If thirty years ago someone had come up to me and said, “God is calling you to pastor a church plant”, I would have said to him, “It is a steady job? How much does it pay? I was going out to work after University and National Service, embarking on a promising career in investment banking.

By then, I had drifted quite far away from God for many years, and full of confidence in myself. I was managing very well on my own and God did not seem very relevant in the whole equation of things.

And so I thank God that in 1986, He called me to a personal relationship with Him and showed me how real He is. I have learnt and I am still learning, from my successes and failures, out of my joys and sorrows, and in all circumstances, that I am so much better off because I have chosen God. He has become my all in all: my strength, my wisdom, my inheritance, my peace…

Susan and I began 2008 (yesterday) with an acute sense that we needed to pray together and come before Him. For myself, I suddenly felt insecure about the work which lay ahead in the market place (for our living) and in the ministry. In contrast with former times, I did not feel any confidence in my own abilities. During our time of prayer, I experienced a pretty powerful unction and was able to ask God for the things which were upon our hearts, with what I believed was faith. Susan and I need to treasure that moment and the things we prayed for in our hearts!

We spent a great day babysitting Ethan, having dinner with the entire family, and later in the evening I had quality time with Samuel watching a DVD.

On the church front, the year could not have ended on a better note with Wong inviting the Lord into his life last Sunday. Wong is the first person who was a stranger to NLV (and everyone in it when he visited us) who has come to know Jesus through the church.

In the last couple of months, my preaching was more or less guided by the premise that first and foremost we need to see for ourselves how wonderful God is (as well as see the wonder of his Kingdom and rule over us.) This is essentially why the message of Jesus is called the gospel or good news. People must really believe that the good news about Jesus is truly good news. I believe that this boils down to experiencing for your selves how wonderful God is. I believe that when you are fully convinced about how good God is, when God starts to work for good in the areas which critically concerns you, the rest will follow. The second aspect of preaching and teaching will simply be on “how to respond to that amazing love”.

I keep coming across reminders that many (including John and Carol Wimber) believed that God’s powerful anointing was poured on the vineyard movement due to its steadfast desire and adherence to a vision of serving the poor, the sick, and the lost. Ministry to the poor and needy is in the Vineyard DNA! What a challenge for NLV to plant a church based on this vision when many in Singapore are just concerned about their own well being and seek places where their interests are promoted and served. Show us how we are to attain that vision, Lord!

Like the words of the song goes, Lord we consider ourselves “sweetly broken” by you, and we desire to be “wholly surrendered” to you. In this new year, Lord may we all continue to experience and confess “How wonderous your redeeming love and how great is your faithfulness.”