The Assemblies of God in Malaysia

The Division comprises the three East Malaysian states of Sabah, Sarawak and Federal Territory of Labuan. They are part of Borneo Island, which is about 15000 km from the Malaysian peninsula. The Division is made up of many Chinese and Malays with a sprinkling of Indians in all the major towns. The local people like the Kadazans, Ibans, Muruts and others area and all over the major towns as well as in villages in the interiors.

There are also various languages spoken. Malay is the spoken language everywhere. English and various Chinese dialects are spoken in the main towns while in the interior the people speak their own native dialects. As such communicating the gospel to the East Malaysian is quite difficult but not impossible. Services need to be conducted in various languages.

There are 3 Sovereign Churches, 95 Home Missions Churches in the South. There is a great harvest field out there in the South especially for Chinese, Tamil and Bahasa Malaysia language works. The harvest is plentiful and we need to raise more workers to work amongst the above-mentioned language groups.

Assemblies of God churches have been planted in all the major towns and smaller towns. Praise God for Calvary Charismatic Centre, Singapore for being instrumental in blazing the trail in East Malaysia by planting churches in major towns. Today there are strong churches in the following places:

Sabah         14 churches
Labuan         1 church
Sarawak       9 churches

Other churches like Calvary Church - KL, Trinity Bangsar and The Sanctuary of Glory have also planted churches.

The East Malaysian Division is quite unique in various ways. The Divisional Supervisor's work is to provide guidance and counsel when necessary. Their respective mother churches do all supervising of the work if they have one. The General Council provides credential and fellowship to the pastors. The pastors who work in the interior are provided credentials too even if they are unable to have formal training. Bigger churches have their own training centres for their outreach pastors and interior workers.

The Peninsula churches should have the vision to go in and plant churches in places where there is no churches. A Bible school should be set up to train the local people and to provide credentials. The interior and the plantations are a harvest field, which needs to be harvested. We should have our own "Look East" policy.

Divisional Supervisor: Rev Chan Nam Chen