Berita Bethel 3.2

For Private Circulation Only
Vol. 3 No. 2 (May, 1999)
http://www.berita-bethel-ung.com

My faithful prayer partners in the Faith and in the Defenseof the Gospel (Phil. 1:5, 7),
Grace be unto you, and peace, from God, our Father, and the LordJesus Christ. (Phil. 1:1)

I am drafting this Berita (hoping to finish it at home) on my bed in Room308 at Island Hospital, Penang. The date is Wed., 28th April and the time,4.30a.m. In the stillness of the morning, in the calmness of the hour (mostpatients are still asleep) and in the coolness of my air-con room, I justfinished meditating on Jer. 45:5, KJV:

Thy life will I give thee for a prey
in all places where thou goest

Yesterday, my younger son who returned from KL to be with me for my operationtold me that it was always a high risk to undergo any general anesthesia.From what he had read about the subject, it is like hovering on the marginsof life and death. During this time, one's life sort of depends on theskills of the anesthetist (humanly speaking).

Therefore, today's meditation is more assuring than ever after my "anesthetic"experience yesterday. Oswald Chambers in his excellent daily reading,"My Utmost For His Highest" says, "Thy life for a prey" means "that whereveryou may go, even if it is into hell, you will come out with your life,nothing can harm it." The Lord has indeed given me my life for a prey.He will watch over it in all places wherever He wants me to go. How comfortingit is to know this.

BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD – Psa. 46:10

The day before my operation I asked the Lord for a text that I could takewith me to the operation table. He gave me Psa. 46:10-47:1. I memorisedthe text: Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted amongthe heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The LORD of hosts is withus; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. O clap your hands, allye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.

It was a remarkable wonder how "still" I was as I prepared myselffor this surgery yesterday. There was not the least fear or anxiety, neitherqualms nor uncertainty. I had the Peace of God (Phil. 4:7) and Iknewthe God of Peace. (Phil. 4:9) was with me and would be with me throughoutthe operation.

As the anesthetist and orderlies prepared me for the "sleep", I repeatedthe three verses until the last conscious moments when I recited, "Bestill and know that I am God…". Then I lapsed into unconsciousnessat about 8.55a.m. (from what I could gather from the anesthetist's reportlater.)

THE LORD OF HOSTS IS WITH US;
THE GOD OF JACOB IS OUR REFUGE.

I regained consciousness at about noon (after approx. 1 ½-hour operation,till 10.30a.m.), and somehow found myself still reciting Psa. 46:10, asif no interval of time had passed. It was only when I looked up at theceiling lights that I knew I had been operated upon. I touched my neck– it was bandaged. My eyes were bright open, with no trace of drowsinessor nausea that I was told to expect. By 12.15p.m.I was wheeled out, justin time to see my wife and my son coming to meet me. Somehow they knewit was time to welcome me back – call it a wife's intuition. Surely,the Lord of Hosts was with me; the God of Jacob, my God, was myRefuge in the operation theatre.

I WILL BE EXALTED AMONG THE HEATHEN,
I WILL BE EXALTED IN THE EARTH

Back in the ward, we all exalted the Lord for the successful operation.I was shown the one-inch diameter thyroid cyst (tumour) in a plasticcontainer. The cyst was the reason for the surgery. It had surfacedas a second Adam's apple when I first discovered it a week ago.

When the ENT Surgeon was consulted, he insisted that I should have itremoved as soon as possible. Through ultra-sound imaging, he had detecteda suspicious solid component in the cyst. I requested for an operationdate in June. As then I had already planned for a Rest period after myintended cataract operation (this is now deferred indefinitely). He stillinsisted that I should do it the week after.

Consequently, I had to cancel the series of meetings on “Worship” scheduledfor May 8 and 9 at Melawati Gospel Chapel combined with four other assembliesof the MIRA group, viz. Ampang, Cheras, Petra and Setapak. They were verygracious and understanding. The meetings are now postponed to a later date(DV).

The Lord's Name is Exalted….

In my own life as I see the wonderful way He has dealt with and provided for me as the Lord of Hosts and as the God of Jacob (my God);
In my family, as each member (including my grandchildren) can testify tothe Reality of the Power of Prayer as they accompanied me to the Throneof Grace to seek help in time of need;
In my assembly, and other assemblies in, and outside Penang, as they demonstratethe Oneness of the Body of Christ in upholding me before the Lord, in additionto their personal and practical partnership extended to me.

O CLAP YOUR HANDS ALL YE PEOPLE,
AND SHOUT TO GOD WITH THE VOICE OF TRIUMPH.

This I can certainly do now, though the "shouting" will have to wait. Theimportant thing is I can now use "my voice of triumph" – my greatest"fear", if I can call it one because the cyst was just below the voicebox. The surgeon himself was aware of this risk and told me that the firstthing he had to do before even thinking of removing the cyst was to isolatethe vocal cord (or nerve). This was what I specially requested my prayerpartners to pray for – the preservation of my voice!

Now I can "shout with the voice of triumph". "I will be exalted…I will be exalted…. O clap your hands, all ye people with the voice oftriumph" and exalt and magnify the Lord of Hosts, the God of Jacob– the God of KC Ung, my God.

To all who have known about this operation and have prayed or visitedme at the hospital or later at home, my wife and I, and my familymembers would like to say,

THANK YOU, all of you;
the Lord bless you abundantly. Amen.

Now to catch up with the rest of the news, since I last reported to you.

The First's in my Life: For the first time in my life….

on Feb. 13, I stared at Death face to face when my beloved cousin-in-lawwas called home to be with the Lord as she succumbed to cancer of the thyroidwhich spread to her lungs;
on April 2^nd to 4^th, I missed an Easter Conferencebecause of a ten-day bout with fever which even led me to take a bloodtest (insisted by the doctor) for suspected dengue (and perhaps for JapaneseEncephalitis too?)
On April 27 I was operated upon and warded in hospital for four days.

I thank the Lord for all these firsts' to provide me with the experienceto help and counsel those in similar circumstances better, to shepherdand minister to them more meaningfully, and to love and sympathise withthem more intimately.

The Fellowship with my Ministry.
I continue to thank the Lord for the practical fellowship extendedto me consistently by an anonymous believer from BRGH, as well as fromother assemblies where I minister to enable me to share with others theLords Goodness, as follows:

Mr. & Mrs. W.G. Stott (Australia);
Mr. Andrew Cowell (BRGH Mission Night);
BILD Seminar Fund;
The Bible League;
BRGH Building Fund (in thanksgiving)
S. E. Asia Scripture Union Team Support Fund
The Kosovo Refugee Fund;
JE Humanitarian Fund.

Future Itinerary:

For the first four months of the year, I ministered mainly among theassemblies in Penang, viz. BRGH, B'worth GH, SNGH and IGGC, with a three-dayseries of studies on The Tabernacle at Kledang Community Chapel, Ipoh.Some members from Elim Gospel Hall also joined in. I thoroughly enjoyedthe warm fellowship there and was greatly encouraged by their keennessto study the Word of God as they patiently listened to its exposition infour two-hour sessions. I have been invited back in September.

For the next term (until August), DV, I have speaking engagements outsidePenang at the Grace Chapel Retreat, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah; at Kepong GospelChapel ; at Batu Gajah Gospel Hall and at GLO Training School, Taipingas well as at Taiping Gospel Hall. (See Y2K, C2K, M2K below)

In between, I shall be doing three studies on How to Study the Bibleat BM Gospel Centre in June, rejoicing with Butterworth Gospel Hall ontheir 40^th Anniversary on August 7^th , taking meetingsat my home assembly, including a monthly series on Zooming in on Zechariah.

Once again I would like to thank all prayer partners for their fellowship,practical support, personal concern and the encouragement given to me fromtime to time and in time of need.

May the Lord grant "thy life to thee for a prey in all places wherethou goest". Amen.

[Latest: my biopsy report has come back with “no evidence of malignancyin the tumour”. Exalt the Lord with the voice of triumph!!]

In my last ChineseNew Year Message to some of you I mentioned about being Y2K Compliant.This means that we should be Aware and be Ready for the year2000 when the last second of 31^st Dec. 1999 ticks to move thesecond hand to 12 midnight, thus rolling the computer clock from 23hr.59min. 59sec. on 31^st Dec. 1999 to 0hr. 0min 0sec on 1^stJan. 2000. When this happens some computer clocks may show that momentin time as 1^st Jan 00, and read it as 1^st Jan 1900,thus throwing Father Time a century back in time.
However in that message I pointed out that we must not only be Y2KCompliant, but also C2K Compliant. In other words, we need to beAware and Ready for Christ's 2nd Coming, as well as be Aware and Readyfor the Millennial Reign of Christ on earth (M2K). Indeed, thereare many reasons why we should be C2K Compliant.

According to biblical chronology, Adam came on the earthly scene approximately4000 years ago. 2000 years have elapsed since the 1^st Adventof Christ. With the 1000-year reign of Christ yet to come, it will makeup a total of 7000 (a perfect number of spiritual import) years since Adam.By itself, this is not significant. But when considered with the othermany "signs" of Christ's 2^nd advent, it speaks volumes, as follows:
Daniel was told to shut up the words, and seal the book, even to thetime of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.(Dan. 12:4) Today we are living in momentous times, when knowledge changesits face by the second, and communication (whether it be transport, electronic,satellite, etc.) is reckoned by fractions of a second. Daniel’s Book ofProphecy is being unsealed at this moment, just as the Seven Seals in Revelationwill soon be opened.
The signs relating to His Second Coming spoken of by the Lord in Matt.24 multiply each day – not only by their number, but also by their frequencyand intensity. There is no need for us to go into detail. We are all toofamiliar with them and can see their development before our very eyes inour present day. The news media in all forms will testify to this.
Prophecies Bible scholars thought "impossible" to be fulfilled literallya century or two ago, but accepted in faith by them, are now concrete possibilities,and have seen partial fulfilment in numerous cases.
With the dawn of the 2nd (or the 3rd as some people claim) Millennium,we not only must be Y2K Compliant, but also C2K and M2K Compliant. Letus be Aware and be Ready.

Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think notthe Son of man cometh.

Matt. 24:44

It is my joy, therefore, that throughout this year I have been able to,and will (DV), conduct series of studies on this important C2K Compliancein various assemblies, as follows:

Jan. (3 Sundays)	B'worth GH	The Beauty and the Beasts	Selected studies from Daniel and Revelation
Jan. – Aug. (monthly)	BRGH	Zooming in on Zechariah	Book study of the prophecy re: the 2^nd Advent
May 30 – 1st. June	Grace C, KK	The 7-Year Glitch	Studies from Daniel’s Prophecy
June 5-6	Kepong GC	The Beauty and the Beasts.
July 16-18	Batu Gajah GH	The Feasts of Yahweh	Panoramic view from the Cross to the 2nd Coming
Aug. 23-27	GLO, Taiping	Eschatological Studies	Principles of Interpretation of Future Events
Sept. 3-5	Kledang C.C.	The Feasts of Yahweh
Sept. 17-19	Cheras G.C.	The Beauty and the Beasts

We do not know what chaos Y2K will bring to the world, when the bugbites on 1^st Jan. 2000A.D. Today the world is in a hurryto be Aware and Ready for it when it comes. All seek to be Y2K Compliant.

Are Christians ready for the C2K? Some are hardlyaware even of Christ’s Coming, not to say, Be Ready and
Be Compliant. In times like these, Churches andChristiansneed to know and be taught our Blessed Hope and
Be Challenged to look forward to Christ's soon Coming. II Pet. 3:10, 11. Maranatha.

Go to Berita Bethel Vol. 3 (1), Vol. 2 (3), Vol. 2 (2)