Gearing up the youths of City Harvest Church for the upcoming camps in the month of June, senior pastor Kong Hee shared a message and his personal encounters as a teenager experiencing the Holy Spirit during youth camps.
The Emerge service on 21 May was an exuberant time of celebration. The exam period was over for most of the youths, and collectively they were looking forward to the Emerge camps that would soon take place. Emerge is the youth movement of CHC.
The service began with a game, “Don’t Forget The Sermon”, led by Ian Tan, 25 and Jerome Choong, 22. The game was created to encourage members to understand and absorb weekend sermons fully from start to finish. Three participants was presented with different quotes and they had to attribute the quote to the correct preacher. It was a riotous game, driving many “guessers” rushing to the stage to help the three write down the right answers.
Following that, CHC’s Dance Ministry, the Disciples, presented an exciting dance performance which the youth fully enjoyed, which was followed by praise and worship. The youths gathered at the mosh pit, giving their all, jumping joyfully during praise and lifting up their hands, many with tears rolling down their faces during worship. Others knelt in the presence of God.
What made Emerge service special was the ongoing Bible reading plan and memorisation of Bible memory verses. The youths were given four minutes to write out the verse from the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). They then had to exchange what they wrote with their neighbour and mark each other’s answers. If one got the verses right, they were given a star and awarded a prize. The youths who completed the Bible reading plan (the four Gospels) were awarded limited edition pins.
LIVES TRANSFORMED: A TESTIMONY
Siblings Val, 26, and Kaz Foo, 23, shared how their lives have been changed by God at camp. When she was in school, Val felt she lacked attention at home. She fell into the wrong company in school and got into trouble in an attempt to vent her anger and frustration. She bullied classmates to gain self-confidence and was exposed to illegal activities when she mixed with older students. Thankfully, she had teachers who believed in her leadership potential, and they directed Val in the right direction by engaging her to spend more time doing meaningful activities through the prefectorial board opportunity.
Kaz was diagnosed with borderline dyslexia at 9, which made learning new subjects a challenge. He was disheartened when the parent of his classmate told her son to stay away from Kaz’s bad influence. Because of that, he lost his interest in his studies and instead spent all his time watching Japanese cartoons to escape from reality. The more he watched, the more he felt isolated and became aggressive toward his family and the people around him.
Val became a believer in 2012 where she received the revelation of God’s love and identity at Camp Unite 2012. She found that the prefectorial board was training ground for her to serve in church. She was given a chance to serve in her cell group as connect group helper and a campus in-charge for Emerge Poly Society representing Republic Polytechnic.
Kaz received Christ in 2014 during a weekend service by Pastor Bobby Chaw. He was prompted to receive salvation during the altar call, and he also received a revelation that God loves him despite his imperfections. Together with unconditional love from the cell group leaders and members, he felt motivated to improve his studies. By the end of secondary school, he had received eight Edusave awards. He graduated from Temasek Polytechnic with a diploma in Biomedical Engineering and was valedictorian of his cohort.
Kaz is currently serving as a connect group coordinator in his cell group. He also serves in the Emerge Band and will be the co-camp commandant in Camp Unite this year.
THE IMPACT OF YOUTH CAMPS: LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCES AND ENCOUNTERS
Pastor Kong opened his sermon talking about youth camps that he used to attend. He then brought the youths to Exodus 33. The children of Israel lived in tents for 40 years. Moses would set up a special tent known as the tent of meeting, a place where he would meet God.
V8-10: “And whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people rose and stood at the entrances to their tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. As Moses went into the tent, the pillar of cloud would come down and stay at the entrance, while the Lord spoke with Moses. Whenever the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance to the tent, they all stood and worshiped, each at the entrance to their tent.”
Moses moved the Israelites to draw close to God with his love and passion towards God. Pastor Kong proceeded to challenge all the camp commandant and committee members during the camps not to be too busy with camp planning but to take time to enjoy the presence of God, which will inspire the campers to worship God as well.
V11: “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide of Nun did not leave the tent.”
Moses influenced his young aide, Joshua, to draw near to God. Joshua would stay hungry for communion with the Lord even when Moses was not around. “A good leader is not just busy organising events,” Pastor Kong noted. “A good leader never leads people to themselves, but a good leader leads people to Jesus.”
In the early days, CHC would have a youth camp called Champions Camp, and the older members would linger in God’s presence for a long period, and this influenced the younger members to follow suit. The most memorable day was on the last day, where the campers pledged their friendship and love for one another, and promised to serve in church together till they grow old. While they were showing appreciation to one another, the Holy Spirit showed up.
Pastor Kong shared, “When you least expect and when you didn’t plan for it, the Holy Spirit will suddenly come. The atmosphere of love was so thick and so strong where it felt like the Holy Spirit embraced each of them until they melded to become one.”
THE PRESENCE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT CHANGED THE ATMOSPHERE IN YOUTH CAMPS
Pastor continued his sermon with 2 Chronicles 34:1-2 which tells of King Josiah, the greatest king in Israel’s history who brought a mighty revival.
V3 “In the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to seek the God of his father David.” At 16, King Josiah sought after God with all his heart. Pastor Kong asked those who were 16 to stand up and he encouraged them to do the same as King Josiah.
V3 “In his twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of high places, Asherah poles and idols.” At 20, King Josiah removed all his idols in his life. The pastor asked those who were 20 to stand up, and he encourage them to do the same, for revival is in their hands.
V8 “In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, to purify the land and the temple.” At 26, King Josiah was passionate about the church. Pastor Kong asked those who were 26 to stand up, and he encouraged them to do the same.
Pastor revealed that he started building CHC at 25. King Josiah repaired, restored and rebuilt the church, where he found an old copy of the Bible (V15-16).
V19 “When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his robes.” The word of God moved King Josiah so much that he gathered the entire country to read the Book of the Law. Their worship became pure and they lived righteously before God. King Josiah changed the whole nation with the love of God and brought the greatest revival in Israel at the age of 26 (2 Kings 23:25).
Ernest Cheng, 19, was deeply impacted by the many stories Pastor Kong told about the earliest church camps that CHC held. He was inspired to see the old photographs, which gave him a deep insight into what church camps were like in the past. Importantly, no matter how different church camps looks now, Ernest felt that their purpose remains the same: to unite communities to experience God intimately without any distraction.
“Regardless of whether it’s games, sermons, team-bonding sessions, praise and worship, or meals together, there is ultimately a purpose behind each activity,” he observed. “We should not belittle or treat one activity more seriously than the other, instead, we should bring an open mind and our best effort into whatever we are doing.”
ONE FRESH TOUCH FROM HEAVEN WILL CHANGE ONE’S LIFE
Pastor Kong shared how his mentor, the late Brother Paul Tan, opened the Bible at one camp meeting he attended as a youth. Brother Paul shared how David, while fighting a war missed his hometown Bethlehem. Three of his mighty men heard about it and wanted to fulfil his desire. They fought through enemy’s knives and drew water from the well of Bethlehem for David, just because they wanted to show love for their leader.
Pastor Kong was deeply moved at that meeting at the age of 20 and he made a decision to live his life for Jesus. Three years later, in 1988, he went to a camp-cum-mission trip to Philippines for 10 days. There was a 5am prayer meeting in a church that he visited. Two Filipinas approached Pastor and clarified that he had prayed in tongues that was fluent Ilocano (North-Western dialect) and they took it as a prophecy that revival was coming to their church.
Pastor fasted for five days as he was going to be preaching in a crusade. He prayed for the sick and many were healed: a man who was blind was able to see and a lady was miraculously healed from arthritis. The whole crusade was overwhelmed by the glory of God and miracles happened everywhere.
“I learnt a very big important lesson,” said the pastor. “God loves to heal so much that he used a shy and awkward 23-year-old youth with so little faith to preach the gospel and heal the sick.”
Pastor Kong’s message sparked great faith in the youths of Emerge. Cell group leader Anzoe Sim, sensed that the Lord wanted the Emerge youths to expand their heart capacity for their generation. She prophesied from Isaiah 55:8-9 and encouraged the youths to remove their anxieties and uncertainties as they pursue the Lord; to arise in faith and not in fear. If they want God to pour out His spirit, the youths must have the desire and hunger for more of the Holy Spirit.
“God doesn’t despise our youth and He can use us mightily when we are obedient to His calling. When that happens we will be able to enjoy what God is doing in us and through us,” shared Nicole Soh, 21.
“Pastor was calling out youths of different ages when he was talking about King Josiah. It inspired me because there are people around me who are so young, and they reflect what it could have been like in the time of King Josiah. I believe that God is continuing to use people mightily no matter what age they are.”
Nicole shared that was feeling tired before she came to the meeting, but during ministry time, she felt that the Holy Spirit moved mightily. The Emerge service ended with an altar call and many youths approached the altar to be prayed for by Pastor Kong.
