Abba's House Asia

06/04/2024

Hey dear friends, just some very happy news to share with you about M’s baptism yesterday. She wanted to get baptized when she heard about today’s water baptism service in our own church’s Easter service and she had tears in her eyes. Said she has to finally do it and not hold back anymore. 6 years in the waiting. All glory to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, through endless ages. Amen!

(Yes it’s the same M we’ve been reaching out to through Abba’s House. Thank YOU friends for praying along with us!)

06/04/2024

Blessed Good Friday and Joyful Easter Sunday too! ❤️

Just a thank you so much to all those who have been praying and journeying with us here from the start of 2024 when the Lord put it on our heart to "resurrect" our Abba's House home church physical gatherings.

We’ve started this year with much uncertainty about how things would unfold. Yet He who called us is so faithful. Even when our home church for our homeless friends was put on hiatus for a few years due to caring for our children, and we felt disappointed and wondered how this home church would come to pass.

But we’ve seen the Lord bring back our homeless / ex-homeless friends who had drifted away… and now they are bringing others too! Truly God’s work: 100% organic, 0% artificial, 100% goodness & grace!

And here, we’re learning to put aside our traditional upper-middle class ways of trying to teach the Word using just words and rather to live and incarnate the Word of God among our friends who may not fit into the middle/upper class English-educated traditions of our current churches.

“…because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for your sake.” 1 Thess 1:5

To borrow a quote from Joy: “you all have a part with the kingdom of God’s work”. Amen!

06/04/2024

Dear all just a quick update and thanksgiving for our home church last Sunday! And … spiritual warfare too haha.

We met in East Coast Park for a fun picnic and outdoor worship. Thank God for our friends S & M who brought their neighbors along, and for Joy leading an inspiring and joyful time of worship outdoors singing how great is our God.

We thank God for the following:
1. Our dear friend M, when she spontaneously went into the water to splash around - when she came out from the water, she announced to us that she had removed her necklace with amulet (apparently she’d been already thinking of removing it for a long time and last Sunday was a kind of tipping point for her.) While it might seem like an impromptu decision on the spot, it’s been something that has been slowly progressing over the past few years and especially past few months, given how M was convicted the first time she came to ask Jesus to help her stop her bad habits.

How wonderful it is and indeed one can take a long time to make a decision and commitment. And yet like cracks opening up in a dam, yeast in dough, in one sudden moment, the cracks join together and a mighty burst of water explodes forth - and all heaven breaks loose. Kairos moment indeed!

And M was so happy that she was dancing and shouting “谢谢耶稣！” during the wonderful outdoor worship led by Joy. (It’s also so funny - S (M’s bf) and I somehow ended up being the “backup singers” 😂😂😂)

2. Now, about their two neighbours - the auntie who came showed a lot of openness but her male relative with her was polite but resistant. They were decked out to the nines with amulets, charms, bangles, etc. When Abe was sharing from Ephesians 2 with CY translating, we shared how Jesus is the only way to the Father, and how we don’t need special rituals to understanding of the knowledge of God’s mysteries because they are all revealed for free in Christ. (It’s relevant since half of our friends come from idol-worshipping backgrounds.)

Then the auntie looked very sad and wanted to know why God let her suffering and pain in her life and her own children don’t want to visit her. We comforted her… and that’s where her relative stepped in. He firmly insisted that she needed to put back her amulet (which she had taken off) and laid his hand on her head and started chanting in front of everyone.

We were quietly interceding of course. We are not afraid but we could see how the relative was very … controlling in a way. Spiritual warfare is real, but man, to see it so upfront and in a Christian gathering no less - you can see how real the enemy’s power to oppress can be.

But thank God that Jesus is Lord over all! Joy stepped in to ask the auntie if the amulets had really brought her any peace or made any difference - and the auntie said no. And when the man was insisting on his view that all religions are equal and lead to God, Abe shared with him there are many ways to Jesus but Jesus is the only way to the Father.

Explained too to S during this time how the great and wise men of the past all had limited understanding even as they sincerely sought to know and live the right way, the right truths and the right kind of life, and how Jesus is the fullness and complete fulfilment of all that wise men and great teachers of the past have longed for - how He is the Way and the Truth and the Life. Thank God S was listening and nodding in agreement!

This experience has felt a lot like Acts 17 where Paul was reasoning with the very religious idol-worshippers in Athen about the unknown God.

Indeed our friends may be less educated but it doesn’t mean they are any less intelligent - some of them think deeply actually.

We thank God that the whole home church still managed to go through peacefully enough - Jesus is Lord! And so we took time to pray for the aunt and encourage her that Jesus can indeed bring true peace and reconciliation. It was a joy too to witness how more and more S is agreeing that Jesus is truly the greatest name above all other names.

Pray for him and M to make a full step of faith to completely declare that there is no other god in all of heaven and earth except the one true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

06/04/2024

Dear all thank you so much for praying for us for Sunday’s Abba’s House home church. It was truly a God-graced time - and such a joy to hear 4 different languages being spoken by our friends - not just English and Mandarin but also Hokkien and Malay. And grateful that our ex-Muslim bro, JI, could join us too - to hear him volunteer to read aloud Ephesians 1 - especially when reading is not easy for him at times - a joy to behold.

10/03/2022

“You and Abraham have been like family to us.”

Really grateful :,) it’s been so amazing how CY & I have managed to host this lovely family all the way from last March until last night. It’s been such a journey - hosting them for almost a year - & not just them but along the way, also my own family for a couple of months when they waited for their new flat, & even a homeless bro who was dying.

When the mum got pregnant a 2nd time, CY & I prayed & we decided to invite her fiancé to come stay w us as well so that he could be present to care for his newborn & not separated. True, they weren’t married yet but seeing how involved he was, tk God, CY & I knew that we had done the right thing in God’s eyes.

A wonderful thing happened on the week tt they were due to move to their new flat. A friend suddenly messaged me on Mon telling me that he & his wife wanted to sponsor CY & me for dinner. Right after tt I found out from CY that our guests would be moving officially on Wed! That meant that we could have a farewell dinner for them on Tue night! God really cares for them - even blessing them with delicious chilli crab no less.

Thank God for CY too for how she made everyone feel warm & welcome, & to see Dorcas & N playing together - joy indeed. Thank you sm too .onthemove .life & .sync too for your support!

Through it all, God subverted our own privileges by making it such tt we learned to receive their help back too. We had to put aside our own cultural expectations. This family taught & showed us so much by their own lives tt we are humbled & honoured to hv been able to host them. Love indeed :,

When they went off last night, I looked up & saw the stars. Joy filled my heart. Looked at the home God gave us & realized we had shared everything freely & now they are hosting others in their own place too.

Yes, hospitality is messy & it doesn’t always fit our preferences/schedules. But we are called not to conform them to our own culture / timelines but to honour them & show them Christ’s love. Sacrifice yes but He never shortchanged us.

Psalm 68:4-6. Because with the Father is ALWAYS ENOUGH.

31/01/2022

So finally, a quick update after two years of not posting. Now that it's the Lunar New Year here in Singapore (and well, it's now 1 month into 2022), thought I should at least update everyone here.

We've been really really really busy since last year. But we've been seeing God's plans and prophetic words for us (including those that our dear brother in Christ Clarence prophesied to us back 3 years ago) come to pass.

Abba's House in SG has now come to physical fruition (how we got the place to buy and stay in was really a whole miracle in itself), and God blessed us with a godly contractor who is actually a seminary-trained pastor who is also a professional contractor as his tentmaking work.

And God spoke to CY and me very clearly at the start of last year around March to finally open up our place and start hosting those in need of a safe place to stay. So we welcomed a mum with her toddler to stay with us for a few months. Well, due to the COVID situation, the Housing Development Board in Singapore has a long backlog of people waiting for low-rental-cost public housing, so the mum has been waiting for a very long time. Nevertheless, God has given us so much grace that we have managed to host her for nearly a year. (All while we were also hosting my own parents and sister AND their helper as well. Let's just say God really knows how to make room for so many people in His house.)

Not just that - God also spoke to CY and me in the third quarter of 2021 to host a homeless and stateless brother in Christ who was dying from end-stage kidney failure. One thing about the brother is that he was deeply afraid of being stuck in an institution especially in a hospital. So we obeyed the Lord - and just in the nick of time - when we finally welcomed the brother into our place to stay, he came in, and we saw from his eyes that he recognized that he was no longer in hospital but now, in a home of a loved one. And then just a couple of hours later, he passed away very peacefully and quietly in Abba's House... and now is home with our Abba Father in heaven. (You can read more about his story at http://homeless.sg/getupandgo/)

And the mum staying with us? She witnessed firsthand us taking in the dying brother to stay with us... and she told us that she had never seen anything like this before. :') She's not a Christian, but we are grateful that she has gotten the chance to see Christ's love and the family of God in action in this way.

And we've had Christmas dinner with the family and welcomed many people, including other homeless friends, to celebrate...

There's a lot more that has happened since then, but we have indeed seen the faithfulness of the Lord - just as He promised CY and me at the start of the year that we would go through a place of tough times, but He would eventually lead us to a place of abundance.

We're preparing for the next stage - perhaps the missions field in Japan, if the Lord wills - but right now, we do remember His heartbeat for those without families.

What lies ahead for 2022? Well, Singapore currently is facing a growing housing crisis since last year, with a shortage of affordable public housing and rental costs have been increasing non-stop to the point that some families are starting to get evicted for their being unable to pay rents. It's a crisis that the Church in Singapore needs to wake up to and respond ASAP. We sounded a wakeup call in partnership with Project Providence and Open Home Network to the churches in Singapore to open up their places, but, as inspired by our friends at The Last Resort, we are also calling out to the Christian families to open up their homes too and be Christ's family to those who have no family to call their own.

Pray therefore for the Lord to send people - especially younger believers - to come to our place this year to be trained by us so that they can in turn be inspired to open up their own places to welcome those who have no family to feel safe and belong to ... until now.

"Sing to God, sing in praise of his name,
extol him who rides on the clouds;
rejoice before him—his name is the Lord.
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
God sets the lonely in families,
he leads out the prisoners with singing;
but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land...
You, God, are awesome in your sanctuary;
the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people.
Praise be to God!"
Psalm 68:4-6, 35

22/03/2021

A much needed reminder as we continue to serve among the broken and struggling and wounded, whether in rich or poor nations.

I have a rule of thumb that if a preacher's theology doesn't ring equally true for my economically impoverished Christian friends in Cambodian slums then there is something seriously wrong (and it's NOT with their faith).

The Prosperity Gospel puts the burden on US to have enough faith so that we don't miss out on the economic blessings of God. It implies that as long as we don't let the Devil trick us into unbelief, or wrong thinking, we will always have enough money, we will never be broke.

Oftentimes, understandably, when the poor hear this they get really excited. They keep trying to have enough faith to not be poor. And who wouldn't be attracted to this false gospel? When the rich hear this they begin to see their riches and privilege as the of God.

The rich can enjoy and revel in this Prosperity Theology because it affirms their position in society. In contrast, the poor eventually start to beat themselves up, or eventually, just give up and walk away.

It's not that God never blesses us economically, but that there are other factors at play in this fallen world that impact folks who are marginalized every single day - such as systemic injustice - the hoarding of wealth by the rich, corruption etc. that keep the poor down too.

Many of them will be "broke" their whole lives for these reasons, and it's not because they lack faith. Some of my friends in the slums have WAY more faith than privileged people in the West. And yet this beautiful faith is subtly undermined by this kind of Prosperity teaching.

So at its best Prosperity Theology is a distortion of the truth. For privileged people that's not a big deal - either way we're OK. But at its worst, Prosperity Theology makes us feel good while allowing us to ignore systemic injustice and making the poor feel sh*tty and blame themselves for their predicament. In my opinion, that's the OPPOSITE of the Gospel (Good News for the poor, Luke 4:18)

What do you think?

01/03/2021

[Abraham] It's been exactly 3 years since stepped out in faith to go full-time to obey God's calling.

Then ended up getting together with Cheng Yu the same year haha ❤

We met Clarence Hiroshi Chappell the following year, and that's when God moved our hearts to begin preparing Abba's House in Singapore.

Long story short, a lot of things happened in the past 2 years (including COVID)... but the past few months, when we decided to buy a place to stay in, we prayed and over the next few weeks, the Holy Spirit finally led us to a very suitable place. (We went by faith, 'cos the whole place was full of rubbish hahaha but the Lord told us that it was a happy place.)

And yesterday (28 Feb), God spoke to both of us very clearly through a church service sermon that it was time to finally open up Abba's House to welcome homeless friends looking for family to come stay with us - and we invited someone to come stay with us. But our friend has declined, but that's ok.

Here, we want to share something wonderful. A few months ago, a Singaporean pastor friend visited us to bless our new baby. And then he delivered a prophetic word about how God would use our place to bless many, especially those who have been wounded and hurting etc.

The amazing thing was... the pastor shared the same words that bro Clarence shared with us the year before. Two godly men from two different countries with two very different backgrounds - not knowing one another - and the Lord used them both to share the same words - and at one point, it was exactly the same words, word for word. CY was so surprised to hear this double confirmation.

The most important thing is that God has stirred and made ready both our hearts and now we are fully convicted and united in faith to welcome as a family those who have no family - so that they may come to know Him who is a Father to the fatherless.

As CY said to me, eyes lighting up, "Will Abba's House be full of people?"

Yes, dear, it will be.