Klessis Lee, 2023, Singapore
I am a mother of two and I have been working in City Harvest Church as a full-time staff for the last 18 years.
I have been a Cell Group Leader since 2003. I first had the desire to enrol in SOT many years ago, but life got busy with work and ministry, and I slowly forgot about this desire. During the pandemic, SOT went on a hiatus for 2 years. When I heard that they were resuming, I felt the desire in my heart to sign up for it. It turned out to be one of the best decisions in my life.
I found myself looking forward to the daily praise, worship and prayer sessions. It was such a luxury to be able to soak in the presence of God and be refreshed in my spirit every single morning. There was a season when we were taught to pray in tongues for an hour every morning after worship, and that really impacted me deeply.
Even though I’ve been a Cell Group Leader for close to 20 years, I still get anxious before meeting my members, especially to counsel them. I often felt inadequate and fearful as a leader. The daily praying in tongues strengthened my inner man and stirred up my faith. I grew bold and confident in my role as a leader. Since then, every time I ministered to my members, I could feel the Holy Spirit working through me. I no longer feel inadequate or anxious, instead, I have regained the joy of serving God and serving my members. Praise the Lord!
Juggling work, SOT, ministry and family has really been a big stretch for me. SOT starts from 8.45am to 1pm. Then I had to work from 2pm to 10pm everyday, and was exhausted by the end of each day. But I am so thankful for the anointed worship and prayer sessions in SOT, strengthening me, and leaving me wanting more of God. The zoe life of God truly sustained me throughout the six months.
I had the privilege to serve as a Team Leader for Team 5 in SOT. One of the biggest highlights for me is leading the team on a 3-day mission trip to Clark, Philippines. On the first night, almost 30 leaders turned up for our Leaders’ Meeting. We taught them the Home Cell Group system, and shared how City Harvest Church grew from 20 people to where we are today. We also showed them photographs & video clips of our CG meetings. The leaders were very earnest and open to learn so that they could implement it in their church as well. I am happy to report that since our mission trip in June, the church has started a weekly CG meeting for their young people and the CG has doubled from 7 members to a regular weekly attendance of 15 members within a span of 2 months! Using the CG structure that we taught them, they were able to run effective CG meetings on their own every week. Praise the Lord for that!
Most of the church leaders do not speak in tongues, but during the Leaders’ Meeting when we laid hands on them and prayed, they all received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and started praying loudly in tongues! Some of them even broke out in holy laughter. What we did not know was that the church leadership was struggling with disagreement and disunity. But the breakthrough came when altar call was given and the Holy Spirit ministered deeply to them. By the end of that meeting, the leaders were hugging one another, laughing and rejoicing together – there was total forgiveness and reconciliation in that place. Hallelujah!
My teammates and I were amazed at the great move of the Holy Spirit in the church, and we all agreed that the daily prayer meetings in SOT have built us up spiritually and equipped us to boldly pray for others.
Another memorable experience for us was visiting the poor and needy families in one of the local villages. Some were widows with many young children and others were elderly or sickly. We blessed them with groceries and prayed for them, but our hearts broke when we saw their poor living conditions and how hopeless many of them felt. The mission trip opened our eyes to see that plenty are the needs out there and there is still so much more we can do. We ministered to over 170 children in that village, played games and shared Bible stories with them. At the end of that outreach, when we gave the altar call, all the children gave their hearts to Jesus! Praise the Lord!
All of us in team 5 enjoyed our SOT journey tremendously. SOT is not just a school of theology, but also a School of Transformation! SOT has enriched our lives, strengthened our spiritual walk and given us a renewed perspective about serving the Lord. Beyond that, we have all made friends that will last for all eternity. We are forever grateful to the Lord for seeing us through SOT 2023.
To view SOT2023 graduation live stream, you may find the YouTube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/live/q6xClBuXmp0?si=bJpCxcYb1yI66aGys/videos