You are special

Isn’t it wonderful to be called the child/children of God (refer to John 1:12, NKJV)? Perhaps we have heard that countless times. I went through many “identity in Christ” sort of sessions over the past few years but never have it “click” in my mind (not convinced).

As my lack of security and confidence surface, I started to ponder over it. A little “eureka moments” seems to strike a chord that no two persons are the same, even a pair of identical twins. God has created each of us differently and uniquely, that we are ALL wonderfully and fearfully made (Psalm 139:14, NKJV)

The more I ponder over God’s love over human race, especially myself, I could only stand amaze of how God could love me, of whom I am a sinner (1 Tim 1:15, NKJV). I was a sinner saved by grace (Eph 2:8, NKJV), not much difference with the guy/girl on the road you meet everyday. The main difference is that Christ has made me clean and I am clean indeed!

No doubt I felt some traces of rejection from childhood to adulthood, yet God’s loving hands are always upon me. At the time I needed Him, He is always there! In fact, He is there 24/7 and never once He was absent. Only me, who tend to wander off to my very own “wonderland”, thought that He abandoned me.

Oh, that I do not need to do more quiet time (QT), more service, more works so to say to gain my Father’s favour as He has already accepted me just as I am. However, we should not for granted that QT, service and works are not necessary but that it is something that we wish to do as God’s love overflowing in our lives.

Sometimes we try to do something to gain someone’s approval. It could be your parents, friends, boss etc but the end of the day – what God says matter.

If this is also your struggle, may you make this prayer along with me:-

Our gracious Heavenly Father,

Thank you for loving me, when I thought no one would care. I have never known that I am so dear to You to the extent that You sent Your one and only son Jesus Christ to die for my sins. Though I have moments of disbelief on Your promises and provision, may I be brought to total conviction of who am I and that You are in me and I am in You.

When I feel powerless or weak or rejected, may I be rest assured that You are God and what You said goes! Strengthen my inner man that Your grace is sufficient for me, for Your strength is made perfect in my weakness (2 Cor 12:9). It is when I am weak and there You could manifest Your power in my life.

Lord, I believe; help my unbelief! (Mark 9:24). May I be ever conscious of Your loving kindness upon my life.

Signing off, your dearest son/daughter {your name here}

In Jesus most precious and holy name, I pray. Amen

Much love and hugs from,

Yit Mun (aka IP Man)

Image taken from:
http://kootation.com/am-a-child-of-god-8x10-print.html

TTDIGC YOUTH MISSION SHARING

 
Evelyn Tan
27TH JULY 2013
http://www.gbaships.org/


Dear Church,

How has this past week been ? I had my last C-Day (ministry day) last night. Surprisingly, I was assigned as team leader for this C-day. I say it is surprising because as a STEPper, we usually aren't given as much leadership opportunities or 'big roles' in anything so this was really a great opportunity for me and I felt really honoured. My team consisted of 5 people of different nationalities - North Ireland, Kazakhstan, Brazil and Kuching. One of them is a port volunteer, which means throughout the time the ship is in this port, she volunteered to help out and work as well. We went to a BM Village Church. It was about an hour drive away from the ship. We left the ship around 6pm and began our journey. There was a pastor who invited us picked us up. We went in two cars and later in three. The pastor and the team that was with him did not usually atend this church. From my understanding, this is like a sister church or something like that. So we got lost. Halfway through, we stopped by a kopitiam and had food - kind of like dinner. During this time we were able to fellowship with the Pastor and his team as we awaited one more member to arrive before we continued to the ship. One of his team members was an Iban lady who recently started attending this church(about 2 months now). She used to live in MIri with her late husband. As she told me abit about her story, I was stunned. I didn't know how to respond or what to say. She was with her late husband in Miri where he worked. They were married for 6 months when tragedy happened and his life was taken. She didn't go into details. She couldn't. All i could do was pray for her in my heart because she didn't seem like she wanted to talk much about it but I was glad that she chose to stay close to God in this time of grief.

We reached the church around 8.40pm, in the middle of the service. The speaker was a pastor from Sabah and if im not mistaken, it was either him or the actual pastor of the church who was a convert. That was pretty cool to hear.

We were given 15 minutes to present about the ship, share a testimony and give a song presentation. Super short time but everything went well. We had to rush off after the service to make it for curfew at 11pm, but we didn't make it.

Overall, it was quite an interesting experience and our whole team agreed that even though we didn't get time to actually fellowship with the church people since we had to rush here and there, we were very thankful for the times we got lost with the pastor and his team and for the food with had with them. Good conversations really arise in long car rides and over good food.

It was a very pleasant way of ending my C-Day. That's it from me for the week. God bless.

TTDIGC YOUTH MISSION SHARING

 
Evelyn Tan
22ND JULY 2013
http://www.gbaships.org/


Hello Church! 

Sorry for not emailing within the last two weeks. I've been extra busy in this port with events. So, how am I doing?

Physically: I've been eating so much food! Being on the ship has made me realise how wonderful our Malaysian food is. Things that I took for granted like the local kopitiam or Chinese restaurants, just seem so fantastic now. Our food is so full of flavour! I've been eating so much! Anyway, I recently recovered from a two day fever. This was probably due to how much I had been pushing my body with all the activities and lack of sleep. Also, there is a cough, flu thing going around the ship. Please pray for healing over ship's company because it really isn't very fun to be sick while on board.

Happenings: Although public/street evangelism is not allowed, we have had many on board events for youths. One of them was a Bahasa Youth event for minority ethnic youths. The whole event was done in bahasa so all the bahasa speakers were encouraged to get involved. I was in the worship team and it was one of the best worship sessions I've played for and it was completely in BM! The youths that came were struggling with their identity and worth in Christ. Although they were Christians, there were many single mothers and many of them were sexually active. This event was held to encourage the youths and show them that God cares and that they can find their true identity in Christ. During worship, the youths were encouraged to come forward and write their struggles or new commitments on a piece of paper and place it at the cross. I was moved to see many youths get up from their seats and do that. The event was called Jangan Bergoyah, implying that these youths should be firm in their belief and not be moved by what others perceive of them, despite the fact that they are a minority group. Also, playing in this worship band, I realized how powerful these BM songs are. The words are so simple yet so powerful. I can't wait to share them with you!

Other than that, I went to a local church on Sunday just to attend the service, not to run a program. It was called HOPE church. The church was a branch off from the main church in Singapore. It was about quite a big church i would say. Maybe 300+people? They have 3 different services - English, Chinese and BM. Before the service started, the emcee would ask everyone to pray for each other. There was just a lot of prayer before anything started. I found that really good. The message was on Missions, strangely enough. The speaker based his message on Acts 10 (Cornelius and Peter). It was amazing to see how active this church was in their ministry. They've been church planting in so many places! Different countries and even locally. It was really encouraging to have the pastor encourage the congregation, young and old, to venture into missions because the harvest is plenty but the workers are few.

Spiritually: I am recovering from a small wave of struggle. Over the last couple weeks, I had been so busy with whatever was going on on the ship, I was sliding. My body was tired and I began to lose focus of why I was doing what I was doing. It seemed like my heart wasn't in it anymore. I started getting frustrated because it was getting so difficult to stay close to God.

I thought, 'How is possible that even though I know how faithful God has been to me and I know His goodness, I still find it extremely tough to keep holding on to Him?'

But on Saturday night, before playing for an event, my friends and I prayed together and I laid it all out to God. I was refreshed and rejuvenated and my focus was put back in the right place. I've realized how important sleep is and how important discipline is. It's so easy to get caught up with everything here. So easy to put God aside.

I have begun being wise in the opportunities i choose to take and to just take what I can handle. I'm still recovering but I know I'm on the right track again. Praise God!

I hope all of you are doing well. I'm pretty excited to be coming home! (although i kind of am already home, heh) GODBLESSYOUUUUU!

TTDIGC YOUTH MISSION SHARING

Evelyn Tan

13TH JULY 2013
http://www.gbaships.org/

Hello Church!

It is now day 3 at the port. We reached Pending, Kuching around 5pm on Thursday. We had the official opening yesterday, where the Sarawak state assemblyman (i think that's his title) and many other important people came. We were greeted by almost 100 people from different local churches putting on traditional costumes and dancing, as well as waving flags and banners that said things like 'Yesus' or 'Puji Yesus' or 'Jesus'. Many of our ships company were pretty surprised because we were given a lot of restrictions yet these churches were going all out.

I have many reasons to be thankful. Coming on board has made me realise how much Malaysia is in need, yet we are so blessed. I am thankful that OM ships have been coming to Malaysian soil for more than 20 years. I am thankful that despite all the restrictions, our ship's presence has been an encouragement to the local churches especially here in Sarawak. I am thankful that there are so many port volunteers. I am thankful that through this, our evangelism techniques and faith can really be challenged.

I would like to encourage our youth to join the port volunteer programme the next time the ship is in Malaysia. It is really a good opportunity and this time round the ship will be in Kuching for almost a month! The port volunteers are mainly college kids but there are some adults and even seniors!

I am pretty excited about my time here. Looking forward to the things God has in store for this port. Please continue to pray for this port, our country and the local churches. Tonight, there will be a youth event for youths from a local church. They're from a minority ethnic group and they struggle with their identity and self-esteem. All the bahasa speakers (crew members from Indonesia and Malaysia etc) have been asked to lead and take part in the event. 

I must say, I'm pretty happy to be a Malaysian  :) 

Hope that all is well!

TTDIGC YOUTH MISSION SHARING

Jon Lee

5TH JULY 2013
http://www.gbaships.org/

Greetings from Logos Hope!

Sorry I haven't been able to update the church as I planned to before I came. I apologize to the church regarding that. Lately, I have been so busy that I find it a challenge to find the right balance between God, work, fellowship, involvement, and time for myself.

Anyways, here comes a full-blown update in conjunction with the half-time mark. My arrival in Hong Kong was very pleasant as I was very excited to board the ship. I was welcomed by Han Sang-Woo, a Korean. He waited in the airport from morning until night time to welcome every single STEPper. There, we both had small talk as we waited for another STEPper from Canada, Matthew Jones. Sang-Woo was such a blessing to us as he was so patient and he even paid for our cab fare to the dock where the ship was berthed. I expected the ship to be berthed at Victoria bay, near the city, but apparently, it was berthed at the shipyard, far away from the city. This was because the ship just finished its dry dock repairs and maintenance. On the ship, I met my big brother, Jireh Diaz, a Filipino, who gave me a tour around the ship and made me feel so welcomed.There's a total of 18 STEPpers, including myself; 10 guys and 8 girls. For guys, there are 5 Germans, 2 Malaysians, a Canadian, a Korean, and myself, a Singaporean. For girls, there are 3 Singaporeans, a Korean, a Filipino, an American, a French and a Malaysian. We were really thankful for the week in Hong Kong as it was just an orientation week, which meant that there was no work for us. We managed to have very good fellowship together every day, from going out to Kowloon, Hong Kong city, up The Peak, and even hiking. Thanks to this awesome fellowship, the STEPpers have really grown united and close-knit. So much so, that the ship's company even mentioned that our STEP group was the closest they've seen. Praises and thanksgiving to God for this.

There are 3 departments we could be in, namely the 'Angels', the book fair, or the Pantry and Galley. The 'Angels' basically clean the entire ship and do our laundry. The department I was put in is the galley, or kitchen, in layman terms. Having our food sale back at our church just weeks before this, it was a familiar feeling, handling food and all. What's different now though, is that we are just a team of 4-5 people, preparing meals for 400-500 people. It was also amazing that my shift leader happened to be Jireh, which meant that we could spend a lot of time working with one another and really get to know one another. Other than just cooking and preparing the food, we have daily cleaning duties and washing the cooking equipment. Whilst the pantry does only the washing of the dishes and cutlery, the galley does the cooking and their own cleaning as well. Most of the time, we will have the pantry coming over to the galley to help ease our work. Morning shift for us basically starts at 6 a.m. every morning and ends at 2-3 p.m. while afternoon shift starts at 1 p.m. and ends at 7-8 p.m. The time we finish our work may vary at times due to hard-to-clean equipment. Examples would be hamburger patties, lasagne, and bratwurst sausages where there would be a lot of grease, crust, and a large number of pans being used. During these times, we would sometimes end a lot later. Last night for example, I ended work at 8.30 p.m. and went straight to the Flash Mob practice. Work is alright for me, though sometimes I get frustrated easily and my motivation just depletes as the day goes by. One of the reasons is that my colleague is not motivated to work and wants to change department as soon as possible. Personally, it's a little discouraging and demotivating to work with people who don't like their jobs. Unfortunately, there are also people who are very role-orientated. What I mean by this is that, if it's your job to do so, then it's your job and I won't help you do it. Last week, the chef brought up that when either Pantry or Galley is free, they should help one another in any remaining tasks, and work as one body. What was discouraging was that someone actually went to the head to complain about this matter. And what was more discouraging was when I was cleaning the food line, basically where the ship's company take their food, a Swedish girl, came to help me sweep the floor. Upon seeing her wanting to help me, an African colleague, came over to tell her to stop because it was my job to sweep the floor. However, she said it was okay since she was free and had nothing to do. Prayer for patience and loving one another, to be united in one body in Christ in our workplace.

Our first sailing was an interesting experience. It wasn't my first time sailing as I've been on a cruise ship before. However, on a cruise ship, due to its immense size, you don't really feel the rocking of the waves. The Logos Hope used to be a car ferry and is huge, but still much smaller than a cruise ship, and as such, it got pretty rocky from Hong Kong to Philippines. It got so rocky that you couldn't even walk a straight line down the corridor. Everyone was literally swaying left and right as they were walking. Even the curtains kept moving on their own. Many people got seasick as well and it didn't help that we had a 'abandon ship' drill in the middle of the voyage. Thankfully, I wasn't affected much by the constant rocking. Amazingly, it helped to continuously eat and fill your stomach with food, much to my misconception that filling yourself with food would just make you more likely to throw up. When you're sitting down though, that's when you really feel the ship's rocking motions. However, when you go out to front of the ship while sailing in daylight, it's just an amazing place to be. Despite the front going up and down and you're leaning off the front edge of the ship, it's just a fantastic feeling. It was there that we saw the dolphins on two separate days. Also if you look around, it's just scary how there is absolutely nothing for miles into the horizon and you can't help but imagine yourself being in the middle of this vast ocean alone. At the same time, the ocean is just so majestic and such a beautiful creation of God. Also, at night, it's amazing when the ocean reflects the moonlight and you're just looking up into the sky, admiring every outline of the clouds illuminated by the moon. Praise God for his beautiful creations and thanksgiving for safe journeys.

Our first port after Hong Kong was San Fernandos. This port was such an amazing and unforgettable port. The reason for it being an amazing port was the port volunteers we had on board. Port volunteers are basically volunteers who help out with the different departments on board while the ship is at the port. 3 of the STEPpers signed up to be their buddies and it wasn't mere coincidence that they were friends and went to the same church. We could really see God at work in our meeting, fellowship, and friendship. They invited us to their church on the first Sunday we were at San Fernandos. After that, they took us to eat Halo-Halo, a Filipino dessert which was absolutely delicious. From there, our friendship with the volunteers grew more and more. We ended up spending lots of time together at the port. On one of the nights, we went to the night market and had amazing street food, ranging from chicken heads, chicken blood, pork intestines, and most importantly, BALUT! They even invited us to their house for lunch, where we had awesome home-cooked Filipino food, and we had very good conversation with the volunteers' grandfather. Also, the others had a sleepover on one of the nights, but I didn't go as I had morning shift the day after and my body really needed some rest. We were scheduled to stay for only one week, but we extended our stay for another week due to generator problems. This really allowed us to spend even more time with one another. Some of the STEPpers also developed a very good relationship with the owner of a local restaurant, Rose Bowl. His name is Peter Nang, and he gave his life to Christ during the time that we were there. On one of the days, he took us to a poor fisherman village at another town where we connected with the locals. We had the opportunity to pray for a few of the villagers. One of them even gave us a whole fish after we prayed for him. Knowing their living conditions, we gave him some money, although we didn't know the price for the whole fish. After that, Peter took us to a restaurant called Riverfarm, which was right beside the river. The restaurant was very far and took quite some time to get there. There, we had the opportunity of fishing for our own lunch, and the 5 of us each caught our own fish, which they grilled for us. In addition to that, they grilled the fish we got from the fisherman and we had the biggest lobster I have ever seen in my life. We also ate on a platform which was floating on the river. The food was delicious and the fellowship was amazing. Peter was also kind enough to pay for the meal, which was very costly. Even though we didn't get to see the bill, we knew it wouldn't come cheap. On the way back, we could really see God at work when we passed by a surfing area, where Peter explained about how it turned from a place full of drug addicts to surfers who are against drugs. That allowed Matthew to share about his testimony, which involved him being a former drug dealer. This really encouraged Peter, as a newly born-again Christian.

Here, I managed to sign up for Bar Ministry, where I went from bar to bar, talking with the prostitutes. This really opened my eyes to new experiences as I never expected myself to have conversations with prostitutes. However, while the experience was a positive one, I had negative opinions. While I was chatting with one of them, I found that at first, she wasn't really willing to open up. Even when I asked something simple such as her age, she was reluctant to answer and just smiled instead. Also, when I tried to hand her the free Gospel of John, she mentioned that the group from the night before had already handed her a copy and talked to her. However, as we had more conversation and I asked again, she told me her age. This shows that you really have to establish a good foundation relationship if you really want to reach out to them, and it doesn't help that every night we have different people in the Bar Ministry. In my opinion, if you really want to reach out to these people, you should have a dedicated team of people in the Bar Ministry, where it's the same team of people every night. That way, if you put yourself in the shoes of the prostitutes, you would think, 'Wow, this person actually bothered to come every night to visit me and talk to me'. What better way to show them Christ's love than that. Also, it must be exhausting having to talk to different people every night and having to share your story over and over again. However, this is only my opinion. Seeds have been planted in the hearts of these prostitutes, and we must pray for God to work in their lives for a harvest. This experience really opened my eyes to the need of dedicated Bar Ministries in countries of need.

Besides that, I had a few good Connect Day (C-Day) events in San Fernandos. One of them was going for door-to-door evangelism at a poor fisherman village. Initially, I didn't like the idea of going for door-to-door evangelism because my expectations of it was us going to each door and immediately sharing the gospel or preaching. However, I had a very good time and experience on that day. We started the day off by having a small worship at one of the houses, where many children attended. After that, we were assigned to a volunteer who helped us translate. Our volunteer, Joseph, had already been helping the village by giving bible studies and music classes during the summer, so he was already familiar with the village layout. When we went to different houses, the people just humbly invited us in where we just sat and had a chat with them. We first introduced ourselves, then talked to them about their life and their struggles. It was amazing how the locals just immediately opened up about their struggles and challenges, which allowed us to pray for them after every visit. We had 4 house visits but our first house visit was the most memorable one. One of them opened up and told us she was very worried about her husband's job as a coal transporter. During the entire time, she looked very sad and depressed. She was mainly worried that his job isn't a stable job and he might lose his job at any moment. She even started shedding tears while she was sharing, showing that she really cares a lot for her family. The houses in the area were all proper cement-walled houses, and she explained that a year ago, a very kind and generous man donated lots of money to help build all these houses. Before that, it was just simple huts with only roofs. We ended by praying for her, thanking God for his provision of the houses and shelters, and also praying for her husband and 2 daughters. After that, we could see that her face was totally changed and she was just so happy after the prayer. She even followed us to each and every house we visited after that. We could really see God working that day, filling her with such joy even though she was so troubled just moments ago.

Other than that, I was also sent to help in a church building team for the Bread On Waters Church. Team 1 had already knocked down the walls of the church on the first day. I was in Team 2 and we had to expand the church by helping to build a concrete stage and also lay concrete for the floor. It was really exhausting and challenging to manually mix the cement, pebbles, sand, and water. All of us were just drenched in our own sweat the entire day. Thankfully, the church members cooked amazing Filipino food for us and took a lot of effort to refresh us during our breaks, providing us with passion fruit juice and fresh corn. We completed a lot more than we expected, hopefully making it easier for Team 3 the next day. I was told that the church members and pastor were so thankful that they came to the ship everyday to express their gratitude and even had tears in their eyes. They even made more balut for us, which was delicious! We could really see God working in this event as we were actually scheduled to be in the next port by then, but this church building was made possible due to the broken generators and extending our stay by one week. Praises to God for his will to be done, and his perfect timings.

On other days when I don't go on shore for C Days, I have 'Deck Experience', where I would be at Deck 4 (the place opened to the public, consisting of the book fair and International Cafe). There, we would just connect with the visitors on board and have conversations with them. If a good relationship is built, we would even ask if they would want to have a tour of the ship, which we happily give. If a really good relationship is built, we usually invite them to come again on another day to have lunch with them and spend more time with them. So far, I have yet to build close relationships to people through Deck Experience. However, I have fun ballooning for children, and singing worship songs and talking to people at the International Cafe.

After San Fernandos, we made our way to Subic Bay, which wasn't planned at all. Many of the ship's company dreaded this trip as the ship had already spent 9 months at this port last year for dry dock repairs. However, it really was God's plan for us to come back to this port, as many of the ship's company managed to visit their friends they had made last year. This allowed for them to see how God had worked in their lives even after the ship left. The number of visitors on the ship for this port was the lowest we had as the trip was made last minute, which allowed most of the book fair personnel to rest and relax. Deck experiences were also very relaxing as there were barely any visitors.

After 2 weeks, all of us were very happy that we finally got to leave for Puerto Princessa. Our supposed stay of 2 and a half weeks at Puerto Princessa was shortened to one week after all the delays and repairs of the generators. On our way there, some of the STEPpers decided to go up to the highest deck to stargaze. I must say, it was one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen in my life. With minimal clouds and the moon at the horizon, you could really see the sky painted with stars and we just laid down on the floor, admiring the majestic beauty. At one point, all of us just decided to sleep there, and we got our sleeping bags and blankets up. We managed to see a couple of shooting stars from time to time. I ended up falling asleep at 2.30 a.m. because I just couldn't close my eyes when such a beautiful sight is right in front of my eyes. I just thanked God for this amazing beauty and for his creations. I just marveled at how something that is so amazing for us, was so easy for Him to create. I woke up 2 hours later, to watch the sunrise. Despite the clouds in the horizon hindering the full view of the sunrise, having to see the sky slowly change from darkness to light was amazing, and to see the orange glow of the sun pop up from the clouds like an egg was beautiful. The entire night and morning left me in such an awe that I spent some time just thinking about God and other things. This led me to share about death and eternal life during my galley devotions a few days after.

I shall continue on more updates in my next email. Once again, I apologize for not updating after so long. It's 11.12 p.m. now, and I have C Day tomorrow at 8.15 a.m. I'll be heading to a prison to help prepare for the opening of the library. Thank you all for all your prayers and support!!! I apologize for attaching only one photo, it takes forever to upload.

Many blessings from Logos Hope,
Jonathan.

TTDIGC YOUTH MISSION SHARING

Evelyn Tan

3RD JULY 2013
http://www.gbaships.org/

Hello again!

We arrived at Puerto Princesa yesterday morning at 11am. There were a bunch of people waiting for the ship's arrival. Many of the crew members went out to the highest deck (deck 9) with their flags to greet the people as we entered the port. Puerto Princesa is apparently the cleanest and greenest place in the Philippines.

The sail here was amazing! At some points, it was quite rocky but most of the time it was a smooth sail and the weather was good. On our second night of sailing (Monday night), the night sky was amazing! Can you believe that the sky here becomes almost fully black at 7.30pm? there were already many stars in the sky. Later in the night, around 10pm, many people went out to Deck 9 because the weather was good. It was a clear sky, literally FILLED with stars! I cannot even begin to describe how beautiful it was but it was a very breath taking sight! I also saw many shooting stars! That night, many people slept in their sleeping bags on deck 9(yes, it is allowed).

On Monday night (1/7/13), there was Worship night. It's a weekly thing. Worship night on Mondays and Prayer night on Thursdays. The main theme that seemed to be recurring throughout the night was unity and surrendering all to Christ. You see, from the outside, the Logos Hope with it's 400 member crew look like a bunch of 'Super Christians', missionaries going out to share the Gospel, people who 'have already got it right with God'. The truth is, everyone on board is struggling in one way or another. And I personally believe that this ship is under very heavy spiritual warfare. Though there is unity on the ship (nobody here is trying to kill each other), sense of true unity, compassion and love for each other may sometimes be forgotten. And this is due to the struggles that each one is facing. It is difficult sometimes to live as a community with a lot of different cultures, nations, personal habits and principles. So during this prayer night, many people were led to surrender everything they were facing , all their struggles and doubts to God. Many people even went up to share spontaneously because they felt the need to. After the Worship night, i saw many people praying with each other.

One of the members gave an illustration - our hearts are like containers, stored with everything in the world - all our desires and worldly things. All our sins. And God wants to come into us but He is holy and therefore cannot come into our hearts if it's filled with everything else. If it's filled with sin. She went on to say how we need to continually empty this container, which means to continually empty our hearts by surrendering everything to God so that He can come in and fill us.

Then a thought came into my mind. I work in the Angels and I clean everyday. Most times, i clean the things that had already been cleaned the day before even tough at times, these things don't look dirty at all! But I thought about it and if we didn't clean these same things everyday, the dirt would build up and when we actually decide to clean it, it would be very difficult.

In the same way, we need to clean our hearts daily so that the sin within us doesn't build up.

So for everyone who is struggling, doubting, having something that's hindering their relationship with God, I hope that you can fully surrender it to God. Even in this seemingly great community, we struggle. But it really helps to surrender it to God and to trust that He will be faithful in pulling us through. :)

Have a blessed week!

 Talent Night!

TTDIGC YOUTH MISSION SHARING

Evelyn Tan
1ST JULY 2013
http://www.gbaships.org/



Hello TTDI GC Folks!

At this moment, 1.34 am, the ship just started sailing (For about a half hour already) to our next port, Puerto Princesa, Philippines. Initially, we were suppose to leave at 7am yesterday but due to the storms, the coast guards did not allow any ships to set sail.

Subic bay was a nice port to be in. It was not just the environment but the people as well. On my last trip to the bars to do bar ministry, I met a 20 year old girl who was one of the dancers/prostitutes. She shared with us her story - she has an 8 month old baby, stopped schooling since she was 13/14 years, has an alcoholic father and gambling mother. She has two younger brothers and the father of her child left them when she was a month pregnant. For her, working in the bar is the only job she can get because she did not graduate from high school. She explain how she had a bad relationship with her parents but since the birth of her child, she has really began appreciating her mum. She is a really pretty girl and getting to know someone who was so close to my age, with such a background, makes me feel compassionate toward her. It wasn't like she was forced into this job by someone. She chose it because it seemed to be the only option she had. She once had a dream to be an air stewardess. As I spoke with her, I thought 'wow, this girl has so much ahead of her if only she could see that.'

We invited her to the ship the next day but she didn't turn up. Her name is Anna and I would appreciate if you could keep her in your prayers. I know i will.

The bar ministry in Buretta, Olongapoo is really amazing. The kind of stories these girls have to share is amazing.

Im getting a little nauseous as I type this. So I shall update you again when we have stopped sailing. The stars here are AMAZING!!

toodle doo folks!