Yesterday I drove from my home at 4.30am heading back to Namaus where I teach. I stopped in Tamparuli, a small town just before we ascend to the hills towards Mount Kinabalu. I wanted to have breakfast and there was one shop opened at 5am but they told me business starts at 6am. So I ate some dried biscuits which I took with me oftentimes in my travels just in case I need to satisfy my hunger and receive strength for onward journey. I reached Ranau at 6.15am and could have proceeded to Namaus in time for breakfast with students at 6.30am. But I stopped in Ranau town and chanced upon a church member from my former Muhibbah church and we chatted over breakfast. We were able to encourage one another and he was one of the very few people that could hold a conversation in English. He told me about his church pastor some 20 years ago, lamenting his own (the pastor's) lack of English but the pastor had the foresight and humility to encourage more capable people to enter College.
We are not getting the bright ones to enter ministry and things are pretty much the same when I entered ministry almost 22 years ago. There must be vision to get Form 6 and University graduates to enter theological education and be trained as pastors and church leaders. The church's future lies with capable full-time workers and if the situation remains the same, I fear that the church is stuck in mediocrity
for where is no vision the people dwell aimlessly.
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