Christians, Unashamedly Ethical and Malaysia - an update

Controversy in Mayasia - update:  In this morning’s newspaper the language is softening and the integrity of original reporters is (rightly) being questioned. Please continue to pray for peace and truth.

You can read the article that was on page 3 of The Star by following this link.

Steve flies home this evening and I will be leaving tomorrow morning.  We are pleased to say that the local community has established some wonderful structures to see values, ethics and clean living roll out in Malaysia.  We had an incredible time and met some of the most amazing people!

I can't wait to be back in October to speak at the Alpha / Marketplace Ministry conference... Let's hope they allow me into the country! If not, it won't be the first time I've been refused entry. In 2003 I was refused entry into the USA and last year I was not allowed to travel to Lebanon.

The two following quotes spoke strongly to me about being a witness for Christ in such situations. Certainly we have faced nothing compared to these two great witnesses for Christ, but their testimony has offered me great encouragement!

"I don’t preach a social gospel; I preach the Gospel, period. The gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is concerned for the whole person. When people were hungry, Jesus didn’t say, ‘Now is that political or social?’ He said, ‘I feed you.’ Because the good news to a hungry person is bread."

Desmond Tutu

"Even when they call us mad, when they call us subversives and communists and all the epithets they put on us, we know we only preach the subversive witness of the Beatitudes, which have turned everything upside down."

Oscar Romero

Grace and peace from Malaysia!  Tomorrow I will be in Hong Kong.

Unashamedly Ethical and the controversy in Malaysia - please pray!

Since our arrival in Penang a furore has erupted over Unashamedly Ethical in Malaysia. In fact, this morning the Prime Minister of Malaysia commented and it made the front page news of The Star newspaper.

He said:

JAKARTA: Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has called on all groups to calm down and stop exploiting the issue of a purported attempt to make Christianity the official religion of the country. Religion, he stressed, was a sensitive matter and that he did not want any religion-related debate to create tension among the people. “Cool it and calm down until we find the facts. It is not going to be of benefit to anyone. “Whoever it is, whether they are opposition or pro-government, they cannot and should not exploit this issue,” he told the Malaysian media at the end of the 18th Asean Summit yesterday.

Please see the rest of that newspaper article here. We have since departed from Penang and are back in Kuala Lumpur

What is certain is that the accusations are not true. Our intention is to bless the nation of Malaysia, to pray for her leadership and to see ethics, values and clean living established in greater measure among her people and leaders.

The security police have been asking questions, visiting locations we have visited and spoken at, and are looking to question some of the local hosts of our events.

What I do know is the promise of Romans 8.28 "In all things, God works for the good of those who love Him". Please pray for our local hosts, the thousands of new signatories to Unashamedly Ethical here in Malaysia, and for us!

Here is the story from yesterday's paper:

KUALA LUMPUR: A meeting between the Penang Chief Minister and Christian leaders has turned into a controversy with claims that the participants discussed making Christianity the official religion. The meeting was front-paged by Utusan Malaysia which quoted two blogs making such a claim. However, Penang CM Lim Guan Eng dismissed the report as a fabrication. He described such irresponsible reporting as playing dangerous politics. The DAP secretary-general said the party would lodge a police report against the daily over the matter. “We have never asked for Malaysia to become a Christian, Hindu or Buddhist state,” Lim said yesterday. The organisers of the meeting were the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship, Global Day of Prayer, Marketplace Penang and Penang Pastors Fellowship. They, too, denied the claims, saying: “The Christian community in Penang is disturbed by the unwarranted and unsupported claims. “The seminar was organised to discuss and address the issue of bribery and corruption in the marketplace and had nothing to do with political succession.” Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein has described the purported meeting of pastors as serious. He said any action by followers of a religion would invite reactions from followers of others. “The status of Islam as the official religion is sacrosanct and can never and must never be questioned. “The police must investigate whether or not such a meeting took place and whether or not this movement is under way. “Such a movement is seditious and places the entire country in danger,” he said. Deputy Inspector-General of Police Datuk Khalid Abu Bakar, however, cautioned the public from playing up sensitive issues. “Don’t play with fire, or you might end up being burnt. We will not allow people to deliberately exploit this issue,” he said. MCA Youth Chief Datuk Dr Wee Ka Siong described the report byUtusan as provocative, saying the newspaper should be more professional in its reports and not base them on blog posts. Party presidential council member Tan Sri Dr Fong Chan Onn said there was nothing wrong for religious groups to meet with political parties. “MCA can meet with Christians, Muslims and members of other faiths.Utusan should not impute any religious motives,” he said. Anglican Bishop of West Malaysia Ng Moon Hing said Christians had never challenged Islam as the official religion and had no plans to do so. Police reports were also made by Malay and Muslim rights groups Perkasa and Pembela, urging authorities to examine the validity of the article. “This has to be investigated. If this is true, we have to be careful,” said Pembela president Dr Yusri Mohamad.

With rich blessing from Malaysia!

Penang - wonderful people, a beautiful place!

Last night Steve Johnstone (from Unashamedly Ethical), Pr Looi Kim, Eugene and I arrived in Penang. It is a beautiful Island in Malaysia.

We were met by members of the Marketplace Ministry committee (isn't it great that they have an organised committee to encourage, support and develop marketplace ministers?)

Over the next 4 days we'll be speaking at various events with Pastors, Marketplace Leaders, Local politicians, and then on Sunday we'll be preaching various Churches. In particular we shall be launching Unashamedly Ethical, and talking about the critical relationship between Pulpit ministers and Marketplace ministers for Transformation.

Please join us! If you're looking more information please visit the NECF website.

I would also appreciate your prayers for Steve, myself, the local team and all of those who will participate! Transformation is God's desire, and God's idea. Let's pray that together we can take another step within His will!

I took the picture in this post when I got back from my morning run along the beach. It is a beautiful place! It reminds me a little of the Strand back home.

Transform your work life! Turn your ordinary work day into an extraordinary calling!

This morning I will doing one of the keynote talks at the Malaysian Unashamedly Ethical conference in Kuala Lumpur - I'll be focussing on one of the places that is least dealt with by the Church. The reality is that,

98% of Christians are not prepared for 95% of their working lives.

In fact, I'll be speaking about how we can focus not on the 24 hours of the week that most Churches make their primary work - I'll be talking about the other 166 hours of the week, one of the least reached places on earth - the 9 to 5 window!

I'll upload my slides (and hopefully some audio) here as soon as I am able to.

In the meantime if you're interested in reading a number of posts, insights, and some encouragement to help you transform your ordinary day into an extraordinary calling, then please scan through a few of these posts.

CanaanLand publishes 'Transform your work life'

My friend Larry Lee did such an awesome job of publishing our books, Transform your work life' and 'Not by might nor by Power' in Malaysia!

They look great and feel fantastic - I bought a few copies to bring back to South Africa. The copies on the left of this picture are Malaysian. Super!

Thanks Larry!

To order copies of the books in Malaysia please visit Canaanland here.

Prayer and the Bible / Prayer and the Holy Spirit - notes and slides from the Methodist Prayer Convention in Sibu Malaysia

I had the privelage of doing two of the plenary talks at the Methodist Prayer Convention in Sibu, Malaysia, yesterday.

Some of the participants in those talks asked for copies of my notes and the powerpoint slides.  Unfortunately I cannot access my FTP server from the Hotel, so I've uploaded the notes to my dropbox folder and shared the files - I'm fairly certain this should work.  The PowerPoints are about 2.5MB each and the PDF outlines of my notes are only a few hundred KB.

You can download these files from my Dropbox folder by clicking the links below (you will just need to set up a free DropBox username and password in order to get the files).

• Prayer and the Bible (notes outline and powerpoint slides)
• Prayer and the Holy Spirit (notes and powerpoint slides)

If you have any problems downloading the notes please drop me a line and I will try to get them to you by another means.

God bless,

Dion

Day 2 of the 2011 Methodist Prayer convention in Sibu, Malaysia

Last night more than 3500 people packed the main hall of the Kingwood Hotel conference center for the opening of the Methodist Prayer convention. Bishop Hwa Yung and Graham Power spoke about the global prayer movement. What was most significant for me was the 'concert of prayer' in which the entire gathering prayed together around critical issues in the world for almost an hour!

Today we continue with the conference. I shall be speaking at the Tamil Plenary sessions at 9.00 on the Bible and Prayer, then Graham and I speak on Unashamedly Ethical and Transform your work life over lunch to a group of 400 business people, after which I will speak at the evening plenary on the Holy Spirit and prayer.

Thank you for your ongoing prayers for us.

Please could I encourage you to pray for the people of Syria today - they are facing extreme oppression as they protest for democracy. Also please remember our sisters and brothers in the United States of America who have faced the ravages of nature as tornadoes devastated parts of the South.

Speaking in Kuching Malaysia

We had a wonderful response from our friends in the beautiful city of Kuching in Saruwak. Here you'll see a picture of the city from the air, and a picture of Graham Power speaking on Unashamedly Ethical.

Arrived in Sibu

I'm pleased to say that after 5 flights we have arrived safely at the Kingswood Hotel in Sibu where we will be speaking at the Methodist Prayer convention at the invitation of our friend Bishop Hwa Yung.

It is wonderful to be here! I last spoke at the 2007 Methodist Prayer convention which was held in Kuala Lumpur. In total there were about 3500 people at that conference and close to 13 000 people at the Sunday event. They are expecting similar numbers this week. (PS., I loved seeing these brightly coloured chairs on our last flight from KK to Sibu).

Graham and I will have to be clear and brief since our talks in the plenaries will be translated into Chinese (so one's speaking time must be cut in half to accommodate translation).

Malaysia is a nation that seems to share so much in common with South Africa. We have a similar Christian missionary heritage, both nations have a wonderfully colorful diversity of peoples! Yet both still struggle with ethnic and racial concerns, corruption is a huge national concern... Both nations are rich in human and natural resources. Yet there are problems with poverty.

It is our hope that as we a share with business people and Christian leaders on the Unashamedly Ethical campaign, and the Kingdom of God in every sphere of society - particularly as we've experienced it in the 'world of work' (see Transform your work life for more details) that we will be able to support the good work of the Church here. We want to encourage more fervent prayer, more courageous and sacrificial obedience to God's loving Kingdom, and the transformation of society. (The photo on the right was taken in the hotel lift showing a sign to the prayer room on the 5th level).

Of course the basis for everything that we do comes from the mandate for the Global Day of Prayer which has taken place in Malaysia since 2005 if I am correct.

If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways.  Then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land (2 Chron 7.14)

Please pray with us for this to take place!

The journey begins!

The first snow has fallen on the Hottentots Holland mountains behind our home in Somerset West - it is wet in Cape Town. But, I'm off to much warmer weather! By 3pm SA time tomorrow I would have reached my semi final destination Sibu in Malaysia.

I am missing my family already. However, I am filled with anticipation for what lies ahead over the next two weeks! Scroll down a few posts or do a search for 'Malaysia' on this blog for full details of this trip.

I'd appreciate your prayers for me, my family and our team.

Some more photographs of Cape Town for Jesus! Incredible!

A friend of Graham (Power), Leon Pheiffer, took some incredible photographs of the Cape Town for Jesus event on Monday!  It was such an amazing event.  take a look at these incredible pictures.

A picture of the the stadium at the foot of table mountain.

Each time that I see this photo I am amazed at how full the stadium was!  Because I was in charge of getting the speakers and participants from the VIP suite on the 4th floor down onto the stage on the sub basement I didn't get to see too much for the programme or people, these pictures give some idea of how many people attended Cape Town for Jesus on 22 March 2010! Incredible.

Thanks for the photos Leon!

Well, it is 2.30AM in South Africa, 8.30AM in Malaysia.  I had a great night's sleep.  Yesterday was a full day of meetings and speaking engagements.  I am always amazed at how excited people are to hear Graham and I tell the story of the birth of the Global Day of Prayer and what God is doing through our simple ministry in the marketplace.  Among those we met was Larry Lee - Larry thanks for your friendship!  I look forward to staying connected in the months to come!  In this photo Larry is 4th from the left (next to Pastor Andy who is wearing the purple shirt and Prof Tan in the blue shirt).

Graham's book - Not by Might, nor by Power (the story of the Global Day of Prayer) is a wonderful chronicle of how this prayer movement spread from the first stadium event at Newlands Rugby stadium (Cape Town) in 2001 to ever country across the world (all 220 countries), with more than 350 million participants, in 2009!  We met with the Global Day of Prayer in Malaysia central committee, then spoke at a Full Gospel Business Fellowship dinner in the evening.  At 11pm we came back to the Hotel and met Pastor Daniel Ho, the minister of Damansara Utama Methodist Church a Methodist 'mega-Church' in Malaysia.  He was such an encouragement.  A humble man with such a strong commitment to engaging all levels of society to see tangible transformation for the sake of justice, ethics, and the establishment of Christ's Kingdom.

Today we have a meeting with the National Evangelical Christian Fellowship central committee (NECF), then I will be meeting my friend Sivin Kit - the minister of Bangsar Lutheran Church.  I am so looking forward to that!  Then in the evening we shall be speaking to about 600 people at one of the large local Churches which Professor Malcom Tan (who I first met here in Malaysia in 2007) is an elder in.

I would appreciate your prayers for our visit here!  We still have two days before heading to Singapore and then Hong Kong.

A quick video greeting from Malaysia

I have two great benefits on this trip:

1.  I have free wifi access in the hotel!

2.  I am struggling to sleep!

So, I went to the gym early this morning and then recorded this little greeting when I returned.

Greetings from Malaysia! from Dion Forster on Vimeo.

Have a truly blessed day! I would appreciate your prayers for myself and my family back home.

PS.  If you think that there is something wrong with YOUR video don't worry! For some reason when I encoded the video it has only captured every few frames (so the video doesn't quite line up with the audio... No matter, it's only a talking head!)