Restful Day & Fellow Pastors

After reading the whole manuscript of John 13-21 one more time from Friday to Monday yesterday, today I decided to take a break while praying what book or thing that I want to do come June 2026. Tomorrow is our Pastors’ Conference and I hope there will be at least 300 pastors attending out of 400 plus full time workers in our denomination. I used to follow the Conference religiously without fail until after the pandemic, I had not attended a full Conference except the night services.

This time I plan to attend the whole Conference with about 8 or 9 sessions lined up. I will see whether my stamina holds. In my first 10 years as pastor, I would invariably weep during the Conference, seeing how much my fellow pastors had to bear with especially their lack of finances. 

The pastors’ salaries had stagnated in the last decade or more. There was one District with 5 female pastors with only one male pastor. One former male pastor whom attended that meeting told me he had stopped during the pandemic and now drives a Grab which he can earn about RM4,000 a month but his pastor’s salary is less than a third of that. When I met him, he was engaged to be married and the bride dowry is quite a substantial sum in his culture. He told me he was returning to the pastorate but it’s been more than 2 years and I have not heard from him since. 

Male pastors are becoming a rare species, if their wives do not work and have an income it is doubly hard. Frankly, I do not know how I had survived as my wife is a full time house wife and she has never earned any money. But God is good. I wanted it that way, so that my wife could accompany me wherever I go. Last year, my wife journeyed with me all the way to Alutok (near Kalimantan and Sarawak border), sleeping in the church house with the toilet outside. Thankfully, it was only one night and I am not sure in my age now, I could spend two or more nights in such environment. My wife also came with me when I officiated a wedding in a fairway village 90 minutes from Tenom which is about 4 hours' drive from Kota Kinabalu depending on the traffic. Twice we made overnight stop in Tambunan before we journeyed to our destinations. But there are times I travel myself especially when I had to leave early in the morning like 5am or 6am.