Trip to Sungai Petani

Back from Sungai Petani (SP).

My first sight gave me an impression of a slow development in this district, which is made up of new residential areas and a slight increase in factory and company establishment. The new local government should work harder to turn SP into a modern hub to attract more people to work to battle recession. If more vacancies are offered, there will be more people reallocating to this place, and this will help to overcome the unevenly distributed population at a few major cities like Penang and KL. I really hope that I could move there if I were offered a place to work. I would definitely do my best to make SP a better place - the paradise second to Heaven.

After so many times of invitation and finally I have made up my mind to pay Daniel a visit in SP over the weekend. Although it wasn't a trip because most of the time were spent in the church, but I would say that I really enjoy accomplishing something meaningful. At least I know that I get to know Daniel better after years of separation. It's all about brotherly sharing again this time. We hit the incredible 5 hour sharing until 5 in the morning.

The next day with barely a 4 hour sleep, we skipped breakfast and went straight to Daniel's church (Grace Methodist) to conduct a physics tuition class for the 4th formers. It didn't take me quite long to comprehend some of the forgotten rules and laws in physical science, before I made my way to the whiteboard to draft my "first lecture". To my surprise, the kids love my teaching. Before going off, they even asked me where I can be reached for problems and when I will be doing my next class. Saddening for them to know that I was only visiting and will be leaving on the next day. But I really hope to go back one day to finish what I have started. It is not only my passion to teach but also my passion to see the kids, who didn't want to study initially, find themselves rooting more into the subject. I guess this is what God wants to see in us, as well, to be excellent in spirit.

I attended 2 services at my first and second day of my stay. The first service was in Mandarin. It's very lively in terms of its praise & worship and the Words. You can actually see how the people in the church responded to the message. I discovered that majority of the Christian dare not express their view of agreement when the Word of Righteousness is proclaimed in the sermon. The adults, inclusive of the senior citizens, were responding so well to the message as they were shouting to the air with agreement. To make the statement more astonishing, half of them are not highly educated. The fact is, they have been relying on the strength of the Lord for His wisdom, so that they may have a joyful and livelier life, even though they don't make much of their earnings with their jobs. They really earn my respect on this.

I blended in quite well with the Youth during the Youth service. Clear observation tells me that the youths in rural area are different from the youths I met in city. The youth in the city churches won't talk to me if they are not familiar with me and more and more of them are having their own clicks. That's why some of the visitors to the city churches might feel unwelcome due to a cold welcome from the authorities. Conversely, it is more welcoming when I was in Daniel's church. The youths were offering to buy me dinner because I had to wait for Daniel to debrief his church leaders after the service. Some of them even took their initiative to arrange transportation for me without knowing that I would be following Daniel home. One thing which surprises me is that they don't really know me not have I met them through introduction, but still they were willing to spend time making their visitor feels like home.

Kudos to Daniel and his church. I think he has sacrificed more than anybody else to build up the church and the youth. I believe the youth will be ready after their secondary school to serve outside their primary church. May God bless them abundantly.

It is really an eye opener over the weekend. I am hoping to see more surprises and witness more transformation on my second trip to GMC.

"Weary never, while serving the Lord. He will restore you when you are at the right track."