National Conference

National Conference was really a turning point in my life, truly a place of a fresh encounter with God. The place was really cold and windy, considering its height is 3/4 Genting Highlands, and there were 44campuses, 3 nations represented here in this conference. USM is the largest delegation with 73 delegates, whereas the smallest delegation is IMU and UIA with 1 each :)

We had great powerful exposition from the book of Joshua by Dr. Thomas Chung from Kuching. An old chap, a medical doctor with 3 scholarships throughout his whole life. First degree is Biochemistry from McGill University in Canada, second degree, MBBS from University of London, third degree perhaps in theology. Speaking with Queen's English with mixture of Hokkien and Malay words, combined with unique body language, this guy is really awesome. The truth of God was expounded with passion and full of conviction, calling us to rise up, to be bold and courageous, to reject sin, to depend on God, to pray passionately, to go forth to claim the promised land in our families, colleges, universities and everywhere we go. Perhaps the things that speaks strongly is his own personal life which continues to amaze me. Declining a lifestyle of luxury, he chose to remain single for life, living a very simple life, where being a doctor is just his part-time job, and his main job is to proclaim God's truth among the tribes in Sarawak! He supports himself by just doing locum in clinics, and lives everyday as it is his last, without looking forward to keep earthly treasures, but to seek treasures in heaven. I believe that you Kuchingites are very blessed to have this guy around. Appreciate and take opportunities to hear from him while there's still a chance.

There's few plenary talks as well, addressing the issues of Malaysian Christian. The first plenary (what's the meaning of plenary anyone?) is by Rev.Steven Kum from Calvary Church, that talks about our Malaysian Identity. Malaysia is indeed a nation that God has created on the 16 September 1963, and since its a creation of God, we are put into this creation for times like this to bring this nation to turn to Him! There is distinct identities of Chinese Malaysians that sets us apart from Singaporeans, Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, and as Chinese Malaysians, we should be proud to be Malaysian, and to take up the mandate to live for God's glory in this nation. We should take God's identity (Children of God) rather than worldly racially divided identity. At the end of the plenary, Dr Loh Kim Cheng (staff of FES) exposes the sins of racism among CFs in Malaysia, where we often divide ourselves racially even in the body of Christ. Bumiputra Christians and Chinese Christians do not mix. We look down on the status of Bahasa Malaysia, the language that unites the whole nation. We are too proud to reach out to the Bumiputra Christians. Our CFs are not willing to use BM as medium of communication and worship. This causes the lack of participation of Bumiputras in our CFs. Many non-Chinese feel that they are second class Christians in Malaysia. They wish to be born a Chinese. We shout and jump about God's love, but we live without love. Jesus suffered and died on the Cross not for Chinese alone, but for all people. Hearing that I burst into tears and I wept, repenting for my sins and the sins of the people. It is the first time I really grieve.

The second plenary talks about being dispersed into the whole nation. A large proportion of Christians in Malaysia are middle-class, professionals, having the social mobility to migrate, change jobs, and to support a fairly high standard of living. We often want a comfortable living in large cities like KL, Johor Bahru, Penang, Ipoh etc. but we forgot that God calls us to the ends of the earth. Mr. Goh Keat Peng, the director of World Vision in Timor Leste scolded us, saying (paraphrased) if you are not willing to die for Christ, you better don't be a christian. Is there anywhere that we cannot go? We are call to shine for Christ in every vocation that we are in, to defend God's truth, and to influence the community for Christ. The small towns of Malaysia, the church of Malaysia is not in KL alone, it is in the whole nation. We are too isolated from the community, neglecting social concern and issues. We often have the 'richer', 'cleaner', 'holier' than thou attitude, unwilling to dirty our hands to defend the poor, destitute, homeless etc. If one day Christians are persecuted in Malaysia, who is to blame? We ourselves! Because we do not contribute to the society that warrants respect from the community. What have we done in the society that gives us the right to co-exist within the larger multireligious community? If we continue to be ignorant to the world and just worship God within the 4 walls of the church, nothing will happen. Worship is more than singing. A sad statistics shows that half of Malaysians migrating overseas are Christians. Where is our witness for the Lord?

The third plenary talks about living in a predominantly Muslim society. It advocates Christian intellectualism in today's ('Prayer Healing Deliverance' phenomena), which often anti-intellectual. We are so excited about the working of faith (there's nothing wrong), but then we neglect study of the word of God and the development of Christian worldview. This causes us not to be respected as an intelligent faith, but blind faith. Many Muslim academics in Malaysia, for example UiTM deputy Vice Chancellor, Dr. Syed Saleem Faruqi and Dr. Syed Naquib Al-Attas say that our Christianity is nothing more than 'western individualism', where as Islam is the complete way of life. We can just stand speechless, unable to refute them if we continue to live with the ideology of Western Christianity. The message, although too academic and with too much jargon, speaks about the danger of ignorance. With current trends, it is predicted that by year 2020, 85% of Malaysians will be Malays with left 15% non-Malays comprising of all faiths. When the proportion of Muslims increase, the power of Islamic policies will increase, living as a Christian may be harder. How will things be? Will we migrate by then? An interesting issue.

With Shariah Law being parallel with Civil Law, its hard for us to defend our rights when it involves interreligious cases. It is feared that the Shariah Law will be higher than the civil law one day. No more pork in many places in the future, no more church buildings considering the decrease of Christian population, the issue of religious freedom will be more complicated, and the future seems dark. Are we willing to stand strong in the midst of hardship? If the early martyrs are willing to suffer for Christ to be eaten by lions, what makes us less worthy to suffer as Christians? Will we be true to God's calling to be Malaysian Christian, to shine even how dark the future seems to be? Will we contribute to nation building as ambassadors of Christ?

We must avoid Bumiputra Christians to neglect their faith that their forefathers have accepted during the revivals in Sabah and Sarawak decades ago. The Bario Revival for example need to be maintained for the next generation, in order that the Church to stand. The natives are the true custodians of the Malaysian Church, not chinese, tamil, or english churches, the indigenous church need to be put as the mainline church (the best example is SIB). If not, Christianity will forever be regarded as a Western/Foreign religion. Therefore, we need to acknowledge that the bumiputra christians are the true heirs of the church, we need to reach out to them more, we need to treat them with respect, we need to pray for them. Thus, Chinese and Tamil christians should reach out to them in campuses (often we are too sombong to accept them) causing them to stray away from the faith. They are our brothers and sisters and the survival of the church depends on whether we reach out to them or not. Hearing this, I wept again and I made a commitment in my heart to love them as much as I love myself.

After all these, I actually went up to Mr. Simon Tira, a Melanau, one of our group member (ex UiTM SA student) and ask forgiveness on behalf of the Chinese Christians for our pride, and wanted to hug him. He was so touched that he went up to tell the camp director, and the next morning the whole camp did something very significant. We have hugs of reconciliation with people of different races, asking forgiveness and proclaim God's love on each other :) One thing that stayed with me, and perhaps the strongest memory when I hugged one of my group member, a Kadazan sister from Kota Belud. I wondered what people will think of me if I hug her. But when I did, she wept and wept and just wept, saying that this is a first time she recieve love from the Chinese. Initially she hated Chinese so much for their control of the economy, she hated Chinese guys for being so prejudiced on people with darker skins, and that moment the love of Christ melted hatred and sin. Praise God! I believe this is the heart of the Father, who do not see people by the colour of their skin, but the content of the heart, like what Martin Luther King Jr. once said.

This conference is indeed a serious, heartsearching, thoughtprovoking conference. Very different from replicates of Planet Shaker's hippie and shallow conferences (not judging Planet shakers), this conference is indeed not for the faint hearted. I encourage you to go for the 2008 National Conference.