I’m back again, with more inspiring stories and recollections of the amazing things that happened during our mission trip to Chiangmai. One of Pat’s routines was to go to a vocational school a couple times a week. There he was taking guitar classes, and at the same time he used that opportunity to look out for the boys who were also attending the school. Many of these boys were from an orphanage that he also frequented for his ministry work. While Pat took his classes, he sen

Mission trips can really make us go on great faith journeys. I’ve been to Chiangmai, the Philippines, Indonesia, and these experiences have opened my eyes to how great God’s love is. But this time it wasn’t an 8 hour plane trip that got us to our mission field, but an hour's drive from Brisbane. Going to Ipswich for a mission trip left an impact in my life that was very different to my past experiences. There was just something different about doing missions in your own count

For the second leg of our mission trip to Chiangmai, we had contacted Youth With a Mission (YWAM), who then hooked us up with someone named Pat. During our group debrief the night before we were to meet Pat, Qianzi revealed that she honestly knew almost nothing about this person we were going to be working with. The only contact she had with him was via email and one phone call, during which he assured her that he would love us like his own family. But even though we were ven

Another part of our mission trip was visiting the Ark Home, a home for boys run by members of Hope Chiangmai. The boys were all so charming and I would love to show you more pictures of them, but in order to protect their identities I will not be posting any pictures of their faces. When we first came, the boys greeted us politely, but they were quite shy and reserved around us. We tried to break the ice by playing soccer with them, but we soon came to realise that not all of

From the 2nd-11th of December, a team of 12 of us from Hope Church Brisbane went to Chiangmai for a mission trip. Through these blog posts, I will be recounting the stories and testimonies of God's goodness during the trip. We arrived in Chiangmai excited: the mission trip was finally here! But at the same time we were nervous, because we did not have detailed plans on what we would be doing in Chiangmai. Even so, this made it clearer to us how important it is to flow with th

"Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? Matthew 6:26 Like it is said in that verse, God is truly a God who provides, even in ways we don't expect or see! I'd like to share a testimony today about how God really blew me, and my mission trip team away with His provision. From the 2nd to the 11th of December, 12 of us from Hope Church Brisbane will be maki

This is the last piece for my recollections of our Manila missions. Day Three features our visit to the local hospital. It was a rainy day, so naturally, rainy days meant longer traffic waits as well. Manila has some pretty bad traffic - when you're stuck in a jam, you're really not going to be mobile for awhile. I remember being one of the "priviledged ones" to get to ride in Alvin's car. His car, though old, had air-conditioning; and that was a pretty big thing, considering

While reading through my journal of notes I jotted down when in the Philippines, I'm still so grateful for the experience we had. Note to self: It's always good to pen down your thoughts when they are fresh, especially because I have a memory of a goldfish. On day 2 of our Manila Missions, we went out to feed the children living in the slum areas. The lovely 'Neyneys' (grandamas) from the AFJC team spent the whole night before preparing huge pots of chocolate congee to feed t

Sometimes it takes prompting to get things started, and I guess onemustardseed has taken a slowdown in our updates. So now, having been greatly inspired and challenged, we hope to take onemustardseed to another level. We hope this new segment - Writings, would inspire you as much as we've been inspired to pen these thoughts. A month ago, Shaun, Jared and myself had the priviledge to be a part of our WAM (Worship, Arts & Media) Mission team to travel to Manila. It was truly a