The Big Day is Almost Here

 

For the past 5 months we have been planning for an event that will take place two days from now in Kuching on the island of Borneo. The idea started out as a small event to honor one or two local people for their community service. It grew from that idea into an event that will honor all 14 of our humanitarian partners in Sarawak for their community service. We estimate the event will be attended by 120 people including representatives from the partner organizations, local government officials, members of the media and our church leaders from the Asia Area, Mission Presidency, and District Presidency. The plaque above is an example of the awards that will be presented. I was very pleased to find this manufacturer here in Kuala Lumpur. The golden flower emblem is made of pewter with gold plating on the flower and is attached to the plaque. We just now packed them in our suitcases to bring them with us to Kuching tomorrow. The church humanitarian missionaries, together with the local partner organizations, completed 23 projects in 2023 that served more than 1,000,000 people in Sarawak. Many different types of projects were undertaken including, providing portable cataract surgery equipment and 500 lenses for rural people, cancer screening equipment, funding cleft lip and palate surgeries, repairing and remodeling facilities for the disabled, wheelchairs and more.

As a remembrance of this project we purchased one of the framed hibiscus emblems to take home. Hibiscus is the national flower of Malaysia. 

This is the banner that will be placed by the front door of the district center to welcome the guests, it was designed by Sister Ernie in Kuching. The Kuching choir will perform, "Because I Have Been Given Much". We will have a "high tea" in the cultural hall after the event which will not include any actual tea. After its all over I will do another blog entry to let you know how it went and show some pictures from the event. I have pasted below the gant chart that I used to track all of the tasks that needed to be completed in preparation for this event. We used this gant in our bi-weekly zoom planning meetings to hold ourselves accountable for completing everything on time. We feel pretty good about the preparations but you are welcome to pray for the success of this event if you read this before Saturday the 13th of May.






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