By Miss Yin Kam Yoke

"Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain." Psalm 1271:1

At the thanksgiving and dedication service, on March 13, 2006, my heart was filled with gratitude and love for God's bountiful provision for Methodist Boys' School, Penang, our earliest and oldest Methodist school in Malaysia, founded in 1891.

Methodist Boys' School Penang celebrated its centenary in 1991 and planned to commemorate it by building a gymnasium above the school canteen. The Government gave an allocation for the project which somehow did not take off, even though some funds had been collected by the school. However, Father God, Jehovah Jireh, had other plans for the school. Even though there was a period when MBSS Pulau Pinang did not have a Principal, He ensured that loving hearts looked after this project in the form of Dato' Lim Cheng Chuan, the chairman of the Board of Governors of MBSS Pulau Pinang and in the form of dedicated MBSS teachers like Mr. Ooi Gim Ewe as well as the architect Oh How Tat who kept renewing the application for building the extension. Most of all, He provided MBSS Pulau Pinang with an excellent, dynamic, God-fearing, committed Christian Principal Mr. Khor Hong Yin, who reported for duty at MBSS Penang on August 15, 2003. From that moment on, the project gained momentum with a fund-raising dinner on March 13, 2005 and the rallying round of alumni who remembered their alma mater by donating generously. From a gymnasium the project expanded to a lecture hall, a multimedia laboratory and two specialist rooms, costing RM700,000 inclusive of airconditioning, fittings and furniture, all providentially provided through the concerted efforts of staff, alumni and well wishers.

Truly, God is gracious. His love endures from everlasting to everlasting. The MBSS Penang Canteen building was built in the early 1980's to replace the old unsafe canteen in Suffolk House. It was meant to be a 2 storey building but since funds were limited, only the ground floor was built with foundations for the second floor. Therefore, plans for the extension were built on solid foundations, the foundations that God had prepared.

God must certainly have prepared for and arranged that on March 13, 2006 3 generations of alumni of MBSS Penang would unveil the plaque of dedication for the extension:- Dato' Lim Cheng Chuan (1950's), Bishop Dr. Hwa Yung (1960's) and Mr. Khor Hong Yin (1970's).

"Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?" declares the Lord.
                                                                                                                                  Isaiah 66:2

To God Be All The Glory! Great things He has done!

Miss Yin Kam Yoke
Education Secretary
13.04.2006