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When I moved to Melaka middle of 2008, one of my ‘requests’ to God was to find a church where I could settle down. Settle down in the sense, know the people, be known by them, maybe contribute in small ways. Knowing Melaka was kind of similar to Alor Setar except bigger in town area gave me hope that I’d find similar fellowship as what I enjoyed in Alor Setar Wesley.
Added to the optimism I had was the fact that my house in Melaka was just behind a small Methodist church. The Taman Asean Methodist Church (TAMC). However, after a few months, I realised that things weren’t going very well in my quest to be settled in church.
My work schedule which involved frequent weekend trips away from Melaka meant that I had few Sundays to attend a Melaka church. Even when I did manage to return from outstation on a Saturday, it was very late at night and I’d be very tired and drained on Sunday morning. This sometimes translated to dragging myself out of bed, going to church (half asleep) and getting out of church the moment it ended. I reflected, what was the use of me attending church like that? I might as well stay in bed, and wake up later, and spend a restful day with God than going through the motions of church attendance.
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Another factor which got me stuck was that somehow, I felt that I should settle into TAMC, and this was just a few weeks into my move to Melaka. Why TAMC? I didn’t know. I just knew that I wanted to be in a small church. And this was a truly small church. Average attendance was between 30-40. The congregation consist mostly of middle age and older couples and families. Not many young children, one or two youths, and definitely no young working adult. I felt I made a mistake in coming to this church. How was I going to find some ‘support’ or ‘fellowship’ here? But I continued to attend whenever I could. For one year, my sporadic attendance continued in TAMC. I was near to giving up. After one year, I couldn’t say I knew the church members, and I’m sure they couldn’t say they knew me. I still arrived on time, and left on time!
Then in July 2009 (exactly 1 year after I came to Melaka), I went to church one day, and saw there was a new young couple! Chee Keat and Lee Mei were a recently married couple from KL who started coming to TAMC at the beginning of 2009. (Yes, in 6 months, I did not meet them, so infrequent was my attendance). Chee Keat was a student at STM and had been assigned to TAMC for training. So, every weekend, both of them would be in Melaka. Lee Mei was a USM graduate who had close ties with FES and this made a great start to knowing each other.
Within a few weeks, Chee Keat and Lee Mei had opened doors for me to get to know many of the church members, and also for them to know me. They helped me bridge the gap to TAMC and now, I can say that I do know them, and they do know me.
I thank God for sending this couple at a time when I was almost giving up on settling into a church. The timing for this was so narrow. Within 4 short months, Chee Keat and Lee Mei would be reassigned to another church. But in that 4 short months, they did enough to help me settle into TAMC.
I am humbled by God’s providence and timing and mercy. For meeting me where I was, for knowing how much I could take, and for finally bringing me ‘home’ to a “home-church-away-from-home”.
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