The first day of the conference! We got up earlier, prepared our conference kit, bought bread and bottled water on the way to MRT station and we were ready for Asia conference. We didn't want to arrive late. Inside the MRT leaving to Singapore Expo, we met so many people wore Asia Conference ID card and lots of Indonesians!
Finally we arrived at Singapore Expo. I was amazed at the loooooong queue in front of the hall's entrance. We were directed to Hall 10, and we sat not too far from the stage. The opening band was True Worshipper. It's like we're back in Jakarta, but we were proud that all these delegates coming from all over Asia sang Indonesia's gospel songs. Go TW!
Actually we were still convinced that we were at the main hall, when the opening ceremony began. We saw the grand opening ceremony from the big screen on the stage. I said to my friend, maybe this was a record from last year's ceremony, which she agreed. Until one of the CHC pastor announced that the ceremony was aired live from the main hall - Hall 8! Well...a bit disappointed, but then we realised that all participants will have at least one day to be prioritized to enter the main hall. For us it would be the next day.
It was a great experience to hear and see these great speakers at Asia Conference. They were man and woman of God sharing God's words, they imparted what they have received from God for Asia. Their long faith journey with God, the ups and down, their love to God and people, and their great expectancy that God is and will work mightily in Asia through us, just amazed me and made my eyes wet. Ps. David Yonggi Cho, Ps. Kong Hee. Ps. Phil Pringle, DR. A.R Bernard, Ps. Reinhard Bounke were some of the speakers this year.
Ps. David Yonggi Cho (74 years) shared about living in the 4th dimension (spiritual dimension). Believing God's promises when it looked impossible. With his slow voice, Ps. Yonggi Cho said that we could encourage our faith by speaking His words and keep our thinking in line with God's words. To be honest, we had to work very hard to keep our eyes open during Ps. Yonggi Cho's first session, because sometimes we could not catch the spoken English words in Korean accent. At the end of his message, Ps.Yonggi Cho mentioned one sentence that made me think hard, " Life without miracle is no life at all for Christian".
The next day, Ps. Kong Hee explained that actually Ps. Yonggi Cho was sick when he started the first session the previous day. However as God's anointing moved during the conference, Ps. Yonggi Cho was getting stronger. Ooo I felt bad ..I'm sorry Lord, I did not know he was not in good condition yesterday.
It is so easy for us to admire young uprising preachers or evangelists with their dynamic and attractive preaching, using multimedia presentation or the latest gadget. Nothing against them, it's all necessary to stay updated and reach out the young generation. However I give my greatest admiration to the the older man and woman of God who still stay in God's track through the long years of their lives, and Ps. Yonggi Cho is one of them.
Day two was our day to get prioritised into the main hall. And wow...it's so big and totally packed up! DR. AR Bernard shared about invading the world with Christ's culture. At the closing session, Ps. Phil Pringle called out and prayed for pastors and leaders from several countries that God has put in his heart that night..some of the countries were China, North Korea, Myanmar and USA. Holy Spirit worked so strong and I could not hold my tears when the whole delegates (around 20,000 people) united to pray for these countries.
Finally it's coming to Thursday, the final day of my stay in Singapore. We would join the morning session only because I had flight at 3 pm, while the rest of the group's flight schedule would be one hour later than mine.After arriving at Singapore Expo by taxi, we put our luggage at the organizer's reception area at hall 7, while we followed the sessions at hall 10.A great session with Ps. Yonggi Cho about redemption from sin. We carry Christ's dying in our body 24/7, and God sees us like we never commit even one sin in our life. The following session was Ps. Reinhard Bounke. This was the first time I saw him preaching although Ps. Reinhard Bounke has been to Indonesia couple of times for crusade meeting. Watching him from the big screen in front of us, we could feel his burning passion for lost souls..."To hell with the devil, to heaven with the people!"
What a great conference! Two thumbs up for City Harvest Church who organised this big conference so well. Different pulpit for different speakers, outstanding ushers - they are firm but polite, very helpful and always smile, great testimonies, all sessions started on time, remarkable multimedia and stage presentation and many others. Now it's time to go home and bring back the spirit imparted during the whole conference in our daily lives.
A very long queue at the exit of Hall 10. We had to go back to Hall 7 to bring our luggage, then walked again to Hall 10 to catch free shuttle to the airport. I was a bit worried because my flight was one hour earlier than the rest of the team. We left Singapore Expo around 1 pm, and my flight schedule was 3 pm. After we arrived at Changi, we were a bit disoriented. We arrived at Terminal 2, and could not see any sign of Air Asia counter. We asked information counter and found out that Air Asia check-in counter was at Terminal 1. We had to go down by lift than take sky train to Terminal 1. So I just speed up my steps to the sky train station and said goodbye to my friends..we will see each other again in 2 hours time in Jakarta.
My flight was delayed for around half an hour, then I waited another one and half hour at Sukarno Hatta airport for the rest of the gang. Another friend picked us up at the airport. Seven grown up people plus seven luggage cramped inside Isuzu Panther car. We finished the night by having dinner together at hawkers eatery nearby - "soto ayam" and fried chicken. So much difference from the eating place in Singapore, but we can live with it, even kind of miss the food flavour, just clean-enough table, having chillies, eating with hands. That's it...home sweet home!
