TWO WORLDS COLLIDE
April 06 Friday 2007

I love flying, especially when it’s to the UK, because it usually means I’m taking a break and visiting my Dad and step-mom in West Wales. It’s a little different this time ’round, however, as I won’t be going on holiday and I’ll be flying over as part of a team instead of on my own.

The Vine Band has been invited to lead worship at an annual Easter Conference called NEEC (North England Easter Conference). The event is organized by COCM (Chinese Overseas Christian Missions), which is also the organization my old church in Cardiff is under.

As you can imagine, this trip is very close to my heart. It’s been my prayer and dream for the past six years that the fire and passion I’ve witnessed in Hong Kong would find it’s way over to the UK and to the British Born Chinese youth.

This trip is also significant to me, in that we’ve been invited over, rather than it simply coming from our own initiative. The reason I say this, is that after returning to my old student fellowship in 2003, one of the leaders made me feel very unwelcome, on the grounds that I'd changed too much after my year-out in Hong Kong, having become, and I quote, “…too charismatic to fit in and be involved”.

As deep as those words cut me, I still thank the Lord for everything that's been said and done; and that four years on, I'm part of a team from Hong Kong, that's been invited to minister to the future generations and leaders of the Chinese Church in UK. I can't help but notice the irony, but I'm also aware that I need more grace to appreciate it properly.

The conference runs from April 9th to April 12th and is being held at a place called Cefn Lea in Mid-Wales. The theme is "Capt1v8d", which in "sms" language stands for 1 Corinthians 1v8. In an attempt to compliment the techno-geeky theme, I've put together a website for the conference based on the new iPhone. CLICK HERE to check it out.