22 March 2013 by James Hoh-
“We are the followers of Christ and therefore we do what Christ did when He was with us 2000 years ago. In the name of Jesus Christ, we cast out demons, pray and heal the sick, preach the Gospel to the unreached. However modern day Christianity is about musical drama, fun time in church and spectacular concerts. Sometimes the only authentic thing I find is the teaching of God’s Word in many churches today.” Derrick said.
“I am a disciple of Jesus Christ and a follower of Him. Whatever Christ did, I will do.” He professed.
I had a chance on Monday to catch up with Derrick Chia, a long time friend since our secondary school days in Petaling Jaya. We are now middle-aged fervently serving the Lord. The difference between us is that he is businessman who loves to go on mission, while I like to listen to all his stories.
He serves as one of the leaders from Harvest Community Church, Petaling Jaya. It is a small church with a big heart for missions! Every time the church embarks on a mission, almost half the church members are mobilized. But the testimonies from the trips never fail to ignite more passion for missions.
Derrick‘s wife and two teenage children, one 13 and the other 16, spent their last two Chinese New Year holidays in East Malaysia. “They can be part of mission team so that when they are adults, they will be doing what we have been doing. If we don’t do this, our children would not be able to know the importance of missions. I am actually teaching and discipling my children by doing the work.” Derrick said.
He explained that (what the word blessing means in Chinese.) the Chinese word “福” which is “Blessing”. This (It) is a combination of 3 Chinese words, ‘ ⺭ ‘ God, ‘ 一口 ‘ One Mouth/Family ‘ 田 ‘ Field, In this case Mission field.
In short, we can have blessings when we have God and our family serving in the mission fields. “So during this Chinese New Year trip, I don’t give out Chinese “ang pow” but we give the Gospel with healings and miracles.” Derrick explained.
“We are ordinary people but when we go on missions together with another family, usually with my Mission Coordinator, Jimmy Wu, we can formed a worship team. One can play the drum, another the keyboard and another the guitar while I usually song-lead. Later on, Bro. Jimmy or sometimes myself would preach and my children work as catchers as we pray for the people. So most of the time they want us to take over the whole worship service.”
He continued, “The problem is that most of the time the church only see the preacher, they don’t see the whole family. But when we go and minister as a family or families, they are happy. Not only this, our wives can talk to their wives and our children can pray for their children. During ministry times, we saw fantastic miracles, healings and deliverance taking place,” Derrick said.
Derrick and the families go for a period of seven to ten days and sometimes they go during school holidays. He stressed that it is better than going for vacation because his family bonds on the mission trip.
“We grow up together, learn things together and serve the Lord together. The children will just have to ‘rough it out’ because there is no comfortable transportation and no hotel rooms. We all learn not to murmur and complain when we visit the ‘kampung’ toilets. At the end of the day, not only my children learn about mission but they are grateful for the modern facilities back home” Derrick laughed.
“Keningau, Tenom, Tambunan, Kota Marudu, are just some of the places we went to. A lot of churches asked us to make return visits but we have to hear from God. For example, this May we are going back to Keningau/Tambunan instead of other areas because the Lord wants us to go there. We planned to have a two day Miracle Healing Rally on 31st May and 1st June. Last year we went with pastor to Surabaya, Indonesia and Bro. Jimmy’s family went with him to Chennai, India too, ” Derrick said.
The church started out on missions by joining ICM many years ago before organizing trips independently.
From my simple conversation with Derrick Chia, I realized that Harvest Community Church is not only a mission-minded church among the adults but this mission-mindedness is also inculcated in the young, leaving a biblical heritage.
Is your family encouraged to take up the Call?
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