16th Oct 2012 by Donna Uning, Kuching. CM –
Wednesday, October 10, 2012 – Lights on, music playing and children dancing, it was a busy night for church members at the Christian Ecumenical Worship Center (CWEC), Kuching. Four nights and counting until St. Faith’s Church annual Patronal Dinner Celebration and the parking lot were nearly full. It was only rehearsal night!
The rain earlier did not hinder hundreds of performers, parents, and committee members into the building at 7pm on a weekday. I ran into the Patronal Dinner’s prayer leader, Madam Grace Lee, for some updates about the event. “Would you like to pray with us?” she smiled knowingly. She was gathering her group to a quieter side of the hall for prayer. Though I cannot stay for the prayer meeting, she graciously filled me in with some of the prayer focus that night.
From Proverbs 16:6, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.” The prayer focus on different ways to fail to commit whatever we do to the Lord. People may fail because they do their work superficially or for themselves, and some give God temporary control “only to take back the moment things stop going the way they expect.”
She also added another point of prayer where some commit a task fully to the Lord, “but put forth no effort themselves, and they wonder why they do as if everything depended on Him while working as if everything depended on us.” Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”
While the prayer group continued with their meeting, I headed towards the hall but got sidelined by a group of young children rehearsing their song and dance. “They are singing in Chinese, English, Iban and BM,” said a proud mom as she watched her little girl performed. Apart from the Children Ministry, children from the Ministry Jako Iban (MJI) were also scheduled to perform.
Finally entering the main hall, I saw committee member, Brother Billy Tan by the stage instructing performers. The MJI children were on stage with their pom-poms, dancing to worship music, completely oblivious to the many hands off stage. Brother Billy Tan holds many hats in this event, not only does he takes care of the dinner ticket sales on Sundays, he now served as the stage director, rehearsal presenter, and time keeper.
“All the ministries are involved. Right now we have the Iban Ministry (MJI),” he said, gesturing to the stage. At the moment, he was also choosing the order of performances for the night from their rehearsals. “I’m going to place the Music Ministry first,” he added, inspired. The other groups I saw that night were the Boys Brigade, Music Ministry and the Parish Youth.
What makes this annual event special is the church people themselves. Many of the performers and volunteers have made the occasion a family affair. With the rehearsals doing well and presenters working graciously with one another, the evening ended by 9 pm. The Vicar of St. Faith’s Church, Reverend Canon Nelson Ugas, who is also the event advisor, was also present at the rehearsal.
