We had our first Bible Conference (BC) for this year from 4th to 5th March. The BC themed – “Continuous Growth” was set on Friday Night and Saturday at Hope Johor Bahru. We had the opportunity to learn from Rev. Diong, a pastor from a small town in Malaysia named Tampin. The church (Tampin Chinese Methodist Church), which he pastors, had seen explosive growth in a span of just 4 years; from the initial 150 people to over 500 this year. This is amazing in view of the small population of ethnic Chinese in that town.
Rev. Diong began by emphasizing on the importance of the Word of God and the crucial need to have a right mindset towards it. He encouraged the church to not just merely listen to the Word but also to “believe” it and “obey” it. He exhorted us to be a group of contagious Christians who love God and love people fully; reckoning that a church that is willing to be set ablaze for Christ is a church of revival.
Rev. Diong supplied his teaching with many powerful testimonies from his own church. We were particularly inspired by his personal walk with God and his church visitation ministry. During one of the sessions, he shared about his typical day whereby he spends 2 hours to pray for his church members on top of his personal devotion time. Notwithstanding, Rev. Diong also elaborated extensively on their visitation ministry whereby he mobilised his members into teams to visit people from all walks of life, meeting their needs and experiencing signs and wonders of God as they lay hands and pray for the people. Many times, these people responded to come to the church before anyone else invited them. Through the examples given, we could really see how a church could be the salt and light to the community by practically “visiting” them / “going” into their midst to bring the gospel and power of God to them.
In short, we were blessed by Rev. Diong’s simple yet powerful life testimonies. We prayed and believed that such a spirit can once again be renewed in all our churches in the Southern Region.
Hope Malaysia
Southern Region