Preaching

When i was in Palau, i always complained. "This thought that i already put together is very important... so why can't i preach in front of the church so the Christians could receive it?" This was kind of one of my complaint and some people around me said that there will be time. I never put that in my mind and i continued praying, even complaint to God. But there was nothing happened. The request that i was making and sort of complaining it, it has dropped in front of me and they are more than what i was requesting. I am taking preaching practicum right now and i do my Sermon Briefs and Written Sermons also. I thought i was okay. But last Sunday, Pastor Andrew aked me to preach this coming Sunday (March 29, 2009), so that is what i will be doing this sunday. At the same time, one person that preach with Pastor Hedrick at the "Ground Under" Korean Church has withdraw from preaching....hopefully not.... and I go to this church with Pastor Hedrick and he has been encouraging me and asking me if i want to help him preaching at that Church. So guess what? Next Sunday, I probably will be delivering a sermon over there. This mean that I will preach this coming sunday, deliver my sermon next Friday for Preaching Practicum, and probably preach on Korean Church on the following Sunday. I just want to ask you to pray for me so I may not be dry on sermons.

Cross-Cultural Communication class to Trans World Radio

Last Monday our class of Cross-Cultural Communication made a trip to Trans World Radio which is the only Short Wave Radio Station over here in the island of Guam. This Radio Station is broadcasting about 25 different languages abroad the island. The source that they get for their broadcasting is coming from Singapore and according to my observation when we went to their office, I assume that their Hot Spot or one of their main target is in China. When I asked about their stations, they have 14 stations on their own and most of the broadcast go through some other stations which they have partnership with. The tour on their station was really amazing and I hope it opened the window of opportunity to some of my classmates in Cross-Cultural Communication for their future ministries. As the tour continued, I learned that those people who are working over there, all of them have different backgrounds and none of them are the same. Some were farmers, some were working with some Naval defensive devices, some were working with electrical stuffs, so they are just a rainbow color in that one station producing Fruit Loop Cereal to the world and I think that is very good. The station suppose to have 12 crew members and as for now, it only have 7 people working on the station, so pray for them so they may find some people that could help them out.

The tour was really helpful and it kind of helped me out a little bit because I saw some materials in that station that gave me some ideas of how to build my own studio. Yes... I am planning to come up with a small studio sometimes in the future that would help to process the albums and any types of songs for those people who are gifted in singing. This is another type of small ministry that I want to come up with. Even though I say a lot of things that I want them to happen, I do not have any control of doing them. They are all in God's control. I also learned something new while I was there. Even though I took Auto Mechanic Technology back in Palau, and learned a little about the diesel engines, I did not know that there are some diesel engines that could function without using a glow plug. In a gas engine, it uses spark plug and in diesel engine, it uses glow plug. But I just found out that there are diesel engine that can cause a combustion chamber without using a glow plug. Combustion chamber is a moment when fuel meets with air and fire to produce energy or power. In regular diesel engine, it has glow plug and that glow plug is function as spark plug. But this does not have any glow plug. I think the it has more power to its compression chamber. In the engine, it has four stages to produce power. Intake Chamber, Compression Chamber, Combustion Chamber, then Exhaust Chamber. The fuel and air is taken to the cylinder block (Intake) and the pistion presses it and make the fuel hot and thinner (Compress) and then the fire is produced to cause the fuel to explode (Combust) and the debries and smoke after the combustion will come out of the cylinder block (Exhaust). But since there is no glow plug or spark plug, then I would assume that the compression chamber is not only heating up the fuel to make it thin, but I think it compress it until it is hot enough to combust or explode without using any spark plug or glow plug. Well, other than what I learned in that radio station, I enjoyed the trip.

Being a former military soldier, I took some courses of supervision and I was also trained to take charge of any sort of leadership. There were some point I took charge of responsibilities over some soldiers in my company. But taking leadership in Military is totally different from assuming leadership in the Church or any sort of ministry leadership. When I went to Palau after my military contract, I started joining Shalom Youth which is the youth for Koror Evangelical Church. Joining that small youth group, I had a chance to take little responsibilities by hosting the program on friday nights or taking care of some youths with their questions regarding the Bible and our Christian lives. With that practical training, I was growing very fast and learned so much through these young beautiful youths. Since I was not the average age but little older than them, I considered them as my children. When someone approach me or if I call one of them, I address them with "My Child" before I start my conversation with him/her. In late 2005 or early 2006, I was chosen to be one of the leader of this youth group. all the Officers and leaders went to the front of the Church and Pastor Kuartei prayed for us. At that moment, I gained more horse power of taking my job more seriously as a leader. I started getting rid of my habitual sins and started improving my Christian life. Every three months, we have a Youth Conference and our youth attend this conference. Since the conference starts on Friday night and ends in Sunday morning, we pack our bedding, clothes, foods, and anything that we need during those days and then go to the village where conference is held. Through those times that we sleep together and eat together, I also learned more and learned how to open up and feel free to share my problems to them because I gained my trust toward them through those fellowship with them. With that little leadership of Shalom, I become more active on church activities and started taking initiative of taking responsibilities at Koror Church. Our youth also sometimes were asked to help some group of youth like Ngetpang Youth to help them singing and help them to be confidence on thier posture of singing in front of the Church and at the same time, teaching them how to attract other youths to join their group. After those many fellowship with the youths, I grew up so fast in my Christian life and wanted more. So then, I started taking PIBC courses in Palau TF and started attending Church Leadership Meetings whenever it happened. It was well trained in practical training while I was in Palau, so when I came to Guam Campus, it was easy for me to blend in to this atmosphere of Christian College. If it was me, I would recommend a person to at least serve the Church for one year so he or she could at least get a sense of how to be a servant before they come to school. I believe that if a person who does not serve comes to this campus and attend the class and try to live the standard in this campus, that person will struggle for quite some times before he or she gets the idea of how to survive in this campus. For me, I was well trained for four years in Palau Church, so when I came, it was just moving from my house in Koror to my house in Ngarchelong.

Palauan Money

As I was researching and look for some materials that I could use as a source for my Term Paper for Micronesian Church History, I learned a lot that I did not even know. When people talk about Palauan Money, they do not really go all the way to detail. They do not really dig deep to find out where these money came from. I was researching and found out where these Palauan Money possibly came from. In early years before 1600's (i do not really know exact century), the people from Java or Javanese people were making trades with Palauans. They were really good partners on trading and I am speculating that these beads could be the ones that the Javanese people use to trade with Palauans and get some trading sources in Palau. These beads are existing in Indonesia and Nepal. I heard some Palauans saying that the beads that comes from Indonesia are not real because they are less weight than the ones in Palau. That may be true about the weight, but the ones in Indonesia have different values than the ones in Nepal. Also, the beads in Nepal have different weight than the ones in Indonesia. At the same time, there are beads in Bali that are almost the same as the ones that i have mentioned on top. The only prove that i can give is that there are no materials in Palau that makes these beads and the only place that causes these beads to come to Palau is the trade between Javanese and Palauans. There is one blog that I follow and she has a business of selling these beads with many different sizes and different colors.

I read some article that long time ago in Palau, when they measure the value of the bead or "Bachel", they hang it on the branch of the tree to see which one is weighing more and than they will identify which one is valuable if they have same style and colors. Do I value these money in Palau right now? Maybe or maybe not. Do i believe that they are originally Palauan Money? No. So what shall i do now? Accept them just to keep the cultures and tradition in Palau moving. The pictures on top are from four different places. The firs one on Top Left is not from Palau but there are some beads that shaped like it in Palau but different color and considered as real Palauan Money. The one on Top Right is not from Palau but the size is just like of some money in Palau. The designs are different from the ones in Palau because the ones in Palau are either plain or have a little designs on them. I believe that the reason why is because there were not many materials or tools that they could used long ago to come up with the designs that you see over here right now.

Fellowship

Yesterday I was playing basketball with some of my brothers on the basketball court and I really enjoyed it. But there was something after that that I enjoyed the most. Right after I finished playing, I went to have some good conversation with Matias and Tinel. The topic of our conversation was general topics about our Christian lives. Through that short conversation, we really got to know each other more and we opened up to each other. While we were still talking, Herr Gorges came and joined us. When he came, the time was around 7:30pm. We continued talking while Matias took of because he was preparing himself for work. Without knowing the time, our conversation covered a lot of good testimonies that we do not really talk about during normal days in PIBC. Through those testimonies and good conversations, we not only got new informations from each other, but we also learned new things together. With Herr Gorges with us, he helped us to understand a little bit of the things that were unclear to our minds. After we finished this quality time with conversation, I realized that the time was already 9:00pm. This little conversation, I value the most because the fellowship that was situating was priceless. There is only little time in our lives that we can use to share our testimony with our neighbors or anyone that we know. I always value these little time because it helps me grow in my Christian life. It may be only a little conversation, but the testimonies that I heard from Tinel and the advice that I took from Herr Gorges was valueable to me. These are the things that I can say "I treasure them" because I can use them to shape up my life and at the same time, draw me closer to the Almighty God and Everlasting Father.
Tinel is one of the Chuukese brother that I really appreciate as being part of my life. To me, he has proved tom me that he is one of the person that I can depend on. There are a lot of students on this campus that have inspired me like Kinamwe, Joel, Raynard, Alisha, Jaynee, Hudson, Mesikt, Keiny and some other students that I have not mentioned in here, in many different ways. I am living with people who have different varieties of talents, skills, gifts and personalities that a lot of people are wishing to hang around with them. It has been a blessing for me to be in this Guam Campus with these students. I cannot do nothing but just to thank God for providing these good people to my life.

Global Congress

This coming June, there will be Call2All Asian Global Congress that will be held in Hong Kong. This is organized by Call2All Mission and I want to go to this conference to seek partnership and make connections with other agencies that would be willing to give a hand on that project of Mission Organization that i was talking about previously. Please pray for me so this could happen. The conference will be held on June 01 to June 06. At the same time, I am also one of those students that will be going to Thailand Mission Trip. This trip is only going there once a year. I want you to pray for me because I want to find a place or agency over there that would be willing to host missionaries over there in Thailand. I feel that going to Thailand for only 10 weeks or less every year to minister and wait for about eight months before going back need to be adjusted. Waiting for eight months is too long. So pray for me regarding these plans that i want to accomplish, so if it is Will of God, it may happen.

Love Uncoditionally

There was a time that i did not know and kept asking why God wants us to love our enemies or the people who hurts us. But when i started thinking about it and researching about it, i finally realized it and connected it into a whole idea. This is how i think why God wants us to love unconditionally. As you remember when i mentioned on one of my post earlier that i like to look at the suffering as a blessing. I started thinking about it and kept saying that sufferings are blessings but i did not really know the meaning even though i was living in it. The only thing that i knew about it is that when i overcome that suffering, it brings me joy that i do not really experience from other blessings that i receive from God. But when i kept fighting and flipping this idea back and forth while connecting its like im dealing with geometry, i suddenly found the solution that i was looking for. I will give one illustration that will give us a clear picture of what i want to show.

Two best friends are enjoying their fellowship with each other every single days of their lives because they share things in common. these two people are both Christians. They recognize the blessings that they receive from God through their peaceful friendship. They have a really good friendship and that is 50% of the unconditional love that i am talking about. Now, where is the other 50%? The other 50% love is when they become mad at each other or their ideas contradict each other. Why is it love when they contradict each other? As we know that these two people are Christians. When they have problems in their lives, they pray to God. When they need help, they pray to God. The reason why the other 50% love happens when they go against each other is because they will focus more to God because they are about to loose their friendship.

More clear explanation on this situation. If I laugh with a person near me, he gives me joy because we have a good fellowship. This mean that i should love him because he gives me a good time. If this person makes me mad or disappointed, I would start praying to God and ask why is this happening. Because of that person, I drew more close to God because i was seeking help. If he did not made me mad, i probably did not come to God and say "I need help". I think this should tell us that we should love people who hurts us more than people that we normally want to hang out with.

Pain brings our attention to God more than we normally do. People hurting us makes us pray to God more than we normally do. The more we face tension, the more we come to God and seek for help. Love unconditionally.