There were 2 main takeaways for this week, one on leadership and another on family.
First, it was the visit to the Onesimus garden that I learnt how to treat the people we want to help. Pastor Andrew Choo mentioned that he treated the girls he was ministering to as his own daughters. Daughters are people we love and we do what we can to help them. We judge their actions but not them. What was important? To love people like how we treat our own flesh and blood. I also thought about the ways in which he researched to help people. One of it was teaching people how to farm. Teaching farming to people who have once lost their way is innovative and serves to provide them a job.
Next, what I gathered from Kuik Shiaoyin is that she is telling us that family is important. She tells about how she met her husband and together they did many wonderful things like holding talks on family and doing community work. We also have to rely on God’s grace and strength and not our own.
We visited HealthServe and following a talk by Rev. Lam, I thought that thinking of the community as an extension of our family would be good in welcoming new believers in Christ. The follow up on a fellow new believer is important, as we want to share the love and warmth of Jesus to them and also to invite them to join the fellowship of the Lord. We are after all told to be missional under God’s ultimate mission plan. What was amazing was that the people whom HealthServe helped stayed back and also contributed. Through their word of mouth, many fellow workers came to know the Lord and are saved. This is certainly one area of community work we as Christians can think about.
As usual, during the talks I would not be paying full attention and this was also the case for Robert Solomon’s talk on Spiritual Leadership. What I remembered most from his talk was that he did not want to be a bishop from the start. Only through God’s prompting and a subsequent series of events that led to him being bishop that he decided he will serve. I felt the same way many years ago when I was ‘recommended’ to serve in the youth and later on in the young adults committee. I was attached to a cell group of younger people and was given the title ‘leader’. Although in my heart I was saying no, the word that came out was yes. I thought I was not qualified and tried to understand why people would ‘recommend’ me. It still baffles me today.
I was always on the look out for someone better to replace me, thinking he or she would be able to do a better job than I am, because really I was not doing much. Then there were sharing by others who said that God places people and events in our life to guide us in our walk with God. I thank God that throughout the years, He has blessed me with mentors and friends who so willingly offered to help when I needed it.
Lastly I felt that it was important to groom future leaders to meet the challenges of the future. We need good shepherds to take care of the flock. If we do not want to face the same reality in the churches of Europe, we have to act now.
Reuben Yap
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