Living Spring 活泉-Vol8-2016

Gospel sharing time
The smiling faces after the
dental check up. inset: Getting a
tooth fixed.
dialect!) and Sister Ah Ling
and I were teaching Sunday
School and Happy Saturday
in church in Hokkien as well.
The Holy Spirit showed us that
we shouldn’t limit Him, that when
we are willing to be His mouth piece He
will give us utterance.
What about Pastor Mertji? Her lack of knowledge of the
Chinese language made this particular scripture verse
come alive. In 2 Corinthians 12: 9, Paul says, “Each
time He said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works
best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about
my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work
through me.” Sometime ago, Pastor Mertji constantly
visited a sister in Bengkalis by the name Ching Ching.
She was in depression, and was not responsive to
anyone, not even her family members. Pastor would
just hold her hand each time and pray for her in Bahasa
Indonesia, not knowing any Hokkien. Gradually, by the
power of God, Sister Ching Ching was healed and later
gave a thanksgiving dinner while we were there! Indeed,
all glory to our Heavenly Father, for we may not speak or
understand many languages, but we know that the Holy
Spirit equips us to connect with people in other ways.
2
Missions help us to grow in our faith and see God
at work.
a) While in Bengkalis, we paid a visit to one Mr Ah Kow.
He lived with his wife and daughter who was a hair
stylist. Mr Ah Kow was suffering from renal failure and
was wheelchair-bound. When we first saw his daughter,
she was unsmiling and was not pleased to see us. Being
a non believer, she probably consider us a nuisance!
Pastor David at that moment decided he wanted to
dye his hair! We were a little dumb founded, but later
Sister Ah Ling and I decided to do likewise. Mr Ah Kow’s
daughter, at the end of our hair treatment, warmed up
to us and even joined us when we prayed for her father.
But, the amazing thing was, after Sister Ah Ling prayed in
Hokkien (if you remember earlier Sister Ah Ling said that
she had difficulty praying in Hokkien!) there were tears in
Mr Ah Kow’s eyes. The next day, he and his wife attended
church service.
b) Bengkalis being an island has some problems with
power supply. By God’s grace there was no electrical
outage for the 7 days we were there, except for that one
time on Sunday when Pastor David was about to give
his sermon. There we were, all prepared to hear Pastor
give his inaugural sermon in Hokkien, when suddenly
everything went into darkness just as he was about to
speak! Naturally, we got distracted as Pastor Edy, the
local pastor ran about fixing the generator. But God will
not allow His Word to be side tracked, because Pastor
David stood up and spoke confidently and smoothly when
power was restored. This incident showed us that there
will be obstacles placed in our paths when we desire to
do God’s work, but He will supply all that we need!
3
Mission is an expression of obedience to the Great
Commission and we expand the kingdom of God
when we become His hands and feet.
Matthew 28:19–20 express Jesus’s command for us
to make disciples of all nations. While there is still
much work to be done in Malaysia, going to Indonesia,
we believe was also God’s will, as Bengkalis is also
part of God’s kingdom and the way was opened for us
when the Kalam Kudus Church in Pekan Baru invited
GMSJ to partner with them in establishing the church in
MISSION
Living Spring
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