Hi people. As requested, im here to give my views on the Asia Conference. The entire conference took place from Nov 19 to Nov 23rd at Singapore Expo.
btw, the timings are subject to change. its based on my memory...
Prologue- i arranged with the whole cg to meet at 330pm at singapore expo. This was prior to discussion with Weiren. He told me its better to "Over-queue" than "Under-queue." So i listened to the man of God and took his advice
330pm- arriving at expo, i expected to see few people there. Cos firstly, it was like a good solid 4 hours to go before the service starts and secondly, our cg doesnt exactly have a gd reputation for being early. Most notably me, LOL. so i made it a point 2 be there on time that day.
340pm- slightly late. but still ok la. I met up with thc cg people. Surprising, they all look so joyful.(other than Zoe that is, who promptly pointed me the middle finger as i walked up to her. haha) Maybe the shock of queing hasnt gotten 2 them yet and so i thought.
4pm- the whole group of us went to foyer 3 with the intention to queue but then to my surprise, there was no queue yet. Immediately, thoughts of " wha! then why come so early?" "now what to do with the cg ppl?" entered my head. Then i rem Weiren's advice amd i immediately rebuked this thoughts. So with a "assuring" look on my face, i led the cg into hall 7 where we would seat and wait for the queue to begin.
420pm- the queue started and the whole cg went to queue. we were in the second section of the queue. expecting not to move, i whipped out my homework to do. I set an expectation of finishing up that piece of work by today. I felt really confident that i could do it! However, i soon realised that i had not factored in the Jed and Jo factor. haha.... Sigh, i only had 1 page dun in the end. also, the queue was moving quite a bit and somehow i ended up in a standing position with my bag in my hands. how to do work like that??? Lol, so i stuck to talking to the cg people ba.
6pm- finally we are in hall 8 but havent entered the main hall yet. so we had to wait somemore, i ended up behaving like a babysitter when Jed and Jo started to wrestle. sian, sometimes i think i should just let them go n kill each other ba. haha, joking.
630pm- we got into the hall le. Jasper and Oswin were our lead "runners" into the hall. in fact, Jasper told me he came in the top 10 into the hall. Haha, thats a "great" achievement. so we got a seat at the floor area which was pretty cool for the opening night. Pastor Kong told us to expect a blast and im glad our cg was in a good position to experience that.
730pm- 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. Asia Conference HAS BEGUN! Even the countdown was cool, cos the numbers came out in different ethnic languages. "Fireworks" lit up the entire hall and everyone was screaming with joy. Indeed, there was a celebration like atmosphere in the air. We immediately began with praise and worship by our very own CHC band. Earlier, i could hear them practising very hard and i knew that it really must be something vry gd. True enough, they brought up the atmosphere immediately through the praise and worship songs.
After that, Pastor gave us 5 mins to walk around and talk to people. Somehow, i had the spirit in me to walk around and talk to the foreign delegates. They could be easily identified with their green tags. so i walked around to a few of them and started to engage them in conversations. What shocked me next, was how senior some of these delegates are. In total, i met with a pastor who is 40 years in ministry, a worship leader and a cg leader. I really felt very "anoited" then, haha. What also touched me was the fact, that some of these delegates travelled miles and spend thousands just to come for this event. Therefore, i truly pray that the delegates would really bring something with them back into their home countries to impact their various congregations.
Next, we had our parade of ministries. I felt that this was a great opportunity to highlight our various church ministries to the foreign delegates. So that, they can have a look and feel about what our members do in our church. Everything went on well and i could see that the crowd was particulary tickled by our drama ministry. haha
Jack Neo shared his testimony after that. It was absolutely hilarious. It was also the first time hearing him share his testimony in church. He shared about the process of how he was saved and it just emphasised how impt being sensitive to people's needs is. In short, the church opened up to Jack Neo when he needed an office to carry out filming and that was how he got to know the Lord through that. Simply amazing!
Ok, up to this point. my memory is a bit fuzzy now. if i'm nt wrong, it was time for Pastor's preaching. He preached on Acts 17:16-34. The verse was about the apostle Paul's journey at Athens and how he arrived at the position to speak to the most established counsel of Greece, the Aeropagus. Indeed the word set the platform for our entire Asia Conference. Pastor was full of fire when he preached the word, he challenged us to be like Paul himself, being bold to engage society without compromising his walk with God.
Although the msg was somewhat similar to his article in Harvest Times, i was still able to get fresh revelations. I received new knowledge regarding the three spaces and how you needed to be among the elite to enter into the third level. I believe its just so true in our modern context. Would a person of high authority listen to your cock and bull story, if u aren't even capable to be on par with him?
With that message firmly in my heart, Pastor challenged us in our offerings as well. About how our offerings were to be given to the poor and needy. Although it was only the 1st nite, i was already licking my lips in anticipation for the further four nights ahead. Truly, Pastor had set kept his word and 20,000 of us benefitted greatly as a result. = D Qiming
No comments:
Post a Comment