City Harvest Children’s Church head to Indonesia and India with a mission.
Bringing the love of God to little ones—that’s what City Harvest Children’s Church did when they sent two mission teams last December to Indonesia and India.
On Dec. 2, 2010, CCH supervisor Wendy Wong led a team of six to Lippo Cikarang GPdI church in Indonesia to co-lead their Children’s Church Christmas event, titled “Fantastic Balloon.” The team reached out to 256 children at Pillar School and saw 232 young ones receive salvation.
Three days later, Dec. 5, the CCH team, together with the teachers from LC GPdI, led the children in a fun-filled time of praise, games, balloon-sculpting and Bible lessons. The two sessions that day were attended by 1,355 children and 330 adults, and over 80 percent of guests gave their hearts to God.
CCH volunteer Loh Shufen said, “I was encouraged to be able to serve with the leaders of the Indonesian Children’s Church. We saw 1,685 people turn up while the usual attendance is 200.” Fellow teacher Terence Koh sculpted balloons for the children—and faced some impromptu challenges. “I had to perform tricks with the balloons on stage, so I did a bit of research and improvised along the way,” he recalled.
The Indonesian pastors were most pleased with the outcome. Said Daniel Martono, 42, senior pastor of LC GPdI Lippo, “The team from City Harvest Children’s Church set a new milestone in our Big Day attendance.”
“[They] were so inspiring during altar call that hundreds of children raised their hands when they asked who wanted to receive Jesus Christ!” affirmed Steve Nugroho, 26, the Children’s Church pastor of LC GPdI.
KEEPING HER PROMISE TO INDIA
Glordia Jayne Goh, CCH’s assistant zone pastor, led the mission trip to India. The purpose of this trip was to fulfill a promise she made to India more than 10 years ago—to conduct a children’s crusade. The team’s focus was to bless the children in the villages and slums, and help the local church, Peniel Church, with their first children’s crusade. Goh led a team of seven teachers to Bangalore on Dec. 8.
The team started their work in the mission field praying for the sick in the villages. Throngs of people from three village churches came forward for prayers when the altar call for the sick was given. God’s healing power prevailed, with testimonies of tumors disappearing, the deaf hearing, cataracts clearing and migraine headaches subsiding as the team prayed.
In one village, the team conducted an evangelistic outreach to 200 children. The children were taught basic conversational English and personal hygiene. They enjoyed themselves during the interactive games, praise and worship, engaging story-telling and the skit put up by the team. Many children responded to the altar call to accept Jesus into their hearts. The villagers were blessed with gifts and a sumptuous dinner of rice and curry—all made possible with the love offerings from City Harvest Church members back in Singapore.
Tireless in their work, the team also conducted two evangelistic outreaches in the slums, bringing joy and the love of Jesus to the children living in poverty. In total they ministered to 298 slum dwellers.
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| PHOTOS: Anna Goh,Claire Goh & Marc Peh |
The team also held a teachers’ training workshop on children’s ministry—local teachers had to travel almost four hours just to attend the workshop. For the CCH team, the highlight of their trip was conducting a Children’s Church Big Day (a large-scale event), which saw a record attendance of 380 children (usual attendance was 100). For the team, it was the first time that they were in India and their trip gave them a new perspective.
In sum, the team ministered in three village churches, two slums, one teachers’ training, two adult services, one youth service, four children’s services and visited three schools.
One of the volunteers on the trip, Ng Bing Hwa, shared, “I was reminded by God that it was an Indian friend who first introduced me to Christ; my first cell-group leader was an Indian, and so was my first Sunday School teacher. So this mission trip was very significant for me.” Another volunteer, Goh Si Ying, said, “What impacted me the most was seeing the children in their school setting.”
Sharon Sadanand, 22, the youth and children coordinator at Peniel Church and a graduate of CHC’s School Of Theology, was full of gratitude toward the mission team. “I thank God for bringing the CCH team to Bangalore. We were able to share the gospel with many of the parents who do not know Christ. We are excited to start our own Children’s Church in 2011.”
