New Year Dinner

I longed to invite Ps Albert's whole family for lunch or dinner. His wife Hanny was supposed to land on the Peninsula with their daughter Farrah and youngest son John on the 15 December. I was excited to call him up to fix an appointment, only to learn that his loved ones had not yet arrived because John was sick.

Later when I met Ps Albert in person, he explained to me that John had been infected with chicken pox just a few days before their departure and was recovering. When they were about to board their plane in Sandakan, one of the airline officers noticed spots on John's skin and prevented him from taking the flight. The mother and the sister had to stay back with him and AirAsia agreed to let them fly another day without extra charge.

It was very dramatic. But thank God that the relatives who were seeing them off had not left the airport. So, Hanny and the children were able to follow them back with all their luggage and stay in their house temporarily while waiting for their next flight. They also managed to inform Ps Albert before he started driving to LCCT to pick them.

None of them knew when exactly they could come here. All depended on John's condition and the available seats. After John had been fully recovered, they went to the airport, which was not too far from their relatives' house, almost every day to check if they had a chance to fly. Sometimes, only two vacant seats were offered and all of them had to go back with disappointment.

It was not easy to get tickets for the year-end school holidays, let alone one week before Christmas. But on 23 December, God did a miracle by giving them three available seats during the peak season! They were finally able to be reunited with Ps Albert, Mark and Sarah.

Instead of my original plan to invite them during Christmas times, I made it on the New Year night so that they would have had enough time to settle down. VC was my assistant cook that evening. We prepared fried wontons, chicken nuggets, a meat-ball dish and a vegetable soup.

After the dinner, we watched a film on DVD that was suitable for a pastor's family members --

Evan Almighty!

Watch Night Service

I had missed at least three previous watch night services at Calvary Life Assembly (CLA). I used to find excuses not to attend, when Jagan kindly offered me to go with her family and put up at their house.

This time, I really looked forward to it, even though I had to drive to church alone as VC was not feeling well and decided to stay at home.

When I reached the main sanctuary hall, I went towards the seatings where most of the BM congregation was gathered. Ps Albert was talking to his wife Hanny. I wondered why he was wearing a polo shirt instead of a long-sleeved shirt and tie at that formal occasion. After he left, I sat between his wife Henny and Sarma who had had her hair newly permed and dyed light browned.

After half an hour's waiting, the light in the hall was turned off while a blue light was turned on at the stage. A man carrying a bag at his back appeared with a Winnie-The-Pool soft toy. I immediately recognized Ps Albert in his attire before Hanny realized that the surprise her husband had mentioned to her earlier was his acting at the opening of the service. He was playing the role of a Christian whose prayer time was always disrupted by entertainment and incoming phone calls. We were amused by his spontaneous speech and his funny facial expressions.

After that, the Tamil Ministry, the English Ministry and the Children Ministry presented either either dances or songs.

The highlight of the service was the drama based on a true story by the BM Ministry. It was about a tribe of aborigines who used to eat human flesh until a child of theirs was very sick and later was healed by a missionary through his prayer in Jesus' name. The whole tribe thus abandoned their ancestral practice and accepted Christ.

I had assumed that Ps Albert would act as the missionary pastor, which seemed so natural to me. When I saw that he was playing the role of Satan with two red horns and small red lights flickering around his head, I burst into laughter.

I had known about the outline a week earlier through Ps Albert who was the director. At first, he had wanted to get me involved in the singing team in the drama to add a female voice. Due to logistic problems, finally Marten sang solo, which was a relief to me as I would not even be able to remember the lyrics of the song.

The drama, though a bit long-winded to some, gave a testimony of what had truly happened in East Malaysia. We praised the Lord that the Gospel was able to reach deep inside Borneo.

During the tea break, Ps Albert had changed into formal clothes. He was satisfied with the performance of his drama team despite the lack of practice. I teased him that he would be the next Oscar nominee for the best director.

Ps James gave a sermon during before a visual presentation of the review of the activities by the CLA throughout the year to recall our sweet memories. The midnight was actually over one minute when we began to count down. Then we shook hands and gave our new year greetings to one another .

The night of 31st December 2007, I was alone at home. This time I was overjoyed to spend the last moments of 2008 and the first moments of 2009 with my big family in Christ.

I thank God for sending me to the BM service where I got to know Ps Albert's family whose friendliness and hospitality reminded me of the Toitot's.

Dear readers, may God bless your new year with good health and prosperity.