Lord Our God Almighty ? Yes, he truly is a real God who is mighty and never fails me even though I've failed Him many times. I was thinking of my days when I was staying in Banting and the church I attended. Indeed He has blessed me through this church and now that I've moved on to another church since 2001 as I'm living in Subang Jaya now, He is still good and taking care of me and my family here.
I've been to Sunday School since I was young. I think I was about 6 or 7 years old when my mom's friend Auntie William was a Sunday's school teacher and she will go around Taman Seri to pick up all the children with her old but big mercedez Benz car to church. I remember all of us maybe 10 children have to squeeze into her car. I have always enjoyed Sunday School because of the singing and story telling. Thanks to her I was brought to church and was taught about Christ and how he died for me on the cross. I practically grew up in Banting Chinese Methodist Church. I've learned a lot of things from this church be it spiritually and to be a good person in this society.
Talking about Sunday school, I will always remember Mr. Lim Kim Chai story telling. Every single child will get excited when he starts to tell stories. Every kid would love to listen to him as he is able to get our attention and he is very expressive. He is indeed a very good teacher and a devout Christian. Then there is the handcrafts which I always liked. I was always slow to finish the crafts as I was too careful in doing it and wanting it to be perfect. Guess till now I have this character in me.
MYF was my next stage. Stands for Methodist Youth Fellowship. Had a lot of fun with my close friends Timothy William, Michael William, Hock Wah, Lee Ping, Patrick, Jerry and many others. I started to play the guitar from the MYF. We always had fun together when we have singing competitions and other activities like bible quiz and table tennis. Was never good at the quizzes. My cousin Mona will always win the bible quizzes . She's now one of the advisors for the MYF. However, I'll get very excited when it comes to singing competition. I would be very busy practising, helping others to play until I took my sis for granted. She would get very sad as I didn't practise with her. I've always been very sorry to her about this.
Before I knew it, I was already in university for 5 years. After graduating, I worked in Toshiba which is near Banting. I still attended this church and I taught in the Sunday School. But it didn't last long as I wasn't good at teaching and catching the kids attention. I wished I was like Mr. Lim the great teacher. Anyway I joined the choir and played the piano. Rev Peter Hong was pastoring the church at that time and his wife, Mrs Hong was leading the choir. I had many good memories with the choir group and also with Mrs Hong. Once a month the choir would give a song presentation during the Holy Communion. I always love the practices on Sunday nights. The boys would always be sitting behind and not concentrating and Mrs Hong would get angry sometimes. I guess boys will be boys. Oh well! Anyway, she's always close to all of us and a good teacher.
Rev. Peter Hong then was transferred to another church in PJ and Rev Lee Huck Tee replaced him . Sister Phaik Hwas then took over the choir. Thereafter, I took over from her as she was very busy with other church activities. I think that was in 1995 if I'm not mistaken. I recalled that I was very nervous when I first started teaching the choir. Every week I would get anxious and I guess I didn't really do a great job when I look back. I always prepared the songs last minute and the choir members would have to suffer trying to learn the songs as fast as possible. I would always seek sister Phaik Hwa for help and she is very helpful to me. I was always shy to conduct the choir during the presentation and all this while sister Phaik Hwas would be the conductor and I would be behind controlling the mixer. Sometimes, I would be behind the sanctuary trying to conduct the choir as I do not want to be seen. I always said to myself, " What kind of choir master am I?" I should have stood in front of them to conduct or guide them but my shyness always gets in the way. I love the choir a lot though I always find it hard to control the members. I always love to get new songs and immediately I would listen to the songs chosen and do the minus one accompaniment for it. I would spend hours doing the song sometimes till the wee hours in the morning. We would have presentations on musical nights to evangelize to the non Christians in Banting, Easter day, Chinese New Year, Christmas, weddings etc. All this brings sweet memories. I still have the audio recordings of the musical night. I'm trying to get back the video and if possible, remaster the audio sound and post it here. Really miss those times a lot.
Another thing that I miss is going swimming in Morib at night. I remember Voon Li (nickname Li Chai) who is a good swimmer and has the pass to the Morib swimming pool. Almost every week, Voon Li, John, Voon Ling, Sharon, Amelia and myself would go down to Morib to swim. I would drive my proton iswara and go there for a swim at night. It's very relaxing to swim at night. It was fun.
Banting Chinese Methodist Church will always be in my heart. It's a small church but all the members are very close to each other. We always work together, care for each other spend time together. One thing I miss is the supper time together at the mamak stalls.
I thank God for bringing me to this church. Now that I'm in Pantai First Baptist Church, He is still with me because of his love for me and because He is the Almighty God. While thinking of His goodness, I wrote this song to dedicate to Him.
Well, that's all for my short story about Banting CMC
Hirohiko
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