The low-key arrivals and departures board at Kautan Airport

Day 8 of my trip brought me back to the busy international airport in Singapore from the sleepier place of Kuanton where our propeller plane had the whole airport to itself!

Sunday and Monday were busy days with LOTS of new delicacies to try, tho’ I think I saw Coral (more expert with her chopsticks now) steer around the plate of cuttlefish for lunch at a local Singapore ‘food plaza’! Must admit the last time I handled such fish it was in my budgies cage…..!

I gave it a go and would eat it again – impressed?

Cuttlefish.....

We hooked up with Piang’s family for a real treat in the evening – baked crab! In fact 3 baked crab to be exact – in VERY warm chilli  or black pepper sauce.

Hot chilli crab!

Now you may laugh at our somewhat questionable attire here -

but all I’m saying is that when I cracked the crabs leg and pincer open

….Coral enjoyed the sauce!!

Trendy? maybe not, but just you try it!

Monday saw us out for brekky as usual, then to a useful time of mission team discussions at the GBS centre again. Talking with Wai Fann gave Coral and I a growing sense of excitement I think – about a growing synergy in the way in which GB women around the world are being called  and equipped to join in God’s mission in various situations!

I’m not mentioning lunch -this is turning foodie …..(OK OK – Singaporean chicken rice!) A fast and furious afternoon talking GB led us to dinner with members of GBS Executive Board. It was good to see two National Commissioners making friends and chatting about GB mission in Singapore and Australia!

Evelyn And Coral - 'So how do you move things along with your board then....'?!

 But the night was not yet done, we still had a rendevous with GB Singapore’s woman about town (and countries, businesses, Ambassadors and Govt Ministers….)  Sally Chew. We caught up with her at a fab hotel , and enjoyed coffee and debate about all the various mission projects and connections that Sally is helping to raise up and coordinate! Its amazing to hear the ‘off-record’ discussions, to see the openings, feel the exctiement and then the board caution as money, reporting, updates and priorities were hammered out while I sat and watched in great lyencouraged spirits – it was definitely a glimmer of EW, Europe (no doubt Aus) and lots of other GB discussions!

I was left with a strong sense of God on the move through all our chat and time together, as well as a re-affirmed awareness of the need for ironed out expectations in story telling about our ‘new’ projects, a greater space for coffee style chat between the nations – and a call to boldness and wisdom in God alongside a BIG measure of affirmation for one another’s gifts, style of communication and positioning in the great GB mission team!

Here I come Oz!

Tuesday brought goodbye’s, overweight cases (thanks for all the books Piang!) and a 7-8 hour flight for me to Brisbane. We dropped Coral for her return trip to Perth (5 hrs West of Brisbane), complete with a few things of mine to pick up again when we meet up at the GB Pacific Fellowship Conference in Auckland NZ next month (good on ya mate!)

I left Singapore grateful for my whistlestop journeying and insights into GB Asia ministry amongst girls and young women. Inspiring leaders with a passion to see young women in their part of God’s word restored into His image by growing in Reverence (Fear of the Lord) Self Control (Respect) and a Sense of Responsibility ….to find true enrichment of life …..

 So now Brisbane, Quensland State Conference, Auckland (Pacific    Conference) and Sydney for the GBA National Council . I’m based in Brsbane throughout and am grateful for yet more GB hospitality, this time from Deputy National Commissioner Helen Webb (oh and Billy the Cockateel with attitude – but more on him another day I’m sure!!).

Not sure about everything in store of course, and should be doing preparation right now for 2 sessions at the QLD conference that begins tomorrow!!

We lead others – are we following Christ in our own lives?

As ever nothing changes about my late in the day style, but even so let’s pray together that looking at our relationship with God, through the light of our Seek Serve Follow resource,

will be a time when God really meets us all afresh this weekend!

 

Saturday (12 March)

It’s weird to be sitting here in a hotel lobby near Kuantan, West Malaysia, seeing news of Japan on the web and also knowing that back in England today the GB Ministries Conference is beginning its Saturday! In some ways the world feels huge, insecure and changing - yet there is a familiar pattern in our lives and connections that bring stability and framework.

I love Kylie’s comment on my blog post the other day: ‘When I was on my way to Singapore airport to fly to Perth, I saw a girl walk by with a GB t-shirt on. I didn’t have time to stop and chat to her as I didn’t want to miss my plane (and it was still only 6am!) but it really lifted my spirits to think that I was so far away from home and GB but GB was still all around me! Praise God.’

There’s something very strong in Kylie’s story about connection – meeting up with Coral (from GB Australia) and Ros (from GB Malaysia) highlights this for me. The sense of togetherness in God’s mission is exciting and it feels somehow ‘comfortable’ to be together despite not knowing each other too well. Very quickly our conversations turn to things we’re experiencing of God in our countries, the challenges and opportunities before us in our shared commitment to see further generations of young women encountering and growing in Christ, passionate to influence and impact the lives of even more girls.

Ros Tay leads the chopstick technique award

Coral Anderson... mmm Australia are lagging!

Then, of course, at the back of my mind I’m wondering how things are going at our conference in Northampton, UK, as we launch a brand new resource for mission among 4 to 8s (called n:vestigate), encourage 200+ leaders in their local GB mission and worship together.

GBEW's Support Centre team

I can imagine the scene… the lovely support centre team rushing around chatting, organising, leading and answering questions, the board members praying together and thinking about direction, focus and resources, the local leaders catching up in conversations and experiencing the boost that comes from being GB together – connected, comfortable rubbing shoulders in mission, open (I pray) to God’s refreshment and challenge.

The lovely GBEW co-ordinators – happy conferencing, you’re great!

I miss ‘home’ today, but you know what? I think the support team will be brill without me and I’m so excited that all over the world today God is on the move. Our role? Let’s perceive what He is doing and join in… wherever we are!

A rainy day at my Malaysian resort hotel

Wednesday and Thursday (9/10 March 2011)

One hour 40 minutes flew me back into Singapore - and what a contrast…

Targeted, efficient, sophisticated and ordered with colonial roots, yet very 21st century cutting edge and enterprising.

I was glad for an evening ‘at home’ after a late lunch and a rummage through an amazing Christian bookshop the size of a warehouse!

Today (Thursday) has whirlwinded me through an American breakfast (great coffee is back!) discussing spiritual development  and solitude with God; a fast and furious debrief/ideas session at GBS centre about GB-led cross cultural mission training (whoo…) and 
then there was the funniest half hour I’ve enjoyed for ages sitting in a car using iPhone GPS to home in our lunch date who was lost in a random car park – the speed of Singaporean English chatter in a crisis just left me helpless!

We had a business lunch with three dynamic women in a huge mall that has a canal and boat rides running through the middle to the enormous casino. Boy was I ready for time out to wander the shops and chill with a book and a drink at the best height bar ever - made for my compact stature!

It was great to meet up with Coral Anderson (GB Australia’s National Commissioner) at the airport – she’s flown over from Perth so we can grab some time together to share, continue our GB chat and pray together before my Australian jaunt begins on Tuesday next week.

It’s going to be hard but someone’s got to spend a couple of nights at a great resort in Malaysia – talking business of course! Yep I’m on the move again… Friday morning to Sunday night Kautan in West Malaysia is the place to be. Piang is speaking at a teachers’ conference organised by GBM while Coral and I will be working hard by the pool! I love my job!

I read James Chapter 1 today (in The Message) and now I’m reflecting about why my natural instinct is to avoid trials when in fact I would grow so much more if I could go with God’s flow in my life. It reminds me of the covenant promise used in the Methodist church each year:

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,

exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

thou art mine, and I am thine.

So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven.

Amen.

(as used in the Book of Offices of the British Methodist Church, 1936).

Guess what country this is!

Creative women's work at GB's community factory in Baray

 

Tuesday (8 March 2011)

Well, I bottled out of eating crickets and spider… but I did eat Cambodian food at every meal (even when a cheese toastie on the menu was ‘speaking’ to me at one lunch stop! From Amok (Khmer curry) to Lok Lak (Cambodian stew) I enjoyed it all. The only thing that stalled me was a fresh coconut FULL of coconut and chocolate ice cream… it was nothing to do with Cambodia – I’m just not an ice cream fan!

Enough of food though – I can only hint at the significance and challenge of things I’ve seen over the past few days – I still need to sift my thoughts. ‘What’s new?’ I can hear my friends cry! One thing I’m certain of is that God is moving powerfully in the lives of many people – and girls’ lives ARE being transformed both practically and in relationship with Jesus. The hope and restoration brought through GB Singapore’s VillageWorks community projects is real and, I believe, lasting.

Beautiful - high school girls earn money for themselves by embroidering the flowers

 

As my hosts Thida and Jayanthee teach English, host project teams, run Life+ clubs and mentor and encourage so many young women to grow, pray for them please.

I saw a rare banner in the city today celebrating International Women’s Day: ‘Women are the backbone of Cambodia’. What a contrast to the prime minister’s speech here on the very same day saying that’men have three rungs of authority, women therefore should never have four and children never have five.

Thida and Jayanthee have backbone meshed together by God Himself and are rungs beyond me as servant leaders, that’s for sure.

Girls enjoying time at GBC school club

My two Cambodian hosts

 



Cambodia from the air

Sunday (6 March 2011)

What a day of new sights and sounds: tuk-tuk taxis pulled by motorbikes and laden with people and suitcases, every other car a Lexus 4×4, children selling fragrance beads in the road…

I was met by two of the GB team from Cambodia and whisked into a whirlwind day of exploration in Phnom Penh.

The awfulness of the Pol Pot era and devastating legacy is very hard to absorb but as I wandered the horror of S21 (a school made into torture centre during the Khmer Rouge days) the victims spoke for themselves through the evidence of conditions they endured.  A 20-minute drive later (the rules of the road are apparently just being introduced – but for now it’s whose biggest goes first!) and I came to what was all but seven of the prisoners’ final destination – their execution in the Killing Fields of Cambodia.

At the harrowing site more than 20,000 people are thought to have met a violent and unjust death and, 30 years later, the sting of a regime of fear and silence still scars life and development here.

Killing Fields - mass graves

I asked one of the Cambodian GB team if she thinks about the past and whether it affects her. She was unusually subdued and simply said ‘My grandfather was killed and my grandmother and mother still cry about it, so it makes me sad’. Enough said?

Having lunched at an Aussie-run mission café called Jacobs Well, I moved to Cambodian Thai for dinner and met up with Heather Topham, formerly a leader in 1^st Didcot company.

She’s teaching over here for two years and, as I last saw her in February 2010, it was good to catch up with her and see how life in Cambodia is going. Facebook had revealed her love news – and it was great to meet Heather’s now fiancé and watch them scoot off into the night on his motor scooter! Heather has opened a GB Lifeclub+ at the school recently and is obviously enjoying her time out here. She tells me that she has lots of single male Christian friends girls…!

Heather (right) and my lovely host Jayanthee (left)

I guess my lasting question of today is one asked generations ago by David - ‘Lord, why do evil men prosper?’. From here my mind drifts to a scene in Libya, will this be another place of genocide? The Cambodians want to speak freely of their story so that the world can learn – are we? Let’s pray.

Saturday (5 March 2011)

It’s been a truly international food day here in Singapore. Breakfast out at an Indian place – pancake with egg and fish curry sauce; a  sumptious Japanese lunch – tempura and braised beef and egg, great pic eh? and then a home-cooked feast with my host family (3 – 80yrs old!).

My tasty lunch

In between this, in 40 degree heat, around 1,200 GBS girls and leaders were out on the streets  for their government-sponsored once a year fundraising. I had a great time back at the GB Centre helping the team to count it all! A good way to learn the currency, although I only worked on the $2 note!

GB banter is the same in every language, lots of laughs and jokes mixed with deeper chats about God’s leading and faithfulness. It was a privilege to share with the executive committee and other leaders, and to be learning more about their heart and passion to see young women released as servant leaders in their community and beyond. Must admit I left the job unfinished in order to get back to prep for tomorrow – Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

GB there is working alongside the government and community to help initiate and establish a number of important projects that enable local girls and women to encounter and live life to the full.

So, my bag is packed again, mosquito stuff and sun cream at the ready… forgot my hat though.

I’m meeting up with a GB leader from GBEW in Cambodia, Heather Topham. Formerly on our trustee board, Heather is now teaching there AND has helped open a new GB work in her school. Great news eh?

Ok, I’m beat. Off to bed thinking about a conversation from earlier… ‘What needs to be the core of a Christian leader is the awareness and discovery of two key questions about self. Who am I? (a clear sense of our identity in God) and Whose am I? (the discovery and welcome of Jesus as the Lord of my life).’

Impressive door handles at the GBS centre. Wonder if Baptist House would notice if we had the front doors at our support centre altered to match?!

Piang and I at the GB International Conference, E Malaysia 2010

So the journey to Girls’ Brigade in Asia and the Pacific begins on Thursday!

Although in reality it’s been happening for a while already, with plans and ideas taking shape as I chat with GB leaders in Singapore, Australia, Europe Fellowship and the Pacific Fellowship too.

I have currency from Tesco, my iPad, a fairtrade tee shirt or two and multiple offers of folk to carry my bags…..what more do I need? Maybe a friend to meet me at Changi airport?! My dear friend Miss Hee Piang Chin (past president of GB Singapore and GB International) is sure to have it all in hand!