Posted on 3 Aug 2012 by Mark Leong
A year ago I had just finished my time with FES as a staffworker and was about to begin a new IT job while waiting for the opportunity to start as an apprentice with CERC. That opportunity has now arisen and I have left my job to pursue it.
Thankfully God’s preparing for ministry does not begin and end with the Ministry Training Strategy (MTS) programme that I’ll soon be on.
I am grateful for the past year spent working in the IT industry because it has helped me gain first-hand experience and a better understanding of the life of a KL worker. I now know the struggle of juggling a job as well as ministry responsibilities and the pressures of working under bosses and with colleagues whose bottom lines are their own career advancement and compensation. I’ve felt the lure of regarding financial stability as my source of comfort and the temptation to pursue respectability and the world’s approval by career advancement.
Working with an office full of non-Christians did give me opportunities to speak of the gospel with them, but it also revealed my own ungodliness. I thank God for the times when Christ was proclaimed, but my lack of evangelistic zeal taught me also of my own laziness and how I often fear man more than God.
The year working has also helped a bit towards raising funds for possible future theological education and contributed to the continued development of my IT skills, which are now being employed in the service of the church.
Apprenticeship for me will start in October. In the intervening months I will be working fulltime for CERC as the in-house IT guy. I’ll mostly be working on behind the scenes stuff like backup and archiving procedures, office processes and database management, as well as doing some work on the church website. I look forward to being able to use the gifts God has given me to help the church do ministry more efficiently. Please pray for me to be a good steward of the time and resources that I have at my disposal.
