We had no idea of its exact location. After Ray searched the information on the Internet and asked a nearby hotel reception, we found the place. It was on the second floor of the Cheng Ho Cultural Museum at 51 Lorong Hang Jebat opposite the Stadthuys across the Melaka river.
At the entrance of the exhibition hall, welcoming us was a banner with the verse from 2 Chronicles 7:14.
Grafic panels were tracing Melaka's link to the spread of Christianity in China. The first portrait we saw was Robert Morrison, the first Protestant missionary to China and who had translated the Bible into Chinese.
Most of the displayed documents, originally in Chinese, were accompanied by the English explanation.
At the reception, we were told that the guided visit was only in English and we were introduced to Bro Jimmy, the only Christian employee there, who was in charge of both the Cheng Ho Museum and the Christianity exhibition. We could sense that he was passionate about his job to present the history of the Christianity in Malaysia to visitors from all over the world.
This was no doubt one of the oldest copies of the Bible in Chinese published in Melaka.
The exhibition highlighted several great men of God who had faithfully served in the Chinese community.
Watchman Nee was one of them. To make his presentation lively, Bro Jimmy pulled out a piece of paper from behind the picture of this great Chinese preacher. It was a statement discovered under Watchman Nee's deathbed after his passing--"Christ is The Son of God who died for the redemption of sinners and was resurrected after 3 days. This is the greatest truth in the universe. I die because of my Belief in Christ."
The exhibition also showed various contributions the Christian religion has been playing in the social development among the Chinese in areas like schools, hospitals, children's welfare homes, etc.
I was attracted by a painting of Jesus and the Samaritan woman. The characters and the background looked so Chinese that had I not known about the story, I would have thought that it was an illustration from a Chinese classical literature!
After the detailed visit, we were led to another room to watch a short video.
Bro Jimmy who was filled with evangelical fervour invited us to have a seat at the cafe downstairs. He gave us each a very interesting article about how the Bible was related to China and proof of the worship of the Creator God in ancient China. Despite his English education background, he was interested to learn from some Christian publications about how the Genesis story was hidden within the ancient Chinese written symbols.
We spent another hour to continue our fellowship. Ray and I took it as a coffee and iced lemon tea break as well.
When we left the museum, our stamina was high again to explore the town!
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