Monday, March 19, 2007

Project Report #19 - The Next Generation

Hey Sponsors~! It’s another beautiful Monday morning~! Brand new start for a brand new week of new exploits and challenges. Sorry I haven’t been making any entries in my blog. I’ve been really super busy with so much to do. I just came back from Kuching last Thursday night and immediately went back to work on Friday morning. Cool right? I feel like superman~! Haha~!

I must tell you all about my trip to Kuching. We went to a place called Lundu, otherwise known as London by the locals there. It’s a very kampung area with a very small town but all of nature is just at its doorstep. We stayed at in wooden house with a huge piece of land, almost the size of a football field. It was a beautiful place with the biggest durian trees I’ve ever seen in my life~! But too bad the fruiting is not in season… darn…

Only 6 of us Harvest Generation guys went. We had so much laughs and silly moments there that cannot be told in public. Haha~! We actually built a water dam at the river to block the flow of the water so that it would fill up a section to make a natural swimming pool. The guy who thought of this was brilliant~! What to do, he’s an engineer ma… The water actually rose to almost 4 feet. Not bad eh?

I had a great time ministering there, did what I do best, played the drums and thought some of the guys and gals there about band management. One guy was so shocked that I, as a drummer, knew all the notations and chords for every song. He said he’s never seen a drummer like that before… Obviously he has not been down to KL a lot la… Haha~!

The highlight of the whole trip was that there were about 14 salvations~! Even a girl who was the Vice President of the Buddhist club in a well known high school was moved by the word that was preached and gave her life to Jesus… Praise God~! The best news we heard after the camp was every single person who didn’t know God before the camp gave their lives to Jesus before the camp ended~! I really felt a burst of joy within my spirit that cannot be described in words…

Although I came back dead tired with countless insect bites all over my arms and legs, it was all worth it to see lives that have been changed and impacted by the power of God~!

Great News People~! Harvest Generation church will be moving into the new premise very very soon~! We’ll be doing our cleaning up tonight, it’s gonna be a hard and dirty job but it’s all worth it for lives that will be added to the kingdom of God. The place looks fantastic~! All the wall paneling has been completed, now it’s time for out in-house interior designers to put up all the lightings and furniture.

God is really blessing the church, a great testimony came about 2 weeks ago when a man called up Pastor Ryan and said that he wanted to contribute a huge sum of money to pay for the down payment of our brand new church van~! So now we’re gonna have our own van very soon~! Praise God~! There has been so much favour pouring out over our ministry and the church, we even had enough money to buy a really cool drum set~! Highlight for me la because I’m also a drumming freak. This is the same drum set I used for the recording of the new album that’s gonna be released within the next 3-4months.

All these good things did not suddenly come overnight. We have spent a lot of time praying and sowing by faith. It required us to work and invest all we had beyond our normal capacity, and now we see the fruits of our labour because we chose to honour God first. God has added to us so much more than all our sowing combined~! He has blessed us to the overflowing. Can you image for a 6 month old church, we have over 25 members now? It’s really not our doing, it can only be God~!

Sponsors… get involved by supporting us in your prayers. Greater things are yet to come for this church and I believe everyone of your prayers will not be in vain.

Project Report~! My foreman told me last Wednesday, when I was away in Kuching, that my engine couldn’t start because of a fuel pump problem. I called up the mechanic that installed my engine and praise God, he said that there is no big problem to it. It’s just because the car has not been moved for many days. My foreman went for a mission trip over the weekend so nothing was done with my car the past few days.

However, I have already purchased almost all the interior stuff I need, still lacking on a few more items that are super hard to find. Hopefully I will be able to get my car by this week and settle most of my interior installation as well. Sponsors do pray with me that everything will go on smoothly, a lot things have been delayed, but I’m still not giving up until I see this dream come to past~! Believe with me~!

Today I’m gonna drop a funky beat while introducing one of the most influential musicians I’ve ever played with. This dude is one heck of a keyboardist, I think by far the best keyboardist I’ve seen in a church setting. He’s always ever willing to teach and learn and I really groove well with him when we play together. I’m many of you know who I’m talking about. Ladies and gentlemen… it is my honor to introduce to you the one and only… Enoch Lau a.k.a. orchestra a.k.a. eunuch a.k.a. drummer wanna-be~!

I’ve known this guys for only about 2 years or so but it was our passion in music and ministry that brought us closer together. We started playing together when I was still with Actstream and I noticed that we really gelled together in our playing. I’ve always been keeping an eye out for musicians who I really enjoy playing with, not only musicians with superb skills.

We’ve had our moments where we had to correct each other and have heart to heart talks about our playing. It isn’t easy to have your playing criticized, especially when you think you’ve did a very good job. But it’s different between us because we don’t only give constructive criticism, we build each other up with encouragement. Unlike some other musicians I’ve played with who tend to pull other musicians down because they think they’re the best, Enoch is a great encourager with great character and a great friend…

We started our band project together a few months back. We couldn’t progress much due to the fact that he’s still studying for his masters but I know we share the same passion in our calling towards the music industry and we intend to pursue it will all we have. We’re still having problems about what to name our band though, I was thinking Rhythmic Redemption, but I somehow feel that it sound a bit too cheesy. You people can suggest some cun band names for us ya~! Haha!

To Enoch… It has been a great time knowing you and serving with you in the ministry. No matter what kinds of music we play or where we play, I’ve always enjoyed playing the drums whenever you’re on keyboards. There is this gel that we have whenever we’re on the stage together no matter what instrument I play.

Your talents are superb but it is the heart behind all the talents that God is after. So never neglect God in your pursuit for excellence in music, but always seek to please God’s heart first and excellence will come naturally. We must never worship our gifts, we must never worship the music we play, but we must worship the God whom the music and the talents are made for…

It is you gifts that draw people towards you but it is your heart that has kept them coming back to you. You have a fantastic character but don’t just settle for what you have now. Push yourself with the help of the Holy Spirit to greater levels in you ministry, your music, your studies and your career. Honour the Lord in all that you do and He will surely honour you back with so much more…

Thank you so much for being such a great friend. Thanks for always encouraging me and giving me ideas on how I am to improve myself in my drumming. I’m really looking forward to serving with you again in the near future when our band is assembled. Do pray with me that God will bring in the right people with the same passion to join us in fulfilling the vision that God has placed in our hearts…

Thanks for being a sponsor of this project and an even greater sponsor of my life because you’ve done much to contribute to who I am today…

It’s the end of another entry, I’m not sure if I’ll have the time to make any more entries this week because I’ll be involved in the cleaning up of our new church premise, but I will try. Thanks for taking time to read this~! Hope that you all were blessed by what was written, Have a great new week ahead and God Bless~!