Words A.L.I.V.E. (ICC Chapter Malaysia): To God Be The Glory! (Apr 19, 2015)

Written by Ian Chan
Edited by Eliza Tan

Welcome to our ICC Chapter Meeting!

Today Speaker Jern Ling started the ball rolling with an entertaining and yet purposeful icebreaker named "Who Is This ??" Here it goes: A piece of paper with a character/name like "Iron Man," "Sleeping Beauty" or even our familiar "Joseph Tan" and "Lisa McLean," etc. were taped on the back of each participant. Another person would then have to act it out for the participant to guess, and vice versa.

From this icebreaker we learned about eye contact and poise, which are part of the basic rules of effective communication.

Photo by Eliza Tan

Who is that ?

Photo by Eliza Tan

HaHaHa!!!

Photo by Eliza Tan

Speaker Jemima had chosen two very beautiful hymns for our worship, namely "I Surrender All" and "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross." We were all immersed in the worship and were reminded the gracious love of Christ.

Photo by Eliza Tan

Worship led by Jemima and accompanied by Nathanael

Photo by Eliza Tan

After the worship, my dad and I led the devotion, in which we shared about doing good works. Good works should glorify God instead of man as mentioned in Mat 5:16. I shared that I have learned to do everything for God's glory instead of looking for man's praise.

Photo by Eliza Tan

After my devotion, Coach Joseph immediately exclaimed "Ian, you did a great job for the devotion!" I was stunned and did not know what to reply. He repeated the comments four times, and I even replied "Thank you!" Everyone burst into laughter. Only after Coach Joseph's 6th repeat did I realize he was actually testing me. I immediately shouted "To God Be The Glory !" I had learned a great lesson to walk my talk!

Photo by Eliza Tan

After the devotion, Coach Joseph shared with us about a private Christian school which has been using Bible-based science textbooks for grades 1-8 but decided to switch to secular biology textbooks from grade 9 onward. They did that to allow the students learn more about science from the evolutionary perspective. We were then asked to discuss in separate groups and to present our views on this topic. As we shared our thoughts, we realized that the secular textbooks have drawn the "battle line" very clearly, relegating creation and religion to matters of the meaning with no relevance to the real world we live in. Unless we also state our position clearly, we are inevitably drawn to the other camp. It does not mean that we cannot read secular textbooks, but it does mean that we need to read with a clear biblical worldview.

Photo by Eliza Tan

Photos by Eliza Tan

Coach Joseph further shared that according to Harvard historian Julie Reuben, until the 1930s, American universities were committed to "the unity of truth." They held "the conviction that that all truths agreed and ultimately could be related to one another in a single system." This conviction rested ultimately on a biblical worldview. He also highlighted the role of the teachers/parents in protecting and preparing the students to face the challenge of the world.

Photos by Eliza Tan

Photo by Eliza Tan

It was also a special day as we celebrated the joyous 7th Birthday of our BPSer Debbie Hoh! Hooray... We sang "Happy Birthday" for her in different languages, and Coach Joseph prayed for her. After that we enjoyed the scrumptious tea break...yummy!

Photo by Eliza Tan

Photos by Eliza Tan

Photo by Eliza Tan

Photos by Eliza Tan

Photo by Eliza Tan

Photos by Eliza Tan

Ranen: Gotcha in my arm lock!

Photo by Eliza Tan

Wait....is that a bird? A plane? A frog?

After the tea break, Speaker Eliza did her persuasive speech entitled "Is Sadness Always Bad ?" in preparation for her platform speech on the coming Saturday. It was a very moving speech indeed. Then Speaker Charis presented her interpretative speech entitled "Goldilocks and the 3 Bears" from Revolting Rhymes by Roahl Dahl. Speaker Charis made a very entertaining and lively speech.

Photo by Debra Yeoh (Coach)

Photo by Eliza Tan

In addition, we presented our chapter presentation for the first time to all the coaches, an adaptation of The Legend of The Three Trees directed by Coach Michelle. We had a fun rehearsal and hope to improve further for our presentation on the 14th of May at My Father's Home. The chapter meeting was dismissed after that... We had such a blessed and great time indeed.