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Rapping For Christ.

Sila is a member of MOG (Men of God) band which was formed recently, and performed at the Capital Teen Convention in Wellington over Queens Birthday weekend. He is an example of a person who is up with the latest youth music, but is also passionately giving his life to God..

MOG were co-winners in the Expressions contest for South Auckland YFC in April, so they were eligible to go to CTC. The band is led by Mike.

There were 14 of us who went down to Wellington on Queens Birthday weekend 2001. We went down in the bus organised by YFC, with others who were performing also.

We expected to be in the bus with the Faith City group who we have got to know well. But we were placed with a group from North Shore. At first they were scared of us, but as we started sharing with them, we got on real well.

On Saturday morning we met up with the Faith City guys and registered at the Convention being held at the Michael Fowler Centre. We went in to hear some of the other groups doing their  presentation. We also found a place in the building where we could have a prayer and worship meeting before lunch.

At lunch time we went to  the `Zeal Café’ where we were invited to do a gig. Then we had to go back to do our item in front of the judges.  We had to come back by 6pm to see if we were performing on Saturday night concert. It was then that they told us that we were finalists in the band category.

There were many different categories. There were 5 finalists in the group band competition.  There was only a first prize awarded—with no 2nd or 3rd prize.

We performed our `This Is Warfare’ item. Our band had been formed prior to Expressions, when the guys were wondering what to do for it. Ants (Anthony) was the one who thought up the name. We are a hip-hop band with rap and break-dance, but mix some rock music, and like to try all sorts of styles.

For our song that we performed, Inoke did the beat. RJ, Francis & Noel, Ants, and myself came up with the words and chorus. Ants did the break-dancing. Everyone helped to develop it.

It was amazing that after our performance on Saturday night we had people come up to us and ask us if we had an album out, because they thought we were so awesome. When we told them we had only about three songs, they were surprised. People saw that our performance was really worshipping, and making a stand for Jesus. We had to pose for photos that people asked for.

This is the greatest thing I have been involved in.

I first came to St Martin’s when I was in St 2-3. I had come to NZ when I was 6 years old. At the beginning I lived with an aunt in Mangere, then moved to live at my present home, where I was adopted when I was 10 or 11yrs old. That was when I started coming to St Martin’s. I really enjoyed being a part of the youth group.

In 1999 I stopped coming because my mother wanted me to go with her to a Samoan Congregational church. It wasn’t the same as what I was used to. I had a bad year that year in my own life.

 So I realised I had to come back to the youth group. I had been touched by the messages that I had heard when I had been at the youth group before. When I looked at my friends, I pictured where their life was going, and knew then that I didn’t want to go there myself.

I then gave my life to the Lord, including giving up swearing. So I am back to Christ, with a purpose in my life.

My friends hadn’t been helping me. But why give up friends, when you can bring them along to church. I have a vision to see my friends get saved. In April one of my friends got saved at the TFM service.  A group of my friends are attending TFM services with me.

Since CTC, we have been getting invitations to perform at a number of Youth Rallies at churches and schools. We went to one at the Faith Factory, a Salvation Army group at Henderson.

I want to be a carpenter, and am doing carpentry in my 7th form year at School, hoping to do it at MIT next year.

FROM THE KILLING FIELDS
TO A LIVING FIELD

Siv Leng, who has been attending St Martin's for 14 years with her family, and has been the person behind the start up of the Cambodian Bible Fellowship at St Martin's last year, shares her dramatic story.

I grew up in a Buddhist family in Cambodia. Our family would go to the temple twice each year. On that occasion we would buy kitchenware, pillows, mats, and food to give to the monks. Every day, morning and night, the adults would pray at the Buddhist shrine in our home. We had a picture of Buddha on the wall, and there were candles below the picture which would be lit. We regularly supplied cooked food for the local monks who depended on food supplied to them. We thought Buddha was God.

The years 1975 to 1979 are known now as the killing fields time. The Khmer Rouge Communists tried to take over Cambodia. They were ruthless to the people, and millions of people were killed. My father had died before this, but there was my mother, two brothers, and two sisters with their families.

Long March
We were living in Phnom Penh, but the Khmer Rouge forced us out of the city. They did this by lying to us that we had to go to the airport, and then later could come back. We were not allowed to take anything. Everyone walked. We slept at the airport for one night. We asked to go back home, but they refused to allow us. We were told to keep walking. I was 26years old.  With us were my mother, and two sisters and their families. My two brothers joined us later. We then walked for 3 days to another province. Soldiers with guns were behind us to force us to go on. We kept on walking, and soon realised that we would not be allowed to go home again, and that the soldiers had been telling us lies.

As we came to an area near where we used to live, we were able to find a way to go to our old home village. We lived there for 9 months - there was plenty of food there. But then the soldiers came and told us to move on again. They weren't happy for us to have plenty of food.  At this time they separated our family also, so I was alone with my mother. They took us by an army truck to a train station and which took us on an overnight journey to a far province.  The place where we were taken to had no water and not enough food. We were there for 7 months.

Village
Because of a lack of food over all this time, we got very weak and sick. We couldn't do anything except sleep because we didn't have any energy. At that time I was not afraid of dying. I thought it was better to die than to suffer. My mother looked after me with a bit of boiled water and some medicine. After a few days I could get up and eat. About 4-5 days later I could walk a few meters, so I set out to look for my brothers. On one day I was able to walk 1 kilometer. Eventually when I got to the hospital, I asked someone about my brothers and they told us he had died. My older brother died in the hospital, and my younger brother died after that. I walked back home to tell my mother. She didn't say anything.

A few years later, the soldiers tried to take me away from my mother. We were not allowed to grow any food. I appealed to the leader to let me stay and look after my mother. They refused, and told me to be ready to be taken away the next morning. I couldn't sleep that night. Early in the morning I put all my possessions into a small bag, and two buses came to pick up a big group of us girls from the village. They had all of our names on a list. As they read out the names, my name was not read out. I was allowed to go back home. I was then called to work in the fields - planting rice.

One day during my lunch break, I walked back towards home, and I noticed a small whirl-wind on the road ahead of me. I went closer to look at what was lying on the road at the base of the wind. Was it a snake? Then I saw with surprise a heap of fresh fish there. There was no water anywhere near, so where did the fish come from? I filled up my small bag and took them to my mother to cook, and then went back to work again. That night we had a special meal - the fish were very nice.

We moved to another field, and we had another leader looking after us. He was a wild man who wanted to kill me. I was afraid of what he would do to me, especially they way he was looking at me. But that day, the Vietnamese soldiers who were fighting against the Khmer Rouge took over our area. The leaders looking after us escaped. We just stayed in the fields working. Then when we realised what had happened, we were able to run home to our loved ones. The Vietnamese soldiers took us into a temple at night for our protection.

It was then that my mother died of a heart attack - she was about 60 years old. The Vietnamese soldiers brought a lot of food which they shared with us. But it was too late for my mother.

Searching For Family
It was 1979 when I came back to Phnom Penh  to look for my sisters. Someone told me that one of them had gone to Vietnam, So I went to Vietnam to look for her. When I got there I still couldn't find her, so I returned. At this time I got married. We then travelled to the refugee camps on the Thailand border to look for my sisters.

My husband and I stayed in the camp at Retisan. Our huts were tin houses, and they were very hot during the day. At night I would sit outside, and see the big moon, and pray to it, "Do you know where my sister is?" Every night I talked to the moon - I thought the moon may be God.  My first child, David was born while we were in this camp.

Not long after this I found a second cousin, who helped us to move to another camp.  At this new camp, some men came to talk with us about going to another country. The man said he would sponsor me. Two weeks later a friend of this man came from Canada to take me there.

But in the meantime I found out about a cousin who was living in America. She sent me a letter with a photo of my sister. It was hard to recognise her as my sister. But she told me that my sister, Meing Tang was in New Zealand. She lives on the North Shore. So my sister was able to sponsor me to come to NZ.

New Zealand
I became a Christian after we came to New Zealand. My sister was going to church, and she invited to me to come with her. She said, "Jesus is the Lord. He can do anything." I was amazed that we had been separated, but now were together again. My sister was so loving, that I thought I should go with her.

After arriving in New Zealand, we stayed in the Mangere Immigrants Hostel for 6 weeks. It was there that I learnt to speak some English. David was only 7 months old. After that we were sponsored to Dunedin. Where we lived for 3 1/2 years. My sponsor never brought me to church. If they had asked me I might have said `yes'. Molika and Anthony were born in Dunedin.

A man who was going from door to door knocked on the door to my house. My husband answered the door, and the man invited us to a home Bible study. My husband said that I would like to go. The leader of the group was Dr Andrew Read, who taught me the Bible and showed me how to pray. He helped poor students from overseas, and had a Bible Fellowship in his house with people of every nationality together - about 10 people altogether. It was then I accepted Jesus.

Then we decided to move back to Auckland to buy a house. I prayed that God would lead us to the right place, a brand new house with a verandah - close to a church and school. The Lord answered that prayer exactly. Soon after we bought the house we drove past and saw St Martin's. This was in 1987. On Sunday we all walked together to St Martin's. Anthony was 1year old - he had just started walking. We didn't know anyone at St Martin's, and I was just standing outside the front of the church, feeling afraid of going in, when a lady saw me and invited me in. That was Melita Campbell.

Forgiveness
The very good thing about the Christian faith is forgiveness. There is no forgiveness in Buddhism. I was very angry in my heart with the Khmer Rouge. But now I have forgiven them. I can even go to the house of those who were Khmer Rouge and share in their parties. Some Christian friends helped me to forgive the Khmer Rouge by telling me to ask the Lord to change my heart. I knew that if I was angry, I could not go to the Lord. So I have forgiven them for what they did to my family.

EXPERIENCING POWER

Selwyn, is a member at St Martin's, who is actively involved with the youth of our church, even though he himself is retired. He shared this testimony with a youth service at the end of November 2000.

"Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?" -Acts 19:2

In 1949, which is probably a long time ago, I was 15 years of age. I belonged to a church group and I was vaguely interested. That is the best way I can describe it. My school work was not good, in fact my teacher said, "Very weak. Poor. Why are you here?" I had not seen the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. So it wasn't a copy-cat exercise for me. The week before my appointment with the Holy Spirit, I felt something was going to happen.

Something within me was driving me. I needed to be at this particular church service. I was excited about it for some reason or other.

The event was something that stayed with me all my life. It was an event so dramatic to me that convinced me that God is alive today, yesterday and forever. We had a small church group. It was probably only a dozen of us there. We met in a room in Cuba Street, Wellington. In 1949 that was the head office of Opium. It wasn't illegal in those days. And we had just been on a street corner.   The Salvation Army was actually across the road, and we were giving out testimonies and talking  as it were to blank walls.  But God was with us.

We had our formal hymn and prayers were offered to the Lord. Then we sang a song which I will never forget. And it was just the words `Sweet Spirit, sweep over my soul.' And we sang it many times, just like we sing now. ` Sweet Spirit, sweep over my soul.' I remember asking the Lord, that the Holy Spirit would flow over me, 15 years of age. My body felt like I had received a soft electric current. It was a kind of electricity, but I can't describe it in terms of physical electricity. But it was like that. It was soft. It was identifiable. And then I keeled over on the floor. Wham! Flat on my back. There were no people catching me. I didn't even know it was going to happen.

It was a hard wooden floor with no carpet. Now to my way of thinking that wasn't the thing to do in a church service. So I tried to stand up,  and over I went  again. I tried to stand up again, and over I went again. I kept falling over. I couldn't stand up. Why couldn't  I get up? This went on for some time. About 2 1/2 hours somebody told me. I was out of time. I wasn't in time at all. I was crashing to the floor. I would stand up and stagger and everything would collapse again. Perhaps you can't stand in the presence of God. And I remember one of the other church members telling me that this went on for 3 hours. Crashing on the floor, standing up, crashing… Stubborn? You've got no idea how stubborn I am … or I was. Finally I let God have his wonderful way with me, and I just stayed there. And I felt that I had gone from this world. I was with the Spirit. It was the most strange, wonderful, awesome experience I have ever had. Absolutely magnificent.

It was about midnight before we left Cuba Street, Wellington. Everything was shut. There were no buses. Somehow or other we got home. I can't remember how I got home. My parents were sound asleep. I snuck in through the  back door and didn't say very much. But somehow or other I was a different person. I wasn't ready to bash the other guy across the front of the face any longer when he gave me cheek. I had red hair. They tell me that we are fiery people. I wasn't like that any longer. I knew that Christ was my Saviour. That was so overwhelming. He was with me. And I also knew that he died on the cross for me.
 
"It was the most strange, wonderful, awesome experience I have ever had. Absolutely magnificent."

What about after this appointment with God? My school work improved dramatically, so much so that I went from a D class to an A class. I started to work. I started to believe there was some kind of future. Because in those days the atomic bomb was being let off in some dramatic form. And before my experience with God I wasn't sure there was a future. I'm 66. There is a future.

In my early twenties I was really tested spiritually. I was put in Middlemore Hospital here  for 7 months with a disease that was potentially fatal. I was put into traction for about 7 months which was an experience to test anybody's soul. During that time they took  sticking plaster off my legs, and that hurt. And yet the Spirit was still with me. God was with me, and I knew that. 18 months later I still couldn't exactly run. As you know I don't exactly run. I am not going to volunteer to go tramping with anybody, but I would sure help you if I could. I've done some of that. When I was in hospital one of the surgeon's said to me, "What are you going to do when you get out of hospital. I said, "I'm going to climb all the mountain peaks in the north Island of NZ. I achieved that by the age of 26. And I give God the glory for that. Because on the mountain top sometimes you can experience God.

I am going to jump now to 40 years later - here and now, November 2000. At the end of my first prayer ministry session with Elaine and Brian, I was anointed with oil. I was kneeling down in the room, and I felt a hand on my shoulder just here. This brought the same type of electricity I had experienced before - that is the only way I can describe it. I didn't want to go forward, but the pressure kept going. I dropped forward onto a chair. I knew this was the Holy Spirit. A 66 year old. No worries. This convinced me again that God was with me, and that God can be with you. And I know Brian and Elaine will remember me saying, "Who pushed me?" And immediately they said, "Not us". And I knew who it was. The Holy Spirit was there in that room. And we all felt it - the three of us.

What I am going to say to you now is this. Don't let this opportunity go by. If only one person receives the Holy Spirit, the angels in heaven will rejoice. And it doesn't matter how old you are or how young you are. If you are 105 it doesn't matter. If you are 16 it doesn't matter. If you are 5 it doesn't matter. The Spirit of the Lord will accept you. Let the Spirit of the Lord come into your life. Today, you have an opportunity for an appointment with God.  God bless.
 

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