St. Andrews Church Retreat

Last spring Nancy and I were the first ones to sign-up and pay our deposit for the church retreat at St. Andrews Presbyterian Church, held over the long week-end of October 25-27 at the Swiss Garden Beach Resort just north of Kuantan on the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
Under the general theme of "Living Out God's Purpose," the speaker, Pastor Ooi Chin Aik, spoke on six different occasions from the book of Acts. Food was very good and the worship singing was enthusiastic. The meeting room (pictured at the bottom) was very well appointed, and the use of Powerpoint facilitated both the singing and the main messages.

One of the more humorous elements in the week-end was that Nancy and I had decided long ago to ride the chartered church bus up to the resort rather than drive our car. So, we arrived at the church shortly before the appointed time, Saturday, 8:30 a.m. (The bus was scheduled to leave at 9:00.) Everything went well until the bus got off the east-west toll road near Kuantan. From there we proceeded a while until it became apparent that the bus driver didn't really know how to get to the resort! After turning around twice and using a cell phone, we managed to stretch the estimated travel time from 4 hours to almost 6.
One fascinating sidelight of the retreat was that many different Malaysians (mostly of Chinese ethnic back-ground) asked us about whether we had voted in the U.S. election coming-up next week. As a result we had the opportunity to explain how absentee ballots work in Marion Co., Oregon! (One guy at the retreat told Nancy that he thought everyone in the world ought to have one vote for the U.S. president since he is obviously the most powerful figure in the world!)

All in all, it was a very interesting experience. It was our opinion that the speaker took way to much time to cover his material; however, the content was solidly biblical, with a strong emphasis on prayer and mission. - rw
P.S. - The black golf shirts in evidence everywere were part of our registration material and had the church logo and "St. Andrews Presbyterian Church" on the front, with the retreat theme on one sleeve and "Kuantan 2008" on the other.