Permai Snapshot
If
Issue 35 September 2020
God is for us,
who can be against us? ROMANS 8:31
Serving during MCO
Serving by Grace The song “Our God” once again kept playing in my mind on and off during the period of MCO. “And if our God is for us, then who could ever stop us? And if our God is with us, then what can stand against us?” I remember I was humming this song during my son’s eye surgery about 4 years ago. However, I am not sharing about what God had done for my son and my family this time. During the MCO period, all God’s children were stopped from having our weekly fellowship and opportunity to serve in church. However, thank God that our praise and worship (PNW) and also the multimedia (MM) team had the privilege to continue serving by recording our praise and worship amidst the “stay at home” order. Recording from home was never easy for most of us, as non-professional singers/musicians and with limited recording equipment. It was the “first time” experience for most of us in recording, singing / playing instruments in front of the screen and tedious editing works. Even though we stayed at home, most of us would still need to work from home and the recording would have to be done during the night time/weekends. Some need to spend sleepless nights and sacrifice their rest times during the weekend to do recording and editing works. There was once when the MM team had to burn the midnight oil, to complete editing work before uploading the video late on Saturday night due to some technical issues on the recording.
By: Kok Jia Yunn
I remembered the first time when I was recording at home together with 2 other team members, we faced some technical issues with our equipment and instrument. We prayed earnestly for God’s help and intervention. Thank God, after 3 hours, by the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit, the technical problems were fixed and our recording went on smoothly. The second time recording didn’t start smoothly as the sky turned dark and it started to rain heavily with thunderstorms. We waited for the rain and thunderstorm to stop and just as we were about to give up and postpone our recording to another day, the thunderstorm stopped. Praise the Lord, we could start recording and we thank God for His presence and grace. There’s nothing we can give to God other than our hearts. Many times I would think why God has chosen me in this PNW ministry as I do not have great voice or music talent and leadership quality. During this MCO period, the message of Paul in
“I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power” 1 Corinthians 2:3-5
once again reminded and strengthened me.
In applying these verses to me, as I serve, it is not how good my voice is or how great a leader am I but to demonstrate the Spirit’s power. Although our recording production may not be the best compared to other great recordings online, yet we had successfully recorded altogether 13 recordings (with our limited knowledge, time and resources) and gave the opportunity for our church and other church members to continue worshipping our God at home. All glory be to our Almighty God! Most importantly, I believe all of us who participated during this period of MCO (on or behind screen) would have experienced God’s wonderful grace and power despite all the
”...My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness…“ (2 Corinthians 12:9). obstacles and difficulties.
The dream: Journey of Serving Serving by Grace The
above was written in early July when I was invited by Sis. Ocean (Literature & Communication Ministry Head) to write about “Serving by Grace during MCO”. After it was completed, I was reluctant to submit the sharing as I felt there was something lacking in it. As such, I prayed to God to reveal His will. However, after much waiting, there was nothing and I planned to just wrap up and submit the initial sharing. It was a Sunday morning, the same day which I planned to submit the sharing, when I got a dream in my sleep. It was quite a scary and weird dream and when I awoke from the dream, I asked God what He wanted to tell me through the dream. I was shocked when the particular Sunday’s sermon by Ps Chee Keong corresponded to the dream I had. Therefore, I would like to share the dream with you as follows. Our church was having a church camp and everyone was happily going to the campsite with our family. While we were enjoying ourselves, suddenly there came a few monsters and they were running around catching people. Those caught by the monsters would be infected and transformed. Some of us were trying to battle the monsters, some trying to escape using all sorts of methods, some tried to take their belongings while escaping, but many did not win the battle. During the chaotic moments, someone instructed us to group together and walk in a line towards the exit of the camp. I saw many lines were made up and we were told to sing praise lgasdcs
By: Kok Jia Yunn and worship songs continuously while we walked. Miraculously, when we were in a line holding on to each other and singing praises, those monsters could not get near us. Although we could see the huge exit gate ahead, it seems like a long way for us to get there. As we walked, some got tired, slowed down, and the line loosened. The moment the line loosened, the monsters could get near us and grab some of us. Those who were left continued to walk forward, we came to a deep valley where we had to jump over to get to the exit. At this juncture, some of us could not bear the hardship and chose to jump into the valley. Some chose not to jump and ended up being caught by the monsters. Those who succeeded continued to walk in line and sing praises. When we were nearing the exit gate, all of us were so tired and slowed down. However, our leader could not wait for us and he chose to go on by himself. We shouted for him to stop but he continued with a saddened and depressed face. Sadly, after a while I saw him vanished. As we passed the exit gate, there was a huge apartment on our left. Many people looked out from their windows and cheered. There were also many church leaders standing at the gate to welcome us. God revealed to me in this dream that we as God’s children, our mission on this earth is to serve our Lord with all our heart and worship Him unceasingly, but how many would endure until the end?
1. “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). It is our privilege to serve our Lord together with others. However, there were times when our selfcenteredness overcomes pure conscience in serving our God. We may tend to battle using our own strength and wisdom. Our eyes are fixed on the outcome of what we do but not on God. Sometimes we may succeed and end up being proud of our success instead of giving glory to God. At times when we failed, we may waver and think that God is not with us. Serving the Lord may be secondary to us, with the mentality of “serving when I have the time only”. It is like trying to take our belongings (earthly problems) which adds to our burden during our journey of serving which may lead us to fall. The devil is roaring around like a lion to devour those as such. Resist him, standing firm in faith and lean on God in whatever we do.
3. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves” (Philippians 2:3) I felt a great burden and discomfort as I recalled the scene when the leader left the team depressed and subsequently vanished. He was too proud and thought he could go on by himself to reach the exit gate. We who serve in the PNW team are at a place where people could notice us easily. We are the ones usually being praised for how wonderfully we sing, how talented we are in playing instruments, etc. We are always in a danger of falling into the temptation of being proud. “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:7 “for who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did not receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?” “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time” (1 Peter 5:6).
2. “then make my joy complete by being likeminded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose” (Philippians 2:2) God has given us different gifts and God wants us to use our gifts “with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 4:11). Romans 12:5 tells us that although we are many, we make up one body (team), and we are members of one another. Failure to understand and practice this is the cause of much division and complacency within our team and church. Therefore, it is important to uphold and hold on to each other in our team during our walk of serving. The “strong” continue to encourage the “weak” till the end of the journey so that no one will be left behind. Worship the Lord and pray unceasingly, in good or bad times, and we will see good things are going to happen in our life and church.
4. “Be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded” (2 Chronicles 15:7) Although during the journey of serving, there would be many obstacles and hardships, we thank God that He promised our work will be rewarded on that day. “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1) Let us be self-controlled and alert, humble and patient, cling to our God and worship Him in all situations. Continue to serve our Lord with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. Lastly, I would like to thank God for giving me this opportunity and privilege to serve Him and our church in PNW ministry. I am touched and deeply encouraged by all our PNW and MM team members who are willing to serve and to sacrifice in doing God’s work. By the grace of God, together we will continue to walk this journey of serving and do greater things for the kingdom of God. When God is for us, no one can ever stop us from doing His wonderful work; and if God is with us, who can stand against us from the love of God! To God be all the Glory!
Serving by Grace
By: Joseph Chan | Translated by: Choo Ting Hou
The blessings of five loaves and two fish: Behind-the-scenes production of Online Sunday School It was an evening in the end of March when I received a phone call – frankly speaking, I seldom answer calls in the evening, but I picked up the call anyway because it was from Rev. Pung. Ever since the Movement Control Order (MCO) was implemented in our country on Mar 18, our Sunday School ministry was suspended. As the Sunday School superintendent, I decided to wait and see because I was unsure how Sunday School programmes should be carried out under such circumstances. Therefore, we showed the animation of “The Pilgrim’s Progress”, a Christianity classic, to the children and parents on the last two Sundays in March. After saying greetings in the phone call, Rev. Pung shared his views in a gentle tone by encouraging the Sunday School to begin its online production. “Let the children see their teachers’ faces and hear their voices,” I remember him saying. Moved by Rev. Pung’s encouragement, myself, Violet and a few other core teachers started to plan and act accordingly, even though we had no inkling as to how to record videos and were unsure what talents, gifts and resources we could offer. Soon, a few audacious teachers were willing to take on the assignments of storytelling and making handicrafts. Then, Esther managed to identify brothers and sisters who had musical instruments at home and were ready to commit themselves to recording praise and worship (P&W) videos.
These elements established the three content structures in the Online Sunday School (OSS) programme – P&W, biblical storytelling and simple handicrafts. Teachers would record videos at their respective homes and upload them to a designated Google Drive destination within a specific timeline. The church’s multimedia team would then take over to perform final video editing, such as insertion of front-page design, improvement of sound quality, mitigation of unsteady scenes, etc. Upon completion, these videos would be uploaded to Facebook and YouTube to be broadcasted online each Sunday at designated times. I have discovered the following throughout the journey of learning, collecting, recording & editing the weekly video and broadcasting since April:
1. Teachers at Permai Chinese Methodist Church (PCMC) and Putra Prima Preaching Point (PPPP) are highly talented.
2. The multimedia and literature teams comprise of very systematic, faithful brothers and sisters serving in low profile.
• I would not have discovered the many talents and creativity among the teachers had it not been because of the OSS production. • I had only provided a rough idea for each content – for example the theme of Jesus’ resurrection as well as the Bible verse for the production for a particular week. The teachers would then find their own materials, arrange the story narratives to deliver messages clearly to the children through interesting videos. The weekly messages were effectively delivered by the means of biblical animations, puppet shows, iPad Bible app, games for parents and children, play-acting for the entire family, etc. • On the other hand, the children especially like the sessions to make simple handicrafts, and I was surprised by the teachers’ talents in handicraft-making and leading the sessions online! I personally thought the quality and creativity of the handicrafts were perfect. We made all sorts of handicrafts – 2D, 3D, lovely ones and even those meant for scientific experiment. Sometimes, I wait with great anticipation to receive the videos recorded by the teachers for handicraft-making on a weekly basis.
The OSS production requires a lot of support from the multimedia and literature teams. I realised that people serving in these teams were very systematic, serious in their jobs and clear about the production procedures. There were people who specialise in designing, editing, uploading to YouTube and publishing posts on Facebook. These people made up a professional video production team. Special thanks go to Michael, Raymond, Ocean, Walter and Eugene for their contributions behind the scenes. 3. Accomplished through teamwork; more children and families blessed out of grace. Lastly, I want to thank God for giving us such a team, in which everyone contributed wholeheartedly in their respective position to accomplish productions for every Sunday within the stipulated timeline. Everyone’s contribution matters in storytelling, leading P&W and handicraft-making sessions, video-recording and editing, coordinating tasks etc. The experience was also at the same time a grace, when God used what we did in the OSS production to not only serve the children and families in our church, but also those in other churches.
May God turn the OSS production into His five loaves and two fish to bring more goodness and assistance to more people. Amen!
ONLINE SUNDAY SCHOOL
What is
all about? Sharing & Thanksgiving
By: Esther Hii
A year and a half of organizing and preparation, the Alpha course for year 2020 finally began on 1st of March 2020, running simultaneously at our church and preaching point in Putra Prima. However, due to the Movement Control Order, the Alpha course was forced to be put on hold after the third lesson. Amidst the uncertainties brought about by the pandemic, we would never know when the classes would be resumed. It could be a few months or a year-long of endless waiting. What about our new non-believer friends who had just joined us? How would they feel? Would they not join us again? If we are to do it online, neither us nor the participants are savvy in it, let alone the elderly in the group. Doubts and worries arose. Fear not, worry not. Let us seek the will of the Lord, seek for His guidance and enlightenment, God is supreme and we shall walk with Him by His side. We prayed, committed and entrusted ourselves unto the Lord - asking God for wisdom, strength, and resources that we need, for nothing is impossible with Him. The organizing committee from both PCMC and PPPP had unanimously agreed to combine and move the course online. God prepared and paved the way for us. An opportunity arose for us to join the online Alpha training course organised by the Alpha Hub in Malaysia, to learn and equip ourselves on how to run the Alpha course online. By the grace of the Lord, we began our first online Alpha on the 10th of May 2020. Prior to that, we gathered our students to join our in-house training course to practice and get familiarized with online classes, it has not been easy. What touched me most is that, our committee members had privately contacted our fellow participants to guide and practice with them on how to use the online
platform effectively prior to the actual class and also contacted their family members or relatives to adjust the setting for them to ensure a smooth process of going online. All these efforts and initiatives would not be made possible without a faithful heart to serve the Lord. Our Online Alpha Course was conducted over a period of 7 weeks and was successfully completed on 21st of June. It was a mixed feeling as we long to meet each other again. Treasure the pandemic. Online Alpha has enabled our new friends as well as our brothers and sisters from PCMC and PPPP to be acquainted with each other. Separated by the screen, we tend to be less shy and more courageous to share our thoughts, our opinion, our mood of the day, and request for prayers. The pandemic has been a hot topic and unintentionally broke the silence among us. On top of that, we no longer had to worry of being late for Alpha classes anymore since it was conducted online. Is life more than this? The birth of a newborn, growing up, going to school and receiving education, entering workforce, starting own career, getting married, starting own family, having children, getting old day by day with some ups and downs in between, eventually breathe our last breath and are laid peacefully to rest. Isn’t that a familiar story of everyone’s life? Through the Alpha course, a group of strangers were acquainted with each other. Within the group, the lost was searching for purpose and meaning of life, seeking for the God who created us, wanting to communicate with Him and be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, inviting the Holy Spirit to live in us and guide us at all times. Learning to listen to the words of God, the knowledge in the bible, learning how to pray for CIGUC
ourselves and the people around us, searching for the light at the end of the tunnel, to declare our identity as the children of God, and live our life for God and the Kingdom of God. This year, we had 38 participants in total. Among which, 5 to 8 are new friends and nonbelievers, 15 of which are our existing ‘luke-warm’ church members and the remaining 10 to 15 are our committee members and small group leaders. Most of our committee members and small group leaders are in the same role as our church Cell Group Leaders, who faithfully endeavour to invite their cell group members and non-believer friends to join the Alpha course. Although the course has ended, they continued the pastoral work by taking the initiative to invite participants to join their cell group so that they may continue to grow spiritually. This is incredibly amazing in the eyes of the Lord. We are convinced, if more and more brothers and sisters are willing to commit themselves to organize and run the course together and to invite their friends over, it would surely be a great platform to spread the gospel. “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news”. Regardless of whether life is smooth sailing or full of ups and downs, we need to acknowledge the creator of our life. Whether young or old, we have our shortcomings, even though we attend church every Sunday, we do have areas that we are lacking off. The Alpha course might seem to be a Christian foundation course but undoubtedly it is
a great platform to preach the gospel and bring people to God. Irrespective of your age, gender, race, or whether you are already a Christian or not, as long as you are interested or keen to know more about the Christian faith, our doors are open to welcome you to join us.
Join us, on our next Alpha in August 2021, and bring along your friends! Or, you may join us through the following approach: 1. Be part of our Organizing Committee 2. Be part of our Prayer Intercessory group 3. Become Small Group Leader/Assistant 4. Organize the Alpha program at your respective community and/or workplace The Alpha course covers basic Christian teaching on the person of Jesus, faith, prayer, Holy Spirit & Church.
1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.”
Renewed in Sharing & Thanksgiving
Strength
By: Angelina Tiong | Translated by: Esther Hii
Participant’s Feedback Hometown: Sarikei, Sarawak Currently attending worship at Permai CMC
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, peace be with you all. Allow me to share my thoughts with all of you on the Alpha Course which I attended. Currently I am a homemaker. I was raised in a Christian family. After completing my studies and started working, I gradually became alienated from the Lord. Of which, I am ashamed of. Right before I attended the Alpha course, I was at my lowest point and painful moment of my life. I am grateful and at the same time thankful to the Lord, that even though I had strayed away from God for a long time, yet He has never given up nor abandoned me - He still loves and treasures me! He sent a few angels to my side, to call me back to His side and consistently encourage me, that I would have the opportunity to come back to Lord’s side, to have an intimate relationship with Him, and once again be renewed by the Holy Spirit, hvkc
to pray more, to attend church activities, to listen to the words of God and God will surely work in me. Thankfully, I followed and obeyed accordingly. After attending the Alpha course, I realized I have a better and more intimate relationship with God and I got to know Him more. Deep in my heart I am truly touched by this. I felt myself being surrounded and filled with the Holy Spirit. Apart from this, I also met many new friends of whom I fondly call brothers and sisters in Christ getting to hear their testimonies and stories of what they had been through in life. Indeed, I gained and learned a lot, truly benefited and blessed. Ever since I reconciled and returned to the Lord, I felt such peace and joy in my soul, for the Holy Spirit has truly filled my life, my heart is full of love and positivity that renewed my strength. Thank you Lord, all praise and glory to the Lord most high. Amen.
Editor: Ocean Chan ▪ Proofreader: Deborah Chow ▪ Designer: Josaphine Tiong
Please send articles & feedback to: permaisnapshot@gmail.com Interested to join the editorial team? Speak to us at 016-3374560
