Monday, April 5, 2010

Old Wineskins, New Wineskins

Honestly, the past few weeks have been really stressful. And straining. I guess I'm a walking Young's modulus. :P (See, stress and strain do keep you Young. Har-har.) 

God has been very kind to me. Received what was a near-nuke at work last week, but I know God was there with me. Even though I'm still very much in molding and training, and feel very stretched because of my inexperience with multi-tasking, I can see the gracious hand of God upon me, protecting me.

Still, things feel very tight. Was telling my shepherd, and then my sheep, that work really feels like a Tower Defence game. Once you clear one wave, you've only a short time to "reload and resupply" before the next wave comes along. And oh, the exciting 'boss' characters to handle. Haha.

Thank God for the Easter skit. It was great. Never imagine that we'd actually see this kind of stuff come to life - people dressing up in chicken suits (literally) and singing and dancing and running all over the place. And the skit really was very fun.

Still, can see how much we have to grow in terms of wineskins. I have a burden to see the children's drama ministry grow and expand... and work together with the other ministries. It's not about doing my own ministry well... no, not if we pray "THY kingdom come, THY will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Nope... it's about working together with other ministries to support and to be supported by them. Synergy, in other words. Body of Christ, interconnected. Think that's something that God impressed on my heart as we were worshipping Him during Easter service. Seeing that huge multitude worshipping Him with one voice. And reminded how we are all so different, but we form one body.

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Have another burden too. Long to see more ethnic groups in our church. Want to see my church become a mini-Singapore (in the sense of ethnic diversity). I was at Yishun the other day. And something that brought joy to my heart was seeing all the different ethnic and cultures all waiting for the same bus. We are like that on our journey in life, as a nation. Different walks, but same journey. Isn't that comforting?

Maybe that's why I felt so strangely strange when I was in Hong Kong. I didn't like the mono-culture thing in Hong Kong... even though technically I look similar to them... well, my mum is Cantonese, so she fit right in there. Maybe it's because of my Peranakan roots. My dad's ancestors were in Singapore long before I was born. Peranakan and so on. So I guess being multi-cultural is literally part of my cultural heritage.

I guess, in fact, that dream is expressed in a particular Bible verse, which God put my heart back in 2002. "After this, I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language. ... and they cried out with a loud voice: 'Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and unto the Lamb.'"

So beautiful. *pause* Just some thots.

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Anyway, yah, have some idea of where the drama team needs to build on from here. Thank God for the clear vision and direction that He's brought us to. We reached a new level of excellence in the children's ministry... Misha sang very beautifully during the skit.

Recognized points for improvement. Need to have at least 3 weeks to prepare for the skit. Which means that I have to plan out way in advance already. Rehearsals, rehearsals, rehearsals.

I need to find a music manager, a MM manager, a props manager, a costumes manager, a lightings manager, a director and a scriptwriting manager.

And about props... you know how we spend a lot of time on cutting things out, right? Well, I found on Instructables how to make a CNC milling machine for very cheap-cheap prices... imagine the huge savings on manpower and improvements on speeds and quality if we can construct a CNC machine to generate props on the fly! Think that's the spirit that I learnt from Shunrong - since we're short on manpower, let's find a way to use technology to maximise the limited manpower we have. Be better stewards of the resources God has given us. =D

Hmm. The bigger vision from here is to take drama to the streets! =D Children's drama, where we put wonderful children's plays... sorta like CS Lewis' Narnia. And missions of mercy - go and do drama for old folks... do drama for children's cancer... do drama for overseas missions... to orphanages and so on.

And who knows? Even combine with other churches (not only the Hope churches) but other churches in Singapore... and even other countries... lift high the name of Jesus! till we have plays for every nation, every tribe, every people, every tongue... proclaiming the goodness of God!

Imagine. Just imagine. Think of Handel's The Messiah. It's regarded as one of the greatest works of art in human history. Isn't it fascinating how some of the most powerful and moving art in human history are those that aim to give glory to God?

But here we are, on more prosaic ground. Need new wineskins... and to take off my sandals and listen to God.

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