2018 Nov - Message from Pastor Lionel Lam

The weather has turned chilly earlier in the season this year. We see the maple leaves falling as time flies by quickly. We have spent almost 5 years now with everyone. Every Thursday, we all get together to learn from and encourage each other. We will walk through the rest of our glory days of life together; in the love and kindness of Jesus. People have worked hard to arrange all the activities. I sincerely thank you all for your support and encouragement in the past. In addition to the mission given to us by the Heavenly Father, your active participation and acceptance is the strength for us to persevere in our work.

There are indeed many things that we need to be thankful for. Such as when we see some elders pushing their wheelchair or walker around with a grateful smile. Knowing their past life stories made me respect them whole-heartedly. Some members, with their grateful hearts, have become volunteers serving in different capacities, such as helpers, workshop speakers, and even instructors. The brothers and sisters of our sister churches show no partiality by sharing with us gracefully and serving the community with their precious expertise and time. 

Of course, we must be thankful for benefits, but it is our nature to be ungrateful or forget to be so at times. For example, sometimes when our selfless workshop speakers share their valuable knowledge and present us with some gifts or handouts, we would grab them all instantly, before even saying a word of thanks, leaving our hosts and their respected speakers embarrassed and puzzled! I wish that we would be more thankful, and our grateful hearts can show through naturally, in all our behaviours!

Even if we don't gain any tangible benefits, we can still be thankful as many things that are beyond our knowledge and control. Who knows, maybe there are better and brighter things in our unknown future in the end? We have been gathering in Serena Gundy Park for an outing in the last two years, and have experienced beautiful weather that God has blessed us with after listening to our prayers. The day before each outing, there was forecast for rain the next day, and the time that the rain was predicted to fall would change from time to time. Some people worried that the grass would be too wet for our activities, and some, out of their good hearts, proposed to cancel the outing, otherwise we would be responsible for the outcome. However, both days turned out to be wonderful, bright, sunny and with a comfortable breeze. As a result, during our prayer of the day, in addition to thanking the Father for the good weather, we also asked God to give us the ability to respond to unexpected events, and to remain grateful in the face of unanswered prayers. Because the bible says, “Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20a)