Christmas with the Community - TOP Style

What do you get when 15 people in a condo woke up at 5.30am on Christmas day and started getting ready for a very special Christmas event? Well, surprisingly, you get quite a chaos but orderly chaos of fun, laughter and comical goodness.

That's what we had when we got ready to serve in Tabernacle of Praise, Penang - Christmas with the Community 2010 event.

It was a glorious and beautiful morning and I believe God must be smiling on that special day. As we arrived at the church, we immediately had praise and worship session, prayer and devotion for the day before we serve the community.

It was a great opportunity for all of us to sample a taste of what a good, vibrant, caring and community-conscious Penang church can do to impact the society and the community. For far too long now, friends have only listened to the stories I tell them of the very heart of this wonderful church but that day, my friends could actually feel the heart of this church and serving the Lord with their hearts bare out. In our status conscious churches today, it is not easy to see the humbling of the leadership, but in TOP church, it is a joy and privilege for me and my friends to be able to serve the Lord in such a capacity and to see deacons/board members together with their leaders working their hearts out to serve the community, pushing out dumpster after the event or even serving in stalls and helping out the elderly with humility and heart.

My team and I were assigned to registration counter and I must say, everyone did their work nicely. Just pause for a minute and think this : Here are 13 people from Melaka who knows no one at all, manning the front of the event and doing the registration - serving with all our hearts To me, that is God's miracle indeed.

My friends did not know who were the church members except for Vive & Sathy, BA & Jessy, Kuna & Cheng, Pst. Gideon and who were the public but somehow, we managed to get everything done smoothly without a hitch and getting it done with a big smile on our faces.

With our southern Hokkien accent, it was easy to spot us out immediately but God made it all work out just fine. It is really amazing indeed.

I guess, I am thankful that as we started the day with the Lord's prayer at the sanctuary and later on, carrying out our works, we begin to see how God unravel the day for us to see. All of us were so blessed to see a team of 14 hair stylist coming full force in cropping the hairs of the elderly and the needy. Then, there were food galore and games stalls for everyone to enjoy. There were ample of food and gifts while the atmosphere was an eclectic atmosphere of love and fun. There was blood donation campaign [ Jason, Shirley, LG,Errol, Jessica and myself took part in blood donating process ] , health screening and children's coloring competition. There were also cash donation, food stuff presentation and free school clothing donation events which was attended by YB Jeff Ooi and YB Quek. It wasn't so much for the attendance of these so-call big shots but the biggest big shot of that day was Jesus.

I am really blessed by the entire events that took place. I am even prouder of my friends and our children who participated in serving in the registration and games counter. One could easily count out the cost for holding such an event but I want to tell you this simple fact that will knock you off your chairs today.

The fact is that there is absolutely NO CHARGE for members of the church and the public to come for this event. Meaning, it is a FREE OF CHARGE [ FOC ] event for EVERYONE. The church through her congregation paid every single cost for the entire running, feeding and blessing the community project! I am so thankful and I continue to pray that God would continue to pour in the showers of blessings unto this church as they take on more community projects beneficial to the community and society as a whole. This is the heartbeat of God - not fattening the coffers, not benefiting just a few influential people, not making a name for themselves , not having more fixed deposits or even sell coupons for the projects!

My friends and I together with our families traveled well over 500 kilometres to learn this lesson of humbling to the heartbeat of God. I can safely tell you this fact that there isn't a single inch of regret, tiredness nor grumblings from all of us to come here in TOP, Penang and served with all of our hearts for this community event. In fact, it made us all believe that there are still hope for good men and women in our churches today who sees beyond the boundary of walls, money, fame and popularity in serving the heartbeat of God.

I guess, you must be curious what physical souvenir did they gave to us for helping out, in fact , to all their church helpers that day, right? Well, I got a TOP cap, a TOP towel, plentiful food and drinks and a whole load of wonderful memories that would last me a lifetime which is actually more than what I'll get from where I come from! The best part of all, it is all FOC! I am so very blessed indeed. Wouldn't you be if you are in my shoes?~