Brother Tiong started by showing a picture of our
building. He said this building is
useful but it is not the most important aspect of our church. The important thing is you and I members of
FBC which makes the body of Christ.
Thank You
Bro Tiong extended his personal thanks to everyone in our
church.
- Especially those who prayed and even cooked for her sick mother
- To all the leaders, Pastor Malcolm, elders, Youth ministry leaders, Phaik Im, Chung Chek, Worship ministry, Paul, leaders of English literacy, Break Through, Hope Place, Prison ministry, Family ministry under Howe Tung & Chuei Lian, Salvation Army, Boys Brigade, and others. His is thankful because they do not need to be there but they chose to be there to make a difference.
- Bro Tiong is thankful to Michael Wong, Chii Bing, and Paul who have the responsibility for the financial management of the church.
- He is thankful to all the members who have been giving generously.
On behalf of the leadership he asked for forgiveness in
areas where leaders had not carried out duties in full satisfaction of members. In a real sense leaders are not “leaders” but
servants because they are here to serve.
History of FBC
We celebrated 40 years anniversary when we moved into this
building. Four years had passed. Now we are 44 years old.
The church was established by Pastor Bob Evans in Green Road,
in fact, at 131 Green Road. All said it
has been through faith that this church was established. Faith is not cheap, Christ died for us. Every missionary who came to our shore paid a
price for us. Faith is precious.
2014
Our country is very blessed.
Despite all the “ripples”, social ills, crimes, etc, but still we can
enjoy worshiping as we like.
Many issues affected us in 2014, like “Allah” issue. A pastor shared with Bro Tiong that this is
not a big issue, it is a wake-up call for us.
We cannot take things for granted.
Around the world there are many crisis e.g ISIS killing many
people, this is scary. Yet we are not
far. Malaysians have joined ISIS. Persecutions in Syria and Iraq are continuing
and this is scary too.
In Malaysia we are experiencing serious flood in the East
Coast of Peninsula. More than one
hundred thousand people are affected.
The oil price has declined.
Our country’s budget was based on USD100 per barrel, and now it has
dropped to about USD60 per barrel. What
is the impact on our economy? Dr. Tiong
admitted that he is not an economist and he does not know the impact on
Malaysia.
The ebola crisis in West Africa has killed about 200 health worker. We are not far because there are many
Malaysians working in the timber industry in Africa.
In our country we are facing Islamization, but we are not
being political here, we are trying to understand whether the 10 points
regarding freedom of our faith are real or not.
Sometimes they seemed real at times they do not seem to be real.
In the midst of the crisis let us look at our church.
Resolution 2015
- Personal
Joshua 24:15 “As for me and my house, we will serve the
Lord”
In 2014 we are encouraged to read through the Bible in a
year. Let us continue to read if we had
not achieved it yet. We are asked to
share Christ with at least 3 people in the year. The members are encouraged to pray more. Build relationship with each other with love
and care. Look out for people around us
e.g visitors coming to our church.
- Life Group (LG)
Luke 12:48 “From everyone who has been given much, much will
be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will
be asked.”
Bro Tiong encouraged everyone to join a LG. We must join a LG so that we can know each
other better, and also we can contribute to the body. We come together in group like LG to do things
that each individual may not be able to do.
The LGs are also encouraged to go out into the mission
fields. We also have the Short Term
Mission that goes overseas. But if we
cannot go to mission overseas, at least we can do local mission like interior
of Sarawak. Even just outside Kuching
there are many poor people living in horrible accommodations. We can help some but may not be able to help
all of them. Bro Tiong shared that it
was like the Star Fish story that we learnt in Alpha course. At least the one star fish that was thrown
into the sea can survive.
There are so many crisis and disasters, are these signs that
Christ is coming back? We got to be
prepared.
Our Mission
To equip and empower every member of FBC in fulfilling God’s
calling on their lives and the next generation on foundations of strong
relationships.
To network and share resources with other churches in
demonstrating compassion for the marginalized and the unreached in Sarawak and
the nations, built on the foundation of the worth of each person.
These are not just pretty statements but are real action statements
for our church.
We are committed
To be focused on Jesus Who is the centre of all we are and
do
To be equipped and empowered by the Holy Spirit
To build strong and lively relationships
To have compassion for the lost
To have a Kingdom mindset
To serve
FBC
Ministry Training
College (MTC)
In 2014 we have already established the MTC with 5
students. More people may join next
year. We see MTC as important in
training leaders to evangelise and impact others for Christ. We learnt this
model from Shepherd Community Church, H.K with some modifications.
Boys’ Brigade (BB)
& Girls’ Brigade (GB)
We are trying to impact the society around us, but how are
we doing this? One way is by the English
literacy classes and now with have BB & GB which are school co-curriculum uniformed
bodies approved by the Government.
Through the work of Pastor Malcolm, Brother Jong and Sister Agnes we are
starting BB & GB in 2015.
Outreach
We are planning two outreach points, one in Demak Laut and
another in Sebuyau Ensengei.
Demak Laut
We have rented a first floor shop lot at Demak Laut. It is small and can accommodate about 50 to
60 people. How this came about was that
sometime ago Bro Tiong visited a sick brother, Unzi who had a stroke. He lived in a container and it was very hot
and stuffy. Bro Tiong enquired why he
had not been attending church, and UnJi said to attend church he has to decide
whether to skip lunch because the cost of getting to our church is expensive
for him to afford. Bro Tiong realised
that we can establish a outreach point in Demak Laut so that many can worship
in a church. We are going to start a BM
service after some renovation work at the rented premise.
Sebuyau Ensengei
Since two years we have been in Sebayau about 200 members
have been baptised but there is no place for worship.
We have been given a piece of land there and now we need a
building. To cut some cost our Brother
Michael has come up with a concept ual design of three steel containers forming
a building structure. We hope to get
this building up by first half of 2015.
Conclusion
Matthew 25:21
“Well done, good and faithful servant”
The secular world’s definition of success is different from
our Christian world view. In the secular
world, success means money, power, position and all the worldly things.
God’s measure of success is very different. In God’s view, success is measured by our faithfulness. We must be faithful to what we have been
entrusted to, then we are successful in God’s eyes.
