Friday, November 15, 2019

My Books are Returning Home

One of my most read blogposts is “Books whither Thy Home?” which I wrote some 5 and a half years ago. But my 300 books are returning home for good. It has been a long sojourn in Singapore, separated from its owner for 5.5 years. I am grateful to the Faculty and library of BGST for keeping my books in good shape, in fact two shelves were provided for them for easy access to users to browse and borrow if they wished. Altogether by February 2020 my books would have been in Singapore for nearly 12 years. It is a long home coming. These are my best books, series of commentaries and Hebrew and Greek lexicons. I can’t wait to have them back home.
Now I need to find space. When I received news that my books would have to be shipped back to Sabah, it was the day before my 2nd book went to the printers. Suddenly I need to find space for 1,300 books with 1,000 copies of my memoirs to be collected by early next month. When I talked with a few church leaders two nights ago they were surprised that I had so many books in Singapore. I did not tell them what I have more in Kota Kinabalu. It is not a culture within our denomination that pastors read or own books. Partly because due to lack of funds to buy books from the meagre pastor’s salary. Soon if I were to be appointed pastor somewhere, after a few months in ministry I will definitely raise with my church leaders to provide a kind of book allowance, even if it is RM50.00 a month it will provide some relief should I need to buy books locally or at Amazon.

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