EFC Leadership Summit 2010 I

Last February during the MLM class, Piek See urged all of us to make ourselves available on 23rd and 24th April to attend the EFC (Externally Focused Church) Leadership Summit. Having been in the class for more than a year, I was keen to have fellowship with other course mates from all over the country and listen to local and overseas servant leaders who were going to gather in Penang to share what they had been doing for their community.

Josephine volunteered to be in charge of our registration, accommodation and transport between Melaka and Penang for most of us who were going to travel by aeroplane. Min Toon also helped in arranging the transport from Melaka to the airport in Sepang for some of us. My only concern was to find a place to leave my car for two days. It was easily solved after I had checked with Albert P who said it was safe to park outside his house which was near the Ayer Keroh road and who was willing to drop me at the petrol station on the roadside so that I could hop into Dr Wong's car at the appointment time.

Ten of us went to LCCT (Low Cost Carrier Terminal) with two vehicles. We met Pastor Elisha Satvinder whose name had been made familiar to us by Pastor Richard and Piek See. He was going to the summit as a speaker.

It was the first time I took a domestic flight to travel within the Peninsula.

After flying about half an hour, we arrived in Penang. My fifth trip to this Northern state in Malaysia. A van was waiting for us at the airport to bring us to our hotel. On the way, the driver stopped at a hawkers centre so that we could have some local specialities for lunch.

As soon as we entered Paradise Sandy Bay Resort, an employee greeted us with a big smile,"Welcome to Paradise...". I imagined when I went to be with the Lord one day, an angel would also greet me, "Welcome to Heaven..."

After I left my bag in my room on the 20th floor, I had to descend quickly to Tanjung Room to help in setting our booth for the next day. I wished I had a moment to take a rest at the balcony

and start counting the number of nearby resorts which were also blocking the beautiful view of the Straits of Malacca.
Nevertheless, I managed to seize a ten-minute break later to take a sip of my welcoming drink at the pool side

and to fill my eyes with the beach where other carefree hotel guests, the real tourists, were enjoying their holidays in shorts or swimming suits.