Still Travelling

I met my cousin and her husband at a supermarket. I stayed with them in their home when I was 23 years old, just started work as a lawyer. He worked in a law firm and helped to pass cases to me which his legal firm did not want to take up. I was a sole proprietor then. He was surprised that I was still travelling into the interior. In his mind, he must have thought I had retired from ministry or at least stop going into faraway places. I went to Tenom last weekend I told him. In fact another 2 hours’ drive from Tenom into a village without paved roads on top of a hill. Altogether about 6 hours in drive time.

I refrained from telling him that I would taking another journey to the East Coast in two weeks’ time, another 4.5 hours drive if I don’t stop. I plan to stop at least twice and aim to reach there before 3pm before preaching at the night service at 7.30pm and two more sessions the next day on Saturday morning and night. Then another 4.5 hours drive back to KK with a stop in Ranau for Sunday service at 9am and then back to KK after the Sunday service. 

In the past few days I wondered to myself why I am still accepting invitations. Do we not have younger pastors, more capable and energetic to take over? Frankly there are many pastors who are in their 40s and 50s, though my fellow pastor in Tenom told me that I could be among the few pastors alive who had known the former missionaries, at least the 2nd generation missionaries who came in the late 1930s and 40s like Trevor White, Alan Belcher who are now with the Lord in heaven and also Keith Napper (Pdt Lasan) who ordained me in 1996 with the President of Sarawak. 

If there are so many pastors, why are so few stepping up? The answer is lack of anointing and also knowledge. After two decades of theological training that did not major on the Bible, we are now reaping what we sow. Even those with MA have so little knowledge of the Bible. 

When I became the Acting Principal of the College almost a decade ago I found that only 5% of the curriculum focuses on the Bible. When I was there it increased to 13% as I introduced the Gospel of John in the 2nd year, Romans for 3rd year and Hebrew and Revelation for 4th year Bachelor of Theology candidates. There is a famine, says Amos 8, not of food or drink, but of hearing the words of God. I sensed that last Sunday. It was as if they had not listened to anointed preaching for ages, and suddenly the withering plant sprung to life due to the water of the Word.