Dear Friends,
 
On 20th August Thursday, we had the privilege of having our 2nd graduation ceremony in our Bible college in Kerala for our students who finished the Certificate in Theology course (C.Th.) Ten students graduated, including a totally blind young evangelist, Bro.Claver and a few of our village pastors who were happy to receive this formal training and degree. They are glad for this opportunity to study the Word of the Lord here and to have a deeper understanding of His Word.
 
Attached please find some pictures of the graduation and the 10 students. Please keep them in your prayers as they go out to minister and teach in their respective villages in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Mumbai and Aurangabad. Many heartfelt thanks to everyone who prayed for the seminary, we are especially grateful to Pastor Moncy and Sis.Joy who sacrificially and selflessly helped us through the difficult times. Please pray for the next batch of students who will finish their B.Th. course this year. May the Lord bless you all richly!

Blessings,
Pastor Chacko Thomas
981-931-3189

Dear saints,

The presence of the Lord was incredibly great. Much preparation was put into this year’s camp. The renovation works were started a month before the camp.  The teams of volunteers led by bro. Collin Xavier, worked under very hot conditions to repair and carry out works to improve water, electricity supply and accommodation facilities.

The churches in Sabah went on a 40 day chain fast, which ended with 7 day fast on the last week. Bro. Freddy, the chairman of the organizing committee, got the team together to ensure every aspect of the preparation was measured up to the requirements.

There were 677 registered campers and another 100 plus who attended the evening services from villagers around the Kudat District.

This year we had people from many different places. Pastor Peter and a team of 4 came from Perak, West Malaysia. From Sarawak, they drove in 9 cars for more than 24 hours from Kuching led by Pastor Rabu. Another Sarawakian pastor, bro. Amerika came with 3 people from Miri by air.  From Indonesia, there were 9 participants, 8 of them being pastors.  Among them was the former General Superintendent, Nathaniel Subali.  A pastor and his wife came from Manila and a team of 8 youths came from Alive Community Church in Singapore. This year, we also had 5 Korean members from the Kota Kinabalu church. 

The main speakers were bro. Mark Hemus from the U.K., for the very first time at our camp, bro. T.A. Leow, our General Superintendent and the team from Singapore (they ministered to our Youth and also to our children) They were such a blessing to us and ministered under great anointing. Many were healed, we may never know how many and from what sickness. In fact, for 2 of the night services the preacher did not get to speak as the Spirit of the Lord took over, ministering, healing, delivering, filling and refilling with the Holy Ghost. God is so good…. to bring so many people together, working together in harmony, cooking, cleaning, having fun and worshipping and enjoying the presence of our Lord.

The Lord filled 100 with the Holy Ghost and 49 were baptized in Jesus Name.
I want to thank the Lord for making this camp possible and all those who had a part in making it happen.  Thank you for the blessings and support that you gave. To our sponsors…….the Lord bless you greatly.

From,
Bro. Clement

Dear ACC saints,

We closed the year 2008 with the ministers seminar, where 50 ministers and leaders attended the 2 day event. Bro. Moncy Mathews was our speaker. We had a tremendous move of God’s Spirit where the night service lasted 6 hours. Every minister was blessed and encouraged to face the Year of 2009. The Lord used bro. Moncy in a great way. He also ministered at our English main service and also at the Youth service where 1 young girl (classmate of Jinho) received the Holy Ghost.

We started our first week with fasting and prayer for 7 days, where at the end of it, we had 2 of our English Youth filled with Holy Ghost and baptized in Jesus name. This means a lot to us as we have been trying very hard to strengthen our English work. Praise the Lord for the growth now. We also had one Chinese brother, who has not been to church for 2 years, return.

Throughout the District, there were 40 baptised and 30 received the Holy Ghost up till end of February. (Reports for March are not in yet)

In January I made a 5 day trip to Seremban, during the Chinese New Year holidays to teach Intensive Bible Course to 15 aspiring leaders in the Bahasa Church retreat. Many of them had taken leave from work to attend this course and some even came as far from Perak and Klang.

In February, we had revival meetings in Kg. Bongkol, Pitas, (pastored by Laidin, one of our Bible school grad) where a team from K.K., Penampang and the Pitas area combined to help. Many visitors came for this 2 day event.

In March we had our ministers’ seminar in K.K. for 2 days.  Once again it was a great time of training, fellowship, worship and meetings among all the ministers throughout Sabah.

We were also blessed in March with the presence of bro. Wesley Whitehead (Tabernacle of Joy) to participate in a conference for his school.  The English Youth organized Friendship Night for two days.  A first time visitor received the Holy Spirit.  

We have already established 2 new churches so far this year. One in Nangoh, which is in the Sandakan district.

The other is actually not UPC but they want to be affiliated with UPC, a church (town of Tawau on the East coast) that is being pastored by a young man (Rudy) who attended a bible school started by bro. Mark and myself, in Tarakan, Kalimantan, several years ago. I went to teach one module (Apostolic Doctrine) every year. This church already has its own land and building.

During this quarter we also sent ministers every month to Kuching to help with Bahasa work there, which has grown in the last year when one of our ministers (Pastor of the Semporna town church) went back to Kuching after retiring from the Navy.

We are currently in the process of establishing a work in Labuan (an Island and a possible gateway into Brunei). We have a young Chinese man from K.K. who has got a job there and has a burden to help in the Kingdom.

We are so thankful to ACC for partnering with us in His Kingdom.

The Lord bless you all greatly.
Bro. Clement

Praise  the Lord!

Its a joy and relief to report that the Mumbai terrorist attacks are over. Mumbai virtually shut down the past 2 days. The attacks from the ruthless terrorists are over. Today around noon after 60 hours of attack, the security forces (National Security Guards) were able to shoot down the last terrorist. The exact number of them aren’t known, but it is believed to be 10. While 9 were killed, 1 has been captured alive and is being interrogated right now.

Seems they came by sea from Karachi, Pakistan to India, hijacked a boat and killed the members while their boat went back. 2 coast guard officials who came by to check on them were also murdered. They planned to kill 5000 people, and had brought enough ammo. But God did not allow such a massacre. They were able to kill about 200 and injured more than 300. Exact numbers are not yet known. About 22 foreigners have been killed, 20 security personnel have also died including top officers. Among the dead are also relatives of top cops, relatives of celebrities, top businessmen, hotel staff, lots of israelis, the rabbi and his wife…..their son celebrated his 2nd birthday today!)

While the Nariman House is an Israeli residential place having a prayer house too, the Oberoi and Taj are posh 5 star hotels. The Taj built in 1903 is one of the most expensive hotels in India. Its restaurant is the most expensive in India. The Taj is still standing after numerous explosions only because it is a very strong stone structure. It is totally devastated inside. Israeli medics and forensic experts, the FBI and Scotland Yard are on the way here to help in the terror investigations.

We are glad that its all over and though we haven’t lost anyone we know directly, friends of our friends have lost their lives and we feel connected to them somehow in this hour of grief and loss. Today was the funeral for most of them. Please join us in prayers for the injured and the families of those who have lost their lives. Please pray that God may use this opportunity to draw many to Him as the Comforter and our Refuge.

This Thanksgiving I am grateful for all of you who have covered us and our church in prayers and kept us out of harm. Thank you for your mails and words of encouragement. The Lord be with you all!

Blessings,
Pastor Chacko Thomas
981-931-3189

Dear Beloved in Christ,

Hope you are doing good. By now I believe most of you will be aware of the Mumbai shootings and bombings that took place yesterday night. I and my family are fine. I know this is only by God’s grace and your fervent prayers, for which we are so thankful. All our friends and near and dear ones are also safe. But they have lost a few of their friends sadly.

Just to update you, according to our news channels, a group of terrorists hijacked 2 police vehicles and escaped with them. They opened fire at a major railway station killing many, shot at a business house and at a big hospital too. They also took over the two posh 5 star hotels in South Mumbai: the Taj, near the Gateway of India, and the Oberoi Trident, which is close to it. They took hostages at both the hotels, majority of whom were foreigners. They were looking for British and American passport holders. 6 were shot and among them were 2 top US intelligence officials. About 50 guests are still held hostages. Please pray for their safety.

Three of our top officers were shot dead - the Chief of Anti-Terror Squad, an encouter specialist, and the Deputy Inspector General of Police (Mumbai). That is when the army, naval commandos & National Security Guards were called in. They have stormed the hotels overnight and firing is still in progress. While the terrorists have been throwing out grenades and a portion of the Taj is gutted badly, hotel guests in the remaining floors have been rescued. Not much headway has been done so far and over 100 are left dead and about 300 injured.

As the situation continues to be tense in the south, please pray for the rest of the city who are in panic and in a sense of insecurity. The citizens of Mumbai have been advised to stay indoors today and all schools and colleges are closed today.

Thank you for your encouraging mails and much required prayers. I am so grateful! I love you all and know that you are with us in prayers before the Lord. Please join us in praying for peace in the city and to all those hundreds of innocents who are suffering due to this situation. It is so good to trust in the Lord and be in the shelter of His wings!

Blessings,
Chacko
981-931-3189