St Helen Annual General Meeting

Annual General Meeting (AGM) is held by St Helen Church on 18 April 2009. The main purpose of AGM is to ensure the church members are informed of all church activities and also as and act of being transparent to church financial spending and revenue.

This year, 2009, saw many St Helenmembers and St Helen chapels attended the meeting. Active participation from the members allow the church to improve on its weaknesses and solve many pending problems.

Revd Eliot imparted his knowledge and shared the word of God to the congregation. Many were touched by his sharing. He pointed that the chapels and St Simon Sebuyau are good examples to St Helen because they have shown their support to the church thorugh their huge amount their offering regardless of their status as farmers and non-government officers.

The meeting ended in good spirits. Many were encouraged by testimonies of church members and they left the meeting with new resolutions to the church.

Who Is Responsible For Our Suffering?

Some of us might remember a few incidents involving mass destruction such as landslides, flood, Greg storm in Sabah and Tsunami that destroyed the whole town of Aceh. Religious leaders and even some laymen were quick to point that these destructions were due to the sins committed by the people where the disasters happened.

In Luke 13:1-5, Jesus was approached by a few people reporting to Him that they were a few Galileans who were killed by Pilots and their blood were mixed with the sacrifice they made. Jesus also mentioned that, there were 18 people who died due to a construction accident at Siloam. These raised an issue of who were responsible for their death. Jesus answered them by giving us two perspectives.

a) We are all subject to destruction unless we repent.

Jesus said, all humans are subject to destruction unless we repent. Those who died in an accident or died due to natural disasters does not mean that they have done greater sins than others. Remember, we are all sinners. What Jesus want us to learn from these incidents, is that we, as bystanders, need to see these events as a signal of repentance. Being in a safe zone does not mean that we will not suffer or escape death neither being a good Christians we are better than others that we will not experience suffering.

Jesus called for spiritual salvation by asking us to repent from our sins. in Rome 2:4, we were told that God's generosity to us should be taken as an opportunity for us to repent. Whenever we make up in the morning, the next day, and still be able to breathe the air, we should use that opportunity to ask forgiveness from the Lord and turn away from our sinful ways.

b) Death and Sufferings are no longer connected to sins only.
In the old testament, death and suffering are connected to sins as written in Exodus 20:5. And even in the old testament, Luke 5:20, Jesus healed the sick by forgiving their sins. Sinners in the old testament suffer diseases and death not only physically, but also spiritually.

However, Jesus gave us a new perspective that death and suffering do not necessarily connected to sins. This can be found in John 9:1-3. Jesus was asked whether a blind man was blind due to his or his father's sin. Jesus answered him directly saying that it was neither both.

Why is there a disconnection? When Jesus died on the cross, he beared all of our sins so that we can be saved spiritually. We are free from the bondage of eternal death although we will die physically. When Jesus came into the world, He experienced our sufferings and the pain they caused. Jesus was indeed graduated from the School of Suffering.

Therefore, while He was ministering on earth, He never refused to heal the sick and demon possessed people. He understood their sufferings and had deep compassion for them. Most of our sufferings and death today are no longer connected to sins. People may die on the road due to accidents, most people suffer serious illness due to poor health mantainance, many people suffer financially due to poor financial planning and management and broken marriage are not only due to adultery but to many other factors.

Therefore, I sincerely believe that, every suffering and death that we see in front of our eyes, should be seen as a call for repentance and we cannot always make a connection that people who suffer diseases or experience death are worse sinners than us because sufferings and death are not neccessarily related to sins.