Murud 2015 - During - Day 4

Saturday, 18th July.

Yesterday during the morning service, they had announced that there will be a service up at the peak of the mountain for those who are interested.  However, because they plan to start the service by 9am, the committee had asked only the fit, strong and able ones to go.  They did mention that even if your heart really wants to go, but your body is not able to, then better not go as they will be walking in a fast pace and the trail isn't an easy one.  One of the reason I wanted to go back to the mountain was to go to the peak; I did not go in 2013 and I don't know when I will ever climb up again.  But, even if I had really wanted to go, I knew that I would be slowing people down as I am not the ones in the "fit" category.  It takes about 3 - 4 hours (fit time) to climb up. So, even with a sad heart, I was at peace to let it go.  I decided not to do the climb.  Perhaps, another time, God willing. 

The mountain peak from afar

Lyd and Barb of course were all geared up to go.  Lis too wanted to go.  Rome was still thinking if she should go because she's got a sinus problem.  The night before, as we prayed, she received confirmation that yes, she should go.  Yeay! Praise the Lord.  Our super amazing "aunty" Mdm Maria of 55 years old too wanted to go.  I didn't have any doubt that she could, she's so fit even for her age!  So that's it, 5 from the team will go and the rest will stay on for service at the church site.

The group were scheduled to leave at 6am so Pastor Sabiyah and Ina' Martina got up really early to cook breakfast - Mihun nonetheless!!  The 5 had their breakfast, packed their lunches and left the house at about 5.30am.  We were supposed to have prayer together at 5.30am with the rest of the team, but because everyone had already started to go to the meeting point, the 5 were also kanchiong (excited?) to go.

After they left, the rest of us had our morning devotions at 6am and then had breakfast.  Once again we were at the hall by 7.30am.  Since there were not many people, Judith and the rest said they wanted to sit in the middle, but I was comfortable at the usual place so we split.  Soon after Aunty Sipai, Aunty Rangai and the rest joined me.  Never alone eh? :)

As we started the service, Cikgu Sang - the worship leader for that morning requested us to pray together to ask for 2 things - 1)  The manifested presence of the Lord and 2)  The orchestra of heavens to join us as we worship the Lord.  The first song we sang was "We bow down".  

I remember this song clearly because even as we just started to sing the song, everyone started to bow down and the manifested presence of the Lord came and filled the hall.  There were cries, wails, and total adoration of the great big God.  No one cared what others would think of them and everyone just worshiped, some even lay prostate in front of the Lord.  It was such an amazing time, I had not entered into that kind of worship for the longest time.  It was good to be back.

Spiritual feeding

The speaker for this session was Guru's Pudun Tadem.  He started of by saying that each of us need to know our "divine purpose" in our lives.  Many people don't know their divine purpose and are just wasting their life away.  Examples of people who knew their divine purpose:

Sarah - Her divine purpose was to give birth to Isaac, though she had to wait 100yrs but because she knew her divine purpose, she waited.  At one point, she even laughed at it. She laughed, but she believed.

Rahab - She was a prostitute.  But when she met the spies, she met her divine purpose.  She then became the linage of Jesus.  Men things she is purposeless but God had a bigger divine purpose for her.

Ruth - had a broken life, but met her divine purpose as she became the great grandmother of our Lord.

So, if we don't know what our divine purpose is, we need to ask God.  We need to know our divine purpose so that we can serve our generation by fulfilling the divine purpose.  We need to forget about how broken we are, how lousy we are and we need to believe that God is giving you His divine purpose.  We might need to wait for some time.  But God is more interested in our character than in our success.

Guru's Pudun then mentioned Jeremiah 47: 1 - 12.  He connected the many images of "water" or bodies of water to God.  To deep for me to jot here.  But one thing I caught is that to be in the river, means to be in God,  To release the rive means to release God.  The river that flows from the temple of heaven is flowing into the temple of our bodies (ref:  1 Cor 3:16) and will give life to anywhere that the river flows.  When the river flows into us, when we go into the world (ref: convention theme), we bring life to all who crosses our path.

He ended by saying that we need to choose our response well.  When Joseph faced all the trials, tribulations, sufferings, he choose to respond well.  He could have been bitter about his experiences but he chose to say "The Lord meant well and meant to prepare me".  Whatever we face in our lives, choose well. Choose right.  Choose the right responds.

Then, he said the River of Heavens is now ready to flow.  He called everyone who is ready to come to the altar.  He must have had visions to literally see this "river" flowing down.  As we prayed, sang and worshiped, one by one were slain in the Spirit.  No one laying their hands on anyone.  No "catchers", nothing.  One by one, Spirit filled, slain.  Once again, it's been a long time since I experienced anything like this.  Perhaps my heart has been harden, perhaps I have been too self conscious.  But that morning, I felt the Lords refreshing rivers flowing and I found peace in Him once again.

After the service ended, we went back to the house and we told Ina' Martina about it.  She then told us that it always happens that way when Guru' Pudun preaches because he preaches from his brokenness.  His son was found committing suicide (which in itself was questionable) and he took a long break to recover.  In this brokenness, he spoke that day.  Praise God for what He was, is, and will continue to do.

After lunch that day, the 5 of us (Judith, Mee Ting, Ps. Sabiyah, Jane and myself) went back to the church hall to pray.  A group of intercessors were taking a cruise down the Sarawak River in Kuching to pray for the state and the nation, so we too were going to pray to support from the mountain.  As we were going to the hall, we met those who were already coming down from the peak!  I was so excited to wait and welcome Barb and Lyd but we had to go pray first.  Hehe.  As we prayed, we could hear music (gongs, drums etc) from Rev. Pengiran's house as many gathered to welcome the ones from the peak.  Such a beautiful sound of rejoicing!

We prayed for 2.5 hours and then returned to the house.  The 5 who went were already there.  Praise the Lord for His coverage upon them.  They were all sunburnt though.  It was funny because as we had our morning devotions, only then Judith remembered that she was sunburnt when she went and yet she forgot to tell them that it was going to be hot up there.  Haha.

Them at the peak.  Good job guys!  Photo credit to Rome

We had dinner together and then proceeded to the hall for night service.  I bet those 5 were really tired as it was a really long service.  Eh, so weird, I can't remember to content of the sermon yet again! Haha.  They announce the head count that night.  It was 2084 pax!! Wow!!!! That is soooooooo amazing!! God is indeed great!

That night, I noticed this boy whom we noticed in 2013, because he had big camera on him and he was still a small boy then.  During the final night in 2013, he had brought some cans, had arranged them on the floor in the arrangement of a drum set and was drumming away!  He looked so familiar from 2013 and that night we sat next to each other. 

Lennon from 2013 - it was easy to recognize him as he had the same jacket.

Before long I was talking to his grandmother and after connecting the dots, I found out that his father is a friend from my dad's kampung!  Anthony Sia.  Such a small world.  He's about the same age as my brother and he was very good looking then. I was so excited to meet him again after almost 30 years but that night he was sick and did not come for the service.  Anyways, his 3 kids were such angels and it was a joy to be able to play with them.

Princess (I-girl) 8 y/o, Diantess (I-Honey) 7 y/o and Lennon (i-abang) 10 y/o.  Picture courtesy Rome.

Then we went back, had our hot drinks and devotions and we all settled down for the night.  Tomorrow is going to be our final convention day.  How the day seemed to fly by ever so quickly.