Engaging Lives Through The Marketplace

KAMPAR, July 29 - The Harvest Generation Church from Subang Jaya is organising a three-day camp called the Engage Church Camp at the Grand Kampar Hotel here from July 28 to 31.

88 members of the church participated in this camp meant to allow participants to experience God in their lives aside from having a good time.

Jonathan Chiam of the Engage Camp Team explained that the theme of this camp is ‘Engage’ because the team wanted the participants to better engage God through this camp.

Chiam explained, “Engage means putting something into action, engage means connecting, so through engaging God, we engage people as well.”

Although there were multiple sessions, there were two breakout sessions that were somehow different from the others as they were purposely tailored to suit the engage theme, namely , the Engage Session and the Engaging Marketplace.

During the Engage Session, campers were split into small groups to allow for a more targeted discussion and interaction where relevant topics were addressed.

Chiam explained that the Engage Session was basically a relationship-focused talk aimed at building on relationships with each other where participants were divided into those who are in a relationship and those not in a relationship.

Ang Hong Shien who was part of the singles group, said that she learnt to prioritise God through the Engage Session.

Ang said, “Although most of us are at an age where we desire to have boyfriends and girlfriends, we often get it wrong. Therefore, we need not rush it as it will follow through if we get our priorities right.”

Meanwhile, the Engaging Marketplace caters to young entrepreneurs who are interested to build or start up their own businesses.

Since up to 80 percent of its members consists of young working adults, the church seeks to empower the young generation by instilling God’s message into their workplace ethics.

With the objective to spark an entrepreneurship spirit within the young working adults to be bold by taking risks and carving out niche businesses that are in line with their passions, the organisers invited six guests who are in senior management of various fields to share their industry experiences with the participants.

Among the guests were owner and founder of automotive parts business Hung Lee, former chief executive officer of Pantai Group Holdings Alvin Lee, Executive Director of Spritzer Holdings Charles Chuah, former Maybank manager Wong Kok Choo, Director of KPMG Ipoh Felicia Liew, former Maybank assistant vice president for central region credit approval & assessment Chiam Chiau Hiong.

During the sharing session, Hung offered some words of wisdom to the participants who were mostly young working adults.

Hung said, “Often we get caught up with our ever busy work schedule, but we often neglect the spiritual aspect of our lives.

Hung shared that when he first started venturing into the business industry in the early 20s, he almost lost all his savings that he invested into his business as it did not turn out as he wished.

Citing his own personal experience as an example, Hung said, “Failure is never the end. In fact, it makes you stronger. Contrary to what many believe, failure is the beginning of a much brighter and successful future as you learn from your past mistakes.”

In reminding the participants not to look down upon and discriminate blue collar jobs or workers as Jesus himself was a carpenter, Hung added,

“Never turn your back on a beggar” Hung stressed.

Meanwhile, Lee said that the three most important things to ask God for

in prayer are wisdom, favour and honour.

Lee also added that not only does he pray for himself, he even prays for his boss as well.

In addition, achieving a work and family life balance is very important.

As Liew puts it, “Sometimes it is necessary to make some sacrifices in terms of career life for the sake of the family and especially for the children’s well-being.

Liew added, “In fact, I stopped working for a while to take care of my son when he was young. Then when he approached his teenage years and became more independent, I started working again. So I think it is vital to have wisdom and discipline in order to maintain a balanced work and family life.”

27-year old Justin Yong was of the opinion that the Engaging Marketplace was a really good sharing session by people of vast experience in life and business as they have been in the marketplace for many years.

Yong, who is an informations technology associate with Digi Telecommunications, said “I learnt that besides our ambitions and dreams which we of course should strive for, we must never lose sight of our need of God as we must always look to him for our strength.”

Yong strongly believes that while there are good times, bad times will also come.

“Therefore, to weather through the mountain high and valley low experiences, It is important to always have the God factor in our lives as we pursue our dream,” Yong added.

When asked what she gained throughout the three- day event so far, Ang replied, “I enjoyed the entire camp but particularly one of the sessions was really memorable and undescribable as it was a life changing moment for me.”

The 23-year old Ang also expressed her high expectations for the remaining half of the camp by stating, “I am expecting a lot more for tonight as I know the sermon is going to be powerful.”

Ang said that this camp was a really humbling experience for her as she learnt to continue to desire God.

“I realised that no matter what I may have done in the past, no matter how righteous or how sinful I was, God still loves me,” Ang, who is also a medical student at the International Medical University, added.

She further elaborated, “These days, everyone is imitating each other so I believe that it is very important to be original and not to be fakes. If we are good and pure on the inside, then it will naturally shine through on the outside.”

Another participant, Tan Suet Lin, 30, said that one of the biggest lessons she got out of the camp was that she learnt to be less selfish and to understand that the world does not revolve around her.

Besides the Engage Session and Engage Marketplace, there were praise and worship as well as prayer sessions throughout the camp which will also see the baptism of two young souls.

Participants were given some leisure time where they played some station games and futsal at the Sports@Grand Kampar.

Chiam also mentioned that the reason the organising team chose to host the camp in Kampar was because of its proximity to the capital city of Kuala Lumpur where most of the church’s members are working.

When asked about what she felt of Kampar, Ang said that she did not get the opportunity to explore Kampar this time around but would definitely come back to visit some of the famous tourist attractions here such as the tin-mining museum, Gua Tempurung as well as the Gopeng whitewater rapids.

The Harvest Generation Church was established in September 2016 by pastor Ryan Foo with just 6 members with the aim to build lives and raise a generation of godly disciples.

Today it has a congregation of over 150 people.

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