will regret if I have not come 😀

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Heard that the youth camp was a hit! Update me more about the camp if you can… come to think of it, this is the first time I am missing the youth camp after 10 years… getting sentimental…hehee..

These few days have been great. I have been studying Spanish diligently and time really flies! I have been invited to a few Chilean home for dinner, here they call it “once”. They will eat bread, avocado and ham for their dinner. Pretty interesting huh… I had several “once” thus far.

On Wednesday, Pui See and I visited Andrea and her friend. They were very hospitable to us. It was a great girl’s talk. And it was a good experience for me to see how the Chileans live. Yesterday we went to another home. They are all very nice and warm people. The pic below…

Today JieHui and I visited the university with PuiSee again. It was pretty fruitful as I got to know 2 new friends. One of them are interested in our English course and she lives quite near to our place.

I realised that one of the keys to the growth of the church in acts church is the tangible presence of God. There is a sense of awe and reverent fear of God. The people do not just know that God exist in their minds but their experience Him as well. Most Chileans call themselves a Christian/Catholic here but there seems to be an absence of the power and presence of God. I know that it starts from myself. I have to first live a consecrated live and a life of worship.

 Rick Warren puts it very well

“This is the secret to a lifestyle of worship – doing everything as if I was doing it for Jesus. The Message paraphrase says, “Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering.” Work becomes worship when you dedicate it to God and perform it with an awareness of his presence. “

I am reminded to be a Mary not a Martha.

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Thanks!

Thanks all for your well wishes and prayers! I appreciate them greatly =)

I am doing really well here. My team members help me alot in adapting to this place. I have started my spanish classes so in due time I should be able to speak fluent spanish 🙂

We had a CG yesterday and starting a youth english club this Saturday. The confirmation for this Saturday is promising. We have about 16 potential youths coming. Please pray with us for a good turnout and that we can connect with the students through this event .  We are also praying that God will lead us to the right seed, people with spiritual hunger and can be connected to the church.

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We woke up this morning at 8.30 to prepare for all the stuffs for the Singapore event. It was a great team work. Everyone has a part in this event. We have about 18 people for the event. The atmosphere was good and the people enjoyed themselves =) I met Andrea who volunteers to bring me around, hopefully I can get to know her better. JH and I did a presentation on Singapore but I’m not sure if they understood us. The Chileans are used to the American accent.

We ended the day with a celebration dinner 🙂

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It’s takes alot of discipline to update continuously 😛

Yesterday was quite a packed day for us. We started the day with a filling breakfast. We are now more cautious of what we eat. In Singapore, we tend to have alot of  excess. When it comes to food, we normally have more than what we need.  However, the team here is very thrify in what they spend and what they eat. They were so surprised when JH and I finished up their milo in 4 days. I think it normally take them weeks to finish. We were joking that Cindy counted every egg in the fridge and even named each of them 😛 Jokes aside… I learn not to take things for granted 🙂 The team here works hard to earn a living and to grow a church. The cost of living is relatively high here thus they have to be thrify and learn to live simply.

We met Pui See to visit one of the top university in Chile on top of a hill. Pui See lectures in this school. You can see a drastic difference in the living condition of the people living below and the top of the hill. Those living below are very poor people whereas the university on the top of the hill is mainly for the rich. In contrast, the univserity looks beautiful and the carpark is filled with expensive cars. The students are well dressed, owns laptops and well off. On the bus back from the uni, the 3 of us sat separated as we wanted to invite people to the Singapore event. Pui See got to know a girl, Karen who can speak English and interested to learn about the Bible. She may be able to join us for CG on Monday! Pray for her.

Oh I found a spanish school! I’m so excited to learn Spanish again. All the people speaks Spanish here and I feel so handicapped not being able to speak and being understood! Being a “Sang”, its terrible 😛 My lessons will start on Monday so hopefully I can improve on my Spanish drastically. Interestingly a few Chileans told me that the Chileans speak the worst Spanish. They tend to use slangs, speak very fast and eat up their words. They say that this is the worst place to learn Spanish. How encouraging! On a positive note, they say that if I can understand them, I can understand anyone who speaks spanish 🙂

We spent the night preparing for the Singapore event. We prayed for the people who were coming and the event. Then Pui See and I fried all the food for the next day. I have not cooked so much stuffs in my life 😛 It was a fruitful session with her nevertheless. She shared with me about the situation over here and the need to have a strong walk with God. She has the gift of intercession and you can see her burden for the Chileans when she prayed. We finished frying the stuffs at about 3am and we were concussed by then. It was a fruitful day nevertheless!

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wow breakthrough… I’ve updated my blog 3 days in a row. Hopefully I can keep this up. This is good too… it serves as my daily journey and a record of my learnings.

This morning I cooked my first dish… corn soup with vegetables! From this experience, I realised how amateurish  I am in cooking. The corn soup overflowed cos i I closed the lit of the pot completely. Then the carrots were dropping all over the place while I was cutting them. This JH was laughing at me the whole time  -_-”

We then went to meet Cindy at one of the subway station on our own. JH lost his card and we had to get a new one. I tried to speak in my very broken spanish to ask how to buy a new ticket. The transportation system here is good, similar to that of Singapore. Just that its “muy importante” to be able to speak Spanish here.

We met Cindy at the subway station and went for lunch. The food here is mainly western food. We had a cheaper lunch at one of the street stalls. The boots and winter wear there is relatively cheap. Cindy is an expert in knowing the places with good deals. You can count on her to get all the cheap stuffs… hehee…

JH did an “interview” with her. Check out http://a-word-from-heaven.blogspot.com/

We then visited Walter at his university. He is one of Cindy’s English student, a nice chap. Walter gave us a tour around the school. 

 

These are the famous deserts in Chile. The lemon pie tasted very sweet and the other one, I cant remember the name. It tasted like chicken pie. The Chileans like very sweet and salty food. I’m beginning to miss the Joo Chiat “dao gua pao” already.

We ended the day with a Chinese class. Gosh… i have forgotten most of the stuffs. I’m quite nervous to teach but first thing first, I need to pick up Spanish rapidamente!

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I woke up in the middle of the night wide awide, still suffering from jetlag 😦

There were many “first times” for me today. We finally got to stroll the street of Santiago. This place is beautiful, it feels  European with the old buildings and the “maple” trees. The people are generally good looking with sharp features. David brought us to view our potential new house. We learnt how to travel by subway and bus.

 

Afterwhich, David left JH and I at the street near our house while he went to work. We decided to explore the street and look for our lunch. Most cafes here sell pasta and burgers. We went into one of them. I attempted to order food with my “muy poco” Spanish. Half the time, I couldnt understand what the cashier was saying and I just “Si” all the way. We ended up with an extra coke and fries. JH was laughing at me the whole time. Hey, at least i can speak poco spanish whereas his spanish is nada 😛

We went with Cindy to meet up with her student. She is going to be a vet but strangely she doesnt like animals. It was a good meet up and we managed to invite her to our Singapore event. Hopefully she will turn up.

My team members are a hardworking bunch! They will work till the wee hours of the night to prepare for their work and ministry stuffs and wake up very early in the morning the following day. They will arrange for meet ups with people during their break times and then return to work in the evening. They have to do the household chores, run the church and basically run everything. They are also very thifty. Inspite of the freezing weather, Cindy will walk to her school just to save the transportation money. On top of this, they have to adjust to a new language, adopt a new culture and at the same time make a living. Yet they do all these with a sweet spirit, doing unto God. It’s not easy and I’m inspired by them.

I realise that I have to learn everything from scratch. Even simple things like greeting people, taking public transport and ordering  food. I know that this is not comfortable but I know that I will regret big time if I have not chosen to come. I This is a venture of my lifetime! I look forward to what God is going to do in us and through us!

Pls pray with us that God will authenticate our presence here. That we will be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and will be able to connect the potential people with us. Pray that God will lead us to the right people. Gracias!

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Santiago!

I’ve made it to Santiago!

Firstly, a big thanks to all who have given me your encouragements, gifts, prayers and your presence at the airport! 🙂 I feel very loved! Gracias!

This is the first time that I have travelled so long and far. There were 4 stopovers. KL, Joburg, Cape Town and Buenos Aires. The stopover at Buenos Aires was quite nerve racking. We were supposed to do a transit to another Argentina flight and a direct transfer of our baggage to that flight. However when we went to the counter, the person told us to check out our baggage and check them in again. I was appalled. We are entitled to 2 baggage with 32 kg each with MAS but the
Argentina flight only allows 20kg! Which means that if we were to check out and in again, we will have to pay the 40kg excess baggage! We walked around the transist terminal, trying to get help from other people. One man tried to help but I doubt he knew what I was talking and at the end, he told us to check out too! Finally, we met another man who helped us arranged for the baggage transfer… phew!

Yes! We’ve arrived. The weather was cold but the team is warm. Cindy cooked fried rice for all of us and we went to bed after that. I was exhausted. I slept for 14 hours straight. Afterwhich we had dinner and prepared for CG! I managed to use my limited Spanish to converse with the people but the good thing is that some of them speak English. There were many first time visitors for CG! It was great knowing new people and experience a different Culture. One of the visitors, Junlio was quite enthu to teach me some Spanish words. Overall, it was a wonderful begining for me 🙂

Random pics taken in the CG
 

ok that’s all for now.. I’m going to sleep again 😀

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