On Saturday morning, I was heading for Kuala Lumpur railway station for my journey, a 250km trip to Ipoh. My host Rev. Frank Lin was there, waving to greet me as I walked through barrier. The last time I saw Frank was in Brentwood when he came for a meal at my house. Straight away, Frank took me to see the “Ipoh Tree” which was immediately in front of the station, and he took some pictures to record my visit. Our next stop was to St John’s Church, the oldest Anglican Church in Ipoh, and he had arranged for the vicar to show me around it. It has just been granted listed heritage building status.
Our next stop was St Peter’s Church where Frank is the vicar. He had a full program planned for me: I needed to get in touch with the cousin of my wife, Judy, and Auntie Choo to catch up with them whilst in Ipoh. I had also promised to meet Jonathan Moo, the best friend of our mutual friend Andrew Sit, who was recently promoted to glory. With all the plans finalized, we set off.
When we arrived, Frank had planned to treat me to a trip around Ipoh to sample some of the famous Ipoh cuisine: satay chicken, vegetables, chicken rice, noodles and my favourite, beansprouts. We then went to find the famous “mountain” bean curd, which was really good! The next plan he had was to get me some pastries and prawn crackers. Our final stop was the famous “White Coffee” shop. I was feeling really hot and went for iced black coffee. I was absolutely stuffed by his generosity and hospitality.
Back to the vicarage for a shower and a nap. I was being picked by Judy’s cousins and auntie and was taken by them to a birthday party of a member of their church. It was in a really nice restaurant with a ten course Chinese banquet! I was really shocked to see Auntie Choo with her lack of mobility, but I enjoyed a really good time talking with Dennis and Oli Leng, the elders within this church group. They invited me back to their home so I could pray for Auntie Choo – it was upsetting to see her shuffling and having difficultly getting out of a chair.
I prayed for her I asked her to stand and to try and walk. After walking her up and down the lounge, and stopping to pray, the shuffle stopped and she began to walk. Auntie Choo began to smile, then she asked if I could pray her painful hand. I held her hand, and the power of the Holy Spirit came upon her – the pain left her immediately! We had a wonderful time of prayer together before Dennis took me back to the vicarage: it was such a brilliant end to my first day in Ipoh.
I had to be up at 6.00am to get ready for Frank who was taking for a “dim sum” breakfast before Church. Our schedule was so full that I had pack and be ready, as I wouldn’t have time to return to the vicarage. What a treat, although I left Frank to eat the chicken’s feet himself! We arrived at St. I’s for the 9.00am service in English, which I was speaking at. It was reasonably full, and the church holds services for different languages. Following a time of worship, Frank introduced to me using downloads from the Zeal Outreach website.
Then there was a power failure all the electricity went out. Immediately the elders began to pray. It was dark and started getting hot; people began to open the curtains and windows, and Frank and the elders asked everyone to link hands and pray for the electricity to be restored. I was beginning to think, “This is going to be good. Whenever there seems to be obstacles, God has something good ahead!” Within a few minutes the electric was back on and I was invited to the platform. I had seen Frank had planned to hold a discipleship course soon and so I had worked on a message to link with this.
It was wonderful to stand on the platform and speak in an Anglican church. I explained that I used to go to an Anglican Church as a boy in England. I felt God had given me a clear message for this Church today, which would take two parts. I began with the question, ‘What is a Missionary?’. I shared the following:
“Jesus said to them again, ‘…As the Father has sent Me, I also send you’” (John 20:21).
A missionary is someone sent by Jesus Christ just as He was sent by God. The great controlling factor is not the needs of people, but the command of Jesus. The source of our inspiration in our service for God is behind us, not ahead of us. The tendency today is to put the inspiration out in front – to sweep everything together in front of us and make it conform to our definition of success. But in the New Testament the inspiration is put behind us, and is the Lord Jesus Himself. The goal is to be true to Him – to carry out His plans.
Personal attachment to the Lord Jesus and to His perspective is the one thing that must not be overlooked. In missionary work, the great danger is that God’s call will be replaced by the needs of the people, to the point that human sympathy for those needs will absolutely overwhelm the meaning of being sent by Jesus. The needs are so enormous, and the conditions so difficult, that every power of the mind falters and fails. We tend to forget that the one great reason underneath all missionary work is not primarily the elevation of the people, their education, nor their needs, but is first and foremost the command of Jesus Christ – “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…” (Matthew 28:19).
I began to speak of the importance of Church and how I love Church. I believe that Church should be inwardly secure and we should be looking to develop disciples. However as you would expect coming from an Evangelist, I said every Church should be outwardly focused! Church is not just in a building, church is outside these walls! I also shared 2 Corinthians 5:21, highlighting verse 20. “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!’”
It was time for ‘Joe Crow’ to come out of the bag and share the Lord’s Prayer with everyone and invite everyone to pray. I began share how Joe Crow and I worked all over the world together, and how Joe my puppet was great help when I took him into the Jungle with the Orang Asli people. I told of the miracle healing of the little girl, Leb and how I scared the tribesman because I was the first white man they had seen.
I told my testimony of how I came to Christ, my first wife’s illness and how a scripture had changed my life: “For the wages of sin and death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23). This spoke to me and I realised I was a sinner and need to turn from my sin. This saw me respond to salvation and swap my wallet for the Bible as the way forward. I told how God was a God of second chances after my first wife had been saved and eventually promoted to glory. I later met my second wife Judy Choo-Ean, a Malaysian whose family are from the Ipoh area and we’ve been married for 17 years.
I used my testimony and story to challenge the congregation of their own salvation. This saw a number of people raising their hands and pray the prayer for salvation. God have given me words of knowledge for healing and invited people to come forward. This immediately saw God touching people with power of the Holy Spirit, and many people received healing.
We had run over time and people were coming up to me telling me that God had healed them of hand, neck, and back problems and blurred vision. One lady gave a short testimony of how she had become deaf in one ear, and gone to the doctor who said she had an infection in the inner ear. She’d gone back again because the medication had not worked. She came forward she said “You put your hands on my ears, and the power of the Holy Spirit came on me.” She had felt her ear pop and she could hear again when she stood up. I was just about to leave and I was stopped again, this time by a man saying his knee has been healed. I promised a tract to all those who responded from salvation, and he asked for his – he was one of those people. It was now gone 11am and Frank Lin and I were due at another church. I left more tracts behind for those who had responded. It was wonderful to be part of God’s amazing grace at St. Peter’s this morning.
Frank and I made our way to the car and off to a Chinese Church that he looks after called “Gereja Hallelujah”. By the time we arrived the lady vicar was speaking and the praise worship had taken place. Frank led the Holy Communion service as people came forward to break bread. It was spoken in English and Chinese for the 20-30 people present. There was such a lovely family atmosphere in the church. Frank introduced me as the speaker from England. I had been praying what I should share with Church. I felt so led to share Isaiah 61, especially as I was following on from the tremendous anointing we had seen at St. Peter’s Church. It was nice to be working directly with Frank as he interpreted for me.
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion – to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. Strangers will shepherd your flocks; foreigners will work your fields and vineyards. And you will be called priests of the Lord, you will be named ministers of our God. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast. Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.
“For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing. In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed.” I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations. (Isaiah 61 NIV)
It was an international audience. I had come from afar to bring the Word of God – I began to share with them and it was time to let Joe Crow out of the bag to make his appearance. It’s always a great icebreaker! He brought immediate laughter, as he squawked and darted back into the bag, coming out with a “Praying Hands” tract in his beak. It was time for the Lord’s Prayer and getting everyone involved. Frank assisted Joe Crow by leading everyone in the Lord’s Prayer in Chinese.
I shared with the church what I had been doing since leaving England, how I had become a Christian myself and that I was married to a Malaysian Chinese wife, Judy Choo-Ean, who originated from near Ipoh. I realised my message need to be short and to the point. I began to ask them about sin and if they knew if they would be going to heaven.
I told them that Jesus only came for sinners like me and you, as it said so in the Bible in Luke 19:10. He came to seek and save the lost. I led straight into leading questions like, “Have you ever told a lie?” If they had they should raise their hands like me. Then onto the next leading question, “Have you ever taken something that doesn’t belong to you?” again hands were raised.
This got their attention. I then produced a piece of white paper and told the story of a man’s life that was very similar to my own. The story comes with an origami, called “Tear and share”. After folding and making two tears, we were left with scraps of paper, which could spell the word HELL. They all understood this word without translation – it was quite amazing how people recognise it all over the world. I could see their minds working in front of me.
I began to share that our God was a God of love. I then changed HELL into LOVE. I then repeated John 3:16 to them, that God sent Jesus for them because He loved them and today theycould choose to say sorry and surrender their lives and come into relationship with their heavenly Father.
I asked them to indicate if they wanted make this decision by raising their hands and almost half of them responded. I asked Frank to lead them in the prayer of repentance as I unfolded the last piece of paper, which was a cross. I felt the need to give everyone the opportunity for prayer for healing. We saw God touch many lives, several with hand problems; knees, neck and back problems were healed, several with problems sleeping and another with ear and neck problems. The Holy Spirit was really touching lives again here in Ipoh. Such a blessed time – we stayed on to have some home-cooked food and fellowship in the Church which was so welcoming and friendly.
We had one home visit on the way back to St. Peter’s Church where I had arranged to meet Jonathan Moo from here in Ipoh. He was our brother, Andrew Sit’s best friend. Andrew had been living in England for many years and had recently gone home to glory. I knew he and Andrew were really close friends and he had communicated with him regularly during his last six months. In the very last week I communicated with Jonathan through Facebook and read a message about Andrew during the thanksgiving.
Naturally, in true Ipoh hospitality, Jonathan wanted to feed me. We did however have time to talk and share over coffee before he took me to the station for my trip back to Kuala Lumpur. It seemed a much longer journey back – it was slower because of the rain. Faithful friend Bobby Ho collected me at the station. I was shattered and needed a shower with something to eat and sleep! What a brilliant weekend!
I am now away for a few days break in Langkawi. I felt I needed to recharge my batteries so my light is shining brightly again. Judy and I have been here on holiday many times. I just wanted to chill out, take in a bit of sun, rest and of course have good food. I was so surprised to see the rain when I arrived. I have been here in August before and never seen continuous rain with thunder and puddles everywhere. This my second full day since arriving and the rain has stopped. I had prayed for an old friend on arrival whose hand was inflamed and painful that she needed injections for a seafood allergy, the picture tells the story the next day. I have managed to swim in the sea and enjoy the fresh air. Tomorrow morning, I check out and head back for Kuala Lumpur. I am back in the afternoon back for Bobby’s birthday. On Friday I hope to meet up with Judy’s nieces in town.
This evening I will be preparing for the baptism service of a number of the Orang Asli tribe. Have look in the picture gallery you’ll see my nighttime surprise visitor!
It’s going to be a full weekend, driving to the Central Peninsula of Malaysia into the jungle. We are scheduled to visit two sites on Saturday and Sunday and hold services. I am so looking forward to this trip!
