With a change of name, City Harvest Church Prai joins the family of City Harvest Churches.
PHOTOS: Eric Soo
City Harvest Church Prai, formerly known as CityLife Harvest Church, was started by David Saw with the help of the late George Ong, the senior pastor of Skudai Harvest Church, in 2006. Situated in Penang, Malaysia, it was part of the Harvest School Of Ministry, a movement in Malaysia founded by Ong, together with Kong Hee, the senior pastor of City Harvest Church Singapore. On Mar 1, 2016, the church was officially renamed and joined the CHC network. CHC Prai is the second affiliate in Penang; the first is City Harvest Church Penang, led by pastor Saras Bany.
“We have been praying for this—joining CHC as an affiliate church—for a long time but I hadn’t had the chance to talk to Pastor Kong about it,” Saw tells City News. “So when he asked me when we were on the way to church that day, I was shocked [that he was thinking about it too]. I agreed immediately.”
Saw has been acquainted with CHC since the late 1980s when the church premise was the former Hollywood theatre at Katong, Singapore. “I lived just behind the church building,” Saw recalled. He was then a student at Tung Ling Bible School. Together with Ong, Saw had served with Kong at several meetings. When CityLife Harvest Church was founded, Kong began visiting the church to preach and conduct trainings.
City Harvest Church Prai’s senior pastor David Saw (in multi-colour striped shirt) with Kong Hee (center).
An affiliate church is one that comes under the official discipleship and leadership of CHC. CHC will in turn provide a range of resources to help the affiliate church, including spiritual guidance and specialist training. To date, CHC has a total of 49 affiliate churches and 30 associate ministries.
