Agape 9 Revealing ...

Is this called revealing? Erm... may be... Anywhere, the committee had been decided to take U ... a ride to old little town of Malacca, a place of history and place of remembrance how our heroes stand and fight for our country!

Agape 9 destined at Malacca will be falling into next year Youth Annual Camp 4 Days 3 Nites*. Taking you experience the toast of joy in this camp... Registration will be open "real" soon!

Stay tune for more updates....

Submitted by Js
*Subject to change or increase...

Reckless Abandon

As we stumble toward the end of the year, it seems the world has become more dangerous. Over the last couple of years the U.S. State Department has issued serious “Avoid Travel” warnings to a growing list of 27 countries. Traveling abroad, especially for Christians, is fraught with risk. It’s no secret that anger toward the “Christian West” is on the rise in certain parts of the world today. So, why do Christians continue traveling to places like Iraq, Sudan, Nigeria and Afghanistan?

Most theologians would agree that followers of Christ are scripturally mandated to “go and proclaim” the love of God. But for Christians, the risk-vs.-reward equation is changing fast, and not just in North America. The issue is being debated openly in South Korea right now, a country that sends out more Christian missionaries than any other country in the world, save the United States.

One of their most recent missions went horribly wrong. A Korean pastor, Bae Hyung-kyu, who led a team of young volunteers on a humanitarian aid mission to Afghanistan, was shot and killed by the Taliban after his mission team was taken hostage in July. On the day of his 42nd birthday, he was shot 10 times in the head, execution style. Another hostage was killed. After weeks of negotiation, the rest of the team was released.

In the aftermath, criticism for the Korean church, and others like it, is rising. The wisdom of dispatching short-term aid workers into dangerous areas is being challenged on many levels by people of all faiths. After all, these volunteers from Korea were warned by their own government not to travel to Afghanistan. The church sent them anyway.

So why would a perfectly normal church in a perfectly safe neighborhood send a group of very nice nurses, engineers and benevolent youth workers into Afghanistan—or, for that matter, any part of the world that kidnaps and kills Christians?

Bloggers are typing up a windstorm response to that question, many claiming that the church was irresponsible, that they shouldn’t allow their members to venture into such hostile territory. Sitting safely behind his Northern California-based computer monitor, one blogger typed, “It was a fool’s errand, to be sure. All the young missionaries accomplished was to be abducted off their bus by the Taliban and used as bargaining chips by the barbarians.”

The comments in Korea are even less flattering. A self-described secular Buddhist woman said, “The missionaries are getting what they deserve, maybe now some of them will stop trying to ram Jesus down our throats.”

Criticism didn’t stay hidden in web-land either. Lee Chan-min, an official with International Youth Fellowship in South Korea, told the International Herald Tribune, “We should not cross the line from medical and volunteer aid work into the kind of missionary work that could put our people in danger.”

You might wonder how that kind of logic sits with Christ followers like the original Apostles, or Dietrich Bonhoeffer, or Jim Elliot. Each of them, and many more, allowed their faith in God to lead them directly into harm’s way, and nearly all of them paid for it with their lives. So it seems that something fundamental to our message, and its delivery, has changed. Has our over-developed world of liability insurance and denominational actuaries and class-action lawsuits watered down ancient Scripture’s warning that this was all supposed to be dangerous in the first place? When Jesus said, “In this world, you will have trouble,” He wasn’t talking about losing the right to pray in school or losing our 501(c)(3) IRS tax advantages.
Matthew 24:9 says, “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me” (TNIV).

Our nation (and others like it) was founded on the convergence of mission risk, financial and material reward—and faith in God. Following the Homestead Act of 1863, a legion of well-meaning North Americans flocked west to grab land and build a nation (indefensibly destroying Native American peoples and cultures along the way). Those who walked the dirt before us established social and economic increase by building schools, businesses and churches in the presence of toothless swindlers, really bad weather and grizzlies. Once churches became more established, colleges and seminaries were built to feed the ministry with trained workers.

So, in parallel to the building of railroads and highways, a religious infrastructure was set up to handle demand and the fruits of domestic evangelism. Simply put, people were getting saved. These new believers also wanted to do something with their new faith. They took seriously the Great Commission. After things solidified on the home front, believers began to look overseas, and the evangelical missionary movement kicked off in the early 1800s. A man named Adoniram Judson was possibly the first by dispatching himself to Burma in 1813. During his tenure as a missionary, he translated the Bible into the Burmese language, planted 100 churches and led over 8,000 people to Jesus.

Nearly 70 years later, the first Protestant missionaries entered the Korean peninsula and began a long and difficult outreach to a population entrenched with animism, Shamanism and Buddhism. But the Good News could not be subdued there either, as Christianity began to expand to 13 percent of the Korean population. By 1945, some were calling the capital of Korea the “Jerusalem of the East.” Currently, 30 percent of South Korea is Christian. To this day, South Korea hosts the world’s largest church, with nearly 750,000 members—the Yeoido Full Gospel church in Seoul.

The risk for these pioneers of the faith was immense. For one, Judson himself lost two wives and a daughter on the mission field and even contemplated suicide during a yearlong battle with severe depression in the jungles of Burma. In North Korea, after the Communist surge, thousands of Christians and missionaries were forced to move south of the demilitarized zone or take their faith underground and risk intense persecution. To this day, Korean Christians in the North are imprisoned, tortured and even killed for such crimes as owning a Bible or simply talking about Jesus with a family member.

But, alas, we are not Judson, this is not the 1800s and we are not living in North Korea. So, for the average Christian in this everyday life, how much risk is too much?

In the end, only God can judge how much risk is too much. Heck, even driving to work is risky. So we need Him with us in everything we do. If we are endlessly working a day job to pay off the subprime mortgage, as a Christian, we should still bring Christ with us. “Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way“ (Colossians 3:17, The Message).
When we agree to follow the person and teachings of Jesus, we agree to surrender our plan for His, and by definition, that means we agree to a massive amount of personal risk. In our journey of faith and life, He can take us anywhere and allow anything to happen. He can take life and give life, no matter its duration. He extracts meaning from the briefest physical existence that we know. Like when a pre-born child dies in the womb of a mother—it’s our magnificent Father who painfully mines out the meaning in even that experience. He mysteriously brings it purpose. So how much more the life of those who choose to follow His voice, and perish, or become gravely injured in the process?

The main problem here is not Christ followers taking too much risk. The problem is that we are not taking enough risk. We’re getting theologically fat and spiritually bored with our safer versions of sunshine-pumping Christianity. Heck, even well-meaning Christian books that encourage us to take more risk are written by well-paid people who seemingly take very little life-threatening risk themselves.

Hear this: It was always supposed to be dangerous. The stakes are high, and many people around the world are in great jeopardy, severely marginalized and in extreme poverty. To state the obvious, people are dying. They need help, and it’s the Good News delivered by the crazy risk-takers who bring it. It’s people like the Korean Christians and countless others who carry it through at great cost.

Author: Anonymous...
Adapted from website!

Right, Left or Center?!

One day last spring, on the sleepy drive to school, my 8-year-old son declared he was voting for Barack Obama. Never mind that it was still the primaries and no one knew whether Senator Obama would be the Democratic candidate. Never mind that the Republican candidate was still to be decided. And never mind that he was only 8 and wouldn’t vote for another 10 years. I asked him why he was voting for Senator Obama. His answer was crisp: “Because President Bush got us into a war.” Clearly he cared about the future of our country. My son is a one-issue voter.

As people of faith, political life is simpler when we are one-issue voters. The more problems that concern us, the blurrier our choices become. No matter what ticket we choose, this will be a historic presidential election. We have the opportunity to change America’s story by electing an African-American president or a female vice president—a significant milestone in a country that once counted blacks as three-fifths of a person and did not let women vote until 1920. It is also an opportunity to change the story of the role of evangelicals in politics.

Traditionally, evangelicalism has been associated with the religious right, the Republican party and three flagship issues: life (abortion, euthanasia and stem-cell research), sexuality (homosexuality and same-sex marriage) and culture (a worry over the increasing secularism of America demonstrated in the removal of prayer from public schools, the teaching of evolution and the removal of the 10 Commandments from courtrooms). The predominant worry of the evangelical right has been the steady drift of America away from its “Christian cultural heritage.”

A smaller, but equally important, voice emanates from the evangelical left (yes, there is an evangelical left, and it is growing). The left argues that Jesus’ concern extends beyond personal moral issues to a broad political agenda that includes social justice across a range of issues often ignored by the right. Birthed out of the radical Jesus movements in the 1960s and early ’70s, the evangelical left has united around the issues of war (with predominantly pacifist impulses) and poverty (deploying social programs to help the poor). Because of its association with social justice issues, the evangelical left feels most comfortable within the Democratic Party .

Recently, a centrist position in evangelical politics has wrestled its way into the conversation. Tired of partisan rhetoric, the center wants to attach itself to what is good on both the right and the left while distancing itself from particular party affiliations. They try to avoid the nostalgic references to America’s Christian heritage and the insistence of some on the right for a special voice at the table of public policy. They also shun the left’s seeming avoidance or marginalization of the life and sexuality issues. The center wants to be independent, offering a critical voice to both parties.

Taken together, the various stripes of evangelical politics are must-research topics for any political strategist. In the last nine months alone several books have been published representing the right, left and center. David Gushee’s The Future of Faith in American Politics and Ron Sider’s The Scandal of Evangelical Politics attempt to articulate a centrist position. On the left, Jim Wallis has recently published The Great Awakening. This follows on the heels of his 2004 best-selling God’s Politics. Tony Perkins’ and Harry Jackson’s Personal Faith: Public Policy is an attempt to broaden the political agenda of the right.

If the statistics are accurate, nearly 25 percent of all voters consider themselves “evangelical.” This is an enormous voting bloc. Our presidential candidates in both parties are quick to mention the importance of their personal faith and the central role it plays in their lives. Following their successful conventions, they will set out over the next 60 days of their campaign to court people of faith (not just evangelicals). As followers of Jesus, we have an important opportunity to contribute to the shaping of the American story in the 21st century.

But where do we start?

First, we must begin by locating ourselves on the evangelical map (or off the map). Whether we are right, left or center, we need to know our starting point. If you have ever looked at a map of a mall without a red star that says “You are here,” you know how frustrating it is to try to find a store. The red star makes all the difference.

Second, we need to determine where we are going—our destination. The words of Jesus in the early chapters of the Book of Matthew are profoundly political: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 4:17, TNIV). Jesus reminds us that there is a spiritual reality that overlays our political life. This spiritual reality does not negate the political, but informs and transforms our involvement in it. We are citizens of God’s Kingdom first, America second. But we are citizens of God’s Kingdom so we can be better for the world. The words of Jeremiah to the exiled Israelites in Babylon should echo in our political involvement: “Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7).

The beauty and frustration of Jesus’ moral life was that it complicated the status quo. Which is better, to keep the strict laws of the Sabbath or to heal a man disabled for life, to stone a woman caught in adultery or redeem her from the wake of her lifestyle? Jesus was crucified as king and criminal precisely because He placed people over policies and popular theologies. He entered into the narrative of people’s lives, and people are always messy. Nothing has changed in 2,000 years. We are still messy.

Seeking the welfare of the city means entering into that mess. But it means getting dirty in a different kind of way—in the way of Jesus. We get dirty through our service to the city, not through our path to power. Instead of reacting to the social decay around us, we get dirty by trying to pioneer new solutions to social problems. We get dirty by living out our faith in public life by doing good deeds—the kind of deeds that the world recognizes as good (Matthew 5:13–16). As a community of faith, we are called to set our hope on the sovereignty of God, not on the promise of politicians. Resting in God’s care allows us to be free to make mistakes with our best political decisions. And it allows us to enter into the hopes, dreams, fears, problems and frustrations of people’s stories.

My hope for my son is that over the next 10 years he will mature beyond being a one-issue voter. I hope that he will be able to see the complex problems that our country faces and have the courage to take action—even if it means getting his hands dirty. I, on the other hand, have to vote this year. It’s going to be messy, but historic.

Author: Ron Sanders
Adapted from website!

Relativism

Some people take the word “relativism” to refer to something bad. Others are obviously more comfortable with it. So I had better clarify what I mean by it. There are good ways of thinking relatively and there are bad.

When Truth Is Relative

If I say Abraham Lincoln was tall, that statement will be true or false in relation to (that is, relative to) the standard of measurement. “Abraham Lincoln was tall” is true in relation to me—and men in general. But the statement “Abraham Lincoln was tall” would be false in relation to the Sears Tower or, say, the average adult giraffe. So we say that the statement is true or false relative to the standard of measurement.

This is an indispensable way of thinking. Many examples from our daily lives could be given. My father was old when he passed away. True, relative to men. False, relative to civilizations or Redwoods. That car was speeding. True, relative to the 35 mph speed limit. False, relative to NASCAR. That baby’s cry is loud. True, relative to ordinary human conversation. False, relative to thunder. And so on.

The reason we do not call this way of thinking relativism is that we assume he who says Abraham Lincoln was tall and he who says Lincoln was short both believe there is an objective, external standard for validating the statement. For one, the standard is human beings, and for the other, it’s giraffes. So as soon as the two people know what standard the other is using, they can agree with each other, or they can argue on the basis of the same standard. This is not relativism.

Relativism is when a person would prefer to say something like: “There is no objective, external standard for measuring the truth or falsehood of the statement ‘Abraham Lincoln was tall.’ And even if there were, it would be unknowable and I wouldn’t want to base my convictions on it.”

This sounds silly as long as we are talking about Abraham Lincoln’s height. So let’s shift over to something relevant. Consider the statement “Sexual relations between two males is wrong.” Two people may disagree on this, but that doesn’t necessarily mean either of them is a relativist. They may both say, for instance, “There is an objective standard for assessing this statement—namely, God’s will revealed in the Bible.” Then one may say the Bible teaches that this is wrong, and the other may respond, “No, it doesn’t.” That’s not relativism

It would be relativism if someone said, “There is no standard for right and wrong that is valid for everyone. You may believe that sexual relations between two males is wrong, but you can’t claim that others should submit to that standard.”

What does this imply about truth? Relativists may infer from this that there is no such thing as truth. It is simply an unhelpful and confusing category since no standard is universal. Or they may continue to use the word “truth” but simply mean what conforms to one’s own subjective preferences. You may prefer the Bible or the Quran or the Book of Mormon or Mao’s Little Red Book or the sayings of Confucius or the philosophy of Ayn Rand or any of a hundred other standards. These relativists will use the language of “true for you, but not true for me.” In either case, we are dealing with relativism.

The essence of relativism is the conviction that statements—like “Sexual relations between two males is wrong”—are not based on truth that is valid for everyone. There’s no such thing. Concepts like true and false, right and wrong, good and bad, beautiful and ugly are useful for expressing personal preferences or agreed-upon community values, but they aren’t universally valid standards.

Assessing Relativism

The claim that there is no one standard for truth and falsehood that is valid for everyone is deeply rooted in the desire of the fallen human mind to be free from all authority and to enjoy the exaltation of self. This is where relativism comes from. Relativism is not a coherent philosophical system. It is riddled with contradictions—both logical and experiential.

Sophomores in college know something is fishy when someone claims all truths are relative. And every businessman knows that philosophical relativists park their relativism at the door when they go into the bank and read the language of the contract they are about to sign. People don’t embrace relativism because it is philosophically satisfying. They embrace it because it is physically and emotionally gratifying. It provides the cover they need to do what they want.

So this is something we should avoid and grieve over and labor to overcome. And it seems to me that one of the ways we might make some headway in preventing ourselves from embracing relativism and rescuing others from it is by simply pointing out how evil and destructive some of its effects are.

The Evil and Destructive Effects of Relativism

I. Relativism is treasonous.

Relativism is a revolt against God. God’s very existence creates the possibility of truth. He is the ultimate and final standard for all truth claims. When relativism says that there is no standard of truth and falsehood that is valid for everyone, it speaks like an atheist. In rebelling against the very concept of divine law, relativism commits a treason that is worse than outright revolt because it is devious. Instead of saying to God’s face, “Your Word is false,” it says to man, “There is no such thing as a universally binding divine word.”

II. 
Relativism is dishonest.

Everyone knows in his heart that believing relativism to be true is self-contradictory. Everyone also knows intuitively that no one even tries to put it into practice consistently. Therefore, both philosophically and practically, it cultivates duplicity. People say they believe in it, but they don’t think or act consistently with what they say. They are hypocrites. You can’t be an authentic relativist.

This becomes more obvious as relativists live their lives. They simply do not live as though relativism is true. Professors play the academic game of relativism in their classes and then go home and get upset with their wives for misunderstanding them. Why do they get upset? Because they know that there is an objective meaning that can be transmitted between two human beings, and we have moral obligations to grasp what is meant. No husband will ever say, “Since all truth is relative, it doesn’t matter how you interpret my request for sex.” Whether we write love letters or rental agreements or instructions to our children or directions for a friend or contracts, we believe objective meaning exists in what we write, and we expect people to try to understand it. Then we hold them accountable if they don’t.

The very process of thinking about relativism commits you to truths that you do not treat as relative. Relativists employ the law of non-contradiction and the law of cause and effect whenever they talk about their belief in relativism, and these laws are not relative. If they were, relativists could not even formulate the premises and conclusions that lead them to relativism. This is a deep duplicity. And when one does it knowingly, it is immoral.

III. Relativism hides that we are straying from the truth.

One of the most tragic effects of relativism is the effect it has on language. In a culture where objective truth is esteemed and employed for the good of the people, language holds the honorable place of carrying that precious cargo of truth. In fact, a person’s use of language is assessed on the basis of whether it corresponds to the truth and beauty of the reality he expresses. But when objective truth vanishes in the fog of relativism, the role of language changes. When language no longer exists to relay truth, all that’s left is for it to be a tool to fulfill the wishes of the one using it.

This gives rise to every manner of spin. The goal of language is no longer the communication of reality, but the manipulation of reality. When language becomes relativistic, it no longer functions to affirm the truth, but to conceal when we stray from it. Relativism corrupts the high calling of language and makes it a disguise for those who don’t have the courage to publicly renounce the faith they say they have.

This is the exact opposite of the commitment Paul had in the way he used language. He writes, “We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God” (2 Corinthians 4:2, NRSV).

IV. Relativism cloaks greed with flattery.

Apparently, the apostle Paul was accused in Thessalonica of simply wanting money from his converts. When he responds to this, he shows the link between flattery and greed. “Our appeal does not spring from error or impurity or any attempt to deceive, but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts. For we never came with words of flattery, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness” (1 Thessalonians 2:3–5).

Flattery is the use of language to make someone feel good about himself with a view to getting what you want. Paul calls it a pretext for greed. When relativism removes truth from language, language goes on sale. If we can get more money by telling people what they want to hear, we will.

Relativism is the perfect atmosphere for turning language into a pretext for greed by flattering people with what they want to hear. This is no surprise to Paul. “The time is coming,” he says, “when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth” (2 Timothy 4:3–4).

V. Relativism cloaks pride with the guise of humility.

On Sept. 9, 1999, Minneapolis’ Star Tribune carried a lead editorial that said, “Christians must abandon the idea that the Jews must be converted. That idea ... is one of the greatest scandals in history.” So I wrote a letter to the editor and argued that since only “he who has the Son has life” (1 John 5:12), it is not scandalous, but rather loving, to urge Jewish people to receive Jesus as their Messiah. This brought a blistering letter from the pastors of the four largest churches downtown. They wrote, “Unfortunately ‘arrogant’ is the right word to describe any attempts at proselytizing—in this case the effort of Christians to ‘win over’ their Jewish brothers and sisters. Thoughtful Christians will disassociate themselves from any such effort.”

The point of that story is if you believe in one truth that all people must embrace in order to be saved, you will be called arrogant. On the other hand, relativism is seen as humility. I certainly won’t say all lovers of truth are humble, but I do want to suggest that relativism is not humble; it’s a cloak for pride.

It works like this. Truth with a capital T—Truth rooted in God’s Word—is a massive, unchanging reality—outside of us—that we little humans must submit to. True humility is to acknowledge this and put ourselves submissively under this reality’s authority.

But what about relativism, which denies this reality exists? It poses as humble by saying, “We are not smart enough to know what the truth is—or if there is any universal truth.” It sounds humble. But look carefully at what is happening. It’s like an employee saying, “I am not smart enough to know who my boss is—or if I even have a boss—so I must not have a boss. I guess I’ll be my own.” In claiming to be too lowly to know the truth, relativists exalt themselves and make themselves the supreme arbiter of what they can think and do. This is not humility; it’s the essence of pride. And the only way pride can be conquered in us is for us to believe in Truth and be conquered by it, so that it rules us and we don’t rule it.

Embrace the Truth Whose Name Is Jesus Christ

Relativism is treasonous against God and dishonest to our fellow believers. It tempts us to put ourselves first and make our own desires more important than anything else. What a bondage! But it is not a bondage from which there is no freedom. Remember Jesus’ words: “The truth will set you free.” If you trust Christ to protect you from harm, and bring you safely to His eternal Kingdom, and be for you the supreme Treasure of the universe, then you will be free to see the truth and embrace the truth and love the truth and be passionate about the truth whose name is Jesus Christ.

Adapted from the Website...

Families Camp 2008

Its our BGC annual Family Camp again... here's some update of the pictures!



It just happen in the last weekend, with a talented speaker- Uncle Dexter from Shah Alam Gospel Centre on a talk regarding the church and its people. With 4 talks in Genting View Resort for Three days Two Nites... Click the Picture to browse more pictures on BGC's Friendster!


Stay tune for more updates...

Submitted by Js
Meant for Private Circulation only!

Hope in the Midst of Darkness

September 11 marks a date now embedded into our national identity. Seven years ago the attacks on New York City’s World Trade Center forever changed the landscape of America, and today the scars and memories are still searingly fresh.

That infamous morning in 2001, while the news outlets bombarded us with live footage and eyewitness accounts, I remember thinking, “This isn’t happening.” My feelings of helplessness were merely a microcosm of what the country felt. . It seemed like in that brief moment, the traditional objectivity that news anchors adhere to was cast aside and their hearts were exposed. While flipping through the channels, phrases such as “God bless you” or “Our prayers go out to you” flowed. There were no adequate words for this catastrophic event, but these anchors were clearly reaching.

After the smoke cleared, I found myself going back to the statements made by the news anchors. It occurred to me that while many people say the existence of evil is the most convincing evidence against the existence of God, when evil acts actually occur, many individuals revert to using religious language. Why is this? What causes this contradiction?

We are wired to think that even though evil is prevalent in this world, it’s not supposed to be this way. We have an ingrained feeling that something is off and that what we see around us today isn’t what was intended. Deep inside, we suspect we are not meant to live in a hopeless world. Philosophically speaking, this way of thinking would be considered by some to be some sort of existential cowardice. Philosophers such as Friedrich Nietzche and Jean-Paul Sartre would tell us to suck it up, that this life is all you get, so deal with it. To these philosophers, Christianity is the ultimate psychological crutch.

However, when evil occurs, it seems that Christians and non-Christians alike find it difficult to deal with—we naturally hope, like St. Teresa of Avila, that “pain is never permanent.” So when instances of evil are out of our control, such as 9/11, we instinctively turn to spirituality to alleviate this feeling of helplessness because good has to triumph over evil. There is no other alternative for us.

In the end, God will return to eradicate evil and set up a new earth under His rule. This is what made the cross bearable. Christ “endured the cross, scorning its shame” with the view that this would be the act that would make the new earth possible (Hebrews 12:2, TNIV). What drove Christ to suffer evil? Among other things, hope. Hebrews 2:14 says that Jesus humbled Himself and shared humanity with us, “that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” Clearly, Jesus held the confident hope that His perfect humility would result in the greater good.

It is this same kind of hope that drives the human soul. Being created in the image of God, we’ve inherited it. We bear up under pain in hope of deliverance in little ways throughout our lives.
For example, people flock to the gym in droves and endure the suffering of working out with the hope that they will fit into that size-4 dress or look good at the beach.

College students continually sacrifice relationships and precious sleep with the hope that they will attain the grades they need to get their diplomas, achieve their dream jobs and get their parents off their backs.

Parents sacrifice money, time and sanity to provide and care for their children with the hope that they will have successful lives, leave a legacy and not repeat the mistakes of the previous generation.

Undoubtedly, hope drives us.

So when evil occurs that men can’t fix, we naturally think that there’s a power out there that’s greater than us who is able to right this wrong. This evil drives us to recognize our helplessness and forces us to see that we all are a part of something infinitely bigger than ourselves.

And, in the end, the greatest hope will always be that “‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

Adapted from Website!

Joy of Gatherings

Here's some updates of BGC's unofficially and some official events...

Last Week, a day before Malaysia Birthday... a group of small gathering happening in Mr. Chow house, BBQ~ing with a little gathering with some basketball players from Sulaiman School(SMS), Js showing a little part of "Life" video and Stephen sharing some good news while Tf was setting up some fire outside... here's the pictures...


Watching Life Video


BBQ~ing


Group Photos

After these days, heaven rejoice over few who are curios to know more bout the good news! And here's come Sunday, was a small family gathering in one of the Sister's house! Many families was there to fellowship in these gathering, having fun together, playing together, cooking together, and lots more... here's goes the picture would tell u more ... ^^


Dr. Stephen Loke Teaching the Children on "How to score A's in School"


Adam smashing the flour to make "Tong Yuen"


Tasty Machi ... from the tong yuen ... :P


Children loves the sweet!


Durian Ice Cream made by one of our sister from BGC ... made out of 30 biji durian!
Its taste so nice... Malaysia Truly Asia...


The powerpuff girls playing Congkak with Adam...


While the F4 + Stephen playing PC Games...

Taken yesterday by Js, and this verse Psalm 119:105 came into my mind ... And sharing with you all...

Notice: 5- 7 Sept 2008, there will be a Family Camp at Genting View Resort (GVR), so there's is NO Sunday School, Youth Fellowship and Sunday Worship services.
Sunday Worship will be on at the campsite!


Submitted by Js
Meant for Private Circulation Only!

God's Protection:: Destroy By Gustav

The Hands & Feet Project, a children’s village in Jacmel, Haiti that was started in 2004, has suffered severe damage from the latest hurricane to hit the area. Following the destruction from hurricane Fay, hurricane Gustav buried the village in several feet of rock that came tumbling down the mountain during the storm. Although the overwhelming process of restoration has begun, tropical storm Hanna that hit this week again devastated the village and relegated the children and staff, 48 people in all, to live in one second-story room.

“We are in need of much prayer and financial support right now,” says Drex Stuart, a lifetime missionary who has previously served in Haiti and heads up the Hands & Feet Project with his wife, Jo. “Thank God all of our children and staff are safe. However, we have had major damage to our property, even worse than when [tropical storm] Noel hit last November.

“With our property completely buried in approximately four to five feet of mountain rock, we are doing the best we can to begin the clean-up process,” Stuart says. “Much of our supplies, food, clothes, diapers, formula, etc., have been destroyed and two of the houses where the kids lived were flooded with four feet of water and are currently unlivable. All 36 kids are living in the main house with the nannies.”

After Gustav hit Haiti, Stuart and his son, Audio Adrenaline frontman Mark Stuart, flew into Haiti with a civil engineer to assess the damage and come up with a plan to protect the village. Following the assessment, the cleanup process began, but after four days of clearing rock and piling them up to make an earthen dam that would eventually be a 12-15 foot high concrete retaining wall with re-enforced steel for protection, tropical storm Hanna came through this week and washed all the progress away.

“Our property is about 50 feet wide, but we are also going to help our neighbors finish their walls, because otherwise ours will be ineffective,” says Joel Griffith, Hands & Feet project managing director based in Franklin, TN. “In total, we will build a 200-foot retaining wall covering a Christian school that has 850 kids, the homes and property of five neighboring families representing 50 people and our property housing 36 orphans and 12 staff.”

“We had major damage to two of our children's houses and we lost most of our property walls, the foundation for our new cafeteria/kitchen," Griffith says. "With the retaining wall and purchasing a backhoe to keep it up, we are looking at an estimated immediate need of $100,000-$150,000. Although at this time we cannot handle supplies because of shipping costs, we are asking for monetary donations through our website, handsandfeetproject.org.”

As hurricanes Ike and Josephina threaten Haiti yet again, Mark Stuart also urges people to help. “Pray for Haiti, it’s a country that is often overlooked by the news channels when hurricanes happen because there are really no tourist areas. No reason to really pay attention, but it’s a place that really could use our help.”

God's Protection!


Adapted from Website...