Talk to KTT Christian Fellowship: Christian Hope is not false optimism

The Christian Fellowship of Kolej Teknologi Timur (KTT), Nilai, invited Fr. Michael Chua, Parish Priest of the Church of Visitation, Seremban and the Administrator of the Chapel of St. Theresa, Nilai, to speak to them on the issue of coping with discouragements and disappointments in the face of Christian Hope, yesterday, December 2. Fr. Michael gave a scriptural exposition of hope that spanned the entire Bible. He spoke of the Bible being a book that strung together stories of people who encountered discouragement, failure, disappointment, setback, and opposition narrated juxtaposed against a backdrop of God's loving and faithful presence and guidance. "Hope is found where hopelessness is experienced."

In the Old Testament hope is closely related to the character of God. "God is Truth! God never lies!" Those who hope in God, trust God and his promises. This patient hope is firmly anchored in the history and narrative of Scriptures. The God who has fulfilled his promises to Israel in the past will continue to be faithful in the present and future.

Hope in New Testament is rooted in the Old Testament. But the situation of the Christian who hopes is decisively different from that of the OT. Christian hope rests on God’s act of salvation in Christ. Christian hope therefore holds together tension of living in the present and yet journeying towards the future, towards the perfect realisation of God's salvation when Christ comes again. This tension is thus experienced in moments of difficulty, suffering and pain. Fr. Chua reassured them from his exposition of Rom 5:1-5, that Christian hope is based on reality and on three signs: namely the reality of Christ's victory over death and sin by his own death and resurrection, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the tribulation that would be experienced by his followers.

Finally, Fr. Chua used Moses as the model of hope in face of disappointments. Moses suffered setbacks and disappointments throughout his life in the form of an identity crisis, rejection by his own people and his own adopted family, complaints and criticisms from the people he led and finally experiencing the greatest disappointment of all, the unrealised dream of entering the Promised Land. For Moses, hope ultimately meant not placing hope in either persons or circumstances but in God who never disappoints. Hope is not false optimism, it is not based on the false belief that things will get better. In fact, things may get worse before they even improve. Hope is ultimately believing that God will be faithful to his promises and that He will be with us in both moments of joy and sorrow, success and failure, achievements and disappointments, life and death.

The Christian Fellowship of KTT is a community of Christians from various churches and denominations,including Catholics. They meet every Wednesday at 8.00 pm. For further information please contact Ricky 014-3727513 or Maegyvear (President) 014-5554668.

More photos on Facebook.

Mass at Inti College, October 13

Fr. Michael Chua celebrated mass at the Multipurpose Hall/ Students Centre of Inti College today, October 13. The Colleges in Nilai are close to the end of the semester and many of the students will soon be sitting for their semester end exams. A number of students from Nilai College joined the group from Inti.

CSS - Inti Gathering, September 29

The Catholic Students Society of Inti University College organised a gathering of Catholic students from Inti (and some from neighbouring institutions)on September 29th in Room SC1-A1. It was also an opportunity to welcome the new batch of students and to introduce them to CSS and its activities.

Here are some pictures from Christopher Aditya Widyawan's Facebook Photo gallery.

A Nite of Gathering for Central CSS, Chapel of St. Theresa

Sunday the 13th of September was a remarkable and exciting Day for the CSS Members from different Campuses in and surrounding Nilai, that converged for a Centralized CSS Gathering at Chapel of St. Theresa.

The Gathering commenced immediately after the MASS. Ricky Rack from Kolej Teknologi Timur (KTT) was the Master of Ceremonies for the day. He invited Rev. Fr. Mike Chua, Parish Priest of the Church of the Visitation, Seremban and the Administrator of Chapel of St. Theresa, Nilai, to Grace the Gathering with Prayer. Rev. Fr. Mike prayed for God's mercy, protection and unity among all as a community. He told the students that the aim of the gathering is to bring all the Catholic Students within and outside of Nilai together for an evening of introductions, fellowship and prayer. There was often little interaction among the different campuses, he added, and so this was an opportunity to come together on the basis of their common Catholic identity irrespective of cultural and national backgrounds. This was also an opportunity to introduce the respective CSS and the Central CSS to the new intake of students.

Ricky then requested all members to introduce themselves to get acquainted based on their names, background and school of study. Though many were shy at first, but later on were more relaxed with self-introductions.

Members proceeded straight for light refreshment, which turned out to be a sumptuous and exclusive meal. It was both an occasion for dining and fellowship affording members an interactive interlude before the next session.

Also present with Rev. Fr. Mike Chua was the ever knowledgeable and agreeable Dr. Sherman Kuek of the Pastoral Institute of the Melaka Johor Diocese. Ricky Rack,as forms of ice breakers, involved all members into several games, one of which was the 'First Impression.' A piece of paper was stuck to the back of every individual. As they went round the group, other members would write their first impressions on that piece of paper thus creating a unique profile for the person. The game turned out to be very hilarious especially when some members were selected to read out the comments written by their friends.

Kevin Marandah, CSS President of Nilai College then led the gathering into a time of praise and worship, and thereafter the sign of peace was exchanged by everyone - some with hand shakes, others with hugs or charming smiles.

Shaun Mirandah, the CSS Centralized Co-ordinator, called on the presence of Frac Faga Utoo (Popularly called Obama) to talk on the theme of the day, which he entitled " God's Grace is Coming in a Big Way". Franc started with a joyful spiritual song that had the following lyrics: 'He's coming in a Big way when it seems like God is coming too late.' The song illustrated the need for members to put their trust and faith in God in the midst of difficulties. Demystifying this, he used a story from the Gospel of St. John that showed how Jesus Christ waited for an appointed hour and to raise Lazarus from death thus demonstrating that with God all things are possible. He exhorted all members to be courageous and seek God in all their endeavours. Members were pleased and inspired with the message and applauded him for such a profoundly inspiring talk.

The Catholic Faith, added Shaun, constantly challenges Catholic Students to true to their identity, in other words, they need to remain faithful to the teachings and practices of the Catholic faith. He spoke about 'The Rosary Devotion' as a great way to participate in the life of our Mother Mary. He talks about the Miracles of the Rosary Devotion and called for members who have testimony to share the graces they had received through the intercession of Mary in the Rosary.

The writer, Brother Godfrey, testified how continuous Devotion to the Rosary Intercession for our Mother Mary through Her Son Jesus Christ, has awarded him a scholarship with the University of Nottingham. He said, as Catholics, he exhorted all CSS Members to take the Rosary Devotion seriously for continuous intercession in their lives.

Other testimonies came from Ms Oluchi and Brother Kevin Marandah who testified how continuous intercession of Mary through the Rosary has been helpful and both encouraged all CSS members to always recite their Rosary.

Finally, Shaun spoke about how the Rosary Devotion has also been of help to him and encouraged members to be serious most especially in the month of October for Rosary devotion.

The gathering was great in that it created and strengthened bond of relationships, irrespective of our various background, cultural heritage and the spirit of brotherhood among members were established. Shaun closed the Gathering by expressing this thanks and appreciation to all members for their time, and patience throughout the gathering. He also singled out Brother Rohshel Isaac (The Guitarist) from Seremban.

- By Godfrey Akpakwu
(MSc. University of Nottingham)

College Students Gathering and Fellowship

The students from the colleges in and around Nilai, MIAT, KTT, Inti, Nilai, got together last night for an evening of praise and worship, games, fellowship, food and bible study.

Welcome to all new College students

A warm welcome to all our new intake students from the surrounding colleges in Nilai and its vicinity. The community of the Chapel of St. Theresa, Nilai, wishes to make this your home away from home.

The Chapel liturgical committee frequently undertakes recruitment drives to get readers, responsorial psalm cantors, choir members and musicians to make our weekly liturgy truly participative and alive. If you are interested, please contact the Commentator on duty for the day.

Several of the Colleges in the vicinity already have Catholic Students Societies or fellowships, which you may be interested to join. You may get in touch with the following persons for details of meetings and events.
MIAT: Shaun Mirandah (017-7256657)
Inti: Claire (016-9373179)
Nilai: Kevin Mirandah (017-7774816)
KTT: Ricky (014-3727513)

We also are trying to initiate a home-stay programme for students who will not be able to return home for the holidays and may wish to experience the comforts of a Malaysian home with all its hospitality. Please contact our Chapel Committee Chairman (refer to side bar)

Feel free to send an email or post a comment on this blog if you wish to interact with our Chapel Administrator, Fr. Michael Chua.

Catholic Students Camp 2009: A Total Gathering In Christ and Amity in Brotherhood

By Franc Fagah Utoo (Nigeria),College of Law,INTI Uni.Col

What has come to become the Annual Catholic Students Camp staged in the traditional venue of Port Dickson took place between Friday,24th July and Sunday,26th July 2009 at the La Salle Bungalow, Port Dickson.

A remarkable part of this year's camp was the high improvement in attendance as it triples the one recorded last year. This, understandably was due majorly to the fact that unlike last year's, this year's camp was held while most schools were in session. The beauty of the gathering was that for the first time in the lives of many of the students close and intimate relationships were established with friends of diverse backgrounds and race as nearly all the major continents of the world were represented in the camp.

Campers went straight into action on arrival at the camp on the first day, as they all converge on the beach for some fun games and swimming. In the process, new acquaitances and friends were made as the games served as a channel for introduction of members, meeting of minds and getting to understand each other intimately. At the sea side, other campers were desirous of showing off their swimming skills whereas others expressed their fears for such a large volume of water and preferred to swim close to the bank.

All was set for the first devotional activity of the night after shower and sumptious dinner when the ever knowledgeable and amiable Dr. Sherman Kuek , who was the Pastoral Associate for Formation and Youth Ministry in the Church of Seremban (presently serving as Director of the Pastoral Institute of the Diocese of Melaka Johor Diocese) engaged the campers with the first lesson of the camp as he comprehensibly elaborated on what we mean and who we are as catholics. He spoke on how catholics allowed themselves to slow down in faith despite being blessed with the fullness of faith. At the end, he gave campers an assignment to be explained the following day and centred on the theme of this year's camp," MAKING IT COUNT", explaining that we have to create a way to make our lives a worthy example to other christians as christ's worthy ambassadors.

On Saturday morning after breakfast,our charismatic and highly inspirational Rev.Fr.Michael Chua took time to lecture campers on stereotypes and it's devastating effect on inter-personal and social relations,and asked us to be examples of how to unite in the midst of diversity. He also, admonished campers to imbibe the leadership spirit and be ready to lead for worthy causes or support those who sacrifice in leading for a good cause. In his characteristic self, Fr.Mike delved into pragmatism by dividing campers into 2 groups with one group asked to construct a bridge while the other was to prevent the construction of the bridge to their end of the river. Not knowing what was the exact reason for this task, campers from the two camps engaged themselves in tussles over the construction of the bridge. We were all surprised when he brilliantly explained that the moral of the practice was to learn the art of negotiation for peace and love. For if those virtues practiced by both parties, there could have been a hitch free construction to serve the interests of both sides.

Further activities for Saturday were galore of fun as campers engaged in swimming, tele match, banana boat ride, football, dancing, singing, and the day's activities culminated with a VERY HIGH CLASS BBQ,dinner and naughty fun games..
Camp came to and end on Sunday after Mass by Fr.Michael Chua.

The high point of this year's camp was the exclusive, sumptuous, and more than adequate meals that caused some students to accuse Fr.Mike of trying to overfeed them. Others were the relationships established, the discipline imbibed, the spirit of brotherhood reflected despite our various backgrouds as typified by the way we ate together, slept together, and play together. IT WAS A LIVE OF COMPLETE BROTHERHOOD AND A TRUE TEST OF OUR CIVILIZATION AND FAITH IN CHRIST. OUR LIVES WILL SURELY COUNT!!!

Below is an excerpt of brief comments by campers:

"Great, fantastic......." -Bagas Wira Paksi (Indonesia) Nilai U.C

"Unity among Catholics from different parts of the world" - Dennis Clement (Malaysia) I.M.U

"I am proud to be a Catholic, aren't you" - Diderot Diffo,(Cameroun) INTI-UC

"It was so nice meeting my fellow youth and getting together. The teachings from Fr.Mike also improved my way of live" - Jacqualine Sayi (Tanzania) Nilai UC

" As if it shouldn't have end' - Shaun Mirandah (Malaysia) Mal.Inst.Of Aviation Tech

"It was really fun and an avenue to make lot of friends"- Godfrey Akpakwu (Nigeria) Notthingham Univ. (Masters student)

" Highly spiritual and socially oriented" - Nicole Asha (Malaysia) Monash Univ.

"The camp was nice and fun too,esp.the games. I love the camp...... but I won't smile. We should have such occassions very often" Mariam Nannono (Uganda) NILAI UC

"Being able to show my true colors and being accepted was ^^ ^^*grins* " -Maria, INTI-UC

See you again next year in Jesus name