Excerpt from Rev. Alfred Lam's Closing Message at TC'97
In 1983 Rev. Greg Au-Yeung from California spoke at Teens' Conference, right here in Monarch Park. Rev. Au-Yeung was a tremendous speaker, we're still singing some of those songs that he introduced to us at that year's TC. And the response was just tremendous, one of the most successful TC ever. Sometimes after TC '83 was over. Rev. Au-Yeung was getting ready to preach in his own church one Sunday morning, when a mentally disturbed man walked into the church with a gun and shot him. That event rocked Chinese churches all over North America, people all over grieved for Rev. Au-Yeung and they cried, they said, "What a waste for a Godly man!" But I, for one, can say for sure that Rev. Au-Yeung's life and what he did was not wasted. Because in TC '83, in the middle of that huge crowd that came forward at the end to respond to his message and accept Christ, there was a young man by the name of Alfred Lam. Even though no one knew it at the time. God took Rev. Au-Yeung's ministry and God took his devotion and God took what Rev. Au-Yeung gave to Him and worked into His own plan in ways that no one could imagine.
When I was first invited by AFC to be the main speaker at TC '97, my first reaction was: "My God! Has it really been 14 years?" You know if 14 years ago on that night at TC when I accepted Christ, if someone were to tell me that 14 years later I would come back to speak, I would have laughed in this face. As I looked back at the past 14 years, God has used the work of many different brothers and sisters to help me grow and to make me what I am today. God has been very good to me! I want to especially mentioned that one ministry that I owe at great debt of gratitude to is AFC. You see 14 years ago I accepted Christ in TC, and then after I went to university, I really learned what it means to be a Christian in the Chinese Christian Fellowship on campus, which was another AFC ministry. And then in 1987 exactly 10 years ago, in another AFC conference called Camp Trent, I dedicated my life to serve God in full-time ministry. I really want to take this opportunity to thank all the staff at AFC, Victor, Peter, Gabriel, many, many others. And I want you all to know that even though so often that work is difficult and slow and frustrating, God has been using it and will continue to use what you give Him to make a difference in people's lives like my own. And I mention how I come full circle after fourteen years to come back to speak in TC, it's almost funny that this year, exactly ten years after I dedicated my life to serve God at Camp Trent, I will be going back to Camp Trent in August as a speaker.
One thing that I have learned is that when we give of ourselves to God, no matter how insignificant we think we are, no matter how minor the work of our hands may seem, no matter how unproductive that work may appear; God takes it and God works it into His plan, and does things that are beyond our wildest imagination.
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