breakawaysamissions

[breakawaysamissions]

T.T

Written by Edwin Lin

This June, Daniel, Naomi, Stephanie, and Edwin spent about a week in South Africa holding a Discipleship Training Conference (DTC). The conference was about how when we were adopted into God's family, He transformed our relationship with the church and with all Christians, to be one body and one close, loving family.

T.T is the emoticon for a crying face and it is also the name of the most viewed Korean Pop music video at 221 million views. A couple weeks before our trip, Stephanie watched this video and got sucked into the world of KPop. During the trip, she eagerly shared this newfound interest with everyone she had meaningful contact with (probably without even knowing it).

Oh, and don't worry, she shared the gospel with people there too :).

I wanted to start off this way to make two points that summarize the trip for me: 1) personally, there was a lot of crying or almost crying--more than any other trip I've ever taken and 2) church is sharing your life, your light, your gospel with others (1 Thessalonians 2:8).

At DTC, we have a running joke that if there was crying, then God was working. Of course, this isn't a rule, but in my case, the softness in my heart towards others was proof that God is changing me. During the trip, I could feel my heart desire to deeply care for others, listen to their pain, provide support, encouragement, and advice where I could, and to love others to the best of my ability (in success and failure). This is where the T.T breaks down though, because most of my emotions were of joy and celebration, of fun and enjoyment with and of others, and just watching people connect and love others. The point is: this was an emotional trip for me, and the emotions was God's way of showing me who I really am.

It's not that other missions trips were completely void of emotions, but finally, after years and years of God's love at work in my life, I am responding to those emotions, acting in faith and in vulnerability, allowing them to deepen my relationships and interactions with others.

Throughout our trip, our team and those we came in contact with lived out the early church life (Acts 2:42-47). After a wonderful experience at a local church on Sunday night, Stephanie remarked that this trip feels like family. I couldn't agree more! Whether we were teaching and learning the gospel together, running errands together, cooking, cleaning, and eating together, staying up late together, or just playing games and having fun together, we were one family.

It felt different from other trips we went on, a certain closeness with everyone. Or maybe it was just me--that my eyes were open to it for the first time and that I could now see that this is who God made us to be. This is who we really are as the church and God is inviting us to live in that new identity.

BONUS: Two spectacularly beautiful pictures of what the church is.

Romans 15:1-7 - When Bob is in a time in his life when he is living out of flesh, sin, past hurt and pain, tiredness, slavery, fear, pride, defense mechanisms, etc. he goes to Tim, who is in a time in his life when he is living out of Spirit, love, freedom, joy, hope, excitement, humbleness, etc. Tim opens up his heart, spreads out his arms, and embraces Bob, taking on Bob's pain, suffering, flesh, and weakness. There's no need to fix or improve or judge--there is only acceptance and love, bearing Bob's weakness, holding him up. Then when Tim gets tired, exhausted from the pain of bearing Bob's weakness, Tim goes to Mike who is in a time in his life when he is living out of Spirit, etc. and so on it goes. This is Christ's church.

1 Corinthians 12:14-20 - Difference is good. Well, it is inevitable. We are all different, a unique part of God's church body. We often want sameness to be the thing that unites us--that we like the same hobbies, the same music, the same social media platforms, the same Youtube videos, the same games, the same ways of connecting, etc. But God's church says different is good. God says each of us are made unique, down to the core of how we think, how we process information, how we communicate, how we see the world, how we interpret events, how we feel, how we express those feelings, how we understand each other, etc.

Each person brings out something different from each other. Bob helps Tim experience the fullness of God's acceptance and grace, and only Bob can bring this out of Tim because of how unique Bob and Tim and their interactions are. But Mike helps Tim experience the fullness and depth of God's care and love, and only Mike can bring this out of Tim because of how unique Mike and Tim and their interactions are. This is the church: each unique person bringing out a part of the gospel life from each other unique person in a way that only they can. This is why every person in the church needs every other person, because we will never experience the fullness of God's gospel love for us without each other. And this is also why every person is completely important, chosen but not necessary (Esther 4:14) to be part of this amazing body of Christ, to experience God's love and gospel more deeply.

Thank you all for your support and prayers. Without you, I would not know God the way I do. I humbly submit myself to you. Thank you dearly!

[breakawaysamissions]

Armor of God

By Elanor

South Africa DTC2 is starting in 2 days!! Some of our team is already there, some are en route, and some of us are waiting to leave tomorrow.

For me, this trip comes at a time when I’ve been feeling a lot of spiritual attacks. Some days I feel so low, like there’s a weight of sadness pulling down on my chest. Other days I feel hopeful, knowing that God’s power is beyond my understanding, and his love for me puts that power on my side, working towards a happy ending. Sometimes I go up and down multiple times in the same day, depending, of course, on whether I’ve eaten a real meal or if the kids are being difficult.

A lot of other people have been expressing similar feelings, and while my own situation is unrelated to the recent election, I can’t help but think that, on a spiritual level, it’s all related.

In this time, it’s hard for me to think about the SA trip or the people coming to the conference. It’s hard for me to think or see outside myself and my own feelings. And I know that is an attack in and of itself, to keep me self-focused and unaware of the opportunities or trials that might be coming next, unaware of the people God has put in my path.

In this time, I’ve been reading about the armor of God:

Ephesians 6:10-18

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

I am feeling, in a way I’ve never felt before, how much I’m in over my head doing ministry. I’m up against the cosmic powers over this present darkness. We all are. And I haven’t the faintest clue how to do anything about them.

Will you help me? Will you help us? If you have a few minutes, please pray through this passage for our team. Help us put on the armor of God, because in.a spiritual battle, we need spiritual armor. We need spiritual weapons. If we have them, we can be strong enough to stand.

[breakawaysamissions]

What?? South Africa Again Already!? -- Lin Family Support Letter

Yup, we're going again, twice in the same year.

DTC1 in July was wonderful--the guys responded with open hearts, eager to be transformed. Likewise, we're eager to go back next month to hold DTC2, New Creation.

After encountering the love of God the Father in DTC1, DTC2 helps us break down barriers that prevent us from experiencing the Father's full acceptance. When we live in our true identity as the New Creation, we can embrace our weaknesses without letting them define us. We can be free from the constant burden of trying to prevent sin and instead live a life of walking with the Spirit--the real life that God intended for us.

Walking with the Spirit

In the past few months, Edwin and I (Elanor) have both been learning about what it looks like to walk with the Spirit. We've been trying to use the Holy Spirit as our personal schedule-manager, letting Him lead us on a day-to-day basis in everything: managing the kids, writing emails, doing the dishes, working, and exercising. We're learning that He's real, He works (way better than any calendar app or to-do list), and He brings us so much joy.

Both of us are teaching on Romans 8 at the conference, which talks in depth about walking with the Spirit, so we can't wait to share what we're experiencing with the guys in South Africa.

An Upcoming Challenge: Reading the Bible

DTC2 is both an easy conference to teach and an incredibly difficult conference to teach. It's easy because all the material is right there in front of us: Romans 4-8. It's difficult for the exact same reason: Romans 4-8.

The vision of DTC is to train disciples by bringing them into a deep personal encounter with God's word, so our challenge is to help the South African attendees enter into the complicated, often confusing text of Romans. We want to help them, not just understand the concepts, but follow Paul's train of thought as he walks us through the experience of a believer and their relationship with faith, sin, the law, and the Spirit.

We don't know how it will go--it's possible that much of the material will go one ear and out the other. But our team has just come out of DTC4 here in the Bay Area, where we learned new skills for reading the Bible and practiced encountering the Word with a humble, trusting attitude. So we're excited to live out this way of reading the Bible at DTC2!

Cheap Plane Tickets!!

Praise God, we found a deal on tickets to Johannesburg this time. So our costs for the trip should be around $1000 per person, as opposed to $1800 per person in July!!

Last time all of you gave generously totaling to more than $11,000. This time our support raising goal is $7,000, which should be enough for the entire US-based team. We greatly appreciate any support you're able to give!!!

Partner with Us

If you want to partner with us on this trip, please pray for us! This can be anything you want it to be--from reading our updates in detail and faithfully praying for everything we share, or it could be like what I do: shoot up a prayer while reading this letter, and then ask us about the trip when we get back :P

If you want to give financially, you have two options:

1. Give by check, made out to Breakaway Christian Fellowship, with "South Africa Missions" in the memo (do not write any names on the check). You can hand checks to any of our team members, drop them in the offering box at Breakaway, or mail them to: 1212 Mountain Quail Circle, San Jose, CA 95120.

2. Give online on Easytithe (www.easytithe.com/breakaway). After logging in, look for the "To:" field under "My Donation". Choose "South Africa Missions" from the drop down menu. Just fyi, Easytithe takes a 3%+$0.30 commission on each gift.

Any support we receive will be divided among team members and/or used for sponsoring the conference.

PRAYER REQUEST!

South Africa’s nationwide student strike is getting violent, causing problems for our college students. Students are unable to attend class for fear of being attacked. This also means exam dates might be pushed back to then coincide with our conference dates.

Please pray for the safety of SA college students, and pray that God would work out their exams so they're still able to attend DTC2.

Conference Dates: Nov. 25-28 (Mon-Fri) Departure and arrival vary person to person

Team Members: Edwin Lin Elanor Lin (+ Junie) Peter Fong Jean Fong Naomi Hwang Stephanie Tien Daniel Gilham Gjermund Stensrud

[breakawaysamissions]

Freedom

by Naomi

I'm not a very open person in general; I've been pretty private from a young age. I can pinpoint that time in fourth grade where I decided I couldn't totally trust my girlfriends with my secrets and started keeping a lot of things to myself. I also learned to pick myself up after experiencing hardship. God was always in the picture and He was the only one I confided in about many things.

When I am on missions, I am usually quite intentional about what I say and how much I say. I remember in 2007, after posting pictures of my SA trip on Facebook, a friend commented that even in my pictures, I looked like I was more outgoing and open than I am at home. When I describe myself as "shy" to my friends here, they often look confused. But despite being intentional here, I feel that I am still quite private, and there are some things and insecurities in my life that I never talk about.

However, lately, in my teaching during fellowship or in my one-on-ones with people, I've noticed that I'll just go ahead and share stuff that I've never shared before. It's kind of cool and I'm not bothered by it. There's this sense of it being totally okay and safe because the information is being used to somehow further God's kingdom.

I realized that it goes back to what I've learned at DTC. From DTC1, I am assured that God accepts me the way I am, so I find security and significance in him and I'm not as scared to open up to my friends here. From DTC3, there's this idea that since we are a body, I can approach my community with an attitude of belonging. The focus is not on me anymore - I am free to talk without being concerned about what people will think if they find out something about me. The focus has shifted to loving my friends and helping them understand God better through examples from my life and my relationship with him.

Freedom.

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Tears of Joy and Tears of Sorrow

Hello! This is Naomi. I am still here...in South Africa!

Over the last two weekends, I've been on two (quite spontaneous) road trips.  Today, I want to talk about the first one, where some friends and I drove to Johannesburg to pick up another friend from the airport there.

On the road in South Africa, you can find trucks with racing pigeons. The thought of those doors blowing open is very scary to me

Catching Pokemon at the gas station where we stopped during the trip. They said I’m the best, most patient Pokemon-catcher’s friend!

I've never really had a strong desire to spend time in Johannesburg, but I went because I really wanted to see my friend Thabo (who I haven't seen in a few years now), and my other friend Jeff.  Though we didn't have much time together, we were able to hang out and catch up a bit over dinner and boba. Afterwards, Thabo and another new friend came back to the hotel with us and we played cards and hung out some more.

Some of the new and old friends we met up with in Johannesburg

Thabo, myself and Jeff

That night, after everybody went to bed, I was there in my hotel room, chatting over WhatsApp with Thabo. Thabo is originally from Durban, and over the years, we have worked closely with him and some other young people from Durban. Currently, we minister to them mainly through a Skype bible study, held every other week. We have our regulars, but we also have other close friends who often aren't able to join because of work or other reasons.

Thabo and I got to talking on WhatsApp about a few of our friends from Durban who we miss and are concerned about.

Later, I turned off the lights and snuggled into the hotel sheets. I started to say a prayer for two specific people in Durban and felt a strong desire to cry. It seemed very random.

The tears came, and I kept asking myself if I was crying because I felt alone. I did this because usually, this kind of desire to cry comes when I feel extremely alone. But that wasn't it. I didn't feel alone at all in the moment, and I hadn't felt alone for a single moment that entire day. In fact, I had felt totally and completely accepted by old friends, new friends, and acquaintances over the course of the day. I felt free to be myself and to talk openly. We had our normal playful banter about things of no consequence but we also asked each other deep questions and we responded honestly and sincerely. We shared of ourselves and treated each other as part of a unified body.

I was so happy about my day and felt so loved by my friends and by God. 

But as I was laying there, I also felt sad for my friends in Durban who are living outside of Christ and finding their significance in other things. They don't even know that they are doing it. They don't know what kind of joy and freedom they could be experiencing.

I felt so sad for them.

There were tears of such joy and tears of such sorrow, all at the same time.

But in experiencing all this emotion, I knew there was freedom. There really was nothing I could do about it and I didn't feel the need to take anything into my own hands. I felt free to trust God. I know his love for me and for my friends in Durban. It's in his hands. It was beautiful and it was enough.

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In the House of the Father

by Elanor

One of the central passages of DTC1 is the story of the prodigal son. And the heart of that passage is: what does it mean to be a son or daughter of God? What is this Father like, and how does he treat his children?

On this year’s trip, I experienced, in a lot of small ways, what it feels like to live in God’s house as his daughter. Let me share a list of ways God took care of me.

1. We got seating next to the bulkhead of the plane on all 4 international flights. This means extra legroom and a cradle attached to the wall for Junie to sleep in.

2. Junie slept probably 90% of all total flying time.

3. When we arrived in Johannesburg to find that the airline had lost my luggage and had no idea where it was, God told me, “I know where your bag is. Don’t worry about it.”

4. When I expected the frigid cold of a Bloemfontein winter, God welcomed me right off the plane with sunlight and warm air. Good weather continued through the whole trip: I wore flip flops day and night and never once missed my boots.

5. I had packed an enormous suitcase for me and Junie. After it got lost, I survived the trip in complete comfort with only Junie’s diaper bag and a few borrowed clothes.

6. Before the trip, Junie had been going through the “stranger danger” phase and wouldn’t let anyone hold her except for me and Edwin. During the trip, she decided to make friends with everyone, especially all the girls at the conference. I felt almost as free as if I had no baby at all.

7. Asher didn’t come with us. Edwin’s parents took him off to Las Vegas on vacation. It was a risk, because he’s been especially needy with me ever since Junie was born. I left on the trip knowing he might very well cry for mommy every day. But during the conference Edwin’s dad emailed me saying: “Asher is happier here than he is at home.”

8. Each day I borrowed Leewin’s phone to call the airline to ask whether they found my bag. They kept asking me to confirm my contact number, so I wrote down Leewin’s phone number for easy access.

9. Edwin stayed an extra week in Bloem while I flew back with Junie and the rest of the team. When I checked in at Johannesburg, they asked me if I had a copy of my husband’s passport (because I was traveling with a child, and they needed to verify Edwin’s info). I had no such copy, but because I had written down Leewin’s phone number, I was able to call him at the airline desk. Edwin took a picture of his passport and emailed it to customer service, who printed it out for me then and there.

10. TLDR: If my luggage hadn’t gotten lost, I wouldn’t have been allowed to leave South Africa.

11. Edwin told me to check on my bag in London during our layover. I didn’t want to do it, because I assumed it was gone forever. God told me: “What if they had it right there behind the counter? What if all you had to do was ask, and they would give it to you right away?” I decided to ask.

12. When I got to customer service, the guy made a long phone call, and then another long phone call. Then he told me: “We found your bag. We’ll put it on your flight going to San Francisco. You can pick it up from the carousel when you get there.”

Listing out all these things, it’s hard for me to capture the feeling I had as I lived through them. It wasn’t about my life being easy or things going the way I wanted. The really meaningful part of all this to me was experiencing the Father’s intentionality. He cared about small details. He planned for things I had overlooked. He gave me MORE than the bare minimum of what I needed: he indulged me. He showed me how, even when it seemed like things were going wrong, I was perfectly, completely safe because I was living in the house of the Father.

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Relationships

The title says it all. At DTC1, we taught about our relationship with God and what that is like. During hang out times, Peter gave relationship advice to the young South African guys. After camp, we all got to hang out and invest in our relationships with one another. But most of all for me, I was reminded throughout the trip that ‘doing DTC’ is about deepening my relationships with the people we minister to. Relationships was the theme for me this year in South Africa.

I’ve been involved with DTC for a modest 3+ years now and it is only now that I am beginning to see “DTC” from the perspective of “DTC.” I think subconsciously I had always treated DTC as a kind of program or organizational ministry. After all, it has a team of leaders, a group of followers, another group of leaders in training... it has set programs that happen every six months with a form that really does not change, and even a curriculum that we strive to hold on to. By all worldly standards, DTC is a programatic organization with a set structure and clear goals.

All that said, I would have never consciously said that DTC was just a program. I have always said that it is the gospel--that we are not here to serve DTC or that DTC was the goal, but the gospel is the goal, and the ministry of DTC was simply the Great Commission in a form that God was using to make it more accessible to others.

In spite of this, I realized on this trip that something in my subconscious automatically approached ‘doing DTC’ from the old mindset. I automatically would act and think as if the goal was to set up a program, make it stick in the location it is in, and teach as closely as possible to the standard curriculum.

Now don’t get me wrong: these things are important and good, but from the very beginning of the trip, God was working to refocus my understanding of how He wants to use DTC (and even how DTC understands DTC). I sent an email to Tom Chow, the primary founder of the DTC curriculum, about the plans and future of South Africa DTC, and his email response was surprising and encouraging. He encouraged me that while the details of finances, goals, and structures were important, that what was exponentially more important was the people. He encouraged me to think about each individual person that was going to be involved with this, to pray for them, to catch a vision for what God wants for them, and to work to make that into a reality. Tom literally did not mention anything about goals or structures, but focused on the true ministry of people’s hearts.

I was encouraged and it dramatically changed my view of this trip. Instead of worrying about finances, the retreat space, the food, how many people were coming, the future of DTC, etc., I focused on each person that was coming, praying for them individually and seeking out what God desired for them. I literally prayed for each person one at a time and God showed me a little of what His heart was for each of them. As the trip went on, and teachers taught, small groups discussed, people interacted and had fun together, God kept showing me little glimpses of how He was working in each person’s life. I kept getting these little insights into the incredible potential of each member of my team, of each DTC attendee. It encouraged me to want to get involved in their life--to do what I could to support them, hear from them, encourage them, and pray for them.

I’m very excited for the future, because DTC is just another way for us to continue our relationships with the people here in South Africa as well as each of our team members. As I think about the time between DTC1 and DTC2, I am excited to continue those relationships that God has invited me into, to continue to pray and seek to encourage them, and to continue to praise God for how He is involved in growing and changing the lives of the people I was so fortunate to have the opportunity to serve with and for.

This is just another step in the journey that we take together, and God is so good to go on this journey with us, to show me what He is doing in the lives of those around me. Praise God for His wonderful mercy and love.

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Teaching DTC

is addictive.  By no means is it easy, but I feel like teaching at DTC has brought new clarity to Scripture.  I understand the flow and cohesion of DTC 1 so much better now, and it makes me excited to teach DTC 2, 3, and 4.  And then teach through the cycle again.

During a team meeting, we asked members to speak up if there were any particular sessions they wanted to teach.  Elanor immediately requested “Relationship with the Father.”  Her talk was very personal for me.  Later, I asked her if she had chosen this topic because it was her favorite passage to teach and she had so much to say about it.  She told me she selected it because it was the one she didn’t understand the most.  I looked up to her.

Yet, now I can relate.  I’m looking forward to wrestling with the passages that mean little to me.  God’s Word is surely good news, and I read it that way, but there are passages (too many to count) that I choose to gloss over because I have no emotional connection when I initially read it; probably because I don’t understand and so I choose not to engage.  Yet God’s Word is living, and it is filled with emotion.  I want to uncover what God truly desires to say to me, and I want to experience all the promises that He has in store, amidst all the over-my-head rhetoric and all-too-familiar Christian images.  Let’s dig deep into God’s Word because it is so refreshing and so rich!

Also, drats that I will probably not get a chance to teach the same topic again in the near future.  Cheers for new life experiences that will completely transform the way I teach it if I get to teach it again down the line.

<}}}}><

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What Happened at DTC??

by Elanor

So much happened. Let me give you just a short update on our team members.

Peter - Peter’s found his calling in SA. Since the moment he set foot in the country people have been hounding him for relationship counseling. He’s taking a couple on our team through all four sessions of his premarital counseling material, and the SA college guys treat his dating advice like gold. He is very thankful for the warm weather.

Edwin - had a couple great one-on-one discussions with some of the SA guys helping them process through DTC topics.

Elanor - feels like she’s on vacation (as usual for DTC) and, since the airline still hasn’t found her luggage, she’s learning how little you really need to survive and have a good time.

Juniper - is a delight to all, being passed around making new friends.

Stephanie - taught her first session at DTC with great success! Peter embarrassed her intensely afterward by asking people to raise their hands if they liked her message. Which everyone did except for Jay, that jokester.

Naomi - still connects with the SA people probably the best out of all of us. She also taught at DTC for the first time, and her message ended the conference with specific, tangible examples of living life in Christ that everyone could identify with.

Daniel Gilham - Got some more experience as a teacher and small group leader under his belt. He played touch rugby during free time and showed the guys some fancy guitar licks.

Daniel Low - helped everyone connect with and respond to God through singing. He also had a moment of experiencing God’s acceptance when he got sick and slept through dinner and a session--and no one scolded him or made him feel bad.

Faith and Samuel - Served everyone by making breakfast each morning and clearing up dishes when needed. Faith wrecked everyone at playing Exploding Kittens. Since they’re staying an extra week, they’re going to plan a fellowship night on Friday for DTC follow-up and processing.

Gjermund - The epitome of outdoors. He picked up a duck, climbed a tree, and rescued a soccer ball from the river. He also gave us some extremely helpful feedback during our debrief meeting that put us in the right direction to prep for DTC2.

The camp as a whole - We ended up with 10 attendees, not 9! And they all, every single one of them, were extremely receptive to the DTC1 teaching. They were engaged during small groups, and when we asked them if they were overwhelmed by the amount of information, they said, “We go to college, you know. This isn’t bad at all.” 

When they shared their testimonies, we saw a very interesting trend: most of them shared, not so much about specific moments or “lessons” they learned from God. Instead, they spoke about the overall “feel” of the conference, and how it made them feel safe and accepted to be there and interact with people. They said it was a different environment than the churches they were used to. I personally take this as a really encouraging sign - I think it means that, even though their minds are still going to take a while to process everything, God used the conference to speak to their hearts, their subconscious selves. They might not be able to explain to you now if you asked them “What is life in Christ?” But I believe they experienced it, they lived it during DTC. And they want more.

We set a tentative date for DTC2: November 24-27, Thanksgiving weekend. And Naomi already found flights that were $700 cheaper than the ones we bought this time around.

Thank you for all your prayers!!

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DLow’s Support Letter

Dear friends, If I’m honest with myself I don’t really know why I’m going to South Africa this summer. Maybe it was Edwin regularly asking me, every Sunday, without fail, if I wanted to go to South Africa this summer...and every summer before that.  But I can’t deny how much God has shown me His spirit in different ways each and every trip. I’ve been to South Africa with a team from Breakaway Christian Fellowship twice. My first trip was in 2011. It was also my first missions trip sans parents.  I definitely felt the Spirit of God moving throughout that trip. While I went to serve God’s kingdom, I was being shown God’s kingdom and how beautiful it is. I went shark diving in Cape Town, and in those moments of helplessness in the water I felt an immense amount of peace. The sight of the 4000 pound beast was absolutely breathtaking and in those moments of peace I got a glimpse what it meant to fear the Lord.   The 2014 trip had me feeling a totally different aspect of God. At the time I was still struggling after breaking up with a girl, but God brought me a new one. ​ Her​ His name is Fred Mok. When we first got to the Chen family’s house, Auntie Ramon told Fred, mistaking him for me, that I’ve gotten so old! For the rest of the trip I pestered him about this. From playfully criticizing his pastoral skills to fighting over blankets when we shared a bed we developed a relationship that continues to this day. Through serving with him he encouraged me that I had a gift for teaching. He said that gift, coupled with my heart for God’s people, means that I should play an important role in God’s kingdom. This year I’ve been sensing more and more that God has been nudging me to go into ministry and to make disciples in a direct way. I’ve been moving from thinking about thinking about going into seminary to actually thinking about going into seminary. As part of those baby steps I’ll be leading small groups and teaching others about how God is our true and intended father! The trip is from June 28th­July7th and we’ll be starting our series of DTCs (Discipleship Training Conference).   Please support me and the rest of the team by praying for ­ - South Africans to come to our conference as many are still undecided ­ - Rest in our travels, the travel time will be about 26 hours ­ - That our team would remain strong amidst spiritual attacks from the devil ­ - That people’s hearts would be opened to God’s neverending grace and love My team and I have been blessed already through all the financial support that we’ve received, and have raised enough funds for our entire team! If you would like to still support the  South African team financially you can   ­ - Write a check payable to Breakaway Christian Fellowship, and in the memo line write: “South Africa Missions 2016” ­

- Go to ​www.easytithe.com/breakaway​ and select “South Africa 2016”. There is a 3% commision on these offerings

Thanks so much for all your prayers and support! I can’t wait to share with you how God is living, breathing, and active in his church in South Africa!   In Him, Daniel Low

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Gilham’s Support Letter

“I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds” (Psalm 9:1) One of the great joys of ministry is sitting back and watching what God has accomplished.  As usual, God did wonderful things on our team’s trip to Ensenada Mexico.  When I wrote my support letter for Mexico, I had three specific prayer requests going into the trip; that God would change the lives of the youth, that God would grow my trust in Him specifically as I led the trip, and that God would build the house through our efforts.  He answered all three prayers in spades!     First, God changed lives in too many ways to mention.  I would sum it up in one experience.  On day before we left, our speaker Kenny, a CrossFit instructor / evangelist, invited students to commit their lives to serving Christ.  Nearly all of our students went up.  For more than an hour afterwards, they sang and danced and sweated profusely (or at least I did) and prayed.      

Second, God grew my trust in Him.  The trip started with a big, big hiccup—the airline lost our group’s name list, meaning that they had to call the group reservations center and manually input our entire team’s names, birthdays, and genders over the phone.  They weren’t able to do this in time for us to make the 6:35 a.m. flight and the subsequent flights to San Diego were all full, so we ended up waiting at the airport for the 2:30 flight instead.  Then the 2:30 flight got delayed for an hour.  By the time we landed in San Diego, crossed the border, and got to the base late at night, we were already dead tired and the missions part of the trip hadn’t even begun.  Yet God got us there safely.   Finally, I prayed that God would build the house through our efforts.  And He did, even though students were dropping like flies due to a food-related illness going around the base.  We completed the task in three days, but by the third day more than a quarter of our team was out of commission.  The remaining group of students worked basically non-stop with a quick lunch break (delicious beans + tamales provided by the family) from ~10 a.m. to 7 p.m.  But build the house we did.   God did so much.  But in less than a week, I’ll be going with another team on another adventure, this time to South Africa!  We’ll be putting on the first of our South African DTCs (Discipleship Training Conferences).  Our trip is from June 28th- July 7th and will be in Bloemfontein.  The conference will be 4 days and will be reaching college students and adults.  Last I checked, we only have 9 people signed up so far, which is far below the attendance we would like.  That brings me to more prayer requests!!  Would you pray with me that…    1. Lives are transformed through the Conference, ours and attendees alike    2. Many more people would sign up over the next week    3. This would be the start of a fruitful ministry in SA    4. That God would quickly recuperate me from the Mexico trip so I’ll be ready for SA!   You can also support me financially*** by    - Writing a check payable to Breakaway Christian Fellowship, and in the memo line writing: "South Africa Missions 2016"    - Offering online via www.easytithe.com/breakaway and selecting "South Africa 2016" from the drop down menu (the drop down menu currently says "Ed and El," but regardless, all money received online will be split amongst the team).  There is a 3% commission on these offerings.   I’m trying to raise $1600 dollars to pay for the plane tickets Thank you so much for your prayers and partnership for God’s kingdom!  I look forward to recounting more of God’s wonderful deeds when I get back.  Also, I would love to tell you more about the Mexico trip in person if you’re interested!     In Christ, Daniel Gilham ***NOTE: South Africa team is now Fully Supported!!! Any extra donations will go towards our NEXT TRIP to hold the second installment of DTC conferences, coming up probably in November or December.

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6 Days and 9 People

by Elanor Hello Friends,

I'd like to share with you the list of people who have registered for South Africa DTC so far. There are 9 people--it's on the low side of what we expected. But the Fellowship of the Ring had only nine, and they toppled the throne of the dark lord!

Seriously though, please pray with us that God will make their hearts into good soil, so that when the Word is planted, they will bear fruit. We hope these nine people come out of the conference with their lives changed, looking so different that their friends will see them and say, "Something happened. God did something." And then even more people will want to come next time.

So, here are the nine.

Leewin and Leehon Chen - Two brothers. We've known them the longest out of everyone in South Africa. We stay at their parents' house every year. We're great friends with them. We deeply hope they will be blessed by this conference and grow. Leewin is our "people person" in South Africa. Every year he chases people down and bothers them and gets them to come to our camps!!

Burger and Juhanne Britz - Married couple. Youth pastor at a white church in Bloemfontein. They've already bought into DTC and are just waiting to learn more. They came all the way to the UK to attend DTC4. Right now Juhanne is the only female South African registered to attend!! This is actually fairly common in our experience--it's really hard to get the girls to commit to coming to things. Burger has agreed to be our "local champion" for DTC--he and Leewin will work together doing things like booking campsites, handling registration, recruiting people, etc.

Jackie Chung - He's dating one of the girls we've known for a long time. His father owns a factory in Bloemfontein, and Jackie's working there being trained to take over the business. We don't know Jackie as well, but we're very excited that he's coming even though his girlfriend is going to be out of town. We hope God reaches out to him especially.

Keagan Muller - Leewin's friend from college, studying accounting. We've seen him the past few years, and got to hang out with him a lot. He's a fun guy, and very open to people.

Cameron Francis - Med school student. He became a believer at one of our youth camps a few years ago. And since then he's been eager to learn more about God. We really hope God will use DTC to continue to grow him in his walk.

Reid Song - A college student. I forget what he's studying. Reid's a shy guy who plays some mean drums. He's always helping Naomi with worship when she leads. He asks a lot of good questions.

Jacques du Toit - Totally new! We've never met him before. I think he's one of Burger's friends, probably from the same church. We're really hoping to get to know more people from Burger's church, so this is a great thing.

Well, that's it!! Registration is technically closed, but we always accept last-minute drop-ins. So please pray that when we show up, more people will come out of the woodworks and decide they have a free weekend! We leave in 6 days!!

If any of these people especially jump out to you, and God puts it on your heart to pray for them throughout the conference, let me know! And I'll make sure to update you after the trip about what happened with them in particular.

Thank you!!!

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The Real Reason We Go to South Africa

By Naomi

Last Sunday, we were invited to share about our trip to South Africa during our Sunday service.

I’ve been to South Africa 11 times over the last 10 years, so there have been plenty of chances to share about my trips to our church. However, most of the time, we talked in terms of the programs we put on. You’ve probably heard us say “We’ll spend a week doing VBS, and then another week holding a youth retreat” or “I’ll be staying a month longer to follow up with the youth and hold Friday night fellowships”. It made sense to share in that way, especially when there were time constraints when we talked or made announcements. But the reason we go to South Africa has very little to do with programs.

Last week, I was reading David Eckman’s Knowing the Heart of the Father. Eckman writes that God gazes upon us and is always aware of us. He has done so since before we were born and he will continue to do it for all of eternity. This is how he participates in our lives.

God always sees us. He gazes upon us because he loves us. He loves gazing upon us.

I got to thinking about this in relation to my heart for going to South Africa. For me, whether or not I should go to South Africa each time is an easy decision. It’s easy because I also love gazing upon and experiencing life with my friends there. I can’t bear to stop gazing. When I am sitting on the plane to come home to the US, I feel fear, FOMO fear! I want to be with my South African friends as they go through their daily lives, as they experience ups and downs and grow in their faith. I want to gaze at them all the time because I love them.

You also love people like this. Think of a close friend or family member who moved away, or who you moved away from. Because you loved them, you probably felt sadness that you had to stop gazing upon his or her life. 

However, the reason we can even begin to love others is because God loves us and has accepted us completely. Understanding God’s loving and complete acceptance of us enables us to love and completely accept others.

Interestingly, this means we can love strangers without meeting them. When you partner with us in prayer or finance, you are caring for people who you have never gazed upon. However, it’s God’s love and complete acceptance that enables you to even care enough to pray or donate.

The real reason we go to South Africa is because God loves us and completely accepts us. From him, we learned to love the people there and desire to gaze upon their lives. That’s why we go. It’s why we can bear the 24 hour travel time to get there. It’s why we hold bible studies every other week with our South African friends on Skype at 1 AM (PST) and then stay a few more hours to catch up with them. It’s why we write you support letters year after year.

Missions is love.

Skype Bible Study - the thing I looked forward to the most earlier this year when I was working in China

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Naomi’s Support Letter

Dear Friend

This last year of my life has been filled with change, uncertainty, and transition. After returning from South Africa last August, I took a leap to change my career from teaching to user experience design. I took an intensive course in San Francisco in the fall, and got an opportunity to work for 10 weeks in Beijing early this year.

Being in transition and away for long periods of time forced me to struggle with my community here at home. I felt out of place each time I returned, unsure of what my community looked like and how I fit into it. It was burdensome because I felt the need to work to rebuild it each time.

Two weeks after returning from China, I went to a conference called Discipleship Training Conference (DTC). This particular conference was the third part in a four-part series that I’ve been attending over the last few years. The conference was timely, because I was reminded that as a believer, I already belonged to the church. Rather than being self-focused, what if I came back from my travels with the mindset that I belonged? How would that shape or change my relationships? It became clear that the insecurities I feel about community mostly stem from forgetting or misunderstanding my identity in Christ as a new creation.

Attending the DTC conferences has greatly transformed the way I think about myself, my relationship with God, and the way I relate to others. In the last few years, we have incorporated many of the ideas from DTC into our teaching in South Africa, but adapted them to younger audiences. This year, we are extremely excited to officially be starting the conference there! The plan is to hold the conference twice a year for two years to complete the four-part cycle.

In the past, we’ve been focused on second-generation Chinese youth, but this year, we’re excited to minister to South Africans of any ethnicity. Most of the “youth” we’ve worked with in South Africa over the last decade are now finishing college or working. We are hoping to reconnect with many of these friends and make new ones as we start our DTC conference series there.

This year, we have a team of seven from the US. We will be joined by two people from the UK and another person from Norway, all of whom have attended in the DTC conference in the UK. Our team will be leaving for South Africa on June 28, and we will hold our conference from July 1-4. After the conference, I will stay in Bloemfontein until August 2 to minister to old friends and new ones I may meet at DTC.

Partner With Us

You can always come with us to South Africa (really!), but you can partner with us from home, too!

Pray

For those we invite to be open to attending DTC. We are trying to reach out to many people we have worked with in the past but haven’t seen in recent years

For wisdom in preparing to teach one DTC session and in leading a small group throughout the conference

For great conversations after DTC. I hope people will continue to think about what they learn, and that I can follow up with them in person in the month afterward

Donate

I’m trying to raise $2,800, which should cover all of my costs and help subsidize some costs for DTC attendees. Please make checks out to “Breakaway Christian Fellowship” and write “South Africa 2016” in the memo. Do not write my name on the check. Ask me for my contact information and I’ll let you know how to send it to me.

Follow

Twitter: @naomiandsa

Instagram: @msnaomih

Personal Blog: naomiandsouthafrica.blogspot.com

Thank you for reading and getting through my letter!  Please reach out to me if you want to chat!

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Introduction - Faith

By Faith

This is my first time writing for a blog or posting something public.

It has been a real struggle for me to translate my brain neural signal into words. Reasons for my reluctant in writing would most likely be the fear of reader's misinterpretation of my meaning (usually I will get 12 interpretations after 10 people reading). Anyhow, this mission opportunity has broken so many of my “firsts” but this time I really want to take another little step out of my comfort zone to share with you what God has been showing me so far.

It took me so long to type the first word in my support letter.

In my mind I am really excited. This would be my first mission trip. After many years of wanting to join one but “never having the time to”. The typical education/career ladder doesn’t encourage people to do anything other than building their own future, from GCSEs, A-levels to undergraduate, postgraduate, job seeking and who knows what’s next, it just never ends.

Initially I was actually planning to find something after my “academic education retirement” (my thesis submission in September 2016), instead of finding a job straight away (and continue the non-stop chain) I was hoping to find a couple short term mission BUT the invitation to the trip and the support by team members in the past six months just falls together like a puzzle piece for a greater picture that God wants me to be involved in at this moment in time (this July 2016).

To be honest, this isn’t the type of mission trip that I was imagining.

Mission trip in my mind as a child was about helping less privileged people in a less developed country, helping them in terms of their physical needs e.g. health care, food, shelter and also their spiritual needs, to share the gospel with them.Whereas discipleship training helps Christians to realise they already have the gifts to be in the team (not only mission team) which plays an important part in building God’s kingdom.

Why Discipleship Training Conference (DTC)? DTC to me is a way of presenting the gospel as four consecutive conference which helps us understand our new life as a Christian (even for people like us that have been exposed to Christianity all our lives!) I have been attending this conference in the UK and what attracts me most is the emphasis on building relationships with people; discipleship. Personally, the conference has helped me realise that my pride has been blocking me from having relationships with people. I really want to share the good news of this freedom to everyone, and to be reminded that we are a new creation in Christ. I am still constantly being reminded: the aim is to not “graduate” from this conference but to share what God has been doing in my life, to encourage each other. I am not sure where God wants me to serve, but I am willing to open myself up to options. I know my calling is be a part of the team; to expand the kingdom of God.

I therefore have decided to take this leap of faith, knowing that my Heavenly Father holds my future in his hands and wants me to be included in his plan. Especially since the transition from being a student to a working adult is fast approaching, it holds many uncertainties ahead.

[breakawaysamissions]

Lin Family Support Letter

Dear Friends,

The Lin family has had a full year! We welcomed baby Juniper Karis Lin to the family, Asher turned a precocious 2 years old, Elanor finished her first novel (now currently in the limbo of literary agent query emails), and Edwin continued his breakneck pace of fatherhood, full-time work, Seminary classes, and ministry. Now spring has come, and we’re turning our attention again to our next adventure in South Africa.

A New Vision of Ministry In our seven plus years of missions trips to SA, we’ve had the following attitude: take it one year at a time, see if God brings anybody to our camps, try to disciple the people we know, and maybe we’ll be called to plant a church someday.

This year, our vision for ministry in South Africa has changed.

1. New Curriculum: Partnering with an organization called For All Saints Team Ministries (FASTM), we’re bringing Discipleship Training Conferences (DTC), a specialized curriculum for sharing the Gospel and making disciples, as our main vehicle for ministry. 

2. New Target Age Group: In these conferences, our target age group will be college-aged youth and young adults (and older adults, if they’re interested).

3. New Cultural Diversity: We’re no longer focusing our ministry specifically on 2nd generation Chinese South Africans. Now, while we will continue to maintain our contacts with Chinese churches, we also want to reach out to native South African churches.

4. New Timeframe: DTC conferences are 4 conferences held in a 2-year cycle, once every six months. So if all things come together, we’re hoping to take 2 trips a year for the next 2 years so that we can complete a cycle of conferences and see where that brings us.

Why the Change? This new vision has been brewing inside of us for the past three years. Ever since we attended our first DTC conference in April 2013, we have felt God using the curriculum and small group interaction of DTC to help us encounter the Gospel in ways that have brought us new freedom and life in our relationship with God. 

We got so excited about learning and teaching this way of sharing the Gospel that we joined the English DTC teaching team in 2014 and have been training to teach and lead conferences ourselves. 

The past few years going to South Africa, we’ve incorporated some DTC material into our youth camps and VBS curriculum, and we’ve seen how God has again used it to impact lives.

We believe DTC is the truth of God’s word, laid out in a format that is uniquely suited to helping people break through the blockages in their mindset and lifestyle that keep their hearts from being transformed by God. And we believe we can serve South Africa—all the churches in South Africa—by bringing these conferences as a way to help their congregations grow spiritually and experience new life.

And Now… This year we’re leading a team of people who are involved with DTC both in the Bay Area and in the UK. We haven’t solidified who exactly is coming yet, but we do know that our youngest member will be none other than Baby Juniper as she embarks on her first international missionary journey! It looks like Asher will have to miss out on the fun this time: he will be living the good life with his grandparents back at home.

The plan is to hold the first DTC conference over four days at a retreat site in Johannesburg. We’ll be inviting the usual suspects from Bloemfontein and Durban, as well as reaching out to new contacts we made last year. 

An exciting new development is our relationship with Burger and Juhanné—a white-South African couple who work as full-time ministers at a white mega-church in Bloemfontein. Burger is the youth pastor there, and we got to know him three years ago while he was serving at the Bloem Chinese church. Burger and Juhanné heard our messages that year, which were based on DTC curriculum, and it impacted them so much they had our theme verse inscribed on their wedding bands when they got married last year. 

And this past February, they even went so far as to fly to the UK to attend DTC 4, where they could gain more exposure to the curriculum to be able to go back to their church and spread the word. Burger and Juhanné are onboard to partner with us in running these conferences, at least for the next two years, and we take their eager involvement as a huge sign from God that He is at work, and He wants this to happen. 

After the DTC conference, Edwin will be staying to do follow up and relationship building. Elanor and Juniper will be flying home early to be with Asher.

Looking for Partners! Our support raising goal is $5,500 to cover airfare and our family’s costs at the retreat site. If you would like to support us financially, make checks out to: “Breakaway Christian Fellowship,” and write “South Africa Missions 2016” in the memo.  Do not write our names on the check. Hand checks to us personally or email edklin@gmail.com for our mailing address.

Starting this year, online giving is also an option! Just go to easytithe.com/Breakaway, choose our fund “South Africa Missions ’16 – Edwin & Elanor,” and donate! Please note that EasyTithe takes a fee of 3% + $0.30 per donation. 

We also really treasure your prayers as we’re making such a big shift in our ministry. Traveling again with an infant, increasing our trips to twice a year, working with a new church, and preparing material for an entire conference are all very daunting for us. Our team as a whole will need lots of prayer for unity, as we’re coming from not only different churches but different countries. Your prayers make all the difference!

[breakawaysamissions]

A Bit of Diffusion

A few weeks ago, at DoxaDeo, the speaker told us the story of Elijah from 1 Kings 19 (and before that).  Basically, after a huge show of God's power and sovereignty and the failure of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel's god Baal, Elijah lost faith from one threat of murder from Jezebel and he fled.  When he got to Mount Horeb (Moses and burning bush), God asked him why he was there.  The speaker was saying that "there" = a place where we worry, or a place where we are in the state of worry.  He was using this to relate back to Matthew 6 (because DoxaDeo has been doing a 3-week miniseries on not worrying and how overcoming it means you focus on God and you don't serve 2 masters or the other master).

Between the two times that God asked Elijah what he is doing there, he tells Elijah (1 Kings 19:11-13):

11 The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

These verses really spoke to me because I feel like I've had such bad luck during this trip (and this year).  Let me list them for you: (1) Broken leg (2) Stolen debit card in Durban (3) Mosquito bites all over in Durban (4) Swollen lip at youth camp (5) Busted tire accident in Cape Town (6) Flat tire in Bloem.

When I read the verses, I was thinking that they showed that all of these events (comparable to the wind, earthquake, and fire) all passed by and the Lord was not in them.  He came after.  It's like saying that God didn't bring all these misfortunes on my life.  He was present, but he was not part of it.  He didn't spite me with all these events.  He was present, and he is speaking to me.  He wants to connect after all of those.

At college group, I shared how I had been feeling angry at God this year, and about the frustrating thought cycle I'd get stuck in when thinking about my anger.  Basically, (1) I'd feel angry at God (2) I'd think I needed to change and help myself not be angry at him (3) I'd remember that God accepts me how I am, and that it wasn't wrong to feel angry and that he still has grace for me (4) I'd leave it and not pressure myself to deal with it quickly or forcefully (5) repeat cycle.

It’s so easy to forget God’s character.  Of course I knew that God always wants to connect with me.  But it took listening to this message to remind me of this part of him as related to my unfortunate events.  And diffuse that anger a bit.