Easter - The Greatest Gift

Easter Sunday or Resurrection Sunday.  On Good Friday Christians celebrate the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross and that His blood was shaded for our sins, and come Sunday Jesus Christ rose from the death.  It was His Resurrection that is consider a great gift to mankind.  He died for all of us and He was risen for all of us.  He is risen! Hallelujah! He rose from death and conquered death once and for all for our sake so that we have eternal life. Those who call Him and receive Him as their Lord are given eternal life.  When we really think about it, how great and glorious that gift is!  He is Risen!  The tomb is empty!

The Easter Gift - IgniterMedia.com from ignitermedia on GodTube.

Effective Fervent Prayers - Julius Suubi

 http://www.highwayofholiness.co.ke/
Pastor Julius Suubi is no stranger to many Christians here in Kuching.  He has been here last year and many were touched by his heart for prayers.

This time his prayer sessions will be from 23rd March 2013 to 27th March 2013 at Good News Fellowship starting 730pm to 930pm.

I attended the 23rd March 2013 session.  It was very well attended.  There must be about 400 people in the sanctuary.  Christians came from different denominations, and I met some Catholic sisters there too.  This is not surprising because people of God have been hungry for God since about two years ago.  Christians realized the importance of gathering to worship and intercede especially for our country.  It is even more significant as this is the year of Jubilee for our country, beside the 13th General Election is just around the corner.  In the political, social, and economic fronts many things have happened not to the satisfaction of many and we pray for justice and fairness to prevail in this country.

Pastor Suubi and his ministry has been coming to Malaysia for the past few years to pray and intercede for Malaysia.  He has experienced the power of God upon his country, Uganda. ( He is now ministering in Highway of Holiness Ministry International, Kenya ).  Also the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in Kenya recently.  Kenya just had their election recently and Pastor Suubi said the vice president even prayed and called people to thank God for what He has done for them.  Similarly in Malaysia we are witnessing the increasing fervency in prayers in many churches especially to intercede for our country.  NECF is instrumental in organizing and educating many evangelical churches of the need of prayers to bring about positive changes in Malaysia.

We are honored to have Pastor Suubi here to pray for our nation and also to help us to understand prayers better.  His sessions are teaching and prayer sessions.  We thank God for Pastor Suubi.  May all of us continue to pray for our country Malaysia.  We want a just and equitable government which has the interest of its people.  We are against corrupted leaders who squandered the wealth of this country.

"Oh Lord thank you for Malaysia and thank you that you have brought prophets in our midst in this time of need.  As our nation go into the 13th General Election, may all eligible Christians arise to vote.  Oh God may righteous politicians be voted into the government.  Lord we commit this country to you.  In Jesus Most Precious Name I pray Amen."

Pope Francis 1 - A Friend of Evangelicals?

There are many reports recently that the new Pope is friendly with evangelicals.  Some even said he will "carry the banner" of all Christians despite the fact that he represents the Roman Catholic.

As Christians we just pray for unity among all denominations.  After all we are One Body in Christ.

New Roman Catholic Pope

The Roman Catholics have elected a new Pope.  He is Jorge Bergoglio from Argentina.  He is officially know as Pope Francis 1.

Certainly this is an historic event for the Roman Catholics all over the world and I believe evangelicals all over the world also wish him a blessed reign as the 266th Pope of the Roman Catholics.



Why would the new Pope use new name Francis 1 ?

Steve Green Concert at Trinity Methodist

 http://christianitymalaysia.com/wp/grace-steve-greens-concert-kuching/
On 6th March, 2013 reknown Gospel singer from the US Steve Green gave a heart warming concert at Trinithy Methodist Church, Kuching.  All in 1300 people attended this very first Steve Green concert in Kuching.  It was indeed a blessing for the Christians in Kuching because Steve was taken ill for a couple of days prior to his performance.  Before the concert the Christian community in Kuching prayed for his speedy recovery.  During the concert, he shared that if his voice quit on him that was that.  But by God's grace he continued to sing to us.  I am touched by his humility, despite his condition he continued to sing.  At a few instances in the process of singing, his voice broke and he could not carry the songs, but praise God that his brother was there to back him up, he continued singing!  Unlike conventional concert, the audience may not accept such hiccups, but in this Christian concert it was different.  Steve was humble to acknowledge his human weakness and the audience accepted that like brothers and sisters in Christ.  He engaged with the crowd and requesting the audience to join him in singing "Amazing Grace".  The other humbling experience was that Steve and his team came to Kuching by the leading of the Lord, and they were self financed. In order to help his ministry worldwide, a love gift collection was made.  I believe the audience gave generously.  This concert was indeed God's gift to the Christians in Kuching.

You can read more at the link above.

Salt and Light Seminar

The Salt and Light - Leading Change seminar was held in Kuching from 1st to 2nd March 2013 at Hope Church, Kuching.  It was jointly organized by Hope Church and Kuching Ministers Fellowship (KMF).  Most of the speakers were from Eagles Communication, Singapore. (EC). EC is a non profit organization foundered by Peter Chao in 1968.

The main theme of the seminar was leading change in this uncertain world.  It was to equip Christian leaders in leading change, managing the changes, how to avoid pitfalls, and also how to avoid burnout in this fast changing environment.

Beside the speakers from EC, Senior Pastor  Dr.Chew Weng Chee from SIB KL also spoke.  Peter spoke on "You Can Make A Difference", Lawrence Leong on "Leading with Courage", Michael Tan on "Leading with Passion", Senior Pastor Dr.Chew spoke on "Leading with Integrity", Dr.John Ng on "The Future of Leadership".  Beside these plenary sessions which were basically lectures on the subject mentioned there were workshops on these subjects.  Each participant can only attend one session which the participant chose prior to the registration.  All the speakers were professionals with many years of experiences in delivering the subject matters, as well as their passion for Jesus Christ in their work.  The founder Peter Chao together with co-founders Michael Tan and Dr.John Ng had been friends for more than 45 years already, and from the jokes they spoke about each other we can see how close they have been working with each other at EC.  Their passion for Christ and the Gospel were evidenced in their lectures and their relations with other people. All the speakers were jokers and they made the seminar lively and enjoyable.  The most entertaining joker was Michael Tan.  He joked that he and Peter were endangered specie as they were getting bald like bald eagles!  Both of them were really bald and they came from EC hence the joke.

 As each participant was allowed to attend only one workshop, I chose the workshop "Burnt Out and Recovery" by Senior Pastor Chew Weng Chee.  We were taught what burnout is, what are the symptoms and how these problems can be prevented.  Burnt out means it is the end, like a rubber band that was over stretched and cannot be use any more.  He related a real story of one of his church's cell leader, a medical doctor who was a zone leader leading several cells.  One day he received a call from this doctor's wife to go to her house because her husband just could not get out of bed and he stared blankly onto the ceiling.  This happened all of a sudden and all of them were very puzzled as to why this happened to him.  Later medical tests founded that he did not have any physical problems which meant that it was most likely psychological.  Pastor Chew and his team often go to pray for this doctor.  He stayed in bed for 2 years, beside attending to his personal hygiene he never got out of the house.  He only got out of his house for walks in the park on the third year of his illness.  This problem can happen to any one.  A young lady student who is studying at London School of Economics shared her experiences of symptoms of burn out while studying at her university.

On the second day of the seminar we had a treat from Pastor Lim Gee Tiong.  Pastor Lim is a well know Gospel singer who sing in Mandarin.  He has recorded more than 10 Mandarin Gospel albums since he started more than 17 years ago.  He performed two songs, his famous Hokkien song "Hold My Hands" in Bahasa Malaysia as he has many Indonesian fans, and also a meaningful song called, "Station".

This was useful seminar as participants get to learn how to handle changes in the Christian settings, as well as learning tips on how not to be burnt out in your work, either in the secular or Christian setting.  Besides, we get to hear from international speakers here in Kuching.  Hard to come by opportunity!

All glory to God for enriching us in His work, and the grace to carry out His Gospel in more effective ways.

Salt and Light Seminar - slideshows

Pastor G T Lim's "Station" go to this link as embed is disabled :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3gSl-DwlYQ