I decided to be part of the church community Centre of New Life (CNL) at the start of 2019. Prior to hearing God and making that decision, I took time to listen to the various sermons being preached and caught a whiff of the heart of the leadership. Clearly, something within me resonated with it. While not always expressly uttered, I saw a church who had the makings of an outwardly focused community who desired to see the Kingdome of God advanced; a community who was mission minded.
Yet, it was only much later in the year that I learned that CNL had a missions wing in the form of X-Border Missions (XBM). I was surprised but more surprised that we were not talking more about it. Immediately, I began speaking to some of my leaders about how I could get involved and meet with the team members who oversaw XBM.
I began to think of ways that I could serve with the limited resources and abilities I had at my disposal and during the meeting, I expressed that, while I was not able to commit to much, I desired to serve in any way that might best benefit the organisation. I explained to the team that, though I had been with the church for months, I only discovered that the church had a missions arm much later and suggested that a good way to inform people of what was going on with the various mission teams would be to have a social media presence. The team agreed to the proposal to start things off with an Instagram account and things were set in motion. The idea behind it was to inject good pictures and great stories from the mission field into the visual space of the community on a regular basis and through that, bring missions into the foreground.
In all honesty, I did not know how my involvement with XBM or the project that was proposed would look like, but we committed it to the Lord and pulled together, agreeing to meet regularly to connect with the larger teams in South Asia, East Asia, and Australia. It was an amazing opportunity and privilege to meet pastors and leaders, our “Partners”, singularly committed to the goal of advancing the Kingdom of God.
It has been about 9 months since that first meeting, and in that time, we have started an Instagram page (@xbm.sg) and revamped our Website. I have also had the privilege to connect with our Partners around the world, hear what the Lord has been doing through them and discover the impact they have had on the communities around them. I felt incredibly humbled to be given the opportunity to speak with men and women who have dedicated their lives to serve God in their communities and their stories were inspiring! As part of my goals, I endeavoured to post content on our Instagram page that accurately represented the triumphs and struggles of our partners.
As you well know, 2020 has been an incredibly challenging year. With the pandemic radically changing the social landscape and how the world functioned, our Partners had to quickly adapt and make changes to the way “church” was done. With some Partners being separated from their congregations due to travel restrictions, I heard reports of how God raised up leaders, and how the seemingly isolate communities surged upwards and found ways to stay connected despite the physical restrictions they faced. It was in moments like these and hearing the testimonies of our partners that also spurred me on in my personal walk with Christ and helped me see the church as a whole.
My time with XBM has been marked by generosity and encouragement. Being close to an organisation focused on missions has made me more aware of the call of God on every believer. The Church is beyond the four walls we congregate, and I sincerely believe that we are all called to a mission in the time God has given to us here on earth.
I look forward to finding more ways I can bring a greater awareness to the great work that our partners do and supporting the team dedicated to advancing the Kingdom.
