By Bishop Bill Atwood
Archbishop Bolly Lapok, the Primate of South East Asia, invited me as the GAFON Ambassador to come to his Province. He asked me first to visit each of the Dioceses and then travel to Kuching to meet with him. I have been meeting with bishops, clergy, and lay leaders celebrating our relationships and discussing the future of mission by Anglicans all across the Province. It has been a wonderful time.
Now, I am just about to leave Kuching, I am heading to London and then eventually back to the States. I have visited Singapore and have been updated on the magnificent outreach that they are pursuing in Viet Nam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and even in Nepal. The Bishop of Singapore is the Rt. Rev. Rennis Ponniah. He is one of the greatest Bible teachers in the Anglican Communion and is also an amazing pastor. Anyone who has the chance to meet with him is blessed by the experience.
From Singapore I went to Kuala Lumpur, West Malaysia. Despite the fact that it was an extremely busy time, Bishop Moon Hing welcomed me as we talked for hours about mission and the future. He is a truly visionary leader. When he was consecrated as bishop, he introduced a thirty year vision for the Diocese that would even outlast his ministry. Now six years into the vision, many things have been organized. One of the great emphases he has brought is that of training. There are many training courses, and one of the most exciting is a four year Lay Readers’ Training Course that runs perpetually. A candidate can enter in any year one through four and then continue until the other modules are accomplished. While someone could do the training as year 1, 2, 3, and 4, it could also be done as 2, 3, 4, and then 1. Because of a schedule problem I was asked to fill in teaching about home cell groups, so I spent an afternoon with the Lay Readers doing that. It was a very high energy time!
From Kuala Lumpur, I flew to Tawau in the Saba Diocese on the huge island of Borneo. In Tawau I met with leaders and clergy from St. Patrick’s Church and spent an absolutely delightful time with Assistant Bishop John Yeo. The Diocesan Bishop is Albert Vun. He is an old friend, but is on sabbatical. At St. Patrick’s I preached four times Saturday night and Sunday. It is evident from the pictures that they have a vibrant ministry. They have great music, dancing, and a lovely spirit of worship. The services were:
Saturday (7:30pm) – Bi-lingual Service (English-Mandarin)
Sunday (8:00am) – Hakka Service (Hakka is one of the Chinese dialect)
Sunday (9:30am) – English Service
Sunday (11:00am) – Bahasa Malaysia (National Language)
Their giant worship space was filled again and again – though the English service used the old chapel next door to the new facility. 
The translators were all excellent. For the last service, Bishop John translated. It was almost like preaching without translation it flowed so nicely.
What has caused the church to grow to such huge proportions is their commitment to home cell groups. The home groups are the place where most of the evangelism and the discipleship is accomplished. Over the years in studying how home cell groups work, I’ve identified seven principles that are cross culturally relevant which can make the groups work. I’ve also seen that if the principles are missing, the cells will start winding down. Here are the principles
1. Each cell has an identified, trained leader of something like ten people. The leader is the front-line pastor for the group members, he/she is the manager of the group (making sure the 7 principles are used), the trainer of the apprentice, and the facilitator of learning. The group leader doesn’t have to be the teacher, they just have to make sure that learning is done.
2. Each cell has an identified apprentice who is responsible for seeing that the group recruits new people. They also assist the cell leader with leading, etc.
3. Each group has an “open chair” with a list of names of people for whom the group is 
praying. They are also building relationship with the “open chair list” people. Then the people are invited into the cell group first, before being invited to Sunday worship.
4. Each group attends to Ministry with the group members including Evangelism, Discipleship, Pastoral Care and other aspects of Christian life.
5. Each group has a Mission component in which they serve a Kingdom purpose that is not self-serving. It can be almost anything that the group discerns that the Lord is leading them to accomplish or pursue.
6. As the group grows, it ultimately multiplies. People don’t like to “divide” their relationships, but with good leadership they can be convinced to multiply the groups. When they multiply, the Apprentice becomes a leader and finds a new apprentice and the old leader gets a new apprentice as well.
7. There is ongoing leaders’ training in two iterations. First, the leaders gather with the Pastor. There are also leader “coaches” who visit the groups to help them stay on track.
Using home cells, St. Patrick’s has grown from about 500 to many thousands in numerous ethnic/language groups. As you can see from the attached pictures, the services are very well attended. The people are very responsive and great fun to preach to!
From Tawau, I flew to the other side of Borneo to an area called Sarawak to visit the Archbishop in Kuching. It has been a great time. In addition to the strategy meetings, today I spent the day visiting parishes around the urban area and out in the countryside. Oh…Malaysians LOVE to eat. Every time we turned around there was another meal with delicious (often exotic) offerings.
As I’m headed home, it is with a great sense of encouragement that much can be accomplished when we do things God’s way, even with all the cultural differences. What was particularly interesting is that so many things which appeared very different also resonated with familiarity. We can truly be one in the Spirit even across language and cultural lines. That is a huge encouragement.
