This year’s Combined Service was a rather intriguing and fascinating one, I must say. In conjunction with “Parents Day”, the committee came up with a creative theme that had the code name M.A.D (that is, MOM and DAD). Thus, everything revolved around this theme, and that involved agents, the CIA, spies, etc., more on that in a jiffy.☺
Our Sunday morning (May 27) was packed to the max with unique games and endless laughter. Some of us from the Penang side were involved with worship and some were ushers. My host was the head of committee for the games, I chose to help out with the game booths which means being there at 8am to set everything up before the crowd streamed in.☺
In order to make it fun, the games had a concept of their own, which was adopted from the ‘Minute to Win It’ game show. Every task had to be completed within the one minute time frame and for every task completed, we were awarded one chop, which would put us in the running for two special gifts - the “iSpy” iPhone cover which I thought was really chic (I know April had her eyes on it!), and an “invisible thumb drive” which wasn’t invisible at all.☺
Around
9:30am, with all the game booths prepared, one by one, people started streaming
in. With the relaxing surrounding of the campus as our backdrop and the
rejuvenating morning breeze to calm our spirits, we couldn’t help but feel
grateful for all that God has done. Each of the game booths drew much attention
as people started lining up to take up all the seemingly easy challenges. After
all, it was a race against time. By 10am, the place was already packed with people!
We saw adults challenging one another, we saw kids giggling as their parents
tried to tackle the different challenges, we saw students trying endlessly to
succeed in their challenges, we saw crowds cheering others on and screaming out
encouragements and tips; but beyond all of that, it was indeed a beautiful
morning that was just vibrant with energy, as laughter of joy filled the air.
The
crowd enjoyed the games so much that the head of the committee had to close off
all the game booths 3 minutes before the service started to ensure that nobody
would miss the start of the service!
The
service started off with a teaser/drama bout a kid being shot by Dr. Ex with a
‘forget-a-ray’ gun that caused him to forget more and more about his parents,
and subsequently having his parents kidnapped. He was on the losing end until
the CIA (Church is Awesome) intervened, and gave him tips on defeating the evil
Dr. Ex. (the challenge was extended to the congregation). Some of the
challenges were – thanking our parents for three specific things that we’re
grateful for, giving them a hug, a high five, telling them we love them, and
requiring us to pray for our parents. This kid learnt that in order to curb the
effects of the forget-a-ray, he had to think especially hard about all the
things he’s grateful for that his parents had ever done for him. Lastly, he
learnt that his parents were secret agents as well and they were part of a
classified case called the AOG. They were Agents of God! Marilyn Opal Mcpherson
(aka MOM) and Derrick Anderson Donald (aka DAD) wonderfully played out their
roles. These agents were sent on a mission to love, protect and provide for
this kid, and to express to him the many characteristics of God. Pretty cool,
ay?
I
personally felt that it was such a creatively intertwined plot to convey the
profound message that our parents are God-sent. They are God’s gift to us, and
if we don’t consciously remember all that they’ve sacrificed for us, we would
eventually forget them, and as a consequence, grow distant and detached from
them. It’s time to start making it a lifestyle to honor our parents, folks!
Before
Pastor Steve took the pulpit, the Penang worship team sang ‘Be With You’ as the
offering song and also the platform whereby sister Lyn shared her miraculous
healing testimony to the congregation. Over the past few months, all three
churches have rallied together in faith, praying for a supernatural healing to
come upon sister Lyn. It was such a moving moment to hear the goodness of God
in sister Lyn’s life as pictures of her journey flashed in the big screen
whilst the beautiful song ‘Be With You’ was sung in the most heartfelt spirit
by the team. God is truly a God that heals. Let faith arise!
Pastor
Steve’s message was also in conjunction with the importance of honoring our
parents. He shared about the example of Absalom~ how Absalom talked about
having sons in one chapter and how he ended his life by building a monument in
his name, confessing that he had no sons to carry on his name. It’s not that he
didn’t have any sons, but that he no longer had any relationships with them.
How tragic it is to know that we could have made a difference and yet we
didn’t. Our passion should be so genuine that it is carried on to our next
generation - the passion to serve, to build a legacy, to make a contribution to
society and to honor the name of God. Children observe their parents even when
parents don’t know it. Every decision we make, it has an effect on them. We
ought to rejoice when the next generation advances and surpasses us.
When
we stop honoring our parents and the people whom are important in our lives, we
end up honoring ourselves. Each of us is standing on something our parents
built. We can either build a prison for our children by speaking negative words
to them and crushing their dreams or we can build a platform for them by
speaking words of healing and encouragement, giving them the platform to pursue
greatness. Pastor Steve closed by reiterating the precious take home message
that we ought to make it a lifestyle to honor, respect and love our parents
(paraphrasing from Pastor Steve’s message).
