Thursday, March 8, 2007

Statement by Pastor Aljay - Dubai

Statement by Pastor Aljay - Dubai

hi bro,

I'm doing fine now. all i needed was a 2 day sleep. Cant cope up with your fire and energy. All of you were on fire man.,

Here are the summary of the impact you all have made while visiting us.


FAITH: Faith has been stirred up in the hearts of the people in the UAE as we've seen 1a.m. band members so young yet making an impact in the nations.Your voices were heard not just in Dubai, Sharjah, and Jebel Ali but to the many nations represented during our Spirit filled worship concert. The same way the walls of Jericho crumbled in the days of Joshua, i believed that a lot of demonic strongholds went crushing down as you declared the praises and worship of our King Jesus here in the Middle East.


Worship: All of us were inspired by how you worshiped our King. Our worship team have been challenge to bring His worship to the next level. The workshops helped them see the bigger perspective of unity and teamwork.

The message of Sold Out: One can be sold out to anything or anyone but theres nothing like living a life sold out for Jesus. Its not just the songs and the melodies, but your lives spoke the real meaning of Sold Out.

- Pastor Aljay Lumapas,
Every Nation UAE

Day 8

Day 8

It's time to go home to beautiful sunny Malaysia. We had only 2 ½ hours to do our shopping for gifts though we left in the morning as the traffic took us a while to move around.

Pastor Rouell just came back from Phillipines early in the morning that day but came to see us off at 4pm.He mentioned he heard so many great report from his pastors and the church members that they were all really bless by our ministry. He then drove us to the airport and while in the van, he shared with Kel that the weather should not be as good as it should during this time of the month. It should be scourging hot and the wind should be blowing hot air.

That was when we realise God did another miracle for us, He gave us a beautiful weather, He showered His rain down twice in that week we were there and we believe that the Holy Spirit ministered to the people of U.A.E. that week.

We are so bless by the people in U.A.E. The Pastors and the people there are all servants of God always ready to bless us. If you are reading this all you people of U.A.E. ... YOU GUYS ROCK!!! We thank the Lord for you all and we are so bless to have known our Every Nation family in U.A.E. Keep the flame burning hotter than the heat over there Laughing

Day 7

Day 7

Some of us went for trhe safari desert adventure and some went shopping. But before that all of us went to the desert and did the quadra bike. It was totally fun for all of us.

On the way back Pastor Aljay's car over heated and he drove all the way back, which was at least almost an hour drive away.But God was great because nothing happened to his car. Praise God for another miracle

Day 6

Day 6

We were given a tour of a beautiful hotel called the Madinet Jumeirah. It is built by the sea and the waterways are open i.e. the seawater flows into the waterways built in the hotel,felt like we were in Venice. It was an exotic and beautiful place, very romantic, ha ha! It's a famous spot. The architecture is beautiful. It looks like a Morroccon palace.

After the tour, it was time for us to have some fun! We went to the Wild Wadi.It was right next to the Burj Hotel (rated 7 star). It was fun for the guys. We played together. We were also blessed to know that one of the church members, Dong worked there so he could get us in for only dhl15 (normal price dhl150). We were so blessed.

During the drive to the malls and wid wadi, Pastor Aljay shared with us how inspired the worship team was. The fact that Daniel only 20 years old, TJ going 21, Cuz and Neil in their early 20's took the step of faith and showed what God can do with the talent God has given them, inspired many of their musicians who may be much more talented than us yet we were in faith to show that God can use us. What more with them who has greater talent and yet not use it for the glory of God.

He also mention that many people were SOLD OUT through the worship and preaching messages to know that they have a greater calling in Dubai not just their carrier but a purpose to reach out to the nation of U.A.E. We thank the Lord that God used us to inspire and challenge the people.

Then we went to one of the malls to have a look around. In that mall, there was the skiing place as well as a lot of shops.

Day 5

Day 5

We got up late today because we had such a late night on Friday. But this time, before we had lunch with the leaders, we got together. PC wanted us to take some time together to think, meditate on what we can be thankful for, and what God has taught or shown us during this trip. It was evident that God impacted each and every one of us. It's so profound and yet life-changing. Each shared 1 or 2 things that God has taught us, plus things that we are thankful for. I personally was so blessed!

Suddenly someone came in to announce that our chicken was ready. The announcer came in the form of Pastor Rouelle's son. We were also blessed with a giant pot of beef briyani and barbecued chicken!!!

After that, we prayed and got ready and headed out to the DECC Maranantha Hall. But before we did that, we went to the shopping mall near the DECC. It was very beautifully designed. The name of the mall was... We went to Starbucks to kill time and then we went to the DECC to prepare for the concert.

The hall is great, very big and spacious. Apparently Matt Redman did a concert in the same hall. We were expecting about 500-600 people.

By this time, our Sold Out cd's were all sold out! Our t-shirts as well. We're so blessed. We're so amazed.

The worship concert was supposed to start at 8.30 pm but we waited till 9pm to start. In the beginning, we didn't see that many people but towards the later part of the night, the hall filled up. It was fantastic.

Our line up this time was fewer songs:-

The Anthem

Freedom

Singing & Living

My Father

Breathe

All I Wanna Do

Blessed Draw

My God Is So Big

Always In My Heart (community video)

PC exaltation

Sold Out

PC exaltation

Lift The Name of Jesus

Dive In

The Presence of God was evident. Even from the start.

PC then gave a word of exaltation. It was about encouraging people to take little steps of faith wherever they were; she gave illustrations on David, as he was just doing his chore and to deliver food to his brothers in the battlefield and instead he became a hero because he was ready to move and to act in faith. The people were ministered by the Spirit. We felt that God told them that they can do it.

We were amazed at what God did at the concert. We could feel His presence and we found that we were also touched by His Spirit. We were doing our last encore which was " Dive In". The people yelled for more so we did "Freedom" again. In the middle of the song, Pastor Cathryn dragged Daniel to the front of the stage and he had no choice but to do a solo. He was in the flow of the Spirit. Then it was Cuzario's turn; as he beat the drums, you could tell that there was an anointing. Last but not least, was Tj! He seemed a little shocked at first but the Spirit took over and he belted out an amazing instrumental unto the Lord.It was unbelievable as they had never soloed in a concert before! All of them were amazed by how God used them.

Again, after everytime we do P&W, we prayed and gave thanks to our Lord for all that He's done and thankful that He's chosen us as His vessels. All Glory to God!!!

The concerts & workshop was finally over! It was a spiritual experience for all of us.





Day 4

Day 4

We had an early start. Today is a very, very packed day. It's morning service at Holy Trinity at 10.30 am, then lunch at Pastor Mar's Villa and then afternoon service at St Martins at 2 pm and then back to the Villa in Dubai for Workshop/Q&A.

We went early to Holy Trinity. It's interesting to see the people doing the set up again.

This time, people knew us and there were more people today. It is a holiday - Prophet Mohammad's birthday so the next day was a public holiday.

Service starts at 10.30 am and finishes at 12 noon.
Our line up :- Take It All, Singing & Living, Our God Reigns, Sold Out

Neil led worship here and did very well. We finished and quickly packed up and left for Sharjah (Pastor Mar's villa). It was interesting, the van was stuck because Neil didn't see a hole and the wheel of the van got stuck. But it's so good to see how the brothers in the church took over and helped us to get the van out. Praise God for spiritual family!

So we went over to Pastor Mar's villa for lunch. The food was great and we had a great time of fellowship with Pastor Mar. He opened his house to us and is a very gracious host. We rested and relaxed. Then at around 1.30 pm, we left the villa for St Martin's. The sound team had already gone ahead and set up the equipment while we were at the villa. They are pretty organised. ;p

So service started. Our line up was:- Majesty, Take It All, Here I Am to Worship and Sold Out

Pastor Cathryn led worship and this time, Kel took the pulpit. He preached about David and how Sold Out was evident in the scripture. He shared about his dreams and his call. He even showed a physical example of Goliath and David.People were touched and encouraged. He challenged the people to live a Sold Out life. The church in Sharjah is also starting a new service in one of the hotels. We pray that it will be another breakthrough for them. They have to be very careful and watchful. By the time we finished at Sharjah, it was already around 4.30 pm.

Then straight after that, we went back to the Villa to prepare for the last workshop on Vocals, Sound and Q&A. that was supposed to be at 7 pm. So we waited for the equipment, setting up, etc.. we had to also wait for the people to get to the Villa after work. We finally started our workshops around 7.30 pm.

Each workshop was fruitful. I felt that people received and the response was good. We are sooo thankful and grateful to God that we can be a vessel in this area.

We finished around 10 pm and headed out to the beach for a barbecue. They arranged for food and invited the people who were in the worship teams to come and fellowship.

The event was great. We didn't have much time at the park/beach but it was fun. We got to fellowship, build relationships and shared our lives even more. As the place closed at 11pm, we went to another beach, near the Burj. It was amazing. There were many people there. People from different backgrounds were at this place. This place was full of life, even so late at night. It goes to show that people in Dubai don't sleep!!! We left this place at 1am (another sign Smile ), which was again about 5 am in Malaysia!!! But it was worth it.





Day 3

Day 3

Today, we had Praise and Worship at Holy Trinity in Dubai and then the workshop later on at night.

We were given time to rest, we got up and did our devotion together. We were all asked to pray and meditate about what God wants to do and what God was saying to us personally, to share what was one thing or some things that we are grateful to God for. We were all expressing our thanks to the Lord and it was refreshing to always remember that.

During our devotion Kel shared that he felt that God wanted to heal the dry bones (Ezekiel 37) of the Christians in Dubai. He asked the Lord for a sign to confirm whether it's really from the Lord. In the morning, it rained and we all thought that it's normal since we often get rain in Malaysia. But we later found out that some people who have lived 5 years there only experience rain twice. We knew then that was a sign from the Lord that he wants to heal the dry bones. We also recalled the prophetic word that Pastor Mar prophesied that God is pouring His presence down on U.A.E. We were excited to see how God is moving.

During this time, Pastor Mary joined us and told us that did we know that there in our conccert 4 people came to accept Jesus as their savior. We thank the Lord truly " worship brings change". We did not even make a salvation call but because of the power and presence of God through worship that people can't help but know that He is truly a living God.That was our greatest desire in our worship to see people save and delivered.

The next thing, we went downtown for lunch at a local Filipino restaurant. It was interesting for a lot of us as that was the first time. We ate a lot and then returned to the Villa to get ready to get ready for Praise and Worship in Holy Trinity at 4.30 pm.

It was quite amazing to see the people in Dubai do their set up. Holy Trinity, like St Martin's is a compound that is the assigned place of worship. There were quite a number of churches in the same place. It's pretty amazing. Each church comes into a hall, at their scheduled time, take 15 minutes to set up their equipment, instruments, etc. and be ready to start their services. Service ends after 1 hour and a half and then they pack up their things in 15 minutes and leave so that the next church is able to come in and use the hall. It's something that makes us so grateful to God that we don't have to do this. They have such limited time. We are so blessed!

The line up for this service was :- Take It All, Dive in, Breathe, Cause I & I Lift the name of Jesus

Kel led worship and the service starts at 4.30 pm and finishes at 6pm. We then had to rush back to the Villa to get ready for Band Dynamics and Worship Leading for the Dubai P&W Teams.They call it the "WAP" teams.PC was left to preach the Word. She preached on Sold Out.Many of the people there gave their feedback that they were ministered and convicted by the message.

We had some technical glitches at Holy Trinity. The keyboard was set on "transposed" and so the whole time, we were in the wrong key and weren't able to do our best. Kel didn't anticipate. That taught us something. So straight after, we had to get back to the villa but due to the traffic, we got back at almost 8 pm to the Villa. This was for Band Dynamics and Worship Leading Workshop that was supposed to start at 8.30pm. We had to wait for the equipment, setting up, etc.. and we also had to wait for the people to get to the Villa after work. Many people finish work late plus the traffic doesn't help. We finally started our workshops by about 10 pm. We did the same as for Sharjah, except that this time, we had more time to finish everything as we paced ourselves better. By the time we finished, it was about 12.30 am. That was 4.30 am Malaysian time.

We were so bushed!!!But one thing, I'm very proud of us, is that we were all in great spirit and were united. Wink

Day 2

Day 2

Cuz is unwell. He has a tummy problem. Lisa still has her cough. It's annoying. She can't sing properly and we're sure that Cuz can't play properly as well. Lisa felt that is was a test, to see if she can worship God without her voice at it's best. Tonight, it's the Worship Concert at St Martin's Sharjah

Devotion : we came together in the morning. Thanking God and the word that came from Kel was Ezekiel 33:31-32 and from PC was Psalms 4:4. We prayed and asked for a Word from God for the people. Tonight is the first concert and it was to be in Sharjah. It's exciting.We are going to declare how great God's strength is and that there will be redemption. The people needed healing in all areas and God will show Himself. We also needed to think of God, think of His thoughts and not have our own way of thinking.

Sharjah is a more conservative place and foreigners are expected to adhere to their dress-code; we're not supposed to expose our flesh too much - no mini-skirts, shorts, tank tops, no sleeveless tops ; on the other hand Dubai is very modern and open. It's something that we need to get used to.

The hall in St Martin's was able to fit about 400-450 people. It was quite big. We had to be there by 5.30 pm to set-up. When we arrived, they hadn't opened the doors yet. Finally, the doors opened at around 5.45 pm. Every minute is precious. There were problems during the sound-check especially for the vocals and the keyboard as Kel was using only 1 keyboard. The structure/layout of the stage is a bit cramped and there are 2 marble pillars on the sides. We had to work around it. The sound engineers did their best and we learned to work around the situation.

Before we started, we prayed and asked that God's glory be shown.The songs that we did are :

  1. The Anthem
  2. Majesty (Planetshakers)
  3. Take It All
    Community Video - sharing by Kel
  4. Breathe (altar call by Kel)
    Neil's Testimony
  5. Sold Out
    Exaltation by PC
  6. Sold Out
  7. All I want Do
    Blessed Draw
  8. Here I Am
  9. Here I Am to Worship

There were people of all ages in Sharjah. At the beginning, there weren't that many people but later that night, there were more. It seemed that it was almost full. For the first altar call at Breathe, we couldn't tell how many people were ministered as Kel encouraged them to stay where they are and to worship from there. The young people and the leaders of the church were standing in the front rows. They were so responsive and you could see that the Presence of God was strong. For Neil's testimony, quite a number of people responded as he's their "homeboy" and knew him personally. People were blessed and encouraged. Then for Sold Out, PC preached to the people, encouraged them to live a Sold Out Life for God - she preached on Peter's call; the question that burned Peter's soul - on whether he truly loved the Lord enough to live the Sold Out Life.

This time, the 2nd altar call, people were encouraged to move to the front. They were challenged to come up to give their lives; to recommit and live "Sold Out" for God. The leaders and PC prayed over the people as we sang Sold Out.

By the time we finished, it was around 11 pm. We prayed and thanked God. That will always be the first thing that we do whenever we finish something. God is to be glorified, always. In fact, the center space on stage is for God, nobody else takes that place. It's His rightful place of honor. We weren't able to finish all the songs that we lined up due to time constraints. The pastors also came up every now and then to give a prophetic word. One of the prophetic word's Pastor Mar gave was that he felt God open the ozone layer and He is pouring His presence down upon U.A.E. He also prophesied that 1a.m. is a fertile ministry and it will bear much fruits.

We went back, came together and talked about it. It certainly wasn't our best musically or technically. We had to straighten the kinks, we discussed what could be improved and discovered that timing and execution needed to be improved. We also discovered that we needed to reflect even more and rely even more on God. This was truly a test of our faith.

PC exalted us to think and focus on God before we rested. That we needed to quiet the other voices and listen clearly to the Voice of God. PC is very wise. She constantly reminds us to condition ourselves so that we didn't fall sick and be able to minister at all times.

Day 1 - Dubai

Day 1

We arrived, got settled. The place where we stay - is a huge bungalow! A Villa! It was also their office. It's very comfortable and the bathrooms are big!

Today, we all gathered just before lunch and did our devotion. We came together and prayed and meditated. The word from Kel was Matt 10:39. What stirred us most is the fact that Jesus was talking about a Sold Out life. We needed to reflect again on our lives and what a Sold Out life should be like. That reminded us and aligned us.

We had lunch with all the pastors. Our host was Pastor Rouell (the Senior Pastor and his wife Pastor Febs) and then there was Pastor Aljay, Pastor Mar (the Senior Pastor of Sharjah church). There were also a few other people we met from the technical side, like Peter, Roy, etc.

After lunch, we had a quick discussion on our itineraries. Today we are to prepare for a workshop in Sharjah. But we had to leave the Villa by 4pm even though the workshop was at 8pm because of traffic. From what I can see, Dubai and Sharjah are like KL and PJ. So the distance is about the same. However, we went to the Megamall in Sharjah to have lunch. We discussed on how the workshop will be conducted. We talked about how we can inspire the church.

We were quite prepared as we ran through again all the things that we needed to do. We were rather unsure of what to expect. On the way, we looked at the place. It is a desert - the land is dry.

We arrived at a compound, where all the churches are built. In the UAE, you're not allowed to worship anywhere unless they were designated places/are. So all the churches are in one area/compound. You can meet at people's homes but it has to be done very discreetly. You can't have your own building. The people are praying and we should stand together with them.

After the workshop in Sharjah, according to Pastor Aljay, we did very well. We felt though that we didn't time ourserves well enough. However, we learn and by God's grace we will do better the next time. We felt that we did what God asked us to do and felt God's presence. We did band dynamics with "My Father" and Pastor Cathryn did the workshop on worship leading. The Lord ministered and the people received.

As Dubai is 4 hours behind us, it takes some getting used to. So when we finished at 11.30pm, it was actually 3.30 am in the morning.....



Destination : Dubai UAE

Destination : Dubai UAE

Today is THE DAY. The preparations that led up till today were indeed one filled with challenges; we felt like God was molding and working in us to be better vessels. ;p Each of us were growing in our faith and also getting to know each other better. We had much to do: equipment lists, itineraries, schedule practices, prayer, worship etc... these were the main things that we concentrated on and it's different this time. Why? Not only because this is a new line-up but also because we are 7 different people learning to be with one another for more than a week and doing things together as a team. We have to be united.

There was a buzz of acitivity leading till today. TODAY, we will depart but before we left, our heart and mind were filled with questions, uncertainty, excitement and anxiety at the same time. It's not that we are not in faith, but just that it feels surreal. It's hard to get a grip on what's happening. And this mission, this call for 1 am is sooo BIG! How does one begin to actually understand what God is doing? It amazes us, everytime we see how God moves; how this trip came about, how the band got together, how the album came about, there's no denying that they're all divine works of God. We serve an awesome God; too awesome to comprehend but the important thing that we learned is this: when He calls, you gotta give your all.;p

These are some of the comments from the guys prior at KLIA while waiting for our flight :-

TJ : nervous but excited

PC : excited - "I always wanted to minister to the Middle East people. Can't wait to see what God will do. Going to have the opportunity to get to know the boys better".

Kel : excited. 1am's first trip and feeling a sense of anticipation of what God's gonna do

Neil :Just wants to go home!

Dan :?

Cuz:Pictures

Lisa: excited, wondering what God will do and very, very honored to be a part of this

We are so blessed by our church, ecf. We received many messages, prayers and well wishes. That's so encouraging to know that we have the church standing with us. We are not alone. ;p We wanna make God and our church proud.

Scripture : Psalm 10 and 1 Peter 3:12

Most memorable thing : TJ's bag doesn't lock; the Idol guitar sound?

Our flight was delayed!!! But that wasn't the only thing, we had to run!!! The gates were changed - which was quite a distance for us to cover. However, we got there in time - Praise God! It was final call ;{ But we managed. What was interesting was that we lift off at exactly 1 a.m. in the morning! Thought that was a sign of confirmation from the Lord. ;p We can't wait and we pray that He'll really reveal Himself to us and to the people in Dubai. May there be great things and great reports,

in Jesus name, amen.

Tour Dubai

Tour Dubai

With finally a tedious flight and formalities out of the way, we happily trudged out of the airport onto official Dubai soil. Pastor Aljay met us excitedly, a great guy, passionate speaker, and awesome host. Of course, as humble ‘missionaries' we never expected for Aljay to put us in a huge mansion for our weeks stay. Then again, nearly all homes in Dubai are huge mansions.


It wasn't long before we had work on our hands. Our first workshop in Sharjah was fruitful, as a band still learning to reach a certain standard of public speech, our delivery of ideas met well, well absorbed. People were excited; our concert the next day was chocked full. Crowds met excitedly in praise and worship, you know the presence of God is strong when you find out the next day 4 people gave their lives to Christ without an alter call, even though we didn't play that well.


The rest of our trip consisted of more workshops, praise and worships sessions, getting to know the ‘Dubai-ans', which are a socialite bunch of photo-loving, warm, and fun people; even though a little extreme at times.


Of course we had our grand finale concert in Abu Dhabi, once again chocked full with people. Congregation was wild, people's hearts open to worship; it was definitely a blast. More than just playing well, the presence of God was definitely strongly tangible in the theatre; so tangible in fact the band burst out into solo performances - something we've never rehearsed or done before.

We've accomplished what we've come to do; bring aspects of worship to bring their team to the next level, preach the gospel, helped others encounter God. One of the prophetic words Pastor Mar received was God opening the ozone layer and pouring His presence down upon U.A.E. He also prophesied over 1a.m. as a fertile ministry, and will bear many fruits to come. People were SOLD OUT!