HIM FAMILY NEWS
HIM Thailand National Camp
More than 1,300 people traveled to the seaside town of Sri Racha in eastern Thailand to attend the first national camp for Hope International Ministries Thailand on 2nd to 5th May, 2010. There was an atmosphere of love, commitment and unity between the churches of HIM. [Photos Website]
HIM Thailand Annual Camp Video
Ps. Simon Eng, President of HIM, opened the four-day camp which was themed "Next Generation Leadership". He and Pastor Prakich Treetasayuth (Interim Leader, HIM Thailand) were the anchor speakers. Other speakers included Ps. James Loke, Ps. Soradej Meesaengtham and Ps. Ben KC Lee.
During the camp, Ps. Chuchart Chaisombat was appointed the national leader of HIM Thailand. The leaders and the campers laid hands and prayed for him and his wife, Dr. Siriporn, in their new roles as overseers of the church at the national level.
With great times of worship, solid teaching and warm fellowship, all in attendance were strengthened and refreshed. Some lingered on after the conference to enjoy the beaches of eastern Thailand. Others headed home, equipped with new knowledge and passion to build up the next generation of leaders.
Hope New York with Pastor Ben and Pastor Dinah
A Weekend in New York
(Written by Joan Collison )
On Weekend in New York On the weekend of April 24-25, I was so excited to welcome Pastor Ben and Dinah to New York City as they visited our church for the first time. They had traveled to NY after a conference of U.S. church planters in Orlando, Florida. I was looking forward to a time of spiritual refreshment and encouragement, and I wasn’t disappointed.
Pastor Ben and Dinah devoted their Saturday to meet with our church core team members. I met them at Grand Central Terminal in the heart of Manhattan, together with Derrick. God had blessed us that day with beautiful weather, so we found a free patch of grass in Washington Square Park where we shared a simple but classic NY lunch of falafels. Over lunch, we shared genuine fellowship and the thoughts of our hearts as well. Pastor Ben and Dinah encouraged Derrick and I with many tips about how we can increase our teamwork in our core team, and how we can best use our God-given gifts to strengthen each other and build a more complete church. Our hearts were so lifted up by this conversation that we continued conversing in the park until the last possible minute.
After leaving the park, we headed back to Union Square to meet up with Gillian. Gillian brought us to Le Pain Quotidien (which means Our Daily Bread in French) for coffee and pastries. The amazing fellowship and uplifting conversation continued while we enjoyed giant bowls of coffee. One of my favorite moments over this weekend was the time I spent talking to Pastor Ben during dinner. Not only did I feel spiritually built up, but he also gave me new insight into some of my personal characteristics and practical tips on how I can continue to build up the strengths of our church using the gifts that God has given me.
I felt as if a new influx of vision and determination had flowed into me, filling me with an increased capacity to persevere and a fresh resolve to keep pressing in to the purpose for which God has placed me here in NY.
Another golden moment of that weekend came on Sunday morning, as Pastor Dinah shared an incredibly life-giving lesson on emotionally healthy spirituality. Many church members expressed how touched they were by her teaching, and the attitude of love and care with which she encouraged us to embrace an emotionally and spiritually healthy way of living and thinking. Other great moments included Pastor Ben’s sermon about faith from Hebrews 11 and the team meeting after church, during which Pastor Ben shared many helpful insights. Even though they were only with us for two days, Pastor Ben and Dinah packed so much quality time into their visit to Hope NY that I feel our church will really be changed by their visit, and we will be able to reach greater heights and impact God’s kingdom more powerfully as a result. Thank you, Pastor Ben and Dinah! - Joan Collison
A Weekend of Icebergs, Japanese Fanfare and Koinonia (Written by Gillian Tee)In good company, even an unadorned act of sharing a bowl of Carpaccio Salad can be enjoyable. And so it was when a few of us, Hope New Yorkers managed to break into some Japanese cuisine with Pastor Ben and Dinah. Having just returned from a church planters’ conference with the other Hope North America pastors, they were no different from their usual mode – eager to bless and God-sent.
Earlier that day, Pastor Ben had painted in our minds a revitalized Hope movement on the horizons – from a forward-looking invigoration of biblical teaching to the reconsolidation of our strength in community-oriented ministry.
The next day, Hope New York’s Sunday service saw a similar influx of encouragement. Pastor Dinah exalted those present at a pre-service session on the importance of emotional health. We were guided towards this practical reality - spiritual wellbeing, as it turns out, is intrinsically linked to emotional health, and as we examine the elements in our lives that seek to repress emotionally, we will better understand what motivates our ministry, what causes us to escape both ourselves and God, and fathom to a deeper extent our definition in Him. Shielding our true self and emotions, and denying the past’s impact on the present would be likening ourselves to an iceberg, largely disproportional between what lies beneath the surface and what lies above.
The employment of the sermon later brought about a long-awaited salvation of an attendee whom God has been persistently wooing for some time. As we left service that day, we held onto an expectant suspicion that great things were about to take place in Hope New York, and for the most part, not orchestrated by us. - Gillian Tee
Both Joan and Gillian are in the core team of Hope New York Church.
Hope Church, Hatfield, United Kingdom
Hi, my name's Eldos. I'm pastor of Hope Church Hatfield. Currently, right now, I'm at the GC in Kuala Lumpur. It's good to be here meeting up with friends. I just want to give you all a brief history and update about what's going on in Hatfield. So basically I started Hatfield about five and a half years ago, when just one sister requested me just to go out there and start a care group with her. So after that I've been faithfully fulfilling His vision and faithfully building strong and biblical people.
Hope Hatfield Video Interview
It took a while for the number of people to be maintained at about five to ten people. But then, just about two years ago, we managed to meet up with a chaplain who was a Church of England minister at the university who really helped us secure a place on campus. From then on the care group started to grow and we started a service two years ago, where right now we have about 60 people attending the Sunday service and about 100 people of different nations joining the care groups. We can count - there are Indians, there are Malaysians of course, there are Hong Kongers, there are Chinese, as well there are Mongolians, even some British people have join us, which makes it a very colorful when we meet together.
Just recently we came back from Hope Fest. Hope Fest is always a time where we really, really reap the harvest. We saw a few people converted and a few, at least five, baptized, and at least three or four people got Holy Spirit baptized. And these are the exciting things that have been happening in Hatfield.
And of course, we will continue to really grow the church and right now we are actually equipping the students to be church planters. As you know in the UK it is very difficult for the students to stay on as a PR. But we are actually equipping them so that eventually, when they need to go back to their home country they are able to do something where they come from.
So please continue to pray for us. At the end of the year we really want to see the church reach 120 people. We really want to see a bigger venue to accommodate all these people, and we really want to see more nationalities coming to join us in our church and see more churches being planted all over Europe and all over the world. That's it for now. Bye.
Eldos Then
Hope Church, Hatfield, UK
Hope Auckland Christian Church recently held their annual church camp and were incredibly honored to have our President, Pastor Simon Eng join us. This year, the theme was "Identity - Where the heart is". We focused on our movement's core values and took the opportunity to challenge people to develop both church and movement identity. The teaching sessions were convicting and inspiring with many responding the call to church-planting. The Great Commission has also become clear to many as a result of Pastor Simon's teachings.
A mighty of the Spirit of God was experienced, including words of knowledge, healing and prophecy. God was also faithful even in seemingly small things, holding up the weather on Saturday afternoon through out our games and till the end of the camp fire. It was exciting to see bonds being built between people across and within life groups and we believe a stronger family atmosphere has been established in our multi-cultural church.
Many benefited enormously from the time spent fellowshipping with Pastor Simon and have spoken of their respect and gratefulness for him. Perhaps most exciting of all is the life change that occurred at the camp. We have seen new confidence, determination and vision in our people as well as fresh ownership for this church. The church has truly been taken to a new level!
Written by Stephenie Soh
Hope Canberra, Australia
Hi! I am Caroline from Hope Canberra. In the last six months, we have seen God move mightily and seeing great and exciting things happening. We started our second centre in September last year at Queanbeyan. We have seen it grow and flourish and reaching out to people from different backgrounds, particularly Filipinos. Also at the Canberra city centre, we have seen it grow and stabilise independently. It has allowed us to build up our praise and worship teams at both centres allowing them to both run well and we are reaping the results.Hope Canberra Video
We also saw the young adults and students groups really grow. They have been putting posters up around the Australian National University campus leading to many contacts and seeing people coming to church and knowing the Lord; growing and rising up. We are really excited about what is happening and we look forward to the next few months and seeing what God is going to do as our two centres continue to stabilise. People continue to come in and we continue to reach out.
Please pray for us over the next few months that we might see more musicians, more praise and worship leaders coming to church and rising up. Also we want to be people that are bold and passionate about evangelism and seeing people being saved both in Canberra and Queanbeyan and people coming to know the Lord. Thank you.
Tony and Caroline Ashley
Hope Canberra, ACT.
Ablaze Service 3rd Anniversary
The Ablaze Service was like no other on the 11th March 2010 as the worship team ascended into a grand start with roaring praise, proclaiming majesty, salvation and God’s grace all over the earnest, worshipping congregants. The red carpet was set for every young men and women in the place to walk right into the courts of praise as hearts poured out to give thanks, to joyfully reminisce and celebrate Ablaze’s 3rd Anniversary in style. That day, we were there to remember the God of Our City.
The event was a blend of everything uniquely Ablaze in commemoration of how we have been so vividly invested into and nurtured as a local church. From the glittery backdrop of an impressive graphic art brandishing strong bold fonts against a dreamy Brisbane skyline, to the slew of contesting photographs in the photo competition leading up to the Anniversary, showcasing artistic gifts of our members; there was no end to the evidence that our 100 plus strong service is simply saturated with God-ordained perspectives, callings and overflowing with talent.Ablaze also enjoyed some light-hearted family time with a team game that instructed players to build towers from cardboard boxes. The host read out fun facts about cardboards and enriched the congregant with earth friendly information while the game proceeded, seizing moments to filter wholesome education to young people. It was a translation of the fun times families have as we cheered the players on and bonded in the simple game. There were also the precious moments of silliness, randomness that gave Ablaze a close-knitted and intimate atmosphere.
All of which are simply invaluable to the essence of Ablaze.It was also a heartening night of thanksgiving, remembering how far God has brought us and also a night of recapturing the essence of who we are and why we exist in the city. The night was wrapped up with a commission to represent God in this place. We were challenged to impart positive flavour and exert godly influences to our schools, universities and workplaces.
We remembered why we are pro
ud to be in this city, why we are privileged to be part of God’s plan for this place and the significance that we can make with small steps, personal decisions towards obedience and cultivated desire to live more and more like Jesus in our lives.It was a night where the strong presence of God truly graced Ablaze and enlightened us once more to our unique position in this nation. Altogether, it was an awe-inspiring event that will be remembered for the years to come.
Written by Cheong Wynnie
Torchie KL
Director of Ablaze Ministries International
www.ablaze.org.au
