LIBERIA AFRICA MISSION TRIP

Liberia Missions Trip Oct-Nov 2010

Towards the end of October 2010, a team of four brave-hearted souls embarked on a two week adventure to the distant continent of Africa to visit our Hope Churches in Liberia.

The Trans-Continental Team

The team was led by Cara Cheong, a staff member from HIM Missions. The team members (Inn Siew, Minghan and May) were from three different countries: Singapore, Malaysia and Brisbane. Ps Brendan of Hope Adelaide provided invaluable leadership and advice to help prepare for the trip.

We first touched down on African soil in Nairobi, Kenya. We met and fellowshipped with the Hope Kenyan team. We were greatly blessed by their hospitality, and encouraged by their joy in serving God.



Ministry in Liberia

When we landed in Liberia, we were greeted with a very warm reception of dance and songs. The following days, we met with the pastors and leaders of the Hope Liberian churches. Though many of them are still rebuilding their lives after a devastating civil war, we were greatly encouraged by their hearts to serve God wholeheartedly. We found Ps Sonny, who oversees all the Hope Liberian churches, to be a man of humility and great faith in God. We preached, taught the core values, shared about life groups and mentoring, met with the key ministry leaders, and prayed with the pastors and members. We blessed the churches with bibles, resource materials and a keyboard.

We also went to the University of Liberia where we did evangelism training with the students. We went together to evangelise on campus. We were greatly encouraged when one person gave his heart to Christ.

We also researched about Liberia’s educational and commercial situation. We met with various business owners, non-government organisations (NGOs) and government ministries. God miraculously opened opportunities for us to connect with people in the United Nations (UN) office, and we even met the assistant Minister of Education! Our team members with a business background conducted training and consultation sessions with the businesspeople of the church.




Praise God for the following:

From the very start of the mission, we could see the hand and favour of God guiding us each step of the way. Some testimonies:

• Unity in the team despite the members all coming from different churches and countries.
• One of our team members who only received his passport just minutes before his flight was due to depart!
• Thank God for His protection when we encountered a few "hiccups" along the way.
• There was great joy in the fellowship with the leaders. We were all excited about the vision that God has placed before us.
• Divine appointments with key people.
• Favour of God when we met with the leaders and business people.
• Our car broke down on the last day. Thank God for getting us to the airport on time for our flight!
  

And many more things we are ever thankful to God for.

After two weeks, we left Liberia with much faith of what God is doing, and is going to do, amongst our sister churches there. Though the cultural experience was very different, we truly enjoyed it - the food, the people, the hospitality. Let us continue to uphold Hope Liberia in our prayers.

We will be sending mission teams there in future. If you are interested to support in any way, please email: missions@hope-church.com.au.

May Chueng
Oceania Mission Coordinator

MUMBAI INDIA MISSION TRIP

In December 2010, eight of us from Hope Church Brisbane’s student leadership team headed to Mumbai for an exposure and exploration trip. It was an overwhelming, eye-opening experience…in a good way.

We hooked up with Youth with a Mission (YWAM) and rubbed shoulders with a number of missionaries and pastors at a Christmas dinner. It proved to be a good learning opportunity and through YWAM, many doors were opened. We had the opportunity to spend time in ministry with children in the slums and streets with songs, stories, cricket matches, and prayer and to bless them with food and necessities.



It was overwhelming and heart-wrenching to see the extreme poverty and hopelessness of the people, even as we walked the streets. It felt like we had to process everything we set our eyes on. It is hard to describe the experience in Dharavi (the world’s largest slum where Slumdog Millionaire was filmed). We were invited into one of the homes in the slum, and they served us dinner on their bed. Also through a divine appointment, we met a pastor of a church numbering 150 people in the slum; we spent some time with, and ministered to him and his team. The presence of God filled the room so strongly; we felt it physically. Prophetic words flowed as the Spirit moved and everyone was visibly encouraged and blessed. On Sunday, we visited a large, and growing, church of about 3000 in Mumbai. It was an amazing worship service as the congregation overflowed with passion and the Spirit. It was encouraging to see the gospel reaching so many from various demographics of the community through the church.



All in all, it was a fruitful trip. In terms of exploration, God revealed much through the prayer walks and times of intercession for the city - some keys to unlock the heavens over the city. For a short trip, there were some good contacts made. We are praying and trusting God that some long-term impact and opened doors will come forth from our time with various people and intercession. In terms of exposure, we got more than we hoped for. I believe God’s done some deep work within each of us in enlarging our hearts and deepening convictions for the Great Commission, as we continue to grapple with and respond to God’s purpose. Written by Sunita Pala