Making a difference in Malaysia

On the 12^th of October, a group of us from IMU set off to Peaceheaven for the first ever Professionals of Tomorrow (POTs) conference. I guess for me, the major attraction POTs held for me were the exposition talks on the book of Nehemiah (and moreover by Bishop Hwa Yung at that).

It was definitely the most memorable camp I’ve ever gone for, because for the first time, it wasn’t just a time of fellowship and sermons, we were also confronted with very real issues and challenges of being a future professional in Malaysia .

What lingered on my mind was the issue of missing Christian voices in Malaysia, as evidenced by the report that the majority of citizens who emigrate are Christians, also of the fifty years of Islamization and how we’re being increasingly pushed aside, and the fact that government service is shunned by most Christians (And yet, it is in the government sector that our voices are needed the most). They are all very hard truths. Not forgetting the issue of missing grace, where love is lacking in race relations in Malaysia , when we know that Jesus came for them too, just as He came for you and me.

Many questions abound: Will we write off the situation here in Malaysia as being hopeless and pack our bags and leave? (Many would say it’s the sensible thing to do) Will we keep on being silent, when we see injustice and inequality? Will we shun government service, because we’ll so obviously be discriminated against (and what more the low pay)? Will we choose to be absent, or present in restoration in Malaysia ? Never before had I realized the gravity of the need for Christian presence in Malaysia . If there’s one thing to be taken home from POTs, it’s that one thing – that God has placed us in Malaysia for a reason.

I remember vividly singing Negaraku in POTs, and also the contrast with how I sang Negaraku in secondary school. A song that never used to make any sense (land where my blood is spilt??) suddenly made total sense to me.

My country, land where my blood was spilt,
The people live united and in progress,
Blessings of happiness God grants,
Our King reigns in peace.
Blessings of happiness God grants,
Our King reigns in peace.

Yes, I believe that one day it will be the blood of Christians (because I believe revival=persecution ) and I do want to see my King (Jesus) reign in the hearts of all people. Well, perhaps I will not be the one to spill my blood, but by the sweat of my brow I’ll choose to be present in restoration, to claim this land and its people for my King.

Are we facing a task that seems too big? Learning from Nehemiah, our God is BIGGER still. We need a fresh understanding of His GREATNESS. Also, we must learn to fight our battles incrementally, not always looking for quick fixes and giving up when we don’t see things coming to pass. Will Malaysia be changed in a day? No, but it would not happen at all, if not for certain individuals who chose to make a difference in Malaysia, and still continue making a difference, no matter how small, till this very day.

With that said, coming back from the conference, I took back with me more than just the heart of Nehemiah. I took back the hearts of Christian professionals who went before us, men and women who had ran the good race and fought the good fight. Can you hear the call to join them? I do.

Linda Chew @ Melbourne, ex-ALM4

Who Is A Good Leader?

Candidate A

Name: Sandra
She’s a international student in Yale University from Maldives and she holds position in the Model United Nations as well as the Honors Chemistry Society. She describes herself as a hardworking person and never sleeps until she gets things done. She is known among her friends as the Alpha Female because of her intelligence and her all-roundedness. She has a strong sense of justice, which is explained by her upbringing as a child to a police officer. However, she also admits that it is sometimes hard for her to identify with others who are not like her. She also mentions how she lacks in people-skills because she sometimes find it hard to engage friendly talks with people who are not similar to her.

Candidate B

Name: Ben
Ben is a very outgoing guy. He is the guy whom everyone wants to be friend with. He always has a way with people and to make people laugh. People also generally go to him when they have problems. Even though he will normally approach these people with lots of jokes, he doesn’t exactly provide much constructive criticism and advices to his friends. He is quick in his thinking, doesn’t engage long in a thought, and proceeds with things rapidly. He is also strong physically and he had won 2 intramurals championships in swimming for the past 2 years of his college life. He is going to graduate with a bachelor’s degree from a California State University with double major in Computer Science and Social Science. His ultimate goal in life is to be a successful programmer in a secular organizations and spending his leisure time doing some charity works.

Candidate C

Name: Kylara
Kylara is a graduate student in University of Minnesota. She graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison with a bachelor degree in Public Policy. She is a bookworm and she is constantly seen with a book in her hand. She likes to hang out with people who share the same interest as she does. She is always seen in the library and she considers herself to be a quite introvert person. However, she is good at solving math problems and thus, people always come to her in the library and ask for help with their problem sets. She is involved in the Student Government as a treasurer because she prefers to work alone and to deal with the money instead of having to talk a lot. She is actively engaged in the online community, having served at some forums and other online communities. She doesn’t talk much but when she does talk, her words matter and count.

Candidate D

Name: Adam
Adam is a very independent guy. He graduated from Dartmouth College with a degree in mathematics. Adam is a multi-talented guy with wide range of interest. He was a member of the Wind Esemble Team in Dartmouth; he is also the editor for the school magazine. Apart from that, he becomes a Resident Assistant to his House and has engaged in various non-profit charity works before. He is a Caucasian with a strong “Southern” background to himself. He, however claims to not be racist in any sense and that he is friends to everyone without discriminating their color and creed. He is generally a like-able person and people seem to get along well with him. He claims that his main weakness is the inability to cope with excess pressure. That is one of the reasons he gets involved in music: to release some stress.

Candidate E

Name: John
John is a social worker in World Vision headquarter in New York. He does not have any college degrees and he stops schooling since he was 14. He had to help support his family by working part-time as a restaurant waiter and as a bartender at night. He joins World Vision because he understands that there are a lot of people who are probably more unfortunate that he is and thus, he wants to help them. His effort however doesn’t bring much consistent income to his family and because of that, his family are constantly relying on government’s money to survive on a monthly basis. He does think about going back to college “to get some papers” but he is not sure when he will have enough money to do so.

So, we have 5 person and imagine that they land on an island with no possibility of being saved by any planes whatsoever. Who will you elect as the leader of this group? Why?

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Perhaps by now, you are scrolling up and down and compare the strength/weakness of each candidates. Perhaps you already have a candidate at the back of your mind. Who is it going to be? The math major? The illiterate social worker? Or the Alpha Female?

Whichever your choice is, you must have thought it through rationally and you must have weighed his/her strengths/weaknesses against other candidates.

All right.
To find the answer to this question, let’s look at the scripture.

Luke 5

The Calling of the First Disciples

1One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret,^[a]with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, 2he saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down^[b] the nets for a catch.”

5Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”

6When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

8When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” 9For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, 10and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners.

Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will catch men.” 11So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

—

In the scriptures, Simon was trying to catch some fish all night long but to no avail. When Jesus came and told him to put down his net into the deep water, he obeyed because he had tried everything else and nothing worked. His faith landed him with a heavy caught so heavy that he needed two boats and both boats began to sink. After that, he was so shameful to face Jesus but Jesus reassured him and made him the fisher of men.

The moral of the story?
Peter is faithful to Jesus (by obeying His command to let the net down to the deep water)
Peter is available to Jesus (He was there in the water)
Peter is teachable. (he becomes the fisher of men after Jesus told him to not be afraid)

The point of me going through all these things is to highlight one thing. Jesus doesn’t see how many As you have. He doesn’t see if you are an introvert or an extrovert. A good leader, like Peter, should just be faithful, available, and teachable.

We, as human being, are always quick to notice out people’s weakness. That’s what the exercise above was all about. You might have said, “Hmm… Sandra doesn’t seem like a good leader because ….” We only fix out eyes on people’s fault but God just wants someone who is faithful, available, and teachable.

The real thing is that, all the candidates above can be good leaders if we give them a chance. It is us, people who love to judge others by their strength and weakness, that complicates things.

I’ll ask again, who is a good leader? Still having a preference to a certain candidate or have you come to accept that these people are good leaders if they are F.A.T. ?

In His service,
Leen

Which Type of Leader Are You?

So I went to this church conference/convention/retreat called Winterfest. Winter + Festivel = Winterfest I suppose??

Anyway, I learned a lot and I think that best way for me to remember them is to jot them down before I forget about them. So here it is.

Emerging Leadership.

Which kind of leader are you?

Type 1 : Red Bull leader
This type of leader drinks Red Bull everyday. One Red Bull is enough to keep you going for one day, maybe two for some who are extra-sensitive to glucose and caffeine. Once the high/strength/stamina wears off, he goes and get another drink and move on. This type of leader has finite amount of energy and stamina in him.

For instance, leader A has 1000 calories from one Red Bull and he decides to pour out 300 calories to one brother, another 300 to another sister, and another 300 to another friend of his. Ooops, now he only has 100 calories of energy left in him. That lack of energy is going to drive him crazy and hungry for more. So he goes and take more Red Bull and this vicious cycle never ends. Besides, when he gives to people, he will be like, “Hey, I only have 1000 calories in me and I’m giving you 1/3 of them. Treasure them well.” Wait?! He gets the energy from the Red Bull; it is not even his own energy.

To tie it to present day leadership, this is the type of leader that goes to church every week in order to get refreshed. He then uses up all his spiritual energy during the weekdays and go back and be filled again. He is not going to feel full ever because he has to use them all the time. Not only that, a side effect might emerge from this bad habit; that is he might feel that he doesn’t even receive enough from God to share anything with anyone.

Not only that, a Red Bull leader will incline to leading his people to himself instead of leading them to Christ. So we have this never-going-to-be-pleased leader who is constantly trying to uphold his own position desperately by trying to point people to him and not God.

This is not a good example of a leader.

Here’s another type of leader that we should consider.
Type B: Overflow Leader

This type of leader goes to a fountain and drink as much water as he can. He drinks so much that he cannot contain it anymore. So he uses his water bottle/canteen/tumbler/Tupperware/whatever you call it and fill up all the bottles and distribute them to other people. In return, other people feel refreshed and he feels refreshed too. He can never get enough of his resources because the water is always overflowing in the fountain and his subordinates never feel thirsty too because they in return, benefit from the fountain as well. Eventually, the leader, being a good leader, points the people to the fountain because obviously, that’s the source of the energy. The leader will not keep pointing that he is the source of the water because after a while, he will want people to get to the source of the water and drink from the fountain themselves, instead of him having to fill up their water bottles every single time. By leading them to the fountain, he does himself a great deal of help and he does the people a great deal of help too. He releases some of the pressure of his shoulder, he leads people to the original source of water, and he let people enjoy the overflowing water that he has been enjoying all this while.

I’m pretty sure that you have a good idea of what this story means. A good leader should be the one who is constantly renewed in God, constantly having a relationship with God, having revelations from God, that everything overflows. The God in him just shines through and people get drawn to him automatically. Then he will have this abundance of spiritual experiences to share, lessons to teach, and so on. Not only that, he will ultimately lead the people to Christ and lead the followers to be leaders themselves too.

Now that’s a good leader.

Should We Break Our Bonds?

I’m posting this on behalf of our beloved Keropok Lekor.

“Without appearing dogmatic, I feel that christian JPA scholars should not break their bond with the Public Service Department aka the Government aka the People.

It is because honourable people honour their agreements.

As Christians, we reflect Godly values. Our God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is a God of faithfulness who never breaks His covenant with His people. The basis of the Christian faith is a relationship between men and God, based on trust in what He has promised through Jesus Christ forever.

Our agreement with the nation thus should be regarded as a sacred agreement between us and the people, and should be honoured at all costs. Failure to do so especially due to selfish reasons is a shameful act that does not reflect godliness. However I am aware that there are instances where situations do not allow one to fulfill one’s obligation, but that should not be the norm.

While honouring the agreement means that we may have to forgo better career or educational prospects in the future, it is a reasonable price to pay for what we have chosen at the first place. Jesus said that one should count the cost before committing to anything (Luke 14:28). Jesus also said that we should let our yes be yes and no be no (Matt 5:37).

Committing ourselves in a public funded scholarship-bond (regardless of whether we can afford to repay) is more than just a financial assistance or prestige thingy.

It is a commitment to honour the aspiration of the scholarship giver and the whole nation, and the recipients should not only be accountable to the funder, but ultimately the Supreme Giver of all blessings.

Quoting our beloved JPA officers, “Kalau tak balik Malaysia dan bayar balik, tak berkat hidup meskipun sekaya mana sekalipun”

Next CA: Heavenly Chatroom

Just a reminder…… the next CA will be held on the 28th February. We will also be celebrating World Student’s Week.. For those who are having exam this week, be well prepared and may God grant us wisdom and knowledge for these tests ;> so, see you there……

A reminder from our dear Brian

Dear fellow brothers and sisters,

It’s sad that I can’t be with you guys tonight in this wonderful service. But I just want to give you guys a short message of encouragement. The Lord has been gracious to me. So far, I’m almost done with my preparations to fly to Australia.

But I just want to share this with you guys. Last Sunday, I went to a service at one of the Baptist mission centres in Sandakan. Someone said it was an English service so I went ahead to check it out. But, when I got there, I discovered that the service was conducted in Hakka, lucky me. As the congregation was praying, I was thinking, “Oh no, how la this time. I’m gonna miss the sermon.” But fortunately, the Lord was gracious. Despite my limited knowledge in Hakka, I could understand the overall meaning of what the pastor was saying although during the singing I had to pretend I could read Chinese. Lol.

The service was refreshing as it reminded me that God equips us with all that is necessary to serve Him even though we are at a loss about how we should carry out what He wants us to do. I’m just going to share a bit on what the pastor said as I don’t want to take too much of your time.

The verses for the sermon were taken from Proverbs 22:17-21. You guys can check back on that when you go back home. Mainly, the sermon was about sharing the Word of God, which is a very important part of our Christian lives.

Proverbs 22:17 tells us that we should first equip ourselves with wisdom and understanding. In order to do that, we must have three attitudes of seeking wisdom – listen carefully to the sayings of the wise or the word of God, accept what is being said and understand the Word.

Proverbs 22:18 – 19 tells us that we should feed our spiritual lives with the word of God. We must keep the Word of God in our hearts and set our hearts to the events of the church. That is, as Pastor David said in his previous sermon, we should look after God’s interests. We shouldn’t merely glance through the word of God but rather savour it and digest it slowly so that we obtain the nourishments from it.

Finally, Proverbs 22:20 – 21 tells us to teach or share the Word of God. We must apply the Word of God in our lives such that others can see the changes in us. We should be grounded firmly in the truth so that we do not fall prey to those who distort the truth. The way we live our lives is a powerful testimony of God’s goodness and mercy.

But in sharing the Word of God, remember one thing. God equips each and every one of us for His good works. We should rely on the wisdom of God and not the wisdom of man. In my stay in Melbourne, I’ve been given the privilege to become roommates with a non-Christian friend of mine. Do pray that God will touch His heart as I share with Him the goodness of God. Let’s win one more soul for God!

I pray that CA will continue to flourish under the new committee by the grace of God. May God continue to bless you abundantly as you serve and seek the Lord.

Love,
Brian

God’s Valentines…

Siew Fong:
“Same as others that is the first worship and also the last worship for me. Thank you for the Lord as giving me this chance and it will be a memorable CA for me no matter when will I be in the future. Beside, it gave the feeling of family, a big and united family. I feel the love of God from there”

Amy:
“God made it the best CA ever!”

Anna:
“That is my first worship and also the last worship for me in CA. The worship is great, I don’t know how to describe it. When I’m in the worship, I have the feeling as David said,”I will praise God’s name in song ans glorify Him with thanksgiving. This will please the LORD!”


“For He will order His angels to protect you wherever you go.”
-Psalm 91:11

Love Vs Loneliness…

Praises be to the Lord for His blessing upon CA. In conjunction with Valentine’s Day, we had chosen “Love vs. Loneliness” as the theme of this CA. It was held on the 13^th February, Wednesday (we usually have it on Thursdays) as this would be the last CA for the Koreans as well as the ALM students who will be leaving for UniSA, not forgetting our AUSMAT seniors.

Preparations were done even before the Chinese New Year, exactly right after the first meeting. I guess everyone was still pumped with the spirit to serve our Lord. Hallelujah!! This time, we are trying to improve our weaknesses while strengthening our strong points from the previous meeting. Meetings were carried out as usual even though everyone was still in their holiday mood and tests around the corner. Nevertheless, everyone was very excited and couldn’t wait for that day.

I was in charge of the decorations of the sanctuary that day. Imagine, we had to rush back to Cendana right after class and with limited time, Samuel, Chiewie and I were the first ones to reach NLRC. Thanks Jim for the transportation ;) Pumping the balloons was hard. Don’t even mention about shaping the balloons into heart shapes. It never came across my mind that pumping the balloons would be that difficult, and with butter fingers, I was struggling even to tie balloons. (paiseh) Luckily, Betty and Yen Mii were there to help while Samuel was getting the balloons into shape like a pro…

The decorations were wonderful, thanks to Yen Mii and some the girls’ creative ideas. Everyone was amazed when they stepped into the sanctuary. By the way, the transportation in Cendana was punctual. Thank God. Everything went out smoothly.

The meeting began with the throwing of chocolates around by the emcees, Ken and Sze Yin (just to get everyone excited) I didn’t manage to get any but someone was kind to give me one, but I just can’t recall who… Anyway, it was then followed by the ice-breaking session. We were playing twister. What is it? Well, basically it is like putting the number of our feet, hands and even head (duh!!) on the floor as required by the organizer, Amy. Every boy present was required to “couple” up with a girl. I notice some of the guys were quite shy to invite the other party. I think that’s normal for our age. We had to pass six stages to get into the next round. Example, Amy would demand the couples to provide 2 legs, 2 knees and a head on the floor. WoW!! The game was very physical demanding.

Now, the interesting part begins. In the next round, the guys will have to “propose” to his respective partner in front of everyone!!!! With blushed face, some took out their “manliness” gut to propose. There was a couple where the girl (you know who…) had to do the talking while the boy (Anderson) was standing with a so called “flower” in his hand. Everyone present enjoyed a good laugh and I think the game really did break the ice.

The praise and worship was terrific. Siew Fong and her Korean gang lead the worship. Among the songs are:

Now That You’re Near

Hold me in Your arms, Never let me go

I wanna spend eternally with You

I stand before You Lord, And give You all my praise

Your love is all I need, Jesus You’re all I need

My life belongs to You, You gave Your life for me

Your grace is all I need, Jesus You’re all I need

Pre-Chorus:

Hold me in Your arms, Never let me go

I wanna spend eternity with You

Chorus:

And now that You’re near

Everything is different, Everything so different Lord

I know I’m not the same, My life You’ve changed

And I wanna be with You, I wanna be with You

Bridge:

And I will sing for You always, yeah

Cause in Your presence God is where I want to stay

Hold me in Your arms, never let me go

I want to spend eternity with You

Better Than Life

Better than the riches in this world

Better than the sound of my friends voice

Better than the biggest dreams of my heart

And that’s just the start

Better than getting what I say I need

Better than living the life that I want to

Better than the love anyone could give

Your love is

Pre-Chorus:

You hold me in Your arms

And never let me go

Chorus:

You Oh Lord make the sun shine

And the moon light in the night sky

You gave me breath and all Your love

I give my heart to You because

I can’t stop falling in love with You

I’ll never stop falling in love with You

Lift Your Name

I’m gonna lift You up

Higher than all things

Above every name, cause

You are my God and King

You made everything

So I give You all my praise

Pre-Chorus:

I’m gonna lift Your name up

So all the world can see You

Live in me

Chorus:

Shine Your light in me

So all the world will see

The power of Your majesty (Jesus I will lift Your name up!)

Let Your spirit fall on me now

So that all the world will know

That You’re my God (Jesus I will lift Your name up)

Bridge:

Jesus I will lift Your name up

Higher than all other names

You are my God You are my king (repeat 4x)

Need You Here

I need You here… I need You here

You’re like the rain that falls

Fall on this heart and make me new

I look to You… I look to You

You’re king above the earth

And You have put heaven in my heart

Pre-Chorus:

I only want to be where You are

Chorus:

Holy… Holy is the Lord… King of glory

Forever… Salvation of the world

Though mountains maybe moved

And fall into the raging seas

You’ll never let me fall

You hold me in Your nail scarred hands

Still

Hide me now,

Under Your wings

Cover me,

Within Your mighty hand

Chorus:

When the oceans rise and thunder storm

I will soar with You above the storm

Father, You are king over the flood

I will be still and know You are God

Find rest my soul,

In Christ alone

Know his power

In quietness and trust

Here I am to Worship

Light of the world, You stepped down into darkness

Opened my eyes, let me see

Beauty that is made this heart adore You

Hope of a life spent in You

Chorus:

So, here I am to worship

Here I am to bow down

Here I am to say that You’re my God

And You’re altogether lovely

Altogether worthy

Altogether wonderful to me

King of all days, oh so highly exalted

Glorious in heaven above

Humbly You came to the earth You created

All for love’s sake become poor

I’ll never know how much it cost

To see my sins upon that cross

After that, Amy gave a brief introduction on the speaker that night. Elder Ken Yak from Acts Church was a wonderful speaker. Throughout his sermon, he was sharing about his experience in his past. What experience? Of course something that is related to the theme for this CA. A dynamic and hilarious speaker, he had us all of us enjoying the word of God. He proclaimed that there is someone who never forsakes us even in our earthly loneliness. As the bible says,

I waited patiently for the Lord’s help;

then He listened to me and heard my cry.

He pulled me out of a dangerous pit,

out of the deadly quicksand.

He set me safely on a rock and made me secure.

He taught me to sing a new song,

A song of praise to our God.

Many who see this will take warning

and will put their trust in the Lord.

Psalm 40:1-3

(Today’s English Version)

Unfortunately, time did not permit and Elder Ken Yak had to close the session by praying for everyone of us or else he would go on with his interesting topic…

Not forgetting that this was the last CA for the Koreans and the ALMs heading for UniSA, we had a special moment for them. We prayed for them and wished them the best of luck. So to all of them, I would like to thank you for your unending support and commitment in serving the Lord with us and may the blessings of the Lord continue to shine upon you. Hopefully CA has had a deep impact in your life. (sob)…

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Corinthians 13:13)

It all ended, we really enjoyed the refreshment prepared by Pei Ling. For your information, we got to taste her specially baked chocolates and banana cakes (Elder Ken’s favourite!!!) with grape juice. Ahh!! Just right for this valentine. Everyone returned to their rightful places and we really had a blessed and wonderful evening this CA. See you soon….

Called to serve,

Han

From our Jim Koko…

CA (Campus Live) on a Wednesday night, eve of Valentines Day and sadly, the last for me. Yes, Jim here. For those who don’t know, I’m an Ausmat senior, Ausmat 18 to be more exact. For easier reference, I’m Joash’s batch. Indeed, it will be my last CA of the year, for me. Now I really know how my seniors felt when they just attended their last CA. Their heavy hearts just stubbornly resist to leave but, what to do. Yes, that was how I excatly felt. Imagine, not going to see your CA friends for the next 10 to 12 months, how will you feel about it?

Ok, enough of all those sad stuff. Now, CA (13.02.08) was a blast. It was, I can say, one of the best CA meetings so far. Seeing the juniors working closely together as one unit, I was proud. From my point of view, everything went well and according to plan. I know, God is seeing us through each and everything that we did. Transport, worship, ice breakers, refreshments and transportation back. I sort of made me flashback to the time when I was in the CA committee. It was fun, doing it for Him. Oh ya, I did help out though, in playing the bass. Haha, was so glad to help out when Anderson asked me too.

Generally, it was another CA, where people came and was blessed. The speaker was awesome too, an elder from Acts church. He emphasized on Psalm 40. Though we might be married to someone, there are still times when we will feel lonely BUT, Jesus, He will always be there to keep us company, to chase our loneliness away. That’s great isn’t it. Now, I do not need to worry about Valentines Day anymore. Who needs others when you already have Jesus? Of course, I’m not implying that we should be lone rangers.

Dear Juniors, you did a great job the other night. Do keep it up. Teamwork is of course, the most important. Everyone plays a significant role. Eventhough you might be the projectionist, the person preparing refreshments, the van drive, the person arranging transport or the one blowing up love shaped balloons, all of you are actually doing it for His service. Yes, you are actually serving Jesus by doing the task that you need to do. You know what , Jesus loves what all of you are doing and He surely reward you respectively. Lastly, treasure every CA meeting because, you, will not get anything like this anywhere else.

Thank you very much for letting me drop a few words here in the CA blog. God bless all of you. Take care everyone.

Jim.

A Visit To Memory Lane

I had intended on coming back to attend CA for quite some time already, since I started studying in IMU, but due to things like packed schedules and the distance from Bukit Jalil to Shah Alam (if you’re car-less, like me!), it was only on January 24th this year that this wish of mine came to pass. And boy, was I glad that I was able to make it. J

First of all, it was simply great to be back in CA again. I’ve always said that there’s a certain very exciting yet warm and personal atmosphere that can only be found in Campus Alive INTEC. The whole buzz of activity before CA starts, the fun of the programme, coupled with the solid ministry of God’s Word that changes lives, and the time of fellowship after—these things all became very familiar to many of us during our time in INTEC, and it sure brought back lots of good memories! So in a sense, coming to CA was like a walk down Memory Lane… *emo emo* ;p

P.S. – Jac, Yuwan, Cheah Yen, Nat, Daniel, Adeline was so good to go CA with my grandsenior brothers and sisters again—you’re a such a special bunch of people to me! J

And even better, it was Chinese New Year CA! I don’t think I’ve ever seen SO many people all dressed in red, pink, orange or yellow all packed within the vicinity of four walls… seriously! Was quite a lot to handle for my poor old eyes ;p But CA-Grandma eyes aside, it sure added to the festive mood, and what better way to get hyped up for CNY ya. J Oh yes, the angpaus were an awesome idea—filled not with money, but with the real treasure that will never pass away, God’s Word. Kudos to all those who handled it!

But programmes and festivities aside, I was very glad to see God’s Word still being strongly ministered and responded to in CA. After all, our God is the very Reason and Purpose for this CA, and it belongs to Him. May our focus never wander to anything else other than the sole honour of listening to His voice and walking in His ways.

To my precious juniors, the “old” committee, congratulations! You are now grandparents (or parents—whichever applies to you, according to our extremely confusing title system.. haha)! Thank you for your faithfulness in serving—I can still remember the time we handed over the CA to all of you, and it was such a great joy to know the CA was in capable and faithful hands. Indeed you have run the good race, and fought the good fight! J Of course, your serving does not stop here. Do continue to mentor your juniors and keep them under your wing ya… and keep up the spirit of servitude, wherever God takes you after INTEC. You are all so dear to me la J

To my grandjuniors—the new committee as well as all of you who come for CA, thank you for answering God’s call to step up and be counted as part of the family of God. Thank you for being willing to give your life to serving Him. I pray that each and every one of you will grow more and more into the likeness of Jesus, even as you seek His guidance daily. Do nothing by your own strength, but always seek the Lord’s “green light” in everything. Have the heart of a servant, always humble, and boasting in nothing but the Cross. Have the generosity of a child of God—make time and don’t be afraid of pouring your life into blessing and encouraging the people around you. But above all, make God your Number One pursuit—the centre of your lives and the centre of CA, for it is where He deserves to be. J

I’m looking forward to be able to visit again, and to get to know all of you better. But till then, continue to keep up the great work ya.. God bless all of you! J

His love and mine,
Mandy