The Faisal Cup

The Faisal Cup is a football tournament initiated by Harvest Centre Bhd, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as voice for freedom and against discrimination of refugee children. It is to be played by various refugee education centers yearly. The 2006 inaugural tournament will feature teams from ABIM, Malaysian Care and Montessori New Covenant Community.

The Faisal Cup is a 7-a-side football and netball tournament created and organized by Harvest Centre Bhd. to give underprivileged and urban poor children a chance to play in an organized game.

The Faisal Cup began in 2006 after the tragic loss of one of our students, Faisal, who drowned while trying to retrieve a football he saw floating in a nearby river.

The Faisal Cup was then initiated to ensure that children from impoverished and disadvantaged backgrounds have an opportunity to train and participate in organized sport while developing the discipline and self-confidence they need to become responsible world citizens.

The Harvest Centre also runs Malaysia’s first Montessori school for 122 marginalised children, half of them are of Rohingya children from Myanmar who are denied basic education in Malaysia which doesn't recognise nor accept refugees.

Malaysia O Tanahairku

Malaysia oh tanah airku
Tanah tempat tumpah darahku
Negeri elok amat kucinta
Yang kupuja sepanjang masa

Sawahmu terbentang meluas
Tumbuh-tumbuhan hijau merendang
Bukitmu lurusnya terbentang
Tak jemu mataku memandang

Sungguh indah di Malaysia
Negeri yang kaya raya
Tempat pusat berniaga
Terkenal di seluruh dunia

Malaysia negeriku Malaysia
Pusaka tinggalan moyangku
Tetap sentosa hidup merdeka
Malaysia tanah airku

Keller on Liberal Democracy

"Human communities should be completely inclusive, open to all on the basis of our common humanity... All that is required for such community life is that each person respects the privacy and rights of others and works for equal access to education, jobs and political decision-making for all. Common moral beliefs are not necessary, it is said in a "liberal democracy"

...Liberal democracy is based on an extensive list of assumptions -- a preference of individuals to community rights, a division between private and public morality, ad the sanctity of personal choice. All of these beliefs are foreign to many other cultures. A liberal democracy is based then on a shared set of very particular belifes.

Western society is based on shared commitments to reason, rights and justice, even though there is no universally rcognized definition of any of these. Every account of justice and reason is embedded in a set of some particular beliefs about the meaning of human life that is not shared with everyone. The idea of a totally inclusive community is, therefore an illusion. Every human community holds in common some beliefs that necessarily create boundaries, including some people and excluding others from its circle...

...Any community that did not hold its members accountable for specific beliefs and practices would have o corporate idntity and would not really be community at all. We cannot consider a group exclusive simply because it has standards for its members.

Is there then no way to judge whether a community is open and caring rather than narrow and oppressive? Yes there is. Here is a far better set of tests:

Which community has beliefs that lead its members to treat persons in other communities with love and respect- to serve them and meet their needs? Which community's beliefs lead it to demonize and attack those who violate their boundaries rather than treating them with kindness, humility and winsomeness?"

-- Timothy Keller, "Community Can't Be Completely Inclusive" in The Reason for God, Belief in an Age of Skepticism.

Merdeka?

31st August has passed.

There was nothing to look forward to, as there was neither celebration nor commemoration, apart from some silly deadlines to meet. My fellow Malaysians were apathetic about it anyway. There is no good reason to remember our homeland nor our past, nor to speak of it on that day, they say. There's nothing to be thankful for.

Being in a different country can possibly turn us into a) keen participants and explorers of our host culture, that we ignore our past, b) melancholic guardians of our previous culture that we form ghettos against our host culture.

While I like New Zealand, her majestic Taranaki and Whanganui, her social structure and institutions, its social mannerisms and language, nice state highways and easy traffic, its church's intellectual and social heritage. Deep inside, I still miss the not-so-beautiful Bukit Besar and the brown Terengganu river, the polarised and incohesive Malaysian society, the inefficient and under-resourced social institutions, its uncivilized society filled with violence and bad manners, crazy traffic with exorbitant toll and bad drivers, the Malaysian church with its bad theology and misplaced piety. The Star and The Malaysian Insider are still more appetizing than the NZ Herald or the Dominion Post.

An overseas education has blessed me in many ways, opening various doors of opportunity to gain new experiences, learn new knowledge and skills, think in new ways, meet many different people and cultures, exposed to various ideas and worldviews, read good (and bad theology) and live a very comfortable lifestyle.

Instead of being bursting into thanksgiving, it is more tempting to yearn for more. More experiences, more knowledge, more travel, more blessings, more money, more opportunities. These blessings together with our ambition, can sometimes hide us from sensing God’s purpose and call in our lives.

Being called unto salvation and placed in the Malaysian church and society throughout my upbringing, and the call to contribute to its interests, has somehow taken a second place. Somehow, being born and raised for 17 years by my whanau (extended family), local school, community and the church has no significance. Where do I belong and return to, who are my family, where do I toil and witness, became irrelevant. My whanau, kaumatua and whakapapa, whenua, maunga and awa became a distant memory and insignificant past.

History and memories that shaped who I am today are expunged from my consciousness, for joys of exploring the new land and its culture. The new land, with its promises of a better future, greater opportunities for self-development, more satisfying career and quality of life has become more real.

The promises of the future can often compete with the stillness of God’s voice for a deeper and broader life purpose. It can also be mistaken as God’s call. Many individuals see the opportunity for emigration to a better land, as God’s calling and blessing, while to return to a homeland or to a lesser land, is like martyrdom to Timbuktu, selected only for the few special ones except for occasional holidays to satisfy the craving for cultural delicacies.

Of course, some will be called to be witnesses to their new land, like Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Esther, Daniel and Paul. In our globalised world, where mission is from everywhere to everywhere, the idea of the first world call to the third world is no longer true. New social and economic migrants, international students and travelers can be a blessing to the countries and churches that they end up in, especially in the post-Christian west. To ignore the task of reevangelising the first-world and revitalizing the western church, due to narrow nationalism, assumption of a Christian west or plain indifference, is neither faithful to the works of Christ.

It is therefore a huge task, for international and migrants to reexamine our lives and to rediscover God’s calling. Our identity, rooted in Christ, the gifts that he has blessed us with, and the contexts that we are placed in, would largely determine where are we most called to be ministers of the Gospel.

It takes sacrifice, to turn away from our idols, to dedicate our lives to Christ and to follow Him to the ends of the earth. After all this world is not our own, we are just passing through.