Into this quagmire Elisha and Petrina Satvinder planted a Christian community. Elisha grew up in a Sikh Punjabi family and Petrina in a Buddhist Chinese family, both in Malaysia. They met as young Christian believers, married and attended Portland Bible College in the U.S. After graduation they returned home to plant the New Covenant Community.
If you were going to plant a new congregation in the beautiful city of Kuala Lumpur, where would you locate it? There are many upscale neighborhoods in the city. Although Malaysia is a Muslim country, there is a large Christian population in K.L. A church could have easily been planted in a friendly environment that would have guaranteed rapid “success.” Instead, the Satvinders chose to start in a very needy part of town.
Part of the reason for their decision was their vision for the church. As Elisha said, “For too long the church has remained a community within its community . . . as a segregated entity. For us, to be involved in caring for the poor as a Christian congregation is not just a matter of choice but a mandate from the Bible.” Elisha and Petrina viewed the local church as a redemptive representative of Jesus in the community, and that meant serving the least and the lost.
For them, “the church must present the gospel as good-news. Good news to those who hear it. Good news because the oppressed are being liberated. Good news because issues of injustice are being effectively addressed. Good news because God’s standards of righteousness are being restored in the land.” The gospel of Jesus Christ is not just relevant to personal faith and spirituality. It has clear and concrete implications for the lives of human beings. Elisha comments, “Sad to say the gospel therefore continues to be a strange message to many.”
The needs they faced seemed overwhelming. Poverty and the injustices that cause poverty seemed insurmountable. And beyond that, there was the question of how to break the generational cycle of poverty? And where to begin? Their conclusion was to focus on the children of Sentul. Their mission: “breaking the cycle of poverty by educating the children.”
Why children? Elisha and Petrina say it this way: “We focus on children because they are at their formative years, and regardless of their difficult situation, they are highly resilient, making our interventive efforts highly successful.” The Satvinders sought to address social problems before they take root. It was also simply true that a great majority of the people in developing nations are children, and that means the majority of the poor are children. It seemed natural to focus their ministry efforts on the poor children of Sentul.
The Satvinders also chose to focus on the education of children. Elisha said, “Education is one of the most powerful tools in helping the poor to come out of the rut of poverty, changing the face and characteristics of any community.” While a whole range of services are offered by N.C.C., the core of their vision is education.
In the process, the Satvinders have had a thorough education about poverty and the effects of poverty on children. They have discovered that poor children have higher rates of illness and disabilities. They inevitably have lower IQ scores due to slower cognitive development, lack of family support, malnutrition and disease. They come to school less ready to learn and therefore do less well in school than more privileged children. They are twice as likely as non-poor children to repeat a grade and are less likely to go on to college. As adults, they are more likely to be poor, thus continuing the cycle of poverty to another generation.
As a result, Elisha and Petrina and their team have focused on preschool education. Their goal is to not just address cognitive problems but also issues such as the formation of healthy habits, the prevention of malnutrition, the cultivation of healthy social relationships, and the formation of godly attitudes. Their method is compassionate and simple, but also a great deal of work. They began with house-to-house visitation. They brought parcels of food with them as well as items of clothing. They also offered community medical services. Eventually, they made known their long-term plan of establishing an education center for the children. In the process they established personal relationships with the people in the community leading to an attitude of trust.
When I visited New Covenant Community I walked the bi-ways of Sentul with Elisha. Everywhere we went the people called out, “Pastor, Pastor.” All of them--Muslims, Hindus, Buddhist and Christians--consider Elisha their Pastor. To them, he is not only the Pastor of New Covenant Community, he is the Pastor of the community of Sentul. I went with Pastor Satvinder as he was invited into neighbors’ homes to council young people getting caught up in drug use or children who simply needed a father figure. Over time he had become a prominent, unofficial leader of the community.
The Satvinders are passionate about offering quality educational opportunities to the poor. They report, “For the first time in the history of Sentul, the poor are not discriminated against or kept from a high quality of education. The children especially are given an equal opportunity to receive an excellent education.” And the results are becoming obvious. The community of Sentul is benefiting. In addition, the Christian believers in New Covenant Community are being benefited.
Not all of the believers at N.C.C. are from poor neighborhoods. In fact, many are young professionals who share the vision of the local church as redemptive salt in the community. They don’t view their ministry in Sentul as a “department” of the church, but rather as the biblical mandate for the congregation in their city. Their involvement in Sentul has provided all of them with an education. There are now a variety of ethnic groups in the congregation. The Sunday School has been transformed. There are both Christian and non-Christian children regularly involved. The children from Christian homes have begun to catch a vision for the world outside of their four walls. Elisha reports, “They have been awakened to the issues of justice and righteousness. They have become strong prayer warriors and active advocates for the issues that impact their friends living in poverty.”
The children from the Sentul community are now hearing the gospel and receiving teaching from the Word of God on a regular basis, and their lives are changing. In fact, as Elisha says, “They have become carriers of the principles of God’s Word into their families and their community.” These children are themselves being transformed into change-agents. The community as a whole is beginning to see a clearer vision of God, of the Bible, and of Christian faith.
As a result, a great door of opportunity has opened up to N.C.C. Everyone in the community is more open to dialogue about the gospel. The Satvinders have been included in various government projects aimed at serving “at risk” children. Even foreign embassies have begun to take note of the exceptional work of N.C.C. and are providing financial support.
The long-term vision of the Satvinders is to see a full-service community center established by N.C.C. in Sentul. This would include a youth center and expanded educational facilities. They have a vision to see a full range of educational opportunities for the poor, as well as other services that will enable them to permanently break the cycle of poverty. They are also working to increase the awareness of the other Christian congregations in Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding areas. They also serve as trusted advocates for the poor in the nation of Malaysia.
Elisha and Petrina Satvinder state their mission this way: “Community transformation by raising a whole new generation that knows the purpose of God and lives by His principles.” In every way they seek to penetrate the community with “redemptive acts of kindness.” They’ve earned the trust of the whole community. Now they are in the process of serving the community as salt and light and seeing it transformed by the power of the gospel
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