Two Fridays ago, I had a friend to send me to the airport late at night to pick up a missionary who was arriving from Manila on a 12.50 am flight. It was freezing cold in the waiting area at the arrival hall, but switching on my netbook to get some work done during the wait, I soon forgot the cold.
I had known this dear missionary for nearly 14 years. Joy handles the campus ministry on the island of Leyte in the Philippines, and reaches campus students, witnessing to tens and hundreds, gathering them for fellowships and bible studies, counselling and discipling many.
Joy
She has been in campus evangelism for nearly eleven years, and is a bold and fearless soul winner. That was the reason for our inviting her to Singapore. We had a gathering of workers, evangelists and missionaries for five days a week ago from five different countries, and we wanted Joy to come, to ‘teach’ the others the art of soul-winning, to rekindle that fire within them.
Many of our workers labour in ‘hard’ places such as Indonesia and Malaysia. Involved in social programmes, they patiently build bridges and wait for the right opportunity to declare the gospel to those who need it. However, in the course of their waiting, and encumbered with social work, teaching, and adminstrative tasks, they sometimes become too cautious and ‘timid’, and forgot their evangelistic fervour. The Word says, be wise as a serpent, that’s true, but never timid as a mouse.
Joy has never been timid. She has never been distracted. The urgency of the task at hand – the gospel that saves, sends her tirelessly to the Philippines campuses daily, because there are not enough workers, but plenty of ripe and ready souls to be harvested. It is the same elsewhere, the plenteous harvest is not limited to certain countries only.
As we look forward to a brand new decade in 2010, we needed to be reminded we have a big God, a God with no limits, whosoever believes in Him WILL have everlasting life! And Joy, by her life, her testimony and her zeal, can surely help others like her to dream big, and win multitudes of the lost to Christ all over Asia!
That early morning at the airport, she finally appeared at 1.15 am, pleasantly surprised to find me waiting for her, and I was pleased with the warm hugs, as we set off arm-in-arm into the night together.
Positioning to live within a community – Tim is a tentmaker. For prudent reasons, we cannot divulge his real name or citizenship. He did not go to another country but had to make a cross cultural leap within his own country.
Tim has had a growing burden for the majority people group in his country. In this country, it is against the law for this mainstream people group to… Read More....
A few weeks ago, a co-worker of mine who is married to a Korean Christian worker told me something interesting. She said “Korean missionaries unite around the Gospel but we bring our differences to the mission field and fight over them!”
Koreans are basically a strong militant race. They do not shun a fight. The Korean Christian population is also clearly divided into conservative Presbyterians and exuberant Charismatics. In… Read More.... | 1 Comment
Going back to the Philippines for winter break is something I truly looked forward to. After a not so normal Christmas and New Year/birthday celebration in China, I was more than ready to hibernate and enjoy the sun in my home country alone. But as usual, plans change every minute. As Hudson Taylor said, “ Man proposes, God disposes.” Being at the center of His will though is still the… Read More.... | 1 Comment
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