recap

finally, i have internet access in our hotel room. here are the updates for now. will try to write more tomorrow morning. it's already 1:30am. rest is very very much needed during this trip. so goodnight and enjoy reading the blog!


8/14/06 1:18pm
On the bus: we have just entered Malaysia by bus!! 4 more hours to go before we get to K.L. The bus we are on is NOT like Greyhound. It's like first class on the plane! Lots of legs room, seats are comfy, personal T.V (allen is watching Once Upon a Time in China II), meal being served! Lily was right, it's better to take the bus then flying to Malaysia from Singapore. She told us that the duration of the ride is only 1 hour more than flying (including going through customs and claiming luggage) and it's 1/5 the price. After being on the bus for a little more than an hour, I understand why Larry, Lily's husband, (Lily and Larry are the Board of Directors of BCA who live in Singapore now), joined us on the ride instead of taking first class by flight for his business trip in K.L tonight!! Not only can he enjoy the same luxury as flying first class, he can be with his lovely wife, Lily! :) how sweet!

Anyway, due to the busyness of the past few days, we have not been able to write any updates. But as promised, here are the recaps:

First Day (8/12 Sat)
We had 2 rehearsals in the morning, one at Queenstown Baptist Church (9:30-10:30am), another one at Grace Chinese Church (11am-12:30pm). Afterward, we had lunch with brothers and sisters from Grace Chinese Church. They took us to have dim sum at the hotel next door. Singapore dim sum is pretty good. Even though the table was full of stacks and stacks of dim sum, in no time, we were managed to have the table cleared and a full tummy.
At 2pm, we had rehearsal at Fairfield Methodist Church. Afterward, we went home. Margie told us not to nap for too long since we have to get back to Grace Chinese Church at 6pm for final sound check for the concert happening that night. But how can we nap when there are still lyrics to be memorized, dance to be choreographed and testimonies to be prepared???

First Concert:
Our first concert of the tour went pretty well. There were about 200 people, ~20 people were non-believers. After the concert, we got a chance to mingle with the brothers and sisters from that church. Everybody really appreciated our sharing and songs. LOTS of people asked for our CDs. Margie, the Executive Director of BCA said she might consider that possibility.
From this concert, we saw how God really used our sharing to bless some individuals there. A brother approached Margie after the concert. He shared about a couple who the wife is pregnant but found out that her husband is having an affair and that they are going through divorces. And for some reason, the husband, a non-believer came to this event. Through Margie’s sharing, both the husband and the wife were really touched. During refreshment, the husband was willing to talk to the brothers and sisters there. Please continue to pray for this couples and pray that God will continue to do His amazing works in their marriage.

8/14/06 3pm
Still on the way to Malaysia, after writing the previous blog , I attempted to nap due to having the first sign of a cold. All of us are still very weak physically due to the lack of sleep and the fully-packed schedule.. I only had about 4 hours of sleep each night for the past 2 nights due to jet-lag. 3gut lost his voice yesterday and could not sing at all. Dickson had stomach problems last night and this morning. Pls continue to pray for our strength to accomplish our missions here in Malaysia. We still have 1 concert in Ipoh and 4 concerts in Malaysia for the next coming week.
Anyway, back to the recap:

Second Day (8/13 Sun.) :
Our team’s slogan was born…
As mentioned above, 3 gut lost his voice and we had to rearrange the program for the 2 concerts of the day . Dickson volunteered to sing one more song and share. 3gut felt bad since Dickson is still not comfortable with sharing his testimony. 3 gut said that it would be unfair to Dickson by giving him such last minute notice. Dickson responded with such a sincere and honest look on his face and said: “there's no such thing as fairness, we're a Team.” Having said that, there was silence in the room. Everyone who heard his comment was in awe and felt so touched, especially since it came from the mouth of Dickson who rarely makes any firm comments! And that became the slogan of our team now. Everything we do for one another, there's no such thing as fairness cuz we ARE a team! How blessed!

Frantic search for taxi:
That morning, we had a concert in the morning service at Queenstown Church at 11:15am. We found out from the maid of our host that it’s harder to get taxi on Sundays so we left the house quickly and found that to be true. We had to walk out further toward the main street and got 1 taxi. 3gut, Ophe got on the taxi and we decided that Allen should go to church early as well since he had to set up sounds. That left me and Dickson to catch another taxi, we had to walk out to the main street and waited for 5 more min. til the next cab come. Right before we got to our destination, we realized that both of us have no Singapore dollars on us!! We got frantic for a few seconds and then we saw allen standing in front of the church waiting for us with the money! He actually remembered that me and Dickson got no money as soon as he got on his taxi. And from that incident, we know that we can’t put all the eggs in one basket as we did.

Sunday morning service at Queenstown Church (11:15am):
Since we had no time for rehearsal nor warm-up, the first half of our concert was our warm-up!! The sound was being adjusted during the first half. Despite the fact that we were not at our optimum, God still did His amazing work. After our concert, the pastor gave a brief sermon and share 6-8 people rededicated, 2 people accepted Christ as their Savior.

The brothers and sisters were very nice and got us some “Hoinan Chicken Rice” for lunch. But since we had only 1 hour to rush to another church for the next service, we didn’t have lunch until 4pm. Nonetheless, it was a very very good, especially since we were soooo hungry.

Sunday afternoon service at Fairfield Methodist Church (2pm):
2 sisters from Fairfield were nice enough to pick us up from Queenstown Church and drove us to Fairfield. We got to Fairfield around 1:30pm. The congregation was mostly elderly people. The service was started by singspiration led by someone from their church. We were all amazed at the songs they sang. One of them was “Praise You, Hallelujah” by ACM. Not only were we amazed by the songs they sang, their enthusiasm and love for God was seen by their singing. They clapped and raised their hands so joyously and freely. We were so moved by them. The concert went well, the pastor gave a very good sermon on God’s love. He explained the meaning of the chinese character “Love” is. It means to open up your HEART to RECEIVE God’s LOVE. At the end, the pastor asked all the people who wants to receive this love from God to stand up. A lot of people stood up. Even though we didn’t know how many received Christ as their Savior the first time, we felt that the Holy Spirit was among us and God was doing His work behind the scene.

8/17/06 Thursday – 7am (Ipoh)
Can’t believe it’s already Thursday! We have been so busy after getting to K.L. Plus the fact that I’m on the verge of getting sick made me unable to write the blog. Last night, I only got 4 hours of sleep again. Hopefully, I can get some rest on the way back to K.L. today.
We will be leaving Ipoh around 11:30am this morning. Pastor Law will pick us up at 9am for brunch. Pastor Law and his wife have given us such good hospitality. We have been fed like PIGS!!! They took us to have some local food and asked a sister at their church to made us some barley dessert to sooth our throat. During this trip, we all agree that the blessings we got has been WAY more than what we gave out! All the brothers and sisters we met have been so loving and generous to us. We see that God has used them to shower His love on us. Our housing here at Ipoh is wonderful. We are staying at a fellowship center type of house. There are 4 rooms and we got the whole house to ourselves. The best of all, we got A/C in every room! J Last night, we gave Ophe a surprise party at midnight since today is her b-day. We asked Pastor Law to get a b-day cake for us and we sneaked it in after we got home around 11:40pm. 3gut purposely asked Margie to have a meeting after we settled a bit to evaluation our concert last night. So we called everyone down right before mid-night and turned off the lights and brought the cake out. Ophe was very surprised because she didn't even remember her own b-day!