What is discipleship?

Have you ever asked "What is discipleship?" as in the 'happening', not the 'action'...
I've heard that question a few times and tried to describe it a few times in a few ways. Let me attempt it one more time here.
I left SFE after things started to go for my once a month discipleship time with PC and her 'girls'. Looking back, I'm part of this group since 5 years or more. Su Leen just started working and still single, have not met Marcus then. Now, she's got two kids!

Since the beginning, PC created a culture and a platform where we share life, share our ups and downs, and we can talk about everything under the sky yet careful enough to care for each others' feelings and not be offensive... ok. it sounds more like we are being taught.

But that is true! We are being taught the word of God and how to live it out in our lives. Whoever says that living is easy is in denial. Living is tough and can be heart-wrenching. But PC not just teach us the WOG, she walk it out with us. There is not a time where she did not make her effort to be there for us during tough times - reminding us the promises of God, and praying with us and for us! That is her kind of discipleship.

The other side of discipleship time we have together is FELLOWSHIP! We not just learn together, we became friends and enjoy each other - "together-gether". Tonight, we had a simple farewell for Elaine, which you all know from my previous post, that she's going to move back to Mallacca this Thursday. Each of us brought a word or a gift to encourage her and spur her on. I came late cos of the SFE but I walk in right on the time where it's my turn to share. I gave a word to Elaine, made a simple card for her and thank her for her friendship! and she reciprocated our love with preparing a love letter for each of us... aww... sooo sweet of her! After tears and hugs, we prayed for her. It's not "Goodbye, Elaine" but just "Till Next Time, Laine"!

Then, PC prepared bah kut teh for us. Su Leen brought dessert and Hao Ying brought the ice-cream for it. We all had a great time eating and laughing. In this group, we can be real, we can share even our frustrations and we can accept each other - genuinely and sincerely. We were strangers that became sisters in this group.

If after reading this, you feel like you want to be part of that kind of a family-discipleship, don't! Don't want what is built by others. Each of us needs to be the one to build that kind of a relationship. Be that kind person ourselves, then we will build a family with those around us.

Will u also bring out your heart in your own group? Whether it's LG or discipleship time or even in One2One sessions. =)

PointCast 100th Episode Shoot!

I woke up late this morning.
and then rushed over to church excitedly for the POINTCAST 100th Episode shoot! Yeah! We are now 100th episode 'old'! =)

So we gathered everyone for a celebration episode! This is just a teaser. I won't be breaking the surprise by describing everything here. But one thing was - WE HAD FUN! We had fun laughing together, making stupid jokes about the script, doing stupid dances at the street... i guess it means everyone in the team is in a celebratory mood! We could take all the stupid things we do off-screen and make the most enjoyable video ever! hahahah...

It would be the first to see more than 2 hosts in one episode. Prepare to have fun with next weekend's episode of PointCast! The 100th episode is one big reason not to miss church! =)

All in a weekend: 080510

Last weekend was kinda packed... ah but then which weekend is not?

After the usual praise and worship, we kickstart the specials with a water baptism slideshow/video. We celebrate with those that had gone through victory weekend last weekend and also presented them with a photo frame of a shot of them. Baptism is a bold step for each Christian to step out and declare that they will now follow Christ and IT IS something we should celebrate together as a family!


Usually on the Mother's Day or the Father's Day weekend, church will also give a gift to them but this year, we decided to combine the celebration into a combine service to celebrate PARENTS DAY, which will be happening on June 13, 11am at Bukit Jalil Golf & Country Resort.


Pastor Tim, literally walked down each aisle and presented each mother with a stalk of rose in all the services to wish them Happy Mother's Day! ooo.... for me, seeing the whole pail of 150 stalks in my office IS the reward for flower lovers like me! Hope the mothers enjoyed it as much as i do. =)


And of course on Sunday, Kidzone prepared the children to make something for their mothers.


After all the commotion, everyone settled down to hear the word of God. Pastor Tim is still at this series entitled "ARISE". God has a God-given destiny for each of us and we need to arise to seize it and fulfill our destiny in life on earth.


I just had this thought - if someone misses one weekend service, that person actually missed a lot! Nourishment to the spirit, food to the soul, encouragement to the emotion, and GIFTS (baptism photo frames/flowers)... maybe this does not count much monetarily, but every weekend, we try our best to feed you wholly. So, don't miss any more services for your own good! =)

Just people in the church: LEONG TZIN YUEN

Leong? Who? Leong - the guy that did the "two two" at the TOT video! OH...oooohhhh....

Leong joined Eaglepoint two years ago, in Nov 2007. His classmate, Doris, invited him to attend Track of Talents and Creative Life and since then he'd plugged in to church and had been one of the faithful and consistent servant in the House!

Leong came from a Catholic background and had always felt that it was such a boring thing going to 'church'. But when he came to visit Eaglepoint, he felt that we were different and realised that he can actually have a relationship with God, not to mention getting to know a crazy new bunch of friends in Creative Life as part of the package.

It was through this journey that he finally received Christ into his life and got saved some time in Jan 2008 and was later baptised at the make shift pool at Mark's house in the same year.

"I'm a 100% Eaglepoint product, " he proudly declared as he stood here in my office.

Honestly, when he first came, I thought that he's quiet and possibly cos he's shy but once you get to know him, he's actually funny in his own way. Not to mention that he's a good brother. Just the other night, when Ching and I was working late in the office, he actually quietly waited for us at the cafeteria so that he can 'escort' us when we lock up in the dark when we go home around midnight. Not many guys had actually offered that kind of help... ahem...

Although he's currently at his final semester in Bachelor of Information Technology and Science at Monash University (Sunway), he is still one of the faithful cameraman and/or video editor for 1a.m. Shoot! In the short two years here, he'd started serving by helping to shoot the Track of Talents (TOT) performances and after attending Kareem's class on Basic Video Shooting, he learned the tricks of being a cameraman and from there, he was introduced to be an editor and a cameraman in PointCast. Now, he's the senior in all the areas!

When asked to describe some of the memorable moments about serving, his list started, "Watching the first PointCast episode that I edited, cringing every time I see the bad shots that I took, even getting the hosts' names wrong in credits once, working together with the video team on the Crooked music video shoot, getting lost to the location every day, doing live-cam on-stage shoot with Relent for Change Your World Kluang and recently at Bukit Jalil Golf & Country Resort for the the Easter Service."

For me, reading that list was kinda inspiring. Who would have thought that THAT quiet guy had so much to say?! I guess it could only mean that he really does enjoy serving together and enjoy serving in all those areas! Now, THAT's call a Doulos (love-slave). Not just serving without complain but enjoying serving together!

And to top it all off, the 'challenge' that he felt he had in serving is "Not being able to give more time due to studies." Now, that's call a reasonable excuse - of all the people that say that they do not want to serve because it's taking up too much of their time, here's someone that's already giving much and desire to be able to give more! What an inspiring spirit!

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Let's discover people from other zones! Every now and then, I'll feature someone that's serving in this house to you. This will not serve to replace getting to know them personally but i do hope that through this segment you'll also be inspired to serve and to serve together with these people! More coming up...

Saved at Sea with Michelle Hamilton

Last weekend, we had an invited speaker - Michelle Hamilton. She came humbly to share her testimony of how she was stranded and lost at sea for 3 days and through it all, she encountered God audibly and tangibly to survive that 3 days in the middle of South China Sea with no human and no help in sight. The fear of sitting in pitch blackness in the middle of the ocean with your back to a piece of wood, your feet flipping on the surface of water and wondering when you will die.

If you've missed it, you've just missed a chance to be ministered + a chance to bring someone to hear how real God can be when we are going through a storm + a chance to be prayed for prophetically + a good time enjoying yourselves.

Michelle was a really good storyteller, unraveling her story and capturing the audiences' attention in an uncomplicated yet so real that if you are open to hear from God, your faith would have increased.

100% Faith in God. That's her message. God wants a 100% of our faith in Him and not 50% or 80% of it. But with our own willful mind and sinful nature, how could we be so perfect? That is why, if you surrender and ask from Him, He will supernaturally empower it within us to have such great faith in Him.
Great faith comes from God!

That was the picture of the kind of ship that happened to pass by, saw her and picked her up and sent her to land. Out of the grasp of death, God picked her up and delivered her into safety. I don't want to spoil the fun and tell you everything so that you could grab your own chance in hearing it first hand. But I can tell you that it involve storms and sharks, angels and mermaid. =)

One of the thing that really gripped me was when she shared about a vision she saw 6 months ago. When she was ministering in Singapore, God called her into a vision where she was standing at the gates of Heaven and there were throngs of people standing outside the gates crying for God to let them into Heaven. They were even crying out to her asking for help that God will let them in. And Michelle turned to God and pleaded with God to let them in but God said this,
"These are the people that rejected me when I call them."

For me, that was most real. There were many times when I know God was calling me and I choose not to hear or do that which I know is the Holy Spirit's voice prompting me. We always think that there's tomorrow but some times, tomorrow may not come again for me or you...

Michelle's vision puts the fear of God back into my heart - not to treat God lightly. Who am I but a mere being that I can question God, doubt God, rebel against Him, ignore Him and accuse Him or throw a tantrum when He does not appear the way I want Him to be?

I am not God. He is. I repent, God. You are God and Your ways are higher than mine. No matter what people accuse of me or how hard and unfair living is, You are the one protecting me through the storm and I should remember that and not just allow the difficult moments to blind me from seeing Your goodness there with me.

One other thing I remembered Michelle mentioned was that God does not always pull us OUT of the storm (although this is what we want Him to do) but He went in and help us through the storm so that we emerge victorious. How many times can you remember or did not even realized but God had sent His angels and protected you against accidents, near death experience or even protected you from evil that's lurking at every corner in this fallen world?

The fact that you are still breathing, able to live a life is already proof that God is with you. Open up the newspaper, log on to news site and you will read of how people are being tortured and how mutilated human's morality can be and you know you are protected from it. Better give thanks to God due to Him than accuse Him and stand outside the gates begging to be let in when we threw the chance away by our own choice.

I am amazed at my faithlessness and I am amazed at God's patience with me...

Just people in the church: ELAINE ONG

Consistently every month, I’m sure to receive an email from ELAINE asking all the people involve in PointCast for our availability dates. If you’re in the team, you would know that she’s THE woman behind the scheduling of PointCast. And if you see PointCast happening week after week, it didn’t just ‘happened’ to be. Elaine Ong is one of the main person that ensure it will ‘happen’ – she’s the PointCast Executive Producer cum scheduler!

Elaine was invited to Eaglepoint almost 12 years ago by her friend and she can still vividly account her first experience in Eaglepoint.

She described, “When I first came to church, Charlene Liang was the song leader that day. I remember clearly that she was rallying the people to come back to God. In my heart, it feels like God was saying to me, ‘welcome home, my daughter’ and I cried so much that day. Since then, I know that Eaglepoint is my home.”

Elaine was first roped in by Kevin Lau to help start and build a Multimedia team together. At first, when Kevin said that Kareem was going to join them, she was a little hesitant (cos she thought ‘Kazo’ is weird…) but then once she got to know Kareem, she found that he’s a great guy and a most generous friend. Now, they are BFFs!!

That's Kaz and Elaine!

“I remember the time when Kevin, Kareem and I had to superimpose Kareem’s head onto Stephen Chow’s body from Kungfu Hustle clips for the Breakout Awards video; we had so much fun working together even though we laboured continuously for about 3 days on the project. I enjoyed those times tremendously,” she said as she recalls from memory.

Serving together has given her a platform to get to know more people, especially those in the 1a.m. ministry as well as those that go to other weekend services but the team has their challenges as well. There are never enough volunteers chipping into the big effort of a production and it often falls back to the same few editors. She hopes that more committed volunteers will join the team and stick with it.

Sad to say but Elaine will be leaving us soon as she’s moving back to her hometown in Muar in anticipation of a new job as the Advertising & Promotions Manager for Dataran Pahlawan Melaka Megamall. She felt that it’s time she return home to care for her parents and this job came timely for it. With the peace from God, she accepted the job offer and will be starting first thing next month.

“I want to thank Pastor Tim, Teresa and PC for being there for me all these years. The great family of Eaglepoint have definitely left a mark in my life and I would like to honour all of you by leaving your mark of legacy in my hometown as well. Thank you, to all of you, brothers and sisters who’d impacted my life. I’ll come back to visit!” she stated.

Although we will miss her, we will also wish the best for her in this new direction in her life.
Laine, we pray that in this new journey, you will discover more of God in your life, in every step you take and we pray for the grace and the blessing to be upon you! Muar is just a few hours, please come back for all the birthdays, special days and normal days too! =)

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Let's discover people from other zones! Every now and then, I'll feature someone that's serving in this house to you. This will not serve to replace getting to know them personally but i do hope that through this segment you'll also be inspired to serve and to serve together with these people! More coming up...