Page 48 - Malayan Story
P. 48
MALAYAN STORY
Then God worked a miracle. A new road was being built from Kuala Lumpur to Klang, and it was
going right past the proposed church site. Day after day, great loads of earth were being moved by
bulldozer or lorries as they prepared the foundations for the new road. The road builders did not
have anywhere to dump the excess soil. After a friendly talk and some refreshments supplied by the
church, the workmen agreed to dump their unwanted soil into the church’s gully. Gradually the
gully filled up and was levelled, until they had the perfect base to build a church.
By October 1958 the church members had worked hard to complete the building and Percy was
asked to lead a service of praise and thanksgiving at the opening of the new Sungei Way Church.
So 1957, Merdeka year - the year of independence and freedom - proved to be a new era for the
work of the Mission also. Many villages now had a church building erected by their own members
and their churches had become self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating.
At our 1957 Field Conference we looked back to 1952 when Percy first became Superintendent of
the South Malayan Field when there were only 5 centres open in South Malay, one of which was
Kuala Lumpur. Now there were 22 centres in which missionaries were living and working. Nine of
these were mainly Hakka speaking, five were Hokkien and five were Cantonese speaking. We had
73 workers with 14 in their home countries on Home Assignment.
As we looked back over those five years, we could only marvel at what God had done. The
breakthrough came with the meetings held by five young Chinese students from Singapore. There
was no doubt that hearing the Gospel from their own people in their own language dispelled their
perception that Christianity was a western religion. If we were to generalize, we could say that 1953
was the year of conversions, 1954 the year of consolidation of their faith, 1954 and 1955 the years
of baptisms and the formation of church fellowships, while 1956 was a year of advance, and further
growth in the faith.
Percy had for a long time wanted to provide a Bible Correspondence Course similar to one he had
used in China and knew what a blessing it could be. While on holiday in Sarawak, North Borneo, he
had looked into one which was being used there and found that it was in turn based on one which
was used in India. When he looked at the Indian course, he found that it was aimed at non-Christians
and he was more interested in a course that was aimed at young believers or enquirers about
Christianity.
So after much discussion and editing of the questions, he was able in 1956 to commence a Light of
Life Bible Correspondence Course which meant that students could delve into their Bibles and learn
more of God’s answer for their lives.
Return to Table of Contents
48
Then God worked a miracle. A new road was being built from Kuala Lumpur to Klang, and it was
going right past the proposed church site. Day after day, great loads of earth were being moved by
bulldozer or lorries as they prepared the foundations for the new road. The road builders did not
have anywhere to dump the excess soil. After a friendly talk and some refreshments supplied by the
church, the workmen agreed to dump their unwanted soil into the church’s gully. Gradually the
gully filled up and was levelled, until they had the perfect base to build a church.
By October 1958 the church members had worked hard to complete the building and Percy was
asked to lead a service of praise and thanksgiving at the opening of the new Sungei Way Church.
So 1957, Merdeka year - the year of independence and freedom - proved to be a new era for the
work of the Mission also. Many villages now had a church building erected by their own members
and their churches had become self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating.
At our 1957 Field Conference we looked back to 1952 when Percy first became Superintendent of
the South Malayan Field when there were only 5 centres open in South Malay, one of which was
Kuala Lumpur. Now there were 22 centres in which missionaries were living and working. Nine of
these were mainly Hakka speaking, five were Hokkien and five were Cantonese speaking. We had
73 workers with 14 in their home countries on Home Assignment.
As we looked back over those five years, we could only marvel at what God had done. The
breakthrough came with the meetings held by five young Chinese students from Singapore. There
was no doubt that hearing the Gospel from their own people in their own language dispelled their
perception that Christianity was a western religion. If we were to generalize, we could say that 1953
was the year of conversions, 1954 the year of consolidation of their faith, 1954 and 1955 the years
of baptisms and the formation of church fellowships, while 1956 was a year of advance, and further
growth in the faith.
Percy had for a long time wanted to provide a Bible Correspondence Course similar to one he had
used in China and knew what a blessing it could be. While on holiday in Sarawak, North Borneo, he
had looked into one which was being used there and found that it was in turn based on one which
was used in India. When he looked at the Indian course, he found that it was aimed at non-Christians
and he was more interested in a course that was aimed at young believers or enquirers about
Christianity.
So after much discussion and editing of the questions, he was able in 1956 to commence a Light of
Life Bible Correspondence Course which meant that students could delve into their Bibles and learn
more of God’s answer for their lives.
Return to Table of Contents
48
