The rebirth of Hope NY Church & our journey

August 31, 2012

Sept 2, 2012 is the real re-birth of our church. To begin with, Doreen & I had been praying and planning to move into the City of New York for 2 years now with the goal to be close to our beloved church Hope NY. We had been pastoring our church in Manhattan literally from our home with a distance of 1.5 hours drive or train. SO much conviction about the need to live among the people you want to reach out to makes us resolved to move. God spoke to us in Isaiah: Who will bring us into the fortified city, except the Lord our God?

I have gone through so much spiritual warfare’s before this date that it’s incredible and all I can say is my soul praises the Lord for He has heard my cries and shielded me from the storm and the forces that had been unleashed against me, my family and in my sense, the church’s rebirth. It’s about the big harvest God will bring into Hope NY Church starting Sept 2 and in a fast pace according to the prophecy given to us back in July 2012 in the NA Camp by John Jacks. The prophecy is so accurate to the extent it’s breath-taking and the promise of God to us is even more breath-gasping. The work that the Lord told us He will do, instead of us, is like He answering from a mighty storm.

We have gone through the challenge of getting our Syosset house to be rented out starting from July 1 when we spent thousands of dollars to repaint the house and fixed little things here and there; and when it was finally rented out after 3.5 weeks (we felt nervous by then); we had literally 1 week to find our new rental home in the right city. After 1 + month’s search that brought us to Hamilton heights, Upper West side, Roosevelt island, we finally picked Forest Hills for its good neighborhood, the bang for the dollars, and close proximity of subway commute (20 min) to midtown. We combed every rental home in the city within our budget and time was running out…and thank God that finally we got a gorgeous looking house and we got it. We would had to move into a hotel and put tons of stuff in a storage otherwise!

Moving out of Syosset house was a nightmare with so much stuff accumulated over the years. Worst still is our cleaner didn’t turn up on Sunday as promised and scheduled on the day we moved out (8/19) and as a result, we worked from 10 pm till 3 am in Syosset house to get the house clean enough for tenant to move in on 8/20 Monday. As it turned out, it was not good enough for tenant, and I got nasty emails and calls from him. My heart sank as this financial impact from this rental is very important for us to survive financially in Queens/NYC. A few more days of anguish and we sent another pro cleaner for 2 hours ($210) to further clean up the house for tenant. Finally that storm passed.

Another new storm began just as soon as the previous one settled. The dust barely settled, before we found another, perhaps bigger storm looming. Suddenly we had to re-look at our son’s senior year in Syosset HS . Heart anguish and turmoil as this is being brought into question. I prayed and fasted the day before making this phone call to the principal this morning. He returned call, and we had a nice chat about the situation. Initially he had his doubts, but after him hearing the good news that Rebecca got into a top private school Chapin School in Upper East side Manhattan, he was so excited for us! I concluded all is good and in the Lord’s hands.  Trust the Lord with all my heart for He is good.

After all these storms, I am ready for the sunshine kicking off Sept with the new church’s rebirth! Thank you Lord.

Last few weeks had been most stressful and still going through it though with great relief that our house is rented out and we found a good house in Forest Hills. All within tight window to many people’s amazement. How did I pull this off with 4 kids at home within a tight window?

God has incredible-we received financial blessings, emotional & prayer support. And quite incredibly I got most from my office colleagues who brain stormed with me on renting process, hunting for house, city choice. I am thankful to my colleagues. Thank God who blessed me with my job with Con Ed and with the recent strike, God provided me extra OT income at just the right time. Thank all for your prayers. 

I am excited to see God’s work in the months ahead starting September! Ps 108:10-11 Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom? 11 Is it not you, O God

After all these, we need a vacation…yes, one away from NY next week. 🙂

Dear pastors:

Praise the Lord, we had a great camp! Enjoy the pictures!

https://plus.google.com/photos/110130479780892153685/albums/5727654563322328497?banner=pwa&authkey=CIGap8zKg5erlgE 

We had a wonderful awesome camp/retreat over the last weekend. Some 25 of us packed in this retreat place in New Jersey. We had sound system, great praise & worship, 5 sessions of teachings. We had a couple of folks from Boston & CT too.  People gave very positive feedback, more coming. The teachings were solid in expository form on Acts 1-2 and people were far more tuned in than the last time I taught Covenant church.

 

Think the session climaxed for my self when I said in my preaching that as I was preparing for the camp,  I prayed to the Lord I wanted this camp to succeed so much because of previous failure experiences in retreat. I cried out to the Lord that I  stake my reputation on this camp, and the Lord spoke to me, “No, its not yours, it’s mine.” Amazingly I never cried when I prayed that, but as I said that in my preaching, I choked and broke down and wept in front of the camp folks. At that time, the atmosphere was intense and the presence of the Lord was tangible. Sarah said that was pretty powerful! (I guess I realized that God said He staked His reputation on this camp! Imagine that!! )And she learnt more from this camp than any others. I spoke on the truth & the power of the Holy Spirit, the fullness of the Spirit and preparing a life altar for the Lord to pour out the fire.

 

Our invited speaker Ashley Byrd, a full time staff with Inter Varsity-Columbia spoke well and gently with inspirational story about the struggle of a 15 year old African prince who had to carry her dad for 15 km a day to get a pill.-pretty inspiraing. He spoke on “Who you are is more important than what you do for God”. 

 

God willing, we will host another retreat in the Fall with the freshman students in.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150625718366911&set=a.10150626601521911.384035.512961910&type=1&theater

Sunday Sermon (Feb 12)
Surrendering Your Dream to Have God’s

When a morally upright rich young man came to Jesus, he felt empty and asked the question: What do I still lack? He seemed to have everything. Money, power, morally upright life. But Jesus gave an outrageous answer and he walked away grieved. Is God asking us to surrender your dreams and have his dream?

Matt 19:16-25 16 Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” 17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only one who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.” 18 “Which ones?” the man inquired. Jesus replied, “‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.'” 20 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”

21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” 22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. 23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” 25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”

I have been praying about the NACC camp Vs local NY Church camp over the last few weeks. What’s the best for our local churches. I am leaning to host our local church camp, and today it’s all confirmed. I spoke to Minyu from Hope London, also Jon Ah Chern from Hope London and Jon Foo who was from Hope London too. They confirmed that in Hope Europe they no longer do the annual Europe camp anymore, instead they have ELC (European Leadership Conference). I am totally in agreement to this.