This missions trip to Chiang Mai from 13 to 16 January 2009 was relatively short. As planned we spent most of our time with our local missions partners, Tamla and Chaay, and the children at the Nong Tao hostel. But on top of that we managed to catch up with a couple of the Vineyard missionaries based in Chiang Mai, Stefan and Tina Mickels (Kham Siri – a church plant with outreach via a community center) and David Wade (Ban Suk Jai – mercy works/children’s home). At Stefan’s request, we led the small group meeting on Thursday. Unfortunately, it was not convenient to visit Ban Suk Jai, although we managed to touch base with David. (David will visit us in Singapore in April).

Tamla and Chaay are from the Karen Tribe and Nong Tao is in the Mae Wang province, which is in the hills about 2 hour away from Chiangmai City. In our last visit, we had a lot more activities, like teaching English to the kids, doing items at their nightly worship before bedtime, preaching on Sunday and some ministry to local church members.This time, we were quite focused on exploring Chaay and Tamla’s plans to start a new hostel in Chiang Mai, only 40 minutes from the City. They plan to build a hostel with a capacity to take in some 20 children. The children will come from Nong Tao who have to leave the village to come to the city to attend high school and also from the Myanamar border refugee camp.

In the night we stayed Nong Tao, we experienced the cold spell that was sweeping Northern Thailand. Up in those hills we felt temperatures reaching freezing level. It was quite challenging as the hut we slept in was bamboo with gaps that let the cold air through at the sides. We were somewhat shamed when in the morning we learnt that the kids are able to keep warm with only one blanket.

Some images from our trip this time around.

Tamla on the left. We had spare time on our first day to visit a “Botanic Garden” which is the feature of a resort while waiting for the other team members to arrive from Bangkok.

Warm and sunny still. Little did we anticipate the horror that were to come that night…

Tamla and Chaay showed us the plot of land that they intend to build the new hostel for the kids when they go to high school

Walking the land, and claiming it for God’s use

On the pick up truck, making our way up to Nong Tao

Our sleeping quarters, as in the last trip we made up there. Still as beautiful and simple as ever.

Evening worship in the village church

Bundling up for the night ahead, with as many as 3-4 blankets, and 2-3 clothing layers!

Steaming hot food, one of the most beautiful sights we’ve ever seen – after a night of bonechilling cold.

Horsing around with the kids (as usual)

3 of the children leaving Nong Tao to attend high school in the city later this year

It was chick season in Chiangmai and we saw lots of little chicks wandering around. This hen was particularly protective of its little chicks. We saw her chasing away a dog about three times her size. Talk about plucky!

Exploring the village again with our little tour guide Miyoko, who is the pastor’s son (who pontanged school whilst his dad was out at work)

Sakura in Chiang Mai, as it is the season where the cherry trees burst into full bloom

The air is pristine, the weather is lovely and all around is a great sense of calm and serenity.

Back in Chiangmai City, we met up with Stefan and Tina, and Anucha whom Stefan is teaching English to. (left) Another big bbq/steamboat tuck in.

This missions trip was organized by Vision Network Society, and due to the extremely short notice only Lye Heng went. It was a great opportunity to explore and get involved in the Community Development work of VNS. The itinerary was as follows:

10/11, Monday
- Nguan Island Ministry

Here are some pictures of this visit.

11/11, Tuesday

- Eko, Vineyard Indonesia Batam

- Church of God of Prophecy and related ministries: eg orphanage (below), bible college

To WORSHIP, BELONG & SERVE, GROW & GO are our priorities or our ways and means to realize our vision.

WORSHIP, prayer, praise and thanksgiving are our highest priorities. We have grasped how wide and long, and deep and high is the love of Christ. Our new life show that God’s abundant provision of grace and the gift of righteousness have come to reign in us. We love God and people because he first loved us.

NLV gathers for worship because we are thirsty for God’s presence, and out of a profound sense of his worthiness. We shall honor and revere God in all that we do. We look forward to visitation by God as a by-product of our worship: God’s presence and power shall become manifest in different ways, for salvation, for deliverances, for sanctification or healings. God will also visit us to bless and to speak to us.

We are, first and foremost, people called to an intimate relationship with God.

BELONG & SERVE are also crucial ways to bring our vision into being.

Coming together to be the fellowship makes us become better, stronger, more effective in our work, and able to offer help and warmth to one another. We gather people to come with us because God has promised good things concerning his people and we shall share whatever good the Lord gives us. Living together in unity we shall receive great blessings from God. And when we love others, God will abide in us and his love is made complete in us.

Our fellowship shall be a place to belong (where you fit in, feel right with, like coming home) and a place which belongs to you, and where you serve one another.

We shall care, share, and serve each other in practical everyday ways, like praying for one another, lending a listening ear, coming alongside in times of trauma, and offering tangible helps when needed.

GROW & GO is another priority needed to bring our vision into being. It is essentially a discipleship process: growing to become more mature and more like Jesus, and going to do the good work that the Lord has prepared for us to do. Together we shall do even greater works than Christ.

Grow and go means seven specific objects or goals that the fellowship shall aim for. They are:

1) Imitate Jesus to have the character, mind, the heart of God and do what he did. Filled with the Spirit. Empowered by the Spirit.

2) The Bible shall be central to our teaching, faith and life. We shall seek to teach the Bible clearly and accurately.

3) We shall offer as much training as possible to help grow and develop effective disciples. Training is not the same as studying and gaining more knowledge on a subject. Our training is “equip the saints” for the work of ministry, and also for life.

4) We shall spend significant time and resources to show the love of God to the poor, the broken, and the marginalized.

5) We want to help others fall in love with God with outreach programs, tell his story, and also tell our personal stories.

Through the good works of the fellowship we shall be like a city on a hill. Draw people to Jesus! Let people see NLV and conclude that there’s more than just people at work here, but also an extra-ordinary God.

6) We trust that God will use our fellowship to send out and plant other Vineyard churches and be involved in Missions: Forging relationships with indigenous pastors in neighboring countries, Coming alongside. Where appropriate, sending resources and people to the church plants which we are relating to on short term basis, e.g. on missions trip, as well as on long-term assignments.

7) We shall also love, respect and co-operate with other fellowships because we are all part of the Body of Christ.

Here is a guide to connecting and participating in the life and vision of NLV!

Here are a number of values that guide our choices and actions in NLV. They are being REAL, RELEVANT, AND RESPONSIVE.

BEING REAL
We value a fellowship where real people live real lives through seeking and knowing a real God who wants to meet us in a real and lasting way!

Being real for us means “no hype, no manipulation” in our meetings, during worship, and when praying for one another. We do not try to drum anything up or do things for “religious effect”; rather, we, like Jesus, look to the Father to see what he is doing at any given point in time, and we try to get on board with what God wants to do.

We don’t pretend to be someone else with God or with each other. It is important that our words and deeds match up.

Being real with one another shall be seen in the way we talk, dress, pray, and act. We shall relate to one another in an honest and open fashion. We are honest about our struggles. We accept brokenness in each other. Real questions can be asked, real lives are mended, real (tangible) help are offered when we see needs, and people can have real conversations about life and eternal issues.

BEING RELEVANT
We value a fellowship that is relevant.

People ought to be able to walk off the street into our meetings and not feel out of place or like they have stepped back in time a hundred years. God is already relevant so we don’t need to make God relevant, but sometimes we need to be careful not to become stumbling block to others. We aim to create an atmosphere where everything from our language, our dress and music are in touch with the current culture of our community. This is why we have a simple auditorium without any ornate decorations or religious symbols, and we dress casually, allowing people to “come as they are.”

We shall make every effort to make the Christian message as simple and easy to understand as possible, and relevant, presenting real (biblical) answers to the issues that challenge people living in the community. Singapore is a great country where hard work pays, i.e. success and the good life can be got if you set your mind to it and apply yourself. Our great challenge to being relevant is to demonstrate that God’s grace and favor is far better and that a relationship of intimacy and trust with God is best. We shall demonstrate the reality, goodness, power and love of God, and share how he will work powerfully in our lives.

BEING RESPONSIVE
We value a fellowship that is responsive and dynamic.

We love God and others and tell his story because he first loved us. We do what we do because we have experienced for ourselves the goodness, mercy and justice of God, among other things. We expect that God’s presence, power and grace can breakthrough at any time into our lives and circumstances.

We shall be responsive to the Holy Spirit’s daily leading of our personal lives and of the fellowship. We shall do the stuff that Jesus did in response to the Spirit of God coming upon us.

We tell others of our story because he has made us into oaks of righteousness, given us crowns of beauty instead of ashes, oil of gladness instead of mourning, a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

We don’t see ministry as being church bound, that is, something just done in our meetings, because God is always working. Our Father in heaven is intent on advancing his kingdom on earth. So too we shall be intent as we go on our way every day, in our neighbourhood, school and workplace. We shall join in his work whenever we see the Father at work. Everyone here gets to play a role to continue the co-mission started by Christ.

We value a climate in the fellowship where service is eagerly volunteered. People function as leaders without waiting for appointments and wanting titles. The opportunity to build church from the bottom up is welcomed.

We value people and prefer to promote people rather than programs. When a person has shown passion and leadership for a particular ministry project (say a Mercy Works project), we shall rally behind that person and affirm him or her. We shall do what we can to fulfil God’s destiny for each person in the fellowship.

Everybody needs a skeleton and a church body is no different. We need a structure to function effectively but we believe that organization should always follow organism. In other words, we need enough organization to hold God’s activity, but the structure should never take precedence over God’s movement or be a substitute for God’s activity. As such, we shall maintain as little structure as possible to get the job done, and build structures that enhance rather than stifle ministry and relationships. This means everyone shall have a really short line to the pastor!

NLV shall:

By being:
BENEFICIARIES OF GOD’S GRACE, A TEMPLE OF GOD, A COMMUNITY & FAMILY OF BELIEVERS. LIKE A CITY ON A HILL drawing men and women to Jesus. AN ARMY advancing the Kingdom of God and doing all the stuff that Jesus did. A SCHOOL & HOSPITAL training, equipping, healing, revitalizing and getting our people ready for Kingdom warfare.

And as we: WORSHIP, BELONG & SERVE, GROW & GO.

This is a really audacious vision if you consider where we are right now on the Road Map.