Ps Bernard Teh, the senior pastor of FGA Taiping, was at the National Office to encourage some of the Central Region leaders on 26th June 2007. The previous Sunday he was the speaker at the evangelistic banquet organized by the Brickfields Chapter under Bro Joshua Ong.

I was most pleasantly surprised when he started his message by thanking the Christian businessmen on behalf of all pastors. He said that we, as Christian businessmen, have been doing things which he as a pastor could not do. He gave a couple of recent examples. And because of that we are able to reach and touch many for our Lord Jesus Christ, in areas when the pastors are somewhat constrained. Then he surprised me even further by apologizing to the Christian businessmen, again on behalf of all pastors, for the way they have treated us. He felt that the pastors have not given due credit or respect to the businessmen. Often businessmen are treated as mere money bags and their spiritual contribution is ignored or neglected.

I was most encouraged by Ps Bernard’s humility in expressing what he really felt. This was the first time I heard a pastor addressing us in this manner. For more than 25 years FGBMF has been working with the churches for the extension of God’s Kingdom in Malaysia and beyond. We seek neither glory nor honour for ourselves. We recognize we have a small but specific role to play in God’s end-time plans. It is heart warming for our contribution to be acknowledged.

Brothers, I encourage you to work even harder and with greater zeal, diligence and excellence in the mission that God has entrusted to the FGBMF. We shall hear, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” from our Lord.