Ministry of the Heart: Batam Mission Trip!

Phew! Had another tired but superb weekend!

From Friday morning been going non-stop till Sunday afternoon.

Friday morning had SOT, and then in the afternoon we had a preaching test! It's was a great experience and I really learnt alot. I think most of all I gain confidence to speak in front of people and be expressive at the same time. For me, my energy level when I speak is always lower because of my lack of self-confidence. But after the second time preaching I felt much more confident that I could do it.

But it's really amazing. To see people who are younger than me.. like 20 ( Jody in particular) have such revelation of Scripture and then preach it so well.. I just couldn't help going 'wow' when she was preaching =) I'm just very impressed with the young people that the church is raising up. Not that I'm old.. Hah..

So at night we had cell group. I injured my wrist doing catching for ministry. =P Need to learn how to do it right. Finished only 11 pm like that.
The next day it was Batam we go!
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I woke at 5 am and we took Marcus' car to Harborfront there! Well, to cut the long story short, I'll use pictures.

From left: Marcus, Me, Myrna, Chew Yan, Mingli, Hee Wei, Willy, Keith
Here's the people from SOT Team 20 who went for the trip!

Here's us in the ferry.

Here's the 1st session that the Indonesians had for Saturday. It was a morning service so the seats were not filled. Nonetheless it was a great service with about 200 people and a great word by Bobby.

Here's the church building. It's actually very new. I read the plaque, it was opened in 2002, which is about the same time as the Jurong West church.

We actually participated in one of the Emerge competitions. This is a telematch where we lost horribly to the Indos! There were 6 teams and we were the last. Haha..

We took a picture together with the stage.

Here's the pretty host of the Beauty Pageant competition, Charlene. =). Charlene was in the programs Committee for FOC. Well, at least the FOC trained you a little to be ra-ra for the pageant. Good job hosting it! Especially its your first time and you had no rehearsal!

And a great discovery... DONUTS! Did you know that this brand of donuts was actually donut factory's Plan A to bring donuts into Singapore? But seems that J Co didn't want to franchise it to donut factory so they did a duplicate. Bad move by my opinion. Ha...

And as Singaporeans what do we do? I think the whole team to Batam bought about over 100 boxes! Haha. talk about donut smuggling! And you don't have to queue cos the Indos are not as well.. crazy about donuts as us Singaporeans. Nonetheless, it's good business for them. Haha.

Here's a parting shot. We played Polar Bear/ Mafia on the boat and I kept getting killed. Seems like the murderers don't like people who talk too much. Haha..

I reached home at 1240 am Sunday morning and went for service again later in the morning at 7 am. I felt I experienced so much in a day that it felt like 2 days from the time we left for Batam and back.

I felt like my eyes opened when I saw the Indonesians in the service. It really made me see how near God was everywhere. It didn't matter where I was, or what language the people spoke, the way they worshipped, God's presence is still the same in Singapore or Indonesia or anywhere else. Even though it was a short one day, but I felt I saw alot in just that short time. Praise the Lord =)

For this time, it's not really a REAL REAL mission trip. The food and amenities were just too good. Quite okay food, clean toilets! Haha.. next time.. I'm really getting excited about the next mission trip. It's much more interesting when you travel for ministry then just to go and 'feed' yourself.

Random shots:

Be responsible! Well it seems like the people who gave these knew who to give it to. HA =)