Page 65 - Malayan Story
P. 65
MALAYAN STORY
CHAPTER 20 BREAKTHROUGH!
This was the situation I came in to early in 1953. After that first Conference there must have been
many prayer partners all over the world who had taken the spiritual warfare going on in Malaya to
their hearts.
By the summer of 1953 we began to see that “the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong”.
In May 1953 Percy received a letter from Paul Contento in Singapore. Paul was working amongst
students in the Singapore Theological Seminary. He wrote to say that the Staff had had a meeting
recently and had asked him to lead a team of students during the four or five week summer vacation
into the Federation on an evangelistic tour. He said the purpose was two fold. One was to make
Christ known and the other to make the Seminary known. The team would consist of four Chinese
students who, between them, could cover all the dialects needed. “He pointed out that there was
“one Hakka, one or two Hokkien, one Cantonese and one who can speak Teochiu and Foochow as
well as other dialects!”
His letter continued, “We will be prepared to visit a number of CIM stations, for I feel that only
when there is a follow up work is evangelistic work really worthwhile. We will also plan to do a bit
of revival work in some of the deader churches, and we hope to visit some of the larger churches to
put the challenge of the Seminary before them.”
As they commenced the work, Paul admitted that they were timid at first because they knew the
strength of the communist infiltration, but as people came night after night in increasing numbers
and listened quietly, often for up to two h ours, they could see that God was at work. The message
they preached was not a popular one as they declared that man is lost and needs salvation, is dead
and needs life, is blind and needs sight, and is criminal and needs justification. They showed how
the commandments of God had all been broken and there was always a sense of deep conviction in
the hearts of the listening crowd. Prayer by people all over the world was manifestly being
answered, and the power of Satan who had held these people in bondage for so long, was being
broken.
In Paul Contento’s report after they returned to Singapore, he said that they held campaigns in
twelve new villages, using the public address system, a comet, bright lights and cheerful singing led
by one of the students who was “specially gifted to make a crowd sing”, they had no difficulty in
drawing large crowds.
Among the team of five, they were able to speak eight Chinese dialects and, for the first time,
Chinese people were hearing the Gospel message in their own language from men of their own race.
They began to realise this was not a “foreign religion” after all, but one which they desperately
needed. The faithful work done by our missionaries in villages with little or no response in the past
year, was now bearing fruit. In village after village missionaries began to see the breakthrough they
had longed for as people came to find out how to be saved, even after the evangelistic team had
returned to Singapore. Now that they believed, the question was, what next?
65
CHAPTER 20 BREAKTHROUGH!
This was the situation I came in to early in 1953. After that first Conference there must have been
many prayer partners all over the world who had taken the spiritual warfare going on in Malaya to
their hearts.
By the summer of 1953 we began to see that “the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong”.
In May 1953 Percy received a letter from Paul Contento in Singapore. Paul was working amongst
students in the Singapore Theological Seminary. He wrote to say that the Staff had had a meeting
recently and had asked him to lead a team of students during the four or five week summer vacation
into the Federation on an evangelistic tour. He said the purpose was two fold. One was to make
Christ known and the other to make the Seminary known. The team would consist of four Chinese
students who, between them, could cover all the dialects needed. “He pointed out that there was
“one Hakka, one or two Hokkien, one Cantonese and one who can speak Teochiu and Foochow as
well as other dialects!”
His letter continued, “We will be prepared to visit a number of CIM stations, for I feel that only
when there is a follow up work is evangelistic work really worthwhile. We will also plan to do a bit
of revival work in some of the deader churches, and we hope to visit some of the larger churches to
put the challenge of the Seminary before them.”
As they commenced the work, Paul admitted that they were timid at first because they knew the
strength of the communist infiltration, but as people came night after night in increasing numbers
and listened quietly, often for up to two h ours, they could see that God was at work. The message
they preached was not a popular one as they declared that man is lost and needs salvation, is dead
and needs life, is blind and needs sight, and is criminal and needs justification. They showed how
the commandments of God had all been broken and there was always a sense of deep conviction in
the hearts of the listening crowd. Prayer by people all over the world was manifestly being
answered, and the power of Satan who had held these people in bondage for so long, was being
broken.
In Paul Contento’s report after they returned to Singapore, he said that they held campaigns in
twelve new villages, using the public address system, a comet, bright lights and cheerful singing led
by one of the students who was “specially gifted to make a crowd sing”, they had no difficulty in
drawing large crowds.
Among the team of five, they were able to speak eight Chinese dialects and, for the first time,
Chinese people were hearing the Gospel message in their own language from men of their own race.
They began to realise this was not a “foreign religion” after all, but one which they desperately
needed. The faithful work done by our missionaries in villages with little or no response in the past
year, was now bearing fruit. In village after village missionaries began to see the breakthrough they
had longed for as people came to find out how to be saved, even after the evangelistic team had
returned to Singapore. Now that they believed, the question was, what next?
65
