Last Post on Findings before we lose contact again

This is the Kindergarden runned by a Pinoy couple, that teaches the kids real good English and Tetun, with the kingdom values added into it. They even sang for us in English! :) It was a great deal of time spent with them today, though they were puny, they really made an impact with their knowledge of English!

Pray for them: The Kindergarden faces opposition from the nearby catholic church, that if the kids do not attend the Catholic kindergarden, they are called “Traitors”. Pray that God will provide a safe heaven for the kids to nurture in and provide for the needs of the couple running the school

Food For Thought shared by Shih Yang:

Should the Timorese sacrifice relationships in which they value so much as compared to economical developments of the country? What they may be more developed in are the kingdom values, which is far more developed than our attitudes and values of the developed countries.

"If we carry the spirit of unity down to East Timor, we can break the warring spirit that is so prevalent in this nation. This also marks the significance that for the very first time, many Singaporean churches are working together, in doing missions in ET."

Warring Spirit: There are all kinds of conflicts among the Christian church leaders in ET. There is a fear of members stealing from the catholic churches.

Prayer Prompters: Pray that the workers and missionaries here will carry the right spirit which is the spirit of unity

Village Visiting: The missionary kids are rather lonely while their parents are doing their work locally and the missionaries here are really contributing and touching the lives of the local communities, slowly, but surely! :)

Cocoon Educational Project: There is a strong intercessory support behind this Cocoon education project, that if we were to look at it on what this project has achieved in 2.5 years, the response is great but its all through the building of relationships. It is important to start understanding and learning more on the culture of ET, which includes learning the language. Don't expect to get the project going in 1 year, get immersed in the culture in that 1 year.

Pray for more favor upon ET, as many companies who come here to decide to do some work here, tend to fall off some way or another due to unfavorable conditions.

A sharing account from Susan, on her working experience with the Singaporeans, was that we're more focused on our activities, task orientated than on our attitude. One should be spending more time with the locals and lavishing your time on them rather than just delivering goals or KPIs (Key Performance Indexes).

We should be spending more time on understanding the culture and history of the nation and the people, which could be the reason why Singaporeans are being called to this place, to learn more from the locals, on relationships. As one ministers here, one should try to be more relational as compared to our abilities or task orientated. (meritocracy)

In any cases, the team will be staying up at Uncle Kim Chye's @ Liquica from tomorrow night onwards. Internet access will be rather limited, or otherwise good as nothing. So we'll just be posting our return dates information and flight details. =D

Flight Details: MI295, ETA: 1800, Terminal 2

Updates from East Timor

"WHEN HEAVEN INVADES EARTH" - Bill Johnson

DAY 1: 27 FEB 2010

The team consisting of Pastor Keith, Jabez, Henry, Mui Fong, Sharon, Shih Yang, Joan, Joyce, Chung Tat and Alvin, arrived at East Timor. (ET). A prayer walk was done around the area near the Audian Hotel, after we settled with our bags as we explored to get to know, feel and understand more about the Timorese culture and the way the locals lived.

The main highlights for the day would be the Youth Meeting we had at the church that Hendra (our local guide) served in and the meeting with Pastor Chong. The Youth Meeting was originally supposed to be a movie sharing day but Hendra wanted to learn about prayer walk, Ps Henry offered to teach them on prayer. A Treasure hunt was done and the Youths were taught on how to pray and hear God prophetically . What was supposed to end in an half an hour's time eventually took 1.5 hours.

The response was mixed, as some of the youths were open to the prophetic, but some were not sure what to share. An impartation was done towards the end of the meeting, where the invitation was made for all to receive the Holy Spirit.

Occurring simultaneously, where the other majority of the team went, was a me

eting with Pastor Chua Hock Lin. The sharing started off with the happenings to the vision of the nation after the war that broke out in the nation from 2006 to 2007.

What was highlighted during this meeting, moving on for the nation, Pastor Chua believed that this is the right time, with the right people that the Lord is going to do somethin

g in the next two years for the churches that are coming in to help the Timorese - “The right people at the right time, send the people.”

When asked about what areas Covenant could be of help to ET, would be in the social aspect of the nation, namely Education, Health and Business (Micro-finance) sectors , followed by how to bring spiritual transformation to this land.

The key to helping ET successfully, would depend strongly on how you spend the first few years and simply, meeting the needs of the people. In the example of Pastor Sam, who is well known in the community for using his Pajero as an ambulance, ferrying the sick where they could receive prompt treatment, has somehow stirred positive responses from the community.

Some ways on how Covenant could be affective would be to adopt a vill

age, called ALDEA, a subvillage. A village population usually lies around from 2,000 to 3,000 people. In reaching out to the communities, as the team goes on visits to villages in the next few days, they will have to realise what the inheritance lies ahead for the people, through the things that stirs and impacts their hearts.

As personal relationships plays vital roles in ET, any work that needs

to be done, requires people on the ground for the work to kick start. It is advised that it is always good to have your own church people to partner with the locals to do the work, rather than just relying on the locals. This means on the team now, Joan and Joyce, are known to be relational persons.

Pastor Chua also sensed a warring spirit, amongst the local church leaders that is creating disunity; he request for prayers for the church to have greater unity, obedience and submission among the local leaders.

We received feedbacks from Pastor Dong that the team has good initiatives and a good positive spirit to just wants to look and see more of ET.

DAY 2: 28 Feb 2010

There were visits to the Calvary Christian Church (Timor Leste), VCF International Church and the Alliance Bible Church. The service at Calvary Church was very lively, which was led of a team of two sisters and their mother from Malaysia. Most of their members were PRCs. The VCF International service was more charismatic, with most of their members made up of people from the 7 continents of the world.

We went for lunch thereafter, where we had a sharing session with a Hawaiian missionary Sam Cockett, previously worked as a chef, but now having a very effective ministry in ET. After 3 year of plouging, he has established two house church. He stressed that

relationship building is key. A holistic approach is adopted, focusing on the physical, social and spiritual aspects for meaningful change to take place. The physical assistance include helping them to become financially independence through setting up of fish farms. He was able to build a high of trust amongst the villagers as well as community and government leaders.

As good word goes around in the local communities, ground presence is important and that will mean a team will have to be present. Kingdom principles are also adopted and taught out to the locals, that the team does not try to convert the local Catholic beliefs, but rather encouraging them to be God-fearing catholics and going back to the truth in the Bible.

In meeting the needs of the people, one will have to be upfront but yet sensitive, to assure the people that the team are here to help them and has no plans to convert them.

At 5pm, we visited the Timor Alliance Bible Church where Ps Jabez preached in Chinese on the 3 lessons on following Jesus whole heartedly. Alvin and Joyce did a worship song “You Yi Wei Shen” for the congregation.

As the next few days of the trip will get busier, the team requests that you provide prayer support for the following:

• Pray that there will be wisdom and direction upon their national leaders in the running of the nation.

• Pray that there will be a transfer of dependency on aids to self-sufficiency.

• We will be able to minister to the children as we visit the Hope Orphanage at Ermera.

• Pray for full recovery for Shih Yang who seems to be down from the effects of the Malaria pills

• Pray for there will be better communication and bonding amongst members of the team

Report by East Timor Mission Team,

28 Feb 2010