Grace Intermediate - 28th Nov - Last Class @ Damansara Perdana

It has been a year since we have been meeting every Friday 12.30pm to 2.30pm at Felicia's office at Damansara Perdana. Since January 2008 we have been learning the word of God through the lens of 'grace.'
Every Friday about 12-15 people show up, full of expectation of God's grace. Even on the last Friday at Damansara Perdana, DJ introduces Janet to me, a friend she brought for our farewell lunch. Janet was nodding in agreement at many of the things said.
Change being the only constant in life, we were told that Felicia is giving up the office and moving to another location. So come January 16th 2009, we will also be in a new location at Section 17 Petaling Jaya. Going to the new location is not the only change that will happen. The group will now be called an Externally Focused Small Group (EFSG Section 17). The accountability of this EFSG is to RR's Discipling Life Team. So what does all this mean? The subjects taught will now include leadership. Wini, Chris and DJ will be the key leadership trainers. There will also be community projects, food, fellowship ..... we are all in for a great 2009. All are welcome. Simply contact Wini, Chris or Serena for more details.


The key leaders for EFSG Section 17 is - Wini Growth Champion, Chris Bridge Champion, Serena Connect Champion. The other positions of men leader, women leader, and prayer leader, will be named later.

3rd RR-DLT Meeting - 23rd Nov 2008

Dennis was the first to arrive at 7pm bringing along with him his mentee Stephen. Dennis says Rick the other mentee will be coming later on his own. By 8.30pm most of the team had come and we began dinner. Felicia brought with her a bowl of ginger chicken which everyone thought was just great. Pamela made a plate of nonya kueh and Glenda brought persimmons which she said she grew in her garden. (She was joking of course). After dinner we settled in to our favorite place in the living room to watch Tim Elmore talk about ‘Pivotal Prayer.’ I had the privilege of meeting with Tim whilst he visited Malaysia to introduce 'Habitudes.' Tim is surely an anointed communicator. In Pivotal Prayer Tim gave his observations on 'How Leaders Pray.'

1. Effective leaders learn to THINK like God thinks and pray those thoughts.
2. Effective leaders pray from RELATIONSHIP, not just routine.
3. Effective leaders learn pivotal prayer as they MATURE spiritually.
4. Effective leaders recognize CRITICAL moments and pray strategically.
5. Effective leaders learn to pray UNSELFISHLY.
6. Effective leaders don't pursue eloquence, but simply CONNECT with God's heart.
7. Effective leaders learn to pray from MISSION, not maintenance.

Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not lose heart. Luke 18:1

There are times when WHAT we pray and HOW we pray are more critical because of WHEN we pray. The moment introduces an opportunity for significant change.

As Paul Hendricks was to return to South Africa on the 29th November we all prayed for him. Paul is a very soft spoken gentleman that came to be with us since April 08. Paul said he really had a great time here in Malaysia where he says his leadership grew by leaps and bounds.

The meeting continued with the other appointments for the DLT.
Growth Champion – Winifred Chin
Bridge Champion – Chris Lim
Connect Champion – Serena Wong

Prayer Leader – Sonya Liew
Men’s Leader – Paul Lau
Women’s Leader – yet to be appointed

All appointments is valid for the period ending 31st December 2009.

Bridge Champion Report – Chris Lim
Prayer Report - Winifred Chin

The RR-DLT Meetings for December 2008 is on the 14th and 28th December.
The DLT Leaders Meeting is on the 4th December at SJ.
The RR-DLT Leadership Meeting is on the 21st December at RR’s home.

2nd RR-DLT Meeting - 9th November 2008

November is an eventful month. Our three children was born in the month of November and also we were married on the 20th November 1976. So we took the opportunity to celebrate birthdays and wedding anniversaries. After 32 years of marriage here is my take - "the safest thing you can do always feels risky and the riskiest thing you can do is play it safe."

In the last (20th Oct) DLT gathering, we listened to Doug Carter talk on ‘Attitude’ and Chris Hodges on ‘The Leader’s Inner Circle.’ This time we were going to listen to Beau on "The Life you were Meant to Live". So after dinner, we all found our favourite place in the living room and settled in to watch the DVD. Beau began by telling us how to "Discover your God-given Mission in Life".

Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of the prize yet;
but one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward
to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil. 3:13-14)

5 Biblical Foundations
1. We all have been given a PURPOSE for our lives.
2. We are most FULFILLED when we are fulfilling our purpose.
3. Not everyone UNCOVERS their God given purpose.
4. Our purpose is BUILT from our personal inward design.
5. We will be JUDGED on our obedience to our God given calling in life.

Goals and Objectives
List the areas of your life (spiritual, family, professional, social) that are important to your purpose.
List specific goals that will enable you to turn a lofty purpose statement into a practical 'to do' list that you can begin to implement.

* Lifetime goals: What do you want to do over your lifetime?
* Five year goals: What do you want to see happen in three to five years?
* One year goals: What do you want to do in the next year?
* 90 day goals: What will you do in the next three months?
* Next steps: What steps will you take now in order to get started?

Click to view pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/rmrichard08/DisciplingLifeTeam#

The Passing of a Great Man in my life - MY DAD

Life came with a word and so when life leaves it will also be with words. To construct the words of a life well lived is both easy and difficult. Easy because there is so many good words to say, difficult because the words will be final here on this earth.So here are the words that make up the story of my dad's life.
Once upon a time born to a Christian family of 4 brothers and 1 sister was a baby boy. They named the baby boy Samuel Divirajoo. The year was 1924 and the place was Malaya.

My Dad, Divirajoo

The Days that were 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st Oct & 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Nov 2008

Psalms 90: 12,17
So teach us to number our days, that we gain a heart of wisdom.
And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us,
Yes, establish the work of our hands.

The next 7 days beginning with the 28th Oct was going to be very eventful and hectic. Resting upon the wisdom of the Lord we set about the task before us.

28th Oct - EFC Leadership training at Lighthouse Charismatic Christian Assembly, Sungei Petani
29th Oct - EFC Leadership Induction at Wesley Methodist Church, Burma Road, Penang
31st Oct - EFC Conference at Vineyard Church, Johore Baru
01st Nov - EFC Conference at EFC Church, USJ, Petaling Jaya, Selangor
02nd Nov - EFC Conference at Fettes Park Baptist Church, Penang
03rd Nov - EFC working visit to Kuching, Sarawak

28th Oct - We (Piek See, Simon, Wini & myself) set off from PJ at about 1pm heading north to the very-fast-growing town of SP (Sungei Petani). SP is located 35 minutes by car from Penang and 1hour by car from Alor Star. Reaching SP, Simon dropped us at Sonny Tneoh's house. Simon proceeded on to Alor Star for his leadership class there. During dinner, Sonny who is also an elder at Lighthouse Charismatic Christian Assembly told us the town of SP is populated with quite a large number of Indians. Accordingly there are several Indian churches in SP. Sonny also gave us a rundown of the unity situation among the churches in SP.


29th Oct finds us on the lovely island of Penang, "the pearl of the orient." The opportunity of being able to conduct the leadership training in Penang is nothing short of a miracle. We tried several times to conduct the leadership training in Penang but we were turned away by the 'gatekeepers.' Finally after 2 years the opportunity came through the invitation of Rev Hwa Gen of the Wesley Methodist Church. So here we are on this lovely Wednesday night at the very historical Wesley Methodist Church conducting the induction for the leadership training. Incidently Hwa Gen tells me that the church is the oldest church on the island being more than a hundred years old. 12 people showed up for the induction, certainly a very humble beginning. The group may be small but the passions weren't. With full enthusiasm and passion the induction was completed. The 2nd induction will be held on the 12th November.

30th Nov - Breakfast is at the Sister's Char Kway Teow at Macalister Road. Is chicken egg or duck egg better with the char kway teow? The million ringgit question. Well going by the fact that when we arrived at the coffee shop 'the sister' who does the frying of the kway teow was reading newspapers..... Now what could be the reason for that? Yup! she stopped using duck eggs and now frys her legendary char kway teow with chicken eggs. I hope someone who reads this and has influence with her would tell her to switch back to duck eggs only. If not I can't imagine what the ending will be. Nonetheless still worth a stop while you are in Penang to try her char kway teow. The drive back to KL also required another 'must stop' at Rawang. Arriving at Rawang at about 1pm was just perfect for the 'perfectly steamed tilipia fish'. Simply a must for anyone traveling along this north/south highway. It is turning out to be a wonderful day, breakfast at Sisters, lunch at Rawang and dinner later in the evening at Anna's Kitchen in JB. After Rawang our next destination is KLIA to take the flight to Senai.

Psalm 48:12-14
Walk about Zion, and go all around her,
Count her towers; mark well her bulwarks; consider her palaces,
That you may TELL IT TO THE GENERATION FOLLOWING.
For this is God, our God for ever and ever;
He will be our guide even to death.

From KLIA we flew into Senai Airport Johore at 7pm. We were met at the airport by Bruce and Cathy a wonderful and faithful couple who worships at Pastor Thomas Fann's church. They drove us to this quaint little restaurant in JB where we are to meet with Eric Swanson and Tom Shirk. Eric came to Malaysia earlier this year in May. He was here then with Sam Williams and they conducted the EFC Conferences in Kluang, KL, Kuantan and Alor Star. This time Eric together with Tom will be going to JB, USJ-PJ, Penang and Kuching. Anna was there waiting for us at her restaurant together with the rest of the invited guests. Eric and Tom arrived minutes later and we all sat down to what was to be a superb dinner. There was smoked duck salad for starters, very tender ostrich meat, chilled aussie beef, mutton soup, char kway teow, spanish styled fried rice, calamari and of course desserts. Our compliments to the chef! And we discovered that the chef was none other than Anna herself. I know you will enjoy the photos of the food.

31st Oct - 4th Nov EXTERNALLY FOCUSED CHURCH CONFERENCE

31st Oct - It is the morning after that wonderful dinner at Anna's Kitchen. Ps Thomas Fann is playing host for this EFC Conference which is held at the Vineyard Church JB. All of us were filled with excitement as we arrived at Vineyard. Ps Tay Wah Seng, the Senior Pastor of Vineyard welcomed us and the conference commenced with Derik leading us in worship. We were really happy with the turn out as fifteen of the 40 attendees were pastors. Eric came on after worship and began his presentation on "Becoming An Externally Focused Church." He raised the mind boggling question "It is not how big your church is but what impact your church has in the community? Here are some of the other items in his presentation -
1. Christians don't grow until they begin serving.
2. Understanding the power of service.
3. Good deeds create good will which open the door to good news.
4. Churches partner around purpose.

Pastor Tom Shirk the senior pastor at Calvary Bible Church in Boulder Colorado was next. Eric told the participants that Sam was unable to come and he invited Tom, who is also Eric' s pastor to take his place. We are all very happy that Tom accepted the invitation. Tom's presentation was on "What does it mean to be an Externally Focused church?"
1. To have a vision to reach your community with truth and grace.
2. To seek the welfare of your community.
3. To force your gaze outside the four walls of your church.
4. To let your light shine before men that they may see your good works.

8 Strategic Principles
1. Their communities can't be healthy without the church.
2. Christians don't grow as they should unless they are serving.
3. Serving together helps build strong families.
4. The threshold of service does not have to be very high.
5. Servants can go anywhere.
6. Problems in a city create opportunities for the church.
7. Partnerships with other entities create greater effectiveness.
8. Mechanisms turn intuitions into actions.

By the time Tom finished his presentation the first half of the day had expired and it was time for lunch. All were in agreement on the relevance and richness of the content. So lunch was the perfect break for the conversations to form from the material presented. After lunch the participants were divided up into 7 groups to discuss the following questions:
1. If you were an externally focused church what would be the three audacious goals for your city bearing in mind that resources are not an issue?
2. What are the possible projects that can be done in 2009 in JB assuming the churches come together?
3. What are the anticipated obstacles for the church to transit to become an externally focused church?

The groups dived into the questions and the discussions were certainly enthusiastic and tense at times.

These are some of the responses from the groups to the questions:
Group 1 presented by Andrew Loh - their audacious goals is enhancing education by giving tuition in english and computer literacy.

Group 2 presented by Sau Voon - 3 audacious goals are a crime free city, elimination of delinquency and debt free community from loan sharks.

Group 3 Timothy Lam said - crime free city, clean city, corruption free city.
For question 3 Timothy commented that the obstacles are laggards leading the church, internal needs of the church and not all the churches are the same.

Group 4 Desmond Leong - 3 audacious goals 0 loan sharks, 0 crime rate, 0 divorce rate. For question 3 he said the obstacles were lack of finance, manpower and leaders, denomination barriers, and internal activities of the church.

Group 5 presented by Cassie - The 3 audacious goals were the Causeway, 0 crime in JB, 0 corruption.

Group 6 presented by Ps Joshua - 3 audacious goals 0 crime rate, free from Ah Longs, free from smoking. For question 2 the possible projects for 2009, he answered stop condemning the police, start supporting them, education through talks, anti smoking programs.

Finally group 7 was presented by the youngest participant Markus Fann - 3 audacious goals 24/7 prayer among churches, 0 crime rate. For question 2 that is possible projects in 2009, disaster relief training, creating an environment team, education. Markus said that the obstacles were small mindedness and inward looking churches and government policy.

Although it was in the midst of the afternoon and eyelids are struggling to keep open, Tom spurred by the responses of the participants presented his final paper "Preparing your church."
1. Pray for your city and your city leaders.
2. Change the language you use.
3. Assess the needs of your city.
4. Look for where God is working.
5. Find the best place of intersection.
6. Emphasize contribution without recognition.
7. Pursue partnerships not replications.
8. Offer your facility as a community resource.

I believe "new friendships, new thoughts, new partnerships" were formed during the course of the conference. It was time for Eric to present the final paper for the conference aptly named "Getting Started." There are those who prefer to say 'yes' and there are those who prefer to say 'no.' Those who say 'yes' are rewarded with the adventures they have and those who say 'no' are rewarded with the safety they attain. There are far more no sayers than yes sayers.

"Getting Started"
Micah 6:8
Hear O man, for what does the Lord require of you,
But to love mercy, to do justice and to walk humbly with your God.

1. What should we do? What could we do?
2. Small groups are great for serving the community.
3. Giving everyone the opportunity. People don't serve twice until they serve once.
4. Create systems for what you value.
* Must think 'kingdom' not church
* Preach and teach externally focused ministry
* Good friends turn good intention int good deeds
5. Where do you sense is your first entry point into your community?

Eric indeed finished the conference well. Everyone left with a sense of mission to their community. We headed for the airport after saying all our goodbyes to catch the 8.30pm flight to Kuala Lumpur from Senai Airport. Our next assignment was at the EFC Church USJ about 30 minutes from Kuala Lumpur.