Geri and I recently returned from a ten-day trip to Singapore/Malaysia, our fourth in the past five years. Habakkuk 1:5 describes the wonder of our experience there.
Look at the nations and watch- and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.
The following are a few highlights:
1. The power and the size of the move of God in Asia is difficult to describe for us who live in North America. Every time I sat through worship, whether it was with the Pentecostal Anglicans, the Pentecostal Methodists, or the Assembly of God Pentecostals, I found myself in awe of the experience. (Oh yes, most everyone seems to be into Pentecostal in that part of the world – regardless of denomination).
2. Pastors and leaders, along with the churches, face the same challenges we face in North America.
- We are too busy. Our “being with God” is not sufficient to sustain our “doing for God.” One staff team I met will be sleeping at the church this week since they are working till 3 a.m. each night completing their plans for next year! The notion of slowing down for Sabbath and Daily Offices are shocking to most.
- We have compartmentalized our spirituality from our marriages and sexuality. Very little discipleship exists in this area anywhere in the world, including Asia.
- Emotional awareness and social skills are very weak and not integrated with our spirituality.
Emotionally Healthy Spirituality strikes a deep chord in this part of the world. This past year, an outstanding team dedicated countless hours translating the EHS Course and Emotionally Healthy Day by Day (the Daily Office) into Chinese and Bhasa Malaysian.
3. The work of EHS has grown so much that EHS appointed a National Director for EHS Singapore/Malaysia –Steven Loh. Steven, along with his wife Leslie, have been teaching EHS in Shanghai since our first visit in 2009. He is a retired CEO and passionate about EHS. Fluent in three languages, he will work closely with Eagles Communications in Singapore to follow up on the churches doing EHS in those countries.
4. The launching of “Become an EHS Course Coordinator” met with a great response in both Malaysia and Singapore. We will be launching this in NYC on Sept. 17th for North America. The embedding of The EHS Course for spiritual formation, much like the Alpha Course is embedded for evangelism, is one of the great turning points in our EHS strategy. I continue to be amazed at how God led us here over the last two years.
I want to thank so many of you for praying for our trip. One of the great privileges of EHS being used around the world is that we are able to learn from what God is doing around the world.
So may we too, like Habakkuk, “watch and be utterly amazed.”
-Pete
