Day 9 (6/28): We're safely back to Caracas

Safely Back to Caracas

Thank you all of you for your prayers. We've arrived at Caracas safely this morning. Pastor Har is going to give sermon in two churches tomorrow. Please keep him in your prayers that he can sleep well tonight, Sunday service will run smoothly, and people will accept Christ as their Savior tomorrow.

Have a blessed Sunday tomorrow!

Day 8 (6/27): Last visitation and Goodbye to Punto Fijo

Last Visitation

Pastor Har and Norman visited the two guys in the picture a couple times. In the first visit, the man on the right hand side accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior but the man on the left hand side wasn't ready and he was distracted in the middle of the visit. Pastor Har and Norman decided to go back for a second visit and the man who rejected the gospel the first time was very interested in the gospel and made the decision to be Christ's follower!!! (Pastor Har could share with you the details of this exciting story!) Praise the Lord two more people have entered the Kingdom of God.


These two men accepted Christ as their Savior and Lord in this trip, praise the Lord!


Grace, Alicia, and other people visited a couple and the accessory shop owner during the same visit period.

We took the bus back to Caracas at 9 PM. It was a very meaningful trip to Punto Fijo and all of us have learned a lot, may it be sharing our faith, seeing God's work in Punto Fijo, or learning about teamwork. We can't thank God enough for the opportunity to participate in His ministry through this short term mission trip.

Day 7 (6/26): Visitation Again and Workshop "From Sichuan to Venezuela"

Visiting More People

We continued visiting more people and sharing with them what we believed and how they could have an eternal life. Some of them were very receptive but some showed less interest. In either way, we did our best to share with them our faith and let God do the rest no matter what their responses were. Our team leader reminded us several times not to focus only on the result though it was important but also focus on the process. God asks us to be faithful servants but not high achievers. This is another important lesson we´ve learned in this trip.


These believers have missed church for a while. We encouraged them to attend church again.


Story time by our guest. We little girls are listening to his sharing on history and views on life. We also tried to share our faith with him but he wasn't ready for accepting Christ yet.Please keep him in your prayers.


Brother Keung and Pastor Har shared with this man about our faith and loving God.


Grace and Lisa offered prayers for this young lady during the visit.

We told the lady in white and the man in orange about our amazing God.

Workshop: From Sichuan to Venezuela - Where Can You Find True Peace?

A severe earthquake just happened in Sichuan, China, less than two months ago. Robbery happens in Venezuela every day, many people live in distress. Where is peace? Where can we find true and long-lasting security? Can we find a place without any crimes? Where are we going after this life? Pastor Nip and Mr. Leung shared with us we could find true peace and they could overcome the fear of being robbed again. The key is knowing God who is the way, truth, and life. Do you know God already?


Mr. Leung shared with us his experience of being robbed and how he overcame the fear.





Pastor Nip told us where we could find true peace.

Whisky :D (it's equivalent to "Cheers" in the US) The three people sitting on the left in the first row are new believers!

Day 6 (6/25): Congrats to New Believers and Workshop on Faith Strengthening

Another Day of Visitation.... With Great News!

Alicia's eyes were slightly infected and she sort of had pink eyes. She got some eye drops and rested for a day. Thank God she felt better in the evening.

The rest of us were divided into different teams and visited different people in town. One group visited a new believer who is a young mother who has been busy taking care of her 2-year-old daughter and taking in charge of an expanding convenient store with her husband. Since she's busy with work and family, she hasn't been able to attend church in a while even though she has a desire to know God better. We showed our care for her and gave her a book on Christianity basics. We hope the local fellowship will follow up with her and may she grow in Christ continuously.

Pastor Har, Muling, and Norman visited a few people and a couple. Praise the Lord a young couple accepted Christ as their personal Savior and Lord after listening to the gospel!!!! We were all very excited and happy for them now that they've become our brother and sister in Christ.

God bless this new believing couple!

Pastor Har's team also visited four other guys. The guy in dark orange top accepted Christ that day!

God so loves us that He sent His one and only beloved son to die for us so our relationship with God was restored. Thank you, Jesus!


Workshop on Faith Strengthening through Mutual Support at Church

Why do some spiritual giants have such strong faith? How did they attain that? Can we achieve that just like them? If you want to, yes, you can certainly grow strong in faith. Thanks to Pastor Har for teaching us how to strengthen our faith. Thank God we don't have to do this alone.



Pastor Har shared with us how to strengthen our faith.



A few of us sang a couple songs accompanied by Pastor Har's flute music. The audience liked it a lot and requested Pastor Har to play more music after the talk. (Pastor Har could consider being a flutist in the future ;) We then played a team game to better understand what is needed in an effective team. Pastor Har told us our faith could be strengthened not only through God's Word but also through other people.



Our fluist Pastor. Everyone enjoyed his music.



This pregnant young lady and her husband just accepted Jesus Christ that morning, praise the Lord!

Day 5 (6/24): Visitation and Workshop

Visitation

After a night of rest, we again were divided into groups and visited some people working in convenient stores. Dr. Wan, Lisa, Grace, and Vivian were accompanied by Florence from Punto Fijo Fellowship to visit people working at an accessory store and a convenient store. We learned more about them and showed them our care.

What's the typical life for Chinese in Caracas and Punto Fijo like? A lot of them are from Guangdong Province in China. Some of them immigrated to Venezuela with their whole families and some still have family members in China. It's very common for them to send their young kids back to China for education. As a result, the family members are scattered around and can't enjoy quality family time. Some young adults might come to Venezuela for better opportunities but due to the language barrier, it could be hard for them to get a job and make friends. They could feel very lonely and bored but felt there were no other options. Safety is an issue in Venezuela. Robbery and kidnapping happens very often and this is detrimental to the development of a society.

We listened them and shared with them they could be hopeful and find the truth and light in Jesus Christ. At the end of the visit, we prayed with them and invited them to come to our workshops in the next few days. For sure life for immigrants is hard but God knows our hardship. He empowers us and leads us through. God, we so need you!!!



Grace and Florence prayed with a lady who's working at a convenient store.


Dr. Wan and Vivian prayed with this young lady before they left. (Don't get me wrong, Vivian is NOT shopping:P)

Some sharing from Grace:

This trip has reminded me how blessed I am to have a good church to attend, much love from brothers and sisters at T4C. I love T4C and all of you, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ!! Brothers and sisters in the Restaurant Fellowship, I miss you all!!!

More Visits

One team visited a couple other families in the afternoon. They've overcome many challenges after moving to Venezuela from China such as learning Spanish, getting used to a different lifestyle, meeting new people, and finding jobs. One of their relatives is going through a really tough time so the whole family is discouraged and feels somewhat hopeless. We shared with them our faith and God can bring us hope and lead us through. Our life is in His hands, God can build us up through challenges so that we can carry out His plan upon us. May you all know Christ and live an abundant life as promised by God!

Workshop on Married Couples Communication 101

No one is immune from interacting with other people in the community. Teamwork is emphasized over and over again at workplace and communication is a critial key to make it successful. It seems like we practise communication every day but why do so many people complain their message isn't heard or their feelings are neglected by their spouses no matter how hard they try? Are women really from Venus and men from Mars? Dr. Wan gave us some tips on effective communication and shared with us five love languages between couples:

1. Words of affirmation; 2. Quality time; 3. Gifts; 4.Service; 5. Physical touch

These skills aren't only applicable to couples but also in other relationships (hey, tip #5 physical intimacy is reserved for married couples though.)

All communication experts-to-be are paying attention to Dr. Wan 's talk.

Participants engaged in the workshop and shared their examples and experiences. It was a good evening.

Story time: The workshop was planned to be held in a hotel conference room but it poured before the worshop began and electricity was out. in the entire neighborhood. After waiting for 30 minutes, we decided to hold the workshop to Willam and Florence's house. (William and Florence are part of the host team of Punto Fijo Fellowship.) Many thanks to both of them for opening their house. We also found it cozier to hold such workshop in their house. Thank God for His better plan :D

Day 4 (6/23): Riding to Punto Fijo

Let's go!

On 6/23, we took a bus ride to our second stop of this trip, Punto Fijo. We were told the bus would be like a freezer and were suggested to bring thick jackets. To our surprise, it was pretty hot in the bus because the air-conditioner and some mechanics weren't working quite right. We had to stop on the road on our way to Punto Fijo and the driver fixed it. All passengers were a little worried if the bus was fine and how long it would take the driver to fix it. Thank God that it only took the driver 15 minutes to get it going again!



Look at us, we were ready for the second stop except that lazy Viv was dozing off, zzz :) (Hope she wasn't snoring too loudly.)


We were waiting in line to hop onto the bus to Punto Fijo, yay!


Our skillful driver fixed the bus in a flash.

Safely Arrived

After 9 hours of ride, we finally arrived at Punto Fijo at 8 PM. Thank God for His protection throughout the long ride. Brothers and sisters from the local fellowship treated us with much love. They picked us up at the bus station and took us out for a late dinner. Apology to starve them for a long time (well, food tastes even better when we're real hungry so they should thank us, right? :)


Cheers :D Look at our happy faces after the long ride and a yummy dinner!

Day 3 (6/22 The Lord's Day): Market and Worship

Reaching out at Chinese Market


"Social Club China" is packed with people every Sunday morning

Where would you think to be a good contact point to reach out to people? Restaurants? Subway stations? Starbucks? Supermarket? We went to the "Social Club China in Caracas" on Sunday morning. This is a place where people can buy fresh veggies, poultry, Chinese drama VCD, Chinese style accessories, etc. It's like the farmer's market in the US. This market was packed with Chinese and native Venezuelans busy doing grocery shopping.



There were people standing by the entrance of this market to wait for their family or friends. Some were listening to music or chatting. Our team members grasped the opportunity to talk to them and find out more about them and invited them to join us for Sunday service and meet some cool people. Most of them came from China and have encountered much hardship and have been trying real hard to fit into the culture. They showed hints of frustration about life but couldn't figure out a way out and seemed lonely and bored. This doesn't only happen in Venezuela but sounds familiar among any new immigrants in foreign countries.


Pastor Har talked to a couple men (the standing one and the one in a white top sitting on a chair)

One of the people we spoke with were a little reluctant when we first approached her but her attitude has changed later and even showed up at church in the afternoon!!! We couldn't thank God enough! We also handed out "Chinese Today" gospel magazines to some vendors. Hope they'll enjoy reading the testimonies and learn more our true God in the universe. God has everything planned out and this social gathering place could very well be a focal point of where the gospel is spread out in Caracas not only to the Chinese but people of all nations.

Sunday School in Caracas

Pastor Har, Dr. Wan, Muling, Alicia, and Lisa taught three different Sunday school classes on "Why Study the Bible", "Q&A for New Believers", and "Lessons from Joseph" before Sunday service at 4 PM. We hoped the believers would be better equipped with God's Word for their growth in Christ and this fitted one of the 5P's we talked about yesterday (hint: please check the first P).

Worshipping God together

At Sunday service, we started worshipping our God with songs in both Cantonese and Spanish. Though the congregation consisted of people who speak different languages and with different background, we were united together because of Jesus Christ. He's the head of the Church and links all of us together through His love and salvation for us. It was a beautiful picture :D (The Spanish worship songs were VERY WONDERFUL too!!! :) Well, we've to admit the great worship team played a big role too. (Come back for snapshots of Sunday school and Service!)


We praised our God together.

Dr. Wan gave a sermon based on Paul's teaching in 1 Tim. 4:12 on "2 Attitudes and 3 Hearts" (兩意三心) (2 attitudes: sincerity,(言語中要有誠意) respect (行為上要有敬意); 3 hearts: love (愛心), faith (信心), and purity (清潔的心)). Thank God for His Word as the lamp unto our feet and light in our path. May we all grow in Christ and walk the walk in Christ together.


Dr. Wan gave a sermon on 1 Tim. 4:12.

Next Stop

We're headed to Punto Fijo tomorrow which is 8 hours from Caracas. We'll keep you posted on our eventful journey.

Your participation: Please pray for us to have safe trip to Punto Fijo; our safety there; wisdom to say the right things at the right time to people there; courage to share with them the gospel and our testimony; physical strength; unity among team members.

Something funny for you: It's 1:10 AM right now (we're just 30 min ahead of the US, yea, that's right, it's 30 min) and one of our teammates just got up and was going to get ready for the Punto Fijo bus ride. She was puzzling why the night felt so short and I just put her to bed again, LOL :D (Don't ask me who she is :P)