this weekend, i am bringing my pastoral group of 7 students (and another student from a different group) for the annual mission trip to kuala lipis, raub and bentong. it has been a long tradition (and being the first to start this) for a stm lecturer to bring his or her group on a weekend mission exposure trip. i have been bringing different students through the years since 2000.
it has proven to be an eye-opener to many students especially about ministry in small town churches. they get to see for themselves what churches in such situations are like, get to meet church members who have to struggle week after week trying to maintain their small congregation and sometimes to ensure survival, and get to share and encourage the believers in these small towns not to lose heart but to persevere. the learning experience is such that it is a two-way sharing - in turn, the stm students learn about faithfulness and commitment from these church leaders and members, how to work week after week with just a small number and how God expects faithfulness rather than just producing spectacular results all the time.
work in such small towns are often stagnated or in the decline because of rural-urban migration. one of the key struggles is that these churches are always losing their youths and young people to the bigger towns. to compound to the difficulty, many of the older members also eventually leave these small towns to join their children in the bigger cities. hence, the migration cuts both both ways.
it has proven to be an eye-opener to many students especially about ministry in small town churches. they get to see for themselves what churches in such situations are like, get to meet church members who have to struggle week after week trying to maintain their small congregation and sometimes to ensure survival, and get to share and encourage the believers in these small towns not to lose heart but to persevere. the learning experience is such that it is a two-way sharing - in turn, the stm students learn about faithfulness and commitment from these church leaders and members, how to work week after week with just a small number and how God expects faithfulness rather than just producing spectacular results all the time.
work in such small towns are often stagnated or in the decline because of rural-urban migration. one of the key struggles is that these churches are always losing their youths and young people to the bigger towns. to compound to the difficulty, many of the older members also eventually leave these small towns to join their children in the bigger cities. hence, the migration cuts both both ways.
Comments
I think Kuala Lipis is a nice town to retire besides Taiping. The river patin is great.
we had a wonderful trip. will post some photos later.