EFC Leadership Summit 2010 III

The next morning after breakfast, I had to quit my room and put my bag in another room booked by our Melakan group. When I went to the balcony with my camera, I saw my Jamaican MLM classmate Kayode from the next-door balcony on the left. He requested that I took a picture of him.

On the right, I could see the greenness of Tanjung Bungah.

I was fresh again to participate in the second day of the EFC Leadership Summit. An education panel discussion moderated by Dr KJ John was held during the morning session where Dr Lim Boon Hock, Philip Chua who was also Caroline's husband, Sister Mary Tey and Ps Phua Seng Tiong were invited to give a related presentation each based on the domain they were familiar with. I especially liked Sis Mary's reminder that we Christians need to be charged with God's Spirit every day like hand phones which need to be charged and recharged regularly.

Next, we proceeded to another room where we showcased our community services.

This E.P.I.C (Extraordinary People Impacting Community) group of young people were looking for franchise to set up voters registration booths in different cities. Despite his nationality, I got Kayode to be connected with the contact person so that we Melakans could also do something for our country.

The Kluang group who had taken three booths was very active.

They were running various centres and activities to reach out to the community.

Our Melakan "A CIKGU (All Children In the Kingdom of God United)" booth aimed at raising awareness about the mission schools which had been losing their influence among the present generations.

We returned to the meeting room to listen to the testimonies of four participants of the MLM class from different parts of Malaysia. Then a longer slot of time was allocated to Ps Elisha Satvinder who had been doing great community work in Sentul. He shared with us that as he was serving the poor, he understood the Gospel better. When we were watching a touching video which was portraying the children whose lives had been transformed by this loving disciple of Jesus and his team, YB Lim Guan Eng arrived without any protocol and later delivered a speech. This down-to-earth prisoner turned Chief Minister of Penang called himself a brother by faith and humbly invited the people of God to work with him to serve the Penangites better.

Dr KJ John then asked him three questions which he graciously answered.

When we were at the hawkers centre the previous day, Dr Wong had asked some hawkers their opinions of this new leader of Penang who originated in Melaka. All of them had expressed their satisfaction with the Chief Minister's performance and the new state government since March 2008.

The afternoon session was reserved for the EFC Conference where Ps Rick Rusaw and Dr Eric Swanson again gave us more insight of how to be relational and relevant to our communities as a church.

Lastly, Ps Richard closed the summit with his encouraging words

and all of us stood up to sing the newly composed theme song for the conference. It was about the transformation of our nation.

I did not have a chance to buy local products in the Penang streets. But I brought back to Melaka more meaningful things--a copy of Dr Eric Swanson's "The Externally Focused Life", two issues of "Asian Beacon", an E.P.I.C T-shirt,... and most of all the eye-opening experience to have met wonderful servants of God who had put aside their personal agenda to impact the people around them.

May we be a Church, a hope for the city.