Archbishop of S.E.A

The Anglican Church recently installed the first Sarawakian as their Archbishop of South East Asia. It must be a very proud moment for the Anglicans in Sarawak as their own people has risen to such a high position in the Anglican Church.

Datuk Bolly Lapok was installed at the St.Thomas Cathedral in Kuching.

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Purple Squirrel

God is not only mysterious He is also delightful and He created a purple squirrel!

A couple in Pennsylvania, US found a squirrel with purple coating on its body.

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What Good is God ?

This is also the title of the book written by popular writer Philip Yancey. It is a question many skeptics as well as Christians asked when faced with trials. Once Yancey was asked by a friend whose child died "What is God good for?". This has led him to search and traveled to many countries to find the answer. He discovered that faith in God makes a difference in the lives of many people. Despite the deep troubles and tribulations that people faced the Almighty God is there for everyone. Yancey himself discovered the mercy f God when he suffered a serious back injury when his four wheel drive rolled down a hillside. He was close to death but by God's mercy he recovered. In his book he described 10 stories he encountered in his travel and found that in each of these God was evidenced in the midst of difficulties.

For example in China a church leader named Yuan was jailed and assigned to hard labor. He was assigned to couple railroad cars carrying coal. The huge cars will bumped into each other with loud noise and he would jam a steel rod between the cars to connect them. Over the 17 years he must have joined million cars yet he never got hurt once!. He said "It was a miracle!"

Yes! Our God makes a difference in our lives!

Crystal Cathedral Sold

Finally the iconic Crystal Cathedral in California is being sold to the Catholic Church. This Church was foundered by Robert H.Schuller more than 5o years ago. He wrote a popular book called "Tough times never last, but tough people do". The message in this book encourages many to stay positive. Now he has to face his own music so to speak and it seems he is taking it positively. Schuller said "It is time for all believers not to focus on differences, but on respect and appreciation for our common goals," Today is not an ending; rather, it is a divine continuance of a beautiful, sacred campus that was dedicated to the greater glory of God." In a way it is a blessing that the church is taken over by another church and not a non religious organization. It will continue to be used as a church.

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Pastor Ben Wong from Shepherd Community Church

Pastor Ben Wong from Shepherd Community Church, Hong Kong has been coaching our church for the past two years. Thank God that he came along just as we faced a major problem in our church. Two years ago he came to visit one of our elders who was his university mate in Australia, and at that time we lost our pastor so this elder asked him to help our church.

This time he came and he gave an assessment of our church and from his observations our church has came a long way from two years ago. Our elders are indeed very appreciative of his coaching and guidance. At least we have an experienced pastor who has gone through a lot in discipling people to guide us. Not only that his ministry is world wide and he was able to share with us all his experiences. His availability is not a coincident but the work of our Almighty God. How are we to explain that in the time of our deepest needs an experienced pastor came into our midst? Now all three congregations, English, Chinese and Iban (Bahasa) church are on a firm footing after pastor Ben helped us to rebuild our foundation. In these two years we have raise two pastors from our congregations one from Chinese church and one from Iban church. Both their training in Taiwan and Indonesia respectively arranged by Pastor Ben. Now these new pastors are on fire for Jesus! Praise the Lord for these results!

Our Iban church is making very good progress. Two years ago there were 13 families worshiping in our church, now there are 43 families. Praise God! They have been organizing themselves and reaching out to the longhouses outside of Kuching city.

Our Chinese church is also looking forward to reach out to the Chinese communities in the nearby town. About 10 years ago work has been started and was abandoned but their recent visits found that the original believers are still there. Soon our Chinese members will continue their work there.

The English congregation is also more organized now with all the Life Groups (Cells) in place and various out reach like Alpha courses conducted last year. More mission activities will be carried out this year. We are still waiting to raise a pastor from our English congregation. We pray this objective will be met this year.

From Pastor Ben's perspective our church is doing well. We had came along way, and now we have to reach out to others especially the non believers.

We thank God for his love for our church, we also thank Pastor Ben for his help and we pray to our Lord for His guidance as we move forward always stay focus on Jesus in whatever we do.

Why Would God Allow Evil

This is a challenging question to many people and there is no simple answer to it. Atheists said since evil exist God does not exist, so they do not believe there is a God. Even famous academic like C.S Lewis had trouble with the question of evil earlier in his life until he investigated and decided to follow Jesus Christ. He said if there is no God, there is no such thing as evil. Apologist Mark Mittleberg said "Evil can only be known and measured against a standard of good. Apart from God and the morality that flows from Him there is no standard – and therefore no evil either," he explained. "But we know in our hearts – it's inescapable – that evil is real." Therefore, the standard comes from God.

Closely linked to the question of evil is the question of suffering. Why would God allow suffering? Again suffering is not from God, human is given the freedom to chose and most sufferings are man made.

Mark Mittleberg shared "7 points of light."

1. The world is as Jesus predicted - we have troubles in this world.

2. Evil was not caused or created by God - He created us with freedom to follow Him, we chose not.

3. Most causes of sufferings man made.

4. We live in a fallen world.

5. God will finally judge evil - He has given human time to repent before judgement.

6. God also suffered - Jesus came as human and suffered like us.

7. God can bring good out of bad - Roman 8:28

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Yao Ming Portrait in Red

A Malaysian lady who hails from the state of Sabah has painted the Chinese basketball superstar's portrait in red paint. Instead of paint brush she used a basket to paint this portrait. It has been uploaded onto You tube and now it has gone viral, 436,000 hits!

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