Dear faculty, staff and fellow students at BGST,
Greetings
in the name of our precious Lord Jesus Christ! I am so glad that I could meet
and work with Dr. Quek again after a lapse of three years. That gave me an
opportunity to give my overdue apology of not being in touch with you. (As a
result, be prepared for a lengthy report!) As Dr. Quek can witness, I do not
vanish from the earth, and my family are alive and busy (evidenced by our
pictures). We love you all, we miss you all!!! My wife and family often think of
people, places, and events in
I am
glad that I am able to share with you my ministry and life. We started our
ministry since we returned from
But my training at BGST and working experience at Zion BP came to help as we moved on. I realize there will be no quantity if there is no quality. After spending one year (2003, SARS) in evangelism to bring people to Christ, (after all, a preacher cannot preach to empty pews.) I decided to build a team. So I invited seven people on January 1, 2004 to work with me. My goal was to spend the whole year to train those seven. As a result, I invited missionaries and trainers to walk us through leadership development, team building, and spirituality growth. Thanks be to God, this one-year experience was so crucial and helpful in my pastoral ministry. We learn to work not just as colleagues, but as team players and friends. I am so thankful to the Lord that I have those godly fellow believers to help me. As a result, our church experiences a good growth in 2005. We now have seventy people with us. Not only with number, I thank God that He gives us quality, team, and structure so that we can be more effective and more efficient.
Our church is both new and ancient. It is three years in age, but ancient in form. We are still at the tabernacle stage. By that, I mean it is a moving thing. We started from our home, then a rented-flat, another home, and now a rented flat again. We do not know where we will be next. Thankfully, God defines His church not as a building, but as an assembly of His people.
As abovementioned, we experienced growth. But at the same time we also have some troubles with cults. To our surprise, three believers in our church were led away by cults. We now truly realize how much we need solid biblical foundation for a church as BGST is always stressing, and that truly we are engaged in a spiritual battle.
Our church sees missions as an important work of God as we move on. We are involved with orphanage work among some people groups in the province. We are also helping in leprosy work. It is not easy. We are saddened by the situation that they are not only hidden from, but forgotten by the public. Our church stands behind them and their families with both finance and sympathy. Part of that work is to organize a team of people, including our children, to visit them with gifts and art performance. We plan to work with medical doctors to provide them counseling. Please remember us in your prayer as we plan to move into the challenging work of helping AIDS/HIV situation. We view this as an opportunity to share God’s love with those unloving people (after all, who is that loving?).
Enough with ministry report? Ok, let me turn to my family. We are alive (except occasionally), happy (sometimes), and busy (always). My wife is a woman that I am thankful to my Lord. She works in church, carrying no title. (By the way, I do not carry a title either, this is the situation in my country). She helps a mothers’ group and disciples ladies. She was able to organize counseling seminars a few times in both church and public settings. She is thankful for her learning and training at BGST. (Ministry again!)
Finally, family life. We settle down in this beautiful place but with a very underdeveloped cultural environment. Our children are now much taller, and more intelligent for sure. My wife home-schools both of them, using a curriculum called A Beka. Our older child, like some professors and students at BGST, is a book-worm. We sometimes have to stop her. Our younger child is more sporty, prefers to play (after all, she is younger). We are so happy with the flexibility that home-schooling gives us, which is helpful both in our ministry and family life. Both our children are studying ballet and piano, now, under Russian teachers. We are happy to see our children becoming smart, pretty and graceful. Academically, they are doing well.
Our future plan? We would love to do further studies. But I realize there is no such thing as ‘instant noodles’ in ministry. It is my wife’s desire to receive some professional training in the area of counseling so that she can be useful to meet this ever-growing need in our country. Myself? Maybe I will engage in some further study in the far future. I am clear with my current role in ministry, to be useful to my Lord. For our children, for sure they have a long, long way to go before they will finish their studies and they need to grow up in many areas of their life. It is our prayer that they will grow up as great servants of God to serve Him in their generation.
BGST has deeply touched our lives and ministry. The more I serve God, the more I appreciate the input from BGST. The pen is not a sufficient tool to express my gratitude to Dr. Quek and other lecturers, who go beyond the transfer of knowledge, but influence lives with their lives, passion with passion. The warmth and hard work of BGST staff simply made my study a pleasant experience. I am thankful that BGST is open to foreign students, such as myself. I appreciate the international mix even though we have to struggle with our twisted tongues to mumble the difficult English words. As an alumnus, I wish BGST, under the leadership of Dr. Quek, will continue to grow to meet the increasing need of equipping the whole body of Christ, locally and internationally.
Thanks for your patience with this long report! May our Lord Jesus Christ bless you as we plough together in the harvest field for His glory!
Daniel