Alive and well, and living in ..

"How beautiful on the mountains

are the feet of the messenger who announces peace,

who brings good news,

who announces salvation,

who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.' "

Hong Kong!

In case you're just tuning in, here’s the story so far:

?-2004
Why was I born into a family with so many connections to South East Asia? .. And why have I always felt so drawn to China? ..

2005
I arrive in Canada for training in linguistics, and soon find myself naturally bonding with Cantonese speakers .. I love the language and culture ..

2012
Many more connections with Cantonese / Hong Kong Chinese later, and now I’m ministering locally in Vancouver and living in a predominately Chinese area. The church I’m a part of includes a lot of Cantonese congregants as well, some of us start to meet together with a vision and heart for Hong Kong and China.

2013
Our church has the privilege of being part of the first missions team allowed into mainland China, with the full permission of the Chinese government, to evangelize, including public open-air ministry! The testimonies that come back are amazing! This isn’t simply praying with people on the street, this is transformative stuff, blessing leaders, businessmen, even government officials, and seeing many come to Christ.

Now I'm focused on the area where the team had gone, regularly praying over it and envisioning a move of God there. As I see more missions teams flowing into the same area where ours broke ground, I can’t help but ask: Where do we go from here? Where has this momentum taken us, and where will it take us next?

2014
I sit down with a group of friends and we begin to pool together our connections with churches in Hong Kong. I connect with one church and am told they might have an opening for me there. Not seriously considering leaving my home in Vancouver or joining another church, I feel called to minister to the people in the predominately Chinese area where I live, to me that is my “China”.

2015
I take steps to commit to this area of Vancouver as home, buying a car, settling into a career ..

2016
Having passed all my exams I am now fully committed to the career of financial planner. The very day that I decide to commit to it, God cuts in: “This is not it. Go. Now.” This comes as quite a surprise! Actually at first I have no idea where he’s asking me to go! .. Eventually it dawns on me .. I fire up the connection with the church in Hong Kong from two years prior .. and there is a position still open waiting for me there.

2017
I’ve been fully sponsored by a local church to lead several ministries (detailed in previous posts).

Every week the testimonies keep rolling in, salvations, people getting healed, relationships being restored! But then .. the testimonies start coming out of mainland China.

2018
Now I finally get a chance to see, and be a part of, the results of my prayers since 2013. The first comes from our ministry school, as students from mainland China begin to enroll! .. Yes, word has spread into the mainland to the point where we have students joining from there! This shift comes as a result of one of our students passing on some of our training materials to a pastor in China. That pastor is so inspired by what he reads, and begins moving powerfully in the Spirit. Signs and wonders follow his preaching and the Spirit breaks out in several churches around his area.

I reconnect with the group that led our 2013 trip, through their branch in Hong Kong: we hold a conference attended by 500 pastors and leaders from mainland China! Even aboriginal church leaders are represented! The time is full of glorious worship, heartfelt intercession, training, equipping, and empowerment. Well known ministers from North America, who have traveled extensively in China and seen both the underground and Three Self churches are present in these meetings. They share a prophetic vision God had placed on them for China, and declare that this is the season for Hong Kong as a gate to China. One church network from mainland China, after receiving training with this group, launches their own missionary initiative into Russia! Pretty wild to think of mainland Chinese sending out international missions teams, but it’s happening! This is a movement that goes beyond borders and can’t be stopped!

Now I discover that the group which led our 2013 trip has already been making inroads into China for years! They hold a smaller conference which is also attended mostly by mainland Chinese, about 60 are present. During this conference one of our team members gets a chance to mentor a leader of a church network in China with over 1 million people under his care! God is moving so fast at times it seems hard to keep up!

Sensing the time and season of harvest we’re in, I begin seeking God about sowing into some church plants here in Hong Kong. Two groups form. One is mainly composed of mature Christians with a hunger for intimate worship and intercession. There are about 20 in this group. The other group is made up of 8 newer Christians with more desperate prayer needs (coming out of demonic oppression, some new believers, and some still wrestling with their faith).

Excited by the fruit coming out of these involvements, I am now considering refocusing my efforts into a more active role in church planting and discipleship .. but to do this I first have to free up some time in my schedule to rest and seek direction from God. Praise God I was able to take this period of rest and was able to connect more directly with some of my heroes in bringing the gospel into China. One such hero was Dennis Balcombe. He had a calling placed on his life for China even at a young age, was one of the first to get into China when its doors opened in 1976, and has been involved in birthing successful ministries here ever since. The ministry he is closest connected with is Revival Chinese Ministries International (RCMI). An English version of their website is here: http://revivalchinese.wixsite.com/eng

To my amazement he invited me to meet with him and do some vision casting on my role here. He sees a place for me to disciple, and help to plant / grow churches here, but before that can take place I have to wait for his team to work out all the legal details. Please pray with me about this process.

I’ve also been connecting more with Jackie Pullinger and her group (see previous posts for more details or check out her website here: http://www.ststephenssociety.com/)

There’s sure a lot to do here, especially with the groups above I just mentioned, along with progressing further in my Cantonese, and my evangelist heart throbs every day for the lost in my city. But at this point I’m at sort of a crossroads, I believe God has more of a hands-on role for me now, but in the next few months I’m not sure which doors will open and which will shut. In some sense it’s a waiting game, for church boards and missions boards and other such things, but I believe in what God is doing here so much that I’m continuing the work anyway, relying on savings and the support of friends until the dust settles (and praying it does soon)!

I’ll post again soon to let you know which sponsoring organization I'm partnered with, or whether I’m kicked out of the country! Oh the suspense! 😆

All the best in Him! More to come!

Nathan

Hong Kong School of Supernatural Ministry, Year One class— John Thomas, The Art of Hearing God

Lots of prophetic games!

Blessing John and Josh

Hong Kong first visit, final post—Snapshots of life

View from the hotel when I first arrived: Night

And day

All you can eat breakfast! 😋

Quiet moment before the morning rush

Truth! (I think ..)

Studio Ghibli Store!

Hong Kong action hero!!

Climbing up Braemar Hill

Mix of urban sprawl and hilltop areas

Further up and further in

View from above

Hills further south ... some strange sounds from below .. on my way down, I met a wild boar!

HKSSM class learning about leadership from Kris Vallotton

"All day breakfast" at a hole in the wall near the Walled City

Would you like one of those things on my plate? It's got a taro ball taste!!!

End of the month hot pot!

When you're waiting to cross the street ... but a dragon has to cross first!

And a Merry Christmas to you, with coffee and Cates!

Spoil!

The people I've met here so far are amazing! It's such a joy to be running with people of the same heart and mind: sold out for God, radical in faith, aggressively pursing his kingdom!

One of the events that took place while I was there was a health seminar for the older generation. A team from the Healing Rooms would be going to praying over the people attending, in a prayer booth type of dynamic. This was a Cantonese speaking event, but I was asked to join. Unfortunately, as much as I would love to have been there, I had a prior engagement with some friends. But I was glad to hear that this type of opportunity was quite common; the prayer booth style ministry is an outlet I always enjoy, very similar to what we did at New Joy in the past.

Five from the Healing Rooms volunteered to go. As a group we prayed over them, and anointed their hands with oil. It was a powerful moment. We could sense that these five would be true representatives of the Father in that place. Our prayers and anointing would go with them that day.

And the joyful report soon came in: many were healed and touched by their prayers, and 10 gave their lives to Christ! We celebrated with heaven, rejoicing in his spoil!

Hong Kong heroes

But there’s something else special about Hong Kong too—it’s the land of two of my heroes: a courageous woman of faith named Jackie Pullinger (her dramatic story of a move of God in the Walled City of Kowloon is told in the book Chasing the Dragon), and McDull (麥兜), a pig philosopher and dreamer whose life’s story is told in the powerful film My Life as McDull (麥兜故事).

So I had set off on this adventure with those two on my mind. My traveling companion on the way was McMug—McDull’s cousin … he seemed excited for the journey, and also, it seems, to do some swimming ...

But he did enjoy some of the office life as well ..

 

The crazy part of the timing of this trip was it happened to coincide with Jackie Pullinger’s 50th Jubilee Celebration, and many old friends from Vancouver would be there!

Thursday was the opening night for a run of Chasing the Dragon, the musical, which was quite good:

and after that all day worship, prayer, and celebration, starting Friday afternoon, and going until Sunday night. On Friday my day began in Kowloon Park … 

where I saw the smallest McDonald’s I’d ever seen …

and I was able to pay tribute to my pig hero in the Avenue of Comic Stars ...

here he is!

then it was on to Jackie Pullinger’s celebration, at the Walled City …

here are some shots of the Walled City today … they turned it into a park:

 Here is David Ruis, Andy Park, and the band setting up …

 

And here’s a sample of some of the worship

The nights included a full orchestra performing several numbers … here is a special time in which the players were interceding for healing through the music of their instruments.

Many people were healed in many ways during these nights.  There was salvation, instant physical healing, and the healing of deep emotional hurts.  All in all, a taste of heaven!

Hong Kong

Hello you rusty old blog ... I've got some news for you: I'm moving to Hong Kong!

Yes, yes, I can hardly believe it myself! It seems quite random, I know. Where have I been all these years, only to show up now and announce this dramatic change? I understand, old blog, you're understandably a bit confused and bewildered .. so I'll try to help you with a little backstory:

You see, for the last, oh, decade or so, God has been preparing a place in my heart for speakers of Cantonese, a dialect group located predominately in south eastern China, which includes the area of Hong Kong. Interestingly enough, a big part of my circle of friends in Vancouver are Cantonese speakers, many with a heart specifically for Hong Kong.

So, over time I made some contacts with various churches and ministries in the Hong Kong area, including this one, International Christian Assembly (ICA). Their website is here: http://www.icahk.org.

But I didn't act on any of these connections, sensing the timing wasn't right, and God had other work for me in Vancouver. In this last stage of time, as things developed, I ended up in Richmond, British Columbia, a predominately Chinese area (so much so that it has been termed 'the most Chinese city outside of Asia'). So I was getting closer, both geographically, and culturally, to a place like Hong Kong. But what actually sparked the move? And wait, are you moving there for good? (These are your questions, probably, dear blog.)

Well, those are good questions, blog, because it could be argued that Richmond has enough Cantonese speakers to fulfill a call from God to that language group. And, for a while, I thought that might be the case .. but, crazily, these kinds of 'calling' thoughts were still way in the back of my mind .. I had hardly acted on them at all ..

Until one fateful day ..

In case you didn't know, within the past year or so I began work in Vancouver with a financial services company, and was positioned nicely to operate, not only in Canada (as a resident), but also across the border, in the US (as a citizen). I had just gotten licensed in Canada, and was all set to open up shop in the US as well. But God had other plans.

I arrived home one night, just after an inspiring session of strategizing and preparation for next steps in the industry to break into the US market, and as soon as I entered my room, something hit me .. though I would not say I often experience such dramatic encounters, I very clearly sensed God speak deep into my spirit, "this is not what I called you for."

I knew something was wrong, and if this was God, I didn’t want to miss what he had for me, so I immediately fired up one of my connections in Hong Kong again, with ICA, and asked if there were still any needs there. I immediately got connected with Pastor Lindy Heung-Shea, who heads up several ministries at ICA. Have you ever experienced an "open door"? Well, this felt like an "open vacuum"—suddenly I felt myself pulled forward powerfully into something it seemed God had prepared me for for a long time.

Random street in the Soho area of Hong Kong

Within the span of a few days I was boarding a plane to Hong Kong for a month-long introduction to ministries, quite literally, waiting for me .. by that, I mean that people had been praying for help and had sensed that someone like me was on the way .. how humbling to meet people who had been interceding for me without ever having met me! But I did seem to be fulfilling the words God had spoken to them! Amazingly, I found my plane ticket, my entire stay, even the income I would have made in Vancouver reimbursed! Not only that, but, (if you know Hong Kong, you know this is huge, space is at a premium here) a place to live was provided for me, a three bedroom flat, all to myself! At first, I thought, Wow, ok, rich church, I guess that’s how they do things here … but later, I heard from Pastor Lindy: "Nathan, you don’t realize the favor here, I mean, flying someone over like this, and everything is paid for, this is completely unheard of, this never happens!"

Part of the one month period was to see if the fit was right, if I was a good match for them, and they for me. 

one of my first in person meetings with Pastor Lindy (soon after my arrival)

Long story short, ICA and I got along quite well! I was asked to help Lindy head up three of the ministries she leads.

First, the Hong Kong School of Supernatural Ministry

(http://www.icahk.org/hkssm-overview)

This is a training and equipping center which raises up leaders in all realms of society, so far we've trained up pastors, business leaders, and lay ministers from 40 churches, in Hong Kong and beyond, to bring the kingdom of God into their various spheres of influence, and to inspire a move of God to ignite all of Asia, and the world!

As 'Ministry Coordinator', that's one of the ministries I'm helping to lead. The other two are the Healing Rooms (http://www.icahk.org/the-healing-rooms) ... the first nine testimonies you see there are new (I helped prepare them) and the Encounter Ministry (an inner healing ministry: http://www.icahk.org/encounter)

So there's a lot going on here, and so far, it's all very fun and fulfilling work! More to come! But first, some pictures:

The ICA Main Church on King's Road, seen from Kam Hong Street

Approaching the ICA Tanner Road location

Many small groups and other meetings happen here

It's also the location for The Healing Rooms

Typical sidestreet scene in many areas of Hong Kong

July 6, 2014—The church one

Sorry the volume's really low on this one .. this is New Joy Church: praying for a sprained ankle.
This may not be the most amazing video, but I love it.
The childlike faith in her is so beautiful—you can see it in her eyes. God is good! :)

Jenny