It's because the little things matter.... That we take on crazy ideas to test the limits. We dare to try out things that people think are impossible with a vision that it can be ,axe right to the point where "possible" is enabled. Today, is one of these milestone days. And I have The Holy Spirit to attribute all praise.
As part of outreach, since I joined GRII MELBOURNE church back in March 2016, I've always thought ... What can I do to save these people? Thinking up various ways so that people are willing to join us, thinking up different ways to follow up with people we meet through street outreach. Thinking up different ways to expand our evangelism efforts, in hope of saving lost souls -- helping them find Life Himself, because we too are no better than them. Had it not been for God's grace we'd completely lose our way, and be treading on unknown paths suddenly leading to destruction and perishing in eternal fire that was not originally created for them.
So Chill Lax hub came about. It is a church-run social club, an English Language based exchange / group of people gathering to play games, build relationships, showcase what Christian games culture and Christian way of life is to the world and also to ourselves to each other. We plan to get to know you by playing the game "Ungame" -- deck of get to know you cards that you can buy from Koorong or eBay. I bought just about every deck I could: all ages, teens, seniors, 20 something's, and shuffled them to make completely new decks. I hope that as we answer these questions like "if you had to write a book about your life, what would it be called and why?" And josh answered something like "only by grace", because as a lawyer in training, he feels that when he's looking at criminals and criminal justice, he feels that there is no man that has not sinned, and it is really only by grace that the sins he commits are not big enough to fall in the scope of Australian Law, but actually every sin we commit falls under God's Law. But by Grace we have been given a way out through Christ's blood and atonement.
David Frank shared about the risks in his career in engineering with the trains he had to stay back overtime to fix, but said that risks we cannot avoid and running away from it is not going to make it go away, so we should just face it. And we should rely of God as we face it. I thought this was beautiful because sitting in our midst were 2x 17year old twins Cristian and Cristofer who listened intently to David Frank who explained work life to them.
We also heard from our token other female member, and she also after the session reminded me that faith comes from hearing and was hoping to see some gospel related sharing in each of our gathering. She also said she can't see the connection between games and gospel,
We also heard from Jin that he sued to run a games club which ends up being one where more people will attend for the sake of games but not join church so he didn't see how games can be led back to God --- (that was before he started playing Ungame!) and preferred to use KTB or other methods really cantered on God's Word. For me, that reminded me of my youth group leading days back in GNLC how I took everything too seriously, to the point that all I did was hardcore Bible studies and cut down all the fun stuff. Then in the end the youths left one by one very very quickly. The younger us fail lot understand this educational theory -- that no matter what age we are, people learn through play/fun. I hope that through starting off with Ungame, we can really let our sharing of ourselves reflect Christ, such that by This shall all men know that we are Your disciples -- if we live like this and truly have love, one for another. Almost like the Azeneans （ is that how u spell it?) who lived in Masada and wanted people who wanted to be pure and live a new way of life to come and join them. But now,instead, we instead of staying somewhere secluded and saying "come", we stay in the CBD and say "go"!
Jin also reminded us that for chill lax,we can always make it something very informal. Don't have to give it a name. (Fvid pointed out the contrary that we wanted to make sure we run this as something that is clearly identified as being run by the church so that it is not just Just any other social gathering -- which was one of the key questions that Ko Denny, Ko sing sing, Bobbie etc raised and I agree we have to be transparent about it).
It was a delight to see josh say the part of chill lax that rings a note for him is how it is a continuation that sustains beyond REF and welcoming days etc. and Fvid just saying that he wants to have a mobile flexible powerful group that can be on call anytime to catch up with those people he met at street outreach, all these men really back me up. And I recall respect them for it.
Lastly,I got feedback from God, asking what He thought. He asked me, did inreach happen tonight? yes. Did outreach happen? in progress. Did people see the vision? Yes. Did the function venue go ok? yes. Did the songs/hymns leading go well? Yes. Did the Holy Spirit fill each one of us? Yes! (That was just unbelievable to see). When all these are yes then how did I Feel? Joy, pleasant feeling.... He mentioned it was a delight too for Him to be able to free flow work in each of our hearts to prompt us to give answers for questions in Godly way in multiple of them -- like Bobbie, JoTi, Josh, David Andika, David Frank, Jin.
God said if I/we continue to walk this path of Chill Lax while in submission to His guiding, then He will lead us to take this as far as he delights. As the hired staff, I wanna make sure that I keep level headed and never want to lose that guidance.
We read from psalm 19, 2cor 3-4 as a backdrop to Shine.
While singing Shine tonight for the first time, we sang and repeated it so many times to the point where we really got familiar with the lyrics and The Holy Spirit filled us too while each sang.
Wow people, this is so amazing. I asked God -- The Holy Spirit that accomplished all those great revivals in the apostolic days, please do it in here in Melbourne today!
We recognise that beneath the tip of the iceberg where all looks like fun like there is something much much more serious going on --the reality of spiritual battle that awaits us.
May today mark an historical milestone in the heavens for the start of something powerful and a force to take down the gates of Hades through these insignificant things we do because the one who gets underestimated is always always always The Holy Spirit.
Soli Deo Gloria. 愿祢荣耀的名配得称赞👍。
Attendees: 10 of us -- (core committee) Fvid, David Frank, Bobbie, Josh, myself.
Interest group: Cristin , Jin, Cristofer, Cristian, JoTi
Though Jin decided it wasn't the ministry for him, we still welcome him to join any time. But now, through Ungame, at least we all learnt that the 3 things why people should be friends with him in his opinion are that 1) he is generous and giving 2) he is honest And 3) he cooks for his friends (so we're waiting for him to cook for all of us lol!!!) and JoTi's fav movie is "Treasure Planet", and One of the twins would marry Dove Cameron and looks for a spouse that is firstly female. Lol.
See this inreach? Even though it was just one short session, it provided so much fun and already we formed bonds that we didn't have before. Vision and Mission, for tonight -- check!
Amen, hallelujah.
I can't help but recall this previous post, and say that #It.Can.Work.
http://dlittlethingsthatmatter.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/it-can-work.html
After begging God for Grass following the eventful police search of one of the other housemates last week, the grass was beginning to runout. And small girl asked if she can stay longer. When things come together after a long ordeal, I know -- You reign supreme -- not just in the good times but in the bad times, but I am still #delighted to know that You joined us at games tonight having fun with us too. What privilege this is to have the Almighty God plus get to know you games with USA!
Hehehehehehe ^_^
