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NEEC PART II: OVERWHELMED
April 21 Saturday 2007

It’s been a week since The Vine Band got back from the UK, and I still find myself overwhelmed by some of the stuff that happened whilst we were there. For a start I felt incredibly humbled and honoured to stand alongside my friends, Tom, Derek, Jacinta, Janice, Chris, Josh, Felix and Joe, and be given the opportunity to minister at NEEC. We led worship 5 times, gave 2 worship seminars and Derek spoke 6 times.

As I alluded to in a previous post, this wasn’t my first NEEC. In fact, I’ve been attending NEEC since 2001, which I wrote briefly about here, and which has impacted my life immeasurably. I owe so much of my spiritual growth to the work that youth leaders like Matt, Vinny and Shui Kit have poured into NEEC over the years - and who continue to do so in even greater ways than before.

The youth were absolutely brilliant. Just seeing them step into worship and receive the word was amazing. Both the BBC (British Born Chinese) and Hong Kong have been on my heart for the longest time, and seeing it all come together at NEEC blew my mind; it completely overwhelmed me and I didn’t mean to cry when I was given the microphone… but I did. God is good.

Another good thing, at least for me, is that NEEC was held at Cefn Lea, in Mid-Wales. So as well as being able to return to the country where I was born, I got to see my Dad again! The team got quite a bit of free time, so we were able to spend a lot of time together bonding. One of the highlights was playing golf in Newtown with my Dad, Tom and Josh. We had a lot of fun hacking around the course together and enjoying the clean, crisp Welsh air. It was also a great opportunity for Joe and I to shoot the very first overseas edition of Vine News, which you can view here.

There are so many awesome testimonies and stories to come out of this year’s NEEC, and yet I’m still very aware that this is just a tastier of what’s to come. This wasn’t a “one-off” thing. I honestly believe that seeds were planted and that much of what was sown is a long-term investment. I get excited thinking about how many youth will be returning to Hong Kong in the summer, getting plugged into The Vine and growing, instead of hitting the usual Summer vacation stagnation. I get excited thinking about how many of the youth will one day move back to Hong Kong to live, work and make a difference on both sides of the sea.

And finally, I'm excited about what God is doing in my life. Our return from NEEC marks the end of my intership at The Vine Christian Fellowship. It's been an amazing 7 months - I've learnt so much, experienced some amazing things and grown in key areas of my life. Whilst I'll leave the details for a later post, I will write that I'm extremely excited and overwhelmed about becoming the Assistant Worship Director at The Vine. Thank you Lord.

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It’s been a week since The Vine Band got back from the UK, and I still find myself overwhelmed by some of the stuff that happened whilst we were there. For a start I felt incredibly humbled and honoured to stand alongside my friends, Tom, Derek, Jacinta, Janice, Chris, Josh, Felix and Joe, and be given the opportunity to minister at NEEC. We led worship 5 times, gave 2 worship seminars and Derek spoke 6 times.

As I alluded to in a previous post, this wasn’t my first NEEC. In fact, I’ve been attending NEEC since 2001, which I wrote briefly about here, and which has impacted my life immeasurably. I owe so much of my spiritual growth to the work that youth leaders like Matt, Vinny and Shui Kit have poured into NEEC over the years - and who continue to do so in even greater ways than before.

The youth were absolutely brilliant. Just seeing them step into worship and receive the word was amazing. Both the BBC (British Born Chinese) and Hong Kong have been on my heart for the longest time, and seeing it all come together at NEEC blew my mind; it completely overwhelmed me and I didn’t mean to cry when I was given the microphone… but I did. God is good.

Another good thing, at least for me, is that NEEC was held at Cefn Lea, in Mid-Wales. So as well as being able to return to the country where I was born, I got to see my Dad again! The team got quite a bit of free time, so we were able to spend a lot of time together bonding. One of the highlights was playing golf in Newtown with my Dad, Tom and Josh. We had a lot of fun hacking around the course together and enjoying the clean, crisp Welsh air. It was also a great opportunity for Joe and I to shoot the very first overseas edition of Vine News, which you can view here.

There are so many awesome testimonies and stories to come out of this year’s NEEC, and yet I’m still very aware that this is just a tastier of what’s to come. This wasn’t a “one-off” thing. I honestly believe that seeds were planted and that much of what was sown is a long-term investment. I get excited thinking about how many youth will be returning to Hong Kong in the summer, getting plugged into The Vine and growing, instead of hitting the usual Summer vacation stagnation. I get excited thinking about how many of the youth will one day move back to Hong Kong to live, work and make a difference on both sides of the sea.

And finally, I'm excited about what God is doing in my life. Our return from NEEC marks the end of my intership at The Vine Christian Fellowship. It's been an amazing 7 months - I've learnt so much, experienced some amazing things and grown in key areas of my life. Whilst I'll leave the details for a later post, I will write that I'm extremely excited and overwhelmed about becoming the Assistant Worship Director at The Vine. Thank you Lord.