Travels in the 10/40 Window

Campus Evangelism

2009-07-18T00:40:00.000+08:00

When our team left for the Philippines last Saturday, they didn't dream the impossible. They only asked God to let them reach 40,000 students with the gospel during the five weeks of evangelism in the campuses and colleges of the Philippines.

The campaign started on Monday, and the four-day report total so far was: over 11,000 heard the Word preached in their classrooms, and over 8,000 made decisions for the Lord! The most amazing story to be told was on their first day at the campus in Bayawan.

The evangelistic team of Singaporeans, Filipinos and Americans had to journey over 2 hours in the early morning to get to that campus. When they got there... what happened? The school authorities renegaded on their promise! No, no, the students have been sent out to work on some kind of summer spring cleaning, they said, and you cannot interrupt their work, unless it rained and the students couldn't work.

Our team said a polite 'ok', took out their umbrellas and then went to pray. Did God answer? The result was that the work day had to be cancelled and nearly 500 heard the Good News! Read more about the campus evangelism in the Philippines in A BIG Mission What happens during campus evangelism - first we get a letter signed by important education authorities, second we show up at the doorway of a classroom as the lesson was in session, third we politely interrupt the teacher who is in the middle of the lesson, and show the letter, and fourth, the teacher steps aside to allow an evangelism team member (usually a foreigner) to take over the class for half an hour to tell the students something called The Good News!

At the end of it, the students are asked to make decisions, and for those who did, their particulars are taken down for further follow up, and they are invited to the campus christian fellowship meetings.

Heavenly Tree

2009-07-14T01:15:00.001+08:00

If you're wondering what's so heavenly about this tree, it is an old durian tree on Preynob campsite in Cambodia. It is said to be about 40 years old, and doesn't produce very much fruit these days. But when there are fruit, they are said to be special!

We frequent visitors to Preynob already have our names written on the tree. If you want your share, do come with us next time!

Heavenly Fruit

2009-07-08T00:40:00.001+08:00

Rain Interrupted Breakfast

2009-07-05T00:40:00.005+08:00

Our trip to Cambodia last week included two newbies in our team. Since we really wanted them to have a good time (and give a good report to the folk back home!), we decided to go for breakfast "al fresco style" one morning in the little seaside town of Sihanoukville.

Our hotel in Sihanoukville provided for breakfast at the restaurant, and on our first morning there, we had a good meal, ordering a dish from a list (eg, fried rice, or fried noodles, or American breakfast, or porridge). What was not available, however, was the French bread that was so special in this part of the world (Cambodia & Vietnam, which were French colonies once upon a time).

The next morning, we decided not to get our free breakfast at the hotel, and out we trotted at 8 am, down the street to New Beach Restaurant. We soon found a table under a breezy tree, and ordered breakfast.

Hmmm mmmmm! It was sumptuous!

We were busy tucking in when a small drop of rain fell on someone. Then another drop fell. The diners at the other tables started to get up. We looked right and left, and all of a sudden, more raindrops! Eeps, it was raining!

A waitress hurriedly appeared with a tray, and we quickly put our half-eaten breakfast on it, and carried whatever we could as we all ran for shelter. I left behind my nearly-finished bowl of rice noodles soup, because I saw the raindrops going "plop plop" into the soup and I didn't think I wanted to er... drink that.

We found shelter at the restaurant's main building, and settled down to continue our meal. The rain fell in sheets as soon as we found shelter. Whew! That was close!

We knew it was rainy season in Cambodia during these months, but God had been extremely good to us, giving us sunny weather and dry (not muddy!) ground to walk on during our trip. That breakfast morning was indeed the first time we saw rain, and it didn't last very long either.

And the next time it rained was when we were all comfortably in the car heading back to Phnom Penh. The Lord was very, very good to control the weather and the timing was perfect!

Lazy Dog Killed By Owner

2009-06-30T00:40:00.003+08:00

We got back from another trip to Cambodia last Saturday night. This four-day trip was very eventful indeed with many firsts - let's see, I believe this was the first time we attended two services in one day; heard about a cobra attack; we killed a dog, went in and out of a disco; broke a hotel card key and was nearly charged US$20/-...

And in the food department, we ate Grace's baking experiments, were interrupted by rain while in the middle of breakfast under the blue, blue sky and had to run for cover, had too many durians over two nights, hunted for soft shell crabs in Phnom Penh... am I giving away too many secrets in one post??

Yes, we killed a dog. She was a lazy one, sleeping in the middle of the driveway as we arrived in the late morning. Pastor Noe was driving and we saw it fast asleep right in the middle, and someone pointed it out to him, but he said it would move away.

The next moment, we heard a 'yelp!' and some of us in the car yelped too! Eeks, Pastor Noe! You ran over the dog! You hit the dog!

We got out in a hurry but there was no sign of the black dog under the car. Someone said she ran out, and we thought it was a hit and miss. The children came to greet us, and we went into the house.

In the meantime, Pastor Noe found the dog collapsed outside the house after it had run out. And before we knew it, the boys were busy digging a grave in a corner of the garden! Lesson to learn - do not be so lazy to sleep in the middle of the driveway!
Blackie - rest in peace.