USD11 Million Given Away

Recently an elderly Nova Scotia couple Allen and Violet Large gave away 98% of their USD11 million lottery winnings to charities, hospital, churches etc ! Our national newspaper Star's editor Soo Ewe Jin ( he is a Christian) wrote about this story and relate in to contentment. These couple is really an example for all Christians to be content in whatever circumstances we are in. They are selfless in their giving and they are not missing anything even after giving away so much money.

Violet said “What you’ve never had, you never miss,” Allen said “That money that we won was nothing,”,“We have each other.”

What a wonderful and touching statements from this couple. Essentially, Allen did not care about the money but he value his relationship with his wife. The Bible is also teaching us that relationship is more important than riches.

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Matthew 6:19-21

6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.

1 Timothy 6:6

Note: To read full story by Soo Ewe Jin click on the title of this post

Fellowship of Evangelical Students

On Sunday our church invited guests from Fellowship Evangelical Students (FES)to share with us what they are doing. The Local leader is Peter Paris, and his two assistants Reynold, and Janice.

FES started about 42 years ago in Peninsula and they have been in Sarawak for the past 7 years. Their main aim is basically to reach out to the students in the Universities and colleges through out Sarawak. Just Kuching city has about 36 universities and colleges. Many of the students are from rural areas and they need to be guided, and FES role is to help these students. Many of these students said they are Christians but they do not much about Christianity. They are nominal Christians. FES engaged them to be real Christians. FES task is uphill battle, because they have only three people to cover whole of Sarawak.

Our elder Dr. Tiong is helping out by providing FES with an office. He is also an adviser to the Regional office here. Other members are helping out by giving donations. FES is organizing a Camp in Peninsula and are flying students there, our members donated to enable some of these students to join the camp.

Peter Paris urged the church to help out especially in prayers for their work through out Sarawak.

Note: click on the title of this post to go to FES website

Alpha Course Follow Up

After our Church successfully completed the Alpha Classic about two weeks ago, we started Alpha follow up course yesterday evening. Again it was encouraging as about 130 members including guests turned up. We followed the same format at Alpha Classic, that was starting with a meal, worship, follow by watching Nicky Gumbel DVD and discussion of what we had watched. This time around, the groupings were confined to Life Groups. Members of each Life Group(LG) sat in a group plus those guests who had been invited by our LG members to attend Alpha Classic.

This follow up has 9 sessions, 1)New Heart 2)New Purpose 3)New Attitude 4)New Responsibilities 5)New Friendships 6)New Confidence 7)New Ambitions 8)New Resources 9)New Generosity.

By popular requests from our members, this Alpha follow will continue for two weeks and we break a week for LG to gather at their respective homes for fellowship and bonding. Many felt that they missed the bonding after about 10 weeks or so of Alpha Classic sessions. This two weeks on and one week off pattern will be followed until we finish this course.

Praise God that many find this follow up meaningful and useful ! We observed new believers (our guests) are opening up in the discussion groups.

The World's Largest Jesus Statue

A small town on Poland erected the largest Jesus statue.

"The Rev. Sylwester Zawadzki, a 78-year-old retired Polish priest, led the $1.45 million project in Swiebodzin over the last two years. It was funded by donations from local business people and other residents who wanted to make a contribution to the church and also create a tourist draw to bring money into their community."

To read complete story please click on the title of this post.

Christian Decline Stall

Christian decline in the UK has stalled according to a research group called Christian Research in Britain.

Church of England attendance since 2001 is about 1.2 million, Catholic Church attendance since 2005 steadied at 900,000 and Baptist Union showed slight increase to 154,000.

The slight improvement seem to attributed to non traditional churches like cafechurch, coffeehouse network, Fresh Expression church. Alpha course started by Anglican Church Brampton has attracted about 1.5 million in the U.K.

Overall, this is good news for Britain in terms of people coming to the Christian faith.

In Malaysia, we are facing an up hill battle to improve the numbers of believers because of efforts by other religions encroaching on Christian traditional strong grounds like East Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah.( Located on the island of Borneo) According to available information about 20% of the population of Sabah is Christian, declined from around 40%, whereas Sarawak is holding at 40% of the population. There are certainly plenty of work for all Christians in Malaysia to save lost souls. Of late many Christian organizations, as well as churches are putting in efforts to arrest the decline of Christians in this country. Many churches are praying and we appeal to other Christians around the world to pray for us.

We are called to make disciples of nations. In a small way a number of Malaysian churches are embarking on Alpha course to win souls for Christ. We believe nothing is impossible for our God. Have faith and press in!

Note:
To read the full article about the UK Christian situation please click on the title of this post.

An Inspiring Testimony

Note: To read the full story as reported by blogpastor, click on the title of this post)

An inspiring true story of how a non believer being shown hell and heaven. He did not know the "bright figure" who told him to go back to where he came from, until two decades later when he received Jesus as his saviour.

Chuang Kwang Lian received the Lord at FGA where I used to worship when I was working in Kuala Lumpur.

......"For he is good, for his steadfast love endures for ever," 2 Chronicles 5:13

How Great Is Our God

Let this song be your worship to our Great God today!