NLV joins the Vineyard Indonesian Partnership, which currently comprises of 10 Vineyard fellowships.

Vineyard churches have worked together in partnerships to plant churches all over the world. It is more effective to work together since you can pool people and resources in order to nurture an indigenous, self-sustaining church planting movement in the adopted country. A partnership allows a small fellowship like NLV to make a significant contribution toward the accomplishment of the Great Commission.

Efforts to date made by the Indonesian Partnership, include short term team visits coming to participate in training indigenous church planters, and to support other ministries, from worship concerts to developing small businesses to make inroads into communities. The Indonesian Partnership has also contributed generously to tsunami aid and they have helped construct a new orphanage for the children of tsunami victims on the island of Sumatra.

Here is a video clip of a short term team visit made to Indonesia in 2008.

The construction of the new hostel at San Pa Tong, Chiang Mai is near completion as the photos below show. Dear Tamla and Chai are quite exhausted from the process. She says that they have both become quite dark as it has been really hot! And they still need to prepare the place for the intake of the children who should come very soon.

This thing has been upon my heart for a while now, and my hope is that sometime this year I can launch Kingdom Inroads. While the vision for Kingdom Inroads below may seem big, its beginnings will be small and I am encouraged by the value expressed in this poster!

Kingdom Inroads will be set up as a not for profit organization or as a social enterprise. Its purpose is to make inroads into, and have long term significant impact on, grass-root communities, especially in South East Asia. We want to bring hope to those in need and help people to escape poverty and gain access to a better life.

Kingdom Inroads approach will be to partner indigenous leaders. They are people who share our passion to empower low-income families in their community, and to transform it through activities which are practical and proven to alleviate poverty.

Some of these activities are direct, such as to lower cost of living, improve current productivity (applying appropriate technology) and open up opportunities for livelihood and micro-enterprise. Others are indirect, by assisting in disaster recovery; providing access to basic amenities like education, health, housing, clean water, secure food sources; and helping build welfare organizations such as children homes, community development centres, and much more.

Our approach requires that these “transformational activities” become self sustainable after a period of time. The families and communities we partner with should have the potential to carry them out eventually with little or no external assistance.

Kingdom Inroads hopes to become an international organization that networks with and connects people across oceans and across cultures, to facilitate volunteerism.

We will welcome volunteers from all over the world. Our criterion is to connect them to communities where their skills and compassion are most needed, as members of short term teams or as part of a long-term assignment. While we hope to match people with community projects, which compliment their gifts and skills, we will also stretch them to step outside of their comfort zone. Volunteers can help meet the needs of a community in myriad ways. Whether it is involvement in a small business, agriculture; disaster relief; music, language and crafts; constructing physical facilities for clean water, etc.; training and vocational workshops; and sports, volunteers will make a difference and can also expect to gain meaningful experiences.

A significant part of our work will be to provide programs to orientate and train volunteers. This will equip them with knowledge and skills required to participate in the transformational activities.

We also hope to partner with churches and mission organizations who want to participate in a strategy to preach the gospel of the Kingdom and disciple nations via a holistic approach of church planting, mercy works, community development and business as missions. Contact us if you are interested to find out more about how we may work together.

The picture we have in mind for a discipleship process in NLV is like the building of the launch pad and rocket which launches the US Space Shuttle.

Step 1: Building the foundations – Getting to know God and learning to love and trust him. Learning to be proficient in the tools for going deeper, strengthening yourself in the Lord. Learning about grace, and enjoying the honeymoon phase.

Step 2: Building the launch pad – Learning to hear God’s voice and his purpose. Obeying, and becoming a person of integrity. Learning about service, accountability and humility. The temptation is restlessness, over eagerness to achieve results and acquire skills and impatience with God. Saul and David are Biblical examples. But giving in to this temptation merely lengthens the process! Bear in mind that God is less interested in what you can immediately do for him than building your capacity to handle what he has destined for you.

Step 3: Building the rocket – Acquiring skills and practicing spiritual gifts, learning to work with other people within the fellowship and understanding authority. The temptation in this phase is to stop here, think that you have arrived.

Step 4: Launch phase – Dependence on the Spirit, promoting unity and teamwork in the body. Jesus sent out the Disciples and the Apostles went out …in teams. Fulfilling God’s purpose in the widest sense as described in Ephesians 3:9-11.The temptation here is pride in your philosophy of ministry/success and ceasing to adapt, and you stop discerning the seasons and the current moves of the Spirit.

FAQs on going deeper, going higher

1) What is going deeper, going higher?

Going deeper, going higher is an integral element of a discipleship process which NLV will employ and accordingly we will focus on:

Being relational and fellowship-based -
NLV desires to be a dynamic community of grace, hope and purpose. Going deeper, going higher seek to build a culture of encouragement and discipline amongst participants in a cohort to help them grow closer in their walk with God, and fulfil the vision of our fellowship: Love God, love people and co-mission with Christ.

Character growth and ministry involvement -
We know that God’s plan and will for us is to grow spiritually and become fruitful, producing character and doing the good works which he has prepared for us. Going deeper, going higher will help participants attain this through sustained learning experiences, practice and transparency in a small group (life) context, and by being involved in field assignments and the ministries of the church.

Leadership development -
Going deeper, going higher is an important means for NLV to develop leaders, and will be led by your Pastor. You could say that this is a stretched version of a typical Discipleship Training School program, or that this is more structured training than our current “show and tell” method.

2) What kind of commitment do I have to give?

Going deeper, going higher will involve participants meeting periodically throughout the year. At this time, we envisage that our meetings will be divided into 2 semesters. The first is over a six months period from April to September, and comprises of up to 12 fortnightly sessions held on a weekday night. The second, from October to March, will comprise of 4 to 6 sessions which can start at any convenient time in this period.

You only make a commitment for each semester. But we will require your commitment to faithfully attend every session of the semester that you have signed up for, and to participate as best you can in any field or ministry assignments given in the semester.

3) What happens if I skip a semester?

The first cohort of participants will start going deeper, going higher in April 2009. If you decide to skip a future semester, there are several options. You may rejoin your cohort if what you have missed does not critically affect your ongoing personal development. You may also join a new cohort at the point you left.

4) What subjects will you be covering in going deeper, going higher?

We will employ and integrate external resources (teachers and programs) with what we have, to equip participants with ministry skills, as well as teach academic (biblical-theological) courses and leadership subjects, onsite. Furthermore, we plan to provide opportunities for participants to attend selected offsite conferences, seminars and short term mission trips.

The subjects will be relevant to achieving the goals of going deeper, going higher mentioned earlier, and I envisage that they would include:

My Relationship with God; The Kingdom of God; The Ministry of Jesus; Being a Missional Person; Stewardship of Life & Resources, The Church; Spiritual Disciplines; Hearing God; Vineyard 5 Step Model for Praying; Being Naturally Supernatural.

5) How do I sign up?

Email your pastor to confirm your interest to participate.

If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will be like a noonday. Isaiah 58:10

Nong Tao, and the new hostel and high school sponsorship
Nong Tao was first introduced to a member of NLV by Phii Chaay and Phii Tamla and the Karen couple have since become the church’s missionary partners. The Nong Tao hostel takes in children of about age 5 to 12 from the Karen tribe and is located in the highlands in the Mae Wang province, which is about 2 hours drive away from Chiangmai city. Phii Chaay and Phii Tamla now have plans to build and run a new hostel that can house the Nong Tao children who are coming to attend high school in the city. As many of the children are too poor to pay for school fees they wish to secure sponsorships for the payment of their school fees and other related expenses.

Resulting from NLV’s most recent missions to Nong Tao, the church has decided to:
(1) Share with concerned parties about Phii Tamla and Phii Chaay need for funds to defray the construction cost of the new hostel; and
(2) Offer sponsorships for the batch of students “graduating” from Nong Tao and coming to the city to attend high school

The purpose of building a hostel in the city is to continue offering a conducive and spiritual lodging place for the high school students from Nong Tao. The hostel would be manned by Phii Tamla and Phii Chaay, and they will also be responsible to administer and monitor the NLV sponsorships for the high school students and oversee their development in high school. A simple plan which Phii Chaay and Phii Tamla have for the hostel to become sustainable in the long run is to inculcate a desire in the students that on successfully finishing high school and university, they will in turn sponsor kids from the Nong Tao to go through high school. Furthermore, when the new hostel becomes more established we envisage they shall take in full fees paying students from more well to do families. The hostel could also accommodate a church plant since Phii Chaay is currently receiving theological training to be a pastor.

Our missionary partners have raised the funds for the purchase of the hostel land on 19 January 2009. (The site is in San Pa Tong, which is at the peripherals of Chiangmai city.) They will borrow from a relative the amounts needed for the construction of the hostel, or sell family land in Nong Tao as a last resort to raise funds. As noted above, they are seeking for concerned parties who are willing to donate and give toward defraying the cost of construction. The high school term in the city will commence in the beginning of April 2009. Construction will take a month and will have to commence by the end of February. It would provide relief to Phii Chaay and Tamla if support for the construction costs can reach the couple by March.

For 2009, there are 12 kids from Nong Tao going on to high school, 9 of whom require need sponsorships. NLV is committed to finding sponsors for these students for an amount of SGD 500/year/student.