Sunday, November 23, 2008

Asia Conference 2008 [part ONE]

20,000 foreign delegates coming to join us all around the world for Asia Conference. Cool or what!

That pretty much sums up everything. Lots of queuing up, patience, excitement in the air, high level of expectancy, great move of God. Astounding....:D

But i still want to go into some details. Heh heh.

I managed to attend whole of Friday, the sessions include:

1. Morning session with Rev. Dr. AR Bernard

2. Mid day session with Rev. Dr. Phil Pringle

3. Lunch session with Chris Pringle

4. 2 Electives: (which i attended): 

a. Songwriting for P&W  

b. Effective counselling

5. Evening session with Pastor Kong

.

Rev. Dr. AR Bernard also mentions about his stance in this whole US presidential elect hoo-ha, since he would have a part in it. About PROVIDENCE which is something supernatural, and which is done by the hand of God behind the scene. So God is neither a democrat or a republican. He just uses people and events for His own doings in order to begin to set the world right once again. So even if Barack Obama advocates "spiritual puralism", God is still working behind the scenes to bring "Change" to the entire US. 

And I agree with AR Bernard's message...I could sense something is different in this election campaign than from the past. What struck me was the whole idea about "Change". I admit i don't follow the elections quite closely, at most I read of them a little online and in the newspaper and some youtubing here and there. But I did catch a little bit about the general essence of the elects' movement, which is to bring change into the country. I bet US had never been closer to the reality of change coming than this year's campaign. But at the same time I had doubts about BOTH barack obama and John Mc Cain's ability to lead and to fulfil their promises since the beginning. I thought Hillary Clinton would be a better choice actually. But nevertheless I did feel that this election would be quite different. Open doors, I suppose that's what i felt. 

And indeed....that's what it is. Dr. AR Bernard i pray will shine like Daniel, Joseph and Esther in the Bible. These biblical characters are the best examples for Christ in Culture: KRISTOS KAI KOSMOS. 

He basically moved in the prophetic and prayed for foreign delegates that are senior ministers or wife of senior ministers of churches in Dubai, China, Malaysia, Indonesia. 

Pastor Chris Pringle is the wife of Pst Phil, she shared with us over lunch a very touching message for all women who has gone through miscarriages or death of children. 

She herself have gone through a miscarriage, and she said something which was a revelation to me. 

All mothers will definitely feel a lot of emotional pain and hurt after a miscarriage, no matter how much is done to bury that past....unless something is done to lift up that pain and hurt to God, and let healing flow down from Heaven into the soul. 

To me, the greatest reason to feel emotionally depressed for mums who lost children is that they carry alot of guilt and blame upon themselves for their failure in taking good care of the unborn child. And that is the self-condemnation that mothers need to release themselves from. It's definitely not easy, but with God, His healing will flow if we allow it. 

Pst Chris was controlling her tears as she shared this message with us during lunch...it was really brave of her to be able to share something so painful in her life. But as she received God's revelation and healing, she is determined to share it with as many women with the same experiences as possible. 

Her unborn child is named Jesse, a son. I want that book....I hope to be able to share this with my mum someday, when the timing is right. 

I felt that most of the stuff shared I kind of know already....I mean seriously. But going there and realizing that alot of things I have already known gives me the assurance that I'm on the right track.

But KC and Jeff Crabtree shared alot that's outside of songwriting but relates to songwriting. What stuck to me was:

1) Everytime you collaborate with people, always remember to CREDIT them!

2) Don't just think about having a nice melody. The lyrics is important too. ***

3) Song's tempo is like a human heartbeat. The song must reflect human condition, and therefore a tempo of 110-130 is liken to the heartbeat of a human dancing and exercising. Tempo of 60 is like a person on the bed, sleepy. But don't go below 60 cos that's like a funeral march for a funeral, not praise and worship.

*** KC shared something that really inspired me deeply. He shared about last sunday service weekend when Cheryl Fox, the news anchor of Channel News Asia (CNA) came to city harvest church to experience and do an interview on religion and music for the very popular programme called "Get Rea!". Essentially, she was bent on concluding that religion depend alot on music to attract people to come and join the faith. She went around to different religious institutions, some buddhists, some christians, etc. 

But by the end of the praise and worship, she commented to KC who was beside her: "This is so beautiful."

Well, why did she say that? She happen to sit just beside the deaf and mute section, and by seeing them stand through the entire P&W for like 30-45mins without being able to discern any form of melody since they are deaf, she was touched and realized that our faith is really not dependent on music. Yes, music is partly the reason to attract people. But there are other reasons. music can NEVER be the one and only reason to make people stay committed and planted in the church. 

So that really shook Cheryl Fox, and I hope that reflects during the "Get Rea!" programme. :)

I've learnt alot about counselling from this elective. I realize that it's not just my problem, but alot of people's problem who play the counselor's role that we tend to see the root of the problem of the counselee, but many times we TELL them what to do. But they really do not need that. What they need is care and concern, basically a listening ear.

One strategy is to use "What" and "How" questions, instead of "Why". Cos the people come to counselors to seek for answers! So if we phrase our questions in the "Why" form, they won't be able to explain. Even if they could, they would most probably choose not to unless the counselor is close enough to be trusted. 

The most important lesson for me to learn is: It is the counselee's own responsibility to want to change. We can only explain the consequences and benefits of their actions. We can only encourage them and be positive, but we cannot help them make decisions. If they decide to continue in their ways, it is not within our control. All we can do is to pray for them.

The title I gave to this message (it wasn't told to us so i just gave it a title) was: Redemptive value of our world & Eternity.

This message is about the Holy City which Isa 60 talks about, and is similar to Rev21 where the New Jerusalem was mentioned. Both are prophetic utterances. Heb 11:13 also says that Heaven is a Holy City and that we must "actively seek after Heaven".

Cedars of Lebanon - symbol of wealth power but also the symbol of a pagan world

These two items are historically really the symbols of power like today's gold bars and country's military power. 

Revelation HUH! ;-D

And Jesus will only come back the 2nd time after everything on Earth is restored to its original purpose. :)

2:46 PM

Tagbox

Affiliates