Time to let go and trust God

The ENMU team is at the end of the project, and we just want to review on the amazing ways we've seen God work in the past 6 weeks. We've been so blessed to be a part of sharing Christ with 26 Readers who've come from such backgrounds as Buddhism, Chinese ancestral worship, and "free thinkers" who are still searching for what they want to believe in. In sum, we've read for 125 hours from Luke with our Readers. We know that God had his hand in this project, as we've seen many grow in their knowledge and faith of Jesus as the Son of God. It is very difficult to summarize all the amazing ways we've witnessed Him transforming our Readers, but we'll try to give you a small glimpse. David Brown said that:

"Some of our readers came with a knowledge of Jesus, but did not understand his purpose like my reader, Douglas. Other readers had never seen a Bible, heard of Jesus, or new of God's love for them like Michael. These were two of my most interesting readers because they have grown so much! Looking at how far these two have come, its not surprising that the song, 'Our God is an Awesome God' has been stuck in my head for the past 3-4 weeks. Our God has shown us his power here in Singapore, we've broken new ground here and I pray that God will continue to work in these readers and that just because we are gone, doesn't mean that they stop studying. To God be the glory, the great things he has done!"

I, Rachelle Self, have also witnessed growth in my Readers. One in particular was Yakun who is a "free thinker" and at the beginning of our reading sessions doubted even the existence of Jesus. After talking about all the evidence for Jesus' life, she agreed that he must have lived, but even then thought the stories from the Bible were fairy tales and that Jesus was not really the son of God. Through reading the scriptures, Yakun began to realize the purpose of Jesus' life. She said on one occasion, "I think Jesus was an agent between God and man." Another time she said, "Yes, I think it is possible that Jesus is both God and man." After reading about the crucifixion story and talking about who Jesus was, I said:

Ok, there are three options we have to decide between...Either; 1) Jesus told the truth and is the Son of God; 2) He lied and is not the Son of God, or; 3) He was crazy. He really believed he was the Son of God, but was not. After considering these options, she said, 'Well, it's not number 3. It's not number 2. I think it is number 1...Does that make me a Christian?'

Though Yakun has not become a Christian yet, she believes Jesus told the truth, and is the Son of God! Praise God!

Aside from the victory stories, we also need to share some logistics...We had our end meeting yesterday and talked about each Reader with a host from the Church who will be involved in following up with the Readers. We also had our last party with 7Readers in attendence (On average we had 8 readers at each party). We also had 4 Readers in attendence at church today!

We can't thank you all enough for your prayers and encouragement in making this project successful. We continue to ask for your prayers in the transition period as we leave and the church members pick up where we left off with the Readers. We have full confidence that God's word "will not return empty, but will accomplish what He desires and achieve the purpose for which He sent it." To God be the Glory!


Love in Christ,

ENMU team; David, Shelagh, and Rachelle

Yanan

I just finished reading with Yanan a few minutes ago and wanted to share about it. This girl is a free thinker who at the beginning of our reading sessions was uncertain whether Jesus even existed. After reading with her she has taken many steps of faith and has grown to genuinely like Jesus' teachings. For example, when we read about Jesus being a friend to Levi and the tax collectors, she said, "I like Jesus. If I have a friend I want him to be like Jesus." after reading about the wise and foolish builders I asked her, "What makes a strong foundation?" She replied, "I think Jesus is a strong pillar... he is very good." When I asked her if she was interested in Jesus being her foundation, she said "Yes, I am interested." She expressed that she does not have a strong foundation, and that her "spirit is empty." I shared with Yanan that she could have a strong foundation by believing in Jesus, but she was not ready to make that decision. Though she has not accepted Christ as her personal savior yet, she is growing so much. We will continue reading about the death, burial and resurection story in our last week, so please keep her in your prayers.
Love,
Rachelle

For your info...

Here are some stats we've been keeping track of the last couple weeks:

Readers: 28

Readers who attended
American Party: 5
Cowboy party: 10
Oscar Night: 7
Luau......
Talent show.....

We'll keep you posted!

Larintluangi

Yesterday (6/19), I just had my last reading session with a 24 girl by the name of larintluangi. This young lady is from Myanmar, and is currently working in Singapore as a housekeeper. Though her English was very poor, we were able to complete the "Friends Speak- In the Beginning book", which contains very basic English stories about Jesus. Though the langusge barrier was very difficult to gauge where she was at spiritually, we read about miracles of Jesus, how people were amazed at His teachings, and Heaven. I also encouraged her to read John 3:16-17. Though we won't be reading together anymore, I am thankful that she already has some connections with the church as she attends CitiVision with her employers. Please pray that Larintluangi will continue to study the Bible and grow to know more about Christ.
Love,
Rachelle

New Slide show at the bottom

Hey! There is a slide show at the bottom...Check it out!

My Reader, Michael

Hey everyone! I (David) wanted to come and report about my most interesting reader, Michael. I've told a few things about him to some of you, but not all. This guy came in and was my hardest reader to communicate with because of a strong language barrier. He was, without a doubt, going to be a challenge for me. He signed up for everyday and we've been progressing along every smoothly. The beautiful thing about this guy’s story is that he is very interested in the story of Jesus. With no prior knowledge of Jesus, God, or Christianity, we’ve had to start from scratch learning the basic things about Christianity. As we have moved along, things have progressed during every reading session. Things started out at Michael saying things like, this is a nice story, but a virgin birth can’t happen to now he has told me that he believes these stories are true, that Jesus really lived, was the Son of God, and that God and Jesus are powerful enough to perform these miraculous things. We’ve also gone through some parables of Jesus and at one of my recent reading sessions, things were particularly challenging. Michael seemed lost throughout my questions about the story. He said that he didn’t understand certain words that I didn’t have to teach him in our very first lesson. When we finally got through the story, I finally realized why we were having such a hard time. You see, in the couple of reading sessions prior to that, Michael was able to pick up on the true meaning of the story and because of that, words and ideas came very easy to him. In this reading session, it was not the case. Michael was not able to pick up on the true meaning of the story and so instead of focusing on my questions, he was mentally trying to figure out the true meaning of the story that Jesus told. When he walked out of that reading session, I just smiled and laughed a little because I just saw his innocence with these stories. It was a reminder to me that he was still very new to all of this and even though we were progressing so smoothly and quickly, I still needed to maintain an understanding of where he is on a spiritual level, an infant. From then to now, we talked about the resurrection and Jesus going back up into Heaven. After running through the Resurrection and Jesus being taken back up into Heaven, Michael was absolutely enthralled at the idea that Jesus is still alive to this day and that he is going to come back again! We’ve gotten into some very detailed and deep discussions about God and how that relates to our lives. I really can’t say enough about this young man and the growth I’ve seen right in front of my eyes. I praise God every time I think about it. To God be the Glory in this wonderful story from Singapore! God Bless, everyone!

Great Quotes by our Readers:

"I think Jesus is an agent between God and man." "I want to experience Jesus like that." "Yes, I think it is possible that Jesus was both God and man"-Yakun

"Jesus is a strong pillar." "I am interested in Jesus being my foundation." "I like Jesus very much."-Yanan

"The Good news is believing in Jesus."- Yanlin

Shelagh-"Do you believe that a virgin birth is possible?" Eileen-"Why not believe?"

Rachelle-"How is it possible for the virgin birth to have happened?" SiYan-"Because God can do anything."

Cowboys and Cavemen

We realized we haven't reported on our latest party, so here it is. Last Saturday we had our cowboy party and it was lot's of fun. David really did lasso a chair and we played lot's of card games. The rodeo was fun the readers got really connected to the youth group. We had some "authentic" cowboys and cowgirls come to our party as well.





This Saturday is our Oscar party. Everyone will get to learn about American movies and celebrities which could be a good thing or not. We will see.


Reading sessions are going very well and our readers are advancing in their knowledge and interest. We did get one or two new readers in the past week and will continue to advertise until the day we leave. It is vacation for all of our readers now so they are making more frequent appointments as well.
Sightseeing has died down a lot but there is still more to see. We went to the night safari and saw a lot of cool things. There was even a group of caveman there who danced with fire. Those pictures are below. Don't ask questions.


We are doing well and eating a lot. Thank you for your prayers.
God Bless.

Yakun

So I just wanted to give you a breifing on Yakun...Yakun is a free thinker who at the beginning of our sessions was questioning whether Jesus ever existed....She asked "How do we know that he even lived on earth?...I need to see it to believe it." The next session, the emphasis was on Luke believed he was writing true events and we talked about all the evidence to support that Jesus did live...She then agreed that Jesus must have lived on earth, but she didn't think that he performed miracles, or was the son of God. Today, the emphasis was on Jesus was man. Man, I wish I had been able to record all the things that she said...it was so cool! When I asked her what she learned about Jesus from that lesson she said, "I think Jesus was an agent between God and man." I questioned her further..."Is it possible that Jesus was both fully God and fully man?" She said in reply, "Yes, I think it is possible."

It is so cool to see our readers taking these baby steps.

So much to say!

Since we've last blogged, much has gone on. We have gotten quite a number more readers and the total is now at 23. There are still some coming back from vacations and school trips so we will continue to call them and advertise on the street. The readers we do have are so wonderful. With each reading session, they are improving not only their English, but their understanding of the Bible and of Christ. It is so exciting to sit down with them knowing that their interest about Christianity is peaked and they are willing to learn more. Each one is unique and special but here are three that we would like to highlight and tell you a little about them.
Kwei Kee reads with Shelagh and she is 17 years old. Her parents are Buddhist, as is her older sister. She has been "attending" church for a year now and considers herself a Christian. The reason I say "attending" is because her parents are unknowing of her church going and when she does go she tells them she is studying or out with friends. She has not been baptized for one reason or another (most likely because her mother is against it) but she tells me that when she is able to, she wants to get baptized. She is very smart and has a fairly good knowledge of most Bible stories. She considers her self a baby Christian but wants to learn more about how to grow as a Christian. Please pray for her and her situation. Her younger sister was banned from going to church but perhaps together with the strength of the Lord, they can change their parents hearts.
David works with one reader named Michael. He is 18 years old and extremely smart. His English skills do cause a language barrier, but they are having a good time reading together and he is excited about coming everyday. That's right...everyday. Most readers come once, maybe twice, a week. David asked him, "When do you want to schedule your next reading session Michael? and he responded, "Well I am in holiday (summer vacation) right now, so I am free everyday." So he signed up for Wed-Fri and tried to sign up on Saturday too, but that is when we have our party. He signed up for Sunday afternoon though. David then asked him if he was interested in going to church and he said that he was interested in it! Hopefully he will come soon! It is amazing what God is doing here in Singapore. David said that, "It's a challenge with him, but I'm loving every minute reading with him."
Rachelle is working with Benjamin who has some knowledge of Luke because he read with an LST team last summer. Though he claims to be a "free thinker", he shows great potential for becoming more involved in the church youth program. He came to the LST party last weekend, and had a great time. Not only does he show enthusiasm for the weekly parties, he has signed up for reading sessions each week.


Speaking of parties...
Our American Game Night was a huge success. Although we only had five readers come, those five readers had a great time and got connected to the youth group. Having only five allowed us to focus on them and get them more involved. Some of the youth are actually more shy than our readers but we think it's a great balance. David did very well proctoring the games and it was all very smooth. Next week (June 7) is our Cowboy Party! Rachelle has some great games planned and David will even be throwing a lasso!

We know we have spoken about the church involvement before but we cannot stress enough how much they are doing for us. Each week, each day, we are more surprised at their kindness. We joke around that they are "killing us with kindness", but of course it is only a joke. They are so willing to just give all that they have to us, the readers, the program and of course to God. We suppose that in our materialistic, American culture we forget how important giving and compassion is. Our busy lives overrun us and we lose sight of our Christ-like aspects. We are learning and growing in amazing ways and we know that it is all because of God and his awesome power.
Sightseeing has slowed down, due partly to the fact that we have seen most of the "tourist" spots in Singapore (there's only so much to see on a 14x26 mile island!) and partly to the fact that we are getting a tad bit tired. We are seeing more parks and areas of natural beauty which is nice considering how industrialized Singapore is. This also gives us a chance to slow down and stop to smell the roses (literally).
This Sunday is their combined worship where four different Churchs of Christ get together and worship and fellowship. We are excited to meet more locals and perhaps try more exciting food like the mashed red bean dessert! Yum! : )
As always, thank you for all your prayers and God Bless!