Jesus Died For Me

Alpha Course - Friday 30th July 2010

This coming Friday is an important milestone for our Church FBC. We are launching the Alpha course to all our members as well as our guests. This far about 20 guests have been invited and we pray more will turn up. There is another list of potential guests, about 60 people in this list. Like what we were taught at the Alpha training, prayer is very important. This evangelistic meeting is not our effort, but the Holy Spirit. This idea just strike me when attending the training, and Nicky Gumbel presented it clearly that it is the Holy Spirit working in the people we invited, it is not our effort that counts. I was kind of worried about the logistics and other matters relating to the hosting of our very first Alpha course. In fact, some of our leaders shared similar views. Now, I can be assured that I need not worry, just let our Lord take it over. Yes, we will still be doing all the necessary arrangements, like the venue, registering guests, foods, multi-media etc. In fact, we event have back ups DVD players plus pcs to ensure we can play the DVD featuring Nick Gumble introducing the audience to the Alpha course!

We can make all the preparation, but it is the Holy Spirit who will work in everyone attending the course.

"Dear Lord, we come to commit the Alpha course to you. Lord it is your work, and we are only the instruments. Lord let your Holy Spirit work in everyone who attend. Even now Lord, may you visit and touch the hearts of those whom we have invited and those whom we are thinking to invite. Lord God, thank you for this opportunity to share the Good News with our relatives and friends, Amen".

Alpha Course - FBC Kuching

Our Church went through one and half day of refresher Alpha course on Friday night and Saturday. Many thanks to the Alpha Malaysia team led by Cynthia Wong. The other members were Guy, Siew Kee, Jack and Vicky. Kudip came for National camp Alpha.

After this round of training, I personally felt that it is much clearer what we are suppose to do. We had our role play too and that helped.

Today, Cynthia shared with the rest of the Church the meaning of Alpha and showed some video clips of testimonies of Churches in Peninsula that had conducted Alpha.

Dr. Tiong officially launched Alpha Course for FBC this morning. Starting Friday, our Church will conduct the first Alpha course for all our members as well as invited guests. All are welcome.

Video on You tube

Alpha Course for FBC

Last evening the National Alpha team came from KL to take our Church through an introduction to Alpha course. It was mainly for those Church members who did not attend the Alpha Conference held here early this year. Thirty members from our Church attended the Alpha conference. Quite a number of our Church members attended last evening session.

Today, the Alpha team is going through with us the whole course so that our Church is ready to launch Alpha. In fact, this Sunday, our Church will be officially launching Alpha course. Initially, all our Church members will go through this course so that we have the experience to conduct this course later.

It is all about God's work and not our work. Alpha is just a tool to evangelize. Many are looking forward to using this tool for a great harvest.

Financial Planning

Some of you may be wondering why I have not update this blog for the past few days, well I was away on business. Somehow, it seem to be a long while especially when I did so many things over the last few days. I was in KL with a colleague to attend the Investor Expo 2010. It was an interesting expo with many well known speakers delivering talks in their area of expertise. Of course in such expo, all the participants were talking about money. As a Christian, I personally feel that I have to balance between pursuing financial goals vs. godly goals. As you are aware, Jesus taught a fair bit about money management. From here we can judge the importance of money. However,we have to be careful not to make "finance" as an idol. Granted it is important to us, but we need to be discerning.

Starting Young

From the many sessions of seminar I attended, I realized the importance of teaching our younger generations the techniques of managing their money using financial planning tools. It is imperative to start young because once our children got the habits of managing their wealth well, they will be able to achieve financial freedom in the long run.

Financial Planning for everyone

Financial planning is NOT only meant for the rich because no matter how rich or poor a person is, he has to plan his finances. Everyone need some kind of plan, not only the rich people.

Christian Financial Planning

Those who are interested to know more about Christian financial planning, you can read books by Larry Burkett, an authority in Christian finance.

Crown Financial, website: www.crown.org

Priceless Salvation

Tycoon Sends Jet to Buy Durian

Many may find just staying alive in this difficult times a challenge. But not for some rich people, they fly from Macau to Singapore just to buy 88 durians! Yes, you read it correctly. A Kilogram of durian (King of fruits) cost RM38(about USD10).

For those who are not familiar with the king of fruit durian you can see a picture of this spiky fruit usually found in the tropics like Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, even southern China, island of Hainan.

Article below from "The Star",(Malaysian national newspaper).

Tycoon sends jet to S’pore for durian purchase
THE Musang King durian from Malaysia has proven to be so delicious that Stanley Ho, who is Macau’s Gambling King, sent his personal jet to pick up 88 durians from Singapore.
China Press reported that Ho bought about RM4,800 worth of the durian from the 818 Durian Stall in the island republic.
Ho then shared the king of fruits with his friend Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing by giving him 10 durians.
The daily reported that Ho’s worker wanted to buy 98 durians but only managed to get 88 as supply was low due to adverse weather.
In Singapore, the Musang King durian costs about RM38 per kilo, the daily reported.

Note: Top picture is Stanley Ho. Bottom is Li Ka Shing