Malaysia EN Newsletter 2022

Dear Reverend / Pastor / Elder

IntroductionShalom from all of us at Our Daily Bread Ministries.

Year 2022 has been a year of transition as we find ourselves coming back to being physically together again – in church, families, friends and work. It is also a year where the urgency of being in the Lord and having others know the Lord, may have slowed down as we focused on this transition.

We are moved, to once again raise the clarion call; for Malaysian Christians to deepen our daily seeking of the Lord, and not just ensuring this happens for our own communities and mother tongues, but also especially for our Bahasa Malaysia-speaking communities who have lesser good-quality Christian resources in their heart language.

This year, we have produced and prioritised family-related resources across all three languages; English, Chinese and BM.

In the Bible, we learn the influence and impact of families on an individual and community’s worldviews, behaviour and salvation. We pray and hope that as families and individuals partake, reflect and respond to His word together, lives of Malaysians would also be changed.

As a community of faith, we hold onto Joshua 24:15, “But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we thank you for serving together with us, as you journey with us in prayers, encouragement, financial support as well as volunteering your talents and time. We thank the Lord for giving us the honor and privilege of being one in the Lord together. Please share this newsletter with your family, friends and church’s members as we value their support. We look forward to continuing to enlarge the place of the Lord’s tent together.

Special Projects

Cause Project: Building A Bridge 3.0

The majority of Christians in Malaysia are Bahasa Malaysia (BM) speakers, and biblical resources are still far and few for them.

Since 2018, we’ve embarked on the Building a Bridge project to fill this gap by producing materials written in BM and Bahasa Iban.

grateful for the response and thank God for His provision.

Following up on our Cause Project, we launched the Building A Bridge 3.0 project this year. We focused on helping families by developing BM materials for couples, teenagers and children.

encourage readers to partner with us to help reach our goal of RM500,000 in funding to cover the cost of production, print and distribution of biblical resources.

Easter Project: Through The Eyes of Witnesses

In Easter 2022, our readers experienced fresh insights through six perspectives of eyewitnesses who were there at Jesus’s death and resurrection. Their eyewitness accounts allowed us to see the familiar Easter story in a new light, deepening our relationship with the Light of the World.

Focus on the Word

Quarterly Daily Devotional

Most people in the Christian community regard Our Daily Bread Daily Devotional as their well-loved devotional. It is available in print and digital formats, as well as through our website, email subscription, and mobile app.

With the country transitioning to endemicity, distribution of hardcopy devotionals have resumed. However, the price of printing and distributing have increased tremendously. We will continue to do our best to deliver spiritual resources to your door. Do encourage your friends and family to sign up for the devotional.

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Journey Through Series

For use by individuals or small groups, this is an in-depth study of one book of the Bible every three months. Both print and online versions are accessible. In 2022, we released Job, Nehemiah and Ezra, and Joshua. We will be releasing Psalms 51-100 in December 2022. We plan to release Haggai & Malachi, Deuteronomy, 1 Corinthians and 1 & 2 Thessalonians in 2023.

Discovery Series

We have a compilation of over 150 topical studies written by popular ODB writers to help our readers’ spiritual growth. Our Discovery Series cover topics like Marriage & Family, Life Struggles, Evangelism & Mission, Contemporary Issues, Christian Living and many more. They are available online and in print as per email request to malaysia@odb.org

In 2023, we will be releasing the following topics:

• Clinging to Hope in the Storm

of

the

How Jesus

Pain and Offers Us Comfort

Practices to

Faith

Journal for Seniors (Offer)

In 2022, we put more effort into producing biblical resources for seniors and invited our readers to get a copy of our latest booklet “You Are My Strength: Prayer for Seniors”. It is a collection of prayers penned by veteran pastors for seniors facing challenges and concerns in life.

Prayer Prayer Changes Things (Testimonials Update)

We created a special prayer resource page to help Malaysian Christians connect with God. We updated our prayer resource page this year with new testimonies contributed by our readers.

Making Sense of Malaysia’s Floods

The nationwide floods that hit Malaysia before Christmas last year came as a shock. We published an article to help Christians make sense of the crisis.

Pray for Ukraine and Russia

When the Ukraine-Russia conflict happened, we posted a prayer content on Facebook to encourage our readers to pray for peace for both nations.

Fasting Spotlight

We also published a fasting article to encourage Christians to set aside time to fast and pray in order to seek after God.

Evangelism

Daily Faith Project

We launched a new resource site called Daily Faith to encourage Christians to start a conversation with the intention of sharing faith with their friends and families. This website provides talking points to equip you with Christian perspectives on God and the meaning of life.

Discipleship

Family Devotion

Website: In August 2022, we launched the Family Devotion website with resources, guidelines, and sample videos to help parents with pre-teens begin family devotions at home. We offered a set of seven devotional booklets for boys and girls with each series distributed every quarterly. We encourage parents to start family devotions with their children by subscribing to the print or digital offer.

Facebook Community Group:

The Bible encourages us to journey through life together, rather than alone. Community is God’s desire for us – and a sign of mature faith. In the heart of community support, we also created a Facebook community group to support and engage with parents to share stories, thoughts, and perspectives in order to encourage one another on their Family Devotion journey.

Discipleship

Christmas Project: Rekindle

For Christmas 2021, we brought together seven Malaysian pastors from various denominations to share their thoughts with our readers through a video presentation. They talk about the joys of serving God full-time and how to rekindle our love and hope in Jesus. We also adapted one of our Discovery Series called “Windows on Christmas” into a series of devotional videos.

Local Content

For the past 12 months, we produced online campaigns, devotionals, and short articles to encourage Christians to reflect on and apply God’s Word in their lives. Among the most wellliked ones that have appeared on our website, e-newsletter, and Facebook are:

Online Articles

Making Sense of Malaysia’s Flood

3 Ways to Stay Hopeful for the New Year

Prayer is Our Weapon in War

Church in the Metaverse: Are You Ready?

Facebook Post

• First Day of Lent (Ash Wednesday): A Facebook post to remember Jesus Christ’s sacrifice for us as Christians observe Lent by fasting, repentance and reflections prior to Easter celebrations.

YMI articles

• YMI, pronounced ‘Why Am I?’, is part of ODBM with content targeted at young adults to ask the why and know their purpose.

Mental Health Project

• Our new site Hope for the Wounded was created to raise awareness of mental health issues in Malaysia, with resources, guides and helplines.

2022 ODB Newsletter Chinese Content

14 Quarterly Daily Devotional

The quarterly Simplified Chinese (SC) and Traditional Chinese (TC) Our Daily Bread are the beloved daily devotionals for many. Readers can request for a printed copy, read the devotional articles online, download mobile apps or subscribe to daily emails. We hope that readers will be able to live out the life of God through reading, reflection and response, turning what they have learned into action. We are also looking forward to collaborating with churches. Our co-workers can visit the church to share the methods and essentials of reading Our Daily Bread and help brothers and sisters to walk with God daily.

Journey Through Series

This is a series of book-by-book Bible materials to help readers systematically read the entire Bible, both in print and digital. The available titles are Job, Nehemiah and Ezra, Joshua, and Psalms 51-100 in 2022. Check out the Journey Through website for existing titles.

Discovery Series

This series of books are biblical-based and explores topics related to life, including theological doctrines, Bible study, marriage and parenting, counselling and Christian life etc. to help believers grow in faith and face challenges in life with wisdom. The following are the latest books uploaded to Our Daily Bread Ministries website:

Intimate Union

Thinking About Heaven

Finishing Well

Clinging to Hope

Evangelism

PrayerPrayer is one of the ways we connect with God to find comfort and strength. That’s why we’ve prepared prayer resources to help readers continue to trust God in any situation, such as:

• Intercession webpage

• Pray for Ukraine

• 10 Loving Prayers for Your Husband: A wife’s prayer for her husband acts as a tender guardian of his life. We encourage wives to pray for their husbands in ten ways and to meditate on God’s Word through corresponding devotional articles.

We thank God for opening the doors of the gospel for us, giving us the opportunity to serve and reach out to others. This year, we launched the following resources:

• New Hope - Christmas resource

• How is Jesus different? - Easter resource

• Evangelistic materials

Local Content

To help readers engage with the Bible and apply God’s Word to their daily lives, we have special projects, devotional materials, and Spotlight articles. You can find the following spiritual resources by browsing our website, newsletter or Facebook:

Counselling resources on mental health

Readers are encouraged to engage with God’s Word for wisdom, comfort and strength. In this webpage there is a self-examination chart, articles, videos and devotional booklets.

Following Jesus to the Cross

During Easter, we created a special webpage based on the book ‘Following Jesus to the Cross’ by Rev. Lim Kar Yong, inviting readers to pray and meditate on the experiences of Jesus and His disciples and followers during Holy Week.

Family Devotion

The influence of family on a person is huge and farreaching. We have prepared devotional materials and suggestions suitable for different age groups, hoping to help the whole family get closer to God.

Fruit of the Spirit

This webpage features nine testimonies of people who choose to obey God’s word in difficult and painful times, and then bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Prayers for Seniors to Pray

We prepared 32 prayers written by senior pastors to encourage elders to pray for themselves, others and their relationship with God.

The Best Season Yet (audio)

We selected a series of articles from Our Daily Bread to help readers ponder God’s love and the meaning of life, and appreciate the beauty of each season in life.

Spotlight Articles

This webpage discusses current topics in Malaysia, and shares spiritual views through the articles. You are welcome to contribute your writing to us.

Morning Greeting Pictures

We encourage readers to share God’s truth by forwarding morning greeting pictures to friends and family. To get these images, follow ODB Simplified Chinese’s Facebook page.

YA-MI

The Chinese version of YMI, which is also an affiliate of the Our Daily Bread Ministries, YA-MI aims to encourage young people to find their purpose in life and to use their voice to deliver good news to those around them.

ODB

Malaysia Content

Cause Project:

Easter Project

This Easter, we translated the book ‘Following Jesus To the Cross’ by Rev. Lim Kar Yong. For the BM version, there was no print edition but only a digital one on our website entitled Mengikut Yesus ke Jalan Salib, which are 12 days of Easter readings and reflection.

Focus on the Word

Pedoman Harian (Our Daily Bread daily devotional)

Pedoman Harian’s daily devotional reading can now be obtained digitally through our website, Facebook, Instagram, e-mail subscription, mobile app or through Whatsapp broadcast. Send a WhatsApp message to 012-3751718 to request to be on our broadcast list and we will send the daily readings directly to your phone every morning.

For print, we encourage you to get the Pedoman Harian Annual Edition 2023. Do contact us to get a copy for your church as well.

Siri Perjalanan Iman (Journey Through Series)

This in-depth Bible book series is suitable for use in personal or group study. Available in Malay translation now are Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Philemon & Colossians and Romans. These titles are available in print only.

Discipleship

For five Mondays in October 2022, we organised a Discipleship Workshop based on our Siri Pemuridan books 6-10. The lessons were taught by Pastor Patricia Galidau, a lecturer from Borneo Theological Seminary. You can visit our website at siripemuridan.org to know more about this 10-book discipleship series.

Local Content

We write reflections, readings, short articles and encouragement to bring readers back to God’s word. Below are articles contributed by pastors, the BM congregation and ODB staff:

• Pesta Kaamatan dan Gawai: Yesus Melebihi Adat dan Budaya

• Coretan Hamba Tuhan

• Hari Wanita Sedunia

• Hari Ibu

• Hari Guru

• Hari Bapa

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Please join us in prayer as we continue to translate, produce, and distribute spiritual resources to support local churches and Malaysians. Our efforts are made possible because we believe in His vision and mission and that our Lord has provided the necessary talents and resources.

We welcome any donation or financial support that enables us to make God’s Word understandable and accessible to all.

Please keep us in mind.

Shalom, and we look forward to being with you and your congregation.

For the Word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4: 12)

We serve in Christ, Caroline Ong Country Director, Malaysia Our Daily Bread Ministries

Prayer Support

We need your prayer support. We rely on God’s grace and mercy to help people stay close to Him and His Word through ODBM’s biblical resources. May God do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20) as we lift up ODBM Malaysia and Malaysia as a country to His hands. Let us pray together that:

• The ODB team remains intimately close to God and is sensitive to God’s will for Malaysian Christians and churches. This will help us to discern, plan and execute on digital and print availability of biblical resources in English, Chinese and Bahasa Malaysia, as well as Tamil and Iban.

• This unity of heart and work will enlarge the place of the tent for Christians to better access and understand the Bible.

• More pastors, elders, leaders and members of congregations across all denominations could get to know and utilise the full-range of ODB resources to deepen their spiritual walk.

• Doors will open for us to connect and collaborate with other Christian para-churches organisations including schools, prisons, outreach and other non-profits organisations.

• Malaysian Christians rise up to further support the production and distribution of BM work and resourcesfinancially, prayers, identification of needs, distribution of materials and to join our team as talents.

• The right people to join the ministry in His timing and purposes, whether as full-time, part-time or volunteers to serve together. Our needs are great across different functions and offices in Malaysia.

Your Contributions Bring The Word To Others