As You Open My Eyes to The Works of Your Hand...

The much delayed post of the mission trip review. Sorry for the delay, was tired, caught up in work, lazy, etc. A multitude of excuses but that said, the things we did for the mission trip from the planning to the practices to the trips and the aftermath should be documented. This is so that we may learned from our mistakes and improved on any future undertakings. We should also not forget that while we practice and perform, God is the One that provides, protects and blesses. So as much as this is about the mission team's efforts, it is first and foremost about God's goodness and greatness.

I will break this series of posts into several parts and would like to call this series "As You open my eyes to the works of Your hand"...part of the lyrics to the song "Oceans will part" by Hillsong that have impacted much of the mission team members. That lyrics in a nutshell summed up what the team members experienced over this mission trip.

Let's start from the begining. (it needed to be said that the insights and views are mine, other team members feel free to add, either in the chat box or comments or msn me so that I can also add into this posting)

This mission trip idea started sometime back. It was aprroximately 3 to 4 years ago where the idea to go for a mission trip was first raised in the YWA group. The plans were made, contacts was established with Ronny over in Philipines (Sorry, Ronny, ended up going to Indonesia). Date was set and members signed up. But somehow, the steam just went out of our engines and the entire trip was postponed.

Last year, the mission trip idea was raised up again. This time round in the EY and the youths were asked to pray and to consider the participation in this mission trip. Coincidentally, our dear Elder went for a Sportds Leadership Training Camp and contacts was made with the Indonesian brothers. We first considered Mynmar, but was rejected due to the high cost of the plane tickets. Then Indonesia and Philipines was considered. Somehow, Indonesia was eventually confirmed as the destination. (A few months back, while we were considering Mynmar, our brother Yeoh said that he felt we will go to Indonesia, that was before even we know we have any contacts in Indonesia). Finally, with the destination confirmed and the people signed up (7 youths & 5 adults), we started to plan and practice.

Sad to say, we did not spend enough time to equip our team members for the this mission trip. Though we may have practice the skits, but the testimony, songs, bible study, sharing and praying part was kinda overlooked. We did plan but we did not really practice. We effectively started practicing somewhere in the month of February. Among the team members, one was away in RBS, two was having a multitude of school activities that kinda tied them up till mid February. So we only have the full team members for about a month before the trip. And even then, towards the mission trip date, another member was called off to be 'brainwashed' (his term) and some are now preoccupied with their university applications.

We decided that the majority of the skits are to be handled by the youths including the testimonies. The adults (William, Kar Wai, Yeoh and Katan) is to prepare messages. All the items; skits, testimonies and messages was to be prepared in Malay. When we started the practices, we did not know what programs we will handle over in Indonesia. We also split the group into two teams in the unlikely event that we will be broken up into two teams. With this in mind, we began our practices.

That concludes our training part. Next up our trip in Indonesia.

Our mission trip t-shirt and logo. Sent to printers on Thursday, the week before the mission trip. Got the T-shirts back on Tuesday, the day before the trip.

We started every practice with a time of worship. The worship though simple and small in numbers was wonderful. Got us into the right frame of mind, reminded us who, why and what we are doing.

We then had a time of prayer as well before the practice.

Some of those not able to go, joined us for the practices, worship and prayer. Would also like to say a big thank you to those who come to lend us your support.

Due to the small number of people in the team, the youths took up the many challenges that they normally would not do. Bernice was tasked to play the guitar even though she had just started playing for about 6 months (Bernice did more...but more on that later)

Katan