“Do not look at man, look to God” seem to be the recurring theme at the belated welcome lunch for the new addition to our staff. There were three pastors and two lay leaders and I had asked them to give a helpful piece of advice to Ethel Shin the youth worker.
They knew that in her calling she would have to deal very closely with people. People of all sorts including leaders and pastors. People with different personalities, backgrounds, expectations and values about how to do church or be church. Some of them may be difficult to deal or work with. She would also know pastors and leaders who she thinks are good and godly, but as she gets near, and works with them, their imperfections will appear like cracks in the wall. She may get disappointed, disillusioned, hurt, discouraged or even worse cynical. Keep your eyes on the Lord, not on man.
Its good advice for everyone. The seeker searching for God. The searcher looking for a church community to call home. The faithful die-hard member and the active member serving in increasing capacities in different spheres and levels of involvement. The newly elected board member or addition to a leadership team. The new addition that joined a cell group. Keep your eyes on the Lord, not on man.
Someone said, There is a snake in every garden. We think the church is a garden and there won’t be any snakes in them. They are safe to walk, play and relax and lie down on. We leave our handbag around and $50 is missing when we get home. “I thought I have a $50 note inside, where has it gone?” Why should we expect the church to be full of Mother Theresas? The church is full of all kinds of people at different junctures in their journey and development. Even the Mother could be difficult for some to handle. The fall of man has its residue in the church and as long as there are people in church its good advice to look to God and not to man.
If we have to look at man, and Paul does ask his readers to follow his example, look at the positives, the praiseworthy, the good, the noble, the godly characteristics that we could be inspired, encouraged and blessed by. Look for the Christ in them and praise God that if we look with His eyes of faith and hope, we can see many encouraging signs of God’s transforming grace and love in them. Do not look at man, look at God, is good advice. And when you look at man, pay attention to how Christ has graced him with goodness and mercy.
The transfers are almost done and all the teams in the English Premier League have played three matches. Now is a fair time to make some predictions of the teams that will make it to the top six. Here are my predictions:
Champions: Manchester City will retain their title. Depth of the squad is a very important indicator of championship potential. The number of matches played by a club in the premier league is legion, more than any European league. Wear and tear, fatigue and injuries is not uncommon. Man City has the best squad. Their forwards are all fearsome internationals. No other team has as much firepower, or should I say, petro-power in attack, midfield and defence. Now with Tevez looking like scary demon he was before, I expect them to be the biggest goal-scorers. I think they will go beyond the Group of Death but not to the semi final stage of the UEFA Championship.
Runners up would be Arsenal. This is a surprise pick, ya? I think with RVP this team had a chance at being champions. But without him, they should be satisfied, indeed elated if they could grab a close second. Their defence is growing in confidence and if they keep being mean and stingy, they will lose less points to lower ranking teams. I believe all four cylinders will be firing consistently within a month or two. I hope to see Abou Diaby do a Van Persie this year – be injury free for one whole season and be a Goliath in the midfield, even as Carzola plays the Davidic part.
Third will be Chelsea because the midfield has been completely revamped and they seem to be already playing telepathically and creatively. Drogba is gone; Lampard is aging; Terry gets injured more often; and Petr Czech no longer seem unbeatable: change is in the air, and this means they will lose points. But I expect the the Torres-Eden axis to be toxic and hazardous enough to get them to third.
Fourth will be Manchester United. Rooney and Ferguson are not in bed together and this is disastrous. Furthermore, Ferguson keeps praising Van Persie to goad Rooney but this tactic may backfire due to the distrust in their relationship. Will their purchase of injury-prone Van Persie from Arsenal, become a 24 million dollar mistake they will regret? Probably, expect an injury to restrict his time on the field. Their midfield was the strongest in the league whenever they were champions and now it does not look as formidable and creative. In addition, their defence has been as injury plagued as Arsenal’s two seasons ago. Is Man Utd being in fourth position shocking? Yes it is. Fourth position will be the unthinkable torpedo that will sink the career of Ferguson……….finally. The hairdryer will move up to the boardroom, and Pep Guardalio will replace him.
Fifth will be Tottenham Hotspurs. They should have kept Harry Redknapp. Now instead of a man motivator they got in AVB, a player destroyer. But they have good players so a fifth to them should be worth celebrating.
Liverpool fans should take comfort that the painful change the team is undergoing will land them a creditable sixth this season, so they will get into the Europa Cup games in the next season.
You should disagree with all of the above if you are a real fan. Yes my predictions is more fire than cold logic. Of course it has to be. We are talking about the BPL not accountancy. Like to hear your predictions in the comment box.
It was planned a year ago and booking began in January. It was far from the two videos we saw on YouTube. The Trans Gopeng Cameron trek looked like a long walk in MacRitchie Park merely requiring endurance and a steady pace. Yes we were going to stay overnight in an “orang asli” attap hut deep in the jungle and that was touted as the only hardship. The trek was anything like the videos – and we soon found out why.
Gopeng Rainforest Resort
We flew from budget airport by Firefly to Ipoh. The hundred-seater propeller-driven plane got us there is just over an hour. We were served peanuts or cake and some juice. The Ipoh airport was small but it was being renovated. David and Janice Foon welcomed us there and we went to town for timsum and bought some supplies for the trek before heading for Gopeng Rainforest Resort.
Do not be fooled by the name. It was no resort. Basic facilities in what was once a durian plantation. However the hospitality and the food made it feel more like a home stay. Warm, friendly, helpful and patient and close attention to everyone’s needs, David and Janice did their utmost to make the stay as pleasant as possible.
Trek began at dawn
The next morning we woke with the dawn, got ready, had our breakfast and headed out in the dark to the orang asli settlement from which we would begin our trek. It was about 6am and each of us had our headlamps on. We would begin early with the first day’s trek of about 18 km up and through the Kinta jungle so as to reach the hut before it gets dark.
The Kinta jungle
The trek is not a well traversed one so the tracks were not well marked out. Without orang asli guides we would definitely have appeared in the Sun’s morning papers, SINGAPOREANS LOST IN KINTA JUNGLE, or something like that. More than once we lost sight of faster team members ahead and had to stay where we were, and wait till the guides who were behind with the slower ones reached us. Most times we re-grouped to keep all 14 together.
Bamboo groves, streams and leeches
At times it felt like Bukit Timah Hill, but for a few differences. One is that there were many streams to wade or step across. Secondly, there were many giant fallen bamboos across our route and we had to bow low with our haversack to get under and through them. If we had known we would have done more duck-walking for our preparations. Third, there were leaves, bushes, branches and grasses stroking and brushing against your arms and legs as you walked through. Fourth, there were leeches. No matter how we prepared ourselves against them, no defence worked: leech socks, salts, tobacco leaves, covering yourselves thoroughly. Everyone yielded some blood to those thirsty Kinta leeches. We feared them before the trek began; we no longer feared but hated them by the time it was over. Fourth, whenever we came across bamboo groves, we smelt the pungent urine boundary markers of wild boar.
We had been training on Saturday mornings for months with several prolonged outings which I usually missed because of ministry commitments. This preparation helped everyone. Quite a number of us have crossed the 50 mark. Others are in their forties. And just one in her thirties and one in his sixties. We have been together for some years so we were harmonious. We trekked regularly so we knew how to listen to our bodies and maintain a comfortable personal pace. We called ourselves “Easytrekkers” because we were kiasi, kiasu, kiabor and were easy with each other’s differences and peculiarities.
Back to basics in overnight stay
Reaching the orang asli hut at about 6 pm while still daylight was important as there was no electricity at all. A bulky solar power machine was meant to provide electricity but now stood sentry next to the entrance, a silent testament to miserable Malaysian maintenance. There were no proper toilet and bathing facilities. Toilet was anywhere in the bushes where you can find privacy. Bathing were two taps at knee height out in the open. One was made into a temporary hut with temporary walls from plastic sheets, so that sanitized Singaporeans who must bathe, can bathe. I just wiped myself up with a wet towel, and powdered myself generously army-style, and got ready for cup noodles and eggs for dinner, and got into my sleeping bag on the bamboo floor. Tired as I was after 12 hours of trekking in the forest, I could not sleep as well as I had thought I would. It was the same for others. I was later to appreciate the exquisite comfort of the bed and the warm showers in Ipoh’s Regal Lodge hotel.
Second day of trek – two steep hills
Dawn came but too slowly. Breakfast was two cups of cereals for me -those convenient 3 in 1 packets. Then everybody got ready. My socks could not dry in time and were still drenched (and I had forgotten to pack that extra dry pair), so I was thankful when someone lent me her black knee high football socks. Too bad it wasn’t Arsenal; but any pair of dry socks, even Man Utd’s one is better than a soggy one. By 8 am everyone was ready to go.
The second leg of the trek was devoid of leeches as it was cooler and higher. But the steep gradients of the two major slopes we had to clamber were challenging. One hit us immediately after we began. It was a clear path the orang asli used to get to civilization to buy their supplies but it was a steep 70-80 degree gradient and went on and on like a staircase to eternity. Then it was down again and an awkward climb upstream using both hands and feet to negotiate up a rocky stream for about 1-2 km. The final steep climb was sandy and required all our hands and feet and trekking sticks and the hands of others. We felt such a sense of relief, joy and accomplishment when we finally reached the top: marked by a concrete cement boundary stone and a sign showing directional arrows of the two states of Perak and Pahang. We lazed there for close to 45 minutes, just enjoying the scenery, the cool breeze and fresh air, and chatting about the tough trek and nice weather. I was praising God and just eating energy bars and nuts and chlorinated stream water for lunch. I thought, The worse must be over. It should be downhill from now on.
What a wonderful world, what a wonderful God
After a good rest we moved on or rather downhill to a more developed Kampong Ubi with nice low cost housing along a road that led to the Bharat tea plantation. We would trek all the way to the teahouse atop a hill offering splendid panoramic views of the tea plantation. When we reached the tea house it rained heavily. We gave thanks to God – it was not co-incidental that the two days trek was marked by wonderful weather; nor that two persons, Dave and Choong, iron man and trail runner, were there to join the trek and be such a help to us all. We had a nice cup of tea, were picked up by David and Janice, who then took us to Tanah Rata for a delayed lunch of banana leaf curry rice and naan. Then it was to Ipoh where 3 star luxury awaited us. Frankly, after the hardship of the trek, any hotel would be a luxury. Any warm shower would be a bath in Paradise. What an enjoyable and challenging trek! What a wonderful world and what a wonderful God.
It has been some years since I last went up to OMF Bungalow in Cameron Highlands. So I was glad to know that the last two rooms available in the bungalow were available for Koh Seng Chor, the pastor of Evangel Christian Church, and myself. My daughter wanted to tag along to have her prayer retreat so she had to share a room with me as there were no other rooms available. That would mean an inconvenience for prayer, but she’s my one and only daughter! It is always better to be able to pray, sleep and read anyway and anytime you want, and sharing a room with another restricts this to some extent. However, the Lord was kind, for as soon as we arrived we were told the good news that all three of us would have individual rooms to ourselves due to some cancellation.
Eat, sleep, pray, share
Most of the morning and night hours were spent alone in the room or outside, meditating and praying through Psalms 55, reading old journal entries, and writing new ones. On occasion Seng Chor and I would take relaxed afternoon walks in the cool Cameron air chatting all the way down to Chefu or Brinchang town, sharing our heart and telling grandfather stories, literally. My daughter, well, she wanted her God-space, so she was left alone except during meal times. Meal times were fun as we sat with and got to know some American missionary couples and Malaysian Chinese ladies who were also staying there.
Faded charm of the 60’s and 70’s
The food was warm and nourishing and the Cameron vegetables were fresh and deliciously cooked by Mrs Chye, the caretaker. The beverages and the superb cookies were free and available 24/7. The charm of the place is its tired and dated look – like going back to a warm and welcoming home in the 60’s and 70’s. This place was once owned by a Chinese businessman and built in 1933 before being bought over by China Inland Mission (now OMF), a missionary organization. While staying there you could fantasize that you were that tycoon, albeit only for a few days, enjoying the striking views outside your large garden and with your helpers cooking and cleaning your home, while you lounge around without a care in the world.
Touring around
My daughter and I went for a tour of Mt Brinchang, the mossy forest, and the BOH tea plantation. We also visited Brinchang town and Tanah Rata, and there being no place in the “inn”, we stayed a night at Strawberry Park hotel and had breakfast before we departed for home in the 10am bus to Singapore. We arrived home close to 7 pm on Friday.
Misplaced allegiance was a cause of divisions in the time of Paul and still is today. In the Corinthian church there were such divisions that Paul had to tick off the factions that competed with each other. “What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Cor 1:12,13).
As a result there was quarrelling and competition among the factions and like any father that would ache over his quarrelling children, so our Father’s heart aches over factions in the body. Misplaced allegiance shows symptoms such as the following:
-you distinguish and identify yourself from others by the name of a human leader.
-you compare those of your group with other groups and regard your group better.
-you regard the human leader’s teachings (rather than the overall teachings of scriptures) as the benchmark against which you evaluate other teachings.
-you give an allegiance to the human leader above your allegiance to Christ.
-you depend and put your trust in the human leader more than in Christ.
The solution is that in every church we give Christ the pre-eminence and centrality in our allegiance, our mission and our message. Filled with gratitude for the grace we have experienced, we give Him our heart’s full loyalty. We focus on the mission of preaching the gospel and keep our message focused on Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor 1,2).
