A Surprise Visit

Yesterday I drove to Kota Belud not knowing where I was going to attend Sunday service. It was about 2 months when on the way to Ranau's Bible College I decided last minute to attend church where I was asked to preach last minute. This time round, my decision was made easy as about 7.30am I received at text from a pastor friend to meet at another place instead of the town centre in Kota Belud as agreed a week before. So I arrived at the church near my meeting place and I went in at about 9.50am. The service already started and the announcements must have taken at least 15 minutes. There were about 150 adults (just about the same attendance as my previous Sunday's service at Kalibatang). I shook hands with the ushers (all four of them) and none recognised me and that was fine since it was probably 15 or 20 years that I last preached in the church.

Preacher & Author

It’s not easy to be a preacher and an author at the same time. This month of August is most telling. Early in the month I spent about 10 days writing up a research proposal and updating my CV and getting both my referees on board. Then, it was preaching in a church in KK but the Bible Study in the afternoon took a lot out of me until I rested for two or three days for full recuperation, spirit and body. By then, last Wednesday I prepared in earnest two sessions of praise and worship, all fresh and newly minted in two sets of PowerPoint. I also prepared to preach a sermon on Sunday.

You are the light of the World (Matthew 5:14)

After 5 weeks, I started preaching again and another trip for preaching this coming Sunday. Yesterday, I preached in a small church of less than 100 adults (70 adults present) and I was glad that there were three visitors and they joined us for lunch after the service which ended at 11.45am. The service started about 10.10am and I preached for 47 minutes on a text from Matthew 5:14-16 on the Church being the light of the world. I used multiple texts including 1 John 1:5, 7, 2 Cor 4:1-6; Luke 11:40-41 and two passages from the OT, Daniel 12:3 and Isaiah 60:1-4.

List of Book Projects (2022-2025)

When I wrote my research proposal for Ecclesiastes, one of the verses that stood out for me is one taken from Eccles 9 where Solomon the king said that "in the grave where we are all going, there will be no work nor planning...". Interesting to note that while we still live on earth, there will be much work to do and much planning. As far as I am concerned, now coming to 10 months since October last year, I have been thinking and planning my writing projects for the next 2 or 3 years. I have accomplished what I had set out to do at the end of last year which was to finish and publish my revised version of my Song of Songs' commentary.

Books Once More

I was surprised a couple of weeks ago to find my Departure Points on Google Scholar. But it must be by divine appointment since now I can refer my prospective buyers or interested parties to go to the link and they can access the first 38 pages. Further, on my publishers' website (nhpborneo.com), there are a few pages extra uploaded recently with photos inside of the book. That would help promote the book further than just the front and back covers.

Research Leave

For the past 5 days I had been fully occupied in getting my application ready for some research scholarship which allows use of libraries over 10 weeks. What could be more enticing? When I was finishing my doctoral study at St John's College, Auckland where I was based for 10 weeks I wrote that "it was like heaven on earth" staying within 50 metres of the library.

Borneo Bookstore in Kota Kinabalu

Yesterday for the first time in a month, I went down to Suria Mall in the city centre and I was greeted with a degree of sadness that one of the major bookstores in town had closed. Now it is selling kitchen utensils.  I am glad that all my three books are being sold in another popular bookstore, Borneo Bookshop at the adjacent Mall, Wisma Merdeka. It is smaller bookstore than "Times" in Suria which is now closed but if I stand just outside for 20 minutes or so, I could see that many people still enter the bookstore and look at the books there.