March 2011

Dear friends,

We kicked off 2011 by having our our 3rd CERC camp on “Wisdom” in February. It was really enjoyable spending 4 days away with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Many were challenged as to whether they were living wisely or foolishly whilst others were rejoicing to see God’s wisdom shown in the cross. I was personally reminded of the importance of fearing the Lord, of seeing God’s wisdom in His Scriptures, and of loving God’s church more. Some have since made some important decisions in their lives which has resulted in them honouring the Lord above living for themselves.

One of our camp highlights was in seeing 3 of our friends confessing their allegiance and trust in Christ by getting baptised at a nearby waterfall.

Our 1st Little People for this year (which is our evangelistic kids’ programme for unchurched children & families) was held during the school holidays in March. We moved the location from our house to the church shoplot, which provided more room for the increased number of kids who came (see picture above). It also gave the parents an opportunity to see where CERC meets every week.

The Mums & Bubs group that I run every Sunday morning (see picture on top) has been going well. It’s been really encouraging to sit under God’s Word together with these women and to see the Lord challenging and changing us by His Spirit.

This year, we’re hoping to run “Women encouraging women” (WEW) a couple of times to help the women @ CERC live godly lives as they serve alongside their brothers-in-Christ. Do pray for me to find the time, strength and wisdom to do this admist taking care of my own family and watching over the Sunday School and music ministry.

On the family front, all 3 kids are in school now. The younger two are enjoying kindy whilst Ilona still struggles in Chinese Primary school. However, we’re thankful for a few friends at church who’ve been helping her with the language as well as a tutor who comes once a week. She knows and speaks much better Mandarin than me! Pray that she’ll persevere.

This year will be quite busy for Robin as he’ll be speaking at 3 conferences run by Gospel Growth Fellowship (www.gospelgrowth.com.my) besides his weekly ministries. Please pray for strength, wisdom and perseverance for him as he leads CERC and trains others to shepherd God’s flock.

Thank you again for all your support and prayers for us. Please pray particularly this year, that God will provide for us financially so that CERC can continue, God willing, for the years to come. We’ve been encouraged to see some amongst us committing to do full time ministry, whilst the members at CERC labouring in love with their many responsibilities to serve God’s church. We are still hoping to move into the new shoplot by Aug 2011 where we’ll be able to house our MTSers (our apprentices in training), to accommodate more people on Sundays, as well as allow more capacity for the current ministries to grow.

Do come and visit us on Sundays @ 4.45pm if you’re ever in KL / Bandar Sunway.

Your partners in the gospel,
Joy, Robin, Ilona, Ally & Laty.

(ps. The little boy in the picture is from our Sunday school. He decided to join us for our family photo :-))