Looking Back & Soaring Ahead

We had an emotional and heart-felt last prayer meeting of the year, and are excited at all that 2012 promises to bring. :) For those of you who missed it, here are some recaps on our last Taste Missions event. May the new year bring Christ's love, joy and peace to you and your families!

Feature story on 4/14 in The Philippines

The crowd descends! Everyone wants a taste of missions! ;)

Tasty yak meat from Yunnan, China

Getting to know more about the work in Lijiang, China.

Explaining the whats and wheres and whys.

Could it be? Someone from the Yi minority tribe from the mountains of rural China?

Alas, no. We were fooled by the costume!

Our Thailand booth with their very creative pop-ups!

Chefs at work!

The Thai salad was a hit!

Captivated by the myriad of Cambodian street food.

Cambodian street game for the young and old alike!

Cambodia church planting and iAim programs.

Cambodia children homes support.

Mala hotpot from our China City Church team!

"Only one each please!" ;)

Something for everyone!

Last but not least, our feature missions location - The Philippines.

Tasting Filipino delicacies! ;)

Arise To Missions!

That's all from us for 2011! Please keep your contributions and feedback coming, and write to us if you are interested in knowing more about our mission fields or going on a mission trip. Drop us a comment or e-mail us at missions [dot] editorial [at] gmail [dot] com! :) See you in 2012.

For those of you who missed the newsletter back in October, you can read them here:

We Are Back!

We've been busy behind the scenes, but this coming missions weekend is proving to be our biggest yet. Come join us for some fun and food, and get to know more about your missionaries and mission fields! :)

Stories From The Field

It's that time of the year again! For those of you who missed it, here is the bi-annual missions newsletter that we released over the past two Sundays. :) We hope you will be blessed and inspired by the stories. This time around we introduced to you the 4-14 Window, in the coming months we hope to bring you more info here.

If you would like to get involved in any of the mission fields, or contribute to the editorial work, or just have any questions, please feel free to write to us at missions [dot] editorial [at] gmail [dot] com, or leave a comment on this post. :) Don't worry, we promise not to bite!

What did you like in this issue? What would you like to see in the next issue?

Talents in Places

The past month or so has seen the editorial team up in arms in preparation for the upcoming missions weekend! Another newsletter packed with lotsa good reports, and a video montage with a twist.

Meanwhile, this is a wonderful account from Bro Mervin, who went on his first mission trip last December after having known Christ for 20 years! We didn't have enough space in the newsletter, but we hope this makes its way to you nonetheless. :)

2010 saw my first ever mission trip. I was psyched up after hearing so many stories and the many wonders of God. I took up the roles in the skit team and also as the designated videographer for the trip.

Even before the trip, I had already begun learning -- spiritually and socially. This was all necessary for the trip to be a success. This mission trip opened my eyes to the spiritual and material riches that we already possess, but much taken for granted.

I saw the yearning of the people in China, how they hungered for the Word, how they generously given the little that they had. I saw how much they desired & fed upon the limited access of the Word, how they loved each other, how they loved God. They had expressed their love for God through their actions, their willingness to serve, instead of shallow lip-service.

"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms." 1 Peter 4:10

No matter how little your talents, God will use and multiply it, if you are willing.

Chinese New Year! :)

Blessed Chinese New Year to all who are checking in! :) We hope you are all having a wonderful time of reunion and fellowship with loved ones. Since we are in the throes of the Chinese New Year, we thought we'd bring you a testimony from a recent China mission trip.

2010 was quite a year for Sis Aiye who recently received Christ. She was baptised in April, went for for her first church camp in June, and ended the year with her first mission trip in December to Kunming, China. We hope that her testimony will encourage you to step out in faith in 2011! :)

Initially, I was hesitant to go for this mission trip. For someone who has recently received Jesus, I wasn't confident of sharing the gospel with others, and was also warming up to my cell group, thinking that I could be out of place.

My cell group, however, assured me that I will be greatly blessed during the trip. I never understood it until I was there to experience the amazing work of God unfold before my eyes. There were several experiences that our group encountered and we could all feel that God’s presence was very real. God is a loving God and He protects and provides for His children in all circumstances.

On one particular occasion, we really felt the Lord’s protection during a perilous ride down the mountain. More than 20 of us were squeezed together at the back of the lorry, standing up and clinging on to one another for our dear lives, as there was not enough space for everyone to sit. While fear was on our minds, we did not succumb but instead sang songs of worship. I could feel the peace as I looked up into the sky and really resonated with something that my cell group leader said: “God was smiling at us from up above when we sang songs of worship to Him.”

During this trip, I realised that I am very fortunate to have access to Bibles and study aids in Singapore. This isn't so in China, particularly for the rural minority tribes. Though resources are scarce for them, their desire to know and to read the Word is more enthusiastic.

I was moved knowing that many of them travelled long distances to fellowship and to seek the Word of God. Witnessing this desire within them made me recognise that I could do much more.

I received abundantly during this mission trip and learned about complete faith in the Lord in all things. Only by faith will we accomplish great works in the Lord!

Big Welcome! :)

While it seems that this blog has been around for some time, we've kept pretty quiet about it so that we could slowly work on its contents and design, leading up to the missions weekend in church. Since its official launch over the past weekend, we have seen our page views spike drastically, so WELCOME! ;)

We have received some really nice comments since then about the new newsletter and the video that was shown during the main services. Thank you all for your kind words. Keep them coming, and let us know what we are doing right, and what we can do better. What was your response to the message? What would you like to see in the blog/newsletter? What do you think our next video should explore? We won't be able to please everyone, but we will value every single input for future efforts!

At the same time, keep your contributions coming in, either through the missions committee, or you can send it to us at missions [DOT] editorial [AT] gmail [DOT] com! Space in the newsletter is limited, but the blog is not. ;) If you would like to contribute your skills and be part of our team, we'll be glad to get in touch with you as well! We had a lot of help along the way, so a big thank you to all those who helped us with the newsletter and the video, sometimes on very tight deadlines, you know who you are! ;) We need all the creative energy we can get, and are particularly looking out for Chinese editors/translators and print layout artists.

Lastly, for those of you who missed it, here is the newsletter (English and Chinese versions) for your reading pleasure. We already have requests pouring in for us to upload the video, which we will do in our next post, together with the correct answers to satiate you curious cats, so keep checking back for updates! :P

Heartbeat of God

After months of preparation, we have finally begun the work on our next video production. On our previous project, we were tasked to put it together in about two months -- from the time that the team was formed to when the video was to be shown during our church's Missions Week -- which was insanely tight, to say the least.

This time, we hope to give ourselves a little more room to breathe, juggling this with our respective full-time jobs, and perhaps manage to have some fun along the way. ;)

For posterity's sake, I wanted to post our previous video up. This video was shown in all our church's congregations earlier in March, with the intent to give a light-hearted insight into the lives of our missionaries, and what they do so far away from home.

There's always room for improvement, but speaking as someone who's never been involved in a media project other than print, it was extremely fulfilling to see this come into fruition. :) We had so much fun interviewing the missionaries as well, and I believe I speak for the rest of the team when I say that they have inspired us. Our upcoming video aims to do something different, so look out for it in a couple of months, but for now, here's an intro to the people who are Making A Difference.