‘The Servant’ – preperation

Maybe I am little too used to giving a theme/ title to everything..sermon, worship session, conference, Advance, OC…So, here I am came up with the theme for my mission trip end of this year, is called ‘THE SERVANT’.

From November till January 2010, I will be travelling with the mission ship ‘Doulos’ from Operation Mobilisation Australia (OM) to do a mission work. The picture on the heading of this website is the ship, vising Hong Kong. I will take on the ship from Thailand and we will travel through to the Middle East.

At the beginning everything was unclear how I can get such a long leave from work, how am I going to continue pay the mortgage when I am the only one paying the mortgage, how am I going to tell my parents about it, etc.

Since the beginning, it was a journey of faith each step of the way. While I was praying for the confirmation of this trip, God gave my mom a dream, and she saw me swaped away by the wave of the sea. She tried to stop me but couldn’t. Her leader spoke to her that whatever is going to happen to your daughter, she is in God’s plan so no need to worry. As my mom shares this to me, I realised that God gives me a green sign!

Few weeks later, I spoken to Mom about my plan. Initially she expressed many concerns but when the dream was reminded, eventually she blessed me  and even said “Don’t worry about dad, I will tell him (I will take care of him!)”

Next issue was my Job, I didn’t have enough leave to cover the trip period, so after praying I decided to quit the job if they don’t allow me to take the leave without payment. To cut the long story short, after discussion with others, company manager decided that I can still come back to my job after the leave. This is quite a favor, and I don’t think anyone has taken such a leave for the ‘holiday’ and still kpet the job.

Then comes the Money issue. My mortgage should be paid upfront for few months even while I don’t get paid. That’s when I decided to share my room with someone else. I changed my single bed to the bunk bed, and invested on a new desk and chair, and found a roommate. Also I saved up portion of tax return, and sold many household items through ebay and korean websites to make some extra cash.

Let’s face it. We all have a heart for the great commission, everyone loves God and wants to serve him. Sadly, only portion of these people can actually put their thinking into the action. Job, Mortgage, Family, Relationship, Health etc comes on the way to block them from going forth for the dream. The truth is, that there will be no such time as you have no barrier to mission, everything is arranged and prepared. There will always be some kind of difficulty. Don’t we know that?

I am not saying this as if I’m a super saint just because I am going for an extended mission trip. But I wanted to prove that when our heart is for God, he can make a way THROUGH it.

Don’t tell God how big your storm is.

Tell the storm how Big your God is.