The Strength of His Grace

Monte and I have tasted God's goodness all these years.  We are amazed at His unending mercies. We could not have made it without Him.  God pours His grace on us when we are in the depths of despair and discouragement.  The strength of His grace sees us through the most unimaginable challenges. We will not trade Him for anything in this world.  We are thankful for each day that He blesses us with and we continue to count our blessings.  God has blessed us with family and friends who have walked with us through our life journey and we are grateful for everyone who has been a part of our life.  We continue to journey with the Lord in joyful hope.  He is reason for our existence and we desire to see His purposes fulfilled in and through us.

Have Mercy on Us

Take away our pain

Take away sorrow

Take away despair

Fill our hearts 

With hope

Courage

Strength

And grace

Pour Your spirit on us

Shower Your mercy on us

Lead us through the fire

Lord, we call on You

We lean on You 

We trust in You alone

We would have Despaired

We would have despaired

Had it not been for Your tender mercy

Mercy overflowing 

Mercy that never ends

We would have despaired

Had it not been for Your loving kindness

We lean on You

We rest in You

We trust in You

We would have despaired

Had it not been for Your unfailing love

Your love brings comfort 

Your love brings release 

Your love brings hope 

We would have despaired

Had it not been for Your undying hope

Your hope purifies us

Your hope encourages us

We would have despaired

Had it not been for Your abiding presence

Your presence empowers us

Your presence strengthens us

We rise with strength

We rise with hope

We rise with courage

We cry out to You

For You are eternal 

You are our portion forever

You are the strength of our hearts

Living in Your Promises

Your promise of unfailing love

Your promise of undying hope

Your promise of divine strength

Your promise of unspeakable joy

Your promise of fearless courage

We cannot live without You

Living in Your promises

Brings us hope and comfort 

Living in Your promises 

Brings us strength and vitality 

Living in Your promises

Opens our eyes to see You

In Your glory 

And Your grace

Moment

Moment of pain

Moment of despair

Moment of anguish

God lives in these moments

He dwells in our hearts

He dwells in our thoughts

All that we do not understand

Every unanswered question

God reveals Himself to us

In these moments
Precious moments

Moments of complete release

Moments of sweet surrender

Moments of endless hope

He speaks life

He speaks wholeness

He speaks strength

He speaks hope

Fall Afresh on us

Lord, grant us a fresh impartation of faith. We want to see through Your eyes, we want to hear through Your ears. We want to feel Your heart cry. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us this day. Let Your anointing fall on us as we pray in faith believing You for the many miracles we need. Extend Your hand of mercy and love. Teach us to walk by faith and not by sight. Flood our hearts with Your sure hope and assurance. Pour Your grace on us as we reach out to You with our desperate plea. Do a deep and a lasting work in us. We desire to live in Your will. Unfold Your purposes to us as we seek Your face. Spirit of the living God, fall afresh on us.

Miracle Working God

Monte and I have been serving the Lord together since 1999.  God has been faithfully leading and guiding us to love and serve Him in ways that we could never imagined.  God has place the PHD aspiration in Monte's heart for the past three decades.  

The following is a write up on this aspiration:
"Dear Friends, and Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Through the Spirit of God who proclaims the healing of Jesus to all creation— grace, peace, and joy be yours in increasing fullness! 

MOVING FORWARD 2017
 ·         March 2017 USA trip for SPS paper presentation.
·         PhD proposal approved / invitation to application process

PhD proposal approved for Centre of Pentecostal & Charismatic Studies (Bangor University, Wales) / Invitation to application process / Aspiring to start in 2017.
·         Prayer requests / how you can help.
·         My vision and passion.
·         Conclusion. 

As most of you may be thinking, this email is marking a yearly pattern.  To those who have prayed or generously helped over the past few years, please know again: Jee Fong and I are indebted to you.  Once again let me say: at the very least, what we seek is from a posture of gratefulness before God and you who have helped us in the past— faithfulness to His Word over us.  Faithfulness to God’s Word, as we discern His will, moving forward from now to the future.
So again I write that I may enlist your prayer and involvement via however God prompts you— for the up-building of the Church, the coming Kingdom, and the greater glory of God.

MARCH 2017 USA TRIP FOR SPS PAPER PRESENTATION

2017 Society for Pentecostal Studies (SPS) Meeting (9–11 March)
Please read this point in context of the following discussion (Bangor PhD programme).  SPS has again approved my paper proposal for the 2017 SPS conference.  This meeting will be held at Urshan College / Urshan Graduate School of Theology, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.  You can learn more about this by visiting the SPS website (http://www.sps-usa.org). 
As next year’s theme is “Pentecostalism and Culture,” my topic is, “Towards a Pentecostal Conscientizing Praxis of Mass Culture Engagement.”  Recognising the role Pentecostalism plays towards shaping culture, I will be suggesting from the wells of pentecostal theology, constructive ways for doing so, in dialogue with Roman Catholic approaches.  God willing, this will be my fifth presented paper in six consecutive SPS annual meetings.  Through four points, let me further share on the aims of my role in the 2016 SPS meeting:

Through four points, let me share the aims of my role in the 2016 SPS meeting:

1.    Shaping world Pentecostal theology and spirituality
Through this global-influencing platform, I am again participating in the shaping of world Pentecostal theology.  

2.    Ecumenical dialogue on relations between Pentecostalism and culture
This will be my third year of involvement with the Ecumenical Interest Group, which involves representatives from varied Christian traditions, including Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and other Protestant traditions.  These conversations help foster bridge building between Pentecostalism and other traditions.

3.    Linking our local setting to important global conversations
I am linking my setting (here in Singapore and Southeast Asia), to conversations occurring amongst this international fellowship of ministry leaders, pastors, theologians, and scholars, on the role of Pentecostalism towards shaping local and global culture.

4.    Meeting the doctoral supervisor for beginning the targeted 2017 PhD programme.
Let me clarify this in the next section.

PhD PROPOSAL APPROVED / INVITATION TO APPLICATION PROCESS

PhD proposal approved for Centre of Pentecostal & Charismatic Studies (Bangor University, Wales)
Last July through prayer, discerning confirmation, and encouraging counsel to resolutely move forward— I formally proposed a PhD research proposal to Rev Dr. Frank Macchia, one of the Directors for the Centre of Pentecostal and Charismatic Studies at Bangor University School of Theology and Religious Studies (Wales, UK).  I did so, stating I am to begin in 2017. 

As some of you may know, Dr Macchia is an ordained minister with the Assemblies of God (USA), based at Vanguard University in Southern California, and respectfully known across Christian traditions as a world-class Pentecostal theologian.  Many recognise his past work as evidencing a deep passion towards fusing grassroots pentecostal experience, worship, mission, and theologising— into one seamlessly practiced way of life.

After several email exchanges and revisions to the draft, on 23 August Dr Macchia approved the proposal.  He added, “this proposal is good. . . . I believe that you can make a worthy contribution to pentecostal scholarship.”  So to those who prayed for me as I worked on the draft, let me say, thank you.  I have titled the proposal, “Towards a Pentecostal Theological-Aesthetic and Practice of Sacred Time.”  The project will research how “sacred time” is understood, practiced, and being theologically developed within pentecostal spirituality.  So the project will focus on worship and liturgy, recognising that pentecostal liturgy is foremost oral rather than print-based, and that is crucial to its giftedness as a Christian tradition. 

Invitation to application process / Aspiring to start in 2017.

On 25 August I received an email from Dr Eryl W Davies, head of the Bangor, School of Philosophy and Religion.  He mentioned that Dr Macchia had been in touch with him about me, and advised me to now start the application process and forms.  This will be a five year doctoral programme.  Yet as a supervisor-directed pure research programme (no course work), it can be pursued anywhere in the world.  It only requires an on-site meeting with my supervisor (Dr Macchia) once year.  Moving forward, this meeting now becomes a key purpose to my ongoing involvement with the annual SPS conference, at least for the next several years.  What I understand is that this would coincide with the annual SPS meetings, probably with a batch of other Bangor PhD students.  God willing, presuming that the PhD programme miraculously begins, meeting Dr Macchia at the SPS meeting next March will comprise a key purpose to my trip.

PRAYER REQUESTS / HOW YOU CAN HELP

1.    March 2017 USA trip for SPS paper presentation
As in these past years, my attendance next March depends on coming to God in prayer for all necessary expenses (plane fare, hotel accommodations, conference fees, etc).  It remains a big faith venture, wholly dependent on God’s miraculous provision for that which is beyond our present capacity.
Please note the following time-expedient items:
Conference registration fees. 

By 1 November, conference participants are required to have their registration and membership fees covered (which can be done after 1 October).
Airfare. 

It would be best if I could secure airfare soon as possible (September-November), to avoid rising costs/limited seat challenges as we move closer to March 2017.
Your prayer towards these items is appreciated.  And if you are able to financially help, just let me know and we can arrange in ways that get the funds directly to these items.  I do immediately need help in meeting the conference registration fees.

2.    Bangor application process, final approval, and long-term funding.
Application process. 

First, please pray for God’s hand on the application process. 
Long-term tuition funding: Concerning the long-term costs involved, that would take a real big miracle.  Please pray for that miracle. The cost is far beyond our social-economic reach.  So this is the only way it can happen.
Meeting the yearly tuition costs

The basic tuition costs would be about US$8,000 per year; so, about US$40,000 over five years.  This would require access to things like scholarships, grants, and just plain miraculous funding.  A stronger family income would also help. Several months ago, I was linked up to a local scholarship foundation who expressed interest in my potential programme. They advised that once I have an “official acceptance letter” from Bangor, that I should apply for their scholarship.   So once that happens, I will follow through with that.

As I shall stress below, we recognise that to moving forward towards these aims, requires readiness to go forward wherever this may take us, to maximise their purpose and potential outcomes for the good of the global Pentecostal tradition, and the worldwide Church of God.  Therefore, also pray towards:
1. Funding that can initiate this PhD venture.

2. Long-term strategies for meeting the yearly PhD expenses.
3. Any new ministerial, church, organisational, or collaborative relations that may also help towards the short or long-term funding of this venture.

MY VISION AND PASSION
As I have stressed in previous updates, let me again frame these endeavours within the vision and passion that I find defining my greater sense of mission as an ecumenically minded Pentecostal: to preach the Gospel for all creation, fostering pentecostal spirituality and its theological tradition worldwide— for the unifying renewal of the global Church.
Let me also again stress, I am pursuing both the March 2017 SPS trip and the Bangor PhD programme, in ecumenical service to the greater global Church.  And as best both my wife Jee Fong and I discern, we are pursuing this with full openness to God and His whole world, willing to go wherever the Lord may send us in convergence to this project’s purpose and outcomes for:

·            The global renewing of pentecostal spirituality.
·            The growing renaissance of this tradition’s theological tradition.
·            In ecumenical service for the unifying renewal of the Church of God worldwide and the greater glory of God.

CONCLUSION
Believing God has both impassions and wills us towards this journey, both Jee Fong and I pray that you may find motive towards aiding these endeavours.  This may be through intentional prayer, financial support, involved strategic planing or networking, or facilitating new ministerial platforms in convergence to this venture. 

May God guide your involvement in these ventures.  May the Lord prosper you with renewed passion for God’s coming kingdom, good health, and overflowing abundance.

The peace of Christ be yours through the power of God’s Spirit,
Monte

monteleerice.wordpress.com
sg.linkedin.com/in/monterice
academia.edu/MonteRice

Curricular Vitae: https://app.box.com/files/0/f/57952994/1/f_554694150
Ministry Profile: https://app.box.com/files/0/f/57952994/1/f_554691848
monterice@gmail.com

For the healing of our Father’s world,
May we of many tongues
Through Pentecost—
Be made one
In Christ.
Before God: Practice mercy, cause justice, heal the world.
Let us tarry for Heaven's surprises
Where in waiting hearts
Hope surprises with
More than enough
Love to pass
On the way
Of faith."

We are thankful for the opportunity for Monte to serve through this platform that the Lord had sovereignly opened. On the other hand, we do not have the funds to do this. Over dinner this evening, I told Monte that God is going to provide for the upcoming SPS conference. God has challenged us to believe even when we do not see with our natural eyes. He has performed one miracle after another. He shows us that nothing is impossible for Him. This trip is not possible in the natural but God will do a supernatural work.

We marvel at His greatness and providence. As we step out in faith to believe, the Lord reminds us that all we have to offer Him is our five loaves and two fishes and He will multiply. He has blown our minds so many times that our hearts would leap with joy. We serve a mighty God. He knows no bounds. He is limitless, matchless and awesome. As God begins to work, we see our vulnerability and frailty in the light of His greatness. The Lord is greatly to be praised.


God has shown us that there is absolutely nothing He cannot do.  We step out in faith only to find out that He has paved the way for us way in advance.  He is a miracle working God.  We can only bow in humble adoration for He is greatly to be praised and worshiped.

Society News | Home | Society for Pentecostal Studies

The 46th Annual Meeting of the Society for Pentecostal Studies will be held at Urshan College / Urshan Graduate School of Theology in Florissant (St. Louis), MO, March 9-11, 2017. More Information >

sps-usa.org

Grant us Courage

It takes courage to do what God puts on our hearts. It takes courage to step into the water. It takes courage to keep on going on.

God works on our behalf. We see His miraculous work unfold before our eyes. We see miracles. We see His power. We see His glory.

God opens the floodgates of heaven and pours His spirit on us. We begin to see, and hear and understand the heart of God. 

God unleashed His anointing on us. He challenges us to take another step of faith. As we step out in obedience, God empowers and anoints us.

We place our complete trust in Him. We allow the Lord to lead us to places that we never imagined going.

God pours His spirit on us. We set our faces like flint before Him. When we are deeply rooted in Him, no storm can overcome us. 

We declare His faithfulness. Our sovereign God rule and reign. He is matchless. He is unparalleled. He deserves all the praises in our hearts.

He Covers Us with His Love

In His love, the Lord heals and restores us. He binds our wounds. He brings healing and wholeness.

The Lord beckons us to run to Him. We find comfort and rest in His presence. He covers us with His love.  

God brings beauty out of ashes. He brings light in our darkness. He brings hope in our desperation and hopelessness. 

We feel the strength of His love. We know the might of His strength. His love is enough to carry us through every circumstance. 

As we allow Him to flow through our feebleness and weakness, His strength and might overpower us. He is our strength when we are weak.

Lord, we are eternally grateful for all You have done for us. Our limited vocabulary is incapable to fully express our gratitude to You.

Touch our broken lives. Let our lives bring glory and honour to Your name. Let Your presence flood our hearts as we worship You.