Some updates from the weekend

Badminton
Congratulations to Hwai En Methodist Church (Team A) for winning last night, dethroning defending champion Mei Ann (Team A) in the deciding set thriller! My prediction that my church could reach the final was wrong. We lost in the semi-final and the subsequent 3rd placing round to better teams. Congratulations to Mei Ann (Team B) too.

Sign Language class at SMCGC
The Sign Language class had a great start! There were 30 sign-ups, exceeding our expectations. Roseline welcomed the new intake and also introduced Victor the instructor.
Pastor Connie opened the session with an opening prayer. At the end of the two-hour class, every student learned quite a fair bit including their own names in sign language!

Baptism and confirmation
My cell group member Kristy was among the three persons baptized last night - praise the Lord. Following that, her husband Victor was confirmed as a member of my church together with five others. Roseline was present also to help out to sign to Victor and Kristy as Rev Law Hui Seng read out the rites and affirmation.

Lesson 1

Can we know God? What is He like? Who is He? These were the first questions put to us as we commenced "Understanding Christian Beliefs" in lesson one for my new cell last night. Since my group consists mainly of "infants", we have unanimously agreed to start with "milk powder", i.e. with the Navigation series which would provide us with a firm foundation in bible studies.

First we learned from Isaiah 45:5-6,
"I am the LORD; there is no other god. I will give you the strength you need, although you do not know me. I do this so that everyone from the end of the world to the other may know that I am the LORD and there is no other god."

We were greatly encouraged when our shepherd Rev Law Hui Seng dropped by to welcome the new flock. Our group is blessedly unique; there are four members who are hearing-impaired, five who are pre-Christians and all who are thirsty for His Word!
Time seemed to pass too quickly when everyone had a good time. Our facilitator Sister Mui Foon did a fabulous job; her clear and crisp instructions encouraged much interaction and interesting discussion.

Thank and praise God for His Grace was upon us last night. The walk has begun!

So busy

With my church's 40 DOP kickoff event only eight days away, I now feel that I have still much to do with little time left. Am I stressed or what? For starters, I've only achieved about 50% of my personal target of participants recruitment sign-ups! Hmm...

High gear happenings during the past two days! On Wednesday morning I accompanied my Pastor to do "Our Father's Business" for the 40 DOP. "Two is good when doing God's work," Pastor gently reminded. We met up with four friends (two were Pastor's school mates); one signed up on the spot, and the other three asked for more time - still it was encouraging results. Need to follow-up with them next Monday. I also called up a new church member and invited him to join - he agreed to sign-up after hearing how beneficial the 40DOP would be! That's not the end of the story yet - my wife returned from Sibu that evening and she passed me a 40 DOP shirt from my friend who worships at Wesley MC.
I think I'm the first guy in Miri to own it and I really appreciate my friend who gave it to me.

Yesterday I received visitors from Brunei and that meant half-a-day was gone. But in the morning I managed to get two more sign-ups with my first phone call of the day!

The Special Events team is meeting tonight at my home to finalize all details for June 28. The momentum is now unstoppable!

Visitation

The last paragraph of page 143 in my Discipleship class study manual requires the participants to do a special assignment.

Photo credit: James Wong

It states: "Because the commands are clear in Matthew 25, make one visit during the week to one of the following places or persons ... Don't do all the talking; be there to listen ... Go to a situation you have never been before ... Tell your group members next week about your experience and what you learned about yourself."

Rev Law Hui Seng was facilitating my class yesterday when he suggested a visitation to a cancer patient he baptized last month.


We agreed to go this morning as today is a public holiday. The good shepherd was seated in the front passenger seat in our church van with Soh Pei as the driver.

The destination was Tudan, outskirts of Miri. It wasn't easy to find the address had it not been for Soh Pei's help. It was my first trip and I wasn't aware that there were so many houses and artery roads in that area. Yes, it's easy to get lost there especially driving at night.


Taking a group photo upon arrival.


To the house.


We also brought along some food provisions as encouraged by Rev Law earlier.


Our brother-in-Christ was bed-ridden. The signs were not so encouraging either. Rev Law noticed and remarked that Linteng's condition had deteriorated since the last visitation.


But I found strength in the faith of Linteng's wife. Despite of her present circumstances, Selia showed warmth and hospitality in her words and deeds. She also told us that she found much comfort in our Lord now Linteng was baptized.

All of us prayed for the family before we left.

Tonight I will share the tale of my visitation with my family over dinner and then write an email to thank Pastor for today's lesson.


We also stopped by to view the piece of land which Tudan Methodist Church will be built. This church is close to our hearts because it was planted by GMC.


After the visitation I went to Mei Ann Centre where Roseline was attending her Boys' Brigade 2-day E.O.T.C. I managed to take a group photo of them, with the three facilitators seated.

On my way out, I noticed the impressive 40DOP buntings and poster at the church foyer. Later I was even more impressed to find that Mei Ann Church was targeting 1000 participants from their strong congregation of 600 members.

All glory to God!

[Edit 21.05.08] Received news from Rev Law this morning that Linteng was called to the Lord last night around 8:00pm.