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Lindy Chee: a near kinsman

21 January 2012 blogpastor Leave a comment

Near kinsman

We were relatives but we hardly knew each other. She knew I was a pastor and I knew she was a missionary with Youth With A Mission (YWAM). We would greet each other when the Chee clan gathered for its annual Chinese New Year meeting. But we never talked at length before. That is until we bumped into each other at the Love Singapore Pastors’ Prayer Summit (2012) at Equatorial Hotel, Malacca. Let’s meet up for breakfast tomorrow! and the appointment was made.

Was YWAM missionary

Lindy Chee Wei Ling is twenty five years younger than me and as we soon found out, she is my cousin’s daughter. There is probably a Mandarin term to designate this relationship but the English term would be the ambiguous “cousin once removed”. She graduated in law and worked for some time in the civil service before she attended YWAM’s Discipleship Training School(DTS). After that she served on staff with several DTS batches before she went with James Chan to Kuala Lumpur to pioneer a YWAM base or school there for about 2 years. For several years she also went back to legal practice but always remained an active friend and supporter of YWAM Singapore. Today she does freelance legal, training and consultant work, and is active with YWAM. I sat there amazed that quite a number of relatives of the Chee clan were serving the church and missions.

Family destinies?

Somehow we talked about David Demian and what he shared about national, individual and family destinies. We looked at our ancestral clan and concluded that the destiny seemed one of calling to fulfill noble or good causes. Many served in public service or served the good of people in education, medicine, or church – alleviating suffering, helping the poor, fighting for what is just. Out of Judah were to come rulers. Out of Levi, the priesthood. Could it be clans too can awaken to a fuller fulfillment of their God-embedded destiny through faith in Christ? Interesting thought. Today I again read my old blogpost on my grandfather and it got me thinking again. Yeah, there may be something about this clan spiritual destiny thing.

Rooming in Equatorial Hotel

The Equatorial Hotel looked newly renovated and well maintained and the food was unusually good for the numbers of diners they were handling. I roomed with Pastor Richard Wong of Canaan Christian Church and he was very accommodating and we had some time getting further acquainted. We had time to talk shop and just share our lives and what was happening in the conference and the Church. It would be nice to climb Mt Kinabalu with him when he goes for one of his T-Net consultation trips in Kota Kinabalu. Use the Mersilau trail, which I never used before. Sleep overnight at Laban Rata, and for once forget about waking up at 2am to conquer the peak. Just enjoy a restful and slow morning breakfast over a lovely sunrise. Hmmm…just the thought of it is sweet.

Before the curtains fall

19 January 2012 blogpastor Leave a comment

Before the curtains fall

And the sea is no more

May my eyes behold the glory of the Lord

Wash over the peoples of the earth

And may the colors of his love

Reveal the liberty of sons and daughters

What a sight

What a delight

When earth is shaken

And heaven’s perfections

Restores the garden of the Lord and

Life reigns supreme from the center again.

(Poem composed during the time of waiting on God at the Pastors’ Prayer Summit 2012 at Malacca)

Love Singapore Pastors’ Prayer Summit 2012: a personal reflection

16 January 2012 blogpastor 6 Comments

The ice breakers were agonizing. One flat bonding activity after another. Immovable as a pew I stayed rooted to my seat. It was not the right attitude to have at the commencement dinner of the 2012 Love Singapore Pastors’ Prayer Summit. It was not because Ps Eugene Seow, the king of icebreakers, has handed his wand to a new generation. It was refreshing to see twenty- and thirty- somethings on stage: a new generation of pastors. The greyheads should be applauded for this initiative. But 45 minutes to get you acquainted with others and to get everybody seated with someone they don’t know was just too much for this introvert!

Corporate waiting on God

The reason I was there was because I heard we would spend time as a corporate body waiting on God and listening. David Demian is experienced in this and would be guiding and showing us the ropes. We Singaporean Christians are very comfortable and confident (too confident!) about our abilities in strategising, marketing and planning church programs and events. Indeed we do not need the Holy Spirit to keep our churches running efficiently (sometimes He is a hindrance to our plans!). Our church calenders has to be crammed with activities and programs or it would leave a feeling of frustration, guilt and idleness. Disquiet is what I would feel. Maybe a holy dissatisfaction. Is there something more? The book of Acts demonstrated how the Spirit was involved in directing the “fishers of men” to where the fish were. Every new spurt of expansion and spread of the gospel was initiated by the Spirit and not from “successful models”. The Spirit spoke. The Spirit checked. The Spirit fell. Can there be more space for the Spirit to lead the Singapore church, a church so married to modernity, that they are more conversant with Peter Drucker than the voice of the Spirit? So I came wanting to see if there is a way to give more space for the Holy Spirit in the leadership of the church.

Difficult to enter into silent waiting

It was not easy for pastors and leaders of all kinds of persuasions to fully enter into what was intended by the Pastors’ Summit leadership. After a period of corporate worship we were instructed to wait in silence before God and ask, Lord what is on your heart for Singapore? We were to write down what the Lord laid on our hearts and pass down the message to a panel of pastors called a “table of discernment” and they would share with the larger body or act on what they discerned. Silence can be deeply disturbing for us hyperactive pastors. Waiting seemed so unproductive, a silly waste of time, even if it was waiting in prayer in the presence of God. This was evident in the first session, but less so in the second session.

Real gold or fool’s gold

My takeaway from the summit was one of possibilities. Can this possibly be done at leadership prayer times to seek the Lord and inquire what is on his heart for the church? Sounds like Acts 13: 1ff. The thought of it is at once intoxicating and intimidating. I left feeling like a gold prospector that has found a gold vein. I hope I will not be like the villagers of Kampung Melayu Majidee, in Johor, who elated that they had found “gold nuggets” on a street, were later disappointed by hard reality: what they had shining in their hands was iron pyrite – “fool’s gold”. By the way, preachers, there is a sermon illustration in that report.