MOVING AND RENOVATE THE NEW PREMISE

Shalom All,

Greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth!

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope - Jeremiah 29 verse 11.

We would like, first of all, to thank everyone for your encouraging emails, and for covering us with your prayers. Very sincere thanks, too, especially to pastors Rev. Dr. David Yonggi Cho, Pastor Rick Warren, Pastor John Burton and many others for praying for our mission work. God is truly working in an amazing way through our extended family of God, encouraging and upholding us in the building of His church.

I firmly believe our God will bless us all the way whenever we walk by faith in obedience to Him.

Last Sunday, we went to see the landlord of the shop lot and were surprised to be told he would bless our Church with one month free rental from 15 May till 14 June 2013. Praise the Lord! So we will be moving to the new premises starting on 18 May 2013 (next Saturday).

As for the old premises, the landlord has refunded us in full the two months' rental deposit we had with them. That settles nicely our move from one place to a new one.

But we need to plan and think through how best to utilize the 5 floors of the shop lot we now have. Our thoughts:

Ground Floor - Coffee/Tea Fellowship Center and Christian bookshop (i.e.a convenient ground level contact point or center for evangelism ).
1^st Floor - Congregation Sanctuary Hall, Training Hall and Bible Study Hall.
2^nd Floor - Still thinking and planning
3^rd Floor - Parsonage.
4^th Floor - Rooms for Missionaries and Visitors.
5^th Floor - Rooftop view with deck chairs for rest and relaxation, particularly during breezy evenings for worshippers and visitors.

Our rationale for a coffee/tea fellowship center: to provide a convenient way for local people to get to know who we are and what we do, as well as to provide a convenient meeting place for them to spend time relaxing, reading, chatting or even doing their computer work. We can use in-house piped Christian music, recorded testimonies and sermons as well as making available photocopies of Christian quotable quotes from Proverbs and other well known passages from the Bible, etc ... anything light and easy that will help in spreading God's message. Not only that, we will have regular worship and sharing regularly and daily, if necessary. These activities will provide more opportunities for non-believers to know Jesus Christ and open new doors for them into the Kingdom of God.

We truly want to thank God for opening doors for us to do His work in the first place ... by providing us with such marvelous premises in a prime location, accessible from and to many busy, crowded people centers and at an affordable low rental too, for a 5 storey shop lot and so far, it is truly an amazing act of God that is only explainable and made possible by His grace, through the prayers and petitions of His saints! Surely also all according to His great plan.! And for His glory!

We need to raise funds to do the moving in and for some necessary renovation for the new premises. We estimate a launching initial budget of THB 300,000 (RM 34,090/USD 10,714).

I pray that with your support, the new Center and Church will take off as planned and set out above. Please pray with us for the realization of this project. In God we truly depend and trust "One Faith, One Hope, One Love".

May God be with you and bless you for His Glory.

Blessings,

Rev. Steve Peter H S Kok

CHURCH ACTIVITIES AND MOVING CHURCH REPORT 2013

Shalom All,

Greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth!

Do you not know?
Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God

The Creator of the ends of the earth
He will not grow tired or weary,
And His understanding no one can fathom.

He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. - Isaiah 40 verses 29 - 31.

I would like thank everyone for praying for my wife, Jenny Ruth during her recent illness. The Lord has now healed her through the prayers of our extended Christian family. Praise the Lord!

In my last email, I have explained that she was diagnosed to have Ménière's disease (Disorder of the inner ear) that can affect hearing and balance to varying degrees. I have brought her first to a government hospital, and then a private hospital (to get a second opinion). However, the Lord soon healed her thoroughly without the need to do MRI or CT Scan. Praise the Lord!

Subsequently, Jenny felt a small  growth in her left throat area. The doctor who examined this ruled out thyroid. Jenny is scheduled to have an ultra-sound  and tissue examination on 4 June 2013. The result will be available only on 25 June 2013 to determine whether surgery is necessary.

Thank God for a kind and generous brother who has offered RM 2,000 (THB 18,000/USD 630) for her surgery. We continue to find strength and comfort from the Lord and pray for His total healing  upon Jenny, awaiting His deliverance, His mercies and His miraculous power. So together we request your prayers as we look up to Him and pray for His deliverance!

As you have been informed, we recently rented a beautiful bungalow house in the outskirts of Bangkok, to turn it into our Church. A Christian brother has pledged to give a big and generous offering to the Church to buy over this property for the use of the Church within 6 - 8 months. However, we encountered flood water reaching the toilet area, also at the car park compound and access road to the house during heavy rains … three times within 6 months. We informed the owner about the flooding noted by us and that we might not consider the purchase option as originally indicated. The owner has now found a willing buyer on the 1 May 2013 and  requires us to vacate before 30 May 2013.

We then urgently went about looking for new premises for our Church. We found a suitable shop lot at  Saphan Mai, Bangkok. The rental for one shop lot floor is THB 10,000 (RM 1,052/USD 340) per month. This shop has 5 usable or let able floors that is, it is a 6 storey high, with the 6th floor serving as its open rooftop. It is located near a bus stop (70m away), a Central General Hospital (350m away), a Big C Hypermarket (400m away), a 24 hour open market (1.1km away) and the back lane have more than 10 apartments. All in all, it is located in a busy and bubbly part of a corner of greater Bangkok metropolis.

At the rooftop, we can see a clear sky, planes landing and take-off, and quite a wide girth and vista of the north part of Bangkok. The shop lot owner says he chooses not to rent at a high price because he wants a good tenant who will take care of the shop lot.

Praise the Lord for leading us to this new building suitable for our Church.

However, we need to do a fair bit of facelift and renovation, such as: painting, repair of water pipes, fixing the lighting/electrical wiring, repair of PABX telephone line, cleaning and repairing partition walls. We also need to buy a big cross with neon light to put on the rooftop, and church signboard, cabinets, tables, chairs, beds etc.

The Church needs a budget of about  THB 300,000 (RM 34,090/USD 10,714) to do all these things, as well moving cost. Please pray with us for the realization of this project unexpectedly thrust upon us.

The contract will be for an initial 3 years with option of  renewable at the end of this period.

Below is an update of our Church and mission activities report;

Attached is the financial report for March and April 2013 for your reference.

Thank you for your prayer and giving.

May God bless you all.

With Love and Blessings in His name,

Rev. Steve Peter H S Kok