Philippines 2019_Day 7_Saturday

Morning service

Quy

This is the final day of our mission trip. There were two services on the Saturday.

The morning service started off with a drama about Esau and Jacob. It was such a blessing to see this acted out and really reinforced Hui King’s message about receiving and valuing God’s blessings and inheritance. Do we treasure the birthright and blessings that God has placed in our lives? Or are we like Esau ignoring and letting go of our inheritance? It ended with an altar call for both the ROLM and BLi team for those who wants to ask and receive double portion in our lives. It was so powerful to come before God with direct and true intent to ask for more and have that expectation from Him. There was a strong sense of the Holy Spirit moving as we closed our eyes and asked sincerely before God. There is nothing that we cannot ask from God that He will not give us if it is His will. It has been incredible to see how God has been shaping ROLM and all of us can see the blessings God has bestowed on them. There has been a recurring theme of harvest for the ROLM and for leaders to rise up to take hold of the blessings intended for them to take.

MBA Crash Course & Seed Donation for Business

David

One of our visions is to see the people of ROLM to have their own business to provide for themselves. And through raising funds, we have ready-funds to give them but we want them to be able to grow the funds too so we decided to run an MBA crash course to help them to understand business and be able to partner with God in doing business.

Therefore, on Saturday morning, Ai Seok assigned Hui Hui and myself to team up in order to teach ROLM’s teammates to understand better how they could start a business, run a business and profit from the business. Hui Hui and I quickly took some time to go into preparation as this was truly impromptu.

At 2pm in the afternoon, we began the class. We pasted papers on the wall and gathered everyone in the ROLM team we could to start the class. There were about 12 to 15 of them. Hui Hui began teaching them about the business cycle, touching on branding, production line, material costing and etc. There was lots of engagement from the team. We saw that it was truly beneficial in helping them to kick-start something new in their lives.

When Hui Hui had finished, I took up the role to start sharing some of my experience with them on how the Lord had blessed me in my insurance business. In particular, I shared with them some online marketing strategies that they could use to reach out to more customers and how good customer service attracts more buyers for their goods. Apart from this, I also shared about honoring God in tithe and offering to see a constant stream of business inflow and about the book of Joshua on how God led the Israelites to their promised land asking them to be strong and courageous all the time. There were lots of shouting of ‘amen’ in agreement to the preaching. I really appreciated how my vocational work could fall under Kingdom work.

After my session, I invited Xiu Mei to join in to teach them about proper recording of their finance so that they could formally report about the progress of the business. Each ROLM member, took up a role within the future business structure. Gemima was elected as the leader of this team. We did share with them to come out with a few business ideas that they want to move into and to pray about it. Their current main idea was to start a sewing business. We blessed them about that.

Youth Alive Service

Paige

We followed on with the Youth Alive service and also the final service for this year’s trip. Young people from the village came and some of the guys we played basketball with the night before attended too! It was a great time of prayer and worship. We had an alter call at the end of the service and several youths made the decision to fully give their lives to Christ!

Farewell Party

Xiu Mei

As we draw to the end of the trip, traditionally it ends with a party to thank and celebrate with the children, youths and everyone who has helped in one way or another throughout the week.

Before all the children and youth arrived, gifts were arranged and laid out at a corner; the hall was decorated with buntings and balloons whilst the dining table was filled with a lot of food, ready for a big feast. Dinner was absolutely delicious!

After dinner, before we could play games, there was a black out and we were all gathered round in darkness. We were blessed by the youths, who serenaded us with a number of songs. One song was written after a tsunami which wiped out some villages several years ago. It was a beautiful song, so heart-warming to know that they translated the natural disaster into a song to praise and worship God.

When the electricity came back on at 10pm, we had the gift presentation where each child was given a card with words of encouragement and the opportunity to pick a gift, clothing and a pair of slippers. The youths and leaders were also presented with a love gift, as a token of appreciation for blessing us with their support, dedication, love and acts of service through the week.

As the children were getting ready to go to bed, someone remembered there was cake! Little did I know that was the signal for an icing war between the local youth and BLI team. There was a lot of laughter and fun to end the evening.

Love Gifts for Pastors, Leaders and Helpers

Jason

A week like this could never be possible but for the commitment and diligence of the River of Life Mission Team. This year, hearing more about the preparations to receive BLi reminds me the cost to receive a group of 18. We have served each other, and the community in love, and it is the love demonstrated which causes the city on the hill to shine.

Amongst the goodbyes, a love gift is shared to our Filipino family – a small blessing and gesture of appreciation to our hardworking brothers and sisters who faithfully served alongside us through translation, driving, fetching water and supplies. Praise God for their servant hearts.

We also gave them a sum of seed money to start their business. We believe by the grace of God, these monies are in good hands and their business shall prosper. Amen.