700 are studying the Bible in Jakarta, Indonesia, the largest Muslim country of the world. HOPEworldwide Kuala Lumpur raised over US$173,000 at a Christmas Eve concert. All this and more from Mike Taliaferro and ICOC HotNews.

2008 Indonesia and Malaysia Report

Kuala Lumpur: Miracle On Christmas Eve

The 24th December, 2008 was a night to remember for the KL Church. It was the night of the biggest fun-raising event ever for HOPE worldwide KL, Malaysia. With a membership of only 340 people, the church attempted to fill a hall that seats 5300 in just 6 weeks. Our goal was to raise enough money to set up a building fund for our Center of HOPE by organizing a concert featuring a world-class key act, The New York Harlem Singers (NYHS). There were also many talented local artistes lined up along with them, a soprano, a tenor, children choir and a percussion unit. With barely 3 months to prepare for the concert, I have nothing but praise for our brothers and sisters who put up a herculean effort to make the concert a success.

We prayed and preached about it every week for 3 months, beginning in Oct. Tickets only went on sale 6 weeks before the concert. Everyone, including the Christians’ family members and relatives, were mobilized. The committee set up comprised of ordinary disciples with extraordinary level of dedication and determination to blow it out for God. If it had not been for the team, I would have given up halfway. We spurred each other on in spite of tremendous difficulties. From getting the local artistes to perform at a nominal fee, to getting everyone to agree with the contracts, to dealing with government officials to apply for our show, to getting a venue at a cheap price, and perhaps, the toughest of all, being caught in the middle of a world financial crisis. When we started, the crisis had yet to be full-blown. We believed we could get companies to sponsor our event. We prepared proposals for companies to be our title sponsor for RM200,000 (US$58K). More than 100 proposals were sent out. No one responded. It was a real faith-testing time.

But God is great. We were scouting for a venue that could seat 2000-3000 people. The cost of renting such a place, including sound and lights, is easily RM200,000 (US$58K). The cost would be too high. Our last hope was a concert hall, 6000ft above sea level, up at Genting Highlands Resort. Our team of Darick Wong (HOPE Program Director), Jee Eng (a sister, director of trade) and Mr Kok Kee Boon (local artiste management) went up with a proposal of our concert. They loved it and decided to give us the venue, The Arena of Stars, 5300 capacity, absolutely FREE of charge! We were flabbergasted. We knew God was working for us. With that, we proceeded to print thousands of leaflets, hired a ticketing agent, a PR Agency for media coverage, arranged press conferences and met up twice every week.

However, other obstacles came in. Our application for the event had to go through government offices. We were required to submit 5 books of application forms to 4 different government agents. We had to get the contract with the producer signed, have it scanned and send back to us, take that and submit with the 5 books to the govt offices. We had to wait for 1 week before they met to discuss our show, wait for their approval before proceeding to the Malaysian Immigration to get their approval, then proceed to apply for withholding tax, pay that and send all these back to the producer so he could apply for VISAs for them to perform in Malaysia. While all these were taking place, the church was already selling tickets. The risk was incredibly high that we might not even get the show approved. Things were completely out of our hands. We prayed a lot. After many agonizing delays with many govt. departments, we finally had the show approved! We needed to send the approval to the producer by the 29th Nov. They were leaving the States on the 1st Dec. The show approval arrived at 12pm, 28th Nov, just in the nick of time for us to courier it to the producer by 24hr service.

The drama did not end there. There were many problems all the way up the show. We arrived on the 23rd Dec, ready to sound check and go through all the dry runs. The venue sponsors provided all the equipments – except the cables. We were in complete shock since we were not told and we were already 6000ft up! Our technicians had to travel all the way down just to get cables – the set up was delayed by 6 hours. Not good. The NYHS arrived on 23rd evening. We could only get them to sound check and rehearse on the 24th at 3pm. All the rehearsals and dry runs were completed at 6.30pm, barely 2 hours before the concert. Everyone was stressed out!

Finally, it was time for the crowds to come in. Many who donated and were given tickets to said it was too far and too much traffic to be travelling to the Arena of Stars. We were waiting anxiously for the hall to fill up. In the end, there were more than 3000 people! God brought the crowd.

The concert was a great success. Over 3000 people got to watch a video of HOPE worldwide KL. We collected over RM8000 cash donations on the concert day itself. In total, HOPE worldwide KL raised RM600,000 (US$173K)! That is 462 times what we collect for poor every month.

The KL Church is grateful for the leadership and support of John and Karen Louis and the Singapore Church. They helped us by constantly praying and even setting up booths every week to sell tickets for the concert. Christians from Singapore travelled 6hrs to Genting to support the KL Church.

Many of the KL disciples did amazing things. Ordinary disciples started boldly approaching their CEOs, CFOs,…asking if they could do presentations on HOPE worldwide. Many of us came out of our comfort zones to push for the concert. We are so proud of them for the heroic efforts.

In closing, it is impossible for us to claim credit for this. There were just too many things beyond our control and only God could have done this. We praise and thank God for His grace and protection for us during this time. Truly, to God be the Glory!