This is the farewell video for Joshua and Hannah, done up by Luis (with the help of his children – Daniel, Jose and Michelle). 
It showcases from the start – Joshua and Hannah’s decision to leave Singapore, their job, their family and friends… to the many memorable events that took place in their 5 years here in Ecuador, and of course, embedded in the video, is the church’s appreciation and love for the couple who dedicated their lives to plant and help this church grow.
Enjoy!
From Hong Teck’s blog: Sungha is … 11 years old. Underestimating 11 year olds is actually a common mistake people make. We shouldn’t make such mistakes anymore.
Anyway if he can do that at 11 years of age, we can do something (maybe not playing guitar) just as well at 22, 33 or 44. If we don’t know what that is, we should search deeper. Hope we don’t make the common mistake of underestimating, not discovering and developing the talents God has given us!
This is a late entry on what we did on our Christmas service which happened on Christmas morning itself!
It was the first time that Tim and I preached and translated together and also the first time that we planned an evangelistic service here with the coreteam on our own. The preparation was a little stressful with so many activities going on at the same time, but God is our source of strength! He helped in smoothing out all the little hiccups and gave us a great Christmas service.
On the day itself, we were a little worried initially because our service started with 8 people! 
Hehe.. but praise the Lord, as we prayed and continued to press on, the Lord added to our numbers and at the end of the service we had 26 souls listening to the good news! Beto invited his sister and her family to join us for service and it was wonderful, meeting this extended adopted family of ours.. haha.. they are very warm pple and very encouraging too. Very friendly family who live on the outskirts of Quito. Pray that they will join us more often!
( Pray with us that more people will understand, receive the good news AND commit their lives to following God. Because most people in Ecuador are Catholics, it is easy and common to say they know and have heard about Jesus, but many people are disappointed with the church and thus, miss out on really following Jesus and living out the life that God wanted for them. Pray with us that we will be a church that is different and attractive, and a church that truly builds up disciples for Christ! )
Katty and I translated the song “We were the reason” into spanish and we presented the song after the sermon. Many people loved the song… Hope that they don’t just love the singing but that the true meaning of Christmas, that we were the reason He had to die.. did sink into the hearts of the pple and love them to commit to the Lord and love the Lord more.
Finally at the end of the service, we had some surprise items for WL and WP as it was their last sunday service with us. Most of the preparation for this was done by the coreteam who really loves the couple a lot! Luis spent alot of time and effort preparing a video montage of photos of their 5 years here in Quito, and the girls, together with Daniel and Alejo, presented a song called “Amigos” (Friends) to them. The song is very meaningful, an excerpt speaks about how “Life is a road and it doesn’t matter where you are, whether you come or you go, the good moments that passed without us knowing, will remain in our hearts, A friend is like a light, shining in the dark, you’ll always be my friend, other things don’t matter as much.”
A very touching moment, and at the end, Luis presented a plaque thanking WL and WP for their sacrifice, effort in planting this church in Ecuador and love for the people.
WL and WP shared a little at the end, touched. And WL also, of course, after 5 years of being a pastor, didn’t forget to challenge the people to continue to grow in God.
Here are some pics:
Book cover
I was looking for an English book to read and found this in one of the boxes on the shelf. It turns out to be a good read for me. I was reading this book for the past one week and I just finished reading it. The title of the book is “Finishing Well – Closing Life’s Significant Chapters”. Author is David W. F. Wong.
There are different character studies on Saul, Solomon, David, Samson, Eli, Samuel, Moses, John the Baptist, Joseph, Naomi, Job, Peter and Paul. The overarching theme involves the concept of finishing well, deriving both positive and negative observations from incidents in their lives. My favourite two chapters concern Saul and David. Paul is a close third. There are many valuable leadership lessons I learnt from these characters in the bible.
One of the principles to finish well is to deal with pride ruthlessly. Saul finished badly because he was hardened by pride. David committed sins worse than most people, yet he genuinely repented before God and found forgiveness and restoration. Pride did not stand in his way. With contrition and repentance, however low we fall, we can still get up and finish well. On the other hand, Paul has great successes but he never let them get into his head. He considered his life worth nothing to fulfill the purposes of God in his life. He was a good example of someone who finished well.
Even as I was reading this book, I believed that God was speaking to me that in this coming new year, He wants me to be focused on how to finish well. It is always easy to start with a bang and lose the motivation along the way. God reminded me to always have the end in mind in the new year 2009. By the grace of God, I will be able to put what I have learnt in this book into practice. Hopefully, we will be able to finish well in Ecuador.
On Christmas day morning, I received a message in my facebook that one of my ex-sheep re-dedicated his life to God! He is in the media line and was distracted by the many attractions in the world. God spoke to him and brought him back to church. It really made my day for Christmas! 
Below is a short excerpt of he said:
“I began to realise that there is more to life than just getting an education, craving out a media career, getting a partner in marriage, earning more $$ for retirement & trying to find all means in pursuit of power, fame & worldly happiness in my life~ But alas, I often leave behind a hollow & empty aftertaste in all these worldly indulgence… However, I know none can hold on to prestige & power forever & they are not eternal …I know that genuine, long lasting happiness is found only in our Lord, Jesus Christ.”
Thank God for speaking to him and bringing this lost sheep back!
Last week, the church came together to wrap sweets, cookies and lollipops into small packets as presents for Christmas. It was a full load of goodies on our table!
On Saturday, we went to Fundación Remar to spend time with the children and bless them with the sweets and presents. Hannah taught them to sing Christmas carols in English, Emily led them to write and share their hopes for Christmas, Joshua gave out the packs of sweets and taught them to say “Thank you” and “Please” and Rosa taught the children to make a pencil holder, materials courtesy of Nilda (her daughter. Both of them are excellent at handicraft… check out the cute formix Santa Claus and Snowmen in the pics!) We also presented the children each with a soft toy (Donated by our brothers and sisters in Singapore, brought over by GQ or Kok Khiang also known fondly as Carlos!)
Thank you for all your giving hearts! The children were really blessed and excited with the toys. They don’t have such cute designs of soft toys here..
Emily’s mother and younger brother, Martha and Jude, also joined us to bless the kids. They had lots of fun too! Jude shared that initially, he was not sure if he would know how to interact with the children, but as he watched how we interacted with them warmly, he too slowly warmed up and enjoyed himself. 
Great way to impact friends while we bless the community!
Personally, I am getting to know a few of the children better, as I improve in my spanish and as we visit them more often every week. Hope to teach them more in the future!
A few of the children looked a little sad even though it was Christmas.. I think they wished they could spend time with their family during this festive season. Another intelligent little boy shared that Christmas is a time to give, not just to receive and he hoped for peace for the world. What a soft and kind heart these children have.
I pray that we as a Christian family will be a blessing to the children, not just in forms of giving presents during Christmas, but really befriending them and making an impact in their lives. To do this, we need to be consistent and build relationships with them, and also not just give them fish, but teach and help them to fish so that they can grow up to be strong and powerful pple in the future. I couldn’t really express this well during the evaluation time… but I hope that our church will learn to be not just one-time givers.. but really love the children like Jesus did. Good reminder for myself that each time I go to Remar, I should not treat it as a chore, but really an opportunity to share God’s love and values.
I was looking through the wedding photos of Joshua and Hannah, and found a few photos of myself.
Realised that we were all very thin back then. It was my first or second time playing violin together with Rachael. Think it was our first time playing violin for a church wedding. How time flies! That was 6 and a half years ago. It is amazing that Joshua, Hannah and I are now living under the same roof in Ecuador!
Found a few video clips of our people praising and worshiping God in the bus while travelling back to Quito from the retreat. A few people started the P&W spontanteously and we praise and worship God for about 2-3 hours in the bus. Below is one of the video clips, hee, check out Emily dancing in the background!
This is my first birthday spent here in Ecuador (officially? because last year I spent my birthday here as well, but was half sick from jet-lag.. haha..)!
First, last Sat, WL and WP treated us to Japanese sushi at this restaurant called Noe. They have a very interesting menu that’s like a magazine and customers can bring it home! Very nice ambience at the restaurant. And the sushi and sashimi was good too! Only thing is that the menu has a cover with a picture that looks like Zhen-zi in The Ring.. haha..
Yesterday night, we met the coreteam for planning and prayer and they celebrated my birthday too! I was very touched because all of them shared that they want to be like family to us, so we shouldn’t feel alone here. “Call us anytime and tell us your needs, not just church stuff!” They said.. I am grateful for this powerful and loving spiritual family. Katty also said she treats me like an older sister… so heartwarming to have them in my life now. Hope to grow closer to them in the coming year ahead!
Today, ST and I went to Crepes and Waffles for lunch. We planned for the year ahead as we ate lunch (how romantic! hahaha… ) and thank God it was quite fruitful. The crepes at the restaurant are not that wonderful.. ST ate this Curry Chicken Crepe (Crepe Pollo al Curry) which was not very nice.. and I ate a Pita Popeye Pocket, which was not bad. The saving grace was the very nice waffle we ordered at the end. Frutas del Bosque! yummy.
After that we went to the arcade to play games.. hahaha…! Like children, we played bumper cars, ST kicked soccer, we played the step-dance machine and this hit-the-crocodile game (this we played with two kids who hung ard us, wanting to play what we played).
My birthday wishes.. yesterday night as the coreteam shared and prayed for me.. I discovered my third birthday wish for this year.. here they are,pray with me!
1) Pray for love and wisdom to take care of and lead the pple here in Ecuador.
2) Pray for my family in Singapore, my parents and my brother, to know Jesus personally and receive salvation.
3) Pray for the church here to grow strong and biblical. Strong in the Word of God, experience more of Jesus and the Holy Spirit’s power, and capture God’s heartbeat for the world while they love each other as a family!
And here are some photos!
Here’s the video that Guoqiang did up for the church to recap the fun and memorable moments we enjoyed during the very very blessed retreat! He put in a lot of effort for the video, missing hours of sleep! Great work brother! The church was very touched and loved the video very much! They say “Muchisimas gracias, hermano Carlos!”
Aqui está el video que Kok Khiang o Carlos, hizo para la Iglesia Esperanza, al fin de podemos recordar los momentos bonitos y memorables y el diversión durante el retiro. El puso mucho esfuerzo en el video, perdió algunas horas para dormir! Estamos muy agradecidos a Carlos!! Muchisimas gracias, hermano! La iglesia realmente le cae mucho, no?
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