Building Lives ! - Part 2 : Some Good News

Today we received some good news!

The first will be that our 40ft container should reach us by this week !

And the second, the landlord of STK Home will be likely extending our lease, so our kids will not have to go homeless ! Last week, we heard some news that the landlord wants the property back and we've been terribly concerned as our STK home in the integrated centre is still far from being ready.

Right now, we have some budget to build our first permanent office and purchase the the land. But the land prices here are crazy ! It has skyrocketed almost 4X in the last 6 months.


So the challenge right now is that though we have narrowed down our search for land, the land price is proving to be a massive problem. This may force us back to the drawing board to rework our our cost and potentially delay our building project by a year.

But saying that, we are still believing God for a breakthrough. And to find a suitable land to build this very special integrated centre. Its not just a community complex. But a church without walls, a place where the homeless can seek shelter, a place where victims can be protected and most significantly a place where more than 100 kids can call home.

Our envisoned integrated centre will have a office cum medical centre, a small warehouse to store all your donations, a church cum mass hall for our mass food distribution and a place where dreams can be restored !

So please continue to keep us in prayers. This is the next leap forward !

Diary : 5 Nov 2011

Today was our very much anticipated mass food distribution after coming back from Singapore.

But it didn't go as planned and it sure doesn't look like how it should have been.

Less than half the people turned up. Why the remaining half was not picked up by a staff who "misunderstood" and the people never made it here because they hadn't been informed earlier.

I was upset, but things were about to get worse.

The meeting started with close to 100 people and my deputy at this point was supposed to do a short sharing to keep the crowd entertained while waiting for more people to come. When we decided to continue with the service. The crowd was unusually unsettled, talking amongst themselves as the staff made introductions of our ministry before we started our gospel sharing.

Suddenly one lady spoke up. She asked "Isn't it too narrow minded to not allow people to collect items on behalf of relatives when we are not able to make it ?" She was referring to our system whereby only the people who came got to receive the goodie bags and we're not allowed to hold for others, as there will be no end to people asking on behalf of others.


But this question was the devil needed to throw the team off guard. The words in the question caused my staff much distress and she started to explain a lengthy rationale. Before she knew it she had taken up more than 30mins, eating into the gospel sharing portion.

Though we managed to convince the lady, we lost the greater picture. 

There was little we could do. Especially when the whole exchange was in Hmong. And by the time I stepped in. We only had 20mins to share. And with my translator in a state of disarray, she was not fully focused and started to amplify the sharing. So with every line, it took another 5 mins for her to explain.

I could only share for the last 10mins or so. But such great lessons were learnt today.

Where the devil is so terribly cunning that he can use a simple trigger to get people all ruffled up, resulting in the gospel not being fully preached to the people.

As much as I'm upset. Its also a reminder for our team to continuously go into prayer.

May this be the first and last of its kind !

Building Lives - Part 1 : A Worried Meeting

Today in the field staff meeting. My staff looked worried.

They have heard news that our landlord of our STK home may not be extending the lease as he has a family who may need the property.

And this is especially bad news for a lady who just joined us because she was kicked out of her family when her husband left her. So now, she may be even loosing the last available shelter over her head.

My newest staff Maay asked me..."Boss, if the landlord takes away the home, will we have a shelter over our heads ?" while trying to put up a strong front.

She knows that finding a house is going to be difficult especially with 13 kids and 2 staff . And with just 2 months before the contract expires, its hardly enough time to find another rental property.