Short Stay in Singapore

By the grace of God, I returned to Sabah in good health after a short stay in Singapore. I was entertained by angels, God's messengers who helped his Servant who is devoted to Him. Even to the very last day, friends sought me out and I had an Italian lunch at the Central Business District before heading to the Airport. All in all a worthwhile trip with 12 boxes of books shipped back to Kota Kinabalu. I met a former classmate (Secondary 1) whom I had not seen for 43 years and we were overjoyed to be reconnected and he took me round my former School, St Patrick's Katong.

Rest in the Eye of a Storm

A few of my friends in Malaysia and Singapore were beginning to wonder why I was going to Singapore, as if going into the eye of the storm. I fear not as the Lord promises to be with me when I am on mission (Matt 28:19-20). But above all, I am going to Singapore for a rest, though I may be preaching at a couple of places there as well. Yesterday, I preached twice in consecutive weeks. The former pastor refused to preach in two consecutive services and I can fully understand why. I only had a bun between services and sat in a sofa for about 10 minutes before getting back to the 2nd service which had already started. Most church members only see their pastor during Sunday and I have to make myself available to them despite preaching twice.

Commentary 3 Years in the Making

I just came across my old blogpost dated November 2017 where I wrote about my commentary progress and at that time I had reached John 4 and somewhat delayed as I had to speak in a number of Christmas services throughout the State that December 2017. Not only I flew to LABUAN but also to Sandakan for Christmas but the commentary did not stop but continued until I finished it on New Year’s Day 2020 and last Saturday on the last day of the Lunar New Year (full moon) I received my first copies from my printers with absolute joy to see the actual book in my hand.

John's Gospel, A Commentary (John 1-12)

"A desire fulfilled is a tree of life" (Proverbs). I have not felt such joy for a long time. It was a second Pentecost for me. After 50 days since the publication of my memoirs (19th December 2019), the commentary on the Gospel of John (1-12) is finally here. I have read and proof-read the manuscript countless times in the past months, but it is not the same as looking at it in a book form. What is written stays written and when it is written in a book, it lasts forever, as long as the form of this world remains, though the world (and all books) passes away since only those who do the will of God lasts forever.

Printers & Publishers

God willing, I am going to receive a big Ang Pau in the form of 10 advance copies of my book, Tafsiran Injil Yohanes (John’s Gospel commentary) from my printers tomorrow, being the last day of the Lunar New Year, Chap Goh Mei. I am taking my cousin and her family to dinner to celebrate the end of CNY and hopefully show her my new book. I don’t know whether she remembers much of Malay because she left Malaysia during her Primary school years and now holds a doctorate in French literature. I thought I should reconnect after we met about a year ago before they return to France in July. Publishing a book in Sabah is quite a challenge. My book titled Departure Points which came out just before Christmas 2019 has one of the most reputable publishers in the State but that means it adds costs to the whole process. But to save money on my John’s commentary, I will self publish and engage a printing company that will print 1,000 copies of my book. The formatting and proof-reading process has taken exactly 5 weeks.