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Ung Kim Cheng, who goes by the moniker KC Ung or just KC for short, hails from Penang, Malaysia. He grew up in an idolatrous environment under the care of his Buddhist grandparents. His mother was ushered into glory on her deathbed when he was just seven. The redeeming feature of his upbringing lay in his backslidden Christian father who put him on his bicycle pillion to send him to Sunday School every week at Burmah Road Gospel Hall.
September 17, 1950 marked a change in 13-year-old KC’s life when he stayed back after Sunday School to attend the evening Gospel Service. He was challenged by the missionary, Mr. A.E. Phillips who was preaching for the first time in Penang after having been driven out of Communist China, to accept the redemption in Christ. Jesus. A month later, on 22 nd KC was baptised.
Since then, he has been on active service for the Lord.
As a student in Penang Free School from 1950 to 1953, he was actively involved in the School Christian Fellowship. As a probationary teacher from 1954-1957, he took charge of the first Sunday School at 24 Taylor Road and conducted a one-week Children’s Campaign in the public playground nearby to draw the children to the Sunday School. This Sunday School was to be the springboard for the Island Glades Gospel Centre today.
From 1957 to 1966, he was Superintendent of the Butterworth Sunday School and helped in the setting up a nucleus for a church there at the same time. In August 1959, the Butterworth Gospel Hall was established and it has grown into a full-fledged assembly today.
During this period, he was involved in many training projects such as:
- Conducting weekly Bible Classes at the home of the Butterworth Gospel Hall elder, Mr. Ng Swee Sin.
- Conducting Sunday School Teacher Training Programmes and Youth Leadership Seminars for assemblies in Penang and in the Northern Region of Malaysia.
- Speaking in various assemblies in Penang and outside Penang.
- Speaking in public open-air services at Coast Road (now Gurney Drive) and elsewhere.
- Teaching in Youth Bible Camps.
- Together with Mr. S. S. Adams, Mr. Tan Wah Kim, he pioneered and taught in the two-month Residential Bible School to prepare potential leaders for the Malaysian assemblies. They were taught by noted Bible teachers from the assemblies on assembly principles and practices, and the fundamentals of the Christian faith and Bible doctrine.
- Being the Penang Director of the Malayan Evangelistic Fellowship (MEF), working with Dr. G. D. James, the General Director, he organised Gospel Campaigns for the churches in Penang.
In 1967, he went to the Specialist Teachers’ Training College to specialise on Audio-Visual Education. He started the Teachers’ Christian Fellowship when he was there.
1n 1968 he was posted to Mentakab, Pahang where he helped build up the church at Temerloh Gospel Chapel by holding weekly Bible classes to teach on essential truths in the Bible.
From May, 1969 to 1996, he was back in Penang to help in the work there. During this period he continued with what he was doing earlier, initiated new projects and was involved in various programmes:
- He introduced an integrated Sunday School syllabus for Sunday Schools in Penang which enabled the Sunday Schools to compete in an annual Inter-Sunday School Bible Quiz. He also started a Sunday School Audio-Visual Education Service known as SSAVES for teachers to borrow audio-visual aids to help them in their teaching.
- He was invited to join the Oversight of Burmah Road Gospel Hall in the late sixties.
- He started the Assembly Bible Classes for young adults to train them for leadership in the assembly known as the ABC and the Preparatory Bible Class at various intervals during this period.
- He spoke at various inter-assembly (Asian Leaders’) conferences and held weekend series of Bible teachings in various assemblies outside Penang,
- He was invited to join the Malaysian GLO (Gospel Literature Outreach) Bible Training School in Taiping to help launch it, be a member of the GLO Management Council (he has since stepped down from it), and to lecture in the School. He lectures mainly on Biblical Eschatology, Hermeneutics, and Typology.
- He pioneered the Assembly Fellowship Camp for single married (widows and widowers) and unmarried adults in the assemblies in Malaysia, known as the AFC today.
- Early 1992, he retired from Government Service after having served the Government of Malaysia for 38 years. His last posting was as a lecturer of Instructional Systems Technology in a Teacher Training College.
- After his retirement, he travelled widely in Malaysia to teach the Scriptures in various assemblies.
On October, 20 1996, KC Ung was commended by Burmah Road Gospel Hall to a Bible teaching ministry among the assemblies in Malaysia and Singapore. From then to the present, he continued and enlarged on his earlier ministry. He also initiated and was involved in further projects: -
- In October, 1997, he pioneered the bimonthly Mission Night and published a Mission Prayer Bulletin which was later to be known as The ECHOS. It is now into its eighth year. Both the Mission Night and The ECHOS are to create mission awareness among the assemblies in Penang. He now has a Mission Committee to assist him.
- At the same time, he also came out with his first personal newsletter to update prayer-partners on his movements so that they can intercede for him more intelligently. It is known as the Berita Bethel. Berita is Malay for news, and Bethel is the name of his house.
- In 1999/2000, he started a Bible Class to equip young adult leaders in his home, known as Bethel Bible Class (BBC). At the same time, he conducted a fortnightly Assembly Bible Class (ABC) on Sunday afternoons for Burmah Road Gospel Hall. This stopped in December 2000, and in April, 2001 Sungei Nibong Gospel Hall invited him to start the fortnightly SNGH-ABC for leaders and workers in the Penang assemblies to learn Biblical Assembly Distinctives and commencing from 2004 to do a course on Eschatology.
- In August, 2000, he stepped down from the Oversight to concentrate on his wider ministry.
- During this period, he has been invited for, and also has led, Short-Term Mission trips to teach the Scriptures in Cambodia, Vietnam, India, Myanmar, Australia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand. He has also been to Israel and the US.
While KC Ung is commended by his 150-year assembly at Burmah Road Gospel Hall in Penang to teach the Scriptures in the assemblies in Malaysia and Singapore, he believes in a Calling by God for such service and looks to God always for His Personal direction, Protection and Provision in all things.
Note: For more of his background, click on to his Biodata. |