Burning Bushes

Last week I talked about the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit that comes on this group of people. Remember, 500 people watching fly up into the sky. 380 decide, hey, actually, sorry, it was pretty cool. I'm just going to go back to my normal life. 120 said, I can't turn back now. There's something here that I cannot unsee. And so I have to do something. And 120 of them said that. And they said, well, where should we go? Well, let's go find a room. Let's go find the upper room and let's just pray there. How long should we pray there? For a few hours?

Let's do that more than that. Let's do a day. No, let's do more than that. So two, three, four, five, 10 days, this group of 120 pray going, God, we cannot go back. Can you send us the Holy Spirit? And after 10 days, finally, he comes and boom.

And what we saw was in Genesis 11, the Tower of Babel, God sees the pride of man trying to make a name for themselves. So he confuses them and gives them lots of different languages. So they start talking to each other in different languages and they can't understand each other. So they can't build this big tower.

So they have to scatter and do what God asked them to do. Fill the earth with my glory. Go instead of build your own tower. And you see, at Pentecost, there's a beautiful redemption, reversal of that curse, because now they do understand each other because of the Holy Spirit.

And what's being shared? The good news of Jesus Christ, the mighty works of God. This reversal of the Tower of Babel is just beautiful. And then, of course, we talked about the Passover, which is when Moses came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments, with these two tablets.

And he himself came down with the law. But now at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes down on everyone. How beautiful is that? And back then, 3,000 people died because of what they did that was wrong.

But now at Pentecost, 3,000 people are saved. Another reversal, another redemption of what happened in the past. The Holy Spirit is doing something, moving amongst his people.

And so they scatter out. They start going and they start speaking these languages they don't understand themselves. And people in the streets are like, why are you speaking my language? How do you know what to say to me?

God speaks in my language? That's crazy. And so the gospel, the church, is born that day. That is the church's birthday. And so as they're talking, then what happens is people are like, what is going on?

And then Peter stands up and says, hey, guys, they're not drunk. It's nine o'clock in the morning. Actually, they've not even finished fasting yet, so they've definitely not drank anything.

This is something else. And then he shares this passage here that we're going to read a little bit of today. And he starts to quote the prophet Joel. And he says, in the last days, his spirit will pour out on who? On all.

So Moses went up to the mountain by himself to meet God by himself. But now the spirit is on all. And I asked the question, hey, imagine if Moses was at Pentecost.

This Moses, who was so keen to see God, he was like, God, let me see you. And God says, you can't see me. If you saw me, you would die. But I'll hide behind this cleft, hide behind my hand, and you'll catch a glimpse of me.

And that'll be enough. So that was Moses. And so when he went up to the mountain, there was fire. And so he would have seen God at this the most incredible way. The burning bush, this bush that should have been consumed by fire, was just there burning.

And Moses got to see, basically meet with God. So he, imagine him at Pentecost, he would have been like, guys, you guys, do you realize what you've got? Only I could go up and I was terrified.

But now you guys have him living inside you. And I pitched the question to all of us. Imagine if we were all, each individually, a burning bush. That's what we are.

Imagine Moses stepping into here, is what I said. He'd be like, you guys all have the burning bush inside you, and yet you're just sat there. Not living the life that you're supposed to live.

And then I said, well, what about if you feel that way? You feel stale. You don't feel as though you're really connected to God. You're not on fire. What do you do? And I said, go find someone who is on fire and sit next to them.

Catch their fire. Sit next to them and you will feel that fire burn and it will inspire you. Today, I have the pleasure of having a conversation in front of you with actually one of my burning bushes.

So this lady that I'm going to introduce you to, she is incredible. You sit with her for 30 minutes, for just an hour about, and to hear what she does, you'll be like, this lady is a superhero.

But before she comes up, I want to tell you, she is not a superhero. And she will tell you she's a not superhero. Because often, where you're sat, you might think, well, do you know that missions life?

That go make disciples of all nations? That preach the gospel? It's for people who are pastors. It's for people who are missionaries. It's for people who are willing to go to Africa and do crazy things. I'm not that person.

I'm just a banker. I'm just a physio. Just a moment of silence there for our physios. Only joking, I love my physio.

He's so good. But what I'm here to tell you is, this lady I'm about to introduce you will seem like a superhero. But first and foremost, I want to tell you that she's just my friend. She's my friend who said a simple yes to God.

And then she said another simple yes and another simple yes. So we're going to go on a journey together. And she's got some pictures that she's going to show us. About what she does. And I'm super excited for this. So can I invite you just to give a round of applause for Joyce to come up and join me.

Hey Joyce. Hello. Do you want to take a seat anywhere? While you get ready, let me just do this. I have to hijack this. I'm so proud of your pastor, James and Christina.

I'm bursting with pride. And I'm so glad that you have them. And I know you'll appreciate them. But they make... I just want to honor them for a minute. They make sacrifices that you and I don't know.

They and their family. So I just love on them. And then I think you guys are so blessed to have them. So I want you to give all your support to them. Even before they ask you, you go and volunteer.

Because they are amazing. And you can see it. God's hand is on them. God's anointed them. And it's so exciting. I'm just so thrilled to be here today. Thank you. Thank you. No more nice things.

This is supposed to be the pulpit where we open up the word of God. But I really do believe that this is... This is actually something that I think that God has his hand in. And what I hope that as we have this conversation with you is...

You ask yourself, what's your simple yes? But if you would allow me to give me five minutes to recount my story, with Joyce, because it's a crazy one.

Which leads us to where we're at right now. Because when did you first meet Christina and I? Tell people that. When they were 18 and someone had hair. Lots of it.

Too much of it. And I wasted it. And so the Lord punished me. Yeah, so we grew up in the Chinese church. I told you that. The Chinese church that was, you know, typical Chinese church.

But when we went to university, we bumped into someone who said, oh, what church are you going to go to? And we said, oh, we're probably going to go to the Chinese church. And then someone said, well, hey, have you heard of Hope City? And we didn't really know what it was.

We said, oh, okay. Sunday, come and try out on a Sunday evening. So we went to this church, which is an Aussie church, which is called Hope City. Just the two of us. And we were shocked. And I told you this before.

Because it was like, worship actually sounds good. Like, the people sing in tune. And there's this thing called a synth pad, which covers all your mistakes. And we were like, Christians are cool.

And this was when Christina and I had first started dating. Yes. And so you knew us way before, way before. And Joyce, you were just part of that journey and just showing us a different side of Christianity, right?

Do you remember anything about us? Oh, I remember two really good-looking people showing up at our house with my husband where I was. We were on furlough, I think.

Oh, no, no, no, no. We've got three kids. So the first one was born. And then I went back to the UK to give birth to the second and the third one. So I think it's that period because of childbearing reasons that we've got to meet.

That's not a bad. Okay, let's keep going. And so imagine Christina and I, 18 and 19, we go to... To our cell group. You were at our cell group, yeah. And we go to their house. And we actually, because you lived in Sheffield, which is just a godforsaken land, we stayed over.

I remember that. And then I was looking... I don't remember that. And then I was looking through a photo album. I don't know why you even gave me a photo album to look at. And then I saw a picture of this teenager in there. And I was like, how do you know Victor?

Who was actually maybe a kid that through my relatives in Hong Kong had gone to UK for boarding school and ended up staying at our house because our parents were being guardians for them. And I said, Joyce, how do you know Victor?

My cousin. And then I was like, whoa, that's a crazy different connection. Fast forward a few years, we go back to Birmingham where our church was. And we were interning there. And then you...

Yeah, so like I said, we've got three kids. So you'll soon find out that I basically live in Africa. And our three kids were... I had to homeschool them. And I'm very proud that they're all still alive.

They've survived my homeschooling. And then so the... And then since then, God, when they went to secondary school, God blessed all of them with scholarships in boarding schools in the UK.

So we had to have guardians. And we were visiting the guardians of my firstborn. They were my school friends in university. And they said, we've got a surprise for you.

And I was like, ta-da! Like, oh, there's a new pastor who's interning at our church. He's called James. And she's like, what? I know James when he was 18, when he had lots of hair. And so we ended up meeting in Birmingham.

And we were just having lunch. And we were like, hey, actually, we feel called to go to Hong Kong. This was a few years into it. And she was like, oh, we're in Hong Kong. I said, well, there's this church called...

Wait for it. KFC. Because no one knows KFC outside of Hong Kong. And she was like, oh, Hong Kong. Hong Kong is one of our biggest supporting churches. And then your brother's in-laws were at our house trying to...

It is a crazy story. Are you keeping up? Or you're lost? You're lost. You're lost. Anyway, it's just crazy coincidence that our lives just keep overlapping one another across, what, three countries? Yeah.

Three countries? And final one. And then Christina starts working in this international school, Yiu Cheng. And she sits down at her desk for the first time. And then there's a flyer on her desk. And what is it?

It's New Site Congo. And somehow you were involved in the school that we were in, the church that we came to, the old church that we were in, and the university, and the church that we were in. So you can see this is just a story that has been going full circle.

And last Tuesday, we just caught up for a little bit. And I was like, you know what? Are you free on Sunday? Let's talk. Because I've sat with you for 30 minutes, and I feel like I'm on fire again, which is exactly what I talked about last week.

And so maybe you need to hear a little bit of this story. But Joyce, I want you to tell people a little bit about you and Hong Kong. You grew up here. Yeah. What school did you go to? I don't want to say anything.

How you can. I went to a school called Darsus and Girls School, commonly known as DGS. And then I went to a school called United World College, UWC, which is in the UK.

And then I went to University of Edinburgh, where I studied medicine. Where you studied medicine. And then that's when you, oh, actually, we can put some pictures up. By the way, I have no idea what slides he's putting up. So this is as much a surprise to you as to me.

Well, it's a surprise to them because they don't usually get slides. So this is already. Oh, okay. So next picture. So you grew up in Hong Kong. You became a doctor. Next picture. That's when you became a doctor.

Yes, that was when I had black hair too. Where was this? This was in Gabon, which was where I did the elective during medical school. So I had this really well thought out plan. So like I said, I was in, I can just talk, right?

Yeah. Okay, you just stop me when I talk too much. Okay, good, good. So I was in University of Edinburgh and I've always had a sense of calling that God wanted me to go to Africa, even though I'm not actually very adventurous.

Actually, put it differently. I was not adventurous. I don't like camping. I don't really like insects or anything like that, but I just felt I was supposed to go to Africa. So I had four months where I could go anywhere in the world for my electives.

So that was a really good plan. The first two months, I was going to go to Africa, to a country called Gabon, where I was going to see whether or not there's some God meat in it, you know? And then my second half was probably more important to me at the time, was to go back to Hong Kong on a very serious mission, which was to find a Chinese Christian boyfriend.

Because in Edinburgh, back then, it was a desert, like, you want a Chinese and a Christian? That was like, you've got to come home to find a boy. So I packed up my big, you know, rucksack, and I had lots of donated medicine.

I was a druggie, you know, medicine. Bring it to this mission hospital, and that's where I was. Wow. Yeah, in the middle of a rainforest. Like, yeah, it was crazy. And you don't end up finding a Chinese Christian boyfriend?

No, I didn't. Because you end up finding, next slide, Henri. The best looking man to live on planet Earth! Yes! Praise God! God does miracles. Well, can you tell us how you met Henri? Oh, so, yeah, so when I was in this mission hospital, I met literally the words that you're using, superheroes.

These American-Canadian missionaries. I thought, oh my gosh, they're like those people you read in biographies. They're like, super tough, super brave, super strong, super spiritual, super kind, super patient, like, nothing ever faces them.

They're like superheroes doing these superhero feats that you can't even imagine. And I was miserable. I was miserable because I was like, look at me, like, there's no way on Earth I'm going to be a missionary.

Like, I just, I just can't do even remotely what they do. And so, I started having this conversation with God that was really boring that just replayed several thousand times which consisted of God saying to me, Joyce, I want you to go to Africa to serve me.

And we're like, who, me? And, no, someone else, you know, God would say, Joyce, I want you to go serve me in Africa. And I was like, you've got to be kidding. This is like the worst thing ever.

Like, it's never going to work. And one day, I actually literally repeated that same conversation on a beach from eight in the morning to three in the afternoon. And then finally, at three in the afternoon, it suddenly dawned on me that God's really stubborn.

He's not going to change his mind. And I either am a Christian or I'm not. It was as simple as that. I either really believe God to be who he says he is or I don't.

And if I really do believe that he is the God that we read here, there's only one way to live this life and that's to follow him and trust him and obey him even when it didn't make any sense to me at all.

So next to my journal where I had actually listed out to God seven big fat reasons why I should never be allowed to be a missionary, the three words lose your life. And I said yes to God's call to Africa.

And I would really encourage you like someone once said to me you need to sign a contract with God. When you say yes to being a Christian, they said what you're actually signing in that contract. I know there's some lawyers here.

So you say whatever, wherever, however, whenever and you just sign it because you don't know where God's going to take you. But you have, it's either you're a Christian or you're not and you say yes or not.

But I do get to my point. My point is on my way back from that beach, I met the best looking man to ever walk on planet Earth. And that's how I met him. And I, he thanks God every day for me and the fact that I met him the day after I said yes to Africa because he's originally from Gabon.

He's British, British Gabonese. And if I had, I think the timing was really interesting because I think if I met him first, I might have felt that I said, I will say yes to Africa because of him.

But as it turned out, I can't blame him for anything. I've got to deal with God. Can you guys see where we get some of our, like actually, a few years after that when Christina and I, we'd met them, gone through university, got married, started working.

I was a teacher. She was a cardiac physiologist. And it was the same thing when we felt God say, hey, quit your jobs and go into ministry. And at that point, she was pregnant with Ruben.

And it was the same thing that we were saying. We're like, well, how do we do this? Why would we quit our jobs and then go here? But who's going to look after our kid? And then it became the same question. It's either you're a Christian or you're not.

It's either you say yes to God and we talked about this the other day. It's pretty black and white. Either we believe God and we trust him and we'll just say yes to everything or actually we just stop going to church full stop. It was a very simple thing.

And now looking back at these, I'm like, oh, I may have actually caught that from you. Here's a picture of Henri. Of course, he's an eye doctor. Next picture. So that's him. Yeah, so I think this photo is Henri operating.

So he does mainly eye surgeries and I'm a family medicine by training but I've always just done things that I thought would be useful for Africa. So I've done things like infectious diseases, HIV and obstetrics, gynecology.

And just the next picture of her family. So these are the three kids. Can you tell us their names? So Charissa is 19 and Ezra is 16 and Charissa is 14 and that's the best looking man on earth again.

Wow. So good. Can I tell people our calling? You can. Because our family because I think when I see it that like I just, I think God really calls us as families and not just us as individuals.

So our children, our whole family's calling, you know, they're growing up now but our calling comes from Luke 10, 9 that says, heal the sick and tell them the kingdom of God is near you.

So for us, we are passionate about using medicine as a vehicle to bring people to Christ and the way we see ourselves is like, just like a room here where, you know, there were in the Bible where there's on the roof there were four crazy friends who lifted the ceiling off and created access to bring people to Jesus.

So a lot of people would never set foot in a church or, you know, an evangelical meeting but they would come to our hospital and so we're like the crazy friends who have to do something that people don't necessarily approve of.

Like, I think if I lift your roof off right now, that might challenge our friendship. But to bring people to Christ and so that's what we're really passionate about. Which is all nice to hear when we say it here in our own context.

It's all fun and games until you actually have to do it. And the next slide is actually a picture of you guys at the airport. Now, you haven't talked about this picture but this reminds me of a picture that I have but tell us what this picture is. That's when they were 6, 3 and 1 and we moved from the UK to the Republic of Congo so our first place was really remote and I've never been there so it was really literally like, you know, saying yes to God and not really understanding what it would involve.

Like, we kind of knew but, you know, sometimes you just don't know until you're there, right? And those who have said yes and I'm looking actually at my brother here, I remember when he first said yes to God and he went to, I think it was Zambia and that first night when you were there and it was like, oh my goodness, I need to get on the plane and go home.

This picture reminds me of me and my family when we were just about to fly seven years ago to Hong Kong. Now, I even have kind of just physical feelings just come up as I remember just not knowing what would be on the other side of this plane journey.

Now, I've since found out that the other side of the plane journey for me is Pacific Place. Which is quite fine, thank you. But of course, you went to Congo which is a whole different place.

Yeah, it's really in the middle of a rainforest. Actually, this was just the beginning of the journey. So once we got to the capital, back then, not now, if you visit us now we're not there anymore but the first place we went to was literally in the middle of a jungle where there's like no roads to there.

So it's either taking a plane or going on a boat ride that would take three weeks but there's no bathroom. So we wait for the plane. And the plane, we had tickets but we had to wait 19 days. So we just arrived in this country where we knew no one and every day we'll pack up everything with the three kids, six, three and one.

So like your little one just moving around and then we would go to the airport and they'll say, sorry, the plane's not flying today and we'll go home. And the next day we'll do it again and we did that for 19 days. And then finally on the last day they said, okay, you can fly today but you're not allowed any luggage.

So I'm going now to this rainforest with a baby still in nappies. And I was like, no, no luggage. They said, yeah, don't worry, it'll come on the next plane. And then I did what any sane woman would do.

I bursted crying at the reception and then they're like, okay, they call me white because even though I'm obviously not white but to Africans I'm white. Like, white woman crying, okay, let her have two suitcases.

So we survived in this, we arrived at the place we were going to on two suitcases and of course the luggage took 28 days to arrive.

but it was like Christmas after that like when we got it. Now we're heading into the territory where you're going to start being tempted to see Joyce as a superwoman and I want to keep reminding you she's just my friend.

Who cried every night for the first year. Yeah. Like, I'm kind of normal. You would cry. I wouldn't say you're normal but she is just a person.

We're going to share a few slides of the stuff that you do because this is really incredible. This is quite fun because I don't know what's coming up. Next slide. Tell us about what's happening here. this is Henri sharing the gospel so that's part of our calling about sharing just bringing Christ to people.

Which is incredible because there is work that you do when you go out and you literally just heal the sick but your calling Luke 10 is to heal the sick and of course to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to them. Yes. So that's important. Next slide. Just another one.

That's the church in the forest. That is incredible. It makes us feel really good that our seats are comfortable. But he's again still sharing the gospel here. And then, of course, you've come back to Hong Kong to update a lot of us about something that's exciting.

You started in the rainforest with nothing but show the next slide. You ended up now, fast forward, you've built this. Yeah. Can you tell us about what this is? This is crazy. This looks like the Avengers headquarters. Tell us about it.

So, we were in this middle of nowhere for a while and then my husband went to, any of you heard of Mercy Ship? It's the biggest floating, yeah, it's the biggest floating hospital in the world used to be run by Youth of the Mission.

So my husband went there to operate for about three months. He comes home and he said, Joyce, we cannot stay where we are because if we stay where it's so remote, we can only help the people in the vicinity.

He said, we need to go somewhere that is more accessible to patients. And I said, no. I didn't even say, let's pray about it. I was like, no! Because it's taken us like, what, four or five years to actually start feeling human in the middle of nowhere because it was really hard.

I'm talking about, you know, we only had electricity three times a week for three hours at a time. But we found a way to do it and then I was like, I don't want to go somewhere new. But then God just, I mean, honestly, if we're here, like, you know, we'll be here all day, all week just to tell you the amazing things God has done and the way he's brought us.

But God showed us to go to this new place called Westo and he said, I want you to go and build a hospital and create space so that God can bring other people like yourselves to come and do what God's placed in their hearts.

And then the first time, so what actually happened was my husband and I were on the same dining table that you probably would have eaten off. We prayed and we put down every single thing we know that community needs and we trust God to bring it to pass.

Not just us, but like other people, generations, kiddies, to come and do. And then we took that piece of paper to an American engineer and asked him, how much land do you think we're going to need?

And he said, five hectares. And then so we took it to the government and asked them if we could buy a piece of land for five hectares and they gave us a six, one for free.

Some people said, why didn't they just give it to you for free? The whole lot. We're like, well, because I don't want to run into the risk of them saying I'm going to take the land back, et cetera. And then the engineer said, okay, I'm going to calculate for you how much we think this is going to take.

And he said, five million US dollars. And I literally, literally like this, I fell off the chair. I was like, no, like I can just about manage to do what I could.

And honestly, since then to see this place happen, it's just, it's amazing. And so I know some of you here has been with us on this journey. It really is nothing short of the act of God.

And we say it all the time. Sometimes like you, I think you want me to convey the message. Like honestly, if you know me a little bit better, you will definitely know I am far from a superhero or anything extraordinary about me at all.

If you see, if you look us up at Newside Congo or at the Samutus, which is our surname, and you see any, any good in us, it's not because of us.

It's in spite of us. And if you speak Cantonese, even we mess things up, okay, and we cause chaos, actually. It's like, you know, your kids try to help and you actually just make things worse.

They're very helpful. They're very helpful. So like, we're not, we don't help God, but God allows us this amazing privilege to be like just there and let him do his crazy moves.

And so we're about to move in. So you can come visit. I'm going to show you some pictures and what they do. Before I do that, doctors, if you're a doctor here, I want you to ask yourself, oh, what is the Lord asking of me?

If you're actually of any profession here. any profession. Actually, she'll say. Handyman, administrators, we have a huge children and youth ministry that is already, we're already partnering with 30 schools and we have a magazine that has 22,000 readers.

We're looking for someone to come and bring this, you know, really grow this. Like right now, we have a chance every year to go into school 90 times to preach the gospel.

And I don't get let out of the jungle a lot, so I have to tell you, I've got 90 times I can go into school and tell them about what Jesus has done for us and what he can do for these kids.

And I'm, my husband and I are unable to go 90 times because we're too busy doing other things. We've got, right now, our magazine reaches probably, we probably have about 660,000 times a year to have the gospel in people's homes.

And there's a hunger for more. So I'm just telling you now, if your heart is stirring a little bit, don't ignore it. Just get in touch. We need people. We really, really need people.

Okay. Quick fire round. I'm going to show you pictures. You're going to tell us one story about these pictures and we're going to go. Next one. So tell us a little bit about what this is. This is the inside of the hospital. So everything was, it really was like from nothing to something just crazy.

You can go to the next one. Next one. This is what it looks like now. Woo! Come on! You guys, you've guys not been to Africa. You don't realize how crazy this thing is.

Honestly. You guys got to come. You got to see it. And where did you get this stuff? So a lot of it is from Hong Kong. We physically went and lifted these things because they're so pretty brand new but people didn't want them.

Or we go to Alibaba and pull bull, Pang Lang Zeng. Yes. Next one. There's lots of pictures. Pick one and tell us about it. So there's like 40 visitors. We hosted 40 visitors to come and do all sorts of things.

And I think one of the really special things that we love about our ministry is God brings families and young people to come. And God's really, the name is New Sight which is to help people see physically and spiritually but now we realize it's not just for people in Congo.

It's for all of us. Like my husband and I, first and foremost, our sight has been transformed to see who we really are in Christ and who God really is. So we love having visitors.

Next one. It's not just doctors. Yeah, engineers and handyman and like if you come, everybody says, what can I do? If you know how to Google and you know how to WhatsApp to ask for help, then you're miles ahead of my team and you will come and you will train someone.

You will teach someone whatever you need to do and if you don't know how to do something, God will, just because you don't know how to do something doesn't mean that you're not going to learn. So, you know, I'm a doctor. I really, honestly, I'm trained to be a doctor.

I don't know how to do anything else. So I would say probably 97% of my time I'm trying to learn something, do something and so can you. So we really do need people to come. One of the special rooms that I can imagine I would be in.

What's here? Yeah, yeah. So on the top is the Pastors Resource Center. So a lot of pastors just haven't had the opportunity to go to seminary or even sit under great Bible teaching.

So some of this thinking is a little skewed. So I'll give you an example. Like one of the ladies had a tummy ache and then she ended with a hoarse voice and I said, what's happened to your voice? And she said, oh, my pastor told me I have to pray and I have to cry louder and louder and louder so God can hear me.

Or, you know, they would still think that if you have like a lot of illnesses to cast out demons, etc. So that's why we're so passionate about education and empowering the local community. So that Pastors Resource Center, we want to build relationship with the pastors because they're the first people along with which doctors and traditional healers people will go to when they're sick.

So if we can help them have some basic health knowledge and then they can help us reach the community. And it's just incredible that actually it's not just become an eye hospital now, it's actually much bigger than that.

Yeah, so we're not just looking for eye medical professionals, we're looking for anyone and everyone because that is the dream that I, and I know, and I say it like this, I know some of you are called.

I know some of you are called right in this room. I'm not just blankly, you know, saying I know some of you are called and you just need to get with God and decide whether or not what is more important to you.

Some of you are called. You need to take that seriously because I always, Andre and I always say I'm pretty sure, we're pretty sure we're not God's first choice. The only thing is we said yes and that's it.

And actually, I want to fast forward a couple of slides, Bev, to, keep going, keep going, this one, oh no, the building, the building with the nice slides, like just, you shared about this one and I just wanted to hear you say it here and here.

I don't know what to say. So part of it is, honestly, if you go to where we live, Africa is a big continent, okay, so some African countries are a lot more advanced but where I am, you just won't see a building like this.

So a lot of our patients and community, when they come, they literally tell us, I have to pinch my cheeks, I feel like I'm in Europe. And then, so for us, it's kind of like God showing off, it's really like in your face.

Like we didn't go, we didn't even go start out wanting a ministry, actually, like let alone build a building. Like Newset was born kind of, for those of you who are old enough and there's not that many, you know, have you heard of Forrest Gump, the movie?

Okay, I'm like Forrest Gump. Like I don't know what's happening half the time and I'm like, oh, okay, okay, okay. So how it started was like, we just thought, we're missionaries, we're going to be somewhere really quiet and we wouldn't do, you know, any fundraising or whatnot kind of thing.

But by default, because basically, actually it's because we couldn't get any funding for our project, but we still felt God was asking us to go, that we had some friends who just said, hey, look, you know, we don't have a lot of money but what we have, we'd like to donate to you and we're like, thank you.

They said, so can we have a tax receipt? And I'm like, how do you do that? And then they said, you need to become a charity and we're like, how do you do that? And then so, they did that and finally, oh, no, I know what you want me to talk about.

You want me to talk about how we found the money for this? No, no, no. Oh, Maya, okay. Actually, my main thing was, you said something where when people show up, they pinch themselves and they're like, whoa, this is like Europe. And it made me think, well, actually, this for them is the glimpse of heaven that they actually don't get to see and this is their chance to see.

And hope. And what's impossible can be made possible. If you grow up in a place, and you young people, you wouldn't understand just how, you think that you, you know, you think you can do anything, everything.

For people who are from our community, it's so hard. You have 41% young, youth unemployment rate. 67% live below the poverty line. 49% live in absolute poverty.

Like, it's, life is so hard. No matter how hard you try, it's so hard to break through what, how everybody lives. And then you see this and say, wow, life can be different.

And it's the same thing with how life can be different. It's not just the practical terms that allow you to live and function and flourish. It's also the spiritual need because that place is dark.

It's dark in a different, the world is dark. Everywhere. But it's a, it's dark in a different kind of way where they are because people are very suspicious and cannot trust other people.

A lot of our patients will come and they wouldn't even tell their spouses that they are having surgery because they're worried that someone will place a curse on them. So it's, it's a lot of bondage and things like that.

Joyce says, some of you are called. I think you are called. And it might not be to Congo. Yeah, it might not be to Congo. It might be to the most radical place. Well, actually, all of you are called. All of us. They are all called. Some of them to the Congo.

Yes. Others might to be the radical, radically far place called Central or Causeway Bay. Yeah, yeah, those are scary places. There are scary places. Yeah, very scary. It just, are you willing to be that burning bush and to go into that place that God has called you to?

We've seen the building. I want to see some people. Next slide. Oessa, this is where it is. Here. Yeah, go back to the picture of the people. Just there. Yeah, so these people were all blind and now they can see.

Praise God. Can I just, can we just pause there for a second? Like just, they were blind but now they see. Like what does that even mean?

Just, sometimes I see a blind person just navigating the streets of Hong Kong and I'm just, I don't even know what to think. I can't compute what they're trying to do. I mean, I can see them.

Sometimes I still struggle to find the right place. But they were blind but actually, what you said, this is where, this is what really got me going, okay, you need to come up and say this because some of the stuff that they do, they're like, oh yeah, we did this with this.

She just said it so casually. Oh, they're blind but now they see. And actually, it was really simple. I said, Joyce, that's not simple. That's life changing. But to her, on the most part, it is.

Because why? Because it's just a simple yes. It's just God, use me. I'll just do whatever it is. You're the one who's doing it. I'm just here just to say yes. Right? Yes, yes. And just keep saying yes and be a stubbornness goddess, I think.

And pre-decide, pre-decide, like decide now is going to be a yes, regardless. One of our mentors, he's now in his 80s and he's, you know, I won't be surprised if he gets nominated for a Nobel Prize for his contribution to medicine because he's amazing.

He's on these things for river blindness and one day we were talking to him and asking for advice and he was saying like, oh yeah, and then I did this and that didn't work and I did that and oh, that didn't go so well. Oh, then that was a disaster.

And like sometimes literally what you're saying about superheroes, you just see all these amazing things they did and you don't think about all the setbacks and all the things that you'd rather not remember.

And, but it, that's how, how life is and we just say, yes, and I think it's, it is really dumb when I do it myself that I just think about, we're focusing on the wrong thing.

Yeah. Tell us about this little girl. Next slide. So, this is Shirelle. She's 35 years old. She started having eye problems when she was 11 and then she became completely blind by the time she was in her 30s.

So, as a result, her husband was no longer able to work as a carpenter because he had to stay home now to look after her. So, she felt pretty miserable and she came to, you can take the next slide, I think probably, oh no, just stay here, stay please.

So, then we were able to operate on her and she's able to see, and she's able to see her baby, her own baby for the first time and her husband returned to work. She can also work on implantations, like their whole lives are completely changed but more importantly, she said yes to Jesus.

Her whole family and it's just, that's what we're there to do. Most importantly. Thank you. We're going to hear a few more of these but my encouragement to you is just, these are real life testimonies about what is happening.

We don't do hard things. It's not hard. It's very simple. I think, I do it anyway. I overcomplicate things. Show us the next one. Next slide. Oh, so these are like, we've got so many befores and afters of people who can see funny stories, people who have not seen their spouses for like 10, 20 years and get a shocker and it's like, oh my, you've aged.

Next one. This is a little video. Oh yeah. Can you, can you hear the sound? Oh, I don't know if we can hear the sound. Maybe not. Yeah. Just talk us, talk us through it. So this little boy, he was born blind.

So this is the moment when he can see the world for the first time. Mmm. Yeah, he went, mmm. He's just, he's so amazing. I, I, I always watch the, I've seen this thousands of times but every time I see it, it's just, it's just amazing like, that we get to do this.

Can you just tell us the medical condition? Why was he born blind? He had cataracts. That was it? That was it, yeah. In Hong Kong, he would have been operated earlier. But because of where he is? Yeah, because there's, there's not been, we've got some of these kids who were born blind who are now in university.

so we're, it's just, I can't believe like, we just do what we can and yeah, it's simple. Incredible, incredible. Next slide. And that's the photos of our consultation.

I think you can keep, okay, there's a, before you, before you go to the next slide, if anyone who is, is worried about gory pictures, then look away for the next bit. It's just another quick slide. Next one, look away.

This one, this is okay. Then you, then the next bit will be bad. So, she's a little girl who was playing in the forest when she had an eye injury and so, because she lived in the forest and her parents didn't have the financial means to take her to the town, they put sugar on her eye to try help it and people are like, what did they think the sugar will help?

And I think, it's not necessarily they thought that the sugar would help but like, you just feel so helpless, you've got to do something. So she, that injury was like three, and then three weeks later, so you can show the next one but if you don't like seeing gory.

Look away, if you don't want, yeah. So that was what she looked like and it's not just gory, we were really worried because by then she was already in septic shock, she was, looked like she was developing signs of meningitis and you can show the next slide please and just with some simple antibiotics and simple wound care, we were able to save her sight and her life.

Simple yeses. Simple. Simple yeses. That's all it is and I think it breaks my heart when we sit here and go, oh God, what do you want me to do? It's going to be something incredible and big and it's just, oh but I'm not ready.

Just simple yeses. Can you just stick to the simple yeses? Next slide. I want to hear about your daughter and the glasses because one of the big problems is... Yeah, so before we went there, if you, who wears glasses here?

Quite a few of you. So how long does it take you on average to get your glasses back if you need a new pair? A few days? Something like that? So back in Congo, if you need a pair of glasses, you would need to send the prescription to another country and then they'll send it back.

So you can take the next slide please. I think, I'm guessing. Maybe that's your daughter. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, there. So what's her name? Rosette, Rosette, Rosette's 11 and her mom saved up for a few years.

Can you imagine waiting for a few years? 600多 times. Okay, pretty bad. So she's, her mom saved up for a few years and then borrowed money from the older brother just so that they could get this pair of glasses for her from abroad.

And after a few years, the prescription was wrong and then can you see what's wrong with it? Can you see what's wrong with this? Can you see it's all scratched? So it would be hard to see and if you look on the bottom, can you see the difference between those two pairs of glasses?

Anyone can see what's the difference between those two pairs of glasses? There's no, yeah, that's right, there's no arms to those glasses so she's literally going to school like this and so our daughter, that's our oldest one, she was 17 then, she learned from an optician chain here in Hong Kong how to make glasses and then she went back and then she wrote a training manual and then in French because that's the language we use there and if you're worried like, I don't speak French, well, one, you can learn and two, there are these things called apps and AI and they really help you but my daughter wrote this manual in French and she trained the whole team so under Hong Kong $100 we were able to help this little girl so like I said, it's simple we don't do things that are like rocket science but just simple simple of course you say simple now and you haven't got time to tell people all the stories about how you got to this point but you did,

I want to finish here because you actually also wrote the 10 things that you've learnt since doing all of this stuff and as I looked at that list I was like I wish we had time to go through all of them but we don't but there's a few that I'm like we can't finish so if we're going to go fast forward to slide 35 it's the orange type slide there we go tell us about this one how did you get here?

yeah so we were in the first mission hospital we were in we loved it like we were part of an amazing team and then every year as part of that team we would see like a thousand people come to Christ and you know things were just great right we felt like we were very successful and then God asked us to leave not even telling us what we were going to do next and that was when it dawned on us like God's really not that interested in our so-called success but all he asked is our obedience and we I don't know about you but like I take comfort in outcomes like I want to make sure that it's worth you know it's worth the effort but God doesn't doesn't see things like that and he really is just after obedience and there's another quote that you quote from one of my favourite authors which is this oh yeah read him if you get his book I think I've read his devotional five, six times with Henri together so you want me to read this so if we obey God it's going to cost other people more than it costs us and that is where the thing comes in is it still yeah so this is about like you know

I'm we've got three kids I'm I'm brought up in Hong Kong where all my fellow classmates are tiger moms all of them if they have kids and of course I and I had to homeschool them while working and there's no back then there were like no internet or anything like that it wasn't it was just really tough and then so it was always just concerned about what what more it would how much more it would cost them than me and I'm an only child so it's hard to accept that my parents are getting older and how how can I we not be near them but then God really showed us that and I I said this to God before I left and for the first time I said God you said you'll meet all my needs so one of my needs is that the needs of my parents and our kids will need to be met and so we just just trusted God throughout and we've seen so many stories of how God's really met the needs of my parents and my kids it's still hard like there's no doubt about it but like do we have time for the violin story or no time have you heard you don't know the story oh you need to hear the violin story so my daughter was two when she first set eyes on a violin in the states and she said mommy I'm going to want to learn it and I thought she's going to forget it and then she said throughout you know from age of two to six regularly she'll say

I want to learn the violin and the tiger mom in me would be like she's supposed to be a prodigy and now she's in the forest where there's no music teacher she's never going to learn fulfill her potential and then I would say how about how about the recorder and she's like I can learn the recorder but I really want to learn violin how about I say how about I teach you the pianos but I want to learn the violin and then I said why don't you pray big mistake because then she started praying like every few nights that God will let her learn the violin and I remember like even now remembering I can feel the tears because I remember seeing her under that mosquito net asking God to let her play the violin something that I would have not beaten I lead if I were in Hong Kong and it was hard just seeing her cry and just thinking what has this cost her what have I done to my kids and then when she was seven years old an American volunteer who's a nurse she came and brought my daughter a violin she was a Suzuki violin teacher and taught my daughter how to play the violin and then when she was 11 she won a scholarship to go to the States twice to learn the violin and eventually it's through her academics and her violin that she got a full scholarship to the UK and I helped like God out of the billions of people in the world that God would listen to the prayer of a little girl under a mosquito net and now

I see her play she worships God with it and I'm just like God okay I can't argue with you like you're God you're amazing and I think that brings tears for me because it reminds me again called to different places said different sacrifices yes but one of the biggest things for us is wait we count the cost we think we do yes but but then there's other people involved and yes I know Christina we live that reality also there's this there's this letter that I'm going to show you that oh yeah that's Charissa too so now she was six and so when she was six she wrote this letter and honestly as a parent if I read this letter I think it would break me I think I would retreat I think I would so tell me what you did when you read this letter I don't remember what I did but I read this letter so it's basically about how she says I want to go back to England for several reasons like she misses her family she misses her friends and she said she hates the mosquito bites because like it was terrible like we had we tried every single thing under the sun long sleeves you know everything but she was getting these scars and she really didn't like it but at the end she said in Jesus' name but I will go

P.S. I will go where you want me to go because I trust you she was six and I I think I think I knew that I can't really remember it's a long time ago she's 19 now but I do every time I see this I do remember okay what do I really really really want for my kids and there's only one thing I really really really want for my kids is that they know who God is and I think if if I I can give them everything and I want to give them everything but it will mean nothing if they don't know who God really is and so for me I'm like okay yeah okay so I I like I like calculating pros and cons and all that kind of stuff but like honestly if if it's not a yes and not a full-hearted yes to God I I'd rather not live really like there's no there's no point really and this is you having done everything that you're doing you have to be honest with yourself and asking yourself is this what I really really really

I don't know anything I don't really know anything and I think a lot of things are I think I understand something but they're not real the only truth is that I know who God is I know I'm absolutely sometimes the kids ask me things I'm like I don't know but all I know is God is who he says he is and he will always do what he says he will do that's it full stop it's black and white yeah it's simple but we complicated so many so much right we're like well what do I really want from it because well I actually I want them to be healthy well I want them to study well I want them to you would put conditions there's so many other things is it on there the next no no I don't think it is go read it but it's basically say the gospel chamber is going on and say be very careful what you will allow and what you won't allow God to do like you can touch this but not that yeah hey we'll have one final one if I skip two slides to the next green one this one oh yeah oh actually there's two more things start by doing what is necessary then what is possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible honestly when I talk about saying yes to God I use her case as the joke hey

God's not going to call you to Africa to take your whole family of three kids six three and one to go to Africa and live there that's usually what I say hey don't worry it could be Admiralty but then I'm like now sat in front of us is someone who did all of that but she kept saying it's just really simple stuff that we do it's really easy it's simple it's not that hard it's not that complicated even though we know how hard it really is for us to say yes to God even in the simplest things but this quote just reminded me it really is just doing what is necessary and keeping it simple and you finish with this quote or your final lesson that you learned number ten the final one the secret how do you do what you do next slide this one tell us about this yeah so when I first met Henri so we had that crazy fall in love moment but then we had four years where we were apart and back then there was like no phones or internet or anything like that so he would have to travel on bumpy roads for three hours one way three hours back to go under this particular tree to hope for a signal to call me so the phone calls were astronomical and so many times we literally would redial 20 times just to talk for a minute and they'll get cut again and it was hard but we didn't mind because we're in love and I think when we're in love you know we suddenly like nothing is too difficult right suddenly you don't mind staying up all night to talk you know when you're in love it's like even if you have to drop that person off and he lives on the other side of town opposite to which direction you're going you know just nothing is too inconvenient nothing's too annoying nothing's too frustrating and I've come to realize that for me the secret of doing what God says to you know

God in the Bible is to do the impossible it's like how how I'm very practical it's like how how I want to know how and I realized that the only way to overcome my impossible heart is to fall in love with God daily again and again again because when we when we fall in love we suddenly become these actually now we're these super beings where we are beyond ourselves and we are somehow able to step outside of our comfort normal zone and bravely face the unknown and when we're in love we you know just we suddenly can get through anything and everything because you're you've got this supercharged power and I think it's Joel who was in missions for about 70 years I paraphrase but he says something like the passion for souls grows out of a passion for Christ and the passion for missions builds on a passion for Christ and the greatest danger to a Christian in whatever role is a lack of passion for Christ and he said the most effective way for personal renewal is to have a passion for Christ yeah pop twist coming up

I just started this by saying hey she's not a superhero and she isn't I'm going to twist it now and go what if we all are what if we all did operate in the supernatural where we weren't afraid because God is for us so none can be against us I want to ask you to share one final story that's come you can use whatever language that is appropriate for the kids here but in this Henri was taken away by some bad people and from what I remember you have been told there was no fear are you able to share a little bit of what that is yeah so honestly where we live in general is very safe I always tell people it's safer definitely than San Francisco so I feel very safe but I think God sometimes allows you I think God really allowed my husband to go through this very very unusual thing to really take us to a new place so it was one Friday afternoon and he was pretty tired so he decided and he wanted to go back to the clinic to work and this just gives you an insight into just honestly we work

I would say I have to say this one of my other mentors told us when I was a medical student he said Joyce I expect that God expects us Christians to work harder than anybody else because we've been given the most important task on earth so we work really hard like I say it's easy but I'm also telling you I won't sugar coat it it is hard it's easy but it's also hard it becomes easier as you say yes so my husband was working really hard and he finished the whole day of surgery but he had to go back now to set up the equipment because we have no technician so you know and you're like is he a technician no but he just had to do it you just do what is necessary that's the bit about what is necessary but he was so tired he decided not to drive so he got into a taxi where locally the taxis usually are shared among other passengers so he got in and the driver said I'm going to drop the other two passengers off first and my husband said sure no problem and as they started driving they just went all over and they started going to the border of the town and my husband was like where on earth are you taking me and he's like oh no no don't worry just a little bit further and my husband said no look

I'll just pay you so let let me get out because I need to get back to town and at that they said if you say another word we'll kill you so my husband now knew okay something's really wrong they drove further and further out of town they finally reached this roundabout where my husband recognized and now he knew he was really far away from where we live and one of the passengers turned around to him and said are you the eye surgeon and he said yes and at that the people in the car started arguing in a different dialect so they're not from Congo and my husband didn't really know what they were saying but he knew they were arguing about what to do with him and while they were busy arguing he sneakily threw his iPhone out from the car window the taxi window hoping that it become some kind of clue as to a track for people to find him They're now three hours in this car and they're now into the forest and it's dark if you've been to rainforest in

Africa you really it's dark you can't even see your own five fingers it's that pitch dark and they suddenly stopped the car and they asked my husband to get out and he told me he's the bravest man I know and he said that was the scariest moment in his life because he knew somehow they were after his life and then so they said he got out and he said okay this is it God you're going to take me home and to his surprise they let him go they said okay you go today but we know who you are where you live who your family are so if you report us there'll be repercussions but you go and then they just sped off into the night so now my husband obviously relieved he's still alive he was he thought that someone he's paranoid someone's still going to come reach him now he didn't know where he was or which direction to go because he was left in the middle of jungle I don't know what you would have done but he just said okay

I'm just going to start walking anyway and as he walked he said he kept looking back thinking someone's going to jump on him or something he said there was no room to worry about gorillas snakes scorpions anything like that and he said this is like he was like okay this is what walking by faith means and that roundabout that he recognized and when he got there he said I'm going to try to find my phone so he used his foot and he was like he found his phone even the screen protector was still on he turned it on 1% battery and there's no signal because it's in the jungle so he said I'm going to turn off but now he knew where he was and he then everyone was looking for him where on earth was he but he got home safely and

I was like who gets kidnapped and still has his Apple watch his iPhone and wallet everything intact he didn't lose any hair and that's when we really know God really is faithful and I don't know if I should say why he got kidnapped you can tell us what he's!

now! Yes! If you want to find out more you're just going to get in touch with us because now I've got half a story hanging his immediate reaction to that was my family is going to leave this place because it's so dark they were not after money they were after something else so I'm not just saying it because that was his first reaction but then God said to him reminded him about this worship song that actually redefined why we're there now we know it is because it's so spiritually dark there that's precisely why we have to be there it's because people don't want to be there that's precisely the reason why we need to be there after this incident he went back to the forest one Saturday on his bike and he literally faced his fears have you ever seen people who give testimonies after they've been to a near death experience now there's clarity all that stuff we saw before now we can see clearer and to me he's become invincible unstoppable and

I think that's the fire you're talking about once you let God just do that you can't do anything else what else can I do God that's it we're going to come to a close here he became a superhero through the challenges that he faced for us to know who we are in Christ not knowing who we are in Christ is the biggest lie that the enemy wants to keep us down that's the only thing I tell myself all these lies all the time who told me that nobody just me but if I get back to that and really take God for his word because it is the only certainty in life people say you go to Africa it's very risky the only risk free way is to live in Christ that's the only risk free way do you know who Anreen reminds me of the apostles the people who saw someone die and then rise again you can't stop us this is it and she says he lives in a way that is so radically filled with freedom and to be free and to be okay with who we are yes thank you

Joyce thank you for having we're going to give her round of applause there's only two things I want to do sadly we ran out of time sorry music team but one is if you want to hear more again it's not just doctors it's anyone who just some of you might even just be bubbling up right now inside I need to find out more I need to hear the end of that story I need to do something I need to say yes my simple yes Tuesday night Joyce has been a long term partner of Kongfuk Church for a long time now on Tuesday night at Kongfuk she will be!

Trevor come up can you pray for Joyce can we stretch our hands she will be heading back soon later just put our QR codes if you want to connect with us just write there's some leaflets over there if you want to find out more we were praying about we decided to do this only a few days ago it's not necessarily about New site Congo we want you to meet her I want to see her burning bush and I want you to have yours whatever it looks like both of us have such a sense that God really is trying to get something to you I'm not even supposed to be in Hong Kong this week but I happened to be here I wasn't supposed to be speaking anywhere but the moment he said it we saw this is what we're!

to! Don't ignore that little prompting in your heart because it's not that you have to do anything for God but you get to do something God's inviting you right now to be really all those amazing plans and dreams and seeds put inside of you I see this and I look back and I think now I see all those things in the past I just dismiss!

Father thank you so much for Joyce and the whole Samoto family God I ask that you pour out more of your presence into their lives may you fill them with more of your Holy Spirit from the top of their feet and that everything around them exudes your presence that you send angels to prepare the way before them and be around them and be behind them and God wherever you continue to call them to I ask that you bless them and every single person they encounter that they would be blessed by them and that they would be a blessing to them and Lord may you also provide even earthly needs that they need beyond their imagination beyond their expectation just so that they would know just how good you are just how you've chosen them you selected them out of all the different people to continue to walk in your ways in

Congo or everywhere else because they chose to say yes to you and God we love you and we pray these things in Jesus name amen