Kenny Gan – Shining for Jesus

Kenny Gan Eng Huat, was called home to be with the Lord on the 17th of November 2012.  We here at Bangsar Gospel Centre have had the privilege of enjoying his fellowship and blessed many times by his teaching ministry and by his life testimony.

Brothers Jeffrey Tan and Kim Seng went down to Singapore to attend Kenny’s funeral and Wake Service.  They carried with them a message of condolences from our church to Kenny’s wife and daughter, Bee Lee and Debbie, for their loss.

However, we also gave thanks and praise to God for Kenny’s amazing life that was such a “great blessing to  countless people from all across the world”.

Kenny had a very friendly and universal face which made people find him very approachable and easy to relate to even though they often are confused about his nationality or his origins.  For example, he has been thought to have been a Thai, a Spaniard, a Malay, a Mexican, a Filipino, an Eskimo and an American Red Indian.

In fact, Kenny was born in 1954 to a Chinese family in Singapore who was of Taoist/Buddhist descent.  His father was abusive, a drunkard and a member of the criminal Triads.  His mother was a gambler. He grew up in the company of drug pushers and got into drugs and alcohol himself from an early age. He started smoking at 5 and took to drugs at 13; progressing from marijuana to heroin use.   His life was out of control.  The drugs was making his life a mess and making him feel lonely but he found solace in going deeper into drugs. He would end up being arrested and imprisoned in Thailand.

But God had a plan and purpose for Kenny and he would become a great testimony of God’s love and grace.  Kenny started a new life when he gave his life to the Lord through the Hiding Placeministry in Singapore in 1977.

He started with serving full-time with a Christian halfway house two months after conversion.  He then joined  Operation Mobilisation (OM) in 1979 and served there for over 30 years of which 17 years was spent on the M.V. Doulos in various capacity (advance preparation personnel, conference coordinator, evangelism coordinator, conference speaker, ministry and training, etc).

Kenny has been married for 27 years to Bee Lee (whom he met on the Doulos in 1979) and have a daughter, Deborah, who is now 25 years old and married to Jacob Choi.

Since 1996, served as Assistant to the Director, Partnership Development Manager, as Area Representative of OM East Asia & the Pacific and main conference & seminar speaker and also responsible for special leadership training & mentoring.

Kenny discovered he had late stage cancer in 2009 but continued to serve as an itinerant speaker for OM.  He continued to travel around the world in God’s service impressing people with how he handled his illness without complaint and with steadfast faith in God.  His last sermon was in Manila, Philippines just the weekend before.

God graciously enabled Kenny to attend his daughter’s wedding in June this year.

Matthew 11:28 “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”   Kenny has truly  ‘fought the good fight and finished the race.”  Now he is enjoying his rest in God which is so richly deserved.

 

View Kenny give his testimony in the following 3 videos.

Youth Camp: Back to Basics

The church Youth Fellowship Camp is always a lot of fun with activities like the Amazing Race (YF-style), games and sports. It is also a great place to meet new friends and deepen existing friendships but even more exciting, it is an opportunity to meet with God through the study of His Word and through the fellowship of other believers. Prepare to be physically tired (from activities, from laughing, from late night chats…) but spiritually refreshed and challenged. What are you waiting for? Sign up.

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Here is some more things that you need to know……

Church Prayer (October 2012)

So what did you do this Halloween?  Well, despite the wet weather,  26 church members met together at the church combined prayer meeting for a time of offering praise and thanksgiving to God and to pray.  It was encouraging to see a number of youth and young adults attending.

The meeting started with a time of worship and singing songs of praise and thanksgiving with Min Fook leading.  Then Francis gave a brief sharing about the focus of the church leadership this year and also a preview of the direction for the church for the coming year.  This was followed by a time of prayer where we gathered in groups of 3 or 4 to pray for items raised and for each other.  The meeting was concluded with a closing prayer by Calvin Tan.

During his sharing, Francis reflected on the fact that it has been a year since Min Fook and he had taken on the role and responsibilities of church elders and he said it has been a challenging year.  Both had been surprised by the amount of work involved and by the amount of work and missions the church was involved in.  He then shared that the leadership had spent a lot of effort this year in improving its structure and operations with the intention of becoming more efficient, effective and to become more nurturing for the development of disciples and workers for God’s work from amongst the church membership; creating more opportunities for training and serving.

The Elders would take primary responsibility to oversee the areas of  1) Teaching and Education, 2) Training, 3) Prayer and 4) Finance.  Together with the church deacons, the other areas of focus will be 1) Pastoral/Care Groups, 2) Missions, 3) Special Events (e.g. baptism, weddings), 4) church operations, 5) Outreach and 6) church planting.  The theme for the church in 2013 is “To know God, to love God and to live for Him”.  The Sunday sermon series will reflect and support this and equip us to carry out the theme.

We gave thanks that God has already provided us a venue for our Christmas Celebration and Outreach event this year which will be at the Methodist College in Brickfields.  We also heard about how well our short service at Audrey’s mother’s wake was received by those who were there and praised God for being able to be a testimony there.

In our small groups, we prayed for the church, the leaders, the direction for 2013, our outreach teams, new premises and members of the church who were unwell with a special focus on Kid’s Church; specifically for the upcoming Sunday School Camp (attended by 18 kids), for current teachers and more workers especially from amongst the youth and young adults and also for a smooth transition in 2013 from the evening slot to 11.30 am every Sunday.

Hope to see more coming for next month’s combined prayer meeting.  We want to be one in our prayer.