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Brisbane AMYC 2015 –
Salt and Light: Witnesses of Christ
Amos Wong (Sherwood MC)
It has been a wonderful year for us here at Sherwood Methodist Church. As I reflect on this
year’s Annual Methodist Youth Conference (AMYC), I am extremely thankful to God for His
grace, love and mercy He has shown us this year. We have been tremendously blessed to have amazing
speakers at the convention; Dr Alan Stanley as the English and Rev Dr Yuk Chong Liong as the Mandarin speaker.
As the English Representative for the 2015 Brisbane AMYC, I am blessed to be given this privilege to share a
little bit about the convention.
As young Christians, we realise that we are often confused with our identity in the world. We also realise how
ineffective we are in our mission, which is to be the salt of the Earth and the light of the world [Mat 5:13-16].1 Peter
2:9 reminds us that we are God’s chosen people, a royal priesthood and a holy nation, and that our mission
here on Earth is to shine as light so that people see Jesus Christ, and not ourselves; just like how a candle burns
to give light so we can see in the dark.
At the convention, we learnt that idolatry hinders us from carrying out our mission on Earth. The churches in the
book of Revelation were under the rule of the Roman Empire during the time, and were tempted to bow down and
offer sacrifices to other gods in fear of persecution. John reminded the churches to “come out of her (Babylon), so
that they do not share in her sins and plaques [Rev 18:4]. Babylon during the time was already destroyed, and
the word was used as a code word for ‘Rome’ or the world, because Rome was practically the most powerful
ruling empire. Through the book of Revelation, God is reminding to us today to “come out of the world”, in other
words to respond to our idolatry. Idolatry could be in any form; comfort/pleasure, approval, control, power/
influence over others, and so on. We learnt that in order to come out of Babylon, we need to worship God – and to
do this, we need to see God for who He truly is, to have a vision for God [Rev 4 & 1John 3:2]. We need to fight!
There are so many things I’ve taken away from the convention! There were many times during the preparation
where I placed my faith and trust on how prepared we were and not God’s guidance and provision. I’ve now learnt
to not worry about things such as logistics, songs and music and programs, but to focus on preaching of the word
of God at the convention. Everything during the convention went smoothly, not because we spent hours preparing
for the convention, but because God is merciful and loving! In fact from a week before the convention, weather
forecasts have consistently reported of a thunderstorm on the second day of the convention, which was the day
that we scheduled for outdoor games. We prayed constantly for God’s mercy and grace and praise God, the
weather was perfect on the day! It was just an amazing moment for a lot
of us to see God’s hands working in the convention! Personally, it was a
special moment for me to see a brother in Christ coming back to the
Lord, giving God his praises for the weather.
I have met many brothers and sisters in Christ from all over Australia
through AMYC. Together, we have listened to each other’s testimonies,
prayed and encouraged each other. I was and still am being
blessed through AMYC, and I hope that you will get to experience what
I have experienced, if not better! Let me encourage you to come to the
2016 Melbourne AMYC! It will be an amazing time, I promise you!
I hope you are blessed reading this. I also hope to see all of you next
year in Melbourne!
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