Connectedness Precedes Change

by Shaynne Ricarte

Sunday is one of the days to celebrate God’s wonderful works. A day of encountering Christ with our brothers and sisters in the Lord: believing, belonging and becoming.

This Sunday’s preaching was a continuation of our series: “CONNECT”

Pastor GP shared with us on how to be connected with each other. He mentioned the 4Ps:

1.     Purpose – as mentioned in the previous blog (last Sept by Ate Flor), “Purpose defines why we exist.” Which, I believe is to honor and serve God. There are a lot of ways we can serve God. Good deeds, perhaps. Well, that should be the default status of a Christian. To be in a deeper connection, one more way is to make disciples. Matthew 28:19 instruct us to “go and make disciples of all nations.” One is to be a disciple, and another is to disciple.

2.     Pattern – is something that one can follow. It is repeated, duplicated and passed on. And as one family, our pattern is believing (seeking growth), belonging (sharing with a group), and becoming (serving others with our God-given gifts).

3.     Practice – refers to the process/actions that we do consistently to bring about the intended outcome. We’ve had several practices in our denomination: One2One, Victory Weekend, Life Group, and a couple more which I am really looking forward to: G2KU (Getting to Know You) and Spiritual Family Weekend. Practice also brings about 3 benefits:

a.     Practice makes perfect – of course, this is the formula. Remember how the kids performed a dance number during the Church Anniversary? It took a lot of practice to synchronize, memorize and choreograph that very lively dance (KUDOS kids and to the teachers). And the outcome? Well, we all enjoyed it, I’m sure.

b.     The more we master the practice, the closer we are to the purpose – it was every Sunday that the kids went through the dance steps. But they wouldn’t have wanted to do it, had they not known what it was for. Maybe for the 8-10 year olds, they understood that it was for the anniversary presentation. For the 5-7 year olds, it could have just been “play time” for them. For the 4year olds and younger, well, I am not sure. But in their young minds, their purpose was achieved: to dance in front of a crowd in a night of partying.

c.      We reap what we practice, not what we preach – unless we practice what we preach, intentions will remain intentions if we do not act on it. One of the golden table manners I teach Chloe is “Do not talk when your mouth is full.” But sometimes I notice how I also tend to ask her questions when she is chewing her food. Sometimes, I even have a spoonful of rice in my mouth. If I continue this practice, I will not be able to reap the right purpose that I preach my kid, which is, good table manners.

4.     People – hmmm…  Pastor GP has not discussed this yet. He said that this would be for next Sunday. Now this is something to look forward to.

See you this Sunday!

5th Eaglepoint Penang Anniversary

by Flor Esteban

I love celebrating milestones such as birthdays and anniversaries. It’s an opportunity to thank God, reflect on the past and look forward to the future with hope. Last Sunday was our church, Eaglepoint Penang, 5^th anniversary with the theme “Defined by You”. A song of the same title happens to be one of my favorite songs (“…Jesus I’m defined by you. I am who you say I am…”). It was an exciting moment, a great bonding experience, and most of all, a celebration of the growth of God’s kingdom. Thank you Lord, for your wonderful blessings and for bringing us to where we are today. We give you back all the glory!


The anniversary celebration was held in Setia Pearl Island Country Club, specifically at Pearl Palace Restaurant. When we got there at 5:15pm, there was a flurry of activity in the place. Hurriedly, we set up the registration booth. Then the guests started coming in. It was so nice to see people dressed up for a night of merriment. The turn out of guests was amazing as we were able to fill 24 tables (that is, 240 guests) as expected. It was another rare occasion where we got to see our friends’ friends and their families. We’re glad too that pastors from Every Nation and other churches came to grace the occasion.

A night of celebration it was! The entertainment was provided by Danzity, the youth, Kids Church, and would you believe - our special guest! Also, James’ joke was a “sell out”! I thought the ice breaker made the guests feel at ease. We had raffle draw. Generous church members donated the prizes.

Our special guest, Pastor Scott Douma from Every Nation Japan, reminded us that Jesus must be the center of everything and that the reason for the celebration was Jesus.

A big thank you to everyone for making the event successful.

Lord, thank you so much for the work that you have done in Eaglepoint Penang! 

"Go Out!"

by Shaynne Ricarte

For those of us who were not able to attend the joint Sunday church service in KL, we were not at all left empty. No, we weren’t. In fact, thanks to Pastor Steve Wheeler, we were spiritually nourished with God’s word. The Music Team joyfully led us in our praise and worship and Kuya Joule Bonus excitingly encouraged us to challenge God in blessing us by giving our tithes and offering. It was, and as always, a fulfilling Sunday. In all these, Matthew 18:20 was again manifested: “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” What an Omnipresent God we serve!  

The moment we gladly gave our tithes and offering, we got more enthusiastic in hearing what God prepared for us. And if you may, please allow me to share it with you.

When someone tells you “Get out of my way!” or “Go out!” it doesn’t just disturb you, so much as it provokes you to anger, right? But when God tells you “Go out!” how does that make you feel? Challenged? Embarrassed? Guilty? Honored? Proud? Thrilled?

Well, I had mixed emotions. I was embarrassed, yet challenged by the words “Go out!” It was like saying “What are you still doing here? Move! Do something!” (I might be exaggerating that, so please excuse my overstatement).

Looking back at the story of Peter walking on the water (Matthew 14:22-32), would you have done the same thing? I mean, the walking-on-the-water part, not the sinking part. Would you also have gotten out of the boat and walked on the water? You see, most of the time we tend to stay within our comfort zone. We are afraid (humans as we are), reluctant to do something we are not used to. To quote Pastor Steve, “We are bound by fear.” Even when Peter decided to step out of the boat, I bet he had fear. But the difference is, not only did he hear God said “Come,” but he also did something about what he heard. And take note, he was the only one who responded - he got out of the boat and walked on the water! Indeed, hearing and doing are two different actions that define the result. “Speak to God and hear from God,” then “be obedient to the voice of God” and see the amazing things He will do to your life! 

To sum it all up, we can always experience God’s power, if we choose to:

1. Walk in faith

2. Respond in faith

3. Focus on God   

When the service was concluded, we found ourselves telling each other “Go out!” And somehow, that was an encouragement. A challenging one! Now that might be an odd thing to say to an unbeliever, but it should be reinforcement to a fellow Christian – who is a believer, a hearer and most importantly, a doer. Happy “doing” everyone!