english teamdiary

Hey special people,
It's high time that you hear how we're doing so here's the scoop...
we arrived here in Singapore safely on monday, December 11th after a 12 hour flight from
Amsterdam. We all stayed at a YMCA center for the first week, which was convenient because some YWAM classrooms/offices were one building over. The first week primarily consisted of orientation, training on Missions in Asia, meeting in our outreach groups, language learning (for our Indonesian team that would mean, learning Indonesian!!), and a whole lot of planning and practicing for Christmas performances that we did on various stages in the city. The performances consisted of skits, a hip-hop dance, a short testimony, singing Christmas songs in various languages and even an Indonesian worship song that we learned. These performances were a means to speak the reality of Christ in Christmas as well as an inlet to begin conversations with people that we may not have come into contact with otherwise. After the performances our whole team either, talked with people in the crowd or prayed. This past monday we performed again on a decked/covered stage positioned outside of a shopping center... the only problem was that it rained and poured so there weren't many shoppers willing to get soaked to watch us. We ended the performance by singing and dancing a South African song called the "Bambalayla"- which means "hold on to Jesus." We all ran out in the rain (because remember eventhough it's pouring, it's still warm outside) and did the Bambalayla for the shoppers waiting out the rain where it was dry.

This past tuesday we packed up our things and walked as a long line of backpackers to the main YWAM building, which is where we'll be staying until we leave Singapore.

On wednesday we had the privilege of going to one of the 14 prisons here. We again did some of our skits and dance for them, then we spoke to these young prisoners on Destiny and Dreams. We also had the opportunity to talk with each of them and pray for them. Let's just say that since many of the staff are Christians, there seems to be some discipling taking place as these guys sit locked up, praise the Lord! We teamed up with an international ministry called Prison Fellowship and God is definitely using them and He used us to!

Thursday (as in yesterday) we went to a shopping center/waterfront area where we split into groups and either prayer walked, painted, or hung out with the youth that chill in this huge empty basement of the mall. In the basement, youth hang out, break dance, do bike tricks, skateboard, etc. Basically it's a prime place for ministry. We practiced our own hip-hop dance, learned some new moves and got into conversations with these young people.

We're all doing quite well and are incredibly grateful for the opportunities God has given us up to this point, and are expectant for what God still has in store.
We, as the Indonesian team are leaving next friday, December 29th for Bali, Indonesia.
Thank you for all your prayers and support!
May we continue to run this race with perseverance.
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up..." Galatians 6:9
Love & Peace,
The Indonesia team

In case you're interested, here are some random facts about Singapore...
-Singapore is 42km x 28km which is about as big as the province of Utrecht.
-There are about 4 million people living here.
-The national fruit is the Durian, its spiky on the outside, the inside looks like chicken meat and it smells disgusting, it's also illegal to take them on a bus (probably b/c of the smell), but everyone still eats it.
-Chewing gum here is not illegal, but you are not able to buy it anywhere in the country, and spitting (in general) or spitting your gum out on the street is a fatty fine/ community service.
-People here have repeatedly told us that this is a "fine" city, which means it's nice but they are also serious about fining people.