Inspiring stories and photos from the Asian Leadership Conference.
“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” Isaiah 60: 1-3
I have been a disciple of Jesus Christ for 18 years but I have never attended any overseas leadership conference before. I joined the Asian Leadership Conference this year because of my present position as the Financial Deacon for the Hong Kong Church of Christ. The privilege to join the conference as a layman undoubtedly granted me the opportunity to open my eyes and see what God has been doing all over Asia.
Apart from all the powerful sermons delivered by Harliem Salim, Frank Kim, Gordan Ferguson, John Louis, Steve Chin, and Dinesh George; I was personally touched by what God had done in people’s life all over Asia. I witnessed a number of Asian countries rekindle their zeal for evangelism.
In Cambodia, in spite of all the difficulties there evangelistically there were 23 baptisms in 2007. In Vietnam, the zeal for living a missionary’s life is still burning for the disciples there. A recent survey discovered that 40% of the 96 disciples signed up for joining the next church planting in 2009. In Indonesia, there were currently 700 people studying Bible with the 1,400 disciples there.
While the Indonesian Church was trying to reestablish the importance of evangelism through small groups in the married ministry, Harliem mentioned that within a year the number of small groups increased from 7 to 18.
In Mainland China, the number of disciples increase 40% from 2002 – 2007. It was encouraging to see that the campus ministry was leading the way, seeing over one hundred of baptisms. To put it in a nutshell, I could see that God is not giving up Asia and the light is about to shine again.
I also had fellowship with many brothers and sisters all over Asia and heard many amazing stories of heroes in the faith. One of the stories that touched my heart was about a brother in Myanmar, Burma. Let me name him “Mr. Paul”. Here is the story shared by the brother during the Communion sharing:
“Mr. Paul was really a hero for all of us here by his faith, perseverance, giving, and serving heart for God and His people. He was converted in 1996 December three months after the Church was planted here in Yangon. He used to work as a teacher in a school for the blind before he became a Christian, and then retired. He has been blind since he was young. Even though he was physically limited than most of us, he was able to help his three friends to become disciples. Sometimes if there is nobody to assist him to go to Church, he came alone by himself. Since we have to meet in different places as a Church, he never compromises to miss the services. Even we meet as all brothers last week, he said he will cook rice for everyone. He’s a very giving and loving brother, we thank God for that He bless us with such awesome brother in the Kingdom. He was sitting in the rain the whole night during the time the cyclone attacked Myanmar few months ago and he showed up the next day to attend Church service.”
We are surrounded by heroes of faith and more importantly we have our awesome God who never abandons us. I pray and hope that these stories will inspire your faith in the Lord as we strive for even greater glory for Him.
