A new season is upon Hope Auckland and its members. This is something I’ve felt in my spirit for a few weeks now and am so grateful that God confirmed through a prophetic word last night at prayer meeting.
This post isn’t about camp but it’s linked partly to one of my experiences there. Will post about camp soon. This is just something that’s so heavily on me that I got to post it (:
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
- Hebrews 12:1-2 -
Personally, Friday night at Ablaze Camp was a night of receiving personal direction through prophetic words. God gave me a whole new level of personal direction and finally, I think it’s slowly starting to sink in that yes, God really does have a huge huge plan for my life. It’s one of those cliche things we say and it’s finally sinking in .
Saturday night was the night of breakthrough in my personal life in a few areas and this is what relates directly to what I believe is happening and needs to happen here. I believe this is a season of preparation in Hope Auckland. This season of time just before we enter that new season God is bringing upon us.
I believe it is a season where people need to go through Hebrews 12:1-2 and let go of the extra weights. I am in awe of what God has done over the past few days. In choosing a theme for Sunday’s worship, I was thinking along the lines of freedom and man, God truly confirmed that last night at Prayer Meeting with the prophetic words. Praise. God! I am so expectant and desperate for a mighty move of God on Sunday!
God, please stir something. People must first believe there is a reason for them to rid themselves of these things. They must have caught on to something. If not, they won’t drop the things they to. If not, they may drop things temporarily out of emotion.
Last night at Prayer Meeting, it was a God-encountering time and it was awesome to see the beginnings of a re-envisioning happen here.
We know and are constantly reminded of the fact that 2008 is our year of Breakthrough. God has promised us that. At the beginning of the year, many events collided together and brought about vision and excitement in people’s hearts. Goals, drive, action.
That was half a year ago. And now, 6 months later, here we are, June, halfway through this year, 2008. Am I where I want to be? No. Am I satisfied? Definitely not. I know I wasn’t the only one who was ready to yell NO when we were asked these questions.
It’s time for that aftershock that God spoke about through Kevin. It’s time for that second wave. It’s time for re-envisioning, for re-focusing.
It’s time for a breakthrough from the complacency that we’ve caught ourselves up in because we got satisfied with the effects of the first wave of breakthrough, with the original earthquake. It’s not enough.
It’s time for a new wave of passion. A heart that’s broken again. It’s time for the opening of eyes which have been seeing a cloudy world. It’s time to see walls broken. It’s time for the pleading of a new wave of strength which we will need. It’s time to pull together. It’s time to see more. It’s time to get so fidgety, so desperate.
It’s time to obey what God spoke through Mum last night - we need to get ourselves right because we’re not ready yet because once we are, God will bring the harvest to us. No, not show us where to go out to to look for the harvest and gather it, God is making it easy for us and bringing the harvest right. here.
It’s about time we started getting on our knees for this broken broken country. Just in the past 10 or so days alone, an Indian liquor store owner was shot point blank, an 80 year old Chinese grandmother got attacked and shoved into a wardrobe (she died a few days later from internal injures) and a 39 year old Chinese lady got robbed and run over in a supermarket carpark in front of her 8 year old son. (And all of this was just in Auckland alone).
I was reminded last night of the vision God gave me for The Rock at the beginning of 2007. A vision of the Epsom Girls’ school hall absolutely packed with girls worshipping Him. I want to see it happen.
It is time. It’s not going to be easy, of course not. But it’s time.
I’m. Not. Satisfied.
Here’s a picture taken at one of the Market Days at EGGS. Man, wouldn’t it be awesome if this was a gen180 event and these were the girls who came?!
God, I really seriously desperately need Your help to break out of this mould. Please. No one else can help me but You.
Counting down to: - The end of my first semester of uni - Haircut! - Raphael coming - which means lots of fresh vision and learning! - Ablaze Camp - even more vision and learning (Get ready Justin, Chris, Torchie and all other Ablazey people! Rach and I are coming as super big sponges and we’re gonna soak up as much as you can pass to us)! (:
Woo hoo! (:
“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”
- 2 Timothy 1:6 -
Anointing + Courage + Wisdom for Discipleship + Outreach
God, please bless me and enlarge my territory. Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain. - 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 -
I was supposed to be studying for the upcoming exams last night but dived into “Follow the Leader” by Simon McIntyre and got a little carried away!
This book speaks about the art of followership and there are so many things I’d like to quote from it but here’s just one of the concepts it mentions - being able to follow willingly arises from an awareness of who we are, what gifts we have, what God created us to be, being satisfied with that and just get on with it.
“Get on with you - that’s all you have and that is enough. ‘You’re blessed when you’re content with who you are - no more, no less.’”
This next bit really got to me -
“Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he hadcome from God and would return to God. So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist and… he began to wash the disciples feet.
Jesus was able to do this because he didn’t have an identity crisis. He knew exactly who he was and where he was going.”
Definitely time for some self-evaluating on my part! I need an increased awareness of both my strengths and weaknesses. Be willing to accept both. To not pretend I don’t have certain strengths (whilst not being prideful) and to not only acknowledge my weaknesses but get on to fixing those that I have the capacity to start fixing.
Not expecting a brand new version of Steph tomorrow morning but let’s start something rolling!
I’m so sorry for the deadness of this blog! As those in church here will know, it’s been an absolutely insane past few weeks!
The week leading up to this year’s church camp was perhaps one of the absolute worst weeks I’ve ever been through. Had an assignment due on Monday, a test on Tuesday, a lab report due Thursday morning and an essay due Friday (the day of camp). Thank God for pulling me through!
Did well on the assignment, test and lab report - totally God. Still awaiting the results of the essay. Eek! (It’s the one I’m most worried about!)
So yes, CHURCH CAMP!
Church Camp 2008 - A Mission-Minded Church
(Pre-Camp Promotion:
The bunch of us youth and a couple of uni people ran in during Announcements with these signs on our backs and fronts and went a little crazy telling the church there were ” ONLY ELEVEN DAYS TILL CHURCH CAMP!!”)
Camp Camp
“If you love God, serve Him. If you love yourself, serve Him!”
“It costs a lot to obey but it costs more when we disobey.“
“If you don’t make excuses for youself, God will use you.”
“If there’s nothing to die for, there’s nothing to live for.“
“Don’t think too much. Think enough to make the right decision.”
“Major on the major. Minor on the minor. Don’t major on everything.” (Right about now, I can picture Zach snapping his fingers and then pointing at me saying, “Seeeee?! I told you oredi!”) :)
“If you want to believe, believe to the fullest.”
Church did incredible things for so many people here. This is the year of Breakthrough for us and I know that Camp had a huge role in that in terms of bringing about breakthrough in individuals which leads to breakthrough in CG, church, worship etc.
Church camp also opened our eyes to some incredible talent in church! BR3AKTHRU CREW performed - Rach, Donovan, Jacqui, Bex and Matt did an awesome job and set the standard high when they performed as part of the opening ceremony!
A huge congratulations to Matt Yee and Yen who gave their lives to God at camp! Man, we had been praying for these two incredible people for so long and we were so so overjoyed when we heard/saw them both respond. Another really touching and impacting moment was when all of those in the uni and youth caregroups got up and supported the two of them as they shared their testimonies on the last day of camp.
This was one of the best points of camp. Looking around at this point made quite a few of us tear up. Seeing us together. Seeing the young people in our church united. Looking at each one, thinking about what they are/can contribute to growing and extending this church, what they are doing individually to answer/find their calls on their lives, thinking about what God is doing for each of them. Passion. Genuinity. Excitement. Vision.
A thought came to mind: In a couple of years, these people, (with lots of prayer and training, teaching, growing and discipleship), may just be the CLs and up because we are going to grow.
That thought sparked something in me.
God moved, touched and opened our eyes towards Missions through Ps David. I think more than anything, it was hearing Ps David’s testimonies and stories which struck us. It was hearing about these things and realising that Missions is possible, simple faith works, God answers prayers, God always provides. In my opinion, Ps David is one of the best pastors to speak about Missions because he has done exactly what he’s preaching!
As most of us were expecting, the last night of camp is always one of the/if not the most awesome time of worship and preaching. It was also the night we experienced some weird things. That morning, at the intercessors prayer meeting, Kwadwo said he had a dream of a worship team that was absolutely chaotic with the sound system, equipment, music etc. all just disastrous. So those at the prayer prayed earnestly against it.
That night, just as Praise ended and we were about to enter into Worship, a really loud, shrill noise was heard and it just wouldn’t stop. The sound crew checked the microphones, speakers etc. but it was still there. By now, the atmosphere was shaky. The crew then turned off the entire sound system but that didn’t do anything. Mum continued to lead the people into Worship and the sound stopped after a couple of minutes.
Later in the night, when Ps David was preaching and reaching quite a climatic point in his teaching, the sound returned, slightly louder than before. Again, the sound crew checked the equipment and turned the entire system off but the still, the sound was there. The sound continued for quite a few minutes. We didn’t really know what to do except pray in tongues cos it was clearly something spiritual. Thank God, again, the sound stopped.
Ps David then shared about how in Hope Camp (in Thailand), every year, without fail, the lights will go off whenever one of the Pastors was reaching the punchiest part of their sermon. Every year, no matter what venue the camp was in. The enemy isn’t happy at all!
People were healed at camp, people were convicted. Personally, I received new direction in my life and for that, God, I am so thankful. “Where are you headed?” was one of the questions which Zach asked me and I struggled to answer. I could tell you bits and pieces of what I thought I wanted/saw myself doing but God has given me new direction (:
Now that it’s post-camp, I can still see the buzz of what God has done, the excitement, the stirring, in the hearts of the youth here in gen180. It is exciting, it is inspiring… I can’t describe it. These 7 youth have caught something. They’ve caught a glimpse of something and they’re catching on to the desire for revival, the desperation. They’re sharing testimony after testimony in CG, they’re doing QT for so long they don’t have time to study (and still get top marks in their tests! But yes, we’ve told them should also study :) It’s so cool!), and they’re visualising what it’s going to be like to see their friends at youth, they’re praying for sheep, they’re getting Bibles, they’re committing to more… Wow.
God is stirring something in the hearts of the young people in Hope Auckland.
(God, please don’t stop!)
Here are some snapshots from camp:
(Back to Front: Jacqui, Matt Yee, Donovan and Danielle)
(The first thing the people on the bus saw. This was how the funky Welcoming Committee [Casey, Kathy, Mum, Li Hsien and Myself] welcomed our church to camp!]
HOPE
Isn’t this an awesome photo?!
Some of us goofing around!
The beautiful generation180 girls
Rachel and Archery
Team Games
Jacqui on the Flying Fox
Praying for those who had responded to one of the altar calls
Notes on our Happy Wall
Church Camp 2008
The Sohs and Ps David Chen
(P.S. All these photos were taken by Felix - CreationHeart (formerly known as Eyeport). Check out his flickr page if you want to see more photos! www.flickr.com/photos/eyeport)
Turning 18
A big thank you to everyone from everywhere (Auckland, Singapore, Brisbane, America etc.) for all their birthday wishes! (: Steph is now officially an adult (well, in NZ anyways!)
TG Training
Ps David held a jaw-droppingly awesome TG Training the following Saturday about the Discipleship Process! I learnt so much and realise now how many changes I need to make in the way I shepherd, lead etc. Thank you, Ps David (even though you’re not reading this!)
I know that that training was key and what we learnt is pretty timeless. We are already acting to bring about changes and man, it’s all so exciting!
Surgery
My surgery on Tuesday morning went well and I think the healing process is going smoothly so thank you everyone for your prayers and concern! (:
Okay, now that I’ve gotten this monumentous post out of the way, I can now return to my blog without feeling embarrassed at the total lack of updates! (:
Okay, I know, I know, this blog has been abandoned. I’ve incredibly busy and this week is one hectic hectic week. I had an assignment due today, a test tomorrow, a lab report due on Thursday and an essay due on Friday before leaving for Church Camp in the early afternoon. Eek.
(On a side note, a huge Happy Birthday to: Phillip, R-Dee and Shirls (27th), Kevin (today), Dad (30th) and Lynie (1st) this week!)
Here’s something that I’m extremely excited about! Mum reads the website The Elijahlist regularly and this was one of the latest prophecies posted up on that website:
“On New Year’s Eve, for 2008, God told Bob Jones that “the third wave was coming.” Todd Bentley asked Bob what the third wave was. He said that Toronto was wave #1, Pensacola was wave #2, and the third wave is the “Winds of Change”–this move of God. This move will be a global move, traveling with signs and wonders all over the world! The third wave is here!
As a sign that this wave would be released from the Northwest, Bob shared that God said in the natural world, there would be extreme “winds and storms” out of Canada and the Northwest this year. (We had these storms in the Northwest this past winter and winds even now!) These natural winds would be followed by the winds of change. There would then be a move of the Holy Ghost, where entire towns would be shut down by the power of the Spirit. Revival will come as a Northwest wind.
It was also mentioned to “set up your sail”–the “Winds of Change” are blowing! There are 12 places specifically mentioned where revival will hit first (listed in the order mentioned):
Des Moines, Iowa; Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska; Kansas City, Missouri; Denver, Colorado; Nashville, Tennessee; Lakeland, Florida; Ohio; Charlotte, North Carolina; Albany, Oregon; Washington; and Redding, California … Also mentioned were countries where it is moving first–England, Australia and New Zealand.“
Something is stirring here. There’s no doubt about it all. The next generation of leaders that we’re training up, the Timothy Generation (TG), are an absolutely incredible bunch with such huge huge hearts for God and contagious passion and vision. God, thank You so much for each and everyone of them.
gen180’s goal is to hit 25 by the end of September 2008. Please be praying for us!
There is actually so much more to update on, so much happening here in lil ol’ New Zealand but updates will have to wait till after the 9th of May! (I’ve got a 35% Philosophy test that evevning)
Till then, let’s keep this up. Let’s win a generation. Saturate a generation. Save a generation.
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