My dear readers,

1. “A gentle Reminder”

To all ageing readers (which means everybody!), please be reminded, a quarter of 2007 has whizzed away into eternity, cutting down our sojourn on Planet Earth by another three months, speeding us ever nearer to “D-day.” You will want to know what “D” stands for. If you do not know already, “D” means Departure, otherwise called Death.

“So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom” (Ps 90:12 ), “redeeming the time, because the days are evil” (Eph 5:16 ). When you read this “Pastoral Chat” next Lord’s Day (25 March) only 281 days of 2007 remain to your credit. Question: How did you spend the first 84 days of the “New Year” 2007? And how will you spend the remaining days? The Year also grows older, like you and me!

Be wise … redeem time for the Lord. Make every day count for His Kingdom. Make your life useful for God. Live each day with eternity’s values in view. No Christian should live just for himself, least of all, for the passing perishing world.

2. Another excerpt from “Footprints”

Senai

The Senai I knew was a “one street town,” two rows of plank and attap shophouses lining the North-South highway, long gone, demolished by the advancing forces of modernization.

Today, Senai is a major airport town, located on the trunk road linking Johor Baru in the south with Kuala Lumpur, the Federal Capital, in the north. A rapidly growing town with potential and promise of developing into a major logistics and communications hub of South East Asia, by its strategic land, air, and sea links.

Impressive housing estates, schools, shopping centres, hotels, entertainment and recreational facilities make up the “greater Senai” which by natural growth may well overtake and absorb the neighbouring town of Kulai, a few kilometres to the north.

What can I tell you of my Senai experience of eighty years ago worth your trouble reading? From the misty past, emerge six scenes, a heritage from the musty memory store distinguished by the years: “’Tis distance lends enchantment to the view” (Thomas Campbell 1777 - 1844). The distance of years might just add a touch of antiquity.

Peach River Garden

Father had grand visions of a tropical paradise, but God’s plan was otherwise. The Great Depression of the nineteen-thirties turned men’s plans upside down. Overnight, rubber became rubbish: seventy three acres were no blessing, but an unbearable burden. “Man proposed, God disposed.” Father had to dispose of the estate and that was the end of his dream.

God’s will over-rules: man is nothing, less than nothing. His Word reminds: “Without me ye can do nothing” (Jn 15:5 ). Even the name of the estate coined by Father was a misnomer. “Peach River Garden” grew no peaches, was no garden, and the river was but a “pint size brook.”

“So sadly, when the sun was low,
Stood still the silent untapped trees,
Dumb observers of human woe:
Father and Mother on their knees
For mercy pleading,
Latex not flowing,
Rubber not selling.
But God still rulesbr> O’er everything.

Was Senai God’s answer to China? (More to follow)

Lovingly in the Lord
Dr SH Tow, Senior Pastor