22 Mar Cross-Cultural Collaboration
Isaac Goh is our Co-Mission Partner based in Sabah, East Malaysia, and leads the Micah Centre – a cross-cultural mission training school. The school focuses on mobilizing urban churches and equipping young people to empower the rural indigenous community in Sabah through transformational development.
As the principal of Micah Centre, Isaac recruits, trains, and sends trainees out for various mission work within the rural indigenous community. He also connects with local churches, particularly urban churches, to give support and resources for community development projects.
Over the course of the last quarter in 2022, trainees at Micah Centre completed their 3-month practical in rural villages. This formally concludes their entire discipleship training program. During the practical period, trainees learned how to do home visitation in order to build relationships and trust with local villagers.
Through collaborations with the local church, trainees also conducted some empowerment programs, such as basic discipleship classes for young people, a basic financial literacy program for women, and training for Sunday school teachers.
From this batch, there are 2 trainees who have decided to explore further into full-time ministry and serve cross-culturally among the poor community (rural indigenous people, Sabah stateless children).
The Micah Centre will arrange a 3-month ministry internship for them from March to May 2023. During this focused internship period, they will be trained and equipped under a specific ministry and then, assigned to serve within that ministry for 1-2 months in the villages.
Towards the end of 2022, Isaac also had the opportunity to meet with a Christian teacher working in a local secondary school in one of the rural villages. The school has about 800 students and 90% of them are Christians. However, there are many problems in the school with regard to social, moral, and academic issues. Many of the Christian students are still considered not born-again (nominal Christian). This has led to many of them converting to another religion after leaving the school.
Thus, Isaac and his team have chosen to adopt this mission field by working closely with the Christian teachers and local churches in that area, in order to minister and disciple the students so they can spiritually grow and mature in many aspects. The team has had discussions with one mission organization called Scripture Union (Sabah) to organize a youth camp for this year to help the Christian students.
Pray for the local church that has been equipped with disciple class, financial literacy, and Sunday school teaching so that their life will experience transformation and grow in maturity. Pray also for the co-workers to have the wisdom to follow up on the above ministries.
Pray for the collaboration between Isaac’s team and the local Christian teachers, church leaders, and Scripture Union, so that they can see the roles they each need to play for in this ministry. Pray that God will open the door of opportunity for the ministry to grow.