Suffering from the Blues

I don’t know whether I will suffer the blues from my recent departure from my role as pastor. I told the congregation in my last address that I would miss the worship team. I spent almost every Saturday night with them in practice and rehearsal making sure everything was done right. Little by little I hope in the Lord that I had made an impact. Even last Sunday, I gave a rebuke to singers who sing for singing sake without loving the songs and singing unto the Lord. I told them I sang one song 100 times in the past 6 months (Kau menungguku) and many songs multiple times even before they sing it in church or when I learn a new song and if I liked it, I would worship the Lord weeks with it or even months.

The year of 2025 till my departure last Sunday was one worship song after another. I was blessed with the Lord’s presence not because of the congregation but because of my own hunger for the Lord. I got up by 3.30am my last Sunday to prepare for my last sermon and there were times I felt the anointing strong. But it is over now. Am I suffering the blues now? Maybe for a week or two, I shall as I am only human and human contacts made over 15 months could not be erased in a day or two. 

But I thought of writing that one chapter in my Departure Points v.2 (hopefully I will publish it after I turn 75 years old, God willing and I shall live that long by God’s grace). In my last sermon I saved the last 14 minutes to preach on our denomination’s theme for the next three years “Glorify God from local to global: Acts 1:8). 

I told the church I had been doing that since I pastored my first church in 2003. Last July I led a team to visit a sister SIB church in Tuaran, just outside of Kota Kinabalu (our Jerusalem) and I told them the vision is near fulfilment as the next month, the Tuaran’s church is making a return visit and I have been invited to attend despite my departure last Sunday. 

I told them in the first leaders’ retreat in Jan 2025, I mentioned about “Judaea” which is our State of Sabah - I would love to visit Alutok in 2026, being my 30th anniversary of my original visit in July 1996. But the Lord knows I was going the leave the church early this year so that last year in August, the church in Alutok invited me to preach two sessions in their 4-church combined services called “Ulu Tomani Central”. 

One or two veteran leaders still remembered the former missionaries who evangelized these Murut villagers in 1950s. I told them I was there to water the plant the missionaries planted and they took the metaphor well. 

The chairman of the church over lunch and then when I was going to my car to return to KK, invited me twice to return to Alutok to minister. The Word of God is powerful and has blessed the people of God there.