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| Our advertisement outside the church |
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| As you can see, the ladies all have their heads covered - can you spot the blue head covering and the blue shirt? That's me and Blair on my right. |
For a church team in Penang, Malaysia I was sent with Blair (Australia) and David (USA) to Burma Rd Gospel Hall, a brethren church. We were invited to do some songs, share a testimony and lead the Sunday school. We had been warned in advance that the women usually cover their heads and although the church didn't require me to as a visitor, the ship had recommended that I should do it as a sign of respect, anyway. We were invited to join the main service before the Sunday school.
When I lived in Tasmania in 2008 I'd been a part of an open Brethren church which was quite modern. The first Sunday of each Monday was 'as the Lord leads' for the worship where nothing was planned in advance and as the Spirit led, people would stand to request a song which we would then sing, but women were allowed to share and no head covering was required.
Of course there is also the closed Brethren which have been in the news and are more sect-like, however the Burma Rd Gospel Hall was just a beautiful fellowship. They were a mix between traditional and modern. The women did wear a head covering only during the service, and the worship part of the service only the men stood to request songs then all would rise to sing. The men might also stand to share a thought or read some scripture, but it was all done according to the Spirit. If nobody felt any leadings to say or sing anything, then we simply waited in silence. It was such a beautiful time for me, where I could clearly feel the presence of the Holy Spirit and there was a calming peacefulness in the room.
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| I led the Sunday School after the main service |
As Blair was feeling ill and David was from the new PST and this was his first church team, I led the Sunday school where everyone was there from 3 - 90 years old. Some of the youth came forward to play 2 keyboards and guitars alongside me and they were brilliant musicians. We had alot of fun leading worship together while the congregation joined in, some of the little ones even feeling free to dance.
I know quite a few kids songs that use actions, as the children usually have fun doing this and it helps to break the ice.
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| People standing for a time of worship and the little one dancing along in the middle - so cute! |
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| Some of the songs had actions |
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| We introduced our countries and the kids had fun acting like kangaroos! |
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| My favourite part was getting Blair and David to do the actions, too! |
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| a game - called 'portside, starboard'. The kids enjoy it and get to know a bit of ships life: ie how left = port side and right = starboard! |
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| Interview time! |
Not knowing where the children were in regards to having made a decision for themselves about Christ, I shared the 'wordless book'. This is a book of 5 coloured pages made of felt. The gold page is used to share about how God made men and the wonderful relationship God had with Adam and Eve. The black page stands for sin, and we share about the ruptured relationship between man and God and how sin came into the world. The red page stands for the blood of Jesus, and I shared about who Jesus was, why He came to the earth and how He died so that we might be able to have a restored relationship with God. The green page symbolises this new life we have in Christ.
Wanting to involve everyone in the activity and test levels of understanding and to get the adults interested too, I went around the room interview style, with my microphone. Nobody knew who I'd jump to next or what question would be asked, but I basically led them through the gospel story again, but this time the adults and teens were telling the story in their own words and sharing what it meant to them.
We had a wonderful time with these people and fellowship afterwards at lunch. It's always one of my favourite things to be able to see how no matter where we live, what our culture is our the denomination, that we all worship the same God, in spirit and in truth - we are one in the body of Christ.
