Fourteen Malaysian saints, both student saints and working ones, visited the church in Quezon City in the evening of October 5, 2007. After the warm and brief love feast, two representatives from two localities of Ampang Jaya and Kuala Lumpur stood up and shared a bit of Malaysia’s background, their goals, and the way they are taking these days. Seven years ago, they had a burden to gospelize the whole of Malaysia, and this kept them along this line in the succeeding years. Being an Islamic country, a Malay-born in Malaysia automatically becomes part of Islam. The commission of the Lord to “disciple all the nations” is a reality to each Malaysian brother and sister. Unlike the dense population here in the Philippines, especially in the metropolis, Malaysia is populated only with 23 million people. Traveling is a must. One has to literally get in a four-wheel drive vehicle to cross rivers in order to look for a gospel contact.
The country is composed of 60 percent Malays, 25 percent Chinese, 10 percent Indians, and 5 percent various races. Bahasa, their local dialect, is used by more than half of the population of the nation. For them to gain and supply the needs of the seeking ones and the Lord’s children, they need to labor on translating English and Chinese titles to their local language. They are now propagating to neighboring areas like Sabah. According to them the people are open and hungry for the truth. Their attitude as described by the local saints is “…getting into the ministry at any cost.” The saints, they said are the pioneers in producing the ministry in Bahasa. Nowadays, the Recovery version of the Old and New Testaments with footnotes, morning revivals materials, and spiritual books are being translated into their native tongue in order to meet the need there.
Seeing their condition and how they carry out the Lord’s move is both an encouragement and a reminder to me. As New Testament priests of the gospel, I am to look to the Lord to grant me much grace and come before Him in order to be ready in season and out of season to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom to the inhabited earth.
To date, there are still about a hundred cities yet to be propagated. Their prayer is an echo to the Lord’s word in Matthew 9:37-38… “The harvest is great, but the workers are few; therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest that He would thrust out workers into His harvest.” Because of the fellowship of the one Body, this could be the prayer of the Body. We are one in prayers with the saints for His move to “gospelize, truthize, and churchize the whole of Malaysia.”
After arriving in Malabon from the airport on October 1, the saints from Malaysia also took part in the Book Sale Campaign of the full-time trainees from October 2-4. A day tour in the city of Manila was added in their schedule after that. Their itinerary also included a blending visit to Pampanga and Zambales before flying back to Malaysia.
Brother Goh