Rev Cheng Yang Kao was born on the July 24, 1931 in Fujian, China. When he was seven years old his parents brought him and his siblings to Sarawak and settled in Bintangor. In 1955, in his second year of marriage, he felt God’s calling and the following year he enrolled into Sibu Methodist Theological School to be equipped.

When I asked Mrs. Cheng whether she stayed with Rev. Cheng in MTS, she said: “No, I stayed with his parents and they took care of me. Rev. Cheng’s younger brother even partially financed Rev. Cheng’s expenditure in MTS.”

Graduating from MTS in 1960, Rev. Cheng was assigned to serve in Bukit Lan at Yuan Nan Methodist Church. Since then the couple served the Lord together, went through thick and thin in life, and brought up their children together until retirement. Rev. Cheng served as pastor for 38 years – 36 years as full time pastor and after retirement, because of  the shortage of pastors, he served for another two years. In 38 years he shepherded 10 churches and was the District Superintendent of Bintangor District for 2 years, the District Superintendent of Sarikei District for 8 years as well as being a member of the Board of Executive, Board of Finance, Board of Laity,  Board of Social Concerns and Board of Christian Education. He was also appointed to represent SCAC in the General Conference. As a pastor he was highly regarded by the church members. After retirement he stayed in Kuching and was often invited by churches without ordained pastor to conduct Holy Communion. He also participated in the Senior Fellowship. To enhance knowledge and spending quality time together, the couple also toured Australia, New Zealand, China and other places with their children.

Four years ago Rev. Cheng was diagnosed with stomach illness and needed an operation. After the operation he said: “I was calm and fearless when entering the operation theater. I submitted fully to the Lord, if the operation was a success, it was fine, if it was a failure I would have just returned to the Lord.” He had such strong faith. When he was recuperating, he wife and children never heard him complaining nor sighing. His six children and family members, from Australia, New Zealand, KL and Sibu took three-week rotations to stay with him and to take care of him. They also employed servants to do the house chores for him. His youngest son stayed not far from him was always ready to help him. Rev. Cheng was so blessed to have a loving wife to accompany him, children, daughters and sons in law to serve him. Many admire the loving and harmonious family.

Rev. Cheng was a faithful servant of our Lord and a well-organized pastor. We can prove the statement by three examples: 

1. His preaching was prudent: He was slow and steady when preaching and he followed the manuscript closely. No matter preaching in Mandarin or Foochow he would pronounce each word clearly, without exaggeration, not just telling his own story and never showing off his talent.In fact, when he talked to people he would make sure that they understood him clearly.

2. He was humble and sincere: Though he often feared that he might not be able to shepherd in a big church, he would humbly accept the posting. Another time he was asked to be the main speaker of a retreat, he humbly declined citing the reason that he had retired thus was not suitable (He accepted the invitation in the end).

3. Perfectly open in his action: Not too long after being posted to a certain church he found that some Youth Fellowship members acted strangely. After close observation, he took the opportunity to mediate in one of the fellowship gatherings. He was surprised when one of the youths snatched his microphone. Later he found that these youths were influenced by a certain group of adult members who were not cooperating with the Executive Committee. He related the affair to the Layleader and the Chairman of LCEC to seek a solution to settle the dispute. Rev. Cheng had always been open in all his doings, handled all matters systematically, never hid from problems nor denied responsibilities; he had been brave in facing difficulties and in solving problems.

Rev. Cheng was the oldest retired pastor in SCAC. He rested with the Lord on Feb 4, 2016 at 5:15 pm. For the past few years, three couples of retired pastors stayed in Kuching and we often gathered in each other’s house by rotation. We shared our food and drinks and talked about national, daily and godly matters. We really enjoyed our time. We will not have similar occasions on the earth again but we will meet in heaven. In summary Rev. Cheng’s life was like the victor’s as described in 2 Tim 4:7-8. Indeed the victor’s crown is his now!

May God bless Mrs. Cheng and their descendents!

By Rev Ting Daik Choung
Retired pastor