An Amazing Race for God's Kingdom Venture in Hunan

Subject: Hunan Trip report No. 1Dear RAPHA supporters,Thanks for all your supports that have enabled me and the team of 7 females and 3 males to arrive in Yongzhou at 14:45 on 12/6/2010 to conduct the emotions healing course. We have 63 learners mostly from the Yongzhou Christian Church who are either in a pastoral role or in a lay leadership position. There are still from other churches, and seekers that the Lord may use us as an avenue to bring true blessings to many more Yongzhou people.I was assigned a group of 65 years old people. Please pray for my wisdom in choice of words in dealing with people of senior age.Bye for now.Hung Kwan

Subject: Hunan Trip report No. 2
Dear RAPHA Supporters,

Yes, God did answer all your prayers. Once again, we experienced His miraculous and amazing work at Yongzhou. The training ended with great success releasing the suppressed hurt feelings of many again at the end of the programs. God blessed me with a spiritual son whom I led him to Christ at the ending hour of the whole program. We will set off for Hengyang and Changsha tomorrow. Keep praying for God's Will be done.

In Christ

Rev Kwan

Subject: Hunan Trip report No. 3 – An Amazing Race for God’s Kingdon Venture

Dear All,

It was yet another amazing race for God’s kingdom venture. Everything was in God’s fine control.

The trip original primary purpose was meant to be a visitation to the ICC Projects in Hengyang & Changsha after an intensive 4 days counselling training in Yongzhou, a clear open door for me to get a closer look of the abandoned disabled orphans ministry of ICC. But God gave me following unexpected bonus accomplishments: -
A. In Hong Kong from 7-11/6/2010
1. An one on one training and details planning session with Rev James Chak in preparation for the Kairos Chinese intensive course to be held in Brisbane from end of July to early August.
2. A meeting with the Harmony Foundation for an update of the project. I was asked to record a brief video session for promotion of the new e-harmony channel to be officially lunched in November after a 6 months beta test started in April this year.
3. A visit to the YCC centre in Kowloon meeting a couples of team members of the forth coming NZAUS trip with Brisbane as the first city of visit for a historic cultural exchanges between the Local Australian Birralee Voices and the joint Chinese Christian Choir.
The above visits were not planned but are very vital for bringing effective result for their respective program. It however is just a prelude or entrée to God’s more abundant banquet of blessings in China.
B. In Yongzhou from 12-15/6/2010
The 3.5 days Quartet Program for Managing Our Emotion was successfully carried out with good results exceeding our expectation.
1. It brought healing of deep buried wound by releasing the lifelong suppressed emotions of many people. It especially is effective for those elderly persons who are of lower education level and also for those who are in a pastoral role that have forced themselves to wear a mask to suppress their primary emotion in expressing their inner feeling of hurt and frustration.
2. A greater healing was ministered to us the group leaders who were supposed to minister to the participants for healing of their problems. However through the empathy to students, we all got healed of some of our deep wounds relieving an invisible lifelong burden.
3. I myself was particularly blessed with a roommate who helped to analyze and guide me to realize my problems in ministry. I was enlightened to come to a new sense of understanding that I always just tend to address the problem but not the roots which is the inability to handle the primary emotions of fear and insecurity. I was also guided to be a more effective pastor by setting boundary in exercising my role as a pastor that I don’t have to do all things or entertain all requests from the members that are beyond the limit of my capacity.
4. The most beautiful moment happened when we did our last debriefing on the van that the Spirit touched both of us to shed uncontrollable tears of mutual admiration and empathy.
5. God also blessed me by blessing many precious lives in the Quartet Emotion Managing Program.
i. My 9 group members except 2 are elderly people of 65 or above. They are of varied education levels with one illiterate person. Many of them also do not speak mandarin but Hunan dialect. So on face value, it was a difficult group to achieve emotions liberating result.
ii. But I was blessed by all the group members for being punctual to come for group activities with 100% attendance and active participations with mutual appreciation and respect. I was also assigned one of the only 2 helpers whom I considered capable and intellectual in offloading me a lot of logistic responsibilities and taking up increasing group leader role at the later stage of the group activity program.
iii. Because of the even participation of all members with good discipline, we could finish all the assigned tasks always on time. The progress of individuals to get in touch with the identified primary emotion was in general slow and with varying degree of difficulties in the first three group workshops. However, the work of the Holy Spirit was so apparent in the 4th group workshop that all nine except one members could successfully experience great liberation of their suppressed primary emotion through the role play exercise. It was amazing to witness how God softened their hardened hearts to freely express the feeling of hurt to the role playing person and were able to set boundary for preserving a renewed healthier relationship.
iv. A blessed bonus was gifted to my group that the two younger members who took turn to do translation of local Hunan dialect were trained to play the role of a group leader, guiding the weaker members to undergo mediation and role playing.
v. Because of all the above, God blessed me with a special intimate therapeutic counselling relationship with all my nine members. They were no longer just a name on the roll call sheet, but nine precious unique dignified lives that forever have become a part of my life discovering journey. I concluded my sharing at the final session on this note with tears of joy and gratefulness for God’s grace and blessing through this amazing life interaction group dynamic amongst these 11 bonded souls.
vi. God kept bestowing me with overflowing blessing by ministering to the need of a pastor with physical handicap. My appointment with him was deferred for one day unexpectedly. From hindsight, it was God’s plan to equip me with the right answers through an unplanned soul searching sharing with my roommate in that evening. Thus I was able to answer and address all the questions raised by that pastor on the next day. Isn’t God great?!
vii. My ministry in Yongzhou ended in a high note with one precious spiritual fruit. The son of a member of the 4th group was brought by her mother to come for spiritual advice hoping to empower her son to pass the open examination in 2 days time. The Spirit inspired me to stress on the need to have real peace only from Jesus to deal with anxiety. And the young man gladly received Christ with a submissive heart. Hallelujah to the Lord!!

In conclusion, this mission trip can be regarded as an amazing race of God. It brought people of vastly different language and cultural background to gather for achieving amazing results for Him touching and transforming the lives of both the teachers and the learners.

I have to stop here and will share more later about God’s plan and open door for future counseling ministry to the disabled orphans under the care of ICC.

Rev Hung Kwan