Opening Of The First Harap Learning Centre In Malaysia

Last April during the EFC Leadership Summit 2010, I was very touched by Ps Elisha Satvinder's testimony. Founder of the Harvest Centre in Sentul, Kuala Lumpur, he and his team have been serving the community living in poverty by providing them with free medical check ups, grocery support, home repair, counselling and educational programmes. Their great work has inspired many.

Later in one of the MLM classes in Melaka, Ps Richard presented Projek Harap, a project which provides pre-school education, meals, support and a place of rest for the children of the poor throughout Malaysia, regardless of their ethnic groups.

Two months ago, Dr Wong talked about a Malay Sajar's family in the flat where his clinic is operating. Piek See mobilised us to do something for this family who were living less than 1km from where we had been gathering twice a month to learn the servant leadership since 2008. As a result, some of our classmates volunteered to spring clean, paint their house which was in an abominable condition and shift in new furniture and household items on the Merdeka holiday. Hosting the Calvary Care Home retreat at my house, I was not free to join these wonderful people whose physical efforts transformed every corner of the house. As Hari Raya was approaching, Mr Ee's family were in charge of bringing SJ's family members with two cars to shop for new clothes, an activity which was totally unknown to the children who, according to Mrs Ee, expressed their joy on their excited faces.

Giving hope to a family in need, Melaka also pioneered in the first Harap Learning Centre in Malaysia. The fact that the centre would be located in the same flat as SaJar's family made it more significant. I was not directly involved in the preparations of this opening. I only remembered Ps Richard had announced that it would take place on the Sunday 10th Octobre and he was expecting that the fresh paint would be dry by then. So I offered to take photographs of this event and thought there would be an official invitation via email.

Last Sunday after the church service, I sent the Calvary Care Home(CCH) boys back as usual. As two of them were down with fever and the home administrator had not fully recovered from nausea, I stayed back with them until our weekly meeting was over and they started to rest. Then only I abandoned them temporarily to go to the event. I had left my hand phone behind in my house that morning, so I could not contact anybody to find out the exact time and venue. After I parked my car in front of the flat at Bukit Baru which was about 3 minutes' driving distance from CCH, I just prayed that the Holy Spirit would guide me to the place. As I trotted towards the back of the building, I saw a Malay man sweeping the floor outside a shop lot. I walked towards his direction and that was it!

Besides Ps Richard and Piek See who came down all the way from Kuala Lumpur, Mr and Mrs Ee, Dr Wong and two other persons were seated around a table since 2pm to discuss about various tasks to be carried out or followed up before the centre would be fully operational.

Two, three children were playing in the centre as well. Later, I was told that they were from SaJar's family and the man earlier was their father SaJar!

The meeting was already towards the end. After 15 minutes, Ps Richard and Piek See were leaving to pay a surprise visit and give some encouragement to the volunteers who were dutifully helping in the voters registration at Dataran Pahlawan. I went back to CCH to be with my other God's given family.

It had been a simple opening to make the community aware that there is a group of God's servants who genuinely care for them.

I am very blessed and honoured to be part of this team to continue to bring hope to people whom God loves as much as He loves me.