In our previous 8 episodes, we have been sharing with you the life experiences of Stanley, our Christian brother in Singapore. He came to Christ at age 22 and since then he has earnestly sought after God’s heart to know Him better. God greatly blessed Stanley. Other than receiving and enjoying God’s blessings, Stanley hopes to offer his life as a pleasing sacrifice to God and to let God use him accordingly.

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Stanley: In my early adult life, God blessed me greatly in my finances. He gave me opportunities to put aside my work and participate in mission trips. God used ordinary people like me, in ways that were totally beyond my imagination, to do His miraculous work and to bring people into His Kingdom. All these exceeded my own human limitations and imagination. And while I find time to serve God and His people, I am being renewed with strength constantly.

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In 1996, Stanley went for a mission trip with two pastors to Myanmar. At that time, he could only interact with the locals through an interpreter. After the mission team shared, a village chief came to receive Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Then, a few hundred people in the village also came to receive Christ. Stanley was filled with immense joy and great encouragement. However, it was also frustrating for him that he could not communicate deeper with the village people in their own Burmese language. He told God of his frustration on the last day in Yangon. Then God spoke clearly to him, “You speak Mandarin, so reach out to those people in China.”

In 1998, one of the world-renowned evangelists came to Singapore to give a series of messages titled: “That None Should Perish.” Stanley attended one of these talks and was deeply touched by the power of the Holy Spirit. In the same year during the summer of 1998, Stanley went on his first mission trip to China to a big metropolitan city in Southern China. On the first day, the 12 mission team members could not connect with the local people there. That night, they gathered together to evaluate and pray. They realized that they must step out of the Singaporean mindset of doing things. The team confessed before the Lord and asked for His help to be sensitive to His leading in this mission trip.

The next day’s atmosphere was wonderfully different! The team of 12 felt the hand of God and His blessings in the place and their interactions with the locals was extremely smooth and pleasant. Many families also invited them to their house churches. What a breakthrough! Before they left the next day for another house visit, one of the team members who was usually very quiet was impressed upon by the Lord to share his morning devotion with the team. He had read Psalm 103. The team then left on their long bus ride to their destination. During the bus ride, Stanley meditated on Psalm 103. Psalm 103 was a short psalm – only 22 verses. But it mentions the LORD 11 times. They made a lunch stop at a Christian home. When the host opened the door, Stanley noticed a scroll hanging in the living room. On the scroll were verses from Psalm 103! While they were having lunch, there was a sudden and unexpected heavy downpour. The host mentioned that this was very unusual in summer. This downpour caught Stanley and his team by surprise and they wondered how they could carry on with their original plan to visit a secondary school. They prayed and asked God to intervene to stop the rain. And God did so instantly with the rain becoming lighter and lighter until a very fine drizzle. They walked to the secondary school with umbrellas and enjoying the fresh coolness! What a welcome relief in the hot summer in June!

They soon arrived at their destination called the Lychee Garden. But no one was there. They waited but nobody came. The team prayed together. While praying, they heard footsteps and 15 students ran up to them. Stanley led them to sing an impromptu worship song “The LORD” created from Psalm 103. He then shared the lesson of Psalm 103 - of trusting the Lord and how He had directed the students to meet them. Stanley used 1 Timothy 4:12 to encourage the students, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” Thereafter, the students surprised them by performing a local dance for them in the garden. They invited Stanley and his team to dance with them too. They thanked God for the soft drizzle. Apparently, the Lychee Garden usually infested with many flies during the summer period. But God was sovereign. He turned the heavy rain into a light drizzle so the flies could be kept away so that all could meet there and fellowship with each other.

A few days later, the team took the train to another city. Before the trip, they were cautioned by the local sisters and brothers not to share or pray openly on the train so as not to catch the attention of the guards. The whole journey took about 48 hours and Stanley decided to fast throughout the 48 hours to ask the Lord for guidance as to what they should or should not do on board the train. At one of the stops, a woman and her teenage son boarded the train and sat on seats just outside Stanley’s cabin. One of the group members started chatting with the young man and while they were speaking, the woman asked if she could sit with Stanley in the cabin. They struck up a conversation. The lady told Stanley that they were heading to Shanghai, but on the journey there, she felt unwell and decided to return to her hometown instead. Silently, Stanley said a quick prayer for the Holy Spirit’s leading. Then he asked the woman if he could pray for her. The woman was surprised at the suggestion and said that she was not a believer. Stanley explained to her that prayer was for everybody. She agreed and Stanley prayed for her. After the prayer, the woman thanked Stanley gratefully. She then opened up about some personal and work struggles that she had been having. Stanley and his partner listened patiently to her. At that moment, the woman’s son came into the cabin and the group members happily announced that he had received Christ.

Around daybreak, the group members broke out into song praising the Lord for the souls saved. This attracted the attention of other passengers who asked if they could join in to sing with them. The mission team were pleasantly surprised by the positive response and each of the 12 went into the various cabins along the train. Some of the passengers asked if they could copy down the words of the songs so that they could continue singing these songs at home. With God’s protection, the guards passed by peacefully as all the people in the cabin were joyful. By the time the train reached their destination, eight passengers had received Christ into their hearts!

After they had alighted from the train, Stanley and team checked into their hotel. Their China contact was supposed to meet them there but the person did not turn up. Even until the next day, they were not able to contact him. As the contact man was supposed to give them their plan, they did not know what to do next. After praying, the team decided to walk around the city. They agreed that if all 12 of them agreed to stop at any one place, they would take that as a sign for where God wanted them to be. So out they went, through parks and courtyards, main roads and small lanes, but they could not agree on a place to stop. At around five o’clock in the evening, they arrived at a university campus. They watched the students go for their dinner, carrying their dinner utensils and cutlery to the canteen. The team noticed a quiet area in the university courtyard and in silent agreement, all 12 walked over to the spot. They took out their guitars and song sheets and began to sing. The students walking to the canteen stopped to listen. Soon, a crowd of over 50 people, including some passers-by, gathered around the mission team. After a couple of songs, the team members moved out among the crowd and spoke with various individuals in the crowd. Stanley spoke with a middle-aged man who was pushing his bicycle on his way home. The man asked Stanley where they were from and what their business was. He also said that he had never witnessed such joy on the face of people when singing. Upon hearing this, Stanley told the man that they were there to share Jesus’s love. The man then asked Stanley a question that he would never forget, “Why did it take you all so long to come to share this Jesus with us?” To cut the long story short, Stanley led this man, a doctor, to the Lord.

By 8pm, they had led 12 people to Christ. The team decided to go for dinner and some students asked if they could join them. As it was nearing 9pm, most of the restaurants were about to close for the night. The Lord had spoken to Stanley that morning to “explore the small lane”, so they walked to a small lane near the University and asked one restaurant owner if he would be willing to host 15 people. The owner readily agreed so they sat down and ordered dinner. 3 of the university students who came with them were philosophy students and they asked the team many intellectual questions about God during dinner. As they chatted, they noticed that two of the waitresses hung around to listen so they invited them to sit down. Within 15 minutes, the two waitresses accepted Jesus as their Saviour. The waitresses were so joyful that they ran back into the shop to ask the owner/chef to come out and meet Stanley and his team. It was hot in the kitchen and the man was not wearing a shirt. He was rather embarrassed but they waved away his concerns and shared with him the love of God. He too accepted Jesus into his heart.

By this time, it was about 10pm. Their 3 new Chinese friends suggested that they do some sightseeing and shopping at a night market. While some team members went shopping, others rested at a nearby fast food restaurant. In the restaurant, Stanley and team shared the gospel with the waitresses. Within an hour, those who went shopping came rushing back. They were so excited. They had seen some Americans sharing the gospel in the shopping area so they joined in and several people received Christ too. As they returned to their hotel, they thanked God for a fruitful day.

The next day, after breakfast and devotion, the team decided to return to the university campus. Some student leaders came by and warned the team that they should not share the gospel on the campus the way they had done the night before. Later, the 3 students who had dinner with them the night before came looking for them. So they went outside the campus and the mission team discussed with them how to grow in their