Mission Sunday
March 19, 2006
Mission works started with a willingness to sacrifice. The early disciples were willing to leave their homeland and sacrifice their comfort to spread the Gospels around the world. In modern context, thousands of Christians are imitating what early disciples did and sacrifice their time, money and comfort, with a vision that God’s Kingdom will be expanded and more people to be saved.
In the testimony session, sister Katherine Ong shared about her past mission trips to Nepal. The mission works in Nepal has never been easy, as she needs to cope with cultural differences and language barriers. At times, she was upset about the lack of faith of the believers over there. But God always strengthened her faith every time she struggled. God assured her that her sacrifice, love and compassion for the believers there will one day reap great harvest, as is promised in 1 Corinthians 15:58, “because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain”. Sister Katherine concluded her testimony with the Bible verses 1 John 5:1-5, and encouraged every brother and sister who loves God to join in the mission works.
This message was resounded in the following sketch prepared by activities department, which challenged the congregation to participate in mission works to our neighboring countries. We should not let the daily routines in life become the obstacle to join the mission works. We should exercise our faith more and be willing to sacrifice our time to bless our brothers and sisters in other countries. The least that we can do is to pray for those countries. A prayer card was distributed to the congregation, and we were urged to faithfully pray for the countries on the card in this year. A slogan was designed to remind us of the prayer commitment: “one week, one prayer, one tick”.
In today’s sermon, Pastor Gavin reiterated the message of “sacrifice” by sharing the verses Mark 12:41-44 with us. In order to bring out this message more vividly, a game was played at the beginning of the preaching. One representative from each sub districts was challenged to fill up the paper cup with coins offering in the fastest time. The objective behind the game was to test our willingness to give to the Lord. It is always easy to give out of abundance, but the story of the poor widow told us that God is pleased with the wholehearted offering. It is God’s will that the more we give, the more blessings we will have.
At the end of the sermon, we were challenged to give the mission pledge. The response from the brothers and sisters were overwhelming. We believe that the little sacrifice we make today will bring about amazing impact to our mission works in the future!
