I first met Rev Wong Kiu Nguok in my second year at the Trinity Theological College in Singapore. She was there for a one-year Master of Ministry Course and by then, she was a very senior pastor. My seniors who knew her held her in great esteem and respect.<\/p>\n
However, I was terrified of her; my mandarin and Foochow was to say the least elementary and I was a green horn in pastoral and ecclesiological matters. Although I attended Sunday school in my younger days in Sibu, I was quite disconnected with the Sarawak Chinese Annual Conference at that point in time.<\/p>\n
But what I heard about her further added to my distance from her. She was a very caring but strict pastor in the Xin Fu Yuan Church and she would reprimand the youths who dared stepped out of line.<\/p>\n
And hence my conversation with her was limited to a smattering of Mandarin and Foochow of only \u201cGood morning, How are you?\u201d.<\/p>\n
But once when it was known that I needed a medical procedure done, she sought me out to talk with me. She asked about my health condition and I shared with her in my \u201cbestest\u201d Foochow. Obviously, I used some wrong words but she kept very calm. After that, she prayed for me and we parted ways.<\/p>\n
A few days later, she sought me out again and in the most gentle way, shared with me that I had used uncouth Foochow words and she gently corrected me, sharing with me the more refined words. For the life of me, I have never heard such refined Foochow words but that day, not only did I learn some new words, I experienced the gentle correcting of a senior pastor. She was definitely what Paul told the Thessalonians to do and she did it.<\/p>\n
Paul says \u201cWe urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.\u201d (1 Thess 5:14 \u2013 NASV) and I was definitely the \u201cunruly\u201d one.<\/p>\n
I never forgot that incident and since then, I would intentionally seek her out at Conferences and meetings to show some kindness to a senior pastor who took time and grace to correct a greenhorn.<\/p>\n
My prayer is that more senior pastors would emulate her grace and her love. Rest in Peace, dear Rev Wong. Till we meet again in our Father\u2019s Home.<\/p>\n
Rev Lenita Tiong (Miri)<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I first met Rev Wong Kiu Nguok in my second year at the Trinity Theological College in Singapore. She was there for a one-year Master of Ministry Course and by then, she was a very senior pastor. My seniors who knew her held her in great esteem and respect. However, I was terrified of her; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,221,10],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23733"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23733"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23733\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/48980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scaccmm.sarawakmethodist.org\/new\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}