31 Dec 2012 by Natasha Kim CM-
Christmas day saw an exciting combined Christmas service as many of the Acts Churches came together for a day of celebration at Sunway Pyramid Convention Centre. The sizeable convention centre was completely filled with a total of more than 1500 people coming together to flood the place with Christmas cheer. During this special service, they ushered in Christmas with the screening of “A New Found Hope”, an original short film with live performances incorporated within.
The Film that they showed, told a tale of Jeremy, a campus student who is obsessed with computer games. His life changes dramatically when his mom destroys his computer. In his attempt to re-evaluate his life, he enlists the help of a new found friend named Ryan who helped him understand the importance of being grateful to even have a mother in the first place. Ryan grew up without his mother and father. As the story progressed, Jeremy’s friend, Ryan, has his sights on Jeremy’s sister, Emily. But both brother and sister did not know that they knew Ryan and neither did Ryan.
As the story unravelled, we gained a deeper insight into each of their personal lives. In Emily’s life, all she really wants is to figure out her life while juggling grades, parental expectations and fitting in. We saw a combination of love, anger, understanding and hope as the story unfolded.
At the end, the film included an unexpected twist when Jeremy finds out that his good friend Ryan is going out with his sister Emily. They stopped talking to each other. It shows us that in life, bad or unexpected things happen to change the way we feel. But on the bright side, the film emphasized a lot in finding hope amidst darkness no matter what we are going through in our lives.
Right before the finale, Rev. Kenneth Chin came on stage to share his message about hope:
“God has been speaking to me about the hope to look forward to because He has come to give us something to look forward to. Looking forward is very important because there are a lot of things in life which are stressful or mundane. And it is the faith that we look forward to that helps us survive.”
During Christmas, we feel warm and happy because it is the holiday season, but ultimately we feel that because of Jesus, because he came into our world during this time… a long time ago. So many Churches have been emphasizing on the importance of hope this season because we need to be reminded more than ever that Jesus came into this world so that we may have hope.
Hope keeps us alive in our darkest moments and helps us take that step forward and say “I can do it!” despite all the odds that we may face in life.
“There’s a lot of hope when you think about Jesus! By looking forward, we will have strength to live and we can help each other look forward by living a sacrificial and unselfish life.” said Rev. Kenneth.
Philippians 3:13
Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.
This is a verse that we should all keep in mind as we move forward towards the New Year, 2013.
All in all, the 75-minutes feature that was mainly acted, edited and directed by the campus students of the Church was a joy to watch. There is definitely a lot of good talent! For those who do not know, this is their second original film production by the partners of Acts Church, after the previous “Life is Heart” Christmas production last year. This year's admission was free but last year, production tickets were sold to raise funds for building a community clinic in Subang Jaya. And they succeeded with enough funds! The clinic has since been built and opened.
For more information on Acts Church and “A New Found Hope”, please visit www.theactschurch.org
Dear Viewers in Christ, if you find this article edifying to you, please share with your friends or loved ones by using the social media plugs (Share, Email to this article). The Lord will surely bless you as you bless others. May the Lord’s peace and love be with you. Amen.
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