Letter from Kenya

Fantastic news from Hope Nairobi in Kenya! Here's an email from our church planters there! Pray a quick prayer for them when you read this - even a one-minute prayer can go a long way.

Anyway, here's an (edited) email from Lisa and LC. Be blessed! "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

Dear all,

This week was extremely tiring in a good way. We formed another care group in another side of Nairobi. It was officially started last sunday-14th September 2008.

It is near to Karen-for those of you who remember Karen Blixen, Giraffee centre and elephant orphanages. We are calling the new care group OR 1- Ongata Rongai 1.

Attached is the photo:

I will start with the men/Top : Charles 1 (Researcher), Ben (CPA student), Charles 2 (Teacher), Vincent (Civil engineering student)
Ladies/sitting: Grape(sister from Hope Bangkok), Tira (Hope Nairobi) with Wei (Charles 1's son), Rosie (Charles 1's wife-secretary to Vice Chancellor of University nearby), Winnie-Charles 2's wife, a singer with son Jed), and of course Li Chuang. Me camera person.

We need a lot of prayer covering this new group. Please pray for [YA: (edited for brevity and grammar)]:
1. Protection upon Charles 1 and Rosie, because they are the ones who invited us to start with them.
2. Stabilising the people to come over to care group within the new estate in their commitment to the church.
3. For more mature couples to come in - especially men with children and those in stable marriages.
4. We want to branch off with another group in the University of Jomo Kenyatta. Please pray for us to help Vincent who is a student there, in order to jump start the group.
5. For the CG to increase in their strength and maturity in their walk with the Lord, and to grow in serving one another in love.

Pray that Tira will be equipped and strengthened to take over City 1 group soon. Pray for us too to strengthen Tira and the City 1 group.

Last sunday was the biggest number we have seen- 13 including Grape.Thank God because we are suddenly struck with how good God is to us.

Read today's Straits Time article about transsexuals. Whoa. I wonder what the Bible says about transsexuals, and what's its position on being one? Is it possible for a person to actually be the opposite gender inside? And are we talking about gender or sex? Is gender a God-given identity or is it a social construct?

Gosh! I think I gotta go do some reading on this... think I'll ask my CG tomorrow over lunch to discuss this. :)

You can read more on Wong Kim Hoh's comments on transsexualism in Singapore.

Incidentally, I had the pleasure of getting to know Abigail Chay (you know, the actress who appeared in some films e.g. Money No Enough, Under One Roof, etc.) through my eldest sis back some time ago... since both of them were collaborating on a play, The Christmas Bride. Got to chat with her a bit, and turns out she's a Christian, and as far as I know, she loves God a lot. So was startled to read the story about her in 2006, that she was actually a he last time.

Haha... yah, so I'm thinking about people who've gone for SRS (sex-replacement surgery). I'm certain that God loves them of course, and they're equally human as you and me. I'm just confused whether to consider them as the sex they are today, or you know, the sex they used to be yesterday. I mean, God didn't make a mistake when He assigned them their sex, you know. But hmm, what about those who are genuinely hemaphrodites, etc? Or eunuches... you know lah.

(Wait. Is it eunuches or eunuchs? After all, we have lunches, not lunchs, and punches, not punchs. But eunuches sounds kinda wrong... So... argh! I'm getting ahead of myself here...)

Anyway! I think I shall ask my CG about this tomorrow.

Kenya Missions Trip: Photos! (Finally)

Kenya Missions Trip 1 - 11 Aug 08

Sorry for the super-late pics... :P

A short video of the missions trip. Yeah, I've been putting up a lot of posts on it. Haha...

Kenya Missions Trip: "Here, we all belong to one tribe..."

This video was shown at yesterday's service when Lisa shared her testimony of how God worked in her caregroup. It was a very touching sharing about the power of Christ, in the midst of ethnic rivalry and tensions in Kenya, to unite two sisters from two warring tribes.

One line that Lisa shared touched me: "There shall be no talking about tribes in our caregroup... here, we all belong to one tribe: the tribe of Jesus Christ."

I really wish the tertiary students could hear her testimony. I know Joyce'd be very inspired! :)

Anyway, meeting the two church planters with the rest of the Love Africa team tomorrow - and Shunrong's coming too! He was telling me I should have told him about the missions trip... he also wants to go! Thank God for his heart...