MALAYSIA NATIONAL CONVENTION IN IPOH

From the outset, this year’s Malaysia National Convention (MNC) set itself apart from the ones that precede it for one obvious reason: Ipoh. To many, this was a good news simply because of the famous Bean Sprout Chicken Rice, one of Ipoh’s many iconic local delicacies. For others (particularly for organizing committee from Hope KL), the venue posed tremendous logistics and commutation challenges, though by now it is only right to compliment the committee for passing the test with flying colors. Nevertheless, there are so many more other reasons to remember about this year’s MNC: soul-stirring messages from the book of Joel that resonate with this year’s theme “Abundance”, tangible presence of God during the times of corporate worship, fresh bonding activities, show-stopping performances and … did I mention about Ipoh already?

For one, as this year’s MNC was opened with the blowing of seven shofars, signifying the arrival of the year of Jubilee, the first evening saw something unusual yet fitting to the theme of “Abundance”: an oriental-style roundtable banquet dinner, with thousand over of delegates feasting as one big family right in the hall. Later, as the congregation was enthralled by a jaw-dropping opening musical performance, and as Ps. Simon’s gave his opening message of warning and exaltation that called the church to be awakened to launch into abundance, the first day of MNC ended with a high note and left the delegates with a taste of what was to come in the following days.

Indeed, the subsequent day of MNC saw the blessings of God flew through in the form of powerful preaching by our invited speakers Ps. Jeffrey from Hope Singapore, whose lively and vivid exposition into the Word of God gave the delegates a refreshed perspective of what abundance in joy and provision could mean. The interest group activity was another bold attempt by the organizing committee aimed at teaming the delegates together based on their personal interest, so that brothers and sisters from different centers can spend an enjoyable afternoon bonding with each other.

However the momentum didn’t stop here but continued to build up into the Mission Morning on the third day, with a video about the past, presence and planned future of Hope’s mission field being shown. The preaching of Ps. Moses continued to instill within the hearts of people a sense of urgency and passion for the lost. After a heavy meal in the Word, the day was followed by a lighthearted session of novel and exciting “60-second games”, before it kicked start the language group sessions which allowed the respective leaders to speak specific messages of encouragement to their homogenous groupings. And at night, when it appeared that the third day would close satisfyingly with Ps. Denis’ relevant and insightful teaching about abundant Christian living, a special closing performance featuring “Oppa-Jesus-Dance” almost brought the house down with its over-the-top dance move and creativity. It was explosive. Period.

After the final session on Sunday morning, which featured Ps. Simon’s closing message about the abundance of Holy Spirit, of miracles, of revivals, this year’s MNC surely left a feeling of “wanting-for-more” in the heart of many people. Indeed, the hope is that such desire for greater of God’s abundance would not die down after the MNC, but would be retained and carried back to the respective churches and centers, to ignite a new spiritual fire in both the church and local community alike, as we store up the harvest in preparation for the challenges to come.

Written by Han Wah Chew