At the foot of Mount Kinabalu

I am amazed at how my indigenous brothers live in villages, often times at valleys at the foot or sides of Mount Kinabalu the tallest mountain in Malaysia. I literally drove to the end of the road passing by a village I preached in some 5 years ago in Lingkubang. This village is just 1.5 kms further inside but there is a reasonably sized church that could seat 250 people if packed. They announced the attendance at the two services the first attended by 156 adults and 58 children and last night’s service attended by 116 adults.  I wonder where the 40 or so adults had gone, but at the end of the service I realised that 40 missing worshippers were teenage boys because many of the teenage girls greeted me in front as it is the tradition in some SIB churches that the preacher stands in front of the congregation and they come forward to shake hands and bid the preacher farewell.

There is no problem in getting teenage boys to come to church and last night’s sermon would have been meaningful to them as I challenged everyone to have a real and living faith in Christ the Son of God. But both services went extremely well by God’s grace. The elder who prayed the closing prayer kept repeating how clear the message had been that he forgot to say the meal prayer as well as other leaders noted during lunch. The second service at night was a trial for me as having woken up early at dawn and drove 90 minutes from 7.15am to the village church. I had a power nap in the afternoon and got up at 2.45pm (15 mins sleep at most) and returned to work on my second sermon whole afternoon until 6pm. Praise be to God as I could hear a pin drop and they gave me full attention as God’s Word deserved. It was impressive by God’s Spirit and I testified how I met the Lord on 24th April 1982 and was baptised in the Spirit on 9th May 1982.