MTS

MTS (Ministry Training Strategy) has been very humbling. In ministry, we’re dealing with God’s word and sinful people both of which you have to completely trust God to work through his Spirit. I’ve also realised that before I went into full time, I was not doing very much but I thought I did. I was reading the bible with at least 5 people a week, sometimes it reached 10 and that was besides going to church and SoCMs and running bible studies on campus and studying medicine at the same time. But now, in doing this full time, I understand better what it means to be a Calvinist, to rely on God’s sovereign work on people’s lives and not do things in an Arminian way where things seem to be dependent on my own strength.

In MTS, I am leading an adult bible study on Thursdays and a tertiary bible study group on Saturday. God has been very kind to us in our GGs because we are learning so much from his Word. The adults are keen on learning the bible even though it’s odd, hard and new to some of them! Some students feel as if there is no excuse any more for sin and they are moved to living radically for Jesus.

I am also involved in the music ministry in my church. This has been a tough one. Who knew choosing songs would be so hard? I am also trying to brush up my piano skills so that I can play for church. I am very thankful for Joy who is the head of our music ministry in church and she has been teaching me so much about gospel faithfulness in music. Soon, she will ‘pass the baton’ to me to lead this ministry.

We have SoCMs (School of Christian Ministry) every Saturday mornings where we train our church members in ministry. I am leading a group in 2WTL (2 Ways To Live). This is my 3rd batch already and I am encouraged when I see many Christians understand the gospel with greater clarity and how this has caused them to be passionate for the gospel. Many of them are campus students and these guys are going around telling people about the gospel. It’s amazing.

I am trying to work on student ministry on campus. I am running a 2wtls evangelism course in a medical university and the response was very good. In fact, many who joined realised that they were not Christians initially but now they are after they understood the gospel. This always reminds me of the great need in the churches in Malaysia for God’s word, for his word of truth; the gospel of Jesus Christ. Almost all the ‘Christians’ I meet on campus don’t even know the Jesus of the bible which is very unfortunate and it burdens my heart to see them like this. I am encouraged all the more to train well for Christ’s sake that these may know that Jesus is Lord. I love these people and I thanked God that His Spirit is working in this ministry.

And soon our church will have a camp at the end of the year to evangelise to Non-Christian kids and I am very excited about that. I am giving 1 out of the 9 talks from the gospel of Mark and I’ll be leading bible studies every morning for 10 days. I need lots of prayer for this because working on the text takes time and I am running out of it. I need to be fit as well but my body has gotten weaker recently. So please pray for my health and strength. I’ll have to start working out soon for the sake of surviving in the jungle for 10 days with possibly 20 over kids!

And I am involved in GGF (Gospel Growth Fellowship) as well. GGF is a fellowship dedicated to growing evangelicals in the Klang Valley, put simply. Recently, I was running an elective on the Inerrancy and Infallibility of the Bible for Thinking Theologically Conference, TTC: the doctrine of the Word of God and I’ll be preparing 2 other electives in January: Worship in Music and Youth culture for Fellow Workers’ Conference, FWC in January.

Oh, one last thing, our church CERC just started on Isaiah and the GG leaders will have to write the bible studies. I’ll need prayer in this area to be faithful to the text and I need God to grant me insight to his words. I am struggling with this book and knowing how essential it is to understanding the gospel, I need God’s help.

And recently I got engaged to a wonderful girl, her name is Robyn and I admire for her servant heart. I truly thank God for her. She has gone off to Australia to continue her medical studies for about 3 years and we plan to have the wedding when she comes back. We decided to be engaged because we want to commit to this relationship. Our church has been a great encouragement and they will help hold us accountable.

Thank you for praying for me and our church. Come visit us!

In Christ, for Him and his gospel,
Jerome