UPDATE
June 13^th, 2007

Dear Saints:

May I greet you with God the Father’s Grace, Mercy and Peace through His Son Jesus Christ! May the Power of His Spirit be upon you and may He provide you with His chart and guide as you work through your pilgrimage (Psalm 119:19 TLB). I am glad once again to share with you the work of the Lord through ICM.

Reaping the Harvest
Little Jane (not her real name) was praying, “Lord, please give daddy a good harvest this season”. She is from the tribe of Orang Aslis, the natives of Malaysia. They do not enjoy privileges accorded to the predominant race of their land. Jane’s father works as a laborer in a tea plantation in the highlands and a good harvest is critical to his continued employment.

ICM has been ministering to the Orang Aslis for many years and many have given their lives to the Lord. Some of their leaders have joined ICM and are teachers at our training centers. Their influence has been significant and this has caused great concern to the prevailing religion in Malaysia. We covet your prayers for them.

Jane’s prayer brings out a profound verse of Scripture, the effect of which many Christians fail to appreciate: “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest … will never cease” Genesis 8:22. They plant good seeds but walk away too soon from a harvest of plenty. They struggle through life combating poverty, poor health and illiteracy. The enemy seeks to impoverish them and steal their increase. But God’s word in 2 Peter 1:4 says that “He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires”.

Recently I took time to reflect on the seeds ICM had sown in the years gone by. I began to examine if we had walked away from the harvests that we should have reaped. About ten years ago, we planted seeds in India, particularly in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai. We trained leaders of significance in these cities and held crusades in various churches in different locations. We translated and printed our manuals in different languages and distributed them widely among pastors and church workers. We entrusted the follow-up training to the key leaders in each location and then we dropped the ball. We had a change of staff and what we failed to do was to monitor the progress in each city.

A few months back, ICM was invited to Hyderabad to observe a program sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association called My Hope India. It was an extremely successful program designed to win the lost through evangelism in the home. It drew a response of 6 million new believers. We were encouraged and were reminded that we had once planted a seed in that city and God had given it the increase. We made plans to reorganize ourselves to help in the training of new Christians and Church workers. In November 2006, we launched a training of some 80 pastors and church leaders. A strong representation of the leadership of ICM Inc., ICM UK and ICM Malaysia taught them for five days and impressed upon them the injunction in 2 Tim 2:2 to “entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others”.



In the months that followed, the same leaders began to teach others and in Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, six male and six female Christian leaders went through training by local teachers led by Rev Ravi Sundar Daniel. They were trained in foundational truths of Christianity and practical aspects of ministry.

These are Christian leaders located in the rural areas of the state and had never experienced any Christian training before. The tools we placed in their hands were the only tools, apart from the Bible, they were ever trained to use. We thank the Lord that they have now gone out to train others. The Lord not only added numbers to the church; He multiplied these numbers. To God be the Glory!


Enlarging the place of our tent ... and lengthening our cords
Since the posting of our last update, ICM has been overwhelmed and preoccupied with responding to the tremendous demand and opportunities for ministry in many parts of Asia. Your prayers and financial support have enabled us to actively exploit the many opportunities for preaching the gospel and ministering to people’s spiritual and physical needs through our ‘Short Term Missions (STM) program. Many local leaders in these nations have been equipped for effective church planting through our Bible School In A Briefcase and Church Planting Institute programs. Both these programs are coordinated and implemented on the ground by our dedicated ICM teams in partnership with local churches.

On January 20-21, a STM team of six members from four different churches conducted a mission to Mantin, West Malaysia. The team had a successful visit with the village head and prayed with him. Such a positive reception from the headman of the village was bound to send positive signals about the team throughout the village and yield positive reception by the community. On both days in the day, the Team met and shared Christ with people in their homes and in public. The two nights were set aside for evangelistic meetings. On the second night, the service was held under candlelight. Eight adults and 18 children attended. Five of the eight adults responded to the preaching of the gospel and gave their lives to Christ. How would they have heard about Jesus’ saving death and resurrection in this remote village unless someone had been sent and actively went to preach the gospel to them?

During 1-7th February ICM organized and ran a ‘church planting institute’ (CPI) for about 120 local leaders at Semawa Ulu, Sarawak (Borneo) and from surrounding districts. Forty-seven local leaders including potential leaders walked for more than ten hours, from Kalamantan village to attend this church planting institute. This demonstrates the need for and value attached to this training by these communities. A report on this from ICM Malaysia reads:

‘More than 200 people from 18 different neighboring districts attended the 4-day seminar. After the Seminar, on the very same week, 12 training centers will begin; using the ICM Modules. 47 people led by Pastor Pether Sabian from Kalimantan walked more than 10 hours to attend the Seminar. Such was the hunger of the people for the Word of God. It is exciting to note that at the end of this particular training seminar twelve more centers were to be opened using ICM modules.’

An STM conducted in the rural area of Bengkong, Indonesia saw more than 200 adults and 160 children receive the gospel and prayer ministry for personal needs and struggles. Often times ministry to these rural folk will involve those that are demon possessed and the lame coming forward to seek deliverance and healing. This is because their lives interface with spiritual forces on a day-to-day basis just as it was in the times of Jesus and the apostles. The STM team to Indonesia during 3rd and 4th March was presented with many such needs.

The fact that the church-planting institute (CPI) is mobile, flexible, accessible and responsive to different context has made it possible for many women to access leadership training for the local church. Many rural churches hold conservative cultural and theological views about women not being allowed to exercise authority over men. However in many of these locations, it is the women who are available and willing to serve the church in any leadership or teaching capacity. Many women, who traditionally have been disadvantaged by culture and conservative church traditions from receiving education and leadership training, have been able, through the CPI, to get educated in basic foundations of the Christian Faith and trained as church planters. The 7th of January 2006 saw three women complete their first level of training in Langkap. Their trainers, all of them women, decided to keep the whole affair ‘beautiful’ and, along with their certificates, gave the three graduates flowers to make their transition to the second level of training.

March was a joyous day when 19 local leaders received their certificates for successfully completing the ICM ‘Church Planting Institute’ (CPI) program. They received their certificates at a conference attended by 2000 Lahus from Myanmar and China. They gathered at the Lahu Baptist Convention in Chiang Dao, Thailand. The continued growth of the church in these remote rural areas can be achieved by equipping local leaders with Biblical and church planting skills through a training program that is relevant, accessible, affordable and transferable. ICM’s Bible School In A Briefcase and church Planting Institute training modules are proving to be very effective tools. These STM trips provide them with practical training in mission on the field.


Our Mission and Your Participation
ICM is responding to the rapid demand that is growing by the day as more and more people get exposed to the Bible School In A Briefcase program through word of mouth, inter-church networks and our web-site. As the work of ICM grows and expands so does the demand for more laborers. As such, the demand for more hands and skills to contribute in the organization, administration and coordination of these programs and services also grows.

Our God-given mission is to reach the nations for Christ through equipping previously marginalized local leaders and churches with evangelization and church planting skills. As you our supporters continue to stand with us as you have to date, more unreached peoples groups can be reached. Many enthusiastic but untrained leaders can be trained to be more effective. Many local churches, moved by the Holy Spirit, will seek training and training material that will fill their need. Without your giving of your treasure, time and talents as well as praying for us, we at ICM would not have achieved any of this. We will not be able to carry out this God-given mandate for the church in these end times. We thank you.

Should you be moved by the Holy Spirit to participate in this end-time ministry, you may send your financial gift to us at Suite 2040, 17300 North Dallas Parkway, Dallas, Texas 75248, USA.

Please visit us at http://www.icmission.net. We love to hear from you.

Our Love and Blessings.

Khoo Hin Hiong
President/Founder
International Christian Mission
E-Mail: icm@pacific.net.sg
E-Mail: icmglobal@gmail.com
Web-site: www.icmission.net
Tel: (65) 6291-2477
Fax: (65) 6292-0996