29th September 2016
Dear Brothers and sisters，
I attended a Funeral Service on 27/9. My heart is full of memories of my mentor Pastor Higham.
I joined the Heath Evangelical Church when I came for my studies in the 1980s and met Pastor Higham. I enjoyed the morning and evening Service every Sunday. The choir was not on the stage, every attendant was part of the choir. I was absorbed in the sonorous singing and the piercing lyrics. Pastor Higham preached ‘Jesus Christ and Him crucified’, ‘to know Him and make Him known’ faithfully every Sunday. The whole church building was crowded with Christians and faith seekers. The congregation cared for the overseas students kindly and zealously, warming our hearts in this windy rainy foreign land.
Pastor Higham invited my family to tea shortly after I met him. I was wondering what kind of occasion it was, as it’s not 3-4pm for the afternoon tea or 6-7pm for evening meal, but 5pm? When we arrived, I realized it’s a family meal. His house was packed with his family, with adults and children and there were abundant food on the table, all sorts of cakes and biscuits and sandwiches. The Welsh people respect their elderly very much.
I came to pastor the church in Cardiff in the 90s. I was thankful that Pastor Higham met up with me for fellowship and prayers every other month despite his busy schedule. He helped me a lot with difficulties on the ministry and theological queries. He also shared with me the history and culture of Wales. I was very much blessed by him.
Pastor Higham loved Chinese people and cared Chinese fellowship and church, but was very cautious about Chinese food. Once, when we dined in a Chinese restaurant with our wives, he asked questions about every dish before he tried it. A brother once passed him a delicious pot of fish-fin soup from a Malaysian student by mistake, and the scene was totally embarrassing.
Pastor Higham, a faithful soldier of the truth, a messenger of the gospel, has fought the good fight, finished the race, kept the truth, has now departed to the heavenly home. My ears rang the song written by him, ‘Great is the Gospel of our Glorious God’.
In Christ,
Sam Wong