Hearing hymns sung in Mandarin at SM's neighborhood for wake service somehow reminds me of how I grew up having Mom's church members coming over to our house to have "cell group". In Foo Chow, we term those meetings "prayer meeting".
Fond memories of having people crowd into the living area and porch of our semi wooden old house in Sitiawan Estate. Our old house used to be a 5 room bungalow seated on a fruit plantation and coconut/cocoa plantation. As early as my primary school days I could remember Mom inviting her pastor to arrange for such a meting. Our duty was clean the house, arrange the chairs and then ... prepare refreshment ... drinks and maybe simple things like sandwiches, coconut candy, jelly (agar2), we will buy keropok from our neighbor who runs a small home industry of frying keropok .... I don't know ... what can a 9 or 10 and a 12 or 13 year old girl prepare? ... ;0 ...
People will start to come in their church van and maybe 2 other cars and motorbikes. They armed with the church's plastic stools, song books and even bibles. By 830pm, the sessio
n will start by a time of worship - all the songs are in Mandarin or Foo Chow, and then prayer .... free style .. ie, anyone can pray for any items (usually for the family, neighborhood etc) then the Word will be shared by the Pastor. The Pastor will share in Foo Chow and he can share for 1 whole hour!!! By the time the meeting ended .... it will be about 10pm and .. makan time!!!When we moved to Tmn Berpadu and Tmn Muhibbah, Mom still continue this tradition but not as regular but I remember that when I come back from outstation, Mom will organized one ... even on a Sat night ... guess she believe that it is good for the family to come together to be prayed for.
Guess in small villages, in small communities, this is the way of community support from the church and when the pastor calls for such a meeting ... the attendance is about 30people.
So, what is your fond memory from your childhood that has impacted you? I thank God for Mom's consistent arrangement for such meetings as the prayers had indeed kept our family string through the storms that we faced and gave us also an opportunity to give thanks to God for what He has done for us. Our family does not have a family altar and in a way ... this served as family altar to us.
one of my abiding memories is the carol singers from Pioneer Church coming to our house at Christmas time. Every year, one of the blokes would dress up as Santa Claus with black welly boots and a rubber mask, and he would give sweets to all the kids. The Santa mask, however, was hideously frightening to little kids. I think i burst into tears after receiving my sweets..... two years on the trot, from age 7 to age 8 when I was old enough to stay up for the carollers. ho ho ho
ReplyDeletehahahha ... o yea ... they always always have the poor fat Santa that had to be in that costume the whole night :0
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