History of the Padang Serai True Jesus Church | Audio
Padang Serai True Jesus Church was established in 1947. In 1943, services were held at Dns. Hsiah Chu Eng’s house. At that time, many believers were brought to church by the late Dns. Lee Sin Chin. Through the guidance of God and the help of Holy Spirit, the number of members grew gradually. The late Dn. Philip Loh and Dn. Ho Chong Seng often visited the members and held home services.
Due to the increase in membership, a decision was made by the church and Bro. Kong Ban Loong (now Dn. Caleb Kong) to rent a double-storey shophouse at Tunai Road. The upper floor was used as the church hall while Bro. Kong used the ground floor for his business. In 1975, the church decided to buy over and renovated the shophouse and air-conditioners were installed.
Eventually, the church was unable to hold various activities due to limited space and growth in membership. There was insufficient space in the church hall to accommodate the members. Therefore, there were plans to buy another piece of land to build a new church. During the Annual General meeting of 1989, the project to rebuild the church was passed and a committee for that purpose was set up. Members started to make pledges and offerings for the purchase of the land. The committee started to look for sites suitable for the new church. After a few months, they found a site and bought it at the price of RM 40,000 and began to plan the blueprint of the church as well as apply permit from the government.
Since there was a need of construction cost, the members started the process of making pledges and offering yet again, and the General Assembly started sending letters to local churches seeking financial aid. Thank God, the fund had continued to flow in from all directions. However, after many years of waiting for the permit approval, the government had yet to approve the application. Therefore, in order not to delay the reconstruction process, three proposals were put forward at the 1999 Annual General Meeting.
- Renovate the old church
- Construct a new church on the land bought
- Purchase a new shophouse
At that time, most believers were in favour of buying a new shophouse. In the year of 2000, two double-storey shophouses were purchased at the price of RM 260,000. Due to the lack of fund, the believers agreed to make pledges for the third time. The renovation process began in March of 2001, and the whole project took about a year. The interior of the church was completely furbished with facilities. On the 1st of February 2001, the members started to move their services to the new chapel, and on the 7th of September that year, the Padang Serai church was dedicated to the Lord. Praise and thank God.
