ALPHA NEWS

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Message from the National Director

April 2012

The first quarter of 2012 has taken off with a bang. God prepared our hearts at the end of last year that He was going to do great things in China. Needless to say, His word would not return to Him empty, but would accomplish His purpose (ISA 55:11). Our team held two batches of a weeklong training in February & March consecutively for a total of 68 pastors & church leaders from the mainland. Another one is being planned for June. We were so encouraged to see pastors who were trained in 2011, chose to return for further training, they gave testimony on how their courses have taken off in the mainland. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that one of the leaders, Jason who joined the March training actually came to Christ through an Alpha Course, and is now serving as an Alpha leader in his Church. He even allowed us to tape his testimony. Please go on-line www.alpha.org.hk to hear his story. At the end of March, I had the opportunity to share my personal testimony with a bunch of early birds at the HSBC Breakfast Fellowship. I recounted how Jesus used John 2 to call me to be His servant, to Do whatever he tells you and be witness to His miracles. At Alpha, I have the great privilege to witness His miracles & His life-transforming works. I invite you to see for yourself the mighty work of God through the first hand testimony of those who experienced His goodness. Enjoy a glimpse of heaven as you read through these amazing testimonies.

2012 55:11 2011 Jason www.alpha.org.hk

Caroline Liu Alpha Hong Kong National Director

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China Pastors Training

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Brother Li
The principle in summary was to provide an atmosphere of acceptance and to enable people to relax & feel at home in the gathering. From the Alpha HK team, I saw how they, being filled with Gods love, served God with all their heart, soul and strength. May the God who gives me strength also would give me the same kind of dedicated life, so that I can carry this torch of passionate devotion back home, and set alight my community, city or even the whole of Hunan province. Thank you Lord for pouring out Your love to me and my wife through Alpha. Once again, we re-experienced the Lords full

The Alpha Course training camp was very well designed. It included a thorough introduction, demonstration lessons, a live field visit, testimonies and a practicum. In addition, we also learned about healing and the work of the Holy Spirit. It was really a very comprehensive course! This course adopted a guest-oriented, personalized approach in every aspect of its ministry work. There were two key points that I learned from leading a small group: a) how to take on the role of the conversation facilitator instead of the Q&A expert and to distribute the questions around the group b) how to take care of the quieter group members.

Rm 1003, 10/F., Kodak House II, No. 39 Healthy St. East, North Point, Hong Kong 39 2 10 1003

tel (852) 2869 1066

fax (852) 2869 1313

hkalpha@alpha.org.hk

www.alpha.org.hk

Alpha Hong Kong

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sacrificial love for us! Such wonderful resources, love, and encouragement will no doubt help uplift our ministry into a new level, because we have the most crucial and important support the Holy Spirits renewal and presence. Thank you Lord! Thanks also to all of Alphas teachers, staff and financial supporters of the Alpha ministry!

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China Pastors Training

Brother Cheung

The days had flown by so quickly that it suddenly dawned on me that our camp was already coming to an end. I really dont wish to leave everyone but I know I must return to practice what Ive learned. These days of training have given me much growth in my spiritual life and are truly one of the happiest and most memorable times of my life. From day one till now, every day I received much cherished spiritual nourishment. Prior to this, I knew nothing about the Marriage Course or the Alpha course. Through these few days of learning, I acquired a much better understanding of the course content. Today, Mr. Ng gave us a great lesson on music, praise and worship which were of great help to my ministry. Furthermore, we talked about healing and prayer ministry in todays world. Perhaps the way we had been praying for others had not been very effective but with this teaching, we now know how to conduct prayer ministry more effectively. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is very important. I know that without the power of the Holy Spirit we cannot do anything for God. The first two days after I arrived, I carried about a lot of pressure and was a bit emotionally unstable. Slowly the Holy Spirit touched my soul and I experienced a great release. When the Holy Spirit filled me, my eyes were filled with tears and I let myself cry. God immediately came to comfort my soul and I felt that the large stones burdening me were taken away. Lastly, I wish to thank God for his arrangement for giving me such a wonderful opportunity. Ive participated in numerous conferences before in Hong Kong and never have I benefited so greatly. I was able to experience and practice in-person what I had learned which surely will help me in implementing this in real life. Moreover, Id like to thank all of the teachers and staffs of Alpha HK for you have helped to renew and boost up my spiritual life. Each of your smiles and love is deeply imprinted in my heart and I will learn from all of you how to be a servant which God delights in. May God remember your labors and sacrifices and

may your ministry achieve increasing success and bless more people. May God continue to use you and rain blessings upon you!

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Classic Alpha Course

Cathy Yip
down to the minutest detail. Therefore after the surgery, I told myself that I had to return to church. My husband also did not object to returning to church. However, he had a request, which posed a bit of a problem for me. Since he grew up in an Anglican Sheng Kung Hui (SKH) church, he wanted to participate only in SKH St. Johns Cathedral or St. Pauls Church services. One day, I ran into an old colleague that I had not seen for almost a decade. She informed me that she was dining with other excolleagues and she invited me to join them. At the dinner I met Carol. I mentioned to her about my husbands church preference and she heartily invited us to join St. Pauls Church service.

GOD IS WITH ME ALWAYS

Growing up in a Christian family, this was not a religion that was foreign to me. Going to church was just weekly routine to me. When I entered secondary school and got engaged in more extra-curricular activities, I even began to distance myself from church. This all changed on January 6, 2009, my sons (King Hang) 1st birthday.

Alpha Course

King Hang was a heavy baby at birth and he had always been very healthy. This was the case until at 11 months old; he was suddenly hospitalized for bronchitis. After taking a routine hospital chest X-ray, the hospital pediatrician diagnosed King Hang with a rare disease - Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia that needed immediate surgical repair. The day of the surgery finally arrived. The doctor said that it was a complex surgery, estimated to take three hours. My husband and I accompanied King Hang into the waiting room. The heaviness of our hearts at the time was indescribable. After six excruciating hours of waiting, the surgery finally came to a smooth closure. King Hang stayed in the hospital for four more days for observation and was released home after the doctor was satisfied with his recovery.

Carol also recommended the Alpha Course to us so that we could get to know God more. In the class, we found answers to our prior misunderstandings about Christianity, as well as responses to some questions that had been bothering us. More importantly, we met through the class a group of caring and enthusiastic Christians. I thank my group members from the bottom of my heart; they include Ellen, Sarine, Richard, Kelvin, May, Suen, Tenny etc. Each time we heard their heartfelt sharing, we had a deeper experience and understanding of God. Although I always broke down in tears every time I shared how I returned to God (and every time my husband had to finish our story for me), I really wanted to share this testimony with others. Aside from getting more people to know about God, sharing this testimony keeps Gods abiding love for us fresh in my mind. Even though we drifted away from Him, He never left us. Moreover, He arranged everything for us even while we were wandering helplessly.

Was it coincidence or was it Gods arrangement?

In retrospect, we realized that from discovering the disease to the completion of the surgery, God had been with us every step of the way, giving us guidance and comfort. When we were still hesitating over which surgeon to choose, we learned by coincidence that this surgeon had just completed a string of more complicated surgeries on another one year old child of an excolleague and that child was recovering well. Was this not Gods comfort and encouragement? With a wishful mentality of just trying, my husband submitted a claims application to his companys insurer. We were told by our friends in the insurance industry that in general, claims against congenital diseases would not be successful. Thanks be to God, a few days after the application, the insurance company miraculously approved our claim. We were able to get back almost all of the surgical fee, the surgeons fee and the miscellaneous hospital charges. After this string of events, we deeply felt and realized that God was beside us all the time. He looked after, supported and encouraged us every step of the way. Whether it was our spiritual or financial need, every matter was pre-arranged for us by Him,

I want to especially thank Ellen and Sarine. I recall the day at Tao Fong Shan, when the two of you found me crying like it was the end of the world and then held Kin and my hands together and prayed for us. I was deeply touched. Of course, I cannot leave out thanking Carol and Denny our spiritual father and mother. If we had not met Carol, we probably would not have become a member of St. Pauls Church. I also want to thank my mom, for bringing me to Sunday school when I was young. It turns out that seeds of the Holy Spirit were already sown in me even though I never noticed it. I am very grateful that my husband and I, and our children King Hang and See Hang are now members of St. Pauls Church. I hope that one day God may also touch my father and brother, so that they may feel Gods love and become baptized into His eternal Kingdom as children of Christ.

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Carol Ellen,Sarin,Richard,Kelvin,M
ay,Suen,Tenny

Ellen Sarine Carol Denny Carol (18/3/2012)

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Marriage Course

Stephen & Yan &

While we were waiting for the result of governments allocation, we felt helplessness and the only thing we could do was to pray. We are thankful for Pastor Chow Wai Man for his care for our situation. He invited us to join some courses about parenting & marriage and brought us to a fellowship as well. Through sharing in the fellowship and in the lessons, we realized our problems. Soon after, we were invited to the Marriage Course hosted by the church. We are thankful for the preparations that brothers and sisters had done throughout the seven lessons, from decorating the venue thoughtfully to preparing the food, we had warm and cozy environment to share and to learn. The topic discussed in each lesson targeted the problems faced by couples in our society and we could easily relate to them . We have learned that there are seven key issues to a sound marital relationship : 1. Building Strong Foundations 2. The Art of Communication 3. Resolving Conflict 4. The Power of Forgiveness 5. The Impact of Family - Past and Present 6. Good Sex 7. Love in Action. Of course, just knowing them is not enough, we must bring them into actions. Our relationship improved gradually when we put them into daily practice, there is no heated quarrel anymore. We have not only quarrel less but also more willing to bear with one another. There are more real communications among us. The most important thing is that we have learned to put any negative emotions or uncontrollable situations into Gods hand through prayer.

y name is Stephen and my wife is Yan. And we have a six-year old daughter. We are very grateful to be invited to join the inaugural Marriage Course hosted by SKH the Church of Shalom. After completing the seven lessons of the course, we learned how to get along with each other and effectively communicate as a couple. My wife is a hot tempered person with high expectations, and rush to resolve any problems. Conversely, I would like to keep things to myself and avoid bothering others. Our opposing personalities make quarrels a norm in our family. We run our own business together. Needless to say, our frequent contact only brings more tension to our relationship. We would fight over every single issue whether they are work related, about our child, or even about household matters. Because we insisted on holding to our own point of view, we would say a lot of things to hurt the other party out of anger, until the other party became speechless. On one occasion, even the police had to come over to settle our quarrel; both were hurt badly and had a sting of anger deep inside our hearts. When our daughter was studying K3, we had to choose a primary school for her. My wife had a preferred list of schools she wanted the child to enter. Because of this, she had arranged many extra curricula activities for the little girl so that she could have a much better profile when applying to the schools. We had put a high expectation on the primary school interview result. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a total failure. None of the schools we applied for would accept our daughter. This caused us to worry a lot and escalated the conflict between us.

StephenYan

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K3 ! ! !

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Marriage Course

Matthew & Jovian &

time at home, what else can she ask for? Hence I would simply ignore her complaints for I thought they were nonsense, hoping that she would get over it in a day or two after she had venting her emotions. So I never took this problem seriously. But to my wife, this was a great problem as she was someone who needed a lot of love. Of course she hoped that her husband would continue giving her romantic surprises, endearing words of love and feelings of intimacy one would experience during courtship. It was because when we first dated, I did treat her very well and gave her a good supply of surprises and romantic words. However, soon after we got married, this passion gradually died out. Even though we were always together at home, we never found time to just hang out and communicate. My wife would watch TV in the family room while I would be playing computer in our bedroom. Then we simply swap places she played computer in the bedroom and I watched football matches on TV. No matter how much my wife had complained repeatedly about this issue, I

Getting along with others is a lesson which lasts for a lifetime, be it relationships between couples or getting along with parents and siblings. As for marriage, regardless of whether youve just tied the knot or been married for 5, 10 years or much longer, it is still inevitable to bump into problems. We are heading into the seventh year of our marriage this year. Ever since we got married, there had been a key problem in our relationship which we had not dealt with. At first, we would fight over these issues. However, as these issues were never resolved, they kept on recurring in our relationship. As time passed they became a real burden in our relationship. Eventually this got so bad that our marriage deteriorated into a housemate relationship. Our daughter was born in the second year after we got married; this gave us more topics for discussion, all of our conversations were around our daughter. Naturally, there were only two occasions in the entire year in which we could squeeze a bit of precious time for ourselves: birthday and Valentines Day. Nevertheless, even when we were alone with each other, all we could talk about was our daughter. After our son was born, all of our time was consumed by our work and our children. There was simply not enough time to resolve the problems we had at the very beginning - We just put them aside. So what was the problem? My wife is someone who needs a lot of love. She wants to be able to feel her husbands love all the time. However, I was not aware of this and did not find it to be an issue. I thought, Besides working, I have already spent all of my

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remained indifferent. This caused the thorn inside my wifes heart to grow deeper over time. Eventually her expectations for marriage grew dimmer and cooler. This continued until one day our pastor introduced us to take The Marriage Course. Strangely enough, both of us responded positively to this opportunity. In this course we finally realized that males and females often hold different perspectives on relationships. I finally realized my wifes needs. Although our problem was not solved over night, understanding the key techniques regarding the marital relationships had helped improved our marriage drastically. This also allowed us to understand the importance of Application, application and more

application! as our instructor emphasized in our first lesson. Another unexpected bonus we reaped from this course, aside from having improvements in our relationship, our relationship with our children got better as well. The result was a more harmonious relationship in our family at large. We still have many areas that need to be improved. Whilst we continue to strive for a better relation, we are reminded that our love ultimately stemmed from God. If we continue to pray and apply what we learned frequently and earnestly, our problem will one day be resolved. We have no doubt in mind that this will make our family life even more harmonious.

Alpha in the Workplace

Aside from work, I had to organize and coordinate a 3-month long Alpha Course in the workplace. No easy task indeed! However, with the concerted support and efforts of my boss, Alpha Course Hong Kong, our human resources department and the VTech Christian cell group, we successfully launched our first course in September 2010. With an average attendance of 46 participants, the course was not only conducted smoothly, all of our participants were greatly moved and united in spirit during our celebration partys sharing session. Everyone expressed many genuine words of gratitude. At this point, it wouldve been ideal if we could provide a follow-up course for colleagues. We opted to use a bible study groups study guide with a view that

we can engage colleagues in discussions about the Bible using multiple contextual perspectives. Unfortunately, our colleagues dont have much knowledge of the Bible to begin with. So the implementation of our plan seemed a bit too challenging. Time flew by quickly. When we began to prepare for the second round of Alpha Course in June 2011, wed hope too that the follow-up course would create an even greater impact on our colleagues lives and further unite them. During our retreat camp, three of our sisters introduced God at Work to us. During our discussion, a core member of our cell group William said he had already finished the book. He said the book is quite suitable for

Margaret

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being the tool of our next follow-up course. His full endorsement gave us much confidence to commit ourselves to preparing for the course. The preparation work included purchasing books, holding meetings, setting agendas, assigning work, inviting speakers etc. During the preparation process, our cell group experienced many life difficulties behind the scenes. Some of our family members fell ill and some even passed away, while other fellow mates quit the job due to career developments. All of these unexpected hurdles kept us very burdened and occupied! However, the loving support and encouragement shared amongst us helped

pull us through. Through reading God at Work, we know that our daily work in the marketplace is no different from ministering to God. One does not have to be a pastor to serve God. One can just be a frontline employee in a commercial organization and still serve God through his/her daily work. In this process, I personally experienced how brothers and sisters mutually supported each other with their own gifts and resources. Just as the bible says: And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. It is my hope that God greatly utilizes this book and help more people come to find joy and mission in their own work. Glory be to God who loves us all! William

3! Alpha HK(VTech Cell) 2010946 20116

God at Work - Readers comments

Id asked myself in the past whether or not I can serve God fulltime in ministry work However, later on I realized that the workplace is also a place where I can serve God. God had been guiding me to start various ministry works inside my own company, starting from the Alpha Course and now God at Work. Indeed this has been a grace-filled journey. Through reading this book, I now have a better idea of how I can bring the Christian faith into the workplace. God does indeed guide us every step of the way, including each of our decisions, the weight and importance of each our endeavors, and of course our purpose of life. As long as we entrust our path to our Father wholeheartedly and try our best, God will for sure guide and take good care of us. So, how can we come to know Gods Will for us? Studying the bible and prayer is crucial. After all, His ways are higher than our ways. In these times, God is often doing new things which are completely over and beyond what we pray for and can imagine.

Sum

Let me share with you a bible verse quoted in the book: But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33) Therefore, the most important thing we have to do in life is to put God and His kingdom first! He will grant us everything else as well when we do so. May all glory and praise be given unto our father in Heaven. Amen!

: (6:33) !!

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