World Mission Day

Hey everyone!
Today we celebrate World Mission Day. Let us remember Missionaries all over the world who continue to offer their lives to be witnesses of Christ's love today.
Maybe some of you are thinking about becoming missionaries. in the next 3 posts are 3 interviews of people who share with us what they do, the struggles they encounter and their drive to keep going.

As missionaries, let us look at the signs of the times. Today's signs are not very good and the world forecasts gloomy days ahead. World leaders, finance experts and the man on the street all say the future is bleak. Large financial insitutions have crashed. There are retirees who have lost all their money in one night. This afternoon at 99cents Sushi, a group of 50 to 60 year old (babyboomers) ladies were having lunch and sharing their views over the financial crisis. One lady remarked as I walked past, "We've always been taught to invest, not save. Invest, invest. Don't save!" (P.S/ They did not look like ladies who would NOT have dined at 99cents sushi)

When I reached home, I opened the letterbox and recieved a nice gift from Singapore Power. The Power bill! From Oct we are now paying 21% more than before. I would gladly support this! Sure! let's save electricity right? but Singapore's energy source is 80% natural gas. An interesting fact, I recently discovered. Hmmmm.... Apparently the rates for natural gas is tied to the rates of oil prices! Sounds ridiculous? Does our country really need this 21% increase in electricity bills at such a time? And thanks Singtel... heard you guys are in the works to raise your charges too.

I wonder if water tax will increase too? There's a 30% water conservation tax. While we are often told that Singapore does not have enough water, interestingly we have a lot of rainfall. Enough to supply our country's demand for water according to experts.. you can google this out for yourself. Well, Singapore is really small right? and how many months in a year are considered wet days? In the past couple of months it's been raining and raining with some dry hot days in between. How do I know? I need to time my laundry. I get good sun at least twice a week now! According to a friend, November and December is going to bring more rain. How about a break on the water charges for those months? hehe.

It's been bad news one after another right? 1st there was the China milk scare. Then the current financial crisis. But before this... food prices were soaring! and so was the cost of oil! Thankfully food prices are coming down and oil has gotten cheaper by today's standards. Chocolate lovers can take heart to know that they can still afford to indulge in a little chocolate. It seems that chocolate prices have fallen at supermarkets. I'm not a chocolate-friendly person but this is what I noticed. And the chocolates aren't even from China. Oops! Maybe they're old stock from Australia and elsewhere which stores couldnt get rid off till the China products were taken off the shelf? hehe.. check the expiry date ya? haha Oh yes and taxi fares went up! Maybe to some Singaporeans living in Serangoon Gardens, it's the foreign workers dormitory coming up. In today's Crime Watch there's a special section on how to deal with foreign workers! Oh man!!!

I just received a text message. Someone died at a friend's block. Probably suicide! People! don't jump off buildings, don't jump off trains! Don't kill yourself! If you can hang in there for five years, things will get better! That's what Donald Trump said. be in bankruptcy or cancer.

The lesson to be learnt from all this is THIS: Nothing is certain! When I bought insurance with AIA, I never knew that they would be in hot soup some day! We spend so much making elaborate plans! what do we do with our material objects??? invest? save? the world would be a happy place if we could all live like St Francis of Assisi who said something like this: if you have something you worry you lose it. If you have nothing, you have no worry of losing it. In today's context, we stock up and we hoard. We possess, we own. We stamp our title over everything that is ours and we protect what is ours so that no one can take what is ours away from us. We don't think of collaborating, sharing or co-operating. How about sharing resources? Like having a common kitchen, sharing a community fridge with the neighbours or share electrical appliances so the community can conserve energy?
But in this world, community is impossible? Every man for himself? Can we structure our lives to be interdepdent on each other? At family level, within the community and among countries... Often greed gets in the way!

But nothing is certain. we can never be 100% certain of anything! except ONE THING!!! AND IT IS THIS ONE THING THAT WE SHOULD THEN BUILD OUR LIVES UPON! Jesus Christ, yesterday, today, forever.

How can we be missionaries today? Invest our time and effort and energy to know God. Invest in prayer time! Because prayer gives us that inward strength and grace and wisdom to trust in God. When the storms come and the heavy winds rush against us, we will stand strong because we have invested in a solid rock foundation! When we know God, we know where to go to seek him to be our refuge, our shelter, our fortress in times such as these. Invest, invest, invest in a life with Jesus!

And don't forget Save, save, save. Remember Jesus Saves! There are people all around us who are waiting for Hope to come! These people for the longest time in their lives have wished and wished. Wishing is magical. Wishing is not going to help anyone. Wishing gives no solution. But HOPE is concrete. Hope is having a way out of the tunnel. Hope is having a plan. Hope is certain. Hope is J-E-S-U-S.

Let's strive to be contemplative missionaries who take time to pray and listen to the Spirit at work in our lives and in the world. Let us also strive to be prophetic missionaries who speak the Truth to others and to the world. Let us not be in it for popularity rankings or for honours. Often the truth hurts and is even rejected. Our world has changed so drastically, the biggest change ever, in the last 100 years. Including the greatest amount of injustice, violence, poverty and suffering! Yup it's all in this last century. And the injustice, violence, poverty and suffering is set to increase unless we speak and echo the truth!