The New
Millennium
The new millennium has
begun with many changes. There were changes in the mobilisation of evangelists.
Michael and Rebecca are serving in Gereja Charis in Cold Stream. Albert and
Persis Have returned from Sabah after their theological Studies and they are
now serving in Church of Our Redeemer in Butterworth. Presently, Wong Yoo
and Yang Siew Fong are still at Gereja Shekinah in Mambang Di-Awan, Phoebe
Yue is now in St. Philip's Mission in Sungai Siput, Yang Mei Yoke looks after
Temoh and GerejaAgape in Air Kuning and Lily Lim at St Chad's Church in Ladang
Geddes(near Bahau).
Gereja Shekinah
(formerly known as Mambang Di-Awan Gospel Centre)
This church is now five years old and is growing steadily with an average
Sunday attendance of 45. Holy Communion is being administered only twice a
month ; once by Ven.Canon Ng Moon Hing and once by Revd David Cheong of St
Paul's Slim River. The two evangelists from the church share the duties on
the other weeks. There are cell groups, bible studies and prayer meetings
on weekday nights. Since July 1998, this church is propely constituted and
much effort is now directed to shepherding and building up the young flock
as opposed to the sole emphasis of evangelism during the early pioneering
days. It is our hope that this church will be self-sufficient very soon. By
2000 she was growing very fast, so much so we have to look for some other
solutions to contain the crowd. Finally we have decided to plant another church
some 10 km away by sending half of the congregation to the new plant. Gereja
Agape in Air Kuning was established and a new building was purchased in 2003.
The church building at Cold Stream was built in 2002 and dedicated on the
3.1.2003. She is now called Gereja Charis and she is given to St Andrew's
Bidor as her daughter church. We praise God for all the wonderful works we
have worked on with His help.
Other
Villages
Region One
Tronoh Mines
We have been working in Tronoh Mines for sometimes and it is slowly bearing
fruit. Presently, there is a house meeting regularly in a borrowed house.
At the moment, we have only 6 baptised members. We hope this will grow in
due time. We still need much prayers. Wong Yoo and Yang Siew Fong help in
this village.
Jeram
We temporary has stopped work in this village due mainly to lack of workers
and funding.
Temoh
Yang Mei Yoke also helps in this village. Every Thursday, she has a house
meeting in a rented house. On other days she does visitations. There are about
12 baptised adults. These members go to Gereja Agape on Sunday for worship
service.
Region Two (this region was donated to St Andrew's Bidor in 2003)
Cold Stream
Gereja Charis has a huge children ministry with more than 100 children weekly.
The adult ministry happens in the evening.
Bidor Station
Only a handful of Christians and they go to St Andrew's for Sunday worship.
Kuala Bikam
There are 8 members here. Regular visits and bible studies are being
carried out by our evangelists. Sunday School was started but due to
opposition, it was stopped.
Sungkai
This centre is part of St. Andrew's church, Bidor. We hope to help them in
the pioneering work.
Tanah Mas
This centre has been temporarily closed due to the migration of our
members to bigger towns, and then lack of an evangelist.
Chui Chak and
Batu Dua Belas
These two centre have been returned to Our Saviour's Church, Langkap for
spiritual oversight. We still have our evangelist in the person of Michael and
Rebecca Yong seconded to Chui Chak.
The whole of region Two except Chui Chak and Batu Dua Belas is now under the jurisdiction of St Andrew's Church, Bidor.
Ladang Geddes
This centre was started by Rev. Dr. Lakhsman of St. Aidan's Church, Bahau.
Since it is situated in the midst of a Chinese village AVM is seconding one
worker in the person of Lily Lim.
Region 3
St Philip's Mission,
Sungai Siput is started by St John's Ipoh. She is being taken care by St Michael's
Ipoh but AVM seconded a worker in the person of Pheobe Yue to St Philip's
to do pioneering work.
Orang
Asli Ministry
We have continued
in our expansion programmers to other kampungs. Now there are 22 kampungs.
Our greatest setback is the lack of finance and workers. When the work keeps
on expanding, we need more funds and workers to keep pace. We wish to pay
tribute to many of our lay workers and volunteers who have sacrificed much
to assist us. We are now moving to the State of Kelantan. We have targetted
a few Asli kampungs near Gua Musang.
Gereja Shalom, Gopeng
This church is growing steadily under the spiritual oversight
of St. Peter's Church, Ipoh. There is a regular Sunday attendance of 70. We
have also started an Economic Shop in Gopeng.
The aims are :
* to help the orang Asli to be entrepreneurs.
* to help establish a small sundry shop in each kampung
* to act as a wholesaler for these sundry shops.
* to raise the economic level of the orang Asli.
We have also engaged in goat-rearing programme. It has now bear fruit. There
are now five kampungs have this goat-rearing programme. Each will begin with
five goats. Once the goats have increase, they will donate five goats back
to us for another kampung.The fish rearing programme which was started a few
years ago is not showing much result lately. We have also started a programme
of planting hill-padi. There has been some success in the planting programme.
We hope to bring this programme to other kampungs.
Apart from helping them in the economic upgrading programme, we constantly are reaching many new souls. Annually, we are baptising about a hundred orang Asli. We have also started a mini-Bible School for them. In fact, 17 of them have gone though Level One which took one year. We are recuiting more for training. We need to give them a higher level of training. Books and training matrials in Bahasa Malaysia are hard to find. Presently, we have Anis, Rino, Eduan and Rev Japalus to help in the Asli ministry. We have send Julih to Seminari Theoloji Malaysia and she has completed her B.Th degree last year. She is now being trained in St Mark's Butterworth. We are hoping that one day she will return so that she can teach in the mini-Bible School as well as serving as a pastor to the Orang Asli.
Other Kampungs
Apart from Gereja
Shalom, there are several kampungs having services with attendence ranging
from 30 to 100 people. The total number of orang asli served by us total more
than 1000. However, due to the lack of clergy, they only receive Holy Communion
sometimes once a year! We hope to build a kampung style church building in
each of the kampungs. Presently, there are a few kampungs being identified.
Although each of them does not cost very much but the total cost is substantial.
Each kampung style church building will cost about RM5,000 to RM9,000 depending
on size, locality and accessibility.
Air Denak Chapel
This chapel was dedicated in September 2000 by Bishop Ponniah.
It was built by the Asli themselves and the fund was contributed by a Korean
church. There are about 30 people worshipping on Sundays.
Kampung Sinju Chapel
This chapel will be dedicated by Bishop Lim on 24th March 2001. It was
also built the Asli themselves. A Kindergarten has just started.
Ulu Groh Chapel
This Chapel was dedicated
by Archdeacon Ng Moon Hing in 2003. This is the only kampung which has 90%
Christians.
Ulu Kampar
This chapel was dedicated by Archdeacon
Ng Moon Hing in 2003. This kampung has 50% Christians.
Pawong Chapel
This chapel was dedicated by Bishop
Ponniah in 2001. There is a kindergarten too. The Christians are growing in
numbers.
Pos Raya Chapel
This Chapel was dedicated by archdeacon
Ng Moon Hing in 2005. Work is progressing slowly. The goat rearing programme
is doing very well.
Pengkalan Daun Chapel
This Chapel was dedicated by Archdeacon
Ng Moon Hing in 2002. It has a kindergarten and is doing well.
