Joanne Ng Evangelistic Outreach

 http://www.tabernaclemusic.net/index.cfm?menuid=279&parentid=17
On 13th Oct 2013 our church had the previlege to host Gospel singer/song writer for an evangelistic outreach to the people in Kuching.  It was organized by our Mandarin church for the purpose of evangelising to the losts.

The testimony of Sis Joanne was very powerful as she came from a Chinese family back ground that was familiar to many of us.  Her mother was a temple medium and she was brought up staying at the temple.  Her mother would go into trance in worship to her gods, many times multilating herself in the act of seeking favours on behalf of devotees.  Joanne often cried because she did not like what her mother was doing.  She felt that her mother had a hard life serving her gods.  While she was about 11 her friends introduced her to Jesus.  She learnt from her friends and eventually at 13 years old she accepted the Lord!  After that she felt much peace and she could sleep well.  Her mother despiced her for accepting a "foreign God".  That was how many Chinese non believers understood about God. Through Joanne's prayers and worship her mother slowly changed and accepted her as a Christian. One day she took her mother to church, and her mother felt peace and wanted to become a Christian.  When the pastor gave an altar call, she went forward and accepted Jesus as her Savior.  However, after she got home she still worship her gods.  Joanne rebuked her for doing so, but her mother said she was afraid that her gods will come after her that was why she worshipped them.  Eventually, with prayers and help of Joanne's pastor all idols were removed from her house.  She accepted Jesus as her personal Savior and felt much peace.  Her dad only came to the Lord in his old age of about 73 years old.  At that time he was suffering from cancer and had to take morphine prescribed by the doctor.  Before he came to the Lord, God showed him the beauty of heaven, with many beautiful flowers, nice buildings, and pleasant environment. He yold Joanne he was ready to be a Christian and requested for a priest to baptise him.  He wanted a priest and not a pastor, and that was arranged.  He was baptised accordingly.  That night he had the most restful sleep, and he slept until 10 am the next day which he never did before! Praise God!

We thank God for such an inspiring testimony.  Sis Joanne made her session interesting because as she shared and she interceded with her Gospel songs in Hokkien and Mandarin.  She wrote all her Hokkien songs.  The amazing fact is that she could not read or write Mandarin yet she could write Mandarin Gospel songs. This is also a testimony of a great God we worship!

At the end of the meeting, Sis Joanne made an altar call as well as praying for those in need.  Many people came forward and the most encouarging thing was that five people accepted the Lord that evening.  Praise and thank God!  Hallelujah!  All glory to God!

To read more about Joanne go to the link above.

Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering by Timothy Keller

Pastor Timothy Keller recently launched his new book, "Walking with God through pain and suffering" and here is a short video of his comments on these subjects.

What he says is true we cannot escape suffering and pain in this life but we can be prepared.  As Christians we can be better prepared as we have the teaching from the Bible to help us.



Here is another interesting video about God, pain and suffering.  Many people argued that if there is a God evil should not exist.  Then again.. watch this video for the answer.

Teaching of Giancarlo and Catherine Elia

This morning our Church had the privilege to host Giancarlo and Catherine Elia from the United Kingdom.  They had preached in our Church before.  Giancarlo is a former lawyer who praticeed law fro about 27 years before leaving his profession to minister to varous churches worldwide.  Catherine worked in different industries in North America, Europe and China.

The broad messages of both are God's love, God's presence and evangelism.  Catherine shared that people our there are crying for God and many do not know Him.  We as Christians, having God in us are to reach out to them in love.  Many other religions recated with anger against those who do not believe what they do, but for us we reach out in love.  She shared how she approached people in public places and how she prayed for them. Many accept her offers.

Giancarlo shared Zephaniah 3:17 "The Lord God is with you, and He is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing”. God is with us and in us.  We are to reach out in love for the lost.  We have power because of the Holy Spirit that is in us.  In John 16:7 Jesus said He had to leave otherwise the Counselor cannot come.  Once He leaves for the Father, the Holy Spirit came to indwell in us.  

The Gospel may be foolish to the world, but to us it is power.  We are to share the Good News with others.  Many out there are lost and they do not know what to do.  In what ever professions we are in, reach out to others in love.  It is God's command for us to share the Good News with others.

After both of their sharing, there was a time of prayers and ministering to the congregation.  Many went to the front of the sanctuary to be prayed for by Giancarlo and Catherine.  Many of them were "slained" by the Holy Spirit.  It had been a wonderful work of the Holy Spirit and many were ministered in our congregation.

Praise God and thank Him for Giancarlo and Catherine Elia.

 

Giancarlo & Catherine Elia - slideshow

Fellowship of Evangelical Students (FES)

On Saturday 21st Sept 2013, FES Sarawak celebrated their 10th anniversary at FBC, Kuching.  FES started in the Peninsula in 1962 but it came to Sarawak only in 2002.  The General Secretary shared that earlier on it was not condusive to come but by 2002 many colleges and unversity had mushroomed in Sarawak, and working with Scripture Union, FES came to Sarawak.

Today there are about 750 higher learning institutions in Malaysia.  FES are in 80 of them nationwide.  The challenge is manpower to reach these universities.  FES is in need of Christians to serve in reaching out to the students.  From their experience they found this Christian foundation while students are in colleges most effective.  Many students who came through FES in varsities remain committed Christians through out their lives.

Sarawak has only 3 full time workers and they could only reach 20 institutions.  There are alot more ground to cover.  Our church elders Dr.Tiong and Dr. Chung are the Sarawak committe members, and they are in the forefront of students work here.

The 10th anniversary was well attended by all the top committee members from Peninsula and locally.  There were about 400 people attending and our churh sanctiary was full.  The evening programs included worship singing and some skips from the stidents from Miri, Bintulu, Sibu and Kuching.

Our church helped by providing the venue as well as the manpower to serve foods to the students and visitors.

All in all a very succesful evening.  Praise the Lord!

FES - slideshows

Visit To Hell

 http://christianitymalaysia.com/wp/trip-hell-crusade-philip-mantofa/
There have been many testimonies of hell and the Bible also talks about it and it is really real.  People who are atheists have also experience going to hell.  The testimony of Pastor Philip Mantofa which he shared with FGA, Kuala Lumpur recently is very powerful and at the same time very scary.  You can read the details at the link above.

Julius Suubi at Blessed Church

http://christianitymalaysia.com/wp/prayer-school-ps-julius-suubi/
Pastor Julius Suubi is from Kenya although he is an Ugandan.  His church is called Highway of Holiness International Ministry based in Kenya.  This is not the first time he is in Kuching, he came here last year.  His last visit made an impact in Kuching especially in his prayer ministry.  His main teaching is about prayers and how all Christians can connect with God with prayers.  This time round, he emphasized on corporate prayers for our country.  This year is significant for Malaysia because it is the year of Jubilee.

Pastor G T Lim of Blessed Church led worship which ushered people to experience the presence of God during the service.  Pastor Lim is an experienced worship leader/recording artist and performer so the people really got into the worship "mode" during the service.

Pastor Julius taught about prayers and he refered to verses in the Bible to support his teaching. (Read more details in the link above written by professional journalist ).

After his sharing and teaching he led the congregation into praying in tongues. This must have lasted more than half and hour.  During this prayer I could feel in presence of the Lord.  The atmosphere was really charged with fervent prayers by those presence.

It was a wonderful and blessed prayer service.  Prayers in corporate setting is also important to the church beside personal prayers.  According to Pastor Julius these prayers have tremendous power.

Thank Pastor Julius Suubi for coming here to help us. Thank Pastor G T Lim for allowing this service to be held in his church.

Julius Suubi at Blessed Church - slideshows

Pilgrimage to Holyland 8 - Prayers

Prayer is very important to us Christians because it is like blood in our bodies.  How can we survive if we do not have blood in us?  Therefore, one of the aims of our pilgrimage to the Holy Land was pray and worship.  Infact, during our visit to the Holy land everyday we prayed.  In the morning before we start our journey, we prayed in the bus.  Everyday at the end of the day we shared a devotion in the hotel we stayed.  Each pilgrim was assigned a day to lead the devotion and pray.  During this time, we also shared our experiences and what God had taught us during our visits for that day.

Answered Prayers

I remebered clearly the answer to one of our brothers who was baptiz
ed in the river Jordan.  He was scared of cold weather.  Therefore everyday he prayed that when he gets baptize in river Jordan, the weather will be warm. He was supposed to be baptized on a cold day, but thanks to God it was postponed by the tour guide.  On the day he was baptized, it was the hottest day we experienced while in Israel!  In fact it was unbearably hot around 40 degrees centigrade!  Hallelujah!  God answered his prayers!

Every holy places we went people were praying and some prayed very fervently.  I took a picture of a man wearing a usual cap instead of the skull cap praying very fervently devoting all his prayers to God on the Western Wall in Jerusalem. (See this picture on this page).  Many of us were praying with all our hearts during our visits to various sites.

God commanded us to pray unceasingly, 1 Thessolonians 5:17.  Of course there are many verses about prayers.  The challenge to us is to pray unceasingly everyday.