A Full Week

It is a joy to serve You Lord for You are worthy O God. Today I preached in the Dining Hall of the College as when half the College community is not present on Campus we gather not in the Chapel but at the dining hall. I was surprised to see almost 30 adults turned up. It was awfully hot as I preached from 8.50am until 9.30am. I shared from John 16:20-28 with the key verse "Ask and you shall receive so that your joy may be full." Today was the 6th day in a row that I had an intense task.
I lectured on Romans 9-11 on Tuesday, finished the letter to the Hebrews on Wednesday, completed my class on the Constitution on Thursday and took an extra class on Romans 12-13 on Friday. I did not preach or teach yesterday but together with the principal we entertained two sets of guests from 10am to 4pm. It was a full day Sabbath work. I was supposed to lead my homegroup to Tibabar this morning but something came up in the village and we had to postpone our trip to another time. As I was praying at 7.30am today whether I should go and worship at my former Ranau church a student called and asked whether I could minister to the remnants of the community who stayed behind today. I guess it was a powerful message by the power of the Holy Spirit despite feeling the heat literally and spiritually with drops of sweat cascading down my collar and shirt. I wonder why after 35 years the dining hall remains the same with a change of paint every 5 or 5 years. It was so hot because there was only zinc roof and wall. The structure was already old when I was Treasurer General 22 years ago and it is time for a major refurbishment. Hence I told them that the need for funds to develop College will first begin with our faith and asking God to bless us so that at least we have some reasonably comfortable facilities and not some old depleted buildings like we have now. I took our local visitors yesterday to look at the family student quarters made of plywood and zinc some rooms are in a bad shape. The District leaders promised to look into how they helped to renovate 2 or 3 rooms in the family quarters. So tomorrow I will complete my 7th day in a row duty in delivering the final 3-hour lectures on Romans 14-16. I have many notes in English and next year I will translate and write more notes in Malay. Then it will be marking essays and assignments in the next 2 weeks before exams begin.