XTRAORDINARY 16th Hope Malaysia National Convention

Praise the Lord for the 16th Malaysia National Convention (MNC)! Over 2000 people from Hope Centres all over Malaysia congregated in Kuching from 25-28 November 2011. The theme of this year’s MNC was XTRAordinary. Each day had its own theme based on the letters X-T-R-A. The themes for the four days were eXclaim, Upon ChrisT, Rise up and Advance. Indeed, it was truly an extraordinary convention for many of us!

Teaching

This time around, we were very privileged to listen to three anointed men of God: Pastor Simon Eng, Pastor Wilson Lim and our guest speaker Pastor Rick Seaward, from Victory Family Centre, Singapore. The main teachings for this MNC centred on the book of Ruth. We started the first lesson with Pastor Simon preaching about extraordinary beginnings where he stressed on getting our decisions right in the first place by seeking God. On the next day, Pastor Wilson preached on the extraordinary attitudes of Ruth: loyalty, a proactive spirit and courage, humility, diligence and obedience. This definitely made a great impact on the congregation as many of them responded to embrace the attitudes Ruth portrayed in the Bible.

However, it was during Pastor Rick’s preaching on extraordinary faith and going beyond the boundaries that truly challenged everyone to go further with God because He is without any limits. Boundaries come in so many ways and they can be good to a certain extent. However, if these boundaries become a hindrance that stops us from getting further in what we want to do for God, then we need to overcome that boundary. In addition, the illustration that Pastor Rick gave about Jonathan and his armour-bearer was another simple yet profound description of faith. It aptly described what extraordinary faith should be like when our faith is based on God. Praise the Lord for these wonderful speakers!

Connectivity Extraordinaire and Workshops

We also had Connectivity Extraordinaire sessions on the second day and workshops on the third day. These sessions aimed to target different groups, language groups and special interests such as interests in business, the arts and entertainment, etc. Some highlights for the Connectivity Extraordinaire were the meetings of the Malay-speaking and Mandarin-speaking groups from all Hope centres. It was the first time we carried out such language gatherings on such a large scale during MNC. They worshipped and prayed together, shared testimonies and heard the word of God. Other than language meetings, there were Connectivity sessions for those in worship ministry, youth ministry, for parents, etc. On the third day, there were mission-oriented workshops. We had various invited speakers such as Jason Wong, Pastor Samuel Phun, Juwita Suwito, Timothy Woo and Timothy Cheah. Their sharing aimed to teach and inspire people to bring the Kingdom of God into the sphere of their influence.

Praise Kids’ Club (PKC)

With all the spiritual input that the adults were getting, our kids did not miss out either! We are so grateful to Pastor Samuel Phun and his team of 39 people from River Community Church in Singapore for blessing the children with an awesome “Superheroes” program. This is the first time that we have had an external speaker and team for our children church! After experiencing the program on the first day, the children could not contain their excitement to join the next day’s sessions! Other than that, Pastor Samuel and his team also gave special training to our PKC teachers on the first day of the convention and gave them on-the-job training during the actual “Superheroes” sessions.

Other Special Events

There were also other special events throughout the MNC. The Opening Ceremony by Hope Kuching on the first night was a grand, colourful and energetic affair, which exclaimed the greatness of our God. The Pastors and Coordinators paraded in various traditional Malaysian costumes representing the many tribes and tongues in Malaysia; symbolic of our mission to make disciples of all nations! There was also the “Upon Christ” theme night on the second night and Mission Night the following night calling for God’s people to rise up. The special feature by Hope Kuala Lumpur on final day of the convention was simply extraordinary with an amazing skit on the fall of the wall of Jericho in line with the theme of the day, which was “Advance”.
Not to forget the various praise and worship sessions throughout the convention. This year, we really saw a maturing in the various teams and a rise in warfare anointing in worship! This is also the first time that we invited a guest worship leader and band to lead one of our worship sessions. Not only that, wonderful ethnic flavours such as African and Kadazan peppered our worship sessions.

We also organised a Forum with the theme “From Ordinary to Extraordinary”. The focus was on making a difference wherever we are. We interviewed three people from very different backgrounds and fields: Ps Wilson Lim, an Elder of HIM; Jason Wong, a Singapore civil servant); and Juwita Suwito, a Malaysian artist. The forum imparted bite-sized principles as well as real life testimonies that touched and inspired many delegates. From this forum, it became more apparent than ever that we could make a difference wherever we are with God’s leading.

Other than that, this is also the first time that we have organised a Mission Expo. It received positive feedback. It was colourful and lively, likened to a street carnival! Hope Southern Region won the well-deserved first prize for their truly extraordinary booth. Many people were moved to tears by the various video testimonies that were shown during the Expo. There was even a live Botswanian dance performance.

The Best Is Yet To Come

This was a convention of many “firsts” but it will not be so without our Almighty God. New ground was broken, walls were torn down, and the heavens were opened. It was an extraordinary convention because of the presence of our extraordinary God! The convention may have ended but our faith journey with God in our mission to fulfil the Great Commission is not over yet! The best is yet to come! Amen!