01 Jan 2013

January 2013 - The Annual Conferences Presidents

The Methodist Church in Malaysia has Six Annual Conferences and one Mission Conference. In this issue of Pelita, we would like to introduce these Presidents and Superintendent. The Presidents have also included their New Year greetings and thoughts for the coming year.

Chinese Annual Conference President
Rev. Boh Che Suan was elected President of the Chinese Annual Conference (CAC) in 2004. He was re-elected for another quadrennium in 2008 and 2012. He joined CAC in November 1980 after graduating from Trinity Theological College, Singapore.

Rev. Boh obtained the B.Th. (1980) from Trinity Theological College, Singapore and the M.Min. (2004) from Seminari Theoloji Malaysia.

Rev. Boh Che Suan served as Pastor of a number of CAC Churches from 1981 to 2004. He served as the Methodist Youth Director from 1993 -1996. He was District Superintendent of Southern District from 1998 to 2003.

Rev. Boh is married to Chin Quee Moy and they have three children, Zhuang Xiao (daughter), Zhuang Yui (daughter) and Zhuang Xin (son).

西马卫理公会华人年议会来年事工发展蓝图

本会来年事工主要有三：

一、海外宣教：除了派员去中国授神学课程，也资助印度科钦宣教区的同工和建堂事工、继续开拓缅甸南板一带的百多座村庄和征得总会五个年议会成为宣教伙伴等。

二、国内布道：“在城市设立布道所的二十年计划”为其核心，鉴定“母体教会”，鼓励有能力的教会设立布道所或植堂，目标是从巴生谷/大吉隆坡地区现有的四十五间堂会，在2032年增至于八十间。据2000年统计，东西马原住民基督徒约有一百二十六万，故牧养与协助散居各地的东西马原住民亦是当务之急。

三、社怀：美门残障关怀事工为其一，福儿院则是近年开展的新事工——向福利部注册“卫理儿童之家”（Methodist Children Home)，栽培同工。

马来西亚基督教卫理公会华人年议会
莫泽川会长

President
Boh Che Suan

Sarawak Chinese Annual Conference President
Rev. Su Chii Ann became President of the Sarawak Chinese Annual Conference (SCAC) in 2005. He was re-elected President in 2008 and 2012. He has been in the pastoral ministry since 1982.

Rev. Su received his theological training from Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

Rev. Su served as Pastor of two churches in Sibu, Sarawak, prior to joining the Methodist Theological School (MTS) Sibu in 1990. He was Dean of the Chinese Department, and later the Academic Dean of MTS (1990 -1995). Subsequently he served as the Principal from 1999-2004.

In 2009, Rev Su was awarded the Panglima Setia Bintang of Sarawak (PSBS) by the Governor of Sarawak, which carries the title Dato’

He is married to Phyllis Yeo Hung Eng, and they have two children, Timothy and Grace.

The Way Forward of Sarawak Chinese Annual Conference

During the 36th Session of our Annual Conference, we agreed to develop our future ministries according to the General Conference “Road Map”. I just share with you some important ministries:

1. Evangelism and Church Planting
Evangelism: We still plan for “Evangelism Campaign: 10,000 baptisms”, but the emphasis is on adult baptism and confirmation.

Church planting: We aim at planting 14 churches over the next 4 years. Start 4 more BM worship services, and target to raise up 10 BM pastors. 

2. Discipleship
Our AC will articulate marketplace ministry by unleashing the power of the lay people through systematic teaching, forming Christian Businessmen Fellowship, organizing motivational talks, encouraging Christian leaders to conduct Bible study in their workplaces, holding thanksgiving services during special occasions, publishing books or articles of good Christian testimonies in marketplaces and conducting a state-wide “Marketplace: War? Testimony? ” seminars in 2013.

3. Church and Society
In 2013, we will organize 4 seminars throughout the State on “Preventive Measure against Website Pornography” in January, June and August to bring awareness to the people on how serious this problem has become and how to prevent it.

To reclaim the mission through education and to nurture future leaders for the church and society, we find it inevitable to set up Methodist Private Schools in various Districts.

4. Cross cultural missions
We encourage the indigenous Christians from Sarawak, Sabah and Indonesia to be trained in Methodist Pilley Institute on Early Childhood Education program and then send them back to the villages to start preschool education.

In the past 12 years, we have been evangelizing to the Penan people. Most of the children grow up and now study in primary and secondary schools in the town areas where they face a lot of temptations, and their Christian faith is greatly tested. In order to help them grow strong spiritually, physically, intellectually and socially, our Board of Evangelism decided to work with a Christian organization "River of Life Music Association" to build a care centre in Lawas.

In order to materialize these ministries, we need human and financial resources. Our prayer requests are as follows:

1. Formation of Human Resource Development Board;
2. Developing physical facilities for the main purpose of training people and leaders, and catering for the different needs of the churches.
3. Articulating the central pool for financial contribution and support.
4. Educating pastors, church leaders and members to know the spirit of revised new Discipline so that we can serve in one accord.
5. Pray that in the next quadrennium, we must devote more time to prayer everyday, to seek God’s will, accomplish His task and glorify His name!

President
Su Chii Ann

Sarawak Iban Annual Conference President
Rev Steward Damat was elected President of SIAC in 2008. He was then re-elected for a second term in 2012. He is an ordained minister with the Sarawak Iban Annual Conference since 1986. He has served in various boards of the Conference and as Conference Secretary from 2005 - 2008.

He was a theological educator at the Methodist Theological School in Sibu, Sarawak for 18 years. Prior to his full – time teaching in MTS, Rev Damat served as a pastor in Kapit, Sarikei and Sibu Districts. He graduated with a Bachelor of Theology degree (1986) from Seminari Theoloji Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur and a Master of Ministry and Master of Theology degree in Pastoral Theology (1999) from Trinity Theological College, Singapore.

He is married to Lau Lee Lam and they have one son, Abraham and three teenage daughters Adele, Angela and Amenjah.

President working for All,

Rev. Damat continues to work out his plan 2009 first board meeting in his Buku Jingga SIAC. This quadrennium will work closely the plans drawn up in 2009 - 2012. The strategic planning through the approval of the various boards is relevant for the coming years.

Let's work on God's spirit achieving the Kingdom of God agenda. Pray together to plan forth within the Methodist Structure based on the board - whatever success. What matters are how we carry out the board orders? God is the ultimate.

Pray our time is limited and short. Pray for my ministerial and members of Sarawak Iban Annual Conference that we will not be taken by the power of darkness in executing our duties.

We are pressing forth the vision towards developing an Asian Christian identity in the region.

President
Steward Damat

Tamil Annual Conference President
Rev C. Jayaraj was elected President of the Tamil Annual Conference in 2008 for the quadrennium 2009 - 2012. He was re-elected as President in 2012. Rev Jayaraj has served 27 years in the Tamil Annual Conference since 1981, being ordained as Deacon in 1983 and Elder in 1985.

Rev Jayaraj studied at Union Biblical Seminary Yeotmal, India and received the Bachelor of Divinity (B.D.) in 1981. He has pastored churches in Cha’ah, Taiping, Klang and Penang, and was District Superintendent of Selangor and Northern Districts. From 1989 to 1993 he was the Youth Director of TAC and from 1994 to 1999 he served as the Chairman of the Board of Missions and Malaysian Missionary Movement  (MMM) of the Tamil Annual Conference. He has also served at various times in the Board of Ministry, Finance and the Executive Board of TAC.

Among his interests he lists discipling members, church growth, revival and also football and athletics.

Rev Jayaraj is married to Vijayatara and they have two children, Vivek Jason (b.1987) and Jemimah (b.1990).

Vision For Our Conference - TAC

I believe, this year, 2013, is a year of abundance. As a conference we are looking forward to a season of harvest. It is my desire to see local churches flourish in the area of evangelism and reaching out to our community. The ‘Go’ challenge – ‘Each One ‘Get One’ is being promoted fervently in our churches. We also want our churches, boards, agencies and committees working hard with much perseverance and zeal to bring in the harvest.

Another major thrust in our conference would be in the area of prayer. We want all ministries and programmes to be saturated in prayer. Through the Prayer Conference (24-26 March) we plan to further strengthen our initiatives. We also want to maintain a strong prayer network at conference level.

With this sense of purpose and mission we will move forward and realise our goals of;-
a) 10% growth in membership
b) establishing 6 new outreach points.
c) witness the formation of 3 new local churches.
d) embarking on 5 more social projects / centres.
e) carrying out 3-5 community projects in local churches (rural setting) 

May God’s grace and power cause us to be vessels of noble use in His hands.

President
C. Jayaraj

Trinity Annual Conference President
Rev T. Jeyakumar was elected President of the Trinity Annual Conference in December 2012 for the quadrennium of 2013 - 2016. Rev Jeya has served 22 years in the Trinity Annual Conference since December 1991, being ordained as Deacon in 1993 and Elder in 1996. Rev Jeya studied at Seminari Theoloji Malaysia, and Malaysia Baptist Theological Seminary. He has pastored a number of churches, and was District Superintendent of Northern and Perak Districts. His hobby is collecting stamps. If time permits he goes walking and hiking. He likes reading. His concern is to equip churches to grow. Rev T. Jeyakumar is married to Grace Leong and they have two children, Ebenezer Jeya (b. Jan 1998) and Joanne Jeya (b. Dec 1999).

When David Watson moved to the church in York, England in 1965 the congregation had been reduced to a handful of people. The total offerings averaged 2 pounds a Sunday. The church building was considered to be a potentially redundant church. On his first official day in the church he had to escort the Redundant Churches Users Committee around the building as they were considering alternatives of how the building could be used – maybe a library, a museum. The Chairman of the Committee took David Watson aside and asked “Do you honestly think that this church has any future?” He replied, “I believe that if anyone really preaches the simple gospel of Christ, trusts in the power of prayer, and opens his life to the renewal of the Spirit, this church will be full in no time!”

I believe the same. If we could go back to preaching the gospel of Christ faithfully and turn to God in prayer our churches would grow. Still, I am aware of other challenges facing the TRAC churches. We are facing shortage of Pastors and other ministry workers. Small group ministry needs to be strengthened. We need to take seriously Rev John Wesley’s method of discipling thru small groups. Ministry to young adults, youth, and children need to be revisited and revitalized at local church level so that the generation after us will not be Bible illiterates and will not be missing from our churches. Faith and planning must go together. Sure we trust in God. But we must also do our part.

In view of the above challenges, in TRAC we will continue to focus on our Four Essentials: Lifelong Discipleship, Wholesome Families, A Voice to our Nation, A Vision For the World. Our main task is to disciple the believers. One effective way of doing this is thru small groups. We pray that the training which we offer will help churches in starting and strengthening small group ministry in our churches. Discipleship must be reflected at home. We need to be exemplary disciples at home and lead our family members to Christ, and help our children become disciples from young, and let our families be wholesome families.

We are not just disciples in church and at home. We are disciples in the marketplace, political arena, at school, in our neighbourhood and anywhere else we may be in. We need to let our voices be heard in our beloved nation and make our Christian views and contributions count. We need to consistently make our voices heard and our opinions known all the time and about all matters, and not only when we feel our rights are threatened. We must also be a voice to those who don’t have a voice. Having spoken we must act. Then we must not lose our vision for the world. Rev John Wesley said, “The world is my parish.” We have been mandated by our Lord Jesus Christ with the task of taking the gospel to the ends of the world. Therefore, the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ need not fear fulfilling this task. In today’s world being faithful to the Great Commission may lead us to be branded as mad or even lead us to martyrdom. We embrace both without fear if that is the cost of discipleship for us.

My prayer for the TRAC churches is that we will not fail to be the Church God wants us to be. We must not fail in our discipleship. We must not fail our families, and the younger ones in our Church. We must not fail to be a voice that is worthy of being heard, and we must not lose our vision and passion to reach out to the world.

President
T. Jeyakumar

Sabah Provisional Annual Conference President
Rev Dr Hii Kong-Hock was elected President of Sabah Provisional Annual Conference (SPAC) in November 2012.

Rev Dr Hii received his theological training at Alliance Bible Seminary, Hong Kong (B.Th, 1992; M.Div 1994). After serving eight years (1994-2002) in Sarawak and Sabah, he pursued his studies at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, U.S.A., where he graduated with MTS (2003) and PhD (2007).

Upon his return from U.S.A. in May 2007, Rev Dr Hii has served as a lecturer in New Testament Studies and Dean of Students at Sabah Theological Seminary (STS).

Rev Dr Hii is married to Fui Tshin, a doctoral student in Archaeology & Biblical History, who is now also serving as a lecturer at STS.

SPAC is celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year!

30 years ago, we began humbly by ministering among the Chinese Foochows, borrowing a small chapel and the garage of an Anglican Church for worship purpose. 

Today, as we remember those years, we want to thank God for His blessings and mighty works among us!

Over the years, we have planted a total of 23 churches/preaching centres throughout Sabah both in cities and rural areas. Our ministries have extended to diverse groups among the Chinese and indigenous peoples using Chinese, English and Bahasa Malaysia. Mission works are also set up in Myanmar, Thailand, Philippines, and China.

But we are not content with this. As we journey forward, my prayer-hope for SPAC is that we shall continue “To commit ourselves to build a church that glorifies God by proclaiming Jesus Christ, nurturing every member to become a faithful disciple, and serving in love and unity.”

I covet your support as I begin my duty as the President. Please remember us in your prayers:
(a) All SPAC pastors/leaders will be fervent in prayers and diligent in service;
(b) God will raise up a new generation of youth to commit their lives to fulltime ministry;
(c) To be equipped and ready for the religious, socio-political challenges in Sabah.

President
Hii Kong-Hock

Sengoi Mission Conference Superintendent
The ministry of the Sengoi Mission Conference is headed by Rev. Uda Aman A/L Bah Dipeh. He joined the Sengoi Mission conference in 1985 as a bible teacher. Then began his journey as a Deacon in 1989, Elder in 1991 and District Superintendent in 1991. Rev. Uda did his Theological studies in SWTC and in STM.

He is married to Sina A/P Bah Mudluk and has 4 children, Yafet, Rico, Bah Resdi and Rita.