WITH GOD, ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE

Chung Wei Ken

My mum, Mdm Yan Chow Sim, is 89 years old. In September 2018, she suffered a massive stroke. Prior to that, mum was a sprightly and an independent woman. She looked after us sacrificially, despite her medical history of early-stage cancer and high blood pressure. At the hospital, the doctor told us to expect the worst. Many friends prayed with us and God in his mercy preserved her life.

Rehabilitation was long, but slowly mum regained her ability to speak and eat on her own. However, she is still not able to use her left limbs and requires the use of the wheelchair. Mum now tires easily, has short attention span with short-term memory loss. This made the sharing of the Gospel more urgent and challenging, as we feared her cognitive function would deteriorate further.

We spoke to mum on occasions when she was alert and receptive, but she would counter with one excuse after another, such as she had never hurt anyone nor dared do any wrong, her filial duties in ancestor worship or that she would believe if my elder brother did so. Given our limitation with Cantonese and Mandarin, we thank God for Jenny Kan, who readily availed herself, and spoke to mum in October 2019. Mum listened but did not accept Christ. Nevertheless, we continued speaking to her about Christ.

On 12 June 2021, mum on her own accord, informed my sister that she was ready to believe in Christ. Jenny Kan’s help was requested again, and she spoke to mum the following day, after Church’s service. We were concerned mum would change her mind, but thank God she was sure, and said the sinner’s prayer. God, in His own time, convicted her of her sins of self-righteousness and self-sufficiency. Mum also agreed to be baptized. However, a series of events delayed her baptism. She was issued a QO due to a COVID case at her daycare centre, followed by a COVID cluster in her neighbourhood, and later the heightened alert restrictions.

She was finally baptised by Rev Zhu on 2 September 2021, aided by Elder Tai and Mei Lan. Truly God has preserved and converted her (Titus 3:4–6) by His mercy and grace (Eph 2:8.9). With God, all things are possible (Matt 19:26), so don’t stop praying for your unsaved loved ones. To God be the glory.

COVENANT BIBLE-PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

A Report by Pr Park Jung Il
6 September 2021, South Korea

Greetings in the blessed name of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Last summer I was sad because of Mrs Jemima Khoo’s sudden homegoing. She was my teacher. I was taught Christian Education by her. I thank God that I had the opportunity to attend the worship service online.

We pray for your ministry, True Life BPC and FEBC. I know your burden. Thank God for your faithful service to God.

We also thank you for your lovingkindness and prayer for me and our church. True Life BPC has been supporting us since we started our church spiritually and financially. I will not forget this grace.

True Doctrine

When I came back from FEBC, I checked what I had learned in FEBC, not for doubting but for knowing well. I am thankful that I learned the VPI and VPP doctrine in FEBC and we are delighted in using the KJV. I am also thankful to learn the premillennial view. Symbolic interpretation possesses too many dangers and errors. When we admit the 1000-year kingdom of Christ, the Bible is balanced in both OT and NT.

True Faith

My second stage of ministry Is that I struggled to find what I should preach and teach. What I realise is that I am just a guide or a leader. One way to guide and lead is to help my church know God through His Word. Secondly, I made up my mind to encourage my church to keep praying to experience God, not in a charismatic way but biblical prayer. I will lead and guide my church to God in these two ways. I strongly believe that knowing and experiencing God is necessary for our faith journey. I thank God that my Lord keeps helping me to grow as a preacher. I have experienced God’s help for me, even this time. I can say that my Lord is really alive and helps one who trusts in Him.

True Life

Although I know true doctrine and true faith, true life is another challenge. Living a true life or spiritual life is so difficult and hard for me. I keep getting F and fail in my life. I try to make every effort to trust the Holy Spirit but very often I find myself trusting myself. God send and entrusted two souls to me. While I serve them, I opened my eye to the verse in Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

It is impossible for me to lead them. They have their own thinking and plan. I wanted them to go astray and die because of my anger. When I thought like this, the Lord reminded me of John 21:7, “He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.” I was terrible and even now I am a terrible sinner. I cannot love every single soul but God loved me as the same sinner. Every day I find my mind a battle ground complaining and murmuring.

Rev Park visited my church and shared his experience of taking care of the sheep in Africa. In one word, to pastor sheep is to clean up shit. I agree with his words. I changed my focus from preaching and teaching nicely to cleaning shit. I complained about why I have to do this but I realised that this is also the Lord’s work.

Ministry

I prayed for my ministry. I wanted to know what should be the goal of my ministry. For example, it seems to me that True Life BPC’s mission is to support FEBC and to support missions all over the world. FEBC’s mission is to defend and fight for the sound doctrines such as VPI and VPP against charismatism and ecumenism. Still I do not know completely what God wants me to do. I just keep praying for a missionary house for one who comes back from Korea and to translate FEBC books into Korean to introduce to Korean believers to sound doctrine.

I made a home page of my church and many have visited and read it. I am eager to introduce good and best teaching to them. For doing this, I have to translate. So, I asked Rev Park if he had translated any in his files. I would like first to ask permission from you to upload. All things will be supervised under Rev Park and I will follow his instruction. Every year I will ask Rev Park and make a plan to upload gradually, accurately, and systematically.

Thanks always for your prayers and spiritual support for me.

LORD, INCREASE OUR FAITH

Luke 17:1–10

A true believer must know how to pray,
We must do so every moment, every day.

In times of sufferings, pains and illnesses,
Our prayers to our Lord must be ceaseless.

We pray for our family, children, and grace in serving,
It is what that is inside us that matters and not self-serving.

One example of great faith is Abraham,
His strong faith in God is unlike any other man.

He became a father at a ripe old age,
In him we feel humbled and encouraged.

To increase our faith we must constantly pray,
That we walk with God and follow His way.

In faith we must recognise our weaknesses,
We must acknowledge that we are wretched sinners.

Let us not be a stumbling block, and woe be unto me,
If our bad examples are only what unbelievers see.

If the way we live our life is terrible,
May God rebuke us for being a bad example.

If our brother sins and trespasses against us,
Forgiving him and being magnanimous is what we must.

It is always very hard for us to apologise and say sorry,
Also it is hard to say that we have forgiven someone already.

Apostle Paul for all his service, greatness and godliness,
Never failed to acknowledge that he was the chief of sinners.

If we can’t do something and it is humanly impossible,
We should look to our Lord through prayers for His answers.

Faith is like a mustard seed that starts from very small,
Until it gets very huge and grows incredibly tall.

We need not do something that is difficult to do like preaching,
God wants us to serve according to our ability and not be boasting.

If we have done all that is commanded as a servant,
Whether we get praised and recognised is irrelevant.

Finally, we must pray earnestly that we are the last,
God must increase and we must decrease thus.

Written by Yao Ho (Tabernacle BPC)