We had a blackout tonight again. This time PR and I went out to catch a movie. There were many things to plan but I think God wanted us to take a break. We cannot do much planning in the darkness without electricity so we decided to go to to places where there are still light.
We did some reading in a Mac nearby before catching Michael Jackson’s “This is it” in cinema. The dancing and singing in the movie were great. We enjoyed the movie and the few hours of rest. 
Ecuador’s electricity minister says hydropower shortages have forced the government to ration electricity. Blackouts have already hit Quito and the Pacific port of Guayaquil. We are now experiencing blackouts almost everyday in Quito.
We had a most romantic candlelight caregroup in church just now. There was a blackout at 7pm in the church area and we set up candles to continue our caregroup. Surprisingly, the atmosphere of the caregroup was very good with limited visibility. We played games to know one another better and I shared a little on the roles of God in our lives. Thank God the hearts of our brothers and sisters were very open and they shared about how God is their father, friend, saviour, master, judge, king, guide, teacher etc in their lives. We spent quite a long time in prayer as we prayed together that we will know God more and experience more aspects of God’s role in our lives. It was a delightful time of sharing and learning more about God. 
I was very encouraged when a new believer, Dario told me after caregroup that he actually looked forward to every Sunday to learn more about the bible and get to know more people in church. God is indeed working in the hearts of our people. Do pray for us that the ration of the electricity will be over soon as we are concerned that it will affect our service on Sundays. PR and I had problems using the internet these 2 days as there was no electricity in our area in the morning. Thank God that there was electricity from afternoon onwards. We hope that the lack of electricity will not affect our ministry too much. Do pray with us that God will supply electricity to the whole of Ecuador soon.
Below is a link to the conversion testimony of one of my favorite actors in Singapore, Chew Chor Meng:
3 personal stories from Steve Jobs, CEO and co-founder of Apple:
Chuck Swindoll of Insight for Living discussed 10 things he has learned in almost 50 years of ministry during Catalyst Conference’s 8th session. Here is what he said:
Fifty years ago, I was a first year student at Dallas Theological Seminary. I was scared, unsure of myself, and fresh out of the Marine Corp. I did not know much about seminary.
I remember sitting in chapel, and a minister told me, “When God wants to do an impossible task, he takes an impossible person and crushes him.” I am so proud of everything you are dreaming of and doing that I hope that you remember to leave room for the crushing.
10 Things Chuck Swindoll Learned in 50 Years of Ministry:
1. It’s lonely to lead. Leadership involves tough decisions.
The tougher the decisions, the lonelier it is.
2. It’s dangerous to succeed.
It is dangerous to succeed while being young. rarely, does God give leadership that young because it takes crushing and failure first.
3. It’s hardest at home.
Nobody at home is applauding you. They say, “Dad! You’re fly is open.”
4. It is essential to be real.
If there is one realm where phoniness is personified it is leadership. What I care about is that you stay real.
5. It is painful to obey.
There are rewards, yes, but it is painful nevertheless.
6. Brokenness and failure are necessary.
7. My attitude is more important than my actions.
Some of you are getting hard to be around. And your attitude covers all those great actions you pull off.
8. Integrity eclipses image.
What you are doing is not a show. And the best things you are doing is not up front but what you do behind the scenes.
9. God’s way is better than my way.
God is going to have His way.
10. Christ-likeness begins and ends with humility.
2 Corinthians 4:5-7 tells us that we must be willing to leave the familiar message without disturbing the Biblical message. We get that backwards. This was written in the first century, and now we are in the 21st century. The message stays the same. Don’t miss the message. As you alter the methods, don’t mess with the message.
Traditionalism is the dead faith of those still living. You will defend those things that don’t need defended.
Three Important Observations:
1. With every ministry a special mercy is needed.
2. In every ministry the same things must be renounced and rejected.
That is hiding shameful things, doing deceitful things, and corrupting truthful things. Guard against deception.
3. Through every ministry a unique style should be pursued.
We don’t preach or promote ourselves (it isn’t about us). We declare Christ Jesus as Lord (it’s all about Him). We see ourselves as bond-servants for Jesus Christ.
Five Statements Worth Remembering During Your Next 50 Years of Leadership:
1. Whatever you do, do more with others and less alone.
It will help you become accountable.
2. Whenever you do it, emphasize quality not quantity.
3. Wherever you go, do it the same as if you were among those who know you the best.
It will keep you from exaggerating. it will help keep your stories true. Your good friend will tell you things that others will not. They will hold you close to truth.
4. Whoever may respond to your ministry, keep a level head.
5. However long you lead, keep on dripping with gratitude and grace.
Stay thankful. Stay gracious.
(This summary created by Kent Shaffer at ChurchRelevance.com)
Original article from Catalyst Space
The legendary rock group set yet another career record on Sunday night as the first band to broadcast a concert live on the popular video sharing Web site YouTube. The band performed at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California in front of a crowd of 100,000 while simultaneously, internet users from 16 countries around the world were able to tune in to the concert from the comfort of their own homes. Looks like God is using this band as a great influence to the world.
We had 40 people for service today, our highest attendance so far. Many new families and friends visited us today and we hope to see them coming again in the future. Do pray with us that we are able to assimilate the new families and friends in our church.
After service, we went to LaoBan’s place for lunch and we were surprised to see many other people from our church eating there too. Looks like we have helped Laoban to get more business. After lunch, we went with Luis and his family to look around for Christmas tree. We plan to decorate our church for Christmas this year. Hopefully our church will have more ‘Christmas feel’ during Christmas. Also pray with us that we will see more people join our church during this Christmas season.
My favourite team Liverpool won Man United 2-0 yesterday. Below is the video of the goals:
Just came back from Singapore to Ecuador recently, feels like back in our 2nd home.
Our trip to Singapore was a fruitful one. We stopped over in Spain for 3 days to have a short holiday before heading back to Singapore. We were not expecting many friends at the airport as we told some of them that we will be heading home straight after arrival in Singapore. Still some of them turned up and we ate at the airport canteen. We ate Chinese Rojak, Indian Rojak, and Otah at the canteen. After that, Alan drove us to eat Katong Laksa as we had a craving for Laksa. It was really delicious.
We met with many family and friends and pastors over the 2 weeks in Singapore. Almost everyday, we met up with different people and ate different food. One of the most memorable catch up was when we celebrated Tony’s birthday over wine. We caught up with a few good friends and talked until 3am in the morning though they had to work the next day. Another one was when Wenjiang drove us to a Kelong in Johor and we ate seafood there. My mother also cooked different kinds of typical food for us everyday. She also took us on a tour walking around the bridges and bringing us to Sentosa. I think she has been to more places in Singapore than me now. We also celebrated my father-in-law’s 60th birthday at Sakae Sushi. It was good spending time with our loved ones.
Thank God for Julian and Serene who helped out in Ecuador when we were back in Singapore. Our people in church have learnt many things from them and they have given us suggestions on how we can improve our ministries here. We have started making changes and we pray that we will see more growth at the end of this year. Do pray with us that God blesses us with His wisdom and guides us in our decision-making. The trip back to Singapore has been a good break for us and now we are ready to run the next lap.
I thought I will only see this in movie or TV but it happened in my life.
PR and I were walking home at night after our Chinese Class. Just as we were about to reach our house, about 80m away, 2 robbers approached us. One robber pointed a gun at me and the other sprayed some gas on my face. I struggled to open my eyes but I cannot see after that. PR screamed and the robbers told her to shut up. We gave them our bags and they rushed off to their red car where there were 2 more people inside. They drove off but PR managed to see their car plate number. Thank God there was a man nearby to help us and we managed to reach our house safely.
We tried to wash away the liquid gas on our face with water in our house but our face was very hot and painful when we tried to wash with water. We were still suffering from the shock and I still cannot see properly. PR called Luis for help. Luis and Carol arrived very promptly at our house and they brought us to a hospital nearby to see a doctor. Thankfully the doctor said that we were fine and just gave us an injection and some medicine. It was almost 12 midnight when we finished the medical checkup. After that, Luis and Carol brought us to a police station to make a report because PR lost her personal documents in her wallet. By the time we reached home, we were so tired that we immediately went to sleep. It was really a nerve-wrecking experience for us.
From the experience, we learnt to be more careful at night and try to take a taxi as far as possible. We also learnt that we should not wash our face with water when someone sprayed something toxic on our face. The best way is to use toilet paper with water to wipe. Otherwise, all the toxic may flow into our eyes together with the water. We also thank God that we are still alive and kicking after the experience, and that we are not physically harmed in any way. It was really quite an experience and we hope that there will not be a second time.
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