Woman’s Conference 2019

It must be God’s will I attended the women’s conference last night. I met a former church member who was working at a mall supermarket and she called me “pastor” and told me she went to the conference the night before and asked whether I would be going. She was a member of my Ranau church in 2015. She was only Form 2 then but now a young working adult. I duly rushed home and drove 16kms to the Conference venue in Penampang. We were only 15 minutes late (7.45pm) but we were met with a couple of ushers who I knew. One of them was a former student in Melangkap where I started my ministry in 1994. While rushing into the hall I managed to catch up and found out that she was married with one child. She must have been only 17 or 18 when we first met. Inside the Hall that could seat 5,000 people, I was ushered to the front by a young man. He seemed to know me well, perhaps from the Youth Conference where I was preacher in 2016. But there was no more seat in front but one and he insisted that I seat right there with our Vice President. I was embarrassed to say the least since I have no titles or positions. When I sat down I whispered to my Vice President that if the President turned up I would move back and vacate my seat.
As I was seated, the choir sang and it was a presentation by the women folks of my home church. In fact that was the incentive for me to attend in order to support my church members in their ministry last night. The woman preacher from Indonesia preached a mighty sermon on Matthew 24 “be prepared” and she spoke much on Noah. I learned much and the second part of her sermon on what constituted the gospel (the ark of Noah is symbol of salvation in Christ) and theologically presented, one of the best in my 5 years back in Sabah. Amazingly she preached for 1 hour and 20 minutes! Even my wife felt it was not long and she did not feel the time but she added that for the women’s folks who attended since early morning that was quite a sermon for all concerned. No wonder as soon as the benediction was pronounced by one of our HQ leaders people rushed out. I stayed on to thank the speaker and spoke to her briefly. Then I shook hands of most of the General council members who were present and the women’s leaders as well. I was mightily encouraged that I did not feel out of place; in fact my presence, I think added weight to the occasion and as I walked out I chatted with numerous men and women friends from all over Sabah, some of them told me they would be driving back to their villages late last night. All night the preacher spoke about Noah as the preacher of righteousness according to 2 Peter and yes she was right, we must preach and declare Gods Word whether people repent or not. No one repented in Noah’s time and we don’t expect much at the end time before Jesus’ coming.