The "Southeast Asia CI" Blog: 2010

Friday, December 31, 2010

Praise God for a great year in 2010! Here is an archive where you can find out all about our trip in 2010! :)

ABOUT US

We are a group of 26 young people from all over the world coming together to serve the Lord. We are commmitted to the Lord and excited about His work in our own hearts to break us and thus use us for His glory. May our lives be a testimony and everything we do glorify Him!

ABOUT SEA CI

The Children's Institue (CI) in Southeast Asia.

PICTURES
Week 1: Kuala Lumpur
Click here for pictures

Week 2: Penang
Click here for pictures

Week 3: Singapore
Click here for CI pictures
Click here for Day Care visit pictures
Click here for team pictures
Click for more Singapore Pictures

www.flickr.com
www.flickr.com
www.flickr.com

CI JOURNAL
Kuala Lumpur Week
Saturday, 29 May 2010 (Orientation)
Sunday, 30 May 2010 (Team minus 1 are assembled!)
Monday, 31 May 2010 (Teacher Training, full team, 1st day of CI)
Tuesday, 1 June 2010 (Indian Lunch, Teacher Training, Really good seminar night)
Wednesday, 2 June 2010 (Stepping Stones Centre, Teacher Training & Seminar)
Thursday, 3 June 2010 (Teacher Training, Seminar)
Friday, 4 June 2010 (Twin Towers, Elephant Sanctuary)
Saturday, 5 June 2010 (Last Day of KL Seminar, Farewell to Frank)
Sunday, 6 June 2010 (Church, Travel to Penang. Check in at Good Hope Inn)

Penang Week
Monday, 7 June 2010 (Set-up, Prayer after Lunch)
Tuesday, 8 June 2010 (God changes our direction)
Wednesday, 9 June 2010 (Devotions at the Seashore, Pizza, Seminar)
Thursday, 10 June 2010 (Botanical Gardens, Soccer, Frisbee, Monkeys, Seminar)
Friday, 11 June 2010 (Friday outing around Penang; Indian breakfast, E&O Hotel, Trishaw ride, shopping, beach & nightmarket shopping)
Saturday, 12 June 2010 (Last day of Penang Seminar, Nice Dinner by Mr Chan & Family)
Sunday, 13 June 2010 (Fly to Singapore, Check in at the Hangout)

Singapore Week

Monday, 14 June 2010 (Set-up, Refocused on applying principles ourselves, change of heart; Start of a really good seminar)
Tuesday, 15 June 2010 (Visit to a Daycare Centre, Bugis Street, Seminar)
Wednesday, 16 June 2010 (Almost cycling; McDonalds)
Thursday, 17 June 2010 (Fabulous Mexican Lunch by Claire & Team, Scavenger Hunt, Seminar - White Cake, Josie & Job)
Friday, 18 June 2010

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Puji Tuhan! (Praise God!) Terima kasih untuk doa-doa kamu! (Thank you for your prayers!)

We had a fantastic last week of CI in Jakarta, Indonesia teaching the kids about “Berkat Tuhan” (The Blessings of God). I was a leader last week, and I was blessed to have Mr. Jaedon as my assistant, Miss Lina as our terrific translator, and a team of nine energetic kids! All of the kids on our team came from church backgrounds and more affluent families. Half of our kids were very well behaved, but I am sorry to say that the other half of the kids were the most spoiled kids I have ever taught in my life.

I soon learned that teaching spoiled kids drains my energy quickly, because each kid needs individual attention. Trying to explain to kids who are already so set in their selfishness that they needed to do kind and selfless things was like fighting a losing battle. But there were a few times when I was honored to see a kid take a small step in the right direction, and I rejoice that God is still at work in shaping their lives.

One day we were making bookmarks during craft time. After our 6-year-old-girl finished her bookmark, she wanted another one. Even though each kid should only get one bookmark, Mr. Jaedon gave her a second one. She then decided that she must have a third bookmark. I explained to her that each kid only gets one bookmark (and she had already gotten one more than she should have). If after ALL the kids had made their bookmarks and there were extras, I would give her a third bookmark. (I did not give her what she wanted, not because of the bookmark, but because she needed to learn that she can't always have everything that she wants.) She got so angry because she wanted one RIGHT NOW. So she sulked through the rest of craft time and cried through the whole lesson (about 30 minutes). When she realized that whining wasn't going to get her what she wanted, she forcefully took her older sister's bookmark. So Miss Lina and I took the 2 girls aside. We explained that just because she wanted it, that didn't mean that she had the right to steal someone else's bookmark. After almost 15 minutes of explaining and waiting, she finally gave in and returned her sister's bookmark. I was so proud of her for making the choice to do what is right. (It turned out later that there were extra bookmarks, so I was able to give all our kids another bookmark. You can imagine how happy she was!)

Pheeew! That is why teaching spoiled kids is so draining: it takes so much time, energy, and attention to help just one kid take one small step in the right direction. I have so many more stories of other situations and other kids from this past week, but to tell them all would take too long.

Even though this week was so hard, I thank God for this experience. I know that He is developing patience in me, and I pray that He will use what we have taught the kids this week to teach them good character and grow them closer to Him. Please join us as we continue to pray that God would change the hearts of each of these kids and that He would also give their parents wisdom to train up their kids in God's truth.

-------------------

Our team of CI teachers spent the next few days debriefing, sharing what God has been teaching us this month, and enjoying our last few days together as a team.

On Monday we all said our teary goodbyes, parted ways, and returned to our respective countries (USA, Singapore, and Malaysia). A month ago, we came together as a group of strangers, but now we part as very dear friends. I praise God so much for the work that He has done in each of us. God has put so much love in my heart for each one of you that I could never find the time and words to write it all out in your memory books. I am so proud of each and every member of our team for enduring through the trials that God has placed in front of you. I am confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun this good work in you will bring it to completion in the day of Jesus Christ!

Your fellow servant of Christ,
Rosalee

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

LAST POST by vick :(

Hi again all!

I don't think I will be having anymore time to update this blog until the trip is over from now on...so I would really like to share the last lesson God has taught us for this last week in Jakarta Indonesia. I had made a commitment to God before coming on this trip, that I wanted GOD to lead the team and not me. That all I would be is a mouth in position to speak whatever He wanted to say and do with the team. It is constantly hard to break myself of my position and rights, asking God for His instructions and HIS leadership on the team. And God has proven Himself a strong leader by teaching us the truths that He has been doing these past several weeks. The last instructions for the trip were given to us while we were praying last Friday night in Singapore. We were seeking God's face and instructions when He told us yet ANOTHER shocking truth. God gave us His vision for the entire trip, and it was that the students return back home with a change of heart. I was frustrated at first because I had always high expectation of results in my human self, but God rebuked me and told us the problem with some of us. The verse God gave us was 2 Tim verse 3:7. Which says " My people are ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." Also we had Hebrews 5:12 and I was asking God, "what do you mean God? What is it that prevents us from understanding your truths?" And God revealed to us that there were still hidden secret sins in our lives. It doesn't matter if it is just one person, because if one member of the body suffers, we ALL suffer as a team. God said that He is light, and in Him there is NO darkness. Some of us were still having secret darkness in our hearts, and it was protected by pride and defensiveness. We were too used to seeing things in darkness that it hurts to see things in the light of God's truth, THAT is what hinders people from realizing truth. And God also warned us from debating about " GREY " areas, which He said is debating about lukewarmness. Our focus should not be about what we CAN do in lukewarmness. But our focus should be on how we can become HOT and on fire for the Lord. I pray that the team will understand this important lesson and that it will truly set us free even back at home! We thank God again for his lessons and for saving us! I pray that this trip will not be just based on survival, success, but that it will be SIGNIFICANT in God's eyes and history! God's vision for the whole team is that we go home having this trip a significant turning point in our lives that we can share as a testimony to others :) God bless yall and thank you all for praying for us! We wouldn't be where we are today without the prayers of all of you out there! THANK you and God Bless!

"In every victory, let it be said of us...that our source of strength and source of hope is in Christ Alone. "

UPDATE from vick :)

Hi all!

It's been some time since I last gave an update on the trip! Been very busy, had SO MANY great things I wanted to share earlier. Okay, let me start with a quick review of the previous weeks. Remember how I shared about our past growth the previous 2 weeks? Week one, learning how to run the seminars. Week 2: it's not about seminar routine, it's about PURPOSE and LOVE in 1st Cor 13 ( learned to be flexible and sensitive to God's promptings )

NOW for week 3 in Singapore, God struck us with an uncomfortable truth. God told me that we had NO RIGHT to continue teaching the children if our personal lives had no genuine transformation. God warned us from the dangers of being hypocritical leaders when teaching the principles to the children. We had no rights to teach design if we ourselves did not GENUINELY accept God's design for us in OUR own lives. We had NO RIGHT to teach about Authority if we ourselves had a problem with honoring our own authorities. We had no right to teach ownership, responsibility, suffering or freedom if WE ourselves have never EXPERIENCED these truths in our personal lives! Many times over the years, we have come in teaching with head knowledge...but having NO personal convictions or testimonies about how God TOTALLY CHANGED our human perspective and set us on the right path! We NEEDED something to SHARE. An experience that is OURS. NOT teaching what a book says. That's how we SHARE LIFE and it becomes REAL. We repented before God for our hypocrisy, and asked God to change our hearts to help us be a LIVING TESTIMONY to the children and not a CI teaching robot. We Also learned that in order to do this, we needed to yield and give up every area of our lives to God 100%. Then only will our ministry be truly effective and taken to a whole new level that we have never experienced before. It is humbling to be taught that even leaders can be hypocrites, but we wanted to get real and honest before God, ourselves and others we meet and see the world in God's reality.
I am SOOOO grateful to God for truly teaching us life! These lessons save my life and now we truly understand what the Bible means when it says that God's correction and rebuke is more valuable than choice silver and gold. No riches in the world can ever compare with wisdom and life that God teaches us! I Praise God for his mercy and grace that He has poured out to us. THANK YOU LORD SO MUCH FOR SAVING US!!! PLEASE CONTINUE TO TEACH US YOUR WAYS!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

We have arrived in Jakarta!

Please pray for us as we are entering into our last leg in Jakarta, Indonesia. We will be having interpreters so please pray for clarity to teach the lessons powerfully in simple words yet conveying Christ's love wordlessly!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Thus Far

Dear everyone,

Thank you so much for praying for us all! God has truly been good to us in so many ways. The curriculum is coming alive to us because He has shown us gently yet clearly how we ourselves must live out what we teach. It has humbled us but we thank the Lord for His correction & for saving our lives! Praise the Lord!

We came with willing hearts and now the Lord is changing the realities of our hearts. Who we really are, and not who we think we are. This week we will be focusing on God and His reality; who God really is & not what He can do for us.

He is molding us from where we are to having this as our prayer:

Teach me Thy will, O Lord, teach me Thy way

Teach me to know Thy word, teach me to pray

Whate'er seems best to Thee, that be my earnest plea

So that Thou drawest me, closer each day

Teach me Thy wondrous grace, boundless and free

Lord, let Thy blessed face, shine upon me

Heal Thou sin's ev'ry smart, dwell Thou within my heart

Grant that I never part, Saviour from Thee

Teach me by pain Thy power, teach me by love

Teach me to know, each hour, Thou art above

Teach me as seemeth best in Thee to find sweet rest

Leaning upon Thy breast, all doubt remove

Teach Thou my lips to sing, my heart to praise

Be Thou my Lord and King through all my days

Teach Thou my soul to cry, "Be Thou, dear Saviour nigh

Teach me to live, to die, saved by Thy grace."

Do keep us in prayer especially right now as it is a crucial time for us to come before the Lord & ask Him to change our hearts. Only when He truly changes the reality of where are hearts are can we be broken and minister to the children LIFE - because His Word has come alive to us.

A special thanks to our previous team leaders, Andrew Jorgensen, Laura McCloy & Kevin Teh. Without you guys, we wouldn't be where we are now! -- From Vick & Eunice.

With one more extra special thanks for Rosalee Chan, our fantastic team member who has diligently worked on uploading all the pictures to Flickr that is keeping families at home updated on the team's journey. Praise the Lord for her servant heart!

Thank you all - families, friends, former team mates, team leaders, CI children (we see you!), CI parents. One day you too will be joining us on a CI journey, we pray! It is changing our lives and is not just an experience or month of fun :-)

Our prayer is to be sincere like we taught yesterday - Loving God inside & out. May He change us to that reality!

Servants in Christ,
Eunice Peh

Friday, June 18, 2010

Singapore Pictures!

Singapore pictures are up!

CI Pictures

Day Care Visit Pictures

Pictures of some of our teammates

More Singapore Pictures

One last day in Singapore!

Thank you all so much for your faithful prayers! God has been teaching our team so much this week here in Singapore!

This week God has blessed me with an extremely energetic group of kids in CI. Our team of kids is so much fun, but I have never taught such a rowdy group of kids before in my life. Praise God for giving me an incredible love for each of these kids, despite their craziness! During each lesson, I am interrupted after every sentence by a different kid wanting to tell me a random comment or story. Whenever we switch activities, I have to yell really loud to get their attention because they are all talking/yelling/screaming/laughing so loudly that they can't hear me otherwise. When the kids leave our classroom, if I don't hold on to them, they take off running and screaming down the hall.

My biggest challenge this week has been one of our 6 year old boys. He is so smart, but he also has an amazing amount of energy, and I think he is the most active kid here in CI this year. The first thing he did when he came into our classroom was crawl under the desks into another team's space and run around in circles on the other side of the room. During large group, he stands up on the chairs and walks all the way down the row (and if I don't grab him, all the way up onto the stage.) He is so adorable, and I love him so much, but I don't know how to make him listen to me. Even after I told him to stop, he kept turning off the lights in the room. When I tell him to walk, he takes off running and screaming down the hall. Even after I take him aside and give him firm instructions, he turns around and forgets everything I've told him.

After CI on Wednesday night, I was so frustrated with our whole group of kids. I felt terrible because I felt like I was doing a terrible job of controlling the kids. I didn't understand why the kids wouldn't behave or listen to anything I said. But praise God for my assistant Jeremy who encouraged me by reminding me that God made these kids rowdy, so that's just the way that they are. The whole time I had been trying to make these crazy kids behave like normal kids, but God changed my attitude, and I started to realize that sometimes, its ok to just let the kids be rowdy.

On Thursday night, I was able to put aside my worries and just have fun with the kids. The kids were still pretty crazy, but I had a much better time because I accepted their rowdiness. While Jeremy finished teaching the craft with the rest of the kids, I took the two craziest boys out to the longest hall I could find. We ran up and down the hall playing tag until they had used up all their energy. When we came back in for my lesson, my crazy kid lay on the floor exhausted, but before the end of my very short lesson, he was already sitting back up and interrupting me every other sentence.

Tomorrow (Saturday) will be our last day with the kids, and it will be a long day: 9am-6pm. Please pray that our kids would be able to sit still and listen long enough to learn what God wants to teach them and for their salvation and growth. Please also pray that God would bless all of us teachers with wisdom, creativity, patience, and energy as we show God's love to the kids.

On Sunday morning we will fly to Jakarta for our last week of CI. Please continue to pray for us as we finish up with our last week of CI in Jakarta!

Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Rosalee

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Singapore: Fourth day!

As I type this, Victor is running around and cheering because he won against Liz at a game of pool. Never mind that it's 11 PM, and we're all tired -- Vick just gave me extra enthusiasm to blog!

This is Onge, and I am your main reporter for tonight (though I wouldn't be surprised if Lijah sent out an extra bayuwch at two. )

We met at (cue your cheers) 10 AM. It was so super amazing to lie in bed until 9:30, miss the breakfast, and bask in the much-needed rest our heavenly Father has bestowed upon us! At least, that's what I did. When I got down to level two there was some serious cooking prep going on. Claire and a whole bunch of amazing girls were busy making lunch and dessert! Yes, ladies and gents, we have talented girls with yummy hearts.

We also found out our personalities today according to the DISC test, but they're all secrets until tomorrow's blog. Actually, we haven't even shared with everyone else, so you're not missing anything! Victor explained that finding our personalities was going to be for a practical application devotions, so I'm looking forward to that tomorrow.

Taking the personality tests were physically consuming, so we inhaled our lunches of tacos and... um... tortillas? It was soooooooo good. I feel hungry just thinking about it. The sun was shining with a vengeance after yesterday's rain, so the COOKIES, CREAM, AND STRAWBERRIES (Tim says it's called a "delectable treat"), started to melt. It was still good, Claire. Thank you so much!!

CI tonight was truly (to quote Laura) a God-night. Eunice took a rain check, and our God took over! We had two of the best skits that we've had in a while (with my leader in both, thank you very much! That's how funny he is). In the first large group, some of our team acted out the Job story to illustrate the right response to suffering and how everything we have belongs to God. Kudos to Lewis for the soundtrack!

The second large group was awesome too. Vick turned the Joseph story around, and we did a Duggar-themed parable! Rosalee, you were ah-mazing as Josie (Joseph) :D So was Elijah (Jim-Bob Duggar, original character: Jacob). Michelle Duggar was played by Pheobe, and Josie's sisters were Jessa (Priscilla), Jinger (Claire), and Johanna (Marie). I can't forget to mention Mr. Earl and Mrs Pearl, who had their special *air-hugs* (wiggle your brows). Josie really had God's strength to resist Mr. Earl's invitation for an *air-hug*! And president Felber who lived in "The White Cake... yum" did a fantastic job too! I seriously had no idea what was going on when the story started in Hawaii. Good job with making a well-known story new all over again!

That brings me to where I am right now: blogging at 11:55PM! Yes, I did take an hour and that is a clue of the personality type that I am [; Expect photos and videos from today's scavenger hunt, and may the craziest team win!

Angelyn/Onge

P.S. Prayers are always appreciated. It's a battlefield out here. God leading us through each assault, and it's wonderful to think of the people who are in the sidelines praying and waiting to divide the spoils [;

Best Day!

Hey guys!!!

Man! Today was the best day that I have had!!!

First, we went on a scavenger hunt. On the scavenger hunt we had to eat durian! Some of the team don't like durian, but it was required, and they told me that they almost lost it. :-D I say it was amazing! We ran up an escalator going the wrong way. Then we had to give an ice cream cone away, and one of us had to convince someone that we were famous. :-) The scavenger was so much fun!!!

Tonight was so good. I got to act in a skit: a modern day story was of Joseph. I played the character of Jim Bob Duggar. My character had four daughters, and their names were Jessa (Priscilla), Jinger (Claire), Josie (Roz), and Johannah (Marie). That was the highlight of the night!!!

God bless,

Elijah Kaneshiro

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

June 16, 2010

Hey guys, tonight was great!

I had lots of fun with the kids; they are great! We also got stuck in Mcdonolds. It was ok, but I would have rather slept. I am sooooo tired! Bayuwch, it's 1:26 in the morning! I am going to have to finish later, but overall it was a good day.

God bless,
Elijah

Didn’t think that was going to happen! (June 16, 2010)

Imagine yourself soundly asleep and all wrapped up in a nice cozy blanket. Then all of a sudden, a horrible sound comes from the other side of the room! BHAM-BHAM-BHAM!!! You jump up on your bed and get yourself into Kung Fu position, ready to take on whatever was making that noise! Then you realize it was just the alarm clock, and you hope no one saw you standing on your bed!

You run downstairs because today you and some friends had planned to go on a bicycle ride along the beach and then sit and read that book that you've been trying to read. But when you get up, you realized that it is raining. No, it is pouring! You then decide that it wouldn’t last long, so you all board the bus and head to your destination: McDonald’s on the beach.

You go inside still thinking the rain wasn’t going to last long. So you order, take a seat, and wait. About half an hour later, you tell everyone to spread out and have their own personal devotions. (Remember, you are still at McDonalds!) So everyone in your group goes off, and after a while they all come back. You all spend time talking, playing with Rubik’s Cubes, and reading because you still think the rain will stop soon. After two hours of waiting, you decide to check what the weather forcast for the rest of the day. Rain, rain and some more rain! You decide call the bus driver and ask him to come back early. When you get back to the hotel, you wonder: Why did I just sit in McDonald’s for two hours?

Well that is exactly what we did today (except for the jumping on bed and Kung Fu!) After we watched the news, we found a good reason why we spent the whole morning at McDonalds. There was a flash flood warning in effect for the area where we had planned to go biking. We also saw that there was a flood on Orchard Road, the place we had planned to go next. We realized that God had kept us stranded at McDonald’s for safety. You see? We had planned on a day of adventure, but we were kept from following through with our plans. Had we not been “stranded,” we could have been caught in the flood. That could have meant no CI for that evening and other possible harm. Who would have thought that God would have used a McDonald’s? I strongly believe that we were kept under this roof for protection, not only for us, but also for the children of Singapore. After all, God does work in mysterious ways.

During CI tonight, I decided to give Victor a break. I told the story, and Victor got to act! We told the typical Mrs. Hockenstock story about Responsibility and Truthfulness. It was fun being able to tell the story! I never thought I would be a story teller for a CI, especially in Singapore. I feel totally honored! But it obviously wasn't because of my skills in story telling. It was because Victor wanted to give me a chance at it. I thank God for Victor everyday because he is an awesome example, encourager and motivator! I’m proud to claim him as a friend!

We continue to ask for your prayers!! We need them now more than ever!

Fully Trusting Him,

Konner Felber

(AKA Mr. Corner!)

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

A Really Good, All-Around Awesome Day

Today was really encouraging and refreshing!!!

To start with, breakfast (the free one from the hotel) was really good. :-)

Next was team devotions at 8:30 am. Three members of our team shared testimonies, and we all enjoyed sharing God's work in our lives and worshipping God together.

At 9:30 we left to visit a daycare. This was truly an awesome opportunity for us to witness! The daycare was founded and run on Christian beliefs, so they allowed us to share the Gospel with the kids. It was a golden opportunity for us. These kids are underprivileged and come from average to low income families (though not as poor as the rifle range we saw in Penang last week) but kids are kids no matter where they come from. We enjoyed the opportunity to share Jesus' love with them! :-)

We sang songs like "This Little Light of Mine" and told the story of Zacchaeus (complete with me being the "tree" that he climbs!) It was so fun! Later, I had to "transform" into a table for Jesus, Zacchaeus, and all his sinner friends to eat at. :-) We also got to talk to and take pictures with the children. I have never known what it is like to have so many kids in my lap at ONE TIME!!! I had 3-4 children in my lap and two on my shoulders! Totally smothering AWESOME!!! :-D :-D

From there we went to Bugis Street and shopped for a while. I bought some really cool stuff when I lost my group... but don't worry, I found people again :-) I really enjoyed the place because it was SO CRAMPED AND BUSY AND LOUD!!! :-D :-D I truly loved it... the cacophony of music, the smells of strange fruits and packaged leather :-) totally amazing and relaxing... :-) What a day!!! :-D

From there, we came back to The Hangout and prepared for tonight's CI.

We went to the church where we ate a tremendous dinner that some families had so generously prepared for us. It was soooo good!!! :-D The dishes included were: fish paste in banana leaves, fish meat balls, salad, corn salad, chicken wings and legs, some gelatin-like layered dessert treat, another gelatin thing covered in coconut shreds, pizza, coconut rice, curry vegetables, FRUIT, and something i couldn't quite figure out (even after tasting it)! There was also a whole plate covered with slices of mango, starfruit, guava, papaya, watermelon, and a couple other fruits I couldn't recognize. They SURE TASTED GOOD!!! :-D

The CI tonight was sooo good! It amazes me how God encourages us when we need it. I needed God's reassurance that I had His help in teaching. Tonight, I taught for an entire 40 minutes about authority and how God uses it in our lives for good. The entire time that I taught, the children were totally attentive!

When we came back from CI, Tiffany brought out cheesecakes that SHE had bought for us with HER personal money, and treated us to a delectable dessert!!! It was so sweet of her (in more than one way, haha!), and we really enjoyed that :-) It was a perfect ending to a perfectly awesome day!

Please pray for our team. Several of our teammates have recieved bad news from home in the past few days. Please pray that God would give them peace, strength to continue pressing onward, and continued trust in Him. Thank you for your prayers!

On a lighter note, the highlight of my day was when Victor was introducing himself at the daycare. He went ahead and introduced his sisters too. Then he pointed to me and introduced me as his brother!!! That completely made my day! :-)

Quotable Quotes from the last two days:

"Abraham wanted a son that he could call......... Son."

"Moses was his name, and coolness was his game."

Alrighty! Its going on... lemme see here... 1:31 am. :-) Full day.. so its time to sleep!

Keep praying for our team! Like I said before, Satanic powers are majorly attacking our team, and we need the prayer warriors to buckle down and seek God on our behalf! God can move mountains, and even the greatest stronghold of darkness is nothing under God's mighty hand.

Loving the frontline,
Lewis Carter

Monday, June 14, 2010

June 15, 2010

Hi,

The team tonight was great, and the kids were amazing! It was the best time I've had so far! I do think that God is going to do something great this week.

Love,
Elijah

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Pictures from Penang

Pictures from Penang are up!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50937848@N02/sets/72157624141017773/

Thursday, June 10, 2010

New lessons from God

Hi guys, Victor here giving another update on our trip in Penang :)

Just wanted to share something God has been teaching me and the team. The first week we were all about focusing on training to be effective during seminar nights. The second week in Penang, we started to get comfortable and more confident in our stride of teaching and running the Children Institute. We thought we had everything figured out and that the rest of the trip would be smooth sailing all the way! Then God convicted me of the dangers of ROUTINE. We were getting so caught up in our CI performances, Day trips, fun and activities, that we almost forgot about the condition of our hearts. Busyness fills up our time, which may even sometimes take away the important 'alone time' that we need with God. We may be on a mission trip, but even doing God's work without retreating from the realities of the world could cause us to run aimlessly and destroy all the good work we had intended to do. God convicted me of my sin and error of TRYING to run a good show and a fun trip for the teachers instead of LEADING hearts to CHRIST on this trip. If anything causes us to take our eyes off the cross, (even the excuse of missions) then we are failing! We are becoming ensnared in the dangerous trap of running a DEAD ROUTINE!!! Even back home, my ministries could become a distraction from special time needed to check my heart with God! We get so caught up with running through the motions, just going with the flow and at the end of our " successful " trip we feel TOTALLY empty and worn out!!! Then we ask ourselves, " what was that all about??"

We initially had scheduled a scavenger hunt yesterday, but God lead us to cancel it and have every individual check their hearts, motives and desires on the trip asking God for any blind spots that we may have and for Grace to help us to repent and change. It is my fault and responsibility as a leader if we had continued living the trip the way we did! We even dropped our strong routine momentum of teaching the CI curriculum and changed it to emphasizing on teaching AGAPE love to the kids. This weeks kids couldn't understand much English, neither did they have the opportunity to learn 'complicated' words such as responsibility, design, ownership, etc. The curriculum was excellent, but too full of different colors of God's nature for the kids to understand. We didn't want to go with the flow, run the show, teach the curriculum and have the kids totally forget everything they learned in the seminar while went home sharing pictures and stories of what we did with the kids. We decided to focus on the white light instead of the seven colors. We decided to teach the DEEP power of God's Agape love and if all else fails with them forgetting responsibility, design, ownership, suffering, contentment etc, they will never forget the ONE thing we taught them. LOVE NEVER FAILS. We also changed some of the stories tailored for christian kids to stories of salvation and God's powerful amazing love for all of us. Watching the skits help them visualize God's Love as kids learn by visualization.

God totally changed the way we did skits, from trying to make them the funniest most successful skits, to RE-LIVING past legend's experiences and tough choices.
Fun is not a bad thing, but it should not be our focus! Fun will follow behind our mission! We were almost heading down the trip as FUN being our entire MISSION FOR THE ENTIRE TRIP!!!!! I truly thank God for revealing our faults and errors to me, saving my life and the team member's as well from living a dangerous dead routine of fun in the name of missions! God is SOOOO Good and He is taking our second week to a new HIGHER level of experiencing Him and his deep ways! We are growing more in Christ like maturity and are starting to see things through the eyes of God and not our own! Praise our mighty God, ALL the Glory belongs to Him :)

vick

Friday June 11 2010

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Pictures from KL and Penang!

Almost 50 pictures from KL and Penang have been posted!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50937848@N02/

More will come soon. Enjoy!

Monday, June 7, 2010

Momentum!

Since we arrived in Penang, the team has been very busy preparing for the next CI! We went to the church this morning and set up the rooms for the 9 teams that will be in the CI. The place is beautiful, with long halls, a circling staircase, and colorful paint splashed on the walls! We are very excited to get the kids and open the books.

Our first night went quite well!!! Most teams had a good night, and others struggled to communicate with the orphan children who come from a place called "Rifle Range." From what I've heard, it is extremely difficult for them to live there and it is not pleasant. Their lives are quite dismal and being underprivileged is normal there! It is evident that we will need God's grace working through us this week as we seek to show these poor children God's love. God can move mountains on our behalf! The language is also a difficulty - most of the Indian children cannot speak English well, if at all, and that presents a difficulty when trying to explain spiritual themes and character qualities.

One thing that I should mention, our team has wonderful unity! We are working quite well together, and everyone is in good spirits. Continue to pray that God will bless our efforts as we humble ourselves before Him and let Him use us :-)

Lewis

We're in Penang!

Alright! We're all settled in and had our first day of the seminar - super amazing! God was really with us through lots of prayer.

We have 21 children from an underprivileged place called Rifle Range who don't speak very good English and come from unloved & abusive backgrounds.

One of those children is that little gentleman in the blue. He is certainly keeping his guardian Mr John occupied for the night. Not all the kids are peachy as there are certain racial stigmas in their interaction with the church-going children.

Please pray for & with us, God has something up His sleeves and we desire to be more dependent on Him daily. We pray He breaks us into a whole 'nutha level!

Praise God!

Eunice Peh

A Video from the Orphanage in KL, Malaysia

This is a video from Konner's camera of our AMAZING and incredible time at the Stepping Stones Living Centre, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Reflecting the diversity of Malaysia, we sang the song in FOUR different languages! Malay, English, Chinese & Tamil!

Malay: Soraklah, Hallelujah - HEY!
English: Shout for joy, Hallelujah!
Chinese: Zhanmei Zhu, Hallelujah!
Tamil: Arrpadepum, Hallelujah!!

Ps Johnson & his team at Stepping Stones are doing a wonderful work among one of the more underprivileged children in Malaysia. God bless him! What a privilege to have been with them. You can read about our post more below :-)

Visit their website here or check out their facebook page. (become a fan!)

Hi from vick!

BAYUWCH!!!

This is Victor Peh here, and my update of the South East Asia trip so far!
Ahem... I just wanna say how AMAZZZIIINNNG God has been to me and the whole team this FIRST week! I have never heard such fantastic cool down reviews during the second day ( first week ) ever before! It usually takes us about a week and over before the teachers start getting into the stride of teaching, but this year has been totally different. I sincerely feel that the team this year has a GENUINE love for the kids, and they are so willing to listen and learn, we have had so much fun doing class simulations where 6 of us would take random pieces of papers which have different kid "problems" or unique characteristics such as ( shy guy, over talkative, bully, distracting, cry baby, spoiled, teacher's pet, side tracker etc.) It was LOTS of fun acting those roles out and watching how the team leaders would cope with their special bunch in their own unique different ways. At the end of the simulation, we would discuss what were the things that were done well, and what we could do to improve in the future.

As for me personally, I have been learning to TOTALLY rely on God for strength and wisdom during the large group stories. I usually like to plan and KNOW what I am doing before i do something, but this year... unfortunately... I was only given bits and pieces of SOME stories which were for the most part incomplete. I never knew what story I was going to tell until the very last 15 minutes. God gave me the creativity to come up with new stories to replace the ones i didn't know about, and they really turned out well ( to my surprise! ) there were several times I seriously didn't know what I was going to say until the VERY LAST MINUTE!!!

I was worried before the trip about the fact that I was inexperienced, untrained, and inadequate to lead the team this year. I felt unworthy, which I REALLY was. But God told me that He didn't need a bunch of pros in order to make his power known, all He needed was a bunch of willing 'rascals' such as myself! And He truly has shown his power through all of us. We were never called to be perfect, but to be completely broken and submissive with our WHOLE hearts to the Lord 100%. And that was enough for the Lord to work mighty wonders through us. I feel like as a team, we really do have unity through having the same mind, Same mission and the SAME LOVE and passion for the Lord. This likemindedness truly does bring unity to our team, and if one member suffers, we all suffer. We have been upholding each other in prayer every day on this trip. Devotions have been great, and the members are being TRUE LEADERS on the team even though they don't have the "TITLE" of being leaders or staff. I am learning so much from these silent leaders on the team, and am experiencing such a fruitful time so far :) What helped me to keep going on was thinking of the verse in the Bible which says; " the joy of the Lord is my strength" As long as I can picture us bringing gladness to God's heart, I feel strengthened in some unexplainable way to keep going on!

We have had a great first week and there are greater things yet to come! The blessings on the trip would not have been possible if not for all the people praying for us from all over the world before and even now during the trip, so thank you very much and keep praying for us !

vick

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Day 6: Thursday, 3rd June 2010

Today was amazing! We started out with some yummy food for the tummy. Fresh FRUIT!!!! It was so good! Dragon fruit, lychee, rambutun, mango steen, and the list goes on…. It all was so delicious. Then we had some good worship and spiritual food (devotions). Some of us then went to have Indian food. Yummm, it was so good, and even eating with your fingers. =) I haven't gotten scared of any of the food so far. I'm loving it! Then we had teacher training for this evening and for all day Saturday. Victor and Eunice have been doing an amazing job leading the team which really helps us as a team to strive. Had our forth night which I think has been the best so far as Priscilla, Janet, and I concluded tonight. The kids seem to understand the concepts of suffering as a blessing and forgive is something we all need to do. The shy ones seemed to warm-up and the rowdy ones seemed to cool down a little, which was very nice, too! It has also been really neat to see God work in the lives of those around us too, God has and is doing AMAZING things! And I feel honor by God to be a part of it…

Prayer requests:

Health of the team – Some of the team has not been feeling so well, so please prayer for healing and protection of any sicknesses for the healthy ones

Excitedness and willingness to learn from the kids –Pray that God would help the kids to continue to be willing and excited to learn and apply the things they have been learning

Strength and unity as a team

Tomorrow we go swimming with the elephants!

Thank you so much for each one of your prayers, It's a true blessing from God!!! He is doing great things for His kingdom here in Malaysia!

Laura Straub for the team

Day 5: Wednesday, 2 June 2010

Goodmorning Everyone!

It is about 12:30 am here in Kuala Lampur and today went very well! We got up this morning and met for breakfast downstairs before leaving for the orphanage. The orphanage is called "stepping stones," and it is an openly Christian institution for orphans and underprivileged children. When we got to the orphanage it was approximately 10:30 in the morning and the children were all smiling and very happy to see us. It was so wonderful to see where they live, and to interact with them. I packed my puppet, and the kids just loved it! they put their hands in his mouth, tugged on his hair, pulled on his sleeves and laughed like crazy while i made his head move around and opened and closed his mouth. Then our leaders, Victor and Eunice, led us all in a few songs and we played a couple of group games.

One thing that happened that was kinda scary was while we were singing "shout for joy, Hallelujah," Timmy jumped up (one of the actions in the song) and one of the fans caught his hand pretty good. He said it didn't hurt, but we got it under alcohol and antiseptic pretty quickly so it would be able to stay clean and heal. Immediately, we stopped everything and had a word of prayer for him, and then we started singing again!

The net thing on the agenda was a skit put on by 6 members of the team. It was called "Mrs. Hockenstock." Essentially, the teacher Mrs. Hockenstock, had a Very Very Very Special Book that nobody was allowed to touch until after recess. When the class was out to recess and the teacher was out of sight, one of the children came back into the class and looked in the book. THEN, one of the other kids came in and frightened the person looking at the book and they ripped it! then the rest of the skit revolves around the teacher asking who did it. One child said aliens tore the pages, one said that they did it (trying to be sacrificial and lie to protect someone else), another simply acted crazy and senseless and the last one simply cried (they were guilty :-) ). The moral of the story was to show that telling lies is wrong and that eventually your sins truly will "find you out!"

The CI tonight was wonderful as well! My team was very cooperative and we enjoyed a great game called "Wack-o!" We had all the children stand in a circle and one person in the middle was supposed to "whack" the person whose name was called with a magazine. But if the person whose name was called said someone else's name before the "monkey in the middle" hit them, then that would be the new target, and you continue until someone can't say another person's name fast enough. Our kids really enjoyed it and Liz did a great job of getting the kids to interact and talk with each other :-) I love having an assistant!

Praise God that both Rosalee and Priscilla Keller are feeling somewhat better! Rosalee has been feeling a bit under the weather and stayed at the hotel to rest all day today, but Priscilla's voice is slowly coming back :-) We are glad that they are getting better, but please continue to keep them in your prayers.

A couple things to remember for the team as you pray:

1. That God will bless our efforts as we seek to glorify Him.

2. That we will keep up our energy for the children, especially as we anticipate the 8 hr day of CI on Saturday.

3. For the health of each team member. Not only is it difficult to stay healthy as we have so much to do, but we are around children and a lot of them. It is very easy to be exposed to a lot of sickness in a night.

4. That God prepares the way for the next CI!!! :-) We have so much to look forward to in the weeks and days ahead!

Thank you all for your continued prayer and support!

Lewis Carter

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Day 4: Tuesday, 1 June 2010

This morning, a couple of us (Marie, Rosalee, Angelyn ＆Eunice) gathered before devotions to pray for C.I, especially the children & spiritual covering. Some of the children last night were quiet and we know they have struggles & battle in the unseen.

Rosalee led us in worship and Konner shared an excellent message from the book "Change my Attitude before it's Too Late". We learnt that situations can't be changed but we can CHOOSE our attitudes!

We went for an Indian lunch where we had roti canai, roti tissue, curry, dhal and wonderful iced milo. Apparently it was one of the best meals of the trip :-)

Back at the hotel, we had teacher training, another round of a typical Small Group and ended with strong prayer.

And...

Tonight was a really good night!!!!!! Everyone came back with glowing reviews and we really know it is because of His grace because of prayer. The magic of CI was really turned on today.

"We can do more after praying but we cannot do anything until we have prayed".

Tim shared a very memorable line during cool down: "Now that we've had crafts & lessons down, we must focus on prayer to reach hearts".

Amen!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

First Day of the First Seminar! (Day 3: Monday, 31 May 2010)

We started off with devotions and teacher training. During the training, we did a skit to show us how to react to the kids and their behaviors. Then we studied the lessons that we were going to teach the kids.

The group drew children's different behaviours such as "quiet", "hyper", " out of a hat and we proceeded to have a real-life small group.

After preparing our lessons, we went to the church to set up the CI. We taught the kids the lesson of what a blessing really is. Afterward, we gathered for our first large group session. During which Victor, Toby, Martha, Scilla, Lewis, Jeremy, Laura, Konner and Tim acted out an exaggerated story of Abraham’s life.

We had another small group session, did another craft with the kids, then went back to our hotel and had a “cool down” session. In the cool down session we talked about our groups, our kids, and how we could improve the next day. We also sang some songs, had prayer, and went to bed.

Elijah Kaneshiro

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We appreciate your prayer. Please pray for:

- God to change the hearts of all the children attending regardless of the different age groups & needs.

- The teachers to be sensitive to God’s voice & the needs of the children.

Friday, December 31, 2010

Praise God for a great year in 2010! Here is an archive where you can find out all about our trip in 2010! :)

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ABOUT SEA CI

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CI JOURNAL