Happy Thanksgiving!

Next month today, I will reach my 10 years of living here in the states. Awww time flies.

Even though I have been here for almost 10 years, it was my first time last night to make a thanksgiving feast! I guess I am more Americanized now :p

What was so special about this year that I wanted to celebrate thanksgiving.

Is not just because my parents happened to be here with me this year, but also, I guess it is the first time I can truly be thankful for my family!

Is sad but also true that I could never be truly grateful for my family before! There was so much pain in the past that I couldn't get myself to truly love them. I would always try to be nice and be good to them when they were around just because they are my parents, but after a week or two, I would grow really dry and weary and couldn't stand them anymore, then I would explode and things just got worst!!

Something has changed this year! God has healed my heart, and has gradually taken away my pain from the past, that I am able to love again, through the power of His love.

For the first time, I truly understand what 1 Corinthians 13 means. To love is to be patient, to be kind, to not be boastful or rude, to not be irritated and, the phase that speak to me the most is, to keep no record of being wronged. Doesn't it sound impossible? It is impossible for us to do it on our own, but through God we can. Not instantly but gradually. God has gradually changed me from the inside out. The joy and peace that I have from looking up to the cross, and knowing that everything is gonna be okay coz' Jesus is with me and God is in control.

It was really nice to spend time with my mom, cooking thanksgiving feast together! we laughed, we made a mess :) And the most important thing is, I was not just trying to love, but I actually enjoyed being with her. That's new but I love it! And I felt like i am getting to know her more :)

Is not easy, I know I will fall again, I may explode again someday but I know God will continue to heal and change my heart and give me the strength to grow and to love.

There are so many things to be thankful for this year, but the first and foremost is to be able to come back to Christ and to dwell in His love.

Continue to dwell in His love!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Meteor Shower

Last night I went to watch the third meteor showers of my life.

The first one was back in high school, I went with my best friend, Jenelle, to the Repulse Bay in Hong Kong. Stayed up all night and didn't see a thing! The worst thing was that there were thousands of people staying at the beach that night, and the next morning, everybody was trying to get back to work and school, the line to any transportation was crazy long. Jenelle and I were already late for school so we actually hitchhiked back to school. LOL What an experience, that's the only time I ever hitchhike! haha And of course we were safe and still laugh about it today!

Second time was at the University of Washington. I went with my ex, boyfriend at the time :P. It was my junior year of college. We didn't really wanna drive anywhere, plus we still had labs to do at the time, so we thought school was good enough. yes that's life in double E! The funny thing was, we lay down on the lawn with our sleeping bags trying to catch the star and yet nothing. Due to the heavy schoolwork back in the days, we were both pretty tired and soon we both fell asleep. After awhile, a loud "siii" sound woke me up. I opened my eye and saw, OMG the sparkler came on!! My first reaction was to scream and then start running coz' the water was coming towards us. Lucky, we were quick enough to avoid the water, but our sleeping bags were all wet! Another fun experience, yet no meteor!

Finally, last night, I went with a bunch of lovely friends to the beautiful rep family house up in Saratoga hill. Though with not much hope, I thought there was nothing to lose specially with such good companies. And to my surprise, the first time ever in my life, I finally got to witness the shooting stars! It was just like what I have dreamt but even nicer, prettier, and brighter. :) I am so falling in love with it! Of course with the starry sky and the night view of silicon valley, it ought to be pretty :) I was sooo excited when I saw the very first one. The bright star shot across the sky and followed by a white line cutting through the starry night. I couldn't help but screamed out loud. YaY!

Aren't God amazing? He created something so beautiful and spectacular. I will always remember my first shooting star :)

Thank God and I'm loving it :D

The Chosen

Last night, I went to watch "The Chosen" at Mountain View Performing Art theater. Little did i know of the novel (it's actually a very popular one), I am fascinated by the way the author portrays the depth of personal relationships, relationship between two young men and the relationship between father and son.

He illustrates the friendship through profound simplicity of going on long walks together, spending time to grapple with intellectual and spiritual considerations, and also how they show an honest and passionate desire to truly understand each other and the different worlds from which they come.

Also the portrayal of fathers who care so deeply about what their sons think and how their young minds are developing. How they inspire, encourage and guide their sons with their best knowledge and at the same time, learn to realize the path they have imposed on their sons' future and respect the individual desire for life goal.

At this age, we are so caught up by our busy lifestyle. I feel like there is not much time friends and family can actually spend together to truly get to know each other, and to learn things that really matter to each other.

A good reminder!!

Read this devotional this morning, a good reminder for all, whether you are business owner or not. God's timing is on His hand, so as blessing. And our job is to obey and follow and trust that He is a good God no matter in what circumstances!

The Causes of Failure

"You cannot stand against your enemies until you remove it." Joshua 7:13b

The first battle for the people of Israel traveling from Egypt was at Jericho, once they crossed the Jordan River. God had given them a great victory at Jericho, and Joshua was now ready to move to their next battle at Ai. After they spied out the enemy camp, they determined they needed only a few thousand men to gain victory.

They went up against Ai only to fail miserably. They lost 32 men in a battle that should have been an easy victory, but instead they were forced to retreat. Joshua was devastated. "Ah, Sovereign Lord, why did You ever bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us?" (Josh. 7:7a) In this case, the people fell short because they failed to uphold the standard God had set for them. God had told them not to take any plunder from their first battle. However, Achan hid some forbidden treasures, and God was now judging the entire nation for one man's sin.

Whenever we act without God's complete blessing on our activity, we can expect God to thwart our plans. God's word to Joshua was that he could not stand against his enemies as long as there was disobedience among his troops.

Whenever we launch a business endeavor, we should make sure there are no unclean things in our dealings that would allow us to be vulnerable to a failed effort: unpaid vendors, disgruntled employees who were not treated fairly, lawsuits, dishonesty. Many of these things can hinder God from blessing our enterprises. These things can remove the shield of protection from our workplace, which God wants to bless, but cannot because He is committed to upholding righteousness. His name is blemished when unrighteousness is allowed to permeate our lives.

Is the Lord able to bless your enterprises today? If not, you may need to go back and clean up a few things before He can do so. Take whatever steps are needed to ensure the blessing of God today.

by Os Hilman

SA: II – knowing God’s provision by Faith

Ever since the first day, God has shown miracles after miracles in our venture. Beginning from the pairing of us consultants to the clients to all the reconciliation and marketplace miracles happened in the venture. Even the very roommate that we have, God has a plan for it and He is truly providing for us.

Looking back to the day I first joined the training, I believed I am one of the first people who went up to Dena, our financial person, to ask her about funding stuff. I was like “omg the training is sooo expensive and we have to pay for the trip too! I don’t think I can afford it” and Dena’s response was “ God will provide don’t worry”. I looked at her and thought “ya right, Is easy for you to say” :P

But still I felt that God had called me to go, so I kept on going with the training and started doing my fundraising. It took me a while to actually get started, at one point I wondered why couldn't God just put money in my bank acc haha!!, but He had better plan. If it was not because of fundraising I wouldn’t be able to share with so many people about my faith. And God has put many people through the past couple month in my life to support me and used my story to touch other people’s life in a way that I would never thing I could’ve ever done it, given the fact that I am not a well-spoken person or someone who know a whole lot about bible or life.

Other than financial provision, He continued to provide me throughout the trip. I remembered there were many times that I wasn’t sure what to do with my client, what to do with my co-consultant and what to do with my scorecard and other deliverable. Everyday, I would pray to God over my problems and the very next day, prayer answered. I had never seen God answering prayer so quickly and so faithfully. I remembered in one of the un-structure day, which we normally we would go to the client’s office and check out the company, meet the employees and work on our scorecard. But that day, my client had a meeting to go, so instead of visiting his company and scorecarding, I together with my co-consultant, went to the meeting with my client. I was going to take some note and observe how he interact with his client. However, due to the limiting space, we weren’t able to sit with the clients and ended up sitting on the other side of the room. I wasn’t able to hear all the conservation clearly, so instead of trying to take note, I started to pray and ask God to come and be present in this meeting. I asked that He will let my client feel and see His presence, He will give my client wisdom and strength on the work he is doing with his client, and He will be with him throughout the meeting. I kept on praying and praying, non-stop for 2 hours. After the meeting was done, my client came up to me and asked me if I were praying for him because he had never had a meeting run so smoothly that they were about to finish everything on the agenda in just 2 hours which normally would take them a day to go through. God, again, answered my prayer right at the spot.

There are stories after stories on how God provide for his people and I actually see that happened in me and also in our teammates on the trip.

Have faith and he will provide!

SA: I – Knowing God’s love by heart, at heart and in heart

The first week in SA was truly a thrill. SA was nothing like what I have expected. It was beautiful. A flat land surrounded by range of mountains. The sky is blue and clear with layers of clouds from low to high. The sun shine through the clouds and lays shadow on the mountain and the shadow follows as the breeze moves the clouds. Not to mention the beautiful coastline. Speaking of creation, how can one not praise God for such beautiful nature!

For the venture, the thing that really stood out in the first week was that I realized is not about how long you have been a Christian, how much you know about bible, (thought they are important) but do you truly know Christ in your heart, truly feel the love of Christ and know that He does care so much about you.

At first I thought I know what's God love is, I thought I feel his love but then I met people who is living in a different level of faith, experiencing a different level of depth in Christ's love. I realized how little I know about God and again I was blown away by that fact that his love can be so much deeper and He could be so much more.

I guess there are so many ways one can preach about the Gospel but nothing compares to those who truly love God, and embrace Him with all their heart. And even the simple conversations they make are much more powerful than all the theological explanation that people can come up with. The simple words of loving God, trusting Him comes from their mouth are filled with a depth of passion and experience that you can sense from their tone and the expression in their eyes. And when I hear them I know they truly know God!

I’ve also seen people who know so much about God in their head, know so much about bible, saying they know God's love but feeling nothing in their heart, having no faith and the same doubt and worries as though they were secular. Where have their knowledge of God gone? There is a saying that the distance between heaven and earth is just the distance between from our head to our heart. I guess that is really true.

One of the thing that we all prayed really hard on this trip was to let go of control and let’s God take charge. All of us were so stressed out in the first week because of intense schedule + jetlag and fatigue, and we all trying to make sure everything would work according to our plan, breakthrough and change would happen according to our will. Every single one of us was turning into a control freak and wanting things to happen in our timing in our way. But the Holy Spirit had spoken to us that it was not our work but God’s work to be done, and it was not about our timing but God timing to make things happen.

I couldn't help but wonder if part of the reasons (other that we really trying to help) that we were trying to control so much was that we were scared to fail, what if we couldn’t deliver what we supposed to for our clients. May be somehow we thought that our performance would define our worth, but the true is only God’s love defines us not our achievements. Our identity only comes from God alone, not other persons or other things. Paul came to understand that the greatest riches could not compare with knowing Christ and he considered all other material things to be mere garbage in comparison : "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (Philippians 3:7-8).

Knowing Christ’s love for us and that we are His child gives us identity. Don’t just know it in our head, but trust in our heart that He loves us. Embrace His love and we will find Him in our heart so that we will have peace and joy in our heart.

(Matthew 22:37-38) Jesus Speaking - "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.

I'm back :)

It's been awhile since I last posted. After two weeks of resting, getting over my jetlag, catching up with work and friends and , I am back on =)

Thanks for all your prayers and support, this SA trip has been one of the most amazing trip and really an eye opening experience to me. Being able to witness God's work and see changes in people life, that was priceless!!

Since I didn't get to upload my blog daily during the venture due to internet issue and intense schedule there. Here is the rep blog where all of us from the team took turn to write about the trip, if you didn't get to read it yet : http://repurposing.biz/cape-town-june-2009-venture

I will also share more of my experience in the next post =)

First day in Cape Town!

Just wanna let you all know that I have safely arrived at Cape town, thank you so much for praying for me =) The weather has been great, not too cold and so far hasn't been raining so praise the Lord !!!

Today, we had our orientation, we checked out the place that the consultation will be taken place, and go through the client list and our schedules. We will be doing our consultation in a water mill house, built in 1795, where the khoi-san were first enslaved to work in the mill. The house is located in the knorhoek farm, east of Cape town, and the area is beautiful. People were saying that the mill house signify the origin of wrong doing to the Khoi that is not from God's will and it is significant to have our venture carry out in this particular location!

Alos, the company that i will be working with is called Business-Knowledge-Vision (BKV), I will be meeting up with my co-consultant, Mike Bullock and my client, the owner of BKV Jacobus tomorrow. Will update you with more details tmr =)

Jesus is the only way

Lately, I've gotten a lot of questions about Christianity and a lot of them are related to "why Jesus is the only way". I happened to come across this article online and found that the explanation was quite thorough, so wanted to share it here with you all especially those who are having the same doubt.

"It may seem unfair, unjust, or even arrogant for Christians to say that Jesus is the only way that a person can have a relationship with God. These misconceptions, however, can be cleared up by coming to a clear understanding of the issue.

Christians did not invent the idea that a person can only be saved by Jesus
Christians say that Jesus is the only way to God because Jesus Himself said He was the only way to God. It is Jesus' claim, not our invention. Consider these verses where Christ eliminates alternative ways to God: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through me" (John 14:6). "For unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins" (John 8:24).

Christ's apostles later affirmed His claim: "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved, " Peter says in Acts 4:12. Paul writes "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). It is not arrogant for Christians to make such an exclusive claim since we are only relaying what Jesus taught and being faithful to what Jesus told us to do (Matt. 28:19). If we come to understand why Jesus is the only way, we will see that it is not unfair for Him to make such claims.

Why is Jesus the only way?
Every person is separated from God by their sin and in need of forgiveness. Because God is just as well as loving, we cannot cross this gulf and have a relationship with Him (eternal life) unless the penalty for our sin is paid--eternal death. If God did not judge our sin, He would no longer be just.

Living a good, moral life cannot save a person because good works do not pay the penalty for sin. Just as we can only pay a $50 speeding ticket with $50 (not by baking cookies for the judge or even paying $49), only death can pay the death penalty for sin. Being religious cannot save a person either, because religion does not pay the death penalty.

Fortunately, because of His love for us, God sent Jesus to die in our place to pay the death penalty we deserve for our sin. Jesus chose to do this because He loves us, and was the only one able to do this because He is fully God (He had to be infinite to pay the penalty for more than one person) and He is fully man (He had to be a sinless human to pay the penalty for a sinful human). Jesus is not only sinless, but He is 100% God and 100% man.

On the cross, God judged Jesus for our sin so that we wouldn't have to be. That's why He is the only way to God--only Jesus was willing and able to die for us to pay our death penalty, thus providing forgiveness for our sins. No one other religios leader has done this; no one else could have done this.

So now there are two options. Either a person can pay this penalty themselves--and so not be saved--or Jesus can pay it for them--and be saved. In both ways, God is just because the penalty is paid. The decision is ours to make, and all we need to do is accept God's offer of forgiveness in Jesus. Either we pay the penalty, or we trust Jesus to save us and He pays the penalty.

To summarize, we can receive forgiveness and eternal life only through Jesus because only He has taken away our sin and bridged the gulf between us and God. It took His death to pay the penalty for our sin. If there had been any other way, Jesus would not have died (Gal 2:21). Considering the sacrifice Jesus made, we should not think it is unfair that there is only one way, but we should be glad that there is any way at all. "

source: http://www.geocities.com/athens/delphi/8449/only.html

Commissioning night

This week we had a commissioning night where friends and families and rep alumni would come together and pray for each of us consultants for the up coming venture. Through this big prayer meeting, God has really showed me and reassured me that He does know me well and very well.

I remembered that one of the prayer I got was about boldness that I can boldly speak the truth and speak up for God. And even though I am so small in size, God has not think little of me. He wants me to not worry but grow and be bold and do greater things for Him.

It has just blown me away when I heard these prayer words came out from people who don't know about my struggles but yet was able to speak out the exact worries in my heart.
Ever since I started on the training, I have always felt that I am not good enough for the Venture. I don't know anything about business or consulting, don't have a deep knowledge in bible, don't speak the perfect language....etc. As I am feeling so inadequate, God has spoken to me through prayers. The prayer has again confirmed God's sovereignty that He knows me better than I thought and He cares about me.

As God is sovereign and loving and the fact that He knows me so well, how would He not be providing for me. He will even provide in such a way that is way better than I could ever think of.

A brief history of South Africa

Just wanna share a little bit about the history of South Africa and what make this trip so significant.

• In 1652, Jan Van Riebeeck was sent to the Cape by the Dutch East India Company to establish a halfway station to provide fresh water, vegetables, and meat for passing ships travelling to and from Asia.
• In settling down there, the Dutch encountered the indigenous people of the land, the Khoisan and started bartering with them for their sheep and cattle.
• In 1658, the first border conflicts started when Dutch settlers finally clashed with the Khoisan who then were enslaved by the Dutch.
• The British later arrived and took over the Cape, and the Dutch, who eventually became Afrikaners moved further north, establishing states in the Northern part of South Africa.
• Aggressive black African tribes (eg Zulus) from the north also began to move down south, and clashed with the Dutch Afrikaners.
• In 1866, gold and diamonds were discovered in the north, prompting the interest to the British.
• In 1898, the Boer war broke out between the British and Afrikaners over the gold and diamonds.
• In 1948, the National party got power, and made apartheid law.
• In 1961, South Africa gained independence from Britain.
• In 1990, when Mandela was released, and pushed back apartheid and segregation
• In 1994 Mandela becomes president.

From history of South Africa, you can see that the land is marked by immigration and ethnic conflict, beginning with the very first encounter with the Dutch Afrikaners and the Khoisan people.

The significance of this trip is that this is the first time rep is focusing on one ethnic group, and together with a group of businesses who have a heart to use their businesses to rebuild and transform this unique group of people who have been through tremendous attack from their own country, that just touch my heart and get me excited to go on this trip.

I pray that God will bring forth healings, reconciliation and transformation to South Africa. To me, it is such privilege to be part of God’s work and I can’t wait to see God doing something great through this venture.

Amen.

Fundraising

I am not going to ask for money on this post, I will on some later ones :p j/k!

But while reflecting on these past couple months on preparing for the trip and trying to raise fund for the expenses, I realized that i would never have talked to so many people about my faith if is not because of fundraising. I think I have talked to more people about Christ in these past 2/3 months than I had in my entire life.

At first, I was so reluctant to ask for money, because I was shy (and i am still shy just not as bad I guess), I felt bad to ask for money in this economy and I felt like i am burdening my friends with my trip.

Deep down, I truly believe in what I am doing and the impact this ministry will make. But to believe in heart and to confess with mouth are two different things. And God knows exactly what my weaknesses are and He pushes me to overcome them.

Through fundraising I've learned that it is really not about me, but God's work to be done. I've learned to give generously and to step in faith. Also, I've learned what's it mean to truly humble yourself for God.

I am so blessed by friends around me, who have encouraged me to not worried about how others gonna see me but just speak the truth.
I am so blessed by friends who have found comfort from things that I shared.
I am so blessed by friends who have supported me and prayed for me for this ministry.

I would never have believed that I would grow so much from joining the rep, even before going on to the venture. Now, I can't wait to see what God is going to do in South Africa!

Done Deal =)

Finally, flight to Cape town is booked!!! no turning back :P

Leaving on 6/4/2009
Coming back on 6/23/2009

Praise the lord that tickets are bought within budget and vacation days are approved!!!

Done with Training YAY!

Haven't posted anything for two weeks. I haven't been busy with the very last week of training and catching up readings and assignments. The 2 months training was finally ended. On one hand, I am happy that now I have more time free up for my own, for family and friends; on the other hand, I really missed the time that all of us trainees gather together to study God's word, to find out what God says about business and really wanting to do something for God.

It was amazing how all of us just bonded. The friendship and trust that built between all of us (both trainee and trainer) through the training was so incredible. To see us, just willing to bring down our walls and to open up to one another, not worrying about being vulnerable among others were tremendous to me. All the testimonies and experiences that we share with each other were such an encouragement to me because it just confirmed how God is so faithful to us and He is so loving to us. It was such a life changing experience to learn what's it mean to live a life with God and for God, and also what's it mean to have kingdom of God on earth.

In this coming month before flying to South Africa, I will be working hard to finish all my study and getting myself spiritually ready for the trip. I really pray that God will show me more about Him during this month and continue to strengthen me for this ministry.

Praise the Lord!

God's Love

I've been saying "God loves us" many times throughout the blog, but how?

God sent His one and only son to die for us sinners so that we can be reconciled with Him again.

But let take a minute here to think about it. What does that really mean? I guess those who have kids may understand this concept a little better here. Letting your son die for others is not something easy or trivial. I believe one can die for someone out of love. But to let your son or somebody you deeply love to die for others…… hum that a different question and may be I will let the parents to answer the question. I am not saying there is no bad parent who doesn't care about their kids, but God loves his son very much, so let’s keep that scenario.

For parents who love their son so much, is it quite impossible for them to let their son die for somebody. Not to mention when that somebody is not even a good person.
And God sent Jesus, his son. Have you ever think about the fact that God can actually use any method He wants to reconcile with us, but why did He choose to do it the Jesus way? The way that is so painful to Him.

Because that's how we, limited human beings, could fully understand His love.

That is how much God loves us.

Forgiveness

One thing I learn from the training is "to forgive".

A lot of times, the things that we try to hold against others really only matter to us and not that much to the other parties. Sometimes they don't even remember or have any idea what they have done to you. And you are the one who holding all the hatred, grudges, grief and pain inside your heart.

Some of you are waiting for the others to say sorry, to say that they are regretted for hurting you. You want them to acknowledge that they have wronged you. Some of you are not able to forgive yourself for things you've done, doesn't matter how many times you've apologized, you still hold it against yourself.

However, without you even knowing, the pain that's kept in your heart has gradually drained you down so much that it has blocked your heart from receiving God's love and healing and has stopped you from doing what God has planned for you. That's what Satan wants not God. God loves us, and he has paid an extremely high price for us that is enough to pay off any bad deeds. So learn to forgive and leave the judgement to God. Just like Jesus, He chose to die for us before we even asked.

Forgiveness doesn't start with the other side, it starts from you. Right there in your heart. Choose to forgive others before they say sorry. Make a commitment to yourself, say to yourself or write it on paper that you will choose to forgive him/her because Jesus has done the same for you. Pray in Jesus name for God's grace to be with you.

Is not easy, yes is definitely not. Who say following Christ is easy? But you are not doing it alone, Jesus is with you and you will not be forsaken.
Leave it to God for He has used love to trade in your pain. =)

Happy Easter !!

It's amazing how Easter and Christmas become such a universal holiday today that people around the world will all celebrate these two holidays together. But how many of those who celebrate Easter and Christmas really understand what the celebration means. Easter is not about Bunnies and eggs, so as Christmas is not about Santa Claus. Nevertheless, they are definitely two of the most joyful days to celebrate. Christmas and Easter summed up what Jesus have done for us: Jesus' birth and death & resurrection which has completed love and justice for us all.
How?
Complete Love - God, out of love, sent His one and only son Jesus to the earth to die for us, so we can be reconciled with Him again.
Complete Justice - Jesus, the son of God, holy and sinless, died for us sinners just to pay for our debt, so that we are set free. Coz' the wages of sin is death!

God's love is precious!

Obedience

Lately I've been praying for direction on work and callings. I've been praying for months, but have not heard anything from God till this past Wednesday. God told me that He is not showing me anything coz' He want me to learn how to rely on Him first. When I heard it I was like God, are You serious?!??? haha this really show how obedient i am !!

I started to think about what does it mean to be obedient to God. And I realized that obedience is one of the key element to follow God. And I totally see why God want me to go on this venture. Because to follow God in the business world is one of the most denied area that most and is also one of the area that takes most courage in terms of obedience and faith to make it happen.

Here is a very simple example, one of God's character is integrity. God hates lies, and God is the truth. There is no gray area for honesty in God's eye. However, it is one of the most denied area in business. To be truthful to our customersand employees is not easy and is not the norm most of the time. Especially in thing that touches money.

It takes faith to obey God, and the experience of people who went through the venture in the past told me stories after stories about how business owners put faith in God and miracle just happened in merely ten days. That really reminded me what Jesus said in Luke 17:6 “If you had faith the size of a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.”

This is how much God cherish our faith and obedience. Obedience always comes with faith and faith will grow through obedience.

Glorify God through Business

How do we go about using business to glorify God?

Identifying the impact of a business gives business owner a different view of what influence it is making in the society. A business can impact and reach out to many more people than what a church can. Think about the influence circles of a business, they include employees, clients, venders, competitors, customers ... etc. Exploring what impact a business can make help business owners to see a different purpose of the business and how it can be aligned with God’s plan.

Through the training, we learn about how to practically apply biblical principals to run a business so that God's character is reflected. We look at 10 aspects of a business: Purpose, Products, Positioning, Presence, Partnering, Process, People, Place, Planning, and Profit and understand the biblical basis for each of the Ps. We use these bases as our guideline to work with business owners. Identify where the Ps of their business are and the gap between where they could be if the business is aligned with God's will. And then, together with the business owners, we come up with strategies and action plans to minimize the gap.

This is what I am gonna be doing in South Africa, sound interesting right! =)

As believers, not all of us are called to be pastors but all of us are called to preach the kingdom of God. Luke 9:1-2 And he [Jesus] sent them [his twelve disciples] to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

Purpose of Business

When I ask, what is the purpose of business? One will answer the purpose of business is to maximize long-term owners'/stockholders' value.
And if I ask, what is the purpose of man? Believers will say the purpose of man is to glory God, we are created to glorify God.

How could this two concepts come together and make sense?

The bible said God is the creator of all. He created heaven and earth and every living creatures. And so, God is our ultimate long-term owner, everything belongs to Him including business. In that sense, the purpose of business is to maximize God's value. And maximizing God's value results in glorifying Him.

The purpose of business is to glorify God.

Based on this concept, REP believes that aligning purpose of business with God's plan brings forth the kingdom of God on earth.

Going on my first mission trip in June

This coming June, I will be going on a mission trip with rēp (Repurposing Business—Transforming Society® ) to South Africa, Cape Town, as a consultant for local business firm. Our mission is to help business owner to see what God is doing in their business and converging their work and faith together for greater good. We believe that business is a calling from God and by repurposing businesses, we can eventually transform society and yet nation.

As many of you know, that I am fundraising for this ministry and my goal is to raise $5000. Thus, I am writing this blog to share my learnings and experience with you all.
Especially for my sponsors, I would like to keep you all posted with the training that i am going through now as well as what will be going on in the venture later on.

This is going to be my first mission trip ever, I am excited yet nervous. And I believe that God will do great things through this ministry.

Thank You so much for supporting me!