HIM FAMILY NEWS JUNE
Hope Santiago, Chile with Pastor Jeffrey Chong 
When we heard the news that Pastor Jeff was planning to come to South America to inspire and show his support of our church-planting work here, we were delighted as this was a much needed boost from our mother church and from our Senior Pastor. Within a short month’s notice, we received confirmation that he would definitely be coming. However, last minute commitments forced him to miss out on visiting our sister churches in the region: Hope Quito in Ecuador and Hope Lima in Peru.
It was a chilly Thursday morning when PJ arrived at Santiago airport after a 36-hour flight, but amazingly he looked fresh and was just ready to burst out with encouragement for our team of Karen, Eelee, Christine and I. The next six days were filled with precious moments of inspiration, consistent individual encouragement and pure authenticity from PJ. During group meal times, he kindly updated us on the news and happenings of the whole movement. He also intentionally took time out to individually meet some of our regular CG contacts and inspired them to commit and be part of our work here in Chile.
Throughout the whole time PJ was with us, his influenced rubbed off on our team and me because he stayed together with us during his time here. His personal face-to-face sharing with us has been priceless. We could all see and feel the strength of his faith and his deeply-rooted conviction in God and how everything he did circled around that conviction. This spirit was seen in everything he did and said.
It was during these six days that I experienced not the Pastor Jeff from the pulpit, but Pastor Jeff on the ground level and in the frontline together with us! We are so grateful for the spiritual impartation PJ brought to team Chile and the assurance of God’s promises in our lives and work here. Written by Shawn Liu
Hope Seattle Sixth Church Anniversary
We thank God for the past six years of serving Him in Seattle. We celebrated our sixth anniversary on June 6, 2010.
It has been a great journey with Him. There were so many exciting things that God has blessed the church last month. [View Photos]
First, God has blessed us with a new location. We have been negotiating for this venue since October 2009.
The owner did not agree to sign the lease and has been postponing the dateline.We were frustrated at first. As months passed by we kept praying and increased our trust in God over this situation. Then at the end of April 2010, the owner agreed to sign a two year lease. This is a good location with a lot of parking. The price is similar to the previous venue that we rented at the Community Center except that we do not need to keep moving, setting up and tearing down every Sunday. We can use this place everyday.
We thank God for the past six years of serving Him in Seattle. We celebrated our sixth anniversary on June 6, 2010.
It has been a great journey with Him. There were so many exciting things that God has blessed the church last month. [View Photos]
First, God has blessed us with a new location. We have been negotiating for this venue since October 2009.
The owner did not agree to sign the lease and has been postponing the dateline.We were frustrated at first. As months passed by we kept praying and increased our trust in God over this situation. Then at the end of April 2010, the owner agreed to sign a two year lease. This is a good location with a lot of parking. The price is similar to the previous venue that we rented at the Community Center except that we do not need to keep moving, setting up and tearing down every Sunday. We can use this place everyday.
Secondly there was the news from the community that many Community Centers will be closed down due to the state budget cuts. This includes the one that we have been using for two years. This news came just right after we signed the new lease.
Thirdly this new location arrived just in time for our 6th church anniversary. It is indeed a gift from God on our church birthday.
We praise God for our 6th Anniversary. Our theme was: “We’re all in this together.” There were close to fifty people who joined us. We thank God that we can be part of His plan to experience first hand to see people’s lives transformed to be more Christ-like. To God be the glory!
Pastor JR & Warinda Pan
Hope Seattle, USA
HIM Covenant Church Worship Concert
The praise and worship concert was held on Sunday afternoon with 500 attendees celebrating the first year anniversary of Covenant Church. The church invited local Christian artists who performed some special songs. Pastor Aomsilp shared a message called “Be One for Jesus”. There was a spirit of celebration and unity at the concert.
The five centres from Covenant Church joined together for the concert including visitors from other churches. The presence of the Lord was at the concert and there was a great spirit of rejoicing in the goodness of God.
Hope Church Indonesia Camp: "A Growing Church"
A healthy church is a growing church. With this statement in mind for our fifth annual national camp, Hope Jakarta were so blessed to have so many people coming from different places gathering in one location to glorify our Lord Jesus Christ. The camp was held at Pesona Bamboe Resort Hotel, Bandung city.
Camp activities included an Opening Ceremony, a nature mark, games, testimonies, teachings, a drama, praise and worship, the Closing Ceremony and much more. The games are always fun and exciting. There was a warm and friendly atmosphere during the icebreakers and we had the chance to meet people from different cities and countries. The Opening Ceremony displayed the variety of cultures and customs in Indonesia. There were several presentations and some beautiful Indonesian dances: Bali dance, Cakalele dance, saman dance, etc. The nature walk reminded us how beautiful the creation of the Lord is. Almost everyone had a great experience walking through the hills and valley.
The teachings told us about God’s desire for us to grow and becoming fruitful – a vision God had since the beginning of the world. The altar call saw many people responding to the vision of God. The testimonies from every church centre were so encouraging and touching. We have people sharing their life experiences with Jesus to the entire congregation.
The drama and Closing Ceremony were very entertaining and enjoyable– you could not stop yourself from laughing at the funny scenes. We give thanks to the Lord for the beautiful blessings we received at the 5th Indonesian Camp.
Everyone in Hope Indonesia was inspired to experience personal growth and church growth through this camp. All glory for Jesus Christ. [View Camp photos]
Hope Manila Mother Day's Celebration
On the 9th of May, 2010, a special event took place and was celebrated. This, of course, was none other than Mother’s Day. This day was indeed very special for both the mothers and their children. It is a time where we can show our love and appreciate to our mothers. We do this through gifts and tokens of appreciation, doing something special for them, greeting them, hugging them, or by just simply telling them how much we love them.
Before we started our usual Sunday actiities, we were first given the chance to pray for our mothers because they truly are a blessing from God that we are very thankful for. So we took time to ask God to continue to bless them and thank Him for their lives.
Hope Kuching Church Camp 2010
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The Hope Kuching Church Camp 2010 was held from 30th April to 2nd May 2010 at the church premises. Aptly themed “The Crossroads”, the camp acknowledged and addressed the fact that all of us, at some points of our lives, will come to the crossroads. Thus, the objective of the camp was to prepare us for such crossroads so that we can make wise decisions with God’s grace and wisdom.
We were privileged to have Senior Pastor Wilson Lim and his wife, Associate Pastor Lai Ling Lim, come all the way from Hope Brisbane to share to us during the camp. Attended by the different congregations of Hope Kuching as well as other Hope churches throughout the state, the Main Hall was fully packed during all of the sessions.
The camp started on the evening of 30th April with an interesting hand mime presentation by the college group students accompanying the song, “Hold On”. After the presentation, it was a time of praise and worship. A sense of excitement and expectation that God was going to do something in our lives during the camp permeated the air.
The camp included five sharing sessions with four topics and a seminar bundled together. The first two topics, shared by Ps Lai Ling, were “Encountering God” and “Empowering Relationships”; followed by two more topics entitled, “Gifted to Build” and “Called Ambassadors” by Ps Wilson Lim. Bringing their wealth of experience in ministry into their sharing, they kept us glued to our seats. We absorbed the Word of God and also laughed over humorous incidents shared by both speakers on many occasions.
In addition to this, there was a seminar held separately for men and women entitled, “Real Men” and “Real Women” respectively. The men were challenged by Ps Wilson to live up to the billing of “real men” – being real in the inside (character) and not just looking good outwardly; being real leaders as all men are called to lead, and being real servants, following Jesus’ example as He led by serving.
Meanwhile, in the “Real Women” seminar, we learnt that “real women” are women whose lives are impacted by God and have a healthy self-image according to God’s Word. After being reminded by Ps Lai Ling that we are created for a wonderful destiny, we also learned about relating to God, to ourselves and to others.
The camp concluded during the Sunday Service with a call to the congregation to be ambassadors for Christ: reconciling other people to God because we have first been reconciled to Him. Ps Wilson stressed that there is a great sense of urgency as time is running short; hence, we must act quickly as Christ’s representatives.
Definitely, all of us enjoyed “The Crossroads” immensely because it was a wonderful and refreshing time encountering God, forming empowering relationships, discovering our own gifts to build God’s kingdom and responding to God’s call to be His ambassadors.
Before we started our usual Sunday actiities, we were first given the chance to pray for our mothers because they truly are a blessing from God that we are very thankful for. So we took time to ask God to continue to bless them and thank Him for their lives.
During lunchtime, we had another activity for our mothers and their respective children – how well do you know your mother? The children were given a question which they were to write down their answers. The mothers would have to confirm if their answers were right. We thank God as we were able to encourage and show our appreciation to more than forty mothers. It was a memorable time for our family!
Hope Kuching Church Camp 2010
.jpg)
The Hope Kuching Church Camp 2010 was held from 30th April to 2nd May 2010 at the church premises. Aptly themed “The Crossroads”, the camp acknowledged and addressed the fact that all of us, at some points of our lives, will come to the crossroads. Thus, the objective of the camp was to prepare us for such crossroads so that we can make wise decisions with God’s grace and wisdom.
We were privileged to have Senior Pastor Wilson Lim and his wife, Associate Pastor Lai Ling Lim, come all the way from Hope Brisbane to share to us during the camp. Attended by the different congregations of Hope Kuching as well as other Hope churches throughout the state, the Main Hall was fully packed during all of the sessions.
The camp started on the evening of 30th April with an interesting hand mime presentation by the college group students accompanying the song, “Hold On”. After the presentation, it was a time of praise and worship. A sense of excitement and expectation that God was going to do something in our lives during the camp permeated the air.
The camp included five sharing sessions with four topics and a seminar bundled together. The first two topics, shared by Ps Lai Ling, were “Encountering God” and “Empowering Relationships”; followed by two more topics entitled, “Gifted to Build” and “Called Ambassadors” by Ps Wilson Lim. Bringing their wealth of experience in ministry into their sharing, they kept us glued to our seats. We absorbed the Word of God and also laughed over humorous incidents shared by both speakers on many occasions.
In addition to this, there was a seminar held separately for men and women entitled, “Real Men” and “Real Women” respectively. The men were challenged by Ps Wilson to live up to the billing of “real men” – being real in the inside (character) and not just looking good outwardly; being real leaders as all men are called to lead, and being real servants, following Jesus’ example as He led by serving.
Meanwhile, in the “Real Women” seminar, we learnt that “real women” are women whose lives are impacted by God and have a healthy self-image according to God’s Word. After being reminded by Ps Lai Ling that we are created for a wonderful destiny, we also learned about relating to God, to ourselves and to others.
The camp concluded during the Sunday Service with a call to the congregation to be ambassadors for Christ: reconciling other people to God because we have first been reconciled to Him. Ps Wilson stressed that there is a great sense of urgency as time is running short; hence, we must act quickly as Christ’s representatives.
Definitely, all of us enjoyed “The Crossroads” immensely because it was a wonderful and refreshing time encountering God, forming empowering relationships, discovering our own gifts to build God’s kingdom and responding to God’s call to be His ambassadors.
