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The Penampang branch of Basel Christian Church of Malaysia (Panampang Church), which celebrated its 44th anniversary is located at Kota Kinabalu, the capital city of Sabah. Since 2008, the church started its “Agape” ministry to care for the poor in their community.
In 2019, the church set up 7979 Holistic Care Station to enable their volunteers to receive proper training. Meanwhile, through systematic caring strategies and 7979 Family Crisis Intervention program, the church could be more involved in providing holistic care to the poor. The following year, the church set up “Dream Centre”, with the intentions to increase the efficiency of all the community projects under their wings, so that they are able to reach out to more people outside the church, hoping that they’ll not be too defensive whenever they hear the word “church”. During the initial stage of Dream Centre, it already encountered a massive challenge – the “Pandemic”. The volunteers were kept busy with disaster response, bread and vegetables deliveries, setting up of quarantine house and COVID-19 Self-test Kit deliveries. The impact of Dream Centre was extensive to the extent that they received SOS calls from Peninsular Malaysia. 
Dream Centre Food Bank
They are not hungry for food
but for hope Year 2020, amidst the pandemic, 7979 Manna Food Bank program reached Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, the distribution point happened to be Dream Centre. Two years later, Kota Kinabalu of Sabah became the distribution point with the highest number of Manna Food Bank’s aid recipients; there were 116 cases for Penampang Church alone. The number of volunteers had been increasing, together with the number of cases. At present, there are 66 trained volunteers. Esther, a volunteer shared, “7979 programs have clear direction in terms of providing systematic care to the aid recipients, it teaches us what is holistic care.” The church wanted to provide genuine quality holistic care services to the aid recipients rather than putting emphasis on quantity, so that they would recover and get back on track, instead of living on charity handout or financial aid. Henceforth, the scopes they cover are living environment, children’s educations, job engagements, families’ relationships, physical health, soul and spiritual cares. This is the church initial intention, hoping to bring gospel to their midst, and leading them to Abba Father.
Although food had been delivered to the aid recipients, Esther felt that they are still hungry, “They are hungry not because of no food, but they are hungry for hope, they have yet to experience solid love. There is not much we can give, and our giving is of more superficial. However, you may notice that once God’s ‘present’ is felt in a family, then the contented feeling will flow out naturally. Although lives still remain the same, but they are fill with joy.” This is the motivation factor that drives many volunteers to strive forward. 
A Beautiful Picture
When we talked about the journey of ministering, Esther shared that after each encounter with the needy, her emotion will become so overwhelmed and she ended up crying to God, “What should I do? You brought all these needy to me, what should I do?” She expressed, providing a holistic care and continue follow ups with a family is not an easy task, we need to spend a lot of effort and time. As a volunteer, we need to handle our emotions carefully to prevent emotional breakdown. Actually, this kind of caring work is more suitable for a full time worker to perform. “If we intend to truly walk into a family, then there will be many areas for us to intervene and assist, as the scope is very wide.” Sometimes, the aid recipients would contact the volunteer at different times, such incidents would require a full-time worker to follow up.
“We have a wonderful team”, Esther shared, sometimes it may seem like she is out alone at the frontline in contact with the aid recipient, but that is not the real picture, actually there are different volunteers handling each area when comes to helping an aid recipient. Whenever, a volunteer felt incompetent to do the task, another volunteer will come in to help. “You will soon find out, when you are willing, many people will be drawn to get themselves involve. This is truly a beautiful sight.” 
The Transformation of Church’s culture
Penampang Church’s atmosphere is gradually changing as the church becoming more and more involve with under privilege families. When those aid recipients accepted Christ and join the church, the church members would come in contact with and become acquaintance with people who are of different background.
There was an incident, where a youth in our church who had never come across with a person of under privilege background, got to know a poor little boy, he was thinking of paying them a visit with a gift. After much thoughts, he decided to buy two cups of bubble milk tea and KFC for the boy’s family. One part of their conversation had brought tears to the youth:
“I am very thankful that Penampang Church are willing to accept and care for these children and families who are very different from them.” Esther shared. The church environment that is too comfortable, had brought a complacent attitude to the church and it loses its vitality. With the joining of under privilege families, they are learning to be hospitable; as for the children, it’ll be a good opportunity for them to learn to appreciate what they have and living a simple lifestyle. “In the past, when we had mission trip at other places, Sabah’s local needs always came to our mind, there are plenty of needs here that needed us to work on. We should deal with the needs here first, before we move on to help people at other places.” Expressed Hannah, the Volunteer Manager. Furthermore, when the church is involves in social concern, the influence and changes that come along gradually become the church culture. 建堂44周年的马来西亚基督教巴色会兵南邦堂（兵堂教会），坐落在沙巴首都亚庇市。自2008年，教会开始“爱加倍”事工，关心社区贫苦家庭。 2019年，兵堂教会设立7979全人关怀站，让志工们开始接受培训；同时透过系统化的服事策略，及7979急难家庭救助方案，深入贫苦家庭给予他们全人关怀。隔年，教会开办梦想中心，目的是让所有社区事工更好地进行，帮助更多除教会以外的人，不让他们听见“教会” 就产生抵触。梦想中心初设立，就迎来第一项艰巨任务—“疫情”，志工们忙于各种应灾、派发面包和蔬菜、设立隔离屋、及派送新冠自检套装。梦想中心的影响力不断扩展，甚至接到半岛的电话寻求协助。  梦想中心 食物银行  他们饿并不是因为没有食物 而是没有盼望 2020年，在疫情中，7979吗哪食物银行来到沙巴亚庇，集散点正是梦想中心。两年后，沙巴亚庇一跃成为吗哪食物银行最多个案的集散点，单单兵堂教会就累计了116位个案。个案不断增加，志工人数也增长不少，目前已有66位受训志工。 “7979方案让我们有系统和方向去关怀个案，更教会我什么是全人关怀。”志工Esther分享。教会希望关怀服事重质不重量，能给予个案真正的全人关怀，包括生活环境、孩子学业、工作、家庭关系、身体健康和心灵关怀等，让个案恢复至正常生活，而不是单单给予捐助品或援助金。这也是教会最初的目的，希望能把福音带到他们当中，让他们认识阿爸天父。 虽然已有发放物资给个案，但Esther依然觉得他们很饿，“他们饿并不是因为没有食物，而是没有盼望，他们没有那种扎实的爱。我们能给的不多，也很表面。但你会发现，当神“住”在一个家庭里，他们将发自内心地满足。虽然生活还没有改善，但他们充满喜乐。”这也是志工一路走来，继续坚持的动力。   一个美好的画面 谈起服事的心路历程，Esther说常常在接触很多有需要的个案后，心里难受忍不住跟上帝哭诉:“怎么办？祢叫了这样多有需要的人给我，我要怎么办？”她表示，真正做到全人关怀地关心跟进一个家庭，并不容易，需要花费很多心机与时间。身为志工，需要懂得拿捏个中分寸，才不至于在心态上崩溃。而这样的关怀，需要的是全时间服事的人。“真正走进一个家庭，往往需要从多个领域给予帮助，涉及范围也会很广。”有时，个案会在不同时间联系志工，这就需要全职人员负责了。 “我们有一个很好的团队”，Esther分享，有时看起来像是她一人在最前线去接触个案，但其实不然，因为每一个环节都有不同的志工互相帮忙。每当个案的难题是自己力所不及时，团队中就有人可以支援。“你会发现，只要你愿意，会有很多愿意的人会被吸引来一起行动。这是一个很美的画面”，Esther分享。  教会文化的蜕变 长期服事弱势贫穷家庭，兵堂教会的氛围也开始改变。当个案信主来到教会后，会友也因此认识接触和自己生活环境不同的家庭。 某次一位从未接触过贫苦家庭的教会青少年，在教会认识了一位贫苦孩子，便想着买些手信去探访。想了想，青少年买了两杯奶茶和肯德基到贫苦孩子家中。他们的一段对话让青少年潸然泪下：
“我很感恩，兵堂教会愿意去承接这些不一样的孩子和家庭，愿意去接纳和照顾他们。”Esther分享到。教会环境太舒适，大家长期安逸，没有了冲劲。贫苦家庭的融入，让他们开始学习接待；对孩子而言，或许是学习珍惜和简朴生活的好契机。 “以前到外地短宣时，就想到沙巴本土也有很多需要是我们可以去努力的。先把这边处理好，才能去帮助更多在外的人。”志管人Hannah说到。不仅如此，当教会在做社会关怀时，所带来的影响与改变，也就会慢慢地成为教会文化。 Comments are closed.
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