Pastors' School of the Tamil Annual Conference

From the 5th to the 8th of June 2006, the Pastors of the Tamil Annual Conference attended the yearly Pastor's School in Hill City Hotel, Ipoh which was well organised by the Perak district pastors. This year's theme was "Ministering to the Minister" which was very appropriate; after all Ministers of God need ministering too.

The mood of the four day school was set right by Bishop Hwa Yung of the Methodist Church in Malaysia in the opening session. He started by emphatically stating that the duty of a minister is to bring the presence of God to the people and to bring people to God's presence. If minister's fail to do this they have failed in their call. For this to happen we as ministers have to be in the presence of God ourselves. He stressed on the importance of maintaining holiness and purity, allowing God to do his transformative work in us and to strictly practice all spiritual disciplines on a regular, diligent basis.

Rev. Raymond Mooi was the inspirational speaker who inspired the pastors to serve the Lord better over three sessions. He stressed on the need to rely on revelations from God for the success of the ministry and not to rely on programmes, opinions and knowledge. To receive such revelations, the minister has to have a close relationship with God. He dealt at length with various personal hindrances and obstacles, some of which are so subtle in nature. He advised the ministers to come to terms with them and release them. He also stressed on the importance of a close relationship with God and to have a passion for souls. During the last session of the school, he prayed for and ministered individually to all pastors. Many were overwhelmed by the presence of the Lord.

In between these sessions were the usual updates on TAC affairs and TAC President's sharing. Group discussions and presentations were other important session where pastors were asked to look into especially the various ministerial temptations and to seek ways to overcome them.

This years Pastor's School was unique in that not only were the pastors spiritual needs taken care of, but also their physical needs. Over two sessions Mr. Vi

c tor Selvaraj from Baton Adventure, taught the pastors of the need to take care of their bodies and proper nutrition to enhance ministry output. He went through a serious of home based exercises that would be beneficial to them. Some of the pastors underwent certain health tests to determine the state of their physical condition. It was fun to see many of us doing exercises after a long absence of such activity.

As the pastors left Ipoh at the end of the school, there was a general feeling that all were richly blessed at the Pastor's School. The four days were not only times of serious study but also an opportunity for all pastors to unwind themselves and to enjoy the fellowship of all the TAC pastors.

Rev. Elijah Bala (TAC)