I've been asking the Lord about my Christian heritage. My dad was the one who started my quest in a discussion we had some weeks ago.
My natural Christian heritage - as a 5th generation Christian on my dad's side, and a 4th generation Christian on my mum's side - is a rich one. I just discovered from papa's cousin, Uncle M, who's been doing a little research and has been visiting their "hometown" that the missionaries went there around 1870s. The churches there are usually more than 100 years old. I remember he said that there are more than 100 churches in the island. Our beginnings were humble - Uncle M said our ancestors were fishermen, who then became fishers of men. I think that's just wonderful...
My paternal grandfather was a pastor. In a way, my grandparents were also missionaries as they sailed from China when my grandmother was pregnant with her eldest son. My youngest grandaunt told me this: she remembered sailing with them and she was much younger than her eldest brother. She was probably only 4 or 5 years old then.
So was my granduncle, who was also the bishop of the Methodist Church of Singapore for 8 years, and he retired as Bishop Emeritus. My uncle (papa's brother) is a retired pastor in Australia. Another uncle (papa's cousin) is currently a pastor based in Singapore. Papa told me recently that he has at least 2 cousins who are pastors based in East Asia. Papa and Mummy were themselves short-term missionaries for about 3-4 years of their lives early this decade.
Uncle M said that he counted 12 full-time ministers in the our family. That's 12 more than i can account for. With 3 more in our family - me, hubby and brother (soon to be), there should be 15 altogether...
Kong Kong had an apostolic calling upon his life besides being a pastor. He built churches in Singapore, Malaya (as Malaysia was known then) as well as East Asia. Papa remembers five altogether: two in Sitiawan in Malaysai (Kampong China and Pekan Gurney), two in Singapore (Foochow Methodist church and Geylang Chinese Methodist church) and one in East Asia.
He was a visionary, an excellent administrator, a man of faith and prayer. His records of the many fund-raising efforts were meticulously maintained. He had a systematic way of recording prayer requests and thanksgivings. Given his contacts over so many churches in various countries, it was his way of ensuring that he prayed over their needs over time. He wrote requests on index cards and kept them in trays. Answered prayer was recorded at the back of the card and dated accordingly.
When i stayed over at his house during my school holidays, i could hear his voice mouthing prayers to the Lord too. You could hear his baritone voice booming in the church as he sang with the congregation. Having to raise a family of seven children, he always just had enough because God provided for the family even as he sought to extend and advance the Kingdom of God. His prayer life was disciplined and he had an intimate relationship with the Lord, who gave him a strong burden to build the church of Christ (through the building of physical churches, as well as edifying the body of Christ).
Mummy told me that Kong Kong had established prayer groups in many of the churches he pastored. These were mainly women as the men were mostly working. Powerful women of prayer who had results when they prayed. Some of them accompanied the pastoral team in their home visits and were instrumental in deliverance and salvation.
His testimonies of God's divine provision included money placed in his post box, an envelope filled with money thrown into the passenger seat when a motor-cyclist sped past his car (windows were wound down in those days as few cars had air-conditioning), members presenting gifts to the family.
Whatever finances they had, Ah Ma kept good records too, and they seemed to be able to stretch and provide for the family's needs, as well as meals for whoever was in the house as pastors, members and leaders were always dropping by for prayer and counselling or simply for fellowship.
Footnote: i received some input from papa's cousin, Uncle M, at a recent 10th wedding anniversary dinner that another uncle and aunty celebrated on 20 Dec 2007.
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