2012 Year End Reflections and Sharing

This is a year of changes! 

Five major elections, Taiwan, Russia, Hong Kong, USA and China, some have changed for the better like Taiwan! But some have gone down the path of shame and complete corruption like Hong Kong. It affects my focus, shifting more to social issues in HKG and China apart from proclaiming the Gospel to the nations.

This is a year of travelling.

To Beijing, Changsha, Henyang in May for Walk the Wall China Experience Program with Ps Mark, Leanne and my spiritual daughter Mize. To Auckland NZ for WACCM conference in July with Ling and the 17 Brisbane Christian Choir members , which triggered the formation of the Brisbane branch of World Association of Chinese Church Music (WACCM). To Changsha in September again for Rapha training for the International China Concern’s staff and nannies.

This is a year of trainings.

Kairos, a mission focus discipleship program, is the main calling that God has laid on my heart. I attended more than 5 different sorts of training in Brisbane, Hong Kong and the Sunshine Coast. All that were to prepare me to train others as a Head Facilitator to conduct the first 4^th ed Kairos in Cantonese in July/Aug and then in Mandarin in Dec. Lives have been transformed to become a world Christian embracing the holistic Great Commission that nominal Christians have all just missed the point ignoring the calls by God to serve and reach out to the unreached people of all nations.  

Another strategic training God has engaged me to serve is the Rapha Emotion Management Course. It was originally a disaster relief program for healing the Post Trauma Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Sichuan. But the Almighty God just inspires us to use it as an evangelism tool to touch and mend the broken life of Christians and non-believers alike. 

With the vision of Kairos, I am thrilled to find out that God is calling me to use Rapha to do a regular mission to evangelize the Nannies of ICC, leading them to Christ and equipping them to be the missionary to cross the disability barrier to bring the disabled orphans under their care to Christ. So far, I have engaged in four Rapha training in China, The last two were with ICC in Changsha in Dec 2010 and Sept 2012. Both achieved great success. But God guidance is ever more needed for the next one to come.

This is a year of networking

With the looming of globalization, urbanization and advancement in cyber space information technology, the way to network with people of all nations has never been easier than before. God has guided me to reconnect with my spiritual daughter Mize last year after her momentary visit to Brisbane in 2002 as a child and non-believer. This year, I physically met her in May in Changsha for the ICC China Experience program. Our email communications have been turned into a blog series testifying how a young Christian in China can stand firm against the tide of secularization and pursuance for material goods.

Through the Rapha program, God used me to miraculously heal two participants role playing as their father and grand pa. So, now, I have another two spiritual family members, a daughter and a granddaughter. Through them more China ministry may be opening for me in 2013.

In Brisbane, God also has changed the formation of the Pastor Prayer league to be inclusive of para-church representatives adding more mission orientation into our intercession prayers. Kairos and Sacred Music have been two platforms to draw Christians from different background to serve as one body of Christ. All these are good signs of development of true fellowship and partnership in Christ.

 The Cyberspace technology has completely broken down the physical barrier that our ancestors had to cross for bringing the good tidings afar. Last year, God first created a situation for me to partner with two non-Christian Chinese Alumni to found a Blog. It was initially meant to be shared only by our Chinese University alumni. But quickly we have found a global audience of known and unknown persons. It gives me ample of room to write on topic about life and faith and opinions on contemporary issue about social justice. So far, I have written 137 blogs in 21` months, almost 7 blogs a month. A time that I have never thought I could afford if it is not anointed by God. 

This year, God has expanded my outreach platform to FB.  I created my Face Book account in 2008. But it has remained dormant until this October. I have joined one FB group on Politics and Social issues in HKG, another FB group on tourism sharing special pictures taken on the journey. Initially, I thought I was connected to a group of HKG people. But later on, I found out that I was virtually making friends with people scattered in the world. God has guided me to build up special fond relationship with a number of non-Christians first. Through sharing on secular things, God keeps giving me wisdom to bring in gospel messages. Later on, God has strategically guided me to make friends with a few Christians who happen to be friends of my non-Christian group. So you see, 

God is using FB to lead us to form partnership with Christian on the network to work in a subtle way to share our faith and testify for God. Have a look how FB has become the most dominant platform for social community networking. You can see the 10-40 windows have almost been completely won over by FB especially into the Arabic world! China has remained to be a Creative Access country. FB is banned in China. That has explained why traditional mission visits continue to be necessary for at least the very present moment in time. Who knows what will happen next year 2013, or next month?!

The end time is really drawing near! But we don’t need any more speculation of the doom day. 21/12/2012 certainly will be proven another hoax. But Jesus has given his body, the universal church collectively a task to spread the good news across the 16,700 nations (people groups) in the world. Task remaining is 6,900 least heard gospel groups. It would be an insurmountable task for individual Christians, or even individual church, but certainly a finishable tasks for the collective body of Christ. It certainly will continue to be my guiding world view of God’s mission. The  platforms he has set for me make my job a feasible one, in His strength.

On the Family front, I have to disappoint you all that I am no longer obliged to share news on behalf of my sons. They have grown far too old to be their Dad or Mum’s boys. I just thank God that they are generally in God’s good hands  in terms of their personal careers, their home purchasing scheme and their spiritual development. I must learn to step back to give them full room to manoeuvre. As for Ling, my dear wife, she has been struggling to keep up with my pace and multi-dimensional ministry involvement. She has become the pillar of support for our small family church. By grace, I have just been able to lure her to run the Mandarin Kairos  as one of the 3 facilitators. This could be the climax of my ministry experience this year.

Looking forwards to happenings in 2013, it could be a continuation of this year pattern.

A year of travelling. àIn February to Solomon Island for kicking off Kairos there. In May to Changsha for ICC’s 20^th Anniversary and other unknown places including possibly Xian and or Lanzhou. In November. for a Sacred Music arts exchange tour to Amoy, Wuhan and Changsha.  

A year of training. àAttending the Head Facilitator Course on 1,2 February. Possible Kairos class in Feb in Solomon Island, in March at the Sunshine Coast, in April at Brisbane with St Mark Lutheran Church, and finally in June /July with BCAC again. The next available Rapha course is still uncertain. But  it could happen any time during my two China trips, if God’s willing.

A year of networking. à Who knows how God will expand my global network for His goodness sake.

 “Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.”  (William Carey)

Perhaps this is the best motto to keep me alert in facing all those Kairos moments brought about by all those unpredictable changes of this world at the end times.