How it started...
We took a slightly different approach to our Christmas party arrangements this year. Instead of each group hosting their own separate gathering, we decided to collaborate and host one big celebration for everyone.
The idea actually started with Cheng En and Cheryl. While they were planning their own party, they reached out to see if the UM team had anything in the works and if we’d be interested in joining forces.
The idea quickly took off! We held our first planning meeting on 24 November 2025, and it was wonderful to see how quickly things fell into place. We formed small teams for the different tasks and everyone jumped in to help bring the vision to life.
The alignment...
During our initial planning, we took some time to define what we really hoped to achieve through our Christmas gathering.
Our Heart for the Event: We wanted to share the good news and the true joy of Christmas with everyone. Our hope was that every person spending the evening with us would walk away with a deeper, clearer understanding of what Christmas really is. More than just gaining knowledge, we wanted them to truly experience a taste of that joy for themselves.
One major area of alignment for us was the message itself. We realized that, in recent years, we had slowly strayed away from the true essence of the Christmas story. Perhaps we felt the message had become 'stale' simply because we celebrate it every year, or perhaps we had grown a bit timid, lacking the boldness to share the Gospel clearly. This year, we felt a strong call to return to the heart of the story with renewed courage.
Who were invited:
UM students, UTAR students, TARUMT Community, Campus Community and extended relational networks.
Faith tested...
The venue we booked was a hybrid setup of an indoor and outdoor space. This meant that we were at the mercy of the weather on the day of the event for everything to run smoothly. We had the option to move the event back to Nav Office but we eventually decided to trust God and press forward with the existing arrangements.
Thankfully, God delivered us despite the weather being forecasted as rain and thunderstorm on the day of the event. We got through the night with nothing but nice cool breeze.
The Learnings...
The team has yet to process our wins and learnings. A follow up debrief will be scheduled in the coming weeks.Nevertheless, it is clear that we lacked experience hosting an event for 70 pax. There were things we were not entirely prepared for and could definitely do better.
Another personal reflection of mine would be in the area of collaboration. While collaborating in such fashion brings together a plethora of skills and giftings, it unfortunately also diminishes the flavors of each group. So perhaps, such collaboration is good but it should not be the default.
Thanksgiving...
All in all, I'm extremely thankful for this opportunity to work with others like Cheryl, Cheng En, Enoch, Clara, Amy. Beyond that, I'm also thankful for this opportunity to have the extended relational network of my fellow co-labourers.
It'll take more than a one-off event to form a meaningful and lasting bond, but it's definitely a step in the right direction.
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