*+_Praise † Grace_+*

Today's reflection prompted us to think about what God may have called us into for the past week. The Scripture recounted the story of Moses who received God's calling and repeated rejected the calling with excuses. I think some excuses that I would give God are: I don't have time, I'm working, what about my family, and etc. Yet in my weaknesses, God will meet me halfway. We were all excited for attachment today. After teasing Philip for the one last time, we hopped onto Brigger's car and off we went. Home of Love for old folks was a lot nearer than Natural Farming. We arrived in less than 15min. Home of Love is a double-storey building in green. Unlike other places that we have been to, there is no greeting nor proper welcome. The first person we encounter was an old uncle sitting still at the corner. A tattoo-ed man was feeding another skinny old man on a wheelchair. The place gave a overwhelming sense of inactivity and stagnation. Richard, who was here l...

BEM Kuching It's Sunday! It's always exciting to go to church, especially going to some church I've never been to before. This morning, we find ourselves at Borneo Evangelical Mission (Kuching Evangelical Church). What's interested us was the fact that the church was built right beside a huge Buddhist temple. Haha we even jokingly said: "Welcome to church!" Then walk right out of the gate towards the church. We were greeted warmly by some regular church member. The church interior reminded me of Trinity Methodist Church at Jalan Gasing. The sanctuary is spacious with a majestic cross as the backdrop. A pulpit is placed right at the center of the stage. The church service was somewhat similar to a Methodist one. We started with Scripture Reading and then worship. We sang a good mixture of contemporary songs and classic hymns. I enjoy such balanced worship. Today's sermon was taken from Genesis 37 and 38, recounting the story of Joseph and J...

Uncle Richard and Kenny Micha 6:6-8 speaks to the hearts of those with privilege. While abundance of sacrifice may reflect a false sense of holiness, it is rather justice, love, mercy and humility that God is seeking in us. Our obedience and righteousness worth far more than millions of sacrifice. Today's topic was Understanding Juvenile. Uncle Richard was here to introduce Sekolah Tunas Bakti (STB). STB is a school for juvenile. The students are sent to the school only under the Court's order for minor offences such as stealing, robbing, drug abuse and etc. The school provides a way for these children to turn over a new leaf and offers them protection. There were 52 students uner the care and ministry of Uncle Richard. All praises to God, 4 students left about a week ago. After explaining some do's and don'ts, we took off to our destination. STB provides education for those who has not registered for formal schooling while existing students go to normal school...

Matthew 6:1-4 is especially hard for a loud person like me. Praises and recognition drives me. And yet Jesus reminded us not to make charity an act of public display of self-righteousness and flash it around like a banner. Perhaps the Scripture is reminding me: let God's love for you and the people drive you, then let God's heart drive you and finally let Him drive you. Diligence, humility are two virtues that I must develop in suffering for His kingdom. Aaron spending his time in silence and reflection Today was a day of rest for SWEEPers. Well, FES enjoys a balance of silence and fun. We spent 4 hours in silence and reflection since 10am. In these 4 hours, we were to reflect, meditate and listen as God spoke to us in the past 7 days. To be honest, ever since Camp Cameron 3 years ago, I must confess that I enjoy such alone time that is hard to come by. We were given Psalm 139 to reflect upon. Personally, Psalm 139 often come timely as a reminder and discipline to ...

Su resting and having fun. Different from devotions from morning before, Peter shared the song "God of Justice" by Tim Hughes. The song sings "Keep us from just singing, move us into action." Just as what Ps. Darren Tan shared last night, too many churches are too focused on building the church, we are not sending people out; we focused too much on bigger sound system, bigger screen, we forget to reach the bigger community. Therefore, "we must go!" I was surprised to see Su in a relaxed manner today. Perhaps because we were again delayed by some detours, it just never get earlier. Su told us that there were nothing much left to do. The girls began planting some chili while the guys continued to set the compost in place. The watering system worked well as we planned. We made more compost today and bagged them accordingly. In order to keep the sunlight from killing the chili, we took some fern and set some shades for them. The girls are plantin...

Mark 12:38-44 illustrated the principles and core idea of the Law: to love our God with our entire being and to love our neighbour as ourselves. Therefore we ought to ask, how would I want to be treated if I am suffering from HIV? Or when I have nothing to eat? No way to go to school? Or have no capability to take care of myself? In that same way, I ought to serve others. Today, we arrived late as usual despite our effort to make it early. That's why we began work immediately. Today our main activities will be to put up the netting and piping. More villagers came to help today! While waiting for the rafia strings to arrive, we fixed some loose plastic cover for the nails. These covers are important to keep the nail from tearing the netting. Su came out with an ingenius idea to tie strings to the corners of the netting and some small weight at the other end of the string to help the work. The strings worked as a lead as we pull the netting up and over the supports. It was...

Today's devotion is taken from Hebrews 13:1-3. The Scripture challenges me to empathize and share in suffering with those who are working to serve others. It also challenged me to be vulnerable in order to be hospitable for anyone who is lonely, enstranged and despised. Work starts! Laying out the net. We left a little late today for attachment. Jeremy was our driver. Despite how he may appear, one must never underestimate his driving skill. Well, at least we arrived in one piece. Su had started the work as early as 8am. The sun was again merciless. We began our work nonetheless. Today, the girls started sewing the net while the guys covered the exposed nails with reused plastic bottles. We also took some clay-ish soil to fill up some potholes. The work was no joke, especially under the sun. Moving the composts into position. First attempt for wheelbarrow. Stuck and struggling. I was thinking what was holdin the girls up, so I took over the 30cm long needle and...