Restoring Community
Upon joining FBC in 2012, Lydia and I started the Tamil Ministry from scratch by ministering to families around Subang. Some were very poor, marginalized, and non-believing families. Some parents were involved in gangs and children were not attending school regularly and they suffered from malnutrition.
By God’s grace, we led them to Christ and taught them how to live by the Word. The home cells then met as a congregation a year later. Today the Tamil service has 130 members.
In 2013, we started providing tuition to the children. With the help and support of the elders, we worked on the vision to start Makarios Children’s Homes. This comprised of 2 gender-segregated homes near church. The objective was to assist the families who could barely support their children through school. We provide stay and tuition to raise the children for a better life.
Today, we have 4 full time staff assisting at Makarios, 20 volunteer teachers teaching the kids twice a week. The pioneer children then aged between 4 to 6 are now mostly in Form 1 to 4. In 2015, we started a youth service, which has grown from 6 to 32 members, and in 2018, music classes.
To grow more effectively, a group of women meet up on a weekly basis to pray for the members and unsaved communities.
We helped the families stabilize by helping them through their addiction, preparing them for jobs and starting small businesses. To intensify effectiveness, we started a home cell in one of the poorest urban areas, Desa Mentari in 2016 followed by the outreach centre a year later.
The elders, the more mature Tamil service members, certain English service members as well as members of other churches have assisted significantly in building this Ministry. We are thankful to God for His grace and love to the poor and for guiding and providing thus far. We believe the children will succeed in what God has called them to as we have sowed His word in them and continue to provide character building. The parents are also now involved in helping others to grow in Him.
We have seen very broken and poor people now live godly lives and build others, demonstrating that anyone can hope in Him.
In January 2020, we have started a second service. We have seen the fruitfulness of His work year by year as we build disciples, who in turn build more disciples and grow the Kingdom.