6 Dec 2013 by Adeline Lum CM-
Launched three years ago by the Holistic Integrated Service Bhd (HISTEAM)—a non-profit Christian organization—‘7979’ is a ministry that fulfills the immediate needs in Malaysia.
On 1 Dec, HISTEAM held their 6th anniversary and thanksgiving in DUMC, to recount their efforts especially the ‘7979’ ministry they started three years ago.
How did ‘7979’ start? Pronounced in mandarin, ‘7979’ sounded like ‘go and save, go and save,’ a timely call for all Christians to mobilize their strength and resources to help those in need.
In the first two years of HISTEAM, the executive committee realized they need to empower churches to start something in meeting social concerns, using a workable church-based model.
After praying, God led them to encounter the Chinese Christian Relief Association (CCRA) from Taiwan while they were responding to the Morakot Typhoon in 2009. CCRA had been mobilizing churches under a network called ‘1919.’
“We find this model practical and proven, and could be replicated in Malaysia as well,” said Pr Cheng Pysong, ‘7979’ Project Supervisor. Hence, in 2010, HISTEAM established an official partnership agreement with CCRA to transfer their knowledge and technology to them. The programs of ‘7979’ required substantial amount of fund; thus, local singer cum DJ composer Yen is appointed as their charity ambassador for fund-raising efforts.
Under ‘7979’, three programs were birthed including the Crisis Intervention Program, Companionship Class for Underprivileged Children, and Major Disaster Response.
In the Crisis Intervention Program, trained volunteers are mobilized to visit and help families in crisis by offering donation and counseling. To date in November, 100 families have received aid.
In the Companionship Class for Underprivileged Children, they tutor children who grew up in single-parents families, poor background, and orphanages, in addition to children with special needs. Currently, they have five classes with more than 60 children attending.
Lastly, in the Major Disaster Response, they send trained rapid-response teams to establish localized relief response. To date, they have offered immediate aid to flood victims in Segamat, Kuantan, and Cameron within the past three years.
Hence, to offer rapid response in the most cost-effective way, 45 holistic care stations were set up in churches all over Malaysia to train Christians for immediate assistance, including Penang, Taiping, Ipoh, Klang Valley, Seremban, Melaka, Johor Bahru, Kuantan, Miri, Kota Kinabalu, and more to come.
Most importantly, the ministry of ‘7979’ saw the unity of the body of Christ, involving 1300 volunteers from various denominations including—Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, AOG, Basal, Gospel Hill, etc—birthed from over 30 holistic training sessions they already conducted.
“May the East Malaysia Chinese churches arise as well to join the movement of the Great Commandment,” said Pr Andrew Wong, CEO of HISTEAM, who hopes to share this vision to the Sarawak churches.
With the partnership of churches, Pr Andrew shared that the ‘7979’ visions in year 2014 is to increase their holistic care stations from 45 stations to 55 stations and underprivileged children from 62 children to 100 children.
“We must say that 7979 is not our original idea. But we are glad that churches (in Peninsular Malaysia) are responding to this project,” said Pr Cheng Pysong. And in agreement with the call of ‘7979’, he urged the youngsters with words, “The greatest gain in life is to give!”
Would your church be interested be part of the ‘7979’ Network by setting up of Holistic Care Station? Training will be provided to the church members under the ‘7979’ network to apply what they learned immediately.
Individuals are also welcomed to serve for promotion and development, and also to respond to disaster.
At this moment, ‘7979’ is also going through churches for better accountability and also offering pastoral care.
Please visit http://histeam.org.my/ for more information.
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