For all the Facebook addicts out there =)

Like most other new things, Christians tend to either embrace Facebook uncritically, or retreat from it and condemn its use. Embracing technology uncritically—the “bear hug,” as I call it—means using a technology without thinking through its impact on yourself and others. The “cold shoulder”—ignoring/retreating from/condemning a technology—is often driven by misguided fears and shallow biblical interpretation. While the problems with embracing uncritically are more easily discerned, giving a technology like Facebook the cold shoulder also has its problems.

Are u a Bear hugger or a cold shoulderer? Click here if ure interested to know more!

What it means to fail at evangelism

was just bumming around chking out blogs when i found this video. Short and sweet but yet many a times we forget the real meaning of what it means to fail at evangelism =)

p.s. The answer can be found at the last sentence of this video

4th day of Sydney Mission Trip

Sydney Mission Team Picture of the Year

just before i start, I would just like to comment that on the 3rd day, Sean didn't look like he was scared to go out and evangelise. In fact, I learnt a lot from him and his confidence to speak to others about Christ that day. So ya..God was definitely with him and the rest of us throughout the trip.

ok the 4th day...

It has been 4 great and interesting days of evangelism so far. Personally I’ve learnt a lot from everyone that I’ve teamed up with, all their different ways of talking to people and how they bring Christ into the picture. This trip was such an experience for me. Each new day was a brand new start of evax but we get to learn from the previous few days “mistakes” and improve on how we can go about doing evax.

I was actually quite different from Sean; each day I gained that bit more of confidence to speak to strangers. Therefore, since it was the last day for proper evax we had, I remember telling Sean that I would like to try “flying solo” if there was ever a chance. Our grouping for that day was Sean, Jacqulin and myself. So in a way, Sean ,being the more “experienced” one and the only guy, was usually paired with either myself or Jacqulin.

It was decided at the start of the day, that we would finish evax that day earlier so that we had time to prepare for the Combined LG that evening ( we were doing praise and worship, one testimony and 2 sharings; I think this was the most important day of the entire mission trip). Anyway, towards the end of our designated time of evax, Sean and Jacq paired off and approached this guy, so I was alone. Hence wanting to try “flying solo”, I ‘randomly’ saw this lady in the far corner of the hall, eating lunch by herself. Minutes later, I somehow managed to sit in front of her and before I knew it, she started talking to me!

One of the many points I learnt from evax is that the hardest part of evax (for me) is the part of actually starting a conversation with a stranger. I really thanked God for fast-forwarding that hard part for me, so I was like “ok, looks like God really wants me to talk to this person”. To cut the super long story short, eventually Jacq came along and the both of us managed to share our personal testimonies ,the gospel and who our God is and she was very opened. Praise God! I believe that God has used us to lay many seeds and prepare many hearts for that day in His time for them to eventually come to know Him in a personal way and accept Him as their personal Lord and Saviour.

Us at Hope Sydney's Combined Lifegroup
That evening, we went to a combined student and internationals working adult LG held at the church office. For some reason, the church door was jammed and we couldn’t get in. But praise God we managed to change venue and everyone still came. That night, Fei and first-timer Adeline (well done!) led praise and worship, Derrick gave an encouraging sharing about our relationship with God using Joseph as an example, Eileen shared about the operations of CCM and I gave a testimony about how the local church helped me to grow in my faith. I trust God to have used our enthusiasm, sharings and our faith to encourage and bring freshness and encouragements to our brothers and sisters there in Hope Sydney.
It been really great to get to know brothers and sisters from places other than in the local church and see how different people are able to come and bond together because of one person – that is Jesus Christ our Lord.

In closing, I would like to share the verse that I shared during my testimony:

“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”Heb 10:23-25

God did not place us here on earth to be an island. He has placed us all wherever we are for a purpose, therefore we should make full use of every opportunity to be all that God has placed us here for.

THE THIRD DAY~

Hows everyone doing so far?? interested to read more about what happened during our mission trip!! Guess what theres another 4 more days to go after this!!

and so the story continues....

The past 2 days have been nothing short of awesome so far as we see the contacts we made (and hopefully have touched) and also even praying for people for their exams (as it was in the midst of their exam period!). Another wonderful thing i saw were our 3 new evangelist Jacqulin, Charmaine and Adeline sharing their hearts out to the people! To see them so proactively sharing to the people without letting fear grip their hearts has really encouraged me personally. GOOD JOB GALS~

Honestly this trip has really allowed me to see how much i feared evangelism. not that i always feared it but throughout the semester, that flame i use to have for evangelism somehow got smothered along the way and i felt such a fear when talking to strangers, it constricted me from openly sharing with them like i wanted and during evax i gave excuses after excuses to why i shouldnt talk that person. But on the 3rd day, i remember coming back to matt 28 again..... The Great Commission.

We were at Usyd (uni of sydney) already and we were split into our different groups. I remember being paired up with Charm and Fei on that fateful day. As a guy, i tried to not let my fear overcome me but rather just act cool and just tried my best to evangelise as per normal. But deep in me i was just so flustered about going to speak to a stranger. But thankfully we took turns to evangelise since i was put in a 3 man team, so we decided when 2 people were evangelising, the 3rd person would pray~

and so came the time when fei and charm were evangelising to this thai guy and i remember sitting down at the table next to them asking God "OH LORD! Take this fear away from me.. Allow me to remember how i used to delight in sharing Jesus to the people!" and after that prayer i half expected to feel better but GUESS WHAT......... nothing happened =_=

i remember being down and so i whipped out my bible and i was returned to Matt 28

and in Matt 28:19 - 21 it says : 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

I never fail to get encouraged by that verse.. indeed Our God is with us to the end of the age! And i begin to see my weakness as a strength. I realised this fear that gripped me should be the reason why i know i cant do it by my own strengths but rather by relying on God more!! Those simple 3 verses picked me up from the pits of fear and brought me back up again, it wasnt an immediate change but it was a small step for faith and a huge leap backwards for fear.

Although i have alot more to share especially in regards to what happened during the Lifegroup in Ashfield that night but i think i will leave it for another time before the post gets too long =p

But before i finish, i hope that if theres one thing you guys learn from this blog entry its this.....
If u think evangelism is scary.. then let that fear be your reason for relying more on Christ and slowly you will put fear at the backseat and faith at your steering wheel. Always remember God is with us always =)

God Bless
Sean

Follwing on...

HELLO!! Yup yup...now entering into DAY 2!! And this is Adeline reporting on behalf of J7 Sdyney Mission Trip Team '08...Hehe...

Throughout the trip, verses just keep popping out of my mind like popcorns popping in the microwave oven. Though I can't remember where exactly these verses are from, but they certainly helped me throughout the trip.

This is the verse that motivates me each day, whatever that happens for that day, be it good or bad, the Lord wants us to rejoice cause that's the day that He has made.

"This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it" -- Psalm 118:24

There is always something to learn each day, we can learn them through good times, bad times and even discouraging times. Hearing from everyone the night before of what they had been through, I had to admit that fear almost consumed me, cause I didn't know what to expect for the next day. Then another 2 verses came out,

"Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you" -- 1 Peter 5:7

" Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." -- Matthew 6:34

So I told myself not to worry about tomorrow, have a good rest and just embrace the day with a smile when it comes.

The next day was our first day entering into University of Sydney, and we are truly amaze by the size of the school. It is HUGE!! So huge that there are 2 different areas, one is Darlington and the other is Camper "Something"...okay, yeah, i forgot the name of the second one...But anyway, today i was teamed up with Sean and we both came across this guy from Solomon Island...He's quite open to the gospel and we found that there are people who does invite him to their church (Hillsongs by the way...) and he is quite open about going to a church to see...so let's pray that he will be touched by God suring his time there if he ever goes!! :)

And apparently on that day, we manage to talk to that one person only as everyone else that we've seen are busy studying or rushing of to their exam destination... :X

Though we may not have spoken to lots of people, i hold onto the hope that people would come to know Him and believe that Jesus is the Son of God and i believe that God is gonna do something awesome in this university.

During the night, we had the working adults life group joining us for dinner and fellowship...it was a great time we had together, all the eating and sharing...the exchange of stories about lives being changed by God...As i sat there at the table, I thought about their lives as they shared, these life stories don't just leave an impression but they do make me think back about my own life, of how God had shown His grace upon me at the different times of my life...at that point of time, I made a decision that in future, as i share about my life, I hope my sharing could impact the lives of others...and i believe that's the life God wants us to live, a life that impacts the lives of others...of course, in the positive way... :)

And it begins!

Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendents will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities. (Isaiah 54:2-3)

that's the hallmark verse, a catchcry if you will, of our mission trip. as a team, we saw this mission trip to Sydney as an opportunity to grow deeper in our relationship with God as well as bring encouragement to our brothers and sisters in Hope Sydney. i think on the whole, each one of us were stretched, challenged and convicted, and that's also the beauty of it - we wanted to be stretched and pulled, to learn the meaning of not holding back when it comes to heeding and obeying God's call upon our lives to mission. throughout the week, i've learnt a lot, more than i can put to words and i'm still trying to sort my thoughts out. but starting here, all of us in the team are going to share snippets of our own experiences from day to day. so stay tuned :)

so, onto DAY ONE!

after a morning rush to get everything together, i felt pretty good when we made it to the airport on time. that is until i saw Sean's face and the empty guitar bag carried forlornly on his back. i put two and two together and realised i had made a major boo-boo. you can't play guitar for praise and worship in Sydney if the guitar is sitting in a living room in Toowong... unless your plan was air guitar all along. BUT, to cut the story short, we were graciously lent a guitar by Hope Sydney and Sean was able to jam happily away throughout the trip. yay! (sorry Sean!)

fast forward to our arrival in Sydney and after we settled into our accommodation, we prepared ourselves for a few hours of evangelism at UTS (University of Technology, Sydney). i don't know about the others, but the butterflies started fluttering as we walked to the uni. different scenarios began running through my mind and anxious pre-evangelism thoughts of 'what if i get rejected?' or 'what if i am at a loss for things to say?' began to arise. but through prayer and the sharing, God reminded me once again that this was not at all about me, what i can do, or how well i speak. all too often, i allow my focus to be on my own limitations when God is wanting me to respond in faith to trust that as i obey to testify of His truth and goodness, He and He alone will bring the transformation into people's lives.

He must become greater; I must become less. (John 3:30)

through the time of evangelism on the campus, Jacqulin and I met two guys with two very different takes on life and religion. one has a background of Catholic schooling and although he has heard of Jesus and has read parts of the bible, he questions the existence of God but was open to discussion. the other enjoys the party lifestyle and prefered not to talk about religion. through both experiences, we were able to share our testimonies, life experiences and convictions on why we choose to follow God and live our lives the way we do. it wasn't always easy to respond to the things being said and there were moments of hesitation where upon reflection, i wish i could've shaken it off and been bolder in proclaiming the gospel. however, as the seeds are sown, my prayer is that in His timing, He will draw these two back to Him by bringing them each to a saving faith.

back at our apartment later that night, it was super encouraging to hear from everyone's experiences and the willingness with which they've chosen to step out from their 'tents' and onto new ground. i'm so blessed to have been a part of this team and to have learnt from all of you!

when we're willing, God can do amazing things through us :)

The Inaugural Address

Finally!!

Judah 7 finally has a blog to call our own. I guess its high time we had a blog to post all our adventures we have with the God we love!! but its gonna be so much more, we will be posting anything from updates in our lovely group to great testimonies!

The mission trip team has actually decided to post their experiences for next 7 days so tune in everyday as they share and get inspired for missions =)

Matt 28:19 - Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,