DATELINE: 20th November 2008
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New Job . . . New Challenges . . .

I remember the time when the General Council Exco decided that nominees for the General Council elections were not allowed to decline their nominations. The decision was necessary because many nominees were declining, with some even saying: "Even if I am elected, I will not serve." That is embarrassing when these words are coming from our credentialed ministers. However, I can understand my fellow ministers' dilemma. Ministry is a privilege but we also want to be sure that we do not overwhelm ourselves and end up watering down the effectiveness of our ministry.

I have a personal philosophy of not refusing any opportunity to serve unless there is clear divine indication that I should NOT take up that opportunity. So, when the opportunity came for me to serve as the Interim Business Administrator for APTS, I took it. It will also be an opportunity for me to get to know more about APTS before taking over as the President next April. So, from Nov. 1 till March 30, I will be the Interim Business Administrator.

Although I was appointed to begin from Nov. 1, it was only this week that I really got down to the job. I am now looking at the financial accounts. One thing that struck me is the large "accounts receivable" from students. The training program at APTS is dependent on scholarship funding. Yesterday, I had to announce in chapel that students still owing APTS money will need special clearance to take the final examinations. They need to have some guarantees that the money they are owing will be cleared before the examinations. Please pray with me as I hold "the tension between grace and law."

If you feel that you can help with some of the students' outstanding fees, please write to us.

DATELINE: 14th November 2008
APTA - Asia Pacific Theological Association

The APTA Accreditation Visiting Team together with the staff and faculty at SATI. Tham Wan is fourth from right.

I was with the 4-member Asia Pacific Theological Association (APTA) Accreditation Visiting Team to SEKOLAH TINGGI TEOLOGIA SATYABHAKTI,
the Indonesian Assemblies of God Bible school in Malang, Java. This was a new experience for me and I learned a lot of new things about seminary education. I am sure the lessons learned will prove very helpful when I take over as President of APTS in April next year.

A bonus for this trip to Indonesia was the opportunity to meet up with some very good friends in Malang. I also got to make some new friends. Randy Martin was there. He is the son of Leslie Martin, missionary to Malaysia. It was nice talking about the "good old days" in Malaysia.

DATELINE: 7th November 2008
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We are on Facebook

We are putting more vroom into our ministry on the net. I got started on my blog, and now we are on Facebook. We wanted to maintain a kind of "serious" image to our ministry. So, we had avoided Facebook although we have had plenty of "invitations." Finally, we realized that the network out on Facebook can be very helpful to our cause. So, if you are on Facebook, there is a friend to network with you. (APTS is also on Facebook as a "Group.") We will also appreciate if you can pass along our Facebook connections to our mutual friends, or others who may be interested in what we are doing.

DATELINE: 31st October 2008
Maligayang Kaarawan . . . Happy Birthday, Moon Tee

Today is Moon Tee's birthday. We are not big on birthday celebrations in our family. Most times, we simply go out and have a meal together as a family; that is, if we remember! But, a Christian campus community like APTS is big on remembering birthdays and people on campus have already been wishing Moon Tee, "Happy Birthday" with cards and "Happy Birthday" song. Of course, what they have here is only the English version. Here is the lighter and much-happier Cantonese version:

恭祝你福壽與天齊

慶賀你生辰快樂

年年都有今日

歲歲都有今朝

恭喜你 恭喜你

But, despite all the love we sense on campus, we still miss our family. Last year, Moon Tee celebrated her birthday in China. We have been away from home for our birthdays for a number of years now. We have always said that we have sacrificed very little for missions in terms of physical comfort. If there is a sacrifice, it is leaving our family behind. When significant days, like birthdays, come around, we really miss our family. 

Some of you may notice that Moon Tee's birthday falls on Halloween Day. But, October 31 is also Reformation Day, which is the day in 1517 when Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses on the door of a church in Wittenberg, Germany. You can google "Halloween + Reformation" and find out the different views how Halloween and Reformation got mixed up. Perhaps we can remember Moon Tee's birthday as being the same as Reformation Day (instead of Halloween Day).

We have at least 3 other friends who celebrate their birthdays on the same day. Happy Birthday greetings to Rebecca Lam (in Brisbane), Fred Sin (in Perth) and Emmanuel Chan too. We have not been in touch with them for a while. If you have their email addresses, please pass this greeting along. Tell them about our website.

DATELINE: 23rd October 2008
Finally, the "Last One"!

Lemuel reported proudly in his blog (http://lemuelyee.blogspot.com/) that he is finally graduating. He has also posted some photos of him in his "scholar's" robe and mortar board. The graduation ceremony will be held at BCM on Dec 2. We hope to be back to join in the celebrations.

Much has happened in our son's life these last few years while he was studying at the Bible College of Malaysia (BCM). During his time at BCM, he got married to Melanie and together they now have a daughter, Mikayla. Their marriage has held back Lemuel's studies somewhat. The last couple of years of his studies were done part-time while he served at Canaan Church (also part-time). He also did a few months of internship at Faith Charismatic Center, Jalan Ipoh.

Lemuel is the last of our three sons to graduate. Elroi and Ian have already finished their undergraduate degrees. So, Lemuel's graduation is kind of a completion of a long journey for us. But, in a sense, it is also a beginning for Lemuel. (Some people prefer to call the graduation ceremony as the "commencement exercises.") He has finished his training and now has to think of his long-term future as a career minister. We will be welcoming him as a co-laborer at the BCM Alumni Homecoming on December 1.

We want to thank all who have contributed to our son's growth. These will include the lecturers and administrators at BCM, the leadership and friends ("uncles" and "aunties" to Lemuel) at Canaan Church . . . and many fellow ministers who watched over and prayed for him. There is still much room for him to grow and we continue to covet your prayers for him and his young family.

DATELINE: 13th October 2008
Learning Filipino with Us on Our Website!

Filipino is the national language of the Philippines (although most official documents are in English). It is based almost totally on Tagalog, which is one of the 3 main native tongues of the Philippines. Tagalog is spoken mainly by people in the in the areas around the capital city of Manila. The other two main native languages are Illocano and Cebuano. (APTS is located in an Illocano-speaking area.) After 4 years in the Philippines, we still speak very little Filipino. That is because the medium of instruction in APTS is English.

Tham Wan has been making an effort to learn conversational Filipino and is much better at the language than Moon Tee. For Moon Tee, her ministry language here - apart from English - is Mandarin. That is because she is the main pastor of the Baguio International Chinese Church which we pioneered last year. To make our learning more enjoyable, we are including you in our "learning circle." We are setting up a page on our website to introduce you to useful Filipino (Tagalog) phrases. As you visit this page, you will learn along with us. Visit the page and learn something new everyday . . . Click here: A FILIPINO PHRASE A DAY. You can also click on the new "Speak Filipino" button on menu in the left frame.

DATELINE: 6th October 2008
APTS Missions Convention Is Over!

The highlight of the Missions Week at APTS was the International Night. Students and missionaries all came in their national costumes. The evening program started with a sumptuous international buffet. Students and missionaries preparing food from their countries. We had planned on stir-frying "field chicken" (otherwise known as frogs) but they were not available at the market that day. So, we ended up cooking beef rendang, which turned out very well. Exotic menu items for the evening's buffet included: spicy beef from China, kimchi & kimbab from Korea, balut & one-day-old chicken from the Philippines, dumplings from Mongolia, fish in coconut milk and Fijian-Indian curry from Fiji/Samoa, mussel salad from Thailand, etc.

The APTS Missions Convention may be over but the challenge from the few days continue to ring in our hearts. We cannot always do the "easy thing." We must remember the unreached areas of the world. The triumphant harvest which we talk about so often is only possible because there were many who did the hard work of plowing hard fallow ground, sowing, nurturing the crop, etc. There are many places in the world where "plowing and sowing" still needs to be done.

APTS brings together Christians from all over the world. Many of them have probably planned on returning to the countries they have come from but this Missions Convention may have opened their minds to other possibilities. We should plan but we must always remain open to the possibility that God may have something else in store for us. We are excited to be involved with APTS where we see present and future leaders of the Asia Pacific region challenged in their hearts and trained in their minds to do God's work in God's way.

DATELINE: 1 October 2008
Selamat Hari Raya!

Dr. Alan Johnson (in purple shirt & tie) roleplaying with a student at one of the presentations during the APTS Missions Convention

The end of Ramadan celebration ("Hari Raya Aidil Fitri" in Malaysia) is a public holiday in the Philippines. This is probably a concession of the government to the Muslims in the south. (It is interesting for us here because there is NO public holiday for Chinese New Year in the Philippines!) Actually, there is almost no celebration at all for Hari Raya . . . no decorations in the mall, no special programs on TV, etc. 

But, rather appropriately, we did have a forum on Islam this morning because it is Missions Convention Week here in APTS. The speaker, Dr. Alan Johnson talked about the famous C1-C6 Spectrum proposed by John Travis some years ago to understand contextualization in Christian mission to Muslims. He seemed to favor a C3-C4 approach where we allow for "neutral" elements of Islam to remain in Christians who have converted from Islam. The C3-C4 approach will also retain Muslim terminology e.g. Isa for Christ. Dr. Johnson is a missionary to Thailand . . . I wonder what he would say about the situation in Malaysia where some critical words cannot be used by Christians because it may confuse/offend Muslims.

This talk about the C1-C6 Spectrum reminds me again how much missions have taken up the socio-cultural-anthropological paradigm, leaving behind the "spiritual warfare" paradigm. I think we need to remember that missions is not just to convert people from one "culture" to another "culture." There is a spiritual dimension to Christian missions. People who do not believe in Jesus are under bondage to a spiritual realm. Missions strategies must include "spiritual warfare" . . .  

DATELINE: 16 September 2008
We Have  Been Cleared for a Third Term!

The World Missions Department (WMD) Committee met with us yesterday and presented us with our letter of appointment for a third term to APTS. We are grateful for a very understanding Missions Committee. They allowed us a lot of freedom in our itineration and cleared us to return to the Philippines even though we have not met our full funding target, with the proviso that we return at an opportune time to continue itinerating. Please keep us in your prayers.

It is good to see the Malaysian church supporting our missionary calling. We have been really encouraged in the process and hope that this positive feeling is there for all our other missionaries on the field all over the world. We are only one of two units being supported under the WMD's traditional itineration system. Although the system is a little arduous, the advantage is that we get to meet with people in our churches and challenge them to missions. It gives a lot of strength to the churches' call to missions when they are able to present "live specimens" of missionaries to their congregations.

DATELINE: 16 September 2008
We Met Our Target . . . for now

The response to our recent call for more missions funding from all of you met with resounding success. We had to cash in a lot of goodwill gained over many years of ministry!! But, we know our good friends will rise again to the occasion when there are fresh needs in the future.

We were able to meet the initial targets set by the World Missions Department (WMD). Although we have yet to meet our full target, we are confident that the Lord will provide for the rest. Please continue to pray for us as we prepare to go back on to the field. There will be busy and challenging days ahead for us.

DATELINE: 1st September 2008
We Are Back in Baguio . . . for now

Tham Wan (seated left, with the short haircut) at the recent Annual Faculty Retreat in San Fernando, La Union. Moon Tee was present too but she left her seat to take this picture.

We arrived in Baguio last Thursday (28th August) and over the weekend, we participated in the annual APTS faculty retreat. We met up with most of the APTS faculty and missionaries during the retreat and there was a helpful discussion about our impending appointment as the President of APTS. Many of you have already received news of that appointment, whether directly or indirectly. We want all of you to be aware of the significance of that appointment, not just for us but for the seminary as a whole. We will be the first Asian President for APTS and our "performance" will be closely watched. Therefore, we covet your prayers.

 MORE FUNDS NEEDED FOR US TO COME BACK. With our appointment confirmed, the Malaysian AG World Missions Department (WMD) Committee raised our missionary budget. We understand their reasons for that. Because of that, we will need more funding commitments from our supporters for us to come back on the field. If you are working on your missions budget now, please consider us in your budget. For now, all you need to do is to write us a note indicating your average monthly commitment and we will include you when working out our budget with the WMD Committee. 

Folks We Met During Our Itineration

Moon Tee preaching at one of our itineration stops in Calvary A/G, Butterworth, Penang. Translating for her into Hokkien is Sis. Maylissa Tan.

We met a lot, a lot of people during the last five months while we were itinerating. Some of whom were old friends that we have not met for some time. It was nice to meet up and renew fellowship with them. It was even nicer to see God's hand of blessing upon them. We are grateful for people who support us because they know us. They give the credibility to our missionary appointment.

There were also people that we did not know at all. For example, there were at least two occasions when folks came up to us telling us that they still have our old prayer card and that they have been praying for us all these years. One lady saw our new prayer card and immediately apologized that they have been praying for the wrong things, because she was still praying for our boys' studies when the boys have already started working! We assured her that the Lord knew her good intentions and that we were very appreciative of the prayer cover we have been receiving. We believe that it is such faithful and simple prayers that have kept us on the mission field.

That is perhaps the genius of the "itineration" system of candidacy for missionary appointment. Raising funds for our missionary appointment is only one of the objectives of our itineration. The other equally important objective is to raise missions awareness. We get to talk with regular church folks about our personal missions but in the process, we also inspire them about missions in general. We have already met people who talk about how they have felt the call of God to participate in missions.

DATELINE: 20th August 2008
Durians and Memories . . .

NCA Camp at Fraser's Hill. In the foreground is Rev. Peter Khoo

We preached for New Covenant Assembly's church camp on the 16th to 19th of August at Fraser's Hill. Tham Wan spoke for the English services while Moon Tee spoke for the Chinese services. New Covenant Assembly (NCA) is pastored by our good friends, Peter Khoo and Thaddeus Lee. Their wives help in their ministries too. Our former assistant pastors from Canaan Church, Joel and Eunice Lee were there at the camp too. It was nice having the opportunity to fellowship with all of these old friends.

The camp itself was blessed by the Lord's presence. There was a wonderful family atmosphere in the camp, with ministry for the old and young. Many of the campers came to us and shared that the messages spoke to them personally. We are thankful that we have been used by God to deposit something good in their lives. 

Personally, we were blessed too. Moon Tee grew up in Fraser's Hill. It was therefore an opportunity for Moon Tee to visit some of the places she grew up in. Moon Tee also got to meet with a couple of old friends from her childhood days. On the final night, the young people bought two large baskets of durians and we got to eat durians to our hearts content. We have hardly had durians since the durian season started, so it was a real "bonus" blessing for us. Above all, we got the chance to get ourselves acclimatized for Baguio!

 

DATELINE: 7th August 2008
Now, it is no longer a RUMOUR

Tham Wan teaching "Issues in Asian Theology" at the AG Bible College in Singapore recently.

Since we came back to Malaysia for our furlough in early April, there were a lot of you asking if Tham Wan was to be the next APTS President. We could not confirm anything at that time yet, although Tham Wan had already been introduced to the APTS faculty as a "viable candidate" by the APTS Board. We had to politely avoid the question because we did not want to say anything that will complicate the Presidential search process.

Yesterday, we received an email from the Chairman of the APTS Board reporting that the Board had made the decision to accept the recommendation of the Search Committee for Tham Wan to take over as the President of APTS from 2009 onwards. The actual transition process had not been given to us in detail but we assume that our term will begin after the end of the current school year, which will be April 2009.

We will keep you updated as soon as we have anything more to say. Meanwhile, we covet your prayers.