E-Community Newsroom

A Thousand Apologies

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on January 14, 2009

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Wow…I didn’t realize that it has been four months since I posted on this blog. Many events had come and gone in the the church for the last four months. Maybe I will try to give a quick update:

1. The Junior Youth Camp was excellent - Air Itam Dam Team Building Centre. I was told that we had the most juniors attending last year.

2. The Annual Youth Camp at Hosba Resort, Jitra went well. We have about 80 campers. The meeting hall was terrible, the boys dorm was yacky (stuck toilets and overflow) but the food was good, the games quite interesting (especially the pool games), the bible quiz was exhausting, blah, blah, blah. But the worship and the services were great. At the end of the day the youths enjoyed themselves tremendously!!

3. The children’s mini-camp was tremendous! They enjoyed themselves very much.

4. Well…christmas was a time of eating and feasting and giving.

Let me share briefly with you the THEME for this year: LET US RETURN …….

Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord! – Lamentations 3:40

Return to Right Relationship (January - April 2009)

Our goal is to lead the church in examining and reflecting on our relationship with the Lord.

§ It is a call to return to intimacy – renewing our confidence in Him.

§ It is a call to return to the Lord and allowing Him to work through in our lives any integrity issues, sin, wounds inflicted and hurts we left buried within our hearts!

Return to the Word (May – August 2009)

Our inner life, the life of the Spirit, the renewal of our mind, and worship are all important issues that we need to revisit as we allow God to continually transform us from glory to glory.

§ It is a call to return to the Lord in consecration – building an altar unto the Lord.

§ It is a call to return to a lifestyle of worship – building the temple; a spiritual house offering spiritual worship as sweet incense unto the Lord (1 Peter 2:5)

§ It is a call to return to the purity and purification of the Word of God – rebuilding the wall of spiritual discipline and upholding the sacredness of God’s Word.

Return to Servanthood (September – December 2009)

§ We will turn our attention to true service that flows out of faith and love. We will return to the business of imparting lives, transforming communities and reaching the nations. This is where we want to explore all avenues of love in action within the household of faith, the community around us, and unto the ends of the earth!

From Buddha to Jesus Seminar

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on September 20, 2008

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The last two days the church hold a BTJ Seminar and we saw at least 350 people attended on the friday night meeting and about 200 attended the one day semnar today (9 am - 4 pm). We learned a lot about sharing the gospel the way Jesus did. The speaker, Steve Cioccolanti, shared about the non-offensive way in reaching our buddhists friends and relatives. One of the the things that we learned was the fact Buddha had a great insight into the suffering of man and the Karma (sin) of mankind. In buddhist teachings we see the presentation of man’s problem but there was really no solution. In Christ, through his death and resurrection, God shows us the way out of suffering and sin.

That’s the gist of what the seminar is all about. You can visit the website for more info: www.discover.org.au

2nd Marriage Enrichment Weekend (5 - 7 December)

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on September 8, 2008

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We had our first Marriage Enrichment Weekend on July 25-27 at Copthorne Hotel and the couples who went were tremendously blessed. I was there too (Pr Heok Cheow). Attention…married couples - please sign up for this weekend. You will not regret it.

Please read what Pr Tony & Margaret Foster (the Speakers / Facilitators) said in his blog:
http://tonymargaret.wordpress.com/2008/08/04/marriage-encounter-success/

July 25 – 27 was a tremendous time with pastoral couples, as we explained how to have a sound marital house. Our focus was on seven principles that cultivate a marriage that not only stays happy, but a marriage that can do what God has called that marriage to do and to become. We all need to be reminded that marriage is primarily designed to make us holy more than to make us happy. The marriages that we have had to counsel all have the same fundamental problem, they fail to take their character weaknesses to Christ in repentance and ask God to change them. Marriage is the best place where God can reveal the things in our life He wants to change and character that He needs to develop in our life. The real issue is that when the pressure of marriage reveals our secret sins, we must not blame our spouse, we must call it what it is and ask for God’s transformational power in our lives. As a follow up to the marriage encounter we will be leading a group of about 12 couples and teaching them to become marriage mentors for their church.

9th Men’s Encounter

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on September 2, 2008

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It may be a little late in reporting but still good to post a little of what happened at the 9th Men’s Encounter Weekend.

We have 6 men from Penang and 5 from PJ. The PJ guys are mostly Pastors from PJEFC under Pr Lim Soon Hock (formerly with GBC, Penang). Anyway they Encounter went really well and you can know from the testimonies at the homecoming that they had truly encountered God in a special way individually.

I had a great time with the PJ leaders and to hear what God was doing in their lives at the Encounter and also to be able to connect with them. I heard that they might be sending their wives to join the up and coming Women’s Encounter in November. So ladies, if you have not yet attended the Women’s Encounter please don’t let this opportunity pass you by. Register at the PR Counter on Sunday after service.

FGAC Strategic Planning

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on September 2, 2008

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The Church Leadership Team, some “strategic thinkers” and Pastors had a wonderful time on September 1 (Monday) over the Strategic planning of the church. We were wanting to do three things: (1) Clarify Our Vision, (2) Define Our Mission, and (3) Adopt Shared Values. Unfortunately we don’t have enough time to finish it. But what came out of the meeting was a lot of interaction, participation, and it does create a sense of excitement.

You will get to know the outcome of the planning meeting in due course. The CLT will come up with it for the entire church. But what I can say is that we are determined to go where the Lord directs us. FGA Centre has a plan and we want it to be God’s plan for us.

Kem Pria Sejati in Miri

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on August 2, 2008

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8-9 May 2008

Miri Port Authority, Kuala Baram

Reported by FGA Centre (Bahasa) Team:

Pr Dimin, Pr John Looi & Pr Alan Tan

All praise to our God.

The “ Kem Lelaki Sejati” went very well. This is the second time that we have conducted this camp, the 1^st was in Bayan Point, Penang. Many participants were blessed and so were the camp facilitators.

We went to Miri with a message from God: “Men with Christlike Character.” Our desire was to see men experiencing spiritual transformation in their lives and boldness to speak God’s message.

We challenged the participants to repent of their sin and to take up their responsibility as leaders in their home and in the church. We also sowed into their hearts a desire to be men with Christlike character and to disciple other men in the same way.

In the camp, we did faced some problems especially cultural issues. We had to present our message in their cultural context without compromising. God gave us the wisdom to do just that. The result? We saw some of them promised to take up their position as head of the family. Before that they left it all to their wives. Some of the participants who have problems with church leadership started forgiving one another. We sensed a special bond of unity among them.

Once again all praise to God because of His grace. We would also like to thank everyone for supporting us in prayer and in finance during our ministry in Miri.

Report by Pastor Ali Langit

SIB Lutong Miri

We want to thank God, the planning committee and all the participants who had made our first “Kem Lelaki Sejati” a success.

God had done a wonderful work during the entire camp and had touched many of the men. At the beginning the men were a bit reserved but as the camp proceeded God began to move wonderfully among the participants. At the 6^th session, when we were taught about the responsibility of a father in the family; to be a priest in the family not a wife’s helper, three participants (Bro Randang Ading, Bro Nyangun, and Bro Norman Ugang) made a vow to be a responsible father from hereon.

The others participants were also blessed in the camp and we saw the power of God working mightily throughout the camp. Three of our facilitators (Pastor Alan Tan, Pastor Dimin & Pastor John Looi) were such a blessing. The power of God was released through their teaching of the Word of God.

Helpers:

Ps Ali L., Ps Fredrick R, Bro Melin Labu, Bro Christoper Jokin, Cikgu Steve, Bro Rubin Anyi, Bro Edward Estaban & Bro Sprie Kiang.

Facilitators:

Pastor Alan Tan, Pastor John Looi & Pastor Dimin

A Response: “Tell Me What You Think”

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on July 11, 2008

in Pastoral Issues

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I am posting an interesting response from Julian to my earlier post: “Tell Me What You Think”. I think he wrote something worth our consideration . Here it is! Go Julian!!

I think the argument on secular music will continue to arise and many will continue to listen to it compared to gospel based or Christian contemporary bands, albeit some of the bands have very conflicting lyrics.

Nevertheless, I feel why a lot are into the hip-hop, rap, techno, trance and all the new electronica music styles is because of the creativity and simplicity of their lyrics and music styles. Even I am having a hard time listening to them, its just soul-less.

Concerning the lyrical part of it, i believe with a shift towards americanization - moral values drop. Words like F* and sexual conotations are considered just a figure of speech, no more taboo or stares from the public.

At the same time also, some teenagers at home are much more ‘holy’ than they are outside. From my experience (not generalizing), parents will never blame the church if their children are well mannered. Parents never blame the world for their children’s misbehaving.

When things turns good, parent’s praised the school for ‘teaching’ their children - patience, hardworking, truthfulness, obedience - but never the church. But when things goes bad, blames goes to the church for not ‘controlling’ and disciplining the children.

On the other hand, sometimes I think church is the best place for parents to remain ‘blameless’ for their children’s failures, misbehaviour, and rebellion. Partly because it is an easier place to shift the blame and not being told off since to them, ‘Church people must forgive’ thus giving them full authority to blame.

… Basically that’s what I think and have experience in KL with the other youths who attends church.

Father’s Day Celebration

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on July 6, 2008

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FGA Centre (North) had a great Father’s Day celebration. As we walked into church, we were pleasantly greeted by a Father’s Hall of Fame. Children, grandchildren and wives appreciated their dads, granddads and husbands through writings, poems and photos on big decorated boards hanging from the ceiling.

Through these beautifully decorated dedications, we each learnt so much about the dads and granddads at church –who they are, their hobbies, and how they’ve been the pillar of strength and support for the family.

The program continued with a skit and song by Pr. Joseph and son, an engaging interview of four dads by Caleb Yeoh, and a number of heart-warming sharing from members concerning their father in their JOURNEY OF LIFE.

Finally, true to FGAC’s tradition of blessing, all dads received a father’s day gift and an extra long buffet table of sumptuous food.

(NOTE: Even though it is late Pr Joe managed to get someone from the North to pen a few words about the great event. Photos will be posted later on.)

Reports

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on July 1, 2008

in Miscellanous

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Last week started with the Monday Night Bible Class taught by Ps Cheng Kin. I have noticed that the class is gaining momentum because more people are joining the class now. To those who have been attending faithfully keep it up.

On Tuesday night the Church Leadership Team met up with all the missionaries that we have been supporting all these years. We had a time of fellowship and really catching up of each other. Just a couple of pictures for you to see: