APRIL 2012 Report 2

Faith@Work
through
Asia Seminary for Ministry
Reaching Nationals for Nationals

April, 2012

Hi Friend,

(John 14:19)  Jesus says: “…because I live, ye shall live also.”

Good Friday and Easter season are great times to witness of the grace and glory of our Living Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ.

I.  TESTIMONY FROM ELDER DIL TAMANG, our co-laborer and graduate of ASM (training Nationals for Nationals):

Honorable friends,

Loving greetings from Dil.

This is to thank you for your prayers that I had a very productive time in the village where I was born and kicked out while I was only a 5 year old boy. Please find also a picture where I addressed to more than 1,500 people on the Easter day and more than 100 people accepted the Lord that day. The programme was held at the school ground of upper Dhahing district where I learnt my alphabets 40 years back. It was my pleasure to be back there and to address the mass for the Lord. This was the same village where we were kicked out from for the sake of our faith in Christ some 40 years back. What a pleasure today to see hundreds of people growing in the same faith. God is at work and the leaders of 26 churches in the same Village Development Committee wanted me to address them. May the Lord continue to work with the people there and His Kingdom grow.

Thank you for your prayers for me and the team.

Yours in His service,

Dil Bahadur Tamang.

Nepal

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II.  GREAT MEETINGS WITH FILADELPHIA CHURCH, BATAM, INDONESIA

It was my privilege and joy to have spent three days with former Bible College students, members and friends in a Batam Church.   It is a young church with a great vibrancy and commitment to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Besides the worship services and Sunday School, it has an orphanage and a kindergarten.  It will start a Primary school soon. 

The Good Friday Good News meeting was well attended with new friends.  People were brought in by cars and vans.  The leaders and members were prayerful for the good Lord to work in hearts.  The singing and the special items by the children and adults were all geared to the amazing grace and love of the Cross.  With such prayers, commitment and expectation, it was easy for the preacher to preach and for the Holy Spirit to convict and to save people.  We were co-laborers with God and He gave the increase.

Easter service began at 6am under trees, by the sea and lasted till 9.45am (others stayed till 11.30am for more fellowship).   Spirited singing and warm fellowship greeted the rising of the new born day as we welcomed in our remembrance of Jesus’ Resurrection.  Truly, we have life and life more abundantly because of our Risen Lord.  He binds our hearts together in His grace, love and unity.  What a joy it was as we concluded the service with a fellowship breakfast of abundant and delicious food brought by different families.  How pleasant and sweet it was that God’s people be living and serving in unity and sacrifice.  We stood in awe of the love of the Father, the peace of Jesus and the fellowship on the Holy Spirit, flowing in and through us.  How wonderful Heaven will be when we see Jesus in all His grace and glory!

Easter Service in Batam

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III. SEMINAR ON CARE MINISTRY – Sat. May 5^th, 8.30am-3.30pm

The two greatest commandments stated by Jesus Christ are loving God and loving others (Matt. 22:37-40).  Everything in life depends on these two relationships.  God provides the presence and power through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5).  It is God who energizes us both to will and to do His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).  In these relationships, we need the spiritual disciplines and the dedicated and developed skills.

SEMINAR OVERVIEW:

In Christian Care, we need to provide an environment of caring and sharing for people to grow and mature. Three ingredients are involved: encouragement, exhortation and enlightenment. 

1.      Encouragement: 

(Heb 3:13)  But encourage one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Encouragement is a process to bring strength and support to a person’s feelings in difficult times.  Key skills to be developed include:  Be alert to opportunities.  Learn the art of listening.  Empathise with hurt feelings. Use the right words.  Learn to use door openers. Understand body languages.

2.     Exhortation:

(1Th 5:11)  Wherefore exhort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.

Exhortation is a process of providing direction and hope through God’s truth and grace, resulting in changed character and behavior.  Exhortation involves:  How to motivate People. How to understand the Iceberg.  Develop skills of right attitudes and questions.  Follow Christ’s example.

3.     Enlightenment:

(Eph 1:18)  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.

Enlightenment is a process of bringing God’s perspectives in the renewing of the mind.  Topics to be explored include:  Facts about the mind. Listen to self-talk.  Understand the ABC of emotions and thoughts.

OBJECTIVES: 

1.       That you will be drawn into a closer and better relationship with the Lord.

2.     That you will understand and apply the truths of caring to others.

3.     That you will develop a closer relationship with family, members of church and others.

VENUE:   Good News Baptist Church, Citimax Industrial Complex, Block 605A, MacPherson Road, Unit #06-02, Singapore 368240 (MRT Tai Seng, Circle Line).  If you are driving, please turn from MacPherson into Playfair Road and park on Playfair Road free.

DATE:  Sat. 5 May, 2012, 8.30am to 3.30pm.  Facilitator: Rev. Goh Seng Fong.

COST:  $10 for registration, material and package lunch.  We need you to sign up so that we can provide for the materials and lunch. Please register at

                              gohsengfong@hotmail.com. 

Thanks again for your prayers and support in so many ways.  Please visit

                                   FaithatWorks Facebook

or our blog, for further news at

                    http://faithatworksfellowship.blogspot.com/

Be sure to bookmark it.

If we can be of any help to you, please let us know. The good Lord bless you and all yours!

Yours always in Christ and for Christ,

Rev. Goh Seng Fong
(John 12:24)

Handphone:  98207783

                   +65-98207783

Name and Address: 

                         Faith@Work Fellowship,

                             9, Kalidasa Avenue,

                              Singapore 789389

People involved in the Fellowship include: 

Rev. Tan Choon Seng, Rev. Tan Eng Boo, Rev. Yap Beng Shin, Rev. Simon N., Rev. Robert Chew,  Rev. Mark Tay, Rev. Andrew Tan, Ong Beng Hong, Michael Lim, Amos Hoon, Jeff Tan and Daisy Koh.

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April 2012 Report

Faith@work
through
Asia Seminary for Ministry
Reaching Nationals for Nationals

April, 2012

Hi friend,

    Training Nationals for Nationals in integrity and skills (Psalm 78:72)

(1Peter 2:24)  JESUS, “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”

(John 14:19) Jesus promises:  “… because I live, ye shall live also.”

We wish you and all yours God-blessed Passion Week.  May you know the Lord Jesus of the Resurrection and the Life.

Please be blessed by the following article of M. Craven:

“As we begin this Holy Week there is no other issue, no other thought more demanding of our attention than that of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. On these facts—and most especially the resurrection—rest the whole Christian faith, mission, and message.

The apostle Paul wrote that if Jesus was not raised from the dead then our “faith is in vain” (1 Cor. 15:14), in fact “futile” (v. 17), and we are without hope in both life and death. Without the resurrection, there would be no hope of deliverance from our fallen state. Humanity would remain forever alienated from God. People could never find true peace with themselves or others; we would be left to stumble through this life bound by our fears and insecurities. Society and nature—all of creation—would remain under the power of injustice, evil, greed, envy, and decay.

Thankfully we who know Christ can proclaim with confidence that “Christ is risen. He is risen indeed!” However, the resurrection is not just a personal matter but also the redemptive act of God that touches the whole world! The apostle Paul wrote:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:18–23, NIV 2011).

Paul reminds us that Christ’s resurrection witnesses to us that if we place our trust in him, we, too, will experience resurrection power in our own lives—resurrection from death in every form, including our own sin and the sins of others such as betrayals and broken relationships. But Jesus’ resurrection is not for us alone. It is as Paul so clearly states, a resurrection of all creation, including the corrupted ideologies, institutions, structures, and systems within society that oppress and hinder God’s whole creation from being what it and we were designed to be.

Because of the resurrection, we are more than conquerors at any work to which God may call us, because the risen Christ is in the business of redeeming all of the created order!

You and I, as those empowered by the redeeming power of Christ who is alive and reigns at the right hand of the Father do not bring forth the kingdom of God. This is the work of Christ alone, whose reign will only be fully realized by God’s final intervention in human history. But we are Christ’s body—servants of Almighty God—who are called to be a sign and foretaste of his kingdom, peacemakers bringing shalom to every relationship and to every sphere of life and creation!

If we commit ourselves to work for shalom—seeking first his kingdom—driven by God’s vision for people and the world, we will transform dark places with the light of Christ and the world will see evidence that Christ is alive! That is the Great Commission to which we have been called. Easter reminds us of the great privilege we have been given as we surrender our lives to follow the resurrected Jesus into his world, seeking its transformation into God’s shalom community.

I pray you take time to stop and reflect throughout this week—be reminded of your first love and his kingdom, which you are to seek first as you press into this world bearing witness to the glorious power of the resurrection!”

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His Day of Victory

(from Day Stream Devotion)

JESUS -
His shed blood means...
We can live each day in His forgiveness.
His resurrection means...
We can walk constantly in newness of life.
His presence means...
We can know His victory in each situation.
His love means...
We will never face anything alone!
His day of victory makes all our days complete!

For in Him we live and move and have our being. Acts 17:28

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We had some fruitful training in East Nepal (18-22 March) and in Kathmandu (25-28 March).  In Kathmandu, Rev. Yap BS and Rev. Simon N. began the new MRE program in conjunction with the MMin.  We also had the privilege and joy to preach in churches, pastored by our MMin graduates.  We will bring the two groups together for the September 23-27 special session in Kathmandu.  Thanks so much for all your prayer and support.  May the Lord’s blessings of Heb. 6:10 be yours!

It will be my unique privilege and joy to be with Filadelphia BP Church, Batam, Indonesia for some special meetings:  Good Friday, 6 April, 6pm, Gospel Meeting (Topic: Nails of Jesus); Saturday, 7 April, 9am-12 noon, training of leaders and teachers; Sunday, 8 April, 6am, Sunrise Service by the sea.  Please pray for souls to be saved and saints to be built up.

We pray Jesus’ very best be yours this Easter season (Ps. 84:11).

Thanks again for your prayers and support in so many ways.  Please visit FaithatWorks Facebook or our blog, for further news at 

http://faithatworksfellowship.blogspot.com

Be sure to bookmark it.

If we can be of any help to you, please let us know. The good Lord bless you and all yours!

Yours always in Christ and for Christ,

Rev. Goh Seng Fong
(John 12:24)

Handphone:  98207783

                   +65-98207783

                                                <><><><><><><>

Name and Address: 

                                         Faith@Work Fellowship
                                              9 Kalidasa Avenue
                                              Singapore 789389.

People involved in the Fellowship include:  

               Rev. Tan Choon Seng, Rev. Tan Eng Boo, Rev. Yap Beng Shin, Rev. Simon N., Rev. Robert Chew,  Rev. Mark Tay, Rev. Andrew Tan, Ong Beng Hong, Michael Lim, Amos Hoon, Jeff Tan and Daisy Koh.

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Here are some pictures from Nepal:

Worship service in church pastored by an MMin graduate

Training in East Nepal

Training in Kathmandu

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