First adventures in Hong Kong

- - For Dutch click here: hermanelsenbroek.blogspot.com - -

So here we are living as newly citizens of Hong Kong. When we arrived about 2,5 weeks ago, on a Friday night, we got a very warm welcome from both the couple who invited us to Hong Kong and the high temperature and humidity. Right away the first night they introduced us to eating with chopsticks and the next day we had a great fellowship in sharing dinner and sharing life with them.

Just arrived in Hong Kong

After visiting a church meeting on Sunday we went right into action and met with 5 other followers of Jesus to go out on the street to preach the gospel and to heal the sick. We saw God moving through us and a couple of people experienced immediate healing.

Most of the days up til now we have used to furnish our nice apartment, to get used to the new circumstances like the weather and to explore the area. We live in a quiet area and like most people here we live in a high apartment complex, ours is 33 floors high. Close to us is a beautiful hillside in which there are many paths for us yet to discover and on just 5 minutes walking distance we have the main road, so a perfect place to live.

Our house and those of our neighbors

The reason why we are here, is to fulfill the calling and command every Christian has: to follow Jesus and to make disciples. To preach the Good news of the Kingdom, heal the sick, cast out demons, bring life, call people to repentance, baptize into Jesus and to see people receive the Holy Spirit.

Family of believers at our house

Fellowship and dinner

We already have had good times of fellowship with fellow disciples, sharing life, learning from each other and preaching the Gospel. Our bathtub is already used to baptize one sister and we have seen multiple people get healed. I just want to share a few of the highlights so far to give you an impression of the things God is doing. 

And because these things are written in the bible, they are also possible where ever you are. Just to make it clear, you do not need to go to another country to follow Jesus. We are no more a missionary then any other disciple of Jesus, for we all have the same mission. To follow Jesus, who showed us who the Father is and who laid down his life to make a way for us back to God, and after he rose from the dead, sent his Spirit to live inside his followers and to represent God and His Kingdom of life.

Just 3 testimonies

One day, while we were talking to two young woman, AC tried to talk to a Chinese man, but he did not speak English. During our conversation with these woman the Chinese man came and sat down one bench further and looked very interesting - although he could't understand anything. So we went to him afterwards, cause one of us could speak broken Chinese. We prayed for his knee and leg, in which he had pain, and the level of pain went down every time we proclaimed healing. We could talk with him for quite a while continuing to pray for him also. The pain did not leave completely right there and then and I don't know how he is doing now, but we took the opportunity to plant a seed of truth. God is drawing people to himself, even when they can not understand the language.

Knee and leg pain went down

Another time we were over in a house to have dinner and one of the woman who works there had received prayer for a few times already. A few months ago her ears were healed so she didn't need a hearing aid anymore, but slowly the deafness was coming back. Every time people prayed for her she fainted and they would stop praying. We prayed for the ears one time and nothing happened. Then we prayed again and we needed to catch her, because the same thing happened as before - she fainted. We continued to pray for her for a few hours and her body was manifesting (it made jerky movements while being unconscious). Although she came to her senses twice, we saw that she needed to be set free from something, it was clearly not herself when she opened her eyes. So we continued and towards the end she started shouting ''Lord, help me! Help me Lord!' I will not tell all the details, but one moment she shouted ''Jesus Christ!'' and peace came over her, God set her free. Afterwards she testified to have felt like she was drowning and something tried to choke her. She was not only set free but also her hearing made a major improvement. Praise God!

The last story for now. This weekend we went out to a park and saw different groups of women scattered across the park. The group of almost 30 woman we approached was praying for each other. So I went to over to talk with the group leader about following Jesus and it was very encouraging. I asked if we could pray for those who were sick, but the leader said although they believe in healing they already pray for each other, so she proposed to take a picture in stead (so take a group picture in stead of healing the sick). ''Of course we can'' I said, ''but we also want to ask them if they have pain or sickness.'' So we just took the opportunity and one woman right in front of me had pain in her foot. Two of us prayed a short prayer and all the pain left she shouted out in joy! Right away about 6 others stood up for prayer and all of them were instantly healed of various things. Suddenly all of us were talking to some of them and we also shared a bit about the Kingdom of God. For it was not our work, but God working through us - normal believers with no special anointing or gift other then the Holy Spirit and faith. It was an amazing time and after some pictures we went on our way.

The group of women we met

We pray that you will continue to follow Jesus, or take your first steps. The things we experience are simply basics of a Christian life (Hebrews 6) it is the calling and command to follow for every believer, and it is amazing! You might feel skeptical towards things like healing, casting out demons and preaching the gospel because of your experience or because of wrong teaching. Here is a challenge for you: Ask God to reveal the truth to you and simply read the bible yourself.

We are looking forward to what God will do in your lives and in ours. The book of Acts continues because:

''Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.'' - Hebrews 13:8

Hong Kong

-- Voor Nederlands klik hier: hermanelsenbroek.blogspot.com --

Because it is already 10 months ago since my last update I will give a short summary of what has happened in the mean time, before I will tell about Hongkong.

In the end of December I returned to The Netherlands. Quickly after I went back to my old job en became also the trainer, next to working in the customer service. I was surprised by how many of my former colleagues were still working there, for sure it was a pleasant surprise.
When talking about the Kingdom of God we really had to find out how to put it into practice. It was amazing to see five (new) friends surrendering their lives and being baptized to Jesus. The contacts in Friesland (my province) have been growing and were more and more able to find each other. The last few months this resulted in us going on the street more and more regularly to bring and demonstrate the Good News with signs like healing in which God showed himself. The desire to have fellowship has also been growing and we have started to see each other more and more to share life.

The 27th of August is a day to remember and never forget. This day my beautiful wife said ''Yes, with God and with you I will share my life. This was an amazing day together with good friends and close family.

Now about Hongkong.

In case you don't know yet, today AC and me leave to Hongkong for a period of about eight months. There we will continue to follow Jesus and we are looking forward to share life with our brothers and sisters, and to see all the things God will do.
I already knew I would go to China one day to serve God, because he made it extremely clear in the end of 2014 with different confirmations. Well, now that door has opened.

For now I will end here, we have some stuff to do before we leave. I will update you more later.

Praise God!