Scattering Abroad

Good morning. Thank you, Alex. Thank you, Sigmund. Thank you, Joyce. So good to hear testimonies, isn't it? I mean, I wish we had time to listen to everybody's testimonies. Back when we were at the base, we actually had a testimony time.

Do you guys remember some of them? We actually had two people come up every week to share a bit about their journey. At that time, it was only 20, 30 of us, so we actually had a chance to go around half the people here.

As much as I'd love to hear everybody's story, and everybody's story is God-moving. And working. Today's sermon is going to be a bit shorter, which is great, because I didn't prepare much. But even more so, God is working in our stories, working in our testimonies.

And so, a little plug on Life Group. If you've not had a chance to get involved in part of a Life Group, we might not get all of us to share our testimonies here, but week to week, there is a Life Group where a few of the brothers and sisters do life together.

And that's where we get to share these testimonies. That's where we get to live out these testimonies. That's where we can actually be part of each testimonies in the writing, because we're all books in the writing, and all our journeys is just kind of pointing to Jesus.

And so, yeah, so, so good. I had Joyce and Sigmund around for dinner, and I got to hear their testimony when they're around. And yeah, so glad they took a leap of faith to share, to be baptized.

And I think next week or the week after, we're going to have Kenneth, we're going to have Ibanez, we're going to have anyone else? There's someone else getting baptized as well. Just two more testimonies. It's funny, when I was listening, I remembered myself that I was ready to get baptized at 15, but I didn't get baptized until I was 18.

And the reason was, I had such stage fright that I knew that if I wanted to get baptized, I needed to share my testimony. And I remember every year, is there anyone who wants to get baptized?

I was like 16. I was like, no, I don't want to stand in front of everyone and share my story. 17. I was like, still not ready. And I think at 18, I think maybe it was James, you just do it. Just get up there and share.

It's not about you. And I think that's the thing we got today. It's not about Sigmund. It's not about Joyce. It's about God working in them, through them, and around them. And so finally, I did get baptized at 18.

And yeah, continue to see my story being written. Stage fright is still something that I battle with sometimes, believe it or not. And I was reading the other day, stage fright is one of the greatest fears in people's life.

Who's scared of speaking on stage here? Anyone who's scared? There's a lot. I know. Growing up as a deep introvert, I did not like speaking on stage. And you know, on this report, it says, number one fear was stage fright.

Number two was death. Number two was death. And so I always think, oh man, people would rather be giving the eulogy, would rather not be giving the eulogy, and then rather be in the casket than be giving the eulogy.

And I'm like, man, that is the world we live in today. And so again, honor you, Joyce. Honor you, Sigmund, and the two to share as well. Just, yeah, proclaiming God's glory in your story. So with that, we're going to stand up and read the word today.

We're going to read from the passage of Luke, chapter 4, verses 16 to 21. And I want to invite up my dear friend, Darren, who's going to be getting married next month. Yeah? He's going to be reading the word today for us.

Luke 4, verses 16 to 21. Jesus rejected at Nazareth. And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up.

And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on Sabbath day. And he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written.

The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind.

To set at liberty those who are oppressed. To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.

And he began to say to them, Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. Thank you. This is the word of the Lord. Please take a seat. For those who are visiting, the reason we stand in hearing the gospel.

Sorry, I'm going to use this one. The reason we stand as we read the gospel is because we recognize that whatever you're hearing today in the service, the stories, the testimonies, what I'm about to share, those things are secondary.

These are the words of Jesus. And the reason we stand is that we give reverence. Because if there's nothing you take from today, and if you just remember those words that Jesus has said, that's it. That's a whole other level of power, of freedom, of life.

And so today we're going to actually talk a bit more about testimonies. Actually, we're not just going to share testimonies. Here we're going to share testimonies on a trip. A few of us had gone out to the Philippines two, three weeks ago.

And actually, we had two groups from the gathering. Go out to the Philippines, to our lovely neighbors. I love the people, the culture. And I really believe as Hong Kongers, we have so much to learn. Am I right? From the culture, from the people of the Philippines.

We can learn by just starting to smile as Hong Kongers. There's so much, so rich to culture. And we got to be out there to learn, to serve, to surf. We're going to hear from that later as well, briefly.

And yeah, maybe we'll just skip to the video, Eunice. We'll play the video and then we'll go from there. Thanks.

Yeah, you got me under your wings You got me under your wings Yeah, you got me under your wings Little do I have some goodies Why should I?

The birds in the air talk The birds in the air trust you Little do I have some goodies Why should I?

As the flowers in the field grow The flowers in the field trust you You got me under your wings Yeah, you got me under your wings Yeah, you got me under your wings Yeah, you got me under your wings Why do I care if I don't know what to do And I've had that strength in the air He knows me, he knows me my name I took away my shade I'm ready to die I am safe

And you You got me under your wings You got me under your wings You got me under your wings You got me under your wings I can worry about many things One thing is need You're all I need All right, thank you Liam For putting the video together He was on the trip as well Yeah, thank you Liam Give a shout out He's heading to university this year To Sydney And yeah, thanks for joining us on the trip We know that mission I mean, these next few weeks Just to let you guys know We're going to take a short break

From Thessalonians James is actually traveling He's in the Dominican Republic On the way there For some Young Life meetings We're going to have the next few weeks Of just talking about What scattering means Some churches call it mission week, mission month I'm hesitant to use that phrase Just because, you know, mission And the more I learn about it It's all-encompassing It's multifaceted We can't just limit mission to a month Definitely Not to a sharing It's like worship Mission is a lifestyle It's everything that we do And we're going to hear that just later We heard from the testimonies already How, you know, someone was on mission There was someone sent to share the gospel To invite Sigmund and Joyce's parents to church Or point them to church For them to then invite their kids to church It all becomes It all comes from an invitation And it continues as we scatter So as we gather We scatter And we recognize that Sometimes we get to scatter abroad We have the amazing privilege With the passports that we have The resources that we have To go out To experience a life For a few days In some or another country And, yeah

So this is I'm going to share three stories From our trip Just to be quick And Quick question Have any of you Like when you see someone Who's on the street Maybe a beggar How many of you Have put money And given them And put some money In their hat William, yes I believe Everyone Most people I would say Most people have done that I've done that many times too How many of you know That that money Is not going to solve The problem In that person's life Like honestly When you give them money You know that's not going to Change their life And they're not They're not going to Pick up and leave And then live The happily ever after How many of you Knowingly And still give Yeah I think again That's out of a good heart And I think that's also Out of a lack of options Of not knowing How to help How to help people Help themselves Something that I do In my work I'm not going to talk About that too much About that But just in the places That we visited Was actually seeing These testimonies Of people not just Receiving a handout But a hand up And more importantly

How do we point them To Jesus So that they continue To walk independently Self-sufficiently Towards Jesus And with their community The first picture I'm going to share Eunice I think it's a group picture In the school Yes So this is a school By the roadside This is one of the first Places we went to visit I don't know how else To describe it But it's literally A school by the roadside It's You see this little What it looks like A taco truck Ice cream Equivalent This little car Goes around the city Of Manila To five different spots Each day And they bring the school To the kids These are street dweller kids They've lived Kind of under Different squatting settlements Under the bridges And they're homeless They don't have A home per se And our staff Were telling us Some of these kids Are seventh generation Homeless So it's not just the first It's not second It's been over A hundred years And their families Have continued To squat And live in these Kind of informal settlements And the school system Has completely left them

By the roadside Literally And so one thing we do Is as we help the parents And we'll just talk about Their parents later But we want to be able To provide Simple education To the kids And so just imagine An ice cream truck In another country You see all the kids running You know to get their ice cream But here They're running To go to school To go to class Because they want to learn And I think Liam If I had time I would ask you to share I know he shared powerfully Like it's crazy Seeing these kids And seeing the way In Hong Kong We see school You know It's not something We run to Like an ice cream truck But what was most special And what I wanted to highlight And it's also linked To the passages You know This teacher I can see we're praying For right there This teacher Has served faithfully For years Teaching These kids And it was her birthday That day And I didn't know this But apparently She's a recent widow As well But one thing I told our team Is that we're not Going to fix Any of these problems That we see In 48 hours

On our trip But one thing We can do One thing we can do Is to go and empower And encourage Those who are Serving on the front lines Faithfully Week in week out On their birthday You know If it was my birthday I wouldn't be working I'd be taking a day off But no She's there serving Teaching With just the energy Of the teachers We have at Kids World And what touched me the most Was when these kids came up And they shared You know A birthday message And they said Thank you teacher Because of you I can now read Because of you I actually can sing songs Because of you I've learned about This Jesus And it hit me At that point There's a huge difference Between a career And a calling She's a teacher By any trade And there's teachers Here in this room But for her She wasn't teaching For a vocation She wasn't teaching For the paycheck She was teaching Out of the power Of the Holy Spirit The next generation The gospel The power of the gospel And it was a calling And it wasn't about The money It wasn't She would never get The platform I wish we could invite her Here to share

But unfortunately She's I would love to invite Everyone I've met Here to share And I think part of My job And our job To visit out there Is to be Kind of that bridge To share her story And I'm glad She's got a few minutes Here just Yeah Honoring her life And I know That in heaven She will be honored And there's so many Millions and millions Of faithful servants Serving Christ Week in week out So that was the first thing We did At school by the roadside The second picture Is a Just a building Is what you can see Again it shows A different side Of what mission Can look like So the parents Of those children Our organization We help Teach them how to save We help Give them small loans To start businesses And one of the businesses That was started Was a construction business A construction business Filled with street dwellers And the name was Kingdom Builders That was their name Very catchy Very meaningful And this businessman Standing in the middle In a shirt He's a Singaporean Filipino businessman

And he had a vision To build his office He does a perfume business It's a family business And he said I wanted to build A beautiful office And on the fifth story I'm going to dedicate it to God And I'll allow all the churches In the city to use it And it's a prayer room And everything But he's like But I feel called To hire this group Of kingdom builders These construction Street dwellers To build it for me And the last Kind of project The only project That the kingdom builders Had done up to that day The biggest project Was a toilet And now they had to build A five story building In the middle of Manila And I mean We were listening there Alex and I We were just Story after story Of just God's miracle And just sending These architects That would come in And consult for them For free And then disappear People who Very specific wielding stuff That need to be done They would knock on the door And say Hey do you need Wilders And welders And they come And they weld it And then they leave Without even getting To pay for them The project took longer As you can imagine Than they expected

It took more money Than they expected But you can ask him And again His testimony I get to share And jump on that Is incredible Because it's worth it Because he knows That his business Isn't just about The bottom line It's about How do we empower The kingdom The people around us And I mean Imagine if you were Seventh generation On the streets Suddenly you get a chance To build this beautiful skyscraper Look how beautiful The office is And you get to bring Your children there And say hey Dad built that Dad was a part of that You know we always Go to Psalm 127 And if it isn't The Lord that's building it It's in vain And that's the scripture That's kind of imprinted On the wall In the office And the first thing The businessmen asked us Was have you ever Been in a building That God has built With his own hands You're standing in one now And so it's really The least of these The upside down kingdom The people that Nobody would imagine Doing something like that But God moves And uses them And so we got to Stand there Pray there Worship there And so again

The move of the Holy Spirit Aslan is on the move The Holy Spirit is on the move Whether you're a teacher On the streets Whether you're a businessman Running a family office And using that in a way To build up the kingdom Finally the story I'm going to end with Is Ate Jovili Ate Jovili Again I wish she was here In person to share She We got to visit Spent a few hours with her We got to visit Where she grew up She grew up in The largest open dump site area In Manila And she's an entrepreneur She started sorting out rubbish From plastic bottles To paper and cardboard And then apparently selling it To companies then Who take it away I think to China actually And they dispose of it somehow And she was kind of a We've been walking with her For 20 years Our local staff And the first loan she got Was 50 US dollars To start this business To sort out plastic The water bottles And the paper And then she grew The business grew And you probably saw Pictures of the dump site

Earlier as well Of just this junkyard Of where it happens And then a few years later She had an idea Of starting a bubble tea shop Who loves bubble tea here Genius And she saw a gap In her area There weren't any bubble tea shops So she started one And we were We met in the bubble tea shop The next picture This is the bubble tea shop We met in it And there were 50 cents US A drink And it tasted great And her business grew And then the next year She opened another one And she took a bigger loan And then she opened another one And then she took a bigger loan That's what we do We hand out these loans And we invest in them They pay back the loans And that loan can invest In someone else So it's completely sustainable And within 12 years Last year She took out a loan Of 20,000 US From 50 And she paid it back With ease And she said Next year I don't really need a loan But I want to keep That relationship With the loan officer Because she's discipling me And I might just take A small loan Just to continue my business And we got to pray for her In the bubble tea shop Again huge Worldly success

In terms of business Going from something Like a mustard seed Which is going to Something so beautiful But again There's a picture earlier In the video Of us standing outside her home And what hit me most is And this is the way I know the Holy Spirit Is the one moving And kind of encouraging And sending her out Is with the money that she has She can move to the nicest Neighbourhood in Manila But she chooses to stay In that same area She opens up her home For churches Her old junkyard now Is opened up To the local church She hires dozens And dozens of people Because she recognises It wasn't her That made it It was God Who allowed her Through the Holy Spirit To build her business To do what she does And everything she does Is mission There's a picture I had As we're kite builders She built a beautiful kite In her business But without Lifting air And the power of God It's just a kite on the floor

She recognises very clearly That it was God Who allowed And moved And breathed That air For her kite to fly And is flying high For her to see And so she's like An example A model hero An inspiration In her neighbourhood And finally What I personally Got away And took away From spending time With her Is actually The way her husband The way her son Looked at her There was no jealousy There was not Oh my mum's always Doing business She's forgetting About the family No It was just pride This dignity Of like Wow my mum's incredible She started this business From nothing And we're just honoured That she's our mum And that people are Visiting her from Around the world And again It's so easy To be successful In some things And give her The most important things It could be A listed company But you know Marriage ends In divorce And broken families But seeing the face Of her husband Was what comforted me Saying wow You can have both And how does that happen When the Holy Spirit begins

And I guess The verse Kind of that hit me On this passage Is before We go out To proclaim The good news Before we set The captives free Before we help The blind to see The first thing That needs to happen In scattering And we're going to hear About scattering In the next few weeks About different examples Of it In Hong Kong Around the world As well The first verse Is 18 The spirit Of the Lord Is upon me The spirit Of the Lord Is upon me Scattering doesn't happen When we go out And do things It begins with us Making space And room For the Holy Spirit To be in us And as an outward Expression Mission can happen In a bubble tea shop It could happen In a construction company It could happen By school By the roadside It could happen As Sigmund As he goes And practices medicine In the hospitals As Joyce goes Into the bank Serving And mission Is everything And I want to invite Aidan and Shigala Up now As we wrap up Just to hear Just another Another kind of

Dimension Of What it means To go from Surfing To serving And I know Catching that I'm a dad I'm a dad So I'm allowed To do these jokes I'm allowed To do these jokes I have permission now Shigala Aidan Tell us What is Christian serving Give us kind of The heart And the mission Behind it What is it about Well we're in 33 nations Around the world It was started In Australia By somebody called Brett Davis He's a really Serious surfer But also Jesus lover And so our Global mission Is that So that every Surfer In every Surfing community Has the opportunity To know And to follow Jesus And from this Trip we were So inspired That we came Back And developed Our vision For Christian Surfers Hong Kong And if

You guys Would allow Me I will Read that Out Please Please It is to Foster a Welcoming And meaningful Surfing community That goes the Extra mile To mirror Christ's love Through offering Access Giving time And resources And spreading The gospel Amen And so Because the mission Is to share The gospel With surfers Who are Pre-believers We are Committed To really Knowing our Community Developing Friendship So that When they're Ready to Accept Christ We can Hand them This Surfer's Bible It's beautiful Ocean Themed Is it the Same as This Bible It is the Same But it's Just the New Testament And it's Filled with Testimonies Of well-known Surfers Professional Surfers I think the First one is About Bethany Hamilton Who's really Devoted to Christ And she's A professional Surfer

At the Age of 13 She experienced A shark Attack I think her Left arm Was bitten Off Completely And she And her Mom was Just praying For a Big competition To come up And surely They didn't Pray for this Right For a shark To completely Bite her Arm off But Through her Faith And Just Her love For Christ Jesus Sustained her And she Was back In the Water 14 days 14 weeks Later After the Attack And continued To compete In the World Surf League So yeah We've got Some amazing Testimonies In this book The gold medalist Surfer was a Christian as Well right Someone who In the last Olympics I don't remember If There is Maybe He's not The guy Okay Yeah Okay Maybe not But yeah We have some Really strong Surfers Who are Very devoted Christians Good Yeah

Tell us more Like how many Of you were On this trip There was Six of us Okay Yeah I'm very Grateful that Most of us Are from KFCI The gathering Awesome Yeah And we Went in Shigao To To build A school Or like You know We Really For us We really Experienced What It was A trip To empower Us As What it Means to be A Christian And a surfer And we Learned very Quickly That Those Identities Are not Mutually Exclusive I think The ocean Is amazing It's mysterious It's beautiful It Flattens Our differences No matter What your Job title Is Your Socioeconomic Economic Status Your religion Your skin Color When you're In that Water We are All the Same We're In the Same Body Of Water And Maybe This Is Why Jesus Taught His Disciples

In Those Pressure Cooker Moments Involving Water Ocean Storms Waves And It is In this Spirit That we Want to Carry out This Christ Likeness To draw People Who Do not Know Christ Yet And To Spread The Gospel Like That I'd love To hear From Aiden Maybe One of The Testimonies Come from That trip Something That inspired You Something You saw Something Other People Shared Yeah There was A Let me Let me Think about This Yeah So One Testimony That really Inspired me That when We were There So a Little bit More Background About the Trip The trip Gathered All the Countries In East Asia Who have Christian Surfer Denominations In them And brought Them together So that we Can always Build Nurture Each other And go Forth From there One Really Big Encouraging Thing That I Felt Was The

Testimony Of Christian Surfer Korea They Like These Guys Have Only Been Active For Maybe Six Months But They Really Have Six Different Chapters All Around Korea It's Like Instant Fire Instant Reception To the Gospel And What I Think Is Really Interesting Out There Is That In Korea There's Also A Very Big Movement Of Young People Leaving The Church Hearing How So Quickly They Were Able To Capture The Attention Of These Young People And Point Them Towards The Ocean Point Them Towards Christ Was Really Inspiring Actually Over There They Have All Around The Coast There Are Different Surfing Spots And They Connect With Local Churches All Up And Instant They Had 30 40 People A Session So It's Really Incredible It Goes To Show That You Know People There Is A Connection Between The Lord And The

Water That Some People Can Feel Instinctively And It Just Depends On Which Direction You Get Pulled In I Think Yeah That's Good Well How's That Inspired You Guys To Do!

What's Next What you Got Right Of From The Announcement We Had Earlier Next Saturday Guys! So! Every So Surfing Is A Very Interesting Activity Because It's Super Localized Right We Do Not Have The Beaches Of Bali Right Big Wave Is Not Bali Folks Sorry So It's Just So Localized And There's Such Different People Who Surf These Types Of Different Things That We've Had To Really Take Time To Figure Out Ourselves What Is Our What Is Our Mission So We Focused On Three Things Can You Bring This Up Again I Don't Really Remember!

Sorry Yeah So So So There are Three Big Pain Points That We Discovered In Hong Kong Surfing Culture Which Is Like The First One Is Access To Breaks Okay There's Only One Beach In Hong Kong Island That You Can Reasonably Go Surf And It Is Really Far From Any Public Transportation So One Thing That We Thought About Was Like Okay How Do We Pool Resources To Provide Like Pulling People Together Who Want To Go But Maybe They But Maybe They Feel Like Okay I Don't Want To Blow 200 On A Taxi Ride To Go All The Way There Can We Expand Your Network So That We Can Split The Fair Evenly Between Four Different People You Know It's Just Stuff Like That Bringing People Together Making Surfing More Accessible Is Very Important To Maybe We Might Be Blessed To Have Cars Are We Able To Have A Little Route That We Just Go Pick People Up In Right Yeah Just Like A Bus Service I Mean Like

You Know Minivan Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah That's The Second One Is Giving Time And Resources You Know One Thing That Hong Kong Has Is It Doesn't Have A Of Waves But We Certainly Do Have A Of Resources In This In This City We Love To Try To Support Other Christian Surfer Communities Around The World That Might Have Amazing Waves But Maybe Their Social Economic Status Might Not Be So Nice So For Example When We Were In Shargao It Is An Extremely Underdeveloped Area Except There Are These World Class Waves That Just It It's Just Amazing!

To Connect Our Resources With Them As Well And Expand The Gospel Through That Means And The Last One Obviously Spreading The Gospel There Is Something Deep Within I Think A lot Of People Who Love The Ocean Or Love The Water I Do Want To Talk A Little Bit More About Why Jesus Decided To Use The Storm To Rattle His Disciples Souls Really Because You Feel So Helpless Out There If You're At The Wrong Place At The Wrong Time Yeah Nothing Matters Anymore You Know Your Only Hope Is You Have To Pray And You Have To Paddle Really Hard Like There's There's No Way There's No Way Out Of It And So And So Coming Into Contact With That Realization Like

Brings You Closer To The Lord Than You Can Possibly Imagine That's Good Well Thank You I'm Gonna We're Going to End On That I'm Sorry We just Ran Over A little Bit Round of Applause Thank you Yes For For The On On That That Note I'm Going To Pray And Wrap Up But What A Powerful Image Of Just Yes Seeing Ourselves In That Wave In That Storm I Think There's A Saying Everyone Is A Christian Or A Believer In God In A Storm And It's True We All Face Storms In One Way Or Another And Yeah Let's Pray Father We Yeah We Of The Oh When We Talk About Scattering It Isn't About Us Doing Anything But Simply What You're Already Doing And How Can We Partnering In With You

And So Lord As We Hear So Many Incredible Testimonies And Stories That May We Not Just Leave This Place Inspired Or Even Feel Demotivated Thinking Oh This Is For Someone else. This isn't for me. Lord, you can use anyone and everyone if you desire. May our hearts be open to you. May our hearts make room for your Holy Spirit. And whatever it is, in whatever form it is, whether it's at work or even on a weekend surfing, Lord, you are what's called as incentives to proclaim the good news to the gospel, to the poor, to proclaim the captives to be released, for the blind to see and the oppressed to set free, and to proclaim that this is the year of the Lord's favor. So would you send us out, Lord, as a gathering, as we scatter in our week, in all our places, and until we next gather again, may you watch over us, may you speak to us, and may our spiritual eyes and ears be open. That's all we ask for. In Jesus' mighty name we pray.

Amen. All right. Well, thank you, everyone. We will see you next week. Yeah, we have something special in store for you, too. All right.