A SUMMARY OF THE VISIT TO THE CHURCHES IN ASIA AND AUSTRALIA

L. W.

In August of this year, the International Assembly sent Pastor John Lo to Taiwan to help with the International Youth Fellowship seminar.  After that, Pastor Lo began a series of visits to churches in several nations and performed evangelical work in some newly developed areas.  The places he visited included the Philippines, Sabah (East Malaysia), Singapore, Australia, West Malaysia and India all in a period of two months.  The major purpose of this journey was to understand the overall church situation in these places in order to provide information for future working plans of the world mission of the International Assembly.  In addition to his work in Sabah, Deacon John Chin worked with him throughout the journey.  Because of the earnest prayers of many members throughout the world, God led them and worked with them so that there was unexpected grace and harvest.

Philippines - August 11 to 17

The tasks in the Philippines were primarily performed at our Prayer House in Mansilangan which is located in the suburbs of Bacalod.  They held an evangelical and spiritual convocation, several family evangelical services and visited some members and newcomers.  A total of 26 were baptized, 40 received the Holy Spirit, 55 visions were seen and many sang spiritual songs.  May all the glory be given to the Lord.

We have presently 217 members in the Philippines.  They live in three different areas - Bacalod, Cundoggon of Negros and Davao of Mindanoa.  Our Prayer House in Mansilangan held prayer meetings twice a day at 5 am and 5 pm.  Some members came to the church to pray daily before and after work.  In this trip they met an old lady who was a member of the Catholic Church for more than 30 years, and later joined the SeventhDayAdventistChurch for 12 years.  Finally, she joined the UnitedPentecostalChurch for another ten years.  In her long course of pursuing after the truth she was still unable to find the perfect truth.  This time, she came to our church and studied carefully the essential doctrines of salvation.  She discovered that our beliefs are in complete accordance with the Bible.  She was truly joyful and satisfied. in one prayer, she was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in a new tongue.  Later on, in three separate prayers, she interpreted tongues.  The interpretation of each prayer was as follows: "This is the true church." "This is a peculiar church." "This is the truth." God certainly confirmed to her that our church is the true church, Her testimony greatly edified the whole congregation.

They also visited a woman suffering from colon cancer in its final stages.  They prayed together with her; she received the Holy Spirit while lying down in bed and sang spiritual songs.  Her faith was greatly increased and she came to church to attend services.  Finally, she received water baptism.  Because of the fervent intercessory prayers by the congregation, her condition improved and she was filled with joy.  On August 16th (Sabbath), 100 people attended the service.  The prayer was exceptionally strong and the Holy Spirit descended mightily. i I received the Holy Spirit and 7 saw visions.  One of the sisters saw a beautiful heavenly city and there was a crystal clear river flowing through it.  Trees, full of green leaves and all kinds of fruit grew along the riverbank.  She also heard the angels singing.  Suddenly, there appeared large letters above her, "Live a holy life."

The Filipinos are generally kind and loving.  Many thirst after the truth.  It is indeed a fertile land for the gospel.  However, since the country is encountering grave economic problems, many are jobless and lead a poor and difficult life, especially in the villages.  Therefore, church offerings are minimal.  They need the financial help of our international Assembly for church construction and ministers' living allowances.  We pray that the Lord will open the gospel door in the cities, so that people in a better financial state may have the opportunity to receive salvation and help our church in the Philippines become self-supporting.

Sabah - August 18 to 27

During the nine days in Sabah, they visited a total of 20 churches, 13 of which were aboriginal churches.  Deacon Jonah Yap and three other brothers took special leave from their work to accompany Pastor Lo to visit the churches.  The five of them worked together with one mind and heart.  They prayed fervently and the Lord worked with them.  A total of 91 received the Holy Spirit and 84 visions were seen.  Many were filled with the Spirit of God and a few experienced healing.  While on the trip to the interior churches, they traveled unpaved and bumpy roads.  They even had to ford a river in their vehicle several times.  Thanks to the Lord, a brother willingly offered them the use of his new Jeep.  This enabled them to complete their visiting work successfully.  The believers in the churches they visited thirst for the truth and attend services zealously.  They also demonstrated a warm and sincere hospitality.  This deeply moved Pastor Lo, the churches in Sabah are prosperous spiritually and blessed by God, because unity exists among the workers.  During this journey, many churches prayed fervently.  The Holy Spirit worked powerfully to the extent that some church buildings were shaken during prayer.  Although the weather was very hot, the burning zeal of the believers in pursuing after the Lord was even fierier.  In the church at Apin, one received the Holy Spirit and 4 saw visions in one prayer.  In Pengarawan, 10 received the Holy Spirit and I saw visions.  In Tinuhan, unexpectedly in one prayer, 12 received the Holy Spirit and I saw visions.

During the whole journey, many people saw wonderful visions.  A sister was filled with the Holy Spirit in a prayer and heard a loud voice saying, "The Lord Jesus is coming soon." Following this, she heard angels singing the hymn, "There's a great day coming".  She also saw a glorious light and went after it without realizing that she had moved more than 15 feet, weaving through the crowded chapel without touching anyone.  A brother who was praying saw a vision of the Judgment Day.  Jesus was sitting on the Judgment Throne with a radiant face.  Many angels dressed in white garments lined the sides of the throne while people were waiting to be judged.  The Lord opened the Book of Life and called out each name.  Those who were called walked up the steps to the throne.  At the same time, the hymn, "Glory to God!" was heard.  Those names which were not in the Book of Life were taken by angels to the side and pushed down to the bottomless pit.  He was at the back of the crowd and waiting for judgment; he trembled with fear and perspired for he did not know whether his name was in the Book of Life, then the prayer ended.  His testimony edified the entire church tremendously.  Another beautiful vision was seen by a young sister who prayed with three of her good friends next to her.  She saw a dove fly from the right hand of an angel and descend on her head.  Immediately, she received the Holy Spirit.  She then pleaded to the Lord to grant the Holy Spirit to her friends.  Shortly, she saw three other doves descend upon each of her friends.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, though Sabah has many churches, there are still many areas to be evangelized.  We pray that the Lord will choose more workers to dedicate their lives wholeheartedly to full-time ministry and fight a good fight for our Lord.

Australia - August 28 to September 7

On August 27th, Pastor Lo arrived at Singapore from Sabah.  An evening evangelical service was held and 200 people attended.  Two persons received the Holy Spirit.  The next day, he flew to Sydney, Australia to meet Deacon John Chin and begin the work there.

We have a Prayer House in Sydney and in Melbourne, with memberships of 40 and 30 respectively.  Short spiritual convocations were held in both places and were greatly blessed by the Lord.  In Sydney, several family evangelical services were held and they were invited to the medical school of SydneyUniversity to introduce the perfect gospel and the history of our church to some Australian students.  During the seven day visit, 9 were baptized, 6 received the Holy Spirit and 14 saw visions.  A lovely little sister prayed earnestly and saw eight visions in four days.  The visions included glorious light, golden gate, the bleeding and crucified Lord wearing the crown of thorns and the burial of the Lord in the tomb.  During the two days in Melbourne, five received the Holy Spirit and one saw a vision of glorious light.

The members of both Prayer Houses originally came from West Malaysia, Sabah, Singapore and Taiwan.  Some are working while others are attending school. Thank God for his guidance and preservation.  They are all zealous in faith and love the Lord.  They desire earnestly to establish churches there and also are concerned with the evangelical work in other parts of the world.  May our Lord prosper the holy work in Australia and build up His church there.

West Malaysia - September 8 to 14

On September 8th, they visited the most southern churches hereof

Malaysia, in the State of Johore.  The next day, they flew to State of Penang from Singapore.  Altogether, they visited six churches in north Malaysia.  After that, they visited four churches in the south Perak state region.  On the 12th, we went by bus to Kuala Lumpur and visited 5 churches and one prayer house in the central region.  There are many believers who thirst for the truth and seek for the spiritual blessing.  They followed Deacon John Chin and Pastor John Lo on visits to these churches and attended the services held.  Due to the abidance of God, 27 received the Holy Spirit, one saw a vision, the faith of many was revived and many were filled with the Holy Spirit.  At the night service of the 13th at the KlangChurch, 220 people attended.  They prayed earnestly and seven received the Holy Spirit.  During the afternoon of their departure, they were invited by the Satabah Prayer House to hold a special service.  About 120 church members from five churches attended.  The entire prayer house was filled with people.  That kind of spirit, seeking after the truth and spiritual blessing, was indeed moving to those who were there.  The service lasted about four hours.  The prayer was very earnest and lasted more than 40 minutes. 5 persons received the Holy Spirit.  As a result of this special service, the two workers had to postpone their return flight to Singapore.  Many believers accompanied them to the airport.  That moved them deeply.  The truth has been preached to the West Malaysian churches since 1927.  Right now, there are over 20 churches and 2000 believers.  We pray that God will bless the churches in West Malaysia and help them to work together to develop the holy work.

India - September 16 to 28

On the 16th, the two workers reached Madras, India and began their 13-day schedule.  During the first seven days, spiritual convocations and workers' seminars were held at two of our churches in Pammal and Ambathur, which are close to Madras.

On the 21st, they flew to Trivodram in the state of Kerala.  During their six days of work there, they visited churches and held spiritual convocations and workers seminars.  Praise to our Lord, 31 were baptized, 89 received the Holy Spirit, 89 saw visions and 19 were healed of their infirmities.  During one of the prayers, one of the brothers was filled with the Holy Spirit.  He saw a vision of the world map whereby there were two doors in India.  One of them was closed while the other was open.  There was a minister who was about to open that door.  In the prayers of two evangelical services two visitors, who were possessed by demons, were healed and the demons were cast out from them.

Our church has preached in India from 1969 until now and we have a total of 38 churches and more than 3,000 members.  Most of the churches are located in the villages and suburbs.  Members are living in poverty and the church is unable to be financially self-supporting.  They still require the help from the international Assembly for their church building construction and ministers' living allowances.  We pray that the Lord will open the door of salvation in the major cities so that the gospel may be shared with the more affluent to improve the financial situation of the church.  We also plead to the Lord to send more missionaries to India to help with the holy work.

Conclusion

On the way back to Southern California, Pastor Lo stopped by Hong Kong and Taipei.  He returned home safely on October 1st.  Under the blessing of God, his two-month missionary journey finally came to an end.  May all the glory, praise and thanks be given to our Lord Jesus.  We hope our brothers and sisters throughout the world will pray especially for the churches in the newly developed areas, such as the Philippines, Australia and India.  May the Lord strengthen them and be with them always.