Teh Tarik With Dr. Dennis Ngien

We met up with Dr. Dennis Ngien this afternoon in Bamboo House for a good chat over teh tarik.

Dr. Dennis Ngien is on a stop-over in Sibu for a few days before proceeding to China.

Ecumenical Christmas Carolling 2010

I took part with Yian in this year's Ecumenical Christmas Carolling. This annual street procession was held on December 18 and it was an excellent testimony!

Philip Hii was among the crowds at the roadside. He spotted us and quick-handedly he shot a nice photo of us together with the carolling team of The Masland Methodist Church.

Thank you, Philip, for the picture.

Good Friday 2010

We went to The Masland Methodist Church for Good Friday church service this morning with a heart laden with grief over the sufferings that our Lord Jesus Christ endured for the sake of our sins.

The front page of the programme sheet carries Romans 5: 7-8 which reads: Indeed rarely will anyone die for a righteous person - though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. But God proves His love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

Let us reflect on the verse.

Service In Memory of Mdm. Wu Bao Di

Mdm. Wu Bao Di (in pinyin) was called by Lord to rest in heaven last Saturday. I learned about it from the obituary message in See Hua Daily News on Sunday morning. Then in a short e-mail, Dr. Dennis Ngien informed me of the sad news of his mom's demise.

The family of the late Mdm. Wu Bao Di held a memorial service this morning (10th March) at Zion Methodist Church in loving memory of their beloved one.

It was a near-full Zion Methodist Church despite the drizzle.

In his sermon, Rev. Liik Tung Yeu likened life to a race. "You need to persist in Lord to win the race," Rev. Liik told the congregation.

Dr. Dennis Ngien represented his family to testify the greatness of the love of his mom. The sharing was touching and it almost wetted my eyes. Dr. Dennis Ngien's testimony left ample space for us to give deep thinking to.

The memorial service concluded with a benediction by Rev. Liik and thereafter a group photo shooting at the entrance of the church.

Photos: Ting Leng Kieh

Mitsu Shabu-Shabu Cafe

It was a good two-hour discussion meet at Mitsu Shabu-shabu Cafe for MAF of Sibu East District. We met up to review and deliberate on our works. The time we spent there was wonderful.

Before we called it a day, we had a round of porridge steamboat to refresh ourselves.

Yummy!

MAF of The Masland Methodist Church - Lunar New Year Visit

It was an occasion of thunderous laughters, good foods and lots of sharing. You had missed it if you were not there!

Lunar New Year Visit is a Chinese tradition. It fits pretty well into the Malaysian spirit of Open House.

MAF of The Masland Methodist Church set out to Lunar New Year Visits on February 22 at 7:00 pm. We gathered first at Lu Ming & Leh Ping's residence for a round of snacks, delicacies and endless chatting away.

Leh Ping's culinary skills are always a thumb-up. She whetted our appetite with her delectable dishes. There was a call to put aside calory-counting for the time being.

Rev. Wong Koi Fo, our pastor-in-charge, and his family took their time off to be with us for the evening of visit. It was a wonderful time to unwind ourselves when we gathered together like a family.

Before we proceeded to dip our fingers into the foods, Rev. Wong led us to give thanks to our God. The food session was a great time for us to tickle our taste buds.

After that, we moved on to Siew Ching (Ah Jing) & Ah Chie's place for a second show. Our group jammed the house so much so that I was almost immovable.

Ah Chie's pastry skills are renowned. When we took a look at the wide spread of her luscious cakes, we couldn't help making wow! wow! wow! The temptation took us to a great time of sampling them.

We captured this memorable moment with a few snapshots. Daniel Chiew voluntarily offered to take for us with his sophisticated camera. By the way, Daniel is a popular "Menteri" in the blogsphere.

Ah Huat & Kung Yeoh's house is just a stone-throw distance away from Ah Jing's. We moved over to Ah Huat's place for the third leg of our visit.

Ah Huat served us with refreshing lime juice and aromatic Chinese tea. We had had a heartwarming visit at Ah Huat & Kung Yeoh's residence.

A wide spread of luscious cakes to sweeten the evening.

Stewed Chicken Feet

Deep-fried Chicken Wings

Chicken Curry

Pig Leg in Herbs

Roasted Pork or Cha Siew

Too good to hold back!

Beef cooked in Malay style

Sweet & Sour Fish Fillets

Pastor Ting Ee Ling, our past pastor, set her evening aside to be with us for the visits.

We posed for a group photo in Lu Ming's house.

We jammed into Ah Jing's living room for a photo shooting.

Photos: Daniel Chiew

Why Go To Church?

Ho Hua sent it from faraway Australia for me to muse over the weekend. Share it with your friends if you like it. Personally I have been very much touched by the message.


If you're spiritually alive, you're going to love this!
If you're spiritually dead, you won't want to read it.
If you're spiritually curious, there is still hope!A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. 'I've gone for 30 years now,' he wrote, 'and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.'This started a real controversy in the 'Letters to the Editor' column. ; Much to the delight of the editor, itwent on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:'I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this... They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, Iwould be spiritually dead today!'When you are DOWN to nothing....God is UP to something!Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible!
Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment!All right, now that you're done reading, send it on!!!
I think everyone should read this! When Satan is knocking at your door, simply say,
'Jesus, could you get that for
me...... while I forward this message to your children?'

The picture shows the newly extended The Masland Methodist Church, Sibu. Photo: David Ling

Ecumenical Christmas Carolling - Joy To The World The Lord Has Come!

" Joy To The World The Lord Has Come!" -The contingent of The Masland Methodist Church sang out loud, giving warmth and bringing joy to the onlookers. Photo: Daniel Chiew

Rev Kong Chon Lin, the pastor-in-charge of The Masland Methodist Church carolled along the street. On his side is Ah Chan. Photo : Daniel Chiew

The float of The Masland Methodist Church is a replica of the newly extended sanctuary. Leading the float is the stout Lien Yung. Photo: Daniel Chiew

It was a fascinating scene at Sibu Town Square last night where glittering lights,, contingents of God-loving Christians and Christmas melody filled up the whole of the place, making the atmosphere heartwarming.

A glance at the fleet of the floats lining up for procession would take you by surprise at the innovation in each and every decoration and the theme chosen to live out message of Bible. The brightly lit floats were simply engrossing to look at.

The whole of Sibu Town Square was a piece of perfect painting, portraying the love of God to the world in sending Jesus Christ to be our only saviour.

As the contingents carolled along the streets, the air was filled with Christmas hymns. All the brothers and sisters sang out loud to proclaim the birth of our Lord Christ Jesus who came to save us. When the 4,000-member carolling teams processed around the town, they filled up the atmosphere with festive joy.

Thousands of spectators and onlookers thronged along the roadsides to share the joy of the birth of Jesus Christ and witness the love of God.

A light drizzle fell half way through. The contingents moved on with strength and faith despite the drizzling conditions. Praise Lord for that!

Ecumenical Christmas Carolling is an annual event in Sibu. The objective is to make proclamation to the world that Jesus Christ was born to be our only saviour.

Sibu is unique to have been organising this carolling event by churches of different denominations. Ecumenical Christmas Carolling can be promoted as a tourist attraction!

MAF of Sibu East District

We met this evening to plan out for MAF of Sibu East District for 2010. The session was joyous anf heartwarming.

After some brainstorming exercise, Thomas Tieng treated us to a porridge steamboat.

Thank you, brother, for your hospitality!

MAF of Huai Ang Methodist Church - Your Paths Drip With Abundance

DS Rev. Ting shared a wonderful message themed "Your Paths Drip With Abundance".

The group singing was pretty impressive.

An energetic dance item. Gee, they don't look their ages!

This item was really a plus for the evening.

The cross talk was engrossing.

The cake-cutting time!

It was a thanksgiving celebration on the gracious occasion of the 20th anniversary of MAF of Huai Ang Methodist Church on 15th November, 2009. I had the honour to be invited to partake of their joy in this blessed service.

DS Rev. Ting Tiew Kiong, in his message themed "Your Paths Drip With Abundance", quoted Psalm 65:11, saying, "The kind of life makes the kind of person; the kind of person makes the kind of fellowship; the kind of fellowship makes the kind of church. To sum up, it is glorious life that builds up good church!"

The fellowshippers of MAF of Huai Ang Methodist Church presented several items including dance, cross talk (or comic dialogue), etc to glorify God.

It was a joyous evening and I praised God for it!

Photos: Steven Hii

En Tao Methodist Church - Grand Sales For Church Building

The DJ station where the atmosphere of the fund-raising sales was made lively!

My good brother Hua Ping was spotted at the egg station.

I asked Yong Sun to pose for a photo. Not forgetting his newly published book, he held it up to get some promotion benefits. The proceeds of the book sales all went to the building fund.

At the live cooking station, this brother gave an impressive demonstration of kueh teoh frying!

A makeshift eatery where enticing foods were served.

Some houses for sale!

En Tao Methodist Church at Jalan Teku, Sibu is expanding fast. To cope with the growing church members, the church has put it on the drawing board a new building plan.

Towards raising funds to finance the project, the church members put their hands and heads together this morning to hold a grand sales function.

Although the scale of the fund-raising sales was only moderate, the turnout was encouraging. The whole sales was heartwarming and the atmosphere was brotherly and sisterly.

It touched me to see all the brothers and sisters serving Lord selflessly together for the glory of our almighty Father.

I bumped into Hua Ping, Yong Sun, Steve Ling, Steven Wong, Daniel Chew and many others. The one hour that we (Yian and I) stayed on there was truly joyous.

Hallelujah!

We Are Social-Caring

We posed for a group photo after the session.

Chinese tops the statistics of the racial groups in Rumah Seri Kenangan. The figure is really ironical, considering that we Chinese have been emphasizing so much on filial piety!

The folks are seen getting ready.

I made a short address.

Rev Jonah Tang sharing the message of God.

The folks opened themselves up.

Peter Goh and Sia Yiik Ming led the singing.

Our gifts of love!

I tell you the truth,whatever you did for one of the least of the brothers of mine, you did for me.

MAF of Sibu East District reached out their caring hands to Rumah Seri Kenangan, an old folks' home at Mile 13.5 of Jalan Oya, this afternoon. This was our annual project aiming at sharing our love with the less fortunate group in our society.

Little as it might be, we did it honestly in the name of our God. As Matthew 25:31-46 spells it out clearly: I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of the brothers of mine, you did for me. Going together with us were Rev Jonah Tang, Peter Goh, Stephen Wong and the committee members.

It was a heartwarming session of singing out to God, praising Him and sharing. Peter Goh flung his fingers through guitar cords to come out with melodious music. Sia Yiik Ming led the session in dual language - Mandarin and Bahasa Malaysia to suit the multi-racial audience.

Rev Jonah Tang shared the salvation of Jesus christ with the old folks. "Open up and receive Jesus Christ into your life," the speaker called on the audience.

The session ended with handing out gifts of love to the folk.