Flying for Ministry

Just less than a year ago, if you tell me that I have flown three times in 2023, I would not have believed you. In fact, I am going fly for the fourth time in 2023 at the end of the month to South Korea where we will be visiting 5 Universities and Seminaries in 7 days. And I also get to preach a short sermon at the second stop on the second full-day near Busan. My last weekend travel to KLIA2 was an eye opener in many ways, not having used the low-cost terminal for quite some time. I flew with MAS to NZ via the main terminal. The low cost terminal was packed with people when I returned to KK on Sunday afternoon. It was good that I had more than 2 hours spare before the boarding. Check-in and drop luggage took a while because of the long queues at the check-in counters. But ministry over two days was smooth in the sense that I did not get tired despite getting up at 3.30am on Saturday and starting only at 3pm after a flight that took 2.5 hours and an hour long taxi ride.

I slept intermittently in KL, disturbed by noises outside my airbnb, though the place is convenient as it is near to the church I was serving and also many eateries around the place. With a short stay of one night with 4 or 5 hours' sleep and I was off to church 45 mins early before the start of the service at 9.30am on Sunday. The church has a big sanctuary that can seat perhaps a 1,000 people but about half of the place was filled. It was still a huge encouragement to see about 500 people present on a Sunday. Even the big BM Churches in KK probably hit at most 300 people post-pandemic and most churches in KK that I know of had lost a third of their members. More encouraging was the fact that 200 people stayed on for the Seminar after a 20-min break. 

The worship during the service was great, though singing English songs for a change took a while to get used to. But I was more than ready to preach and preach I did for exactly 30 mins. I could have gone on for another 5 mins but the announcements took a while which encroached on the sermon time before I came up the pulpit. Apart from that, everything went very smoothly including the Lord's communion and the whole meeting lasted just under 1.5 hours. The post Service seminar took 2 hours from 11.20am finishing at 1.10pm and I was pleased that many people came up to me and we spoke for another 25 minutes and it was rather late lunch because of that. Lunch ended by 2.40pm over many conversations and sweet fellowship with two pastors and an elder with their wives. The youth pastor was there and he came from another church as he was preaching there that Sunday. All in all, I had a productive time, preaching and teaching God's Word and I made several new friends and may God's work be fruitful on both sides of the South China Sea, East and West Malaysia.