BLOGPASTOR – Page 250 – blogging since 2004

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They’re all growing up fast

14 January 2010 blogpastor Leave a comment

Christmas event photo — L to R: Joshua, Elaine, Kenny, Wen Mun, Matthew, Wen Por

Wen Por and Wen Mun live in Bangkok and study in an international school there. Their mum, Baby, is my wife’s younger sister, a Singaporean who has worked there, met her husband and now has her home there for over twenty years. Her husband Jack, is Taiwanese, and they run a trading business there. They have visited us over more than a decade now, usually during the Christmas season and they are great to have around. They are very well brought up and well behaved and this time it struck me that they are mature young folk and love doing things young people love doing. They are no longer young kids. So my son and daughter who were on vacation brought them to an overdose of shopping, church events, and activities and I am sure it built strong bonds of love.

Church bombings show intention and pattern

10 January 2010 blogpastor 8 Comments

The fire bomb attacks on churches were not spontaneous expressions of outrage and violence of common folk, but deliberate, intentional, strategic acts of violence to damage religious harmony that have largely prevailed since the federation was formed. The avoidance of death seemed to be deliberately calibrated to make all parties open to concessions without triggering a religious war. This was probably masterminded by one who knew what he was doing, and he is educated and not a village folk. It was deliberate because it showed a multi-denominational pattern.

One was a charismatic church: the Metro Tabernacle church in Kuala Lumpur. Another was the Assumption Catholic church in Petaling Jaya, though the explosive that was thrown into the church compound did not explode. The third was an attack on a Brethren church called Life chapel in Petaling Jaya where a Molotov cocktail damaged the porch. The latest was a Lutheran church, the Good Shepherd Lutheran church, in south west Kuala Lumpur. Petrol bombs were thrown into the windows of the first and second floors of the buildings but they narrowly missed.

How many denominations are there in Malaysia? Will the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists or Anglicans be next in line? Watch and pray.

Meanwhile, Rev Ong Sek Leong, the Malaysian pastor of Metro Tabernacle church spoke for all Malaysian Christians and citizens of all races and religions when he responded to what had happened to the church he pastored.

My grandparents were from Sarawak

7 January 2010 blogpastor 3 Comments

My wife and I were tidying up our drawers recently and we found some old documents like this photo above and my mum’s family tree. My mum Ada Law, is the girl on the extreme left, next to her frowning mum, my maternal grandmother, Beatrice Kho. The father John Law was probably taking the photo. The interesting thing were the two boys in the front wearing shorts. One was James and the other was Harry. Both went missing during the Japanese Occupation, presumably taken away and killed by Japanese soldiers. My mum before the onset of Alzeihmer’s disease, harboured bitter memories about their deaths.

I also learned that my maternal grandparents and great-grandparents were from Kuching and there are relatives I do not know who still live there. They were all Sarawakians.

Among my aunties was one who married a Malacca man, an Ahmad Derus, who had ten children and twenty-nine grand-children. The aunty, Mable Law, married him, and had one son, Johan, before she passed away. The rest were born to the second wife, a Connie Jacobs. We still have contacts with Johan who married a Japanese woman, lives in Malacca, and owns and runs a Hotel Johan there.

Knowing this also made me think: I must try to visit Sarawak one day. Even if I cannot meet my relatives, I am sure there is a mountain to trek there. 🙂

(This blogpost was first published on August 17th, 2006 and I want to make available this information for myself and posterity by republishing it.)