Posts by Abigail Soon

I was able to attend the Toronto Children’s Ministry Conference with some of our shepherds last weekend, and I really enjoyed learning from a lot of great speakers and workshop presentors. One of my favorite workshops was “Flourishing as a Ministry Leader”. The presentor, Nicki Straza, defined flourishing as “the whole of yourself is doing well” and went over the different ways and aspects of us that are a part of flourishing and how we can take care of our…

Comparison is a killer. Have you ever wondered whether you have enough confirmation from the Lord when it comes to a decision? In my experience, I get mental “nudges” from the Lord. Subtle, but for the most part quite effective. Sometimes, however, it feels almost inadequate compared to the other ways God communicates to us. I’ve heard quite a few stories of how people received confirmation from the Lord from dreams, visions, the audible voice of God, etc, and sometimes…

Have you ever felt like not talking to God because you felt awful and messy? For me, that happened a few weeks ago. I was trying to salvage my day by having some time with the Lord, and it was not going very well. I was stewing over a misunderstanding that I could have easily avoided and was quite frustrated with myself. Honestly, that “quiet time” with the Lord resembled venting session more than anything else. After I vented over…

Have you ever gotten a warning before a movie starts? Something like “Warning: This movie contains violence and gore. Viewer discretion is advised.” (Honestly, I think it’s a little late for that, especially if you’ve already purchased tickets to the movie, but I digress). In life, we usually get those warnings for weather related events, such as storm, hurricane, or tornado warnings. Additionally, we might see those on the news or on clickbait videos or news sites, telling us all…

Some of you may know that like to plan things out. Now, I don’t always execute things according to plan, but I like to have something ready to go, so I’m usually trying to visualize how things would work for future situations and events. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but when you’re trying to sit down and spend some time with the Lord, it is a distraction. I’ll have my Bible and notebook open, pen in hand, ready…

I watched a movie called Migration this week and really enjoyed it. The movie follows the Mallards, a family of ducks that go on their first migration to Jamaica, led by their dad and husband Mack, who’s paranoid about the dangers of the outside world and prefers everyone staying home. This leads to a chaotic adventure filled with meeting new (and sometimes scary) animals and people, lots of detours and side quests, and humourous lessons about facing your fears, solving…

You know the best way to end off the summer? Catching a cough. I know what you’re thinking, and I also thought the same thing. After a summer full of visiting family, a math course, two retreats, and a lot of preparation for the upcoming school year, I planned to finish up my projects and enjoy two somewhat relaxing last weeks of summer before school kicked off in September. Catching my siblings’ cough (yes, it was 100% from them) was…

There’s a worship song called “Hosanna in the Highest”. No, it’s not by Hillsong. It’s more upbeat and a song I heard in Mandarin on the weekend. As I was singing along and glancing at the lyrics, the line “Be exalted, oh Lord my God” stood out to me. In Mandarin, it goes 被高举，哦主我神 （Bèi gāo jǔ, ó zhǔ wǒ shén） Now, my Mandarin is not amazing. I knew there were quite a few words/phrases to refer to God in…

Sometimes, the Lord gives us a difficult task. Be it a discipline, a project, or caring for a difficult person, it’s often easy to just give up. In Moses’s case, the task was to lead the Israelites to Canaan. Planning and executing a family trip is no piece of cake, but taking a family the population of a small town (at the very least) is overwhelmingly difficult. The Israelites gave up as soon as they got thirsty (and they weren’t…

When I read Song of Solomon (Song of Songs) this week, I didn’t know what to expect. Song of Solomon is a book usually avoided because of the explicit sexual references, but here I was, reading it for a group discussion. At first glance, it’s, for lack of a better word, eccentric. It’s oversaturated with metaphor and imagery, comparing the lover’s hair to goats, teeth to sheep, temples to pomegranates, neck to a tower, and I could go on and…

I was at a worship training this week, and our leader said something profound. She said, “The Bible says ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ How do we love others if we don’t love ourselves?” This reminded me of Sari’s testimony. I loved the part at the end where her therapist asked “Would you ever tell a little girl that their emotions are too much, that they’re annoying, that she’s not loved and that she doesn’t matter?” When Sari said no,…

I was reading John 21 the other day, and a passage from that stood out to me. At this point, Jesus had reinstated Peter after his denials of Him, given him a mission to feed His lambs, and told him what kind of death he would die. It’s pretty weighty stuff. To finish it off, Jesus said to Peter, “Follow Me.” 20 Then Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following, who also had leaned on His breast at the supper,…