Grace Notes

Singapore and Malaysia/Strong in the Lord Conf.

Summary of our Malaysia Trip!

Thank you to everyone who was praying for us! We saw the Lord answer many prayers, and work out countless details. So many things that could have gone wrong didn’t. Many things that we were hoping for happened. Sarah and I, plus the 4 American girls who came along with us saw the Lord work in mighty ways as we “labored together” with the Asian young ladies throughout the 3 conferences. There was a real spirit of “one accord”, which is a rare and powerful thing. Many bright lights shining in one accord is a lot brighter then just one bright light shining alone!

During the 18 days we were in Singapore and Malaysia we ran 3 Bright Lights conferences.
The first conference was running simultaneously with the 3 day family homeschool conference in Meleka, Malaysia. We had about 90 girls attending and 20 older girls helping us by leading the small groups.

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Rachel and Chrissy
I felt so privledged to be able to spend time with all of these girls. They were so much fun to be with and welcomed us so warmly into their country!

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We took all of our girls up on stage the last day to do a special presentation for the parents of the songs and verses we had learned together.

Conference Number 2: Leader’s Training

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Our wonderful group of leaders!

This conference was much different. It was focused on teaching these older girls about discipleship, ministry, and staring Bright Lights groups in their areas. As I wrote in an earlier post, we stayed together in the Chalet, ate all our meals together and had lots of nice times together.

Conference Number 3: In conclusion to the Leader’s Training, we all led the Strong in the Lord conference together at a church in Singapore. This conference went very well, although it was not pulled off without struggle. I had the stomach flu that day, and others were sick as well. One of the rooms in the church became the “sick room” where those that weren’t feeling well could lay down throughout the day. The Lord was faithful to provide the needed strength at the needed times and the conference was a big sucess.

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The day before we left we went to the beach for a retreat with a Bright Lights group that has been meeting in Singapore for about 6 months. After some fun activities in the morning and lunch, we arranged some time for individual Bible study, group sharing, and one on one sharing time. It was a very nice last day.

Miscellaneous/Singapore and Malaysia

Jet lag….

This morning I woke up at 1:00am, my mom woke up at 2:00am, Sarah woke up at 2:30, and Stephen woke up at 4:30… yeah… our sleeping schedule is a little messed up right now. Looking on the bright side, the middle of the night is a great time to get stuff done! I got my whole room unpacked and organized. My mom organized the garage. 🙂

Miscellaneous/Singapore and Malaysia

Home!

We arrived back home in Cedar Rapids about 3 hours ago!

As we were sitting in row 66 at the very back of the plane eating “dinner”, the flight stewardess came by and served us coffee. Just as we were beginning to sip our full little cups of coffee, we felt the plane began to swerve and jolt. (Perfect timing I thought) The turbulence increased and became pretty intense—like a roller coaster—causing the coffee to fly up out of our cups and all over us and our clothes. We all began laughing and yes, we had many coffee stains on our clothes.

It feels great to be back home, and we’re very grateful for the Lord’s protection and guidance all along the way. More reports and pictures coming soon.

Singapore and Malaysia/Strong in the Lord Conf.

Strong in the Lord Conference in Singapore!

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Here we are singing yesterday at the Bright Lights “Strong in the Lord Conference” in Singapore! The girls who had been attending the Bright Lights Leader’s Training served as the leaders of the small groups. They were an excellent team.
The conference went great, and once again we were encouraged to see the Lord work.
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Nickie Biegler, Jolynn and Eunice about ready to go on stage for a skit

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Our tradition in the States is to have pizza after Bright Lights conferences, so it was fun to have a change and go out for “Hong Kong Dim Sum” instead. 🙂

Singapore and Malaysia/Strong in the Lord Conf.

Singapore Bright Lights Leaders Training

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This Tuesday-Friday Sarah has been teaching a Bright Lights Leaders Training in this “holiday chalet” by the beach in Singapore. We are grateful to the Lord for this peaceful, quiet location to come away and focus on God and ministry preparation.

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I am sitting here in a large warm room with a breeze blowing through the open windows… listening to Sarah teach these girls how to begin their own Bright Lights groups in their areas. We are very excited about more Bright Lights groups beginning on this side of the world! Ongoing groups led by local girls are effective because they provide continual discipleship, follow-up, fellowship and positive peer pressure…and young girls gain so much from having a godly role model in their life.

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The other night as we were walking across the Changi boardwalk to some resturants we were able to watch this beautiful sunset.

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Yesterday several mothers prepared a special tea party for our group.

We have about 13 girls from Singapore, 4 from Malaysia, 1 from Indonesia, and 2 from Hong Kong. And yes, they all speak English. 🙂 We’ve had a lot of fun learning about each other’s cultures, foods, imitating each other’s accents, singing numerous national anthems, etc. But most of all, it’s exciting to spend time with sisters in Christ on the other side of the world who love the Lord and are similar to us in so many ways.

I haven’t been able to get online very easily where I’m staying right now, but I have many more pictures I’ll post later. Thank you to all of you who are praying for us.

This Saturday we are doing a Bright Lights “Strong in the Lord” conference here in Singapore. I believe we have about 200 mothers/daughters registered. The following Tuesday we fly home.

Singapore and Malaysia/Strong in the Lord Conf.

Full day!

Wow, there is so much to say… I’m not sure what to write about! Things have been going very well! I’m so grateful to the Lord for all the ways He has been answering prayers, arranging circumstances and details, softening girl’s hearts, etc. Here are a few pictures from today.

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In the afternoon all the girls went to a park in the jungle where we did lots of fun outside activities. We had a great time. The girls got excited about the monkeys who were trying to bother us and steal our food. Whenever they saw another monkey climbing around near us they would scream, “monkey! monkey!” They are so cute. (The girls, I mean. Not the monkeys. 🙂 )

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Here is a skit we did this morning that we call our “Taking Thoughts Captive Skit”.

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Here I am with new friends and old friends from last year. The best part of being on this side of the world is the people. 🙂

Singapore and Malaysia

Today we had a good afternoon of training with the Malaysian/Singaporian older girls who are helping us lead the confernece. We are all happy to have Stephen with us now. Here’s a picture I snapped as we were eating dinner tonight.
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Singapore and Malaysia

Report from Malaysia

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Here is our group– Chrissy, Rebekah, Sarah, Nickie, Elyssa and myself.

The first few days in Singapore we spent settling in, getting over jet lag, spending time with our friends here (who have treated us so well!) shopping, touring, and eating lots of different delicious food.

Yesterday we took a 4+ hour bus ride to Malaysia. We are staying at a large hotel where a homeschool conference will be held for homeschoolers throughout Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and a few other Asian countries. We will be speaking to the parents and leading a Bright Lights conference for the girls while the parents attend sessions.
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Here we are eating at local hawker stalls. I am eating Char Kuay Tiow with chili sauce and drinking lime juice. It was great! (but I did eat a little too much chili sauce… 🙂 )

My parents (who weren’t here last year) are doing great and right now they are out touring the town and eating lunch with new friends.

Stephen (who just flew in last night) is supposed to arrive here in Melacca in about a 1/2 hour. We’ve been missing him, and it will be nice to have him here.

In a few hours we begin “Teacher’s Training” where we will train all the older Singaporian and Malaysian girls who will help us with the conference. More pictures coming soon.

Singapore and Malaysia

In Singapore!!

We arrived here in Singapore yesterday after about 20 hours in the air. We were thankful to get into several good talks on the plane, also. We have had a very nice time so far visiting with lots of friends from last year and sight seeing. 🙂
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