Hey everybody!
We just returned from a three week tour of Thailand and Singapore. The first week we led 15 worship sets, 2 workshops and found time somewhere in the middle of the week to head into the jungle for a half day of "zip-line" adventure - see (www.jungle-flight.com) Our mission the first week in Thailand was to equip about 800 pastors and their wives who faithfully serve Christ in the most sensitive nations in the world. A gathering of church planters and missionaries who are strategically sharing the viral message of Jesus in countries like Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Tajikistan, U.A.E., Indonesia, Turkmenistan, etc...you get the picture. I guess to sum it all up, (according to one of the pastors who attended the conference) he told me; "Mark, we all came hungry and thirsty...to meet with God; we are leaving refreshed and full of His Spirit, excited to continue the work He's called us to..."
What an incredible privilege it has been to lead those modern-day apostles into worship every morning and evening.
We ended that first week with a Saturday 'night of worship' with all of the local international churches in Chiang Mai. There was a real sense of God's presence with us as we saw pastors refreshed, the body of Christ unified in worship and the name of Jesus be lifted up! We spent 3 more days with the local churches in Chiang Mai, leading workshops and spending time with a couple of the pastors and their families.
We then left for Singapore, via Bangkok, where Integrity Media and Scripture Union set up a series of workshops, training, leading worship, meeting some of the worship 'gatekeepers' in Singapore and basically hearing about what God is doing in that nation. We can truly attest of God's faithfulness and blessing on Singapore. One of the things we felt very strongly to speak into was to encourage the songwriters of Singapore to be refreshed, renewed and released to write new songs of praise for and over their nation.
We had an additional opportunity of leading worship (some in Mandarin!) at an event where several Singaporean Chinese churches came together for an evening of worship and encouragement. Again, we were blessed to see how God is strategically using the Chinese church in Singapore to "sing" back into China and over their own land the songs of redemption and blessing.
We are grateful that we are allowed this opportunity to travel the planet, meet with people just like us who are serving local churches week in and week out. We bless the nations of Thailand and Singapore - we sing life, health, peace and God's Spirit over the pastors, worship leaders and teams who, each week, create space for God's people to gather together to lift up the name of Christ!
Please pray for Thailand and Singapore!
Till next time....
mark
PS - if you want more information about what we do around the world - go to www.worshiplanet.com
