Luke 14:27 (New King James Version)
"And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple."
Third year
Third year was an eventful year. Before the start of first semester, I invited a friend of mine to attend Benny Hinn's crusade here at Singapore Indoor Stadium. God touched him mightily and he immediately decided to change from a "tidak-apa" (lukewarm) believer to a serious soldier of God. Eventually, he caught the vision of having a cell group in NTU for our community, and decided to fight this battle alongside with me. During that time, there were only 5 of us, including our good friend Adrian who was still happily dealing with his own agenda (please approach him for more details haha). Since this friend was so overwhelmed and excited for God. We joined FOC and led a group of freshmen together. Through our "legendary" lepak skills and lawak skills, we managed to know quite alot of new friends and invited about 50% of the total freshmen to enjoy the fun of "Festival of Praise" at Singapore Indoor Stadium before semester 1 commenced.
For the first semester, both of us did endless visitations and attended numerous "yumcha" sessions at "Ah Fang" to build relationship with friends. During this semester, the church service was only held at Expo so we were having tough challenges inviting not just the new friends, but fellow believers as well. Cell group was still far out from NTU (at Eunos) so only me and my friend were able to attend. Despite of all these hardships, both of us were still hungry for more.
After months of laboring, suddenly, at the end of first semester, there was a surprise: the church is going to have services at two locations (Expo and Jurong West) starting in December 2007, one church in two locations! Upon hearing this announcement during the service, my heart was pounding strong and I felt strongly a voice in my heart which tells me that it is time for the NTU cell group to come to past!
With this, I proposed to my leader (Joanne) to follow the church's direction and have one cell group in two location haha. Initially she was reluctant but after a while, she felt that this is the direction we should go and agreed with it. With this plan, she would lead cell group for twice a week in two locations (thursday and friday), and also attend service in two locations (saturday Expo, Sunday Jurong West). Her sacrifice was really amazing. With all these great news, I went overseas for a vacation joyfully.
Upon my return from the vacation trip, I got another surprise: this good friend of mine who had been fighting alongside with me as a good comrade, suddenly decided to move on to other direction in life. Now, I am left devastated to fight this battle alone.
However, God is always faithful. As I was going to give up, it was during this period of time that God continued to use Joanne to encourage me, besides, something happened and Adrian suddenly had a change in his attitude and behavior (for more details, please approach him again haha). So when second semester started, I continued the journey and Joanne recommended me to attend leader's meeting (yes, we need recommendation to attend leader's meeting, it took me few years in church to start attending it).
As I started attend leader's meeting. God gave me another surprise. Initially, our zone leader, Ian, was not so keen for our cell group to be in two locations. Then one night after the leader's meeting, he told me to stay and asked me "Ching Seng, I prayed and saw your face, I knew about this plan for the Malaysians in NTU, I was not keen but now, please tell me what can I do to make it happen?" I was too shocked and almost cried in joy when I heard this. I took this as another confirmation from God to proceed with this plan to set up a cell group in NTU starting from the Malaysians community.
After the confirmation from Ian, I went for an interview and started to attend "Home Cell Leadership Training" class which lasted for 13 weeks. It lasted throughout my second semester until exam season. It was a long and tiring training but a memorable one. By God's grace, I managed to complete my training and also managed my school work, eca, and ministries. I also managed to source out for a IO (10-week industrial orientation) company before going into final year.
For now, the cell group has around 7 to 8 people. As everything seems to work fine. I got hit by another trial again. With C+ as my best grade, I got the worst results of my entire study in NTU during third year second semester, although I was quite satisfied with my performance. To make things worse, I appealed two subjects and got rejected. With this kind of results, I started to doubt whether I am capable or fit to be a leader, and experienced some depression.
Then, I remembered the verse from Luke 14:25-33.
In order to be faithful disciple (not just mere believer), we have to carry the cross. Carrying the cross signifies self-denial. I have to deny my own pleasure, plans, comfort, feelings, talents, attitudes, finances, etc. By denying of ourselves, we are surrendering every part of our life to adjust according to God's plan, and not asking God to adjust His plan according to our life. His will be done, not ours!
With this, I surrendered to God and He brought me to a new level, preparing me for the final year of my study in NTU...
(To be continued)
