Sejarah Awal Gereja Methodist Tudan, Miri

Sejarah Awal Gereja Methodist Tudan, Miri

Visi GMC

Saya diutuskan oleh Persidangan Tahunan Cina Sarawak (Sarawak Chinese Annual Conference – SCAC) pada 1hb Januari, 2002 ke Gereja Methodist Grace (GMC). Saya menjadi gembala Bahasa Inggeris ini selama sembilan tahun (2002 – 2010).  Saya membawa kepimpinan GMC (Komiti Eksekutif Gereja Setempat - Local Church Executive Committee) dalam perancangan dan kami mencapai Visi GMC.  Dalam dokumen itu, kami berazam hendak mendirikan jemaah tiga bahasa (Bahasa Inggeris, Bahasa Malaysia dan Bahasa Cina).  Dengan semangat yang berkobar-kobar, saya dan jemaah pun berdoa supaya visi itu menjadi realiti.  Saya pun menanti peluang keemasan yang akan diberikan oleh Allah.

Penjangkauan Rumah Setinggan di Pujut 7

Pada permulaannya, kami menjangkau golongan miskin rumah-rumah setinggan di Pujut 7 selama beberapa tahun. Sekali-sekala, saya dengan pemimpin GMC mengujungi mereka dengan memberikan pakaian terpakai.  Salah satu keluarga yang selalu diberkati saya masih boleh ingat ialah keluarga Siman. Gereja GMC selama beberapa tahun (kemungkinan 2003 – 2006) juga memberikan beras dan daging lembu (untuk satu tahun sahaja) kepada keluarga-keluarga miskin di Pujut 7 dan tempat-tempat lain semasa Easter.  Untuk beberapa tahun, kami pun mengadakan sembahyang Krismas bagi golongan miskin dari rumah-rumah setinggan Pujut 7.  Gembala dari Persidangan Tahunan Iban Sarawak telah dijemput untuk berkhotbah dalam sembahyang.  Jamuan ringan pun dilayani selepas sembahyang.  Usaha GMC bagi golongan bumiputera miskin hanya setakat itu saja. (Pada hakikatnya, selepas pusat injil dibentuk nanti, terdapat beberapa keluarga di situ lambat-laung telah dibaptiskan.)

Pembaptisan Pertama atas Pimpinan Roh Kudus

Saya doa dan menanya Allah, bilakah peluang untuk memulakan sembahyang BM bagi golongan bumiputera.  Peluang itu sampai apabila saya diberitahu oleh anggota jemaah GMC, suami-isteri, Eduard Woodford dan Flor (bekas misionari di Kapit) terdapat seorang kawan mereka, saudara Gemong (mendiang) dan keluarga hendak dibaptiskan.  Kami pun mengujungi beliau di rumah pangsanya di Permyjaya.  Di situ, saya diberitahu mungkin terdapat orang bumiputera yang lain hendak dibaptiskan.  Atas pimpinan Roh Kudus, saya cadangkan kepada isteri Gemong (yang menjual kuih-muih dari rumah pangsa ke rumah pangsa) supaya mendapat nama mereka semasa penjualan kuih-muih.  Beliau menepati janji dan memberikan satu senarai nama yang agak panjang untuk dibaptiskan.  Saya tidak teragak-agak untuk memulakan kelas baptisan di rumah Gemong. Rumah pangsanya yang ruangnya agak sempit dan dipenuhi oleh berpuluhan orang dewasa dan kanak-kanak.  Saya memberikan kelas baptisan dalam BM selama beberapa kali dan melengkapi mereka untuk dibaptiskan pada hari Krismas 25hb Disember, 2004.  Segala puji dan syukur diberikan kepada Allah, atas sokongan daripada Eduard Woodford dan Flor, 16 kanak-kanak dan 13 orang dewasa pun dibaptiskan pada 25hb Disember, 2004, Gereja Methodist Permyjaya.  Di samping Eduard Woodford suami-isteri menghadiri pembaptisan itu, ketua jemaah GMC Lee Lay Mee dan isterinya pun turut hadir menyaksikan upacara pembaptisan itu.

Penglibatan GMC

Kepimpinan GMC seterusnya tidak setuju dengan pembentukan jemaah BM di GMC.  Dalam mesyuarat Persidangan Setempat GMC, ketua daerah, Rev Liik Tung Yeu pun mengarahkan pelayanan BM ini diusahakan pada peringkat daerah.  GMC tidak setuju atas alasan tidak mempunyai tenaga manusia yang mencukupi untuk melayani orang bumiputera.  Namun, mereka setuju untuk mengutuskan tenaga yang sedia ada yang sudi melayani golongan bumiputera.  Puji Allah, jemaah setia seperti Eduard Woodford, Flor, Mak ak Met, Margaret Lee, Audrey, William Ketit dan isteri, Chia Soh Pei, Wong Kung Kui, Charles Ling, Eric Ngieng, dan jemaah lain yang saya tidak sanggup ingat nama mereka.

Pertolongan Daripada Tenaga Daerah

Atas bantuan dari Rev Liik, saya mendapat kebenaran untuk mencari tenaga dari gereja-gereja setempat Miri.  Puji dan syukur kepada Allah, gereja-gereja Mei Ann, Hwai En, Permyjaya, dan Life pun mengutuskan guru-guru sekolah minggu untuk menolong kami.  Kami membentuk sebuah ahli jawatan kuasa di peringkat daerah di mana saudara Mak adalah pengerusi pertama.  Kami berkumpul untuk mesyuarat sekali dalam dua bulan.  Kami memulakan perjumpaan sembahyang dalam BM pada permulaan tahun 2005, setiap hari Ahad, sebelah petang, selama dua jam.  Kereta swasta dan bas sekolah disewa untuk mengangkat jemaah datang menghadiri sembahyang. Setiap kali, kami ada satu masa puji-pujian dan pengajaran firman dalam BM oleh saya.  Pada masa yang sama ada sekolah minggu BM untuk kanak-kanak.  Selepas sembahyang, saya biasa mengadakan doa untuk kesakitan dan masalah jemaah sekurang-kurangnya selama setengah jam. Atas bantuan kewangan dari SCAC dan daerah, kami menyewa tingkat atas kedai rumah di Permyjaya (juga disewa oleh Gereja Methodist Permyjaya dulu) dengan harga yang murah daripada saudara dalam Kristus, Matthew Wong, dari Gereja Methodist Trinity, Kuching. 

Sembahyang, Sekolah Minggu dan Kelompok Kecil BM

Setiap minggu, terdapat dua puluh lebih orang dewasa dan dua puluh lebih kanak-kanak datang menghadiri sembahyang.  Bilangan jemaah semakin meningkat dalam satu tahun selagi kami menjangkau golongan bumiputera di Permyjaya dan Tudan melalui kunjungan, pertolongan kebajikan (termasuk menolong membayar sebahagian kos pembinaan dua buah rumah papan di Tudan)  dan doa.  Kelompok kecil untuk tujuan pengajian Alkitab pun dimulakan.  Usaha ini terbukti sangat penting kerana kebanyakan mereka yang menghadiri kelompok ini telah dipilih menjadi pemimpin Pusat Injil Tudan pada tahun 2006.   Apabila saya mengimbas kembali, saya percaya kelompok kecil ini secara langsung telah melatih mereka menjadi pemimpin.  Ia adalah satu bentuk pemuridan.  Ia masih terus digunakan oleh Allah sehingga hari ini.

Pembentukan Ahli Jawatan Kuasa Pusat Injil Tudan

Memandangkan saya sangat sibuk dengan pelayanan di pusat SCAC dan GMC, pada tahun 2006, saya pun doakan seorang gembala dari SCAC akan diutuskan.  Bilangan jemaah yang termasuk orang dewasan dan kanak-kanak pada akhir tahun 2006 pun mencapai 80 orang.  Saya pun membaptiskan lebih daripada 100 pada keseluruhannya.  Hari bumiputera pada bulan Julai di GMC, gereja kami penuh dengan saudara-saudari bumiputera.  Kehadiran mereka sangat mengejutkan kepimpinan GMC.  Persoalannya ialah bagaimana menggembala mereka.  Saya sangat tertekan dan terus meminta SCAC untuk mengutuskan seorang gembala BM ke Pusat Injil Tudan.  Saya pun memohon kepada SCAC untuk menaikkan taraf perjumpaan sembahyang kepada Pusat Injil di mana ia layak untuk pengutusan seorang gembala.  Saya tidak dapat fikirkan siapa akan datang tetapi dalam hati nalurani saya, saya doa bersama jemaah GMC dan saya percaya secara iman, Allah pasti akan mengutuskan seorang gembala.  Pada hujung tahun, saya pun membentuk Ahli-ahli Jawatan Kuasa (AJK) Pusat Injil.  Pada bulan November, SCAC pun menaikkan taraf perjumpaan sembahyang kami kepada Pusat Injil Tudan.  Segalanya, termasuk pemilihan pemimpin memang melibatkan pimpinan Roh Kudus, usaha kami sangat diberkati oleh Allah. Pembentukan AJK adalah begitu lancar dan tepat pada masanya.  Saya dan jemaah GMC pun menyerahkan pelayanan BM itu kepada Pastor Chan Jing Mei yang diutuskan oleh SCAC pada bulan November, 2006.  Pada awal tahun 2007, beliau mengambil alih penggembalaan saya.

Permohonan Tanah untuk Membina Gereja

Di bawah kepimpinan saudara William Ketit, AJK Pusat Injil pun berjaya memperolehi sebidang tanah dari Kerajaan Negeri Sarawak untuk membina gereja bumiputera di Tudan pada pertengahan tahun 2007.  Seterusnya, pihak Pusat Injil Tudan pun mulalah proses pembentukan AJK Pembinaan Gereja dan mencari dana untuk membina gereja.

Harapan Saya untuk Gereja Methodist Tudan dan Jemaah Bumiputera di Sarawak

Gereja Methodist Tudan pun siap dibina pada tahun 2010.  Walaupun saya hanya melibatkan secara langsung selama setahun tiga bulan (akhir tahun 2005 ke akhir tahun 2006), tetapi pengalaman itu adalah respon saya kepada Allah untuk menjangkau golongan bumiputera di bandar.  Atas semangat kerjasama dan penghubungan dalam keluarga besar Methodist ini, marilah kita terus memenangi golongan bumiputera dan melatih mereka sebagai murid Yesus yang berpengaruh.  Saya berdoa dengan sepenuh kuasa daripada Roh Kudus supaya murid-murid SCAC akan tidak berasa letih dan tidak sedikit kecewa pun dalam usaha menjangkau bumiputera di Sarawak dan menjadikan mereka murid-murid Yesus.  Saya doakan generasi muda-mudi mereka mempunyai visi hendak melanjutkan pelajaran ke universiti-universiti.  Kesemuanya akan dilatih sebagai muri-murid Yesus yang berpengaruh di masyarakat kita.  Mereka akan menjadi pastor, misionari, ahli politik dan menteri, guru, doktor, pensyarah, jurutera, pegawai kerajaan, jururawat, akauntan, saintis, dan sebagainya.

Allah berkati Gereja Methodist Tudan.

(Rev Law Hui Seng 15hb Ogos, 2017)

An Amazing Great Political Breakthrough Election – Pastor Law Hui Seng (Taiwan, 21/10/18)

What do you think of the recent just concluded Malaysia once in five years parliamentary election on 9^th May, 2018?  I call it amazing because I strongly believe God is involved.  I call it great because for the first time in 61 years the majority of the different races and even the people of different religions could be so united in saying no to the former ruling party coalition, despite the odds of gerrymandering in the newly drawn constituencies for the national election and mighty machinery and resources available to the last ruling party coalition.  I call it a breakthrough because ever since independence there had not been any change of ruling power.   Most importantly, it is in every sense a breakthrough as so many people said it was impossible for a power change but it happened on the 9^th May.  A much awaited smooth transfer of political power had happened.  A change that we are so proud of as it will bring hope for a better future.  A change that gives birth to a new Malaysia that inspires the rakyat to move on with a greater confidence.  Malaysia becomes new not only because a new batch of leaders with new mentality and mindset has taken over the ruling power, but more so, these new leaders will bring about changes in substance.  Especially changes in fundamental systems and policies which are more just.  It definitely brings about new hope and direction for many years to come.

The Surprising Element

The long awaited breakthrough finally came about.  Most of us could not believe it for many reasons.  Even a lot of us Christians had prayed for God to do justice, remove corruption and greed, cleanse our nation from the power of darkness, and lots of other things, we did not think the power change would happen.   Privately, I even told people the chance of changing the ruling power is at least 80% to 90%.  In my circle of friends, most of them disagreed with the percentage.  I always told them this time round, the whole political scenario in the country was very different because of the Mahathir factor.  He would unite most of the former opposition parties.   I even said in private to these close friends, if there was a change in power it had to involve the surprising element.  That was the top leadership of the last ruling power did not expect the power change would happen.  They had made all the efforts to counter every expected attack and arrow shoot at them from all sides. I tend to believe that in view of the extreme old age of Mahathir, they did not expect him to be such a powerful factor (you may disagree).  What could such a 93 years old man do? (This was very much a prevailing general comment in the newspaper in the months leading up to the election) How could he make a difference in the national election as to the effect of bringing down the ruling party?  I believe this was one of the most unexpected elements.  May be they just expected Mahathir and his new party would just win a few seats only and that was all.

Another Surprising Element: Tremendous Negative Effects of GST

I believe another very unexpected factor that brought down the last ruling power was the deep negative effects of GST.  When it was first materialized, most sensible people commented that it was something necessary and most countries are practicing it and our country needed it.  Most people, especially economic experts, bankers and the like said it was well justified. However, my argument was if the government could survive with all kinds of taxes before the introduction of GST, how she could not survive without it.  There must have been a lot of abuse of power and mismanagement of peoples’ money.

When GST was introduced, my common sense told me it was a political suicide for the ruling power.  It would become such a powerful factor that it would be a straw that brought down the ruling power.  It would make most of the citizens in Malaysia to feel the deep pain in financial limitation.  We suddenly found that our monetary value shrunk and our purchasing power was reduced significantly.  Everyone was hit by it. We felt the economic pain which touched our ‘nerve’.  It awakened us to vote for change and went for an alternative ruling coalition which might be more responsible. 

GST made the poor suffered even further and even the most uneducated could experience the economic pain.  I felt the pain too.  I even took steps to buy less things and exercised my thriftiness.  I tightened my belt.   May be the last ruling power expected the economic pain the rakyat would experience.  However, I think they miscalculated in the fact that the rakyat felt the pain so deeply. The pain was so deep that it overcame all the good measures taken by the previous government to counter the negative effects of GST.  The pain was a great uniting force to mobilize a great majority of the voters to vote against the ruling power.

Other Factors

Other factors such as the hot  national issue of corruption (the number 1 enemy of Malaysia); 1MDB mismanagement of fund; the great unequal treatment of different races owing to unjust government policies; no freedom of religion (the forbidden usage of the word Allah; and etc); nepotism and cronyism; the rich got richer and the poor got poorer; safety and security of peoples’ lives (the missing pastor Raymond Kho was unaccounted for) and property are stake; harder for people to find jobs and made ends meet owing to slow economy and countless number of other issues, are affecting the voters and caused the great majority of us to say no to the previous ruling power.  I personally believe that all these voice down to a national leadership crisis.  We were not confident with the politicians and government at different levels.  As the top level leaders did not set a high level of integrity and honesty and of great moral characters, there developed a great confidence crisis.  The great majority of the rakyat saw the nation was heading no way if the last leadership were to continue.

Sarawak Parliamentary Election Analyzed

In Sarawak, beside the above factors, the indigenous people are very much bothered by the issue of land acquisition, though the land is under the management of Sarawak government.  A lot of lands were acquired for personal gain.  Indigenous people were very unhappy as they lost their court cases on the disputed acquisition of lands. More and more lands were acquired and passed on to the rich entrepreneurs at a low price in the name of development.  A lot of empty promises were made and not fulfilled.  I heard from the long house folks that building of roads and supply of electricity were promised but it took the ruling power many long years to fulfill. Some were not fulfilled at all.  I also observed that the internal strife, tensions among the leadership and struggles in certain ruling parties had caused eroded support for the ruling power.  Disunity was a heavy price for these parties which lost their seats.  Sarawak rights as a nation forming Malaysia were greatly eroded (throughout the last decade) was also a great factor that contributed to the dissatisfaction towards the ruling power. Of course there were a lot of other accumulated factors which contributed to the Chinese and indigenous people not voting for the last ruling power. (I believe the political tsunami that happened among the indigenous people and the Chinese in Sarawak will continue to reach its height in the coming Sarawak election, which will be held in about 2 years’ time). All these combined factors had caused the ruling power to lose 12 significant parliament seats from Sarawak and this had contributed to the change of power to the Harapan Coalition.

God’s Factor

As a disciple of Jesus, I pray for Malaysia and really asked the almighty God to come in and intervene and restore peace, justice and prosperity.  I prayed for God to remove all the corrupted politicians in His timing for more than 15 years.  I prayed that every since before year 8^th March, 2008 parliamentary election.  In the 5^th May, 2013 parliamentary election, a lot of us were disappointed as there was no change of ruling power though the opposition front at that time scored a greater number of voting percentage than the ruling power.  I even told  a  Yang Berhormat after the 8^th March election that it was not God’s timing yet.  God being sovereign, He knows what is best for every human being and every country in this world since He is the creator of the universe and He created the earth.  Apostle Paul even said in the letter to the Romans in chapter 13 that God put the kings and ruling power (the government) at the throne and the people were to obey the government of the day. Then, the implication is God can also remove the ruling power if He put it there.  Nobody, no king, no military might, no government is more powerful than God.  God has the sovereignty and control over all things and beings He created.  He is the King of kings.   Who dare to challenge God? Therefore, if we are the politicians and the governing power of the day, we need to be answerable to God in the usage of the political power which is entrusted by the people.   Politicians need to be humble before God, whether they are Christians or not.  Only fear of God can empower him to distant himself or herself from greed and corruption, dishonesty, hypocrisy, self-centeredness, and all kinds of immorality.  Only fear of God can empower one to rule with justice, peace and compassion.  If one is not afraid of God’s punishment for one’s mistakes, sins, or unrighteousness, one can do anything when one has the power.  We are familiar with the term ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely.’  On the other hand, when one fears God, God will bless one with wisdom, like King Solomon to rule a country.

In the Old Testament, I notice that whenever Israelites and kings sinned against God of Yahweh in idol worship, moral decadence, and after countless warnings by prophets that went unheeded, God’s discipline and punishment would come on them in the form of downfalls for both the Northern Kingdom and Southern Kingdom in the hands of the foreign empires and being put in exiles in the foreign lands like Babylon and Assyria.  I strongly believe that it is the same today if any ruling power does not fear God.  God will send His messengers to come and correct the repeated mistakes, sins and unrighteousness, after repeated corrections that yield no repentance, then, God will remove the power.  For those of us who do not subscribe to this belief, you may like to produce your own analysis for the downfall of the ruling power.

This time, on the 9^th May, this year, God heard the great cry of His children in Malaysia and also His children in other parts of the world for Malaysia, and He decided to intervene and brought down the ruling power by a peaceful election.  This is God’s timing.  Whatever theology you may subscribe to and you may choose to disagree with me, I strongly believe that Christian prayers from all denominations had really contributed to the almighty God hearing our prayer.

What Can we contribute to the New Malaysia?

The most unexpected political breakthrough is very precious to all of us citizens of all races and religions.  We must treasure it like a new baby being born (a new Malaysia) and it is to be nurtured with love and care and grow into maturity in all aspects of its life.  Do you agree?  How to help this baby to grow? I strongly suggest that, since we voted in the new ruling power, we must do our part to empower this new Malaysia to grow.  I pray that you agree with me on this.

I call this new Malaysia a new born baby because in many aspects the new government needs to start all over.  We need to start all over because some of the present public institutions have been damaged and much neglected owing to human weaknesses and moral decadence.  The new government needs to work extra hard with great sincerity in these important institutions of democracy and national life.  I believe the following institutions and national life aspects need to be given top priority.

Firstly, one of  the most fundamental aspects of democracy, that is the separation of powers needs a redress; the institutions of judiciary, government and the parliament need to work independently.   It is a tough issue as the independency of each institution has not been honored for too long and the whole Malaysian constitution does not seem to advocate separation of the 3 powers.   Tedious tasks that involve amendments of laws will take a long time to achieve the ideal. 

Secondly, as a nation which makes up of different races and people professing so many different religions and living with such different cultures, we need to be united and move forward together.  At the moment, unfortunately, when it comes to major social, political and economic considerations, race and religion factors are still rated as very high in priority in the political agenda for party politics and even national life.  When it comes making policies, race is still a major factor of consideration.  For example, a certain group of politicians which belong to a certain race still feel insecure about the government recognizing Unified Examination Certificate of a certain community in the public education institution. Our politicians of all races and religions must work hard to pursue interest of all races, not just a certain politician of a certain race pursuing the interests of his or her own race. We are still divided along racial and religious lines.  How can we be more united is a great challenge to our new government.

Thirdly, our natural resources like our lands and rivers, mineral resources, and the air space need more thorough and far-sighted planning that involve equal distribution of wealth among all races and people from all strata of our society so that our economy is sustainable and self dependent in long term.  We can do a good job if we work harder at practicing meritocracy as widely as possible.  Our neighbor, Singapore, is good example in this respect.

Fourthly, since manpower and intellectual ability will determine how well we are going to survive as a nation, we really need to look into doing education that will produce the brightest people (and keep them) to run our country.  By all means, curb the brain drain.  When it comes to education, our politicians should not compromise on giving our people the best quality and resources.

Fifthly, steps need to be taken to return the original rights to the nation of Sarawak and Sabah.  The agreements signed when these two nations participated in the formation of Malaysia need to be honored.  I believe these two nations, given the rights to manage our own resources; we can eventually become an advanced and prosperous country like Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.  I had been to the first three countries in the last twenty odd years and I see prosperous they are.

Bearing all these important aspects in mind, as disciples of Jesus, we can play important roles in nurturing this new Malaysia.  I would like to propose the following suggestions and ideas.

Nurturing a New Malaysia

In Malaysia, Christianity is only made up of about 9% of 33 million populations.  Islam occupies about 60%.  Muslim population is growing not only biologically but also in terms of conversion.  It means Islam propagates and converts the non-Muslims.   For Christianity, all efforts of all the different denominations combined in our outreach and missions, our growth is always between 9% and 10%.  It has been maintained in that range for more than 20 years now.  At least, ever since I became a pastor back then.  Even in Sarawak, with a population of 2.7 million, the only state with Christian majority of about 42%.  The percentage is maintained between 40% and 42% also for more than 20 years.

In such a religious environment, what can 9% Christian population do?  We must thank God for the great effort of our former missionaries coming from all over the world.  They had done their best and left a great spiritual heritage with us.  I can say it most passionately for the case of Sarawak.  For most denominations here, with the political climate we have now, we are growing stronger in terms of many new churches from all denominations which have been built. Be it at the national level, or at the state level, we can definitely make a difference for Jesus in terms of nurturing a new Malaysia.  I pray that God in the person of Jesus Christ, in His mercy, will empower us to do the followings:

Firstly, as united prayers from all denominations have made such a powerful impact, we must persevere and pray for the above good changes to happen in His timing.  Let us pray that no changes will happen at the expense of another race.  Let us pray that our politicians both from the ruling power and the opposition to become more and more matured; and they always focus on the needs of the rakyat in particular and the national interests in general.  By all means, our prayers pursue God’s will be done in Malaysia for all races.

Secondly, though different denominations have different doctrinal stands, we must by all means work together through our top leaders like bishops, archbishops and presidents to express our Christian stands on religious, social, economic and political issues and matters on improvement of our national policies.  There can be unity in diversity. The present inter-denominational platforms like the Council of Churches Malaysia, National Evangelical Christian Fellowship, Sarawak Association of Churches and Sabah Association of Churches can be further enhanced and mobilized to come together to pray and building a close relationship among the top spiritual leaders so that they are united to build bridges with the government to participate in the nation building in terms of proposing holistic policies.

Thirdly, I suggest the respective denominations to form their fellowship of elected state assembly men and women, and the members of parliament to sit down with assigned pastors for bible studies and prayer so that they are trained in discipleship and grow in Christian maturity.  They are equipped intentionally to stand against temptations of greed, corruption and all forms of immorality.  They will become great models for the rakyat to emulate.  Eventually, through the close relationships among the top spiritual leaders, they can use the above platforms to call for an annual convention for all our elected Christian politicians.  One of the important purposes of this convention is definitely to find ways and means to contribute to our national building. The other purpose can be for sharing of common ideas and interests, mutual support and understanding, and working towards a greater solidarity among all elected Christian parliamentarians and state assembly men and women.

Fourthly, churches of different denominations must look into producing scholars who are well-versed in Islam so that we can have meaningful cooperation with Muslim scholars and their top spiritual figures to work on both Muslims and non-Muslims to live together peacefully long term.   Scholars and top spiritual figures of both sides must build bridges with one another so that we reduce our misunderstanding about each other’s religious teaching and religious conflicts among our followers to the minimum.  If we do not do this preparation now, when there is a religious conflict, it might be too late.  When damages are done, repairs may be difficult to do. 

Fifthly, Christian spiritual figures and Muslim spiritual figures must be encouraged to sit down and fellowship with one another on different religious occasions.  We are doing this now. It can still be further enhanced so that it is practiced as often as possible, and at a greater scale.  They must be seen to do so, so that our followers can see the fellowship before their eyes, be it through media publication or life telecasts through televisions and internets.  When the top spiritual figures of both religions are seemed to relate to one another in harmony, our followers will emulate.  If we can visit one another and share our lives together, the chances for religious conflict to happen in Malaysia will be reduced to the very minimum.

Conclusion

How this new Malaysia is going to be does not depend absolutely on those elected politicians only.  They are elected to serve the rakyat and the nation as a whole, in a parliamentary democracy like Malaysia.  They are flawed human beings, they are not perfect, and they will make mistakes.  No matter how brilliant, capable and powerful they are, their ideas are limited, their influence cannot penetrate every corner and society in Malaysia.  They need the rakyat to support and cooperate to implement their national policies.  They may devise laws to check on us but they themselves are also very much under laws.  Therefore, the church as a whole can complement the government by obeying her in implementing all the just policies.  Areas where the government goes wrong, the church must be courageous enough to voice out for the betterment and well being of the overall rakyat.  The government, on the other hand, should be humble enough to listen to the voice of the church.

My Biblical Stand on Marriage I received the call from my personal Lord, Jesus, this morning (2nd April, 2014) while driving my twin children to school to write this article. I was never so convicted to write an article like this. I was convicted by the Spirit of Jesus to preach and teach it but I was never so convicted to write an article on it. I strongly believe that this article will serve Christ’s purpose for the readers. If you happen to read this article, it is Jesus who wants you to read it. I shall begin with a few scenarios of how Christian marriages are threatened by divorce and the causes of Christian divorce. It will be followed by my heart cry for a lot of Christians who ever divorced who are very ignorant of the consequences of it. Then, I shall share with you my strongest stand on Christian marriage. I pray that this convicts you and it empowers you to follow Jesus in His stand of marriage. I will also not hesitate to share with you my struggles and joy in my marriage. Finally, I pray that you will learn how to help yourself or others in case of any marital problem. The Scenario In my last 19 years of pastoral care ministry, I have heard and even personally counseled some Christian couples in their troubled marriages. My experience of involvement is very much dealing with both Chinese and indigenous people of Sarawak. As all these cases unveiled themselves, I just felt for many of them, they did not even know what Jesus taught about marriage. Of course, there were some who knew it and they still went ahead with the divorce. This explains why I am so convicted to preach and teach about it. These few causes of divorce are quite common and prevailing. I would even go to the extent of saying the devils capitalize them and they become the devils’ weapon to destroy the Christian marriages. Of course the couple concerned made their willful decision to divorce. The causes are: extra-marital affairs; irresponsible life partner; immaturity as a person; no sense of Christian marriage; violence; and parent-in-laws’ intervention. Consequences of Divorce as a Christian Christians out there who have opted for divorce have claimed that they had thought seriously about the consequences. As I come to know the cases and tried very hard (with prayers and counselling), they still chose to divorce based on personal grounds, not on biblical ground. They might have thought of the consequences for themselves (first and foremost), the children (if any), the family members/relatives/friends/neighbours and in most cases, that is all. Very few would take the biblical teaching (seriously) by Jesus, our Lord, whom we have to be responsible to, as His disciples. If we do not obey His teaching, how can we regard ourselves as His children, Christians, and disciples. If we say we have accepted Him as our Saviour and Lord (Master), we must allow Him to save our lives from sin (including the sin of divorce), and rule our lives. His words have the authority over our lives. Most of the times the option of divorce is very much driven by emotions of hatred, unforgiveness, jealousy, bitterness, disappointment, frustration, shame, helplessness and even depression. We let these emotions which are capitalized by the devil to rule us. Of course, at the stage of divorce, when a couple makes up their mind, they always claim, the relationship cannot be saved. I want to very much say that most of the times, they receive bad counsel from the people around them. Most of us who try to help may do it out of sympathy do not act according to the great sanctity of Christian marriage. This is where I very much want to explain that we most of the times do not see the deep consequences of divorce. 1. Jesus has taught that those whom God joined together, let no man separates it as man and woman whom God joins is one flesh (Mathew 19:6). Jesus further teaches that whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery (Mathew 19:9). The only ground for Christian divorce is adultery. However, Jesus qualifies Himself by saying that even if a husband divorces his wife, if he remarries gain with another woman, he commits adultery. I believe what Jesus is advocating is this: there must not be divorce at all. Divorce is our human idea owing to our deepest sin. On the other hand, my article is also not served as a means to condemn those who are already divorced and remarried. I want to sincerely say to those of us who were divorced and remarried that Jesus loves all of you. He also comes for all the people who are divorced for the wrong reasons and forgives you all. Do ask Jesus for forgiveness and repent, never to repeat your mistakes again. 2. Christian marriage is the union of both the female and male as husband and wife, one flesh. By no means, any of the life partner discounts the one flesh that is expressed in sexual intimacy. I am afraid there is no greater intimacy than this sexual intimacy. The sharing of each others’ body is so sacred that it is done upon the approval of God in a Christian marriage. Without the holy matrimony, there should not be any sex with your boy friend or girl friend. Fornication is a sin. If this had happened, one should ask Jesus for forgiveness and repent. When two persons are united in Christian marriage, part of their soul is now attached to his or her life partner. There is no shame or guilt involved for the God ordained marriage. When a person commits adultery, he or she carries with him or her part of the life partner’s soul and be united with another soul. Part of the soul of the opposite sex now is again attached to him or her. For example, when a married person who commits adultery, when having sex with the adulterer, he or she could be thinking of his wife or her husband. Why? Because each body is attached with part of the soul of the life partner. He or she will never enjoy sex in the fullest as intended by God because of our sin. 3. The deep consequence of divorce is that the children will very much suffer the consequence. Children will grow up without a good model of how to be a good husband and a good wife; and also they would be short of a parenting model. That is children learn how to do parenting from their own parents. All young children who experience parental divorce would also feel insecure and not loved as much as children with both parents around, everything being equal. In fact, that insecurity can be avoided if we obey Jesus’ teaching on marriage. 4. Parents who are divorced would leave behind a bad legacy for their children. Can you imagine, your children, grand-children and great-grand-children would look back and they have to face the fact that their ancestors are divorced? The devil can use it to cause insecurity and bring about more divorces in the family. As if, a curse can run in the family. My Struggles and Joy in Marriage There are always tensions in my marriage. There is the tension of not spending enough time and spending enough with my wife and four children. I see that when my wife starts to complain I have not given her and children enough time, I need to adjust my time between ministry and family. There is the tension between setting good example and bad example in pastoral care. I always learn from my mistakes and ask Jesus for forgiveness so that I can be a better pastor, father and a husband. When I do well as a father or a husband, I will give testimony about it. There is tension between practicing what I preach and not practicing it. I pray for opportunities to practice what I preach and I also admit my own failures and empower my sheep to learn from my mistakes. I take all these tensions positively because I know that Jesus does not waste any of them. He uses tensions to teach me to be humble to obey Him. They teach me to do reflection and strike a balance in life. There are always disagreements in my marriage. I do not believe that there is any couple under the sun where they do not disagree. Most do not share because they feel so ashamed of it. I am not ashamed to share because I possess my Christian identity. I am much more concerned about how Jesus views me in the bible than how people view me and my marriage. Whatever sharing I put forward regarding my marriage in this article is meant to illustrate and how do I deal with my struggles. I pray that they will not be misunderstood as I have ‘issues’ in my marriage. In the process of sharing, I pray you get the feeling from me that we all have struggles in marriage and we need to work on each of them and emerge victoriously. The followings are a few disagreements which we have been trying to resolve. A few disagreements are: whether to allow our children to suffer the consequences of their bad decision; our children to go overseas to study or not; and to buy phone for our 3 young children or not. When there are deep disagreements like these, I always turn to Jesus for help and ask Him to intervene. I have no immediate solutions after I pray but at least, I myself keep calm and not be angry. I give myself more time for both sides to think more and be patient. In my experience, at the end of the day, there are times my wife realizes my stand and she agrees with my point, and vice-versa. We do not allow our disagreements to disturb our relationship and affect our ministry. When we have conflict of ideas and even convictions, we do not throw out cursing words, words of threats, words of condemnation and words that degrade. Though we may say things that express our unhappiness and sometimes, we may show our anger, we are able to control our anger. The older we grow, praise the Lord, the faster we are reconciled in any conflict. We do not allow the devil to capitalize on our anger and attacks us. As we grow older (I am 48 and my wife is 50), we are not perfect in our marriage relationship, but we become more understanding; forgiving; grateful; and loving towards one another. I can see that God use our tensions, disagreements and even conflicts to humble us and causes us to turn to Him and allow Him to protect us in our marriage. When we counsel troubled Christian couples, we always share how we go through our marriage problems and challenges. We send a strong message that says even a pastor and his wife face marriage problems and all of them can be overcome, if not, at least, we can put the problems under control. One of the things I always do when I have negative thoughts about my wife is I will always think of the good things she has done for me and my family. I realize that it helps me a lot. For example, I always think of how she untiringly cooks 3 meals for us almost every day without fail. This positive thought is so powerful that it always cancels my negative thought of her. I may even forget about my negative thought of her. In this way, I experience joy in my marriage. I also experience joy when in the midst of a serious disagreement and after we go to Jesus in prayer and much communication and clarification and waiting upon God’s timing, we come to an agreement. This agreement makes me feel that we are united in this issue and we know we can move on together and we are powerful for Jesus. For example, now, as we have come to an agreement about children to go overseas or not, we experience much peace. This peace yields great joy in our marriage. My Prayer In the event that you yourself is challenged by your own marital problem, do hold on to the foundation of marriage set by Jesus. Once you let go of that foundation, you start to entertain divorce. The worst question you ask in any marital problem is not how much you have suffered. No doubt you have suffered and we suffered in our marriages because we are sinful in our ways. We have not dealt with those sins and we allow them to accumulate to a point until we feel so hopeless and helpless to overcome our problems. In order to deal with those piles of problems, you need to work from that foundation of marriage. From there, deal with each root problem objectively. Admit the root cause of it and do not accuse the other side as far as possible. As far as possible admit your own problem and ask God for forgiveness and ask your partner for forgiveness. Pray hard for both sides to be willing to communicate and be honest about the root problems. I am of the strongest opinion that once you have the initial stage of conflict, you need to settle the conflict as early as possible. If you cannot settle it, get someone who is matured and committed to Jesus. Your pastor is a good choice. You may go for some marital counselling. The earlier you deal with your marriage problem the better chance of reconciliation. The marriage enrichment seminar of different kinds out there is good. The one conducted in Mandarin by SCAC Board of Wellness is excellent. When you have a marital problem, do not go the lawyers for solution as they are not really trained to help you to reconcile with your life partner. Christian lawyers out there, when people approach you for divorce proceeding, by all means encourage them to seek counselling or you try all ways and means to help them to see the hope in the marriage. You are pleasing Jesus by doing so. Remember going for divorce is going against Jesus. How dare you do that? Can you stand His wrath on you for your disobedience. Most of us who divorced did not think about this and we suffered the wrath of God. Do we need to face it or not? I pray that you have caught a certain principle of Christian marriage or you understand a little more about Christian marriage and you will not choose divorce as a solution if your marriage is under threat now. I pray that Jesus protects your marriage and grants you continuous joy to set a good example for the brothers and sisters around you and you glorify Him. By all means, allow your marriage to be a testimony to both the Christians and non-Christians out there. May your marriage become the gospel to other peoples’ marriage! It means others are attracted to come to Jesus and be saved and become His disciples because your marriage has taught them the powerful gospel. Leave a legacy of godly marriage for your children, grand-children and great grand-children. A Faithful Disciple of Jesus, Pastor Law Hui Seng (Easter, 20th April, 2014) Posted By Teresa Han

I Obey Jesus

Dear faithful disciples of Jesus, Let us be disciples of Jesus when we are on earth. In future, when we see Him in person we will have a lot to share with Him how we obey Him on earth. Of course He knows our every move on earth as He is right inside us. I had great encounters with Him in this year’s posting for my ministry and family. Please do not misunderstand my writings below as I am not writing to complain. And Jesus knows I am not complaining. I am writing to share with you how I had communion with Jesus in my posting to Sibu. I obey Jesus in this posting. Before Posting Praise the Lord for a great fruitful year of Sabbatical this year. Right from the beginning of the year I sought Jesus about my next posting. This year, though it is my Sabbatical, I travelled quite a bit to Sibu, Bintulu, Marudi, Limbang, Kuching, Penang and even Kota Kinabalu to preach, give trainings on reaching out to the indigenous people, and attend seminars. I asked Jesus about how He was going to use me. I honestly told Jesus I was enjoying my ministry in Miri , at the district and Sarawak Chinese Annual Conference (SCAC) Board of Evangelism levels. I was always welcomed in every Methodist church here in Miri. For the past few years because I travelled around to preach the word of God like John Wesley in Miri, I even self-titled myself John Wesley of Miri. (A few very close fellow pastors called me by this self-titled name to make fun of me. I called myself as such because I love John Wesley approach of travelling around, preaching the gospel and making disciples, really making a difference for Jesus) Miri Methodist brothers and sisters love me and my family very much; and treated us very well. We enjoyed serving Jesus and making disciples with them. I did entertain the thought of being posted elsewhere in Sarawak but my family will not move with me. (After my posting, almost everybody assumed that my family is not following me to Sibu. I found out that it was because they thought I had purchased my house in Miri and my family should live in permanently. In fact, when we purchased the house, we told Jesus that we were still willing to move around as posted as family according to the itinerant system. It is a powerful strategy of connectionalism in Methodism. Furthermore, living apart from my family is not healthy and not pleasing to Jesus) I will travel regularly to come back home to see them. Nowadays, so many people are doing it. I feel so good about living in my own house which we purchased more than 3 years ago. Every time, when it rained, I thanked God for this provision of a house and a home. Our whole family feels so comfortable with this house. We did not have this wonderful feeling when we stayed in parsonages for the 17 years in ministry before I left for further studies. I appreciate every corner and inch we have in the house. As for the parsonages, we always thank God for all the provision of facility but we just had a feeling that we would live there temporarily. When we moved into this newly purchased house, we felt so good that we hoped we would not move away anymore. Of course we also feel the presence of Jesus in the house with house. It is through His provision that we were able to buy the house. We told people we would probably retire and live in this house when I retire at the age of 65 (I am now 47). My children are so used to their school and started to get involved in the ISCF. They built up good friendships and loved to be with these familiar faces and close friends. I could feel their friendship was bearing fruit and they were becoming more and more involved with their friends. They like Miri very much because of the friendship. One child even prayed to Jesus 10 times a day sometime before the end of November SCAC posting, to remain behind in Miri. He even asked me to pray the same prayer. I had to tell him, we need to obey Jesus wherever He called us to serve. I said He could go ahead and prayed the way he did but in the end we need to obey Jesus. I also prepared him and the family by telling them the possibility of moving away was high! Lots of people asked us to stay back also. I also told them the same thing. I hope you can imagine with me the good treatment, feeling so at home, being so welcomed, loved and acceptance, great comfort, familiar environment, people, ministry, and the great fellowship that we enjoyed. I think there is nothing seriously wrong with all these. Jesus understands me when I say this. He understands I am always pursuing Him even in comfortable environment, luxurious treatment and loving community life. We could still stay around to make things and people better in the name of Jesus. My wife could still go back to do Girls’ Brigade ministry and bless the sisters in ladies group. Why do we want to leave such a friendly, familiar environment and community? I told Jesus about all these above things. At the same time, I also told Jesus I was prepared to follow Him and pay the price to do it. Given a choice, my wife and children all would choose to stay back. I tried to entertain this thought as it was so natural and logical to choose the familiarity and comfort. As I had more and more serious communion with Jesus in my private dialogue with Him, in my private prayer and devotion time, I told Jesus about the tensions and struggles I had in my heart. I really tried to justify staying back. All the above reasons were rehearsed in my mind and heart. Jesus knew it. On the other hand, there was this constant thought and voice in my heart and mind to tell me to follow and obey Jesus; and I would not go wrong. I would not regret. Obedience to Jesus was at stake. At the end of the day, not my will be done but Jesus’ will be done. I have often taught and challenge my fellow disciples of Jesus to obey Him and not do our own will. Could I do it in this posting? As I sought Jesus, I got a very clear answer from Him about the posting. I heard Him through the still small voice in my heart that said, “Move out of your comfort zone.” When I heard it I knew I was going to leave Miri. I dare not write about this until now as I had to wait until the posting was over to testify if it was Jesus telling me. Now, it has become a reality, I can write this testimony. Even then, as a result of my communion with Jesus, I told people at that time my chance of moving away was very high. I based my answer on the communion with Jesus. One brother quoted another sister saying that I would definitely stay back in Miri. Later on I asked her about it, she said that she actually prayed for me to stay back in Miri. However, she accepted the posting with great obedience. I have to confess I laughed and laughed because he was so certain about it! I hope I did not offend him for that laugh. I could afford to laugh like that because we are so close and I believe he is matured enough to take my laugh. I actually shared with him about my request to minister a BM congregation and at the same time teaching one BM subject in Sibu Methodist Theological School. My objective is to train more theological students to develop a burden and vision for the indigenous people of Sarawak; and become Bahasa Malaysia speaking pastors. If Jesus were to grant me my wish, then, I would be posted back to Sibu. I used the word ‘back’ because I grew up in Sibu. A few brothers and sisters really expressed their wish that we stay back in Miri. Tudan indigenous brothers and sisters also expressed their wish. I told them I did not mind if SCAC posted me there. A Kuching sister said she prayed for me to serve there. I reminded her about what Jesus wanted for me. I confessed to her and all others who asked me about the posting, I said I had my preference and priority but I would obey Jesus by just following the decision of SCAC Board of Appointment posting. If they did not give me what I preferred, I would take it also. I have this mentality because I believe in following Jesus I need to be prepared to pay a price. The SCAC Board of Evangelism recommended me to be a full time director in its October meeting. This was my second choice. I told many people about it. If they thought this was the best way to use me, I obeyed. After Posting I believe I have prepared well for my posting in terms of accepting the leadership decision. I had done my homework in prayers and obedience. I had also prepared my family well. When they heard the news, my wife especially did not take it by surprise. She took it calmly. In fact, she sort of expected that we would move away. I was posted to a mandarin speaking church and doing part time in the Board of Evangelism. It is not my preference, and my priority. However, I took it calmly. I had always wanted to obey Jesus and pay a price to serve Him. I humbly accepted the posting. As I reflected about the posting I even told my wife there must be something that Jesus wanted us to do at En Tao Methodist Church. He has arranged great things for my family there. We need to go there and see what Jesus has installed for us there. My wife said she would expect me to be busy there. My children also took the posting calmly as they more or less expected it. They did not like it but they learnt to take it. I jokingly told them that they would learn Foochow dialect in Sibu and that was their mission. We also have to cope with the stress of packing about 80 boxes of belongings. My whole family is so happy that we are going to stay at parsonage and we can bring along our faithful dog, Liotcy. We have always loved him and he loves us. He is very faithful in looking after our house and he is such a play dog to us. He barks aggressively and fiercely. I even have to trouble my brother to drive over from Sibu in order to transport the dog to Sibu. On the night of 28th November, after the posting, En Tao Methodist Church lay leader, his wife and the outgoing pastor Rev Yong were there to greet me. I could feel the excitement of the couple as we shook hand. I was no stranger to them and vice-versa. We talked very briefly about the ministry there and we ended with a prayer at about 11.15pm. I went to sleep peacefully as I learn to obey Jesus. Comparing this posting of moving away from a place to the previous postings of moving from Bintulu and Kuching, I found that I was much well prepared as I had the whole year to do so. The previous two postings were not totally prepared as I was not at all prepared to move. I was also not given any hint that I would be posted away. However, in those two encounters, we still gladly obeyed Jesus. As we looked back, we saw how the plans of Jesus unfolded in our life after we had gone through the motion in Kuching and Miri. That is why I strongly believe that Jesus has something great installed for us in Sibu this time. A few church leaders have already called me to welcome me to go back to Sibu. They have booked me for preaching in their churches. They look forward to working together with me. I thank Jesus for such excitement from these disciples of Jesus. I look forward to building up new relationships with a new congregation, community of pastors, and Sibu community. I thank Jesus for the many new opportunities and challenges which He will bless my family with. We will be trained and molded to be more like Christ in Sibu. He will bless my children with new teachers, classmates, church friends and a completely new learning environment and community. With all the excitements and forward looking that I have in my mind and heart, I really want to say, “Sibu, I want to embrace you with love.” A Faithful Disciple of Jesus, Pastor Law Hui Seng (25th Dec, 2013, Miri, Christmas) Posted by Teresa Han

My Daughter Grace Learns From Failures

Today is a day of great evidence of learning from failures. If Grace still did not learn from her 3 previous mistakes, she would fail again today for the fourth time during the car driving test. The car driving test looked so easy to some and yet it was so difficult. For the past one year, she learnt driving a car from a coach. She passed her law test. She passed her driving on the road. Then she failed 3 times consecutively in 45degree slope test. Because of these failures, she could not continue with the 3-point turning and L parking. The failures shook her confidence and it was so devastating to her! She wanted to give up trying. At first, she did not even want to discuss with me what her problem was. Each time she failed, I encouraged her to try again and I also told her I did not mind. The first two times she failed it did not bother me much as I believed she should be able to grasp the skill after more practices on the slope. However, she failed the third time. The third time she went for the test, I even called back from my journey to Ulu Belaga mission early in the morning and said a prayer to ask Jesus to give her confidence and I prayed against fear and failure; and I asked Jesus for success at that time. Yet, she failed. I reconciled with myself and explained that it was not God’s timing for her to drive a car yet. However, deep down in my heart, I felt that I need to do something to help her. I felt like as a father, I need to come in with strong support to make sure that she would pass this time. If not, I was afraid she would fail the fourth time. It could become a blow in her life experience. It was really a great test for her life. She must pass this time so that it could build up her confidence to move on in her life. My wife and I prayed for Jesus to open a way for us to help her. We knew the coach had done his best. Grace kept saying it was the problem of the clutch! The car for the driving test is having too high a clutch and she was not used to it! Yet, we did not have the privilege of training using the exact car for the test. We prayed about it. Praise the Lord for Jesus led us to think of the exact car type that the church owns, the small Kancil with manual clutch. Beside using the coach’s car for the usual practice, we use the church car to do more practices on the slope. This car is also having high clutch which Grace had to get used to. I sat beside her during the extra practices at the Road Transport practicing and exam ground; and observed what was her real problem. I instructed her on the coordination between the clutch, handbrake, brake and petrol paddles, and how much to release and the timing to put down the handbrake and release the clutch. All the previous failures had to do with untimely release of handbrake, insufficient clutch release and releasing the petrol paddle too soon. Rev Wong Kee Sing coached me on the timing to release the clutch on our way back from Ulu Belaga mission survey. I forgot about it. I was confident in coaching my daughter with this simple equipping. During Gace’s extra practices, she actually applied what her coach taught and I just came in to help her to identify the main cause of her 3 failures. We finally concluded that the main cause was the timing to release the high clutch. Her minor problem was not pressing the petrol paddle deep enough. I reinforced on these 2 points and got her to practice extra 5 times (about half an hour each time) before the test today. During the extra practices, I studied with her how soon to release the clutch, and how deep she should press the petrol paddle by using the church car which has a high clutch. Praise the Lord she herself realized the main cause of her failures. My wife also came in to coach her and both of us helped her to identify her real cause of failures. She herself really discovered by herself the cause of her failure. This identification actually ensured her to do the right correction. I believe if she had not discovered her own cause of failure and learnt from there, she would still fail the fourth time. After the third failure, I kept reminding her to trust Jesus to help her to pass this crucial life test. I said we need to pray and ask Jesus to help her to overcome anxiety, loss of confidence and fear. In fact, every time we practice together, we pray for Jesus to help and at the end of the training I always got her to thank God for the guidance. She understood my point and she trusted Jesus to do the test. Today, I was present to watch Grace to sit for the life crucial test. Before she went for the test, I prayed to bind the spirits of fear, anxiety and no confidence and cast them out! She also disciplined herself not to be talking to others before the test to keep calm. I also reminded her to grasp the opportunity to test the high clutch of the car she would use for the test so that she would know how much to release. Praise the Lord as I prayed somehow, she needed to wait for quite a few minutes before she went for the slope test. She had plenty of time to test the clutch. As she went up the slope, I continued to pray for Jesus to help her. On the top of slope, I realized my heart was beating so fast, I was so stressed! When she pressed the petrol so much (I could hear the loud engine noise from about 70m away) and then… I thought she was going to slip and failed again. I expected the worst to happen! That was the most anxious moment. Then, I saw that the car did not slip but she waited for quite many seconds to try again. I asked her what happened after the test, she said she sensed something was not right and that was why she did not proceed to release the clutch and handbrake. She actually stopped for many seconds in order to pray and asked Jesus for help to do the right thing. Then, she tried again confidently and calmly. I believed the Spirit of Jesus intervened at that crucial moment of pass or failure. Finally, she was able to pull over the slope steadily. I could imagine her emotion of joy, victory and release. As she came down the slope, I noticed that she stopped below the slope. I was anxious again for her as no driver did that before her. I was wondering what happened. Again, I prayed for Jesus to help her just in case she faced any difficulty. Later on, she told me, in fact she just stopped to say a prayer to thank Jesus for the success at the slope! As she proceeded to the 3-point turning and L parking, she just kept waving to me to tell me from far away that she succeeded. You could not imagine how excited I was in my heart at that moment as my daughter had passed this difficult test of her life. Then, she went on to do the other two slowly. Again I wondered why she took such a long time to do the 2. I did pray for Jesus to help again and again and I was anxious for her. I thought the exam officer might fail her any time. Later on, she told me her engine stopped several times owing to mishandling of the clutch in the midst of turning. She actually prayed to remain calm and restart the engine. In the end, she overcame everything and she emerged victorious! In fact, I did not know whether she passed or failed as she spent donkey years talking to the officer. I thought the exam officer was trying to tell her why he failed her. Finally, she came down from the shade where the officer stood to test the learning drivers. I could not wait for her to come near me to tell the result. I kept shouting from 70m away and asked if she passed or not. From far, she just kept putting up her two arms and waving. Was it a pass or a failure again? As she came running nearer, I saw her smiling face, then, I realized she must have obtained a pass. True enough, as she ran nearer, she answered me, she passed the test. She also shouted at the top of her voice to her mom in the car 40m away that she passed, in response to her question! If Grace was not humble to learn from her failures, she would fail again and she might not be able to take the blow. She would blame herself for her failure. Praise the Lord she is willing to admit her problem and rectify with us from there. I find that it is the same spiritually. In life, if we do not admit that we are proud, greedy, self-centered, having jealousy and unforgiveness and blaming others for our own problems as the main causes of our problems, we will not repent and learn, we will never progress in our relationship with Jesus, others and ourselves. Who wants to enjoy being with proud, selfish, and greedy people? Who wants to interact with people who have hatred and jealousy? Who wants to work with people who like to blame others for their own mistakes? We are our own greatest enemy. The moment you conquer your own enemy by admitting your own problem, mistake or sin, you learn to repent and improve to be a better disciple of Jesus. If not, no matter, how rich, capable, wise, and famous we are, we are still far behind. Therefore, let us be humble and admit our mistakes and even sin, so that we can learn. Will you? Pastor Law Hui Seng (23rd Dec, 2013, Miri) Posted by Teresa Han

An Open Letter to Grace Methodist Church, brothers and sisters, and Friends in Miri

Dear faithful disciples of Jesus and friends, Praise the Lord, in Jesus’ timing, we have crossed path, and we spent 12 great years (2002-1013) with one another, though for the last 3 years, I was doing my theological studies and sabbatical in Miri. The first 9 years, I shepherded GMC and at the same time moving around to do Sarawak Chinese Annual Conference Board of Evangelism ministry. Let me appreciate you and apologize to you. Appreciations Thanks very much for accepting me and my family as imperfect people, with flaws in our characters, relationship with you and Jesus. In the midst of all these, you all have accepted me and my family with open arms and love. I know you forgive me as you continue to relate to me and pray for me. You have tried your best to pray, support and help me (and my family) to be a better shepherd (and better disciples) of Jesus. You all have treated me and my family with great love and blessings. We are never in shortage of material needs. You took good care of our physical health and well being. You even facilitate to provide extra hands for my family so that my wife could be less stressful with the four very young children then. Grace, my oldest child was in primary one then, now, she is doing her ‘A’ level at Kuala Lumpur Methodist College. The physical supports granted so genuinely have helped us to go very far as we feel supported and we do not have to worry about the physical provisions. We felt we were strong to love and bless others in church and beyond. I came to GMC, Miri, at the age of 35 and I leave at 47 (by next year March, I will be 48). GMC is instrumental to bless me with a platform and the means to search deep into the person of Holy Spirit. Together we dared to touch the so called sensitive issues of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Red, Green, Yellow and Purple levels of 9 month disciple course have greatly deepened and widened my understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. It is actually through this disciple class, Jesus placed in us the burden to make disciples among the prisoners and so do prison visitation and bible studies. As GMC allowed me to make disciples among the indigenous people of Miri town, it is here I caught the vision of training more disciples of Jesus to be Bahasa Malaysia speaking pastors. And I have the great privilege to serve with brothers and sisters among the big Miri Methodist family to reach out to the indigenous brothers and sisters. At the district level, I had a chance to serve and preach at all the 15 Methodist churches and preaching centres. I was always welcomed and we had great fellowship that led to long lasting relationship that enhanced the disciple making. Many of you are still in contact with me in these 12 years. These contacts are very powerful because you all shared your hearts with me and I learnt so much from your honest sharing. Your sharing taught me to be more humble in Christ as I learnt that a lot of things in life I was unaware of. I learn to do deeper pastoral care and healing. In GMC, among Methodist church brothers and sisters and friends, when my family and I spent time with you all, you made us feel so at home. The friendships we experienced are a great treasure. These friendships shall become great motivation for us to love Jesus more and make disciples of all nations. Through these powerful friendships, we learnt how to build up deep and close relationships that enhanced discipleship. Through these friendships, we learnt to follow Jesus. Apologies Personally, I have made some mistakes and sinned against you and Jesus. Jesus had dealt with me about my sins. I suffer the consequences of my sins although I am a pastor. Some of you know I made mistake in terms of my unwise speech, hurting words, bad decisions and insensitive to your needs. I also had my negligence in my pastoral care. As a result some sheep are lost! At times, my motive of ministry might be due to pride and I had not glorified Jesus! I had glorified myself. Jesus has mercy on me. He dealt with me. I asked Jesus for forgiveness as I had every tendency to glorify myself. I also ask you for forgiveness as I treated GMC and personal needs lightly and I did not address the hurts and problems deep and serious enough. At the district level, I ask for your forgiveness as I neglected to do follow up and broke my promises from time to time, as a result, the cause of Jesus was not pursued. I am also very sorry about being judgmental and condemned some of us. Please forgive me for acting like God. God has mercy upon me. Sometimes, I saw the big sin in you but I was not able to see my own big sin. Jesus had dealt with me. I need His help and forgiveness very much. My prayer points: a. Pray that my family pursues Jesus only in our earthly life. b. Pray that we humble ourselves and we submit our life to Jesus everyday and obey only Him. c. Pray that we are able to adjust to the new Sibu environment in terms of school, church, ministry, people and roads as quickly as possible. (We are posted to Sibu for the year 2014) I pray that we all honor and obey Jesus and His teaching and make disciples of all nations while we are on earth and while the opportunities are there! A Faithful Disciple of Jesus, Pastor Law Hui Seng (Miri, Sabbatical, 23rd, Dec, 2013) Posted by Teresa Han

Presence of God in Deliverance

As I remain faithful to Jesus and obey Him to do mission and making disciples of all nations, He empowered me and my deliverance team to glorify Him. I prayed to Jesus to give me opportunity to do mission and ministry during my sabbatical year. He just gave me opportunity after opportunity. How Jesus Christ of Nazareth empowered me and my deliverance team in my second encounter really humbled us. We really experienced the empowerment and His presence with us. This time, it happened in Miri (my last deliverance ministry was done in KK), we did three times of deliverance, last Saturday (29th June), Monday (1st July) and Tuesday (2nd July). Each time it took us more than three hours. I shall describe the great two months experience and the precious lessons learned. The Encounter – 29th June Saturday That Saturday my fellow pastor called me to join him to do pastoral care to a middle aged lady to find out whether she was demon possessed or not. The moment I got into the church van, we prayed for forgiveness of our sins; precious blood of Jesus to cleanse us and protect us from harms of the devils, diseases and accidents. We also prayed for Jesus to empower us to discern the spirits. Along the journey going to the lady’s house, from the pastor’s description like how the demon manifested, I said before seeing her, I could confirm that she was demon possessed. Our team consisted of three matured ladies (church leaders), my fellow pastor and the husband of the demon possessed lady. Even before we arrived, the husband told us the demon already knew. As I was still outside the gate of the house, and about to enter the door, the demon spoke out in English (the sister is not well versed in English as told by her husband; and the demon knew that I speak in English) and asked me, “Who are you?” in a very loud fierce voice. As if the demon wanted to scare me and stop me from approaching it. I was not bothered and not feared at all as I know Jesus has empowered all of us His disciples to defeat the devils of all kinds. The demons never stop using scare tactics throughout. I just walked straight to the lady with smiling face. Then, the demon, in a very fierce look and with great anger, shouted out my name in mandarin with the pastor title. As if it wanted to scare me and tell me to back off. (I am the leader of the team and I will continue to do follow up with my fellow pastor.) I am well equipped to do deliverance. Last year, I even gave a seminar on how to do deliverance to about 30 brothers and sisters at Kingfisher Methodist Church (Mandarin congregation) last September, 2012. Eventually, I joined a team to do deliverance on a youth. We delivered him from possession of 29 devils. I am aware from the teaching of the bible and from experience, the demons always lie, scare, pretend, using fierce looking, shaking, manifest themselves through a different voice, twisted face, great strength, controlling the physical body, and enter someone’s body because of footholds. With all the empowerment from the Spirit of Jesus, I was not scared at all. In fact, I told myself and taught others, demons should be scared of the disciples of Jesus because we are filled by the Spirit of Jesus. At first, I planned to worship, and then, counsel her. As we worshipped in singing “In the Cross” in Mandarin, we observed that the demons in the presence of God, struggled. The demons inside her struggled as she sang the song. I could not proceed with my counseling. I went straight to confront the demons and asked the demons in the name of Jesus to tell me their names one by one. While I confronted the demons in the name of Jesus, my team members prayed and sang the cross song. The lady’s husband helped to hold her and sat her down. Praise the Lord, we all experience unity in team work. They obeyed all my instructions. The demons had no choice in the face of Jesus, when we bind and commanded the identified spirits in the name of Jesus to leave her body. Most of the spirits after some struggles, like shaking her body; begging us to let them stay; crying, shouting and looked pitiful, then came out. A vomit is a sign that showed that at least one demon is out. Some of the spirits who were chased out were spirits of lie, pretension, hatred, self-pity, divorce, human beings (a few of them), Thai god, China spirit (coming from a flower jar purchased) and many other spirits which names I could not remember. The demons teased, intimidated, scared and challenged us all the time. There was one spirit which was most stubborn and refused to come out. I asked in the name of Jesus to tell me the reason for refusing to come out. It said it wanted her and her husband to be divorced, only then, it would come out. I reckoned the spirit as the spirit of divorce. Praise the Lord, before the deliverance, under the leading of the Holy Spirit I had asked her husband about their husband and wife relationship, he said there was no problem. Therefore, I could tell the spirit of divorce that their marriage was blessed by Jesus; they love one another; Jesus bind their marriage; and they would not be divorced. Only after quite a few bindings, the spirit of divorce came out. We came to learn quite a few footholds in the house and on the lady herself which caused the demons to enter her body. Most of these were as a result of interpersonal conflicts and bad feelings towards one another; a flower vase that contained syiling; some clothing that was given by particular individuals who had bad relationship with her; some cooking utensils given by certain close family member; some belongings like two golden rings with jades as decoration and a few other items. When these things were shown to her, the demons inside her manifested. A few of these things actually were directed and pointed by her that they contained something not right. The demons actually tried to stop her from revealing these items, but she overcame the demons and pointed out item by item. I could see the demons tried to zip her mouth and not allowed her to tell us the items which became the footholds for the demons to enter her. I believe that these items must have been cursed, worshipped or some kind of black magic must have been done to them. For each of these items, I asked the demons what was the relationship between it and the demon. Each of the demons just reveal the relationship and I bind the demons and commanded them to come out one by one. We really experienced the power of the name of Jesus Christ. Any refusal for the demons to come out, I always said Jesus ordered them to leave her. Before the binding and commanding for each demon to leave the body, I always identify the demons. I observed that a vomit was a sign that at least a demon had come out. The vomitings were a lot and I roughly estimated that the first encounter at least 30-40 demons had come out. In the end, after more than 3 hours, it was late afternoon, about 6pm. I needed to go for a wedding dinner and we were all tired. But, I made it a point to stop and concluded there were many more demons which were not out yet. We need to come back again. I remember to pray a prayer that cut the soul tie with all the lingering spirits. I commanded the spirits not to follow us home. I prayed for the precious blood of Jesus Christ to cover and protect us. I also requested all of us to go back home to pray and discern the causes for these demons to go in. I had also advised the lady to see a psychiatrist just in case the demons have caused some damage to her mental health. Before this, she was actually on psychiatrist medication. I also cannot rule out the possibility that her mental health problem could have caused the demons to enter. The demons actually manifested during her first visit to the psychiatrist. She was asked to come back later. In fact, it was after our intensive deliverance where she was better. Then, the psychiatrist prescribed the medicine for her. I made sure her husband gave her the medicine dutifully. He did it very well. I must say he was very instrumental for her recovery. He showed a great understanding and patience towards his wife. On the other hand, she was able to do all the house work well even in the midst of going through the deliverance. In other words, the family still functioned normally in the midst of the great spiritual warfare. 1st July, 2nd July, and Follow up With Seven Steps To Freedom 1st and 2nd July deliverance were still very intense and it was still full of confrontations using power enter. It means we bind and command. Altogether, I counted, each time we spent 3 hours to do the casting and each time we casted out at least 30 to 40 demons. In the third meeting, even she herself could do it by herself. A few more household things were identified for connection with the demons. However, this time, I made the decision not to throw them away because there may be no end to it. These things were linked to those whom she had offended. We found that there was a very strong stubborn human spirit which refused to come out. We always asked for the spirit, it always said the name of the human spirit. Eventually, we discovered through encounter that she had not truly forgiven the person whom she had bad relationship with. In view of the numerous demons which were still inside her, and we also found that there might be no end to the deliverance as a certain stubborn spirits would not come out. We also realized that we all got tired if we came to do the deliverance continuously everyday like this. With the leading of the Spirit of Jesus, I discussed the change in the course of our action. We switched to the truth encounter and we were prepared to do a marathon spiritual warfare against the demons inside her body. I purposely discussed our change in front of the demons which were present inside her body. The demons actually smiled through her face. I decided to change the strategy because I sensed that she might not realize a certain truth and she herself had given footholds to the demons that still allow them to stay inside. Another practical reason for the change was it caused tiredness to the team members, especially, my fellow pastor who was feeling the stress and the deliverance ministry affected his overall ministry. We decided to take turns to come to minister using material written by Neil Anderson which he emphasized very much on truth encounter. The material is Seven Steps To Freedom. It contains the counseling element that brings out the truths about bondages. And we only did the weekly follow up. We did not want to fall into the trap of demons that tempted us with longer intensive confrontations which did not result in a total freedom. Our change of strategy proved to be correct. On 22nd August, I did the fifth step of the material. As we entered into the house, I saw a smiling face on the lady’s husband and he declared to all of us his wife was freed totally. I looked to his wife’s face and it also showed her freedom from demonic possession. She was able to smile also! Before this, each time I entered the house, she would tell me that she hated me and she would stare at me and gave me a hatred look. How she was finally delivered from the demonic possession? As I looked back, on 17th August, I did step five with her and I also gave a lot of counseling in view of the step. This step is all about forgiveness. I got her to pray to forgive all the people who had offended her. There was this particular person whose spirit actually haunted her and she had difficulty forgiving. I believe this was the human spirit that was so stubborn and refused to come out. Then, I knew why it did not want to come out because she had not forgiven the person. I got her to pray the prayer of forgiveness for this person many times until she forgave him totally. Interestingly, each time she prayed to forgive him, a demon came out. I believe she was able to understand the truth of the harm of unforgiveness after I explained to her. This definitely set her free from the demonic bondage of unforgiveness. In that meeting, I also found that she got angry easily and I believe it was a foothold that allowed the demons to remain inside. I address the need to handle her emotion of anger. She was reminded not to be so perfectionist and control her anger by counting one to ten. I even asked her husband and her only daughter to check on her and remind her if she did not control her temperament, then, the demons will come back to attack her. She improved a bit after that day. I believe this helped her freedom from the demonic possession also. On 17th August, I still anointed her with the blessed olive oil according to James 5 as usual and commanded the demons that disturbed her eyes to come out after the fifth step. Before this during the intensive deliverance, the demons even covered her eye sight and disturbed her vision. I had to keep casting out the demons from the eyes. I believed the demons took control of her eyes because she always gave the hatred look to people whom she did not like. Her husband said that with that anointing of the eyes and deliverance and the fifth step, she was freed from the demonic possession. No wonder all the family members were smiling in satisfaction. I still continued the 6th Step and she was very steady and I found no more manifestation in the course of the prayer. I declared her free! However, my fellow pastor would still continue with the 7th Step. Their church will do the long term follow up with her. I reminded them that they should channel her to a fellowship and continue to grow from there. Precious Lessons Learnt In the deliverance ministry that lasted for about two months, there are precious lessons which I learnt: 1. The Spirit of our Lord led us to name the spirits which we had thought of. These spirits had never occurred to our minds and we bind and command them to come out, they came out. If we were not sensitive to the leading of the Spirit, then, we could not do the job. 2. I decided not to fast despite the difficulty because we need strength to do deliverance. Furthermore, I use it as the last resort. 3. The Spirit of our Lord led me to prayer which I had never done before. I prayed for the Holy Fire, and the sword of the Spirit to come down to cleanse her. The demons inside always struggled, shook and came out. 4. The demons were not only scared of the resurrection of Jesus, His judgment, and the likes of the above, they were also very scared of the light of God, the holiness of God and the righteousness of God. 5. The demons were always under the authority of Jesus. 6. I believe the psychiatrist medication also helps in the deliverance. 7. There is a place for the power and truth encounters to be operated along side in a deliverance ministry. 8. Material like 7 Steps to Freedom is excellent complement in deliverance. 9. Follow up on the demon possessed is part of the deliverance ministry. One must do the ministry until he or she is cleared of the possession. It cannot be given up half-way. Prayer Points: 1. Praise the Lord for the great leanings in the last 2 deliverances. I was very humbled by Jesus. Do pray that more pastors would be trained to do deliverance. 2. Pray that Jesus will empower me to conduct the deliverance seminar in Miri on 6th September. Pray that the church concerned will set up a future deliverance team. 3. Do continue to pray for me as I am still at the fifth chapter of my book. 4. Pray that Jesus will grant me the wisdom to do the vision for Ulu Belaga Penan Mission. 5. Pray for my daughter Grace who is studying A level at KL Methodist College that she will overcome the English language difficulty and do well. A Faithful Disciple of Jesus, Pastor Law Hui Seng (Sabbatical, 27th August, 2013, Miri) Poated By Teresa Han