Leading discussions during Alpha ministry to our Breakthrough Missions brothers is something totally new to me. Most of the time, they preferred to be quiet, no participative or ask any questions.
This is my first time volunteering and reaching out to people in need of love and acceptance. We came to bring God's love, as I always say before any discussion begin. Being new, they always wonder what my motive is for coming.
"People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." Reaching out to people who are in need of help is all about empathy, love and practical help. It is not about how much knowledge and theology about God and the Bible. Sharing Biblical truth is good but must always be back up with practical help, love and care. That is my approach in every sessions.
Last night was our eighth session of Alpha. We are using the Chinese version film series: https://asiapacific.alpha.org/preview/cafs-tc/#
Episode #1: Is there more to Life than this?
We started these sessions of Alpha on the 20th August 2024, every Tuesday. The sessions usually starts with a group prayer, worship service, then watch a Alpha Film (in Chinese with English subtitles), follow by a group discussion. We ended the night with supper with the brothers from Breakthrough Mission. The Tuesday night Alpha session is part of the curriculum for their re-habitation and attendance is compulsory for them. Alpha aim is to bring the Gospel message to them and help them to encounter God and receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Some of them are already Christians and we aim to help them grow in their faith journey.
Worship service @BT before Alpha film screening
Last night, we discussed on the topics of "Who is the Holy Spirit?" & "What does the Holy Spirit do?" I planned to shared about the 3 parts works of the Holy Spirit:
(1) Holy Spirit unit us as a family with God's love.
(2) Fruit of the Holy Spirit
(3) Gifts of the Holy Spirit
We started talking about being in God's family and how this relationship with God can be enhanced and grow with the help of the Holy Spirit - our Helper, comforter, counsellor. My emphasis is on "God is love". This is unique to the Trinity God who love one another. As we receive God's love, so we can love others. Which lead me to talk about how to grow and receive God's love - the Fruit of the Spirit is LOVE, Joy, ... (Galatians 5:22,23). It is important to be fully filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) and I shared about the difference of (1) receiving the Spirit upon Salvation; (2) being Filled with the Spirit, (3) Baptism of the Spirit. Somehow, I stop short about talking on Spiritual Gifts. I felt a very strong restrain on me not to discuss on the topic of Spiritual Gift and speaking in tongues. I also shared about my experiences on receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit but was prompted strongly not to talk about receiving the gift of speaking in tongues.
As usual, none of them wanted to talked. I had another 2 volunteers who are involved in the discussion and 5 brothers from Breakthrough Mission. Both the volunteers are more experienced than me and one also served in the prison ministry for 14 years already. As such, she speaks with authority and has respected from the brothers, many of whom were helped by her during their lowest point in life. Here, I was very much humbled and need to gain their acceptance first, before they open their lives to share with you. I have yet to achieve that. There is one pre-believer in our group and we are encouraging him to put his faith in Jesus. Some of the brothers are in there for many years and repeated a few cycle of prison-re-habitation center. We pray that they would receive break-through and start life anew as in 1 Corinthian 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come."
At the end of every sessions, our volunteers would have a de-brief. The ministry leader then inform us not to talk about speaking in tongues and spiritual gift as Breakthrough Mission discourage believer-in-Christ from pursuing spiritual gifts. It was then at that moment I came to understand why I was strongly restrained to talk about Spiritual Gift during the discussion time.
We have 4 more sessions to go. May the Lord lead us to experience Him is a more tangible way.
