How We Began

A Brief History Of BEM Grace

HOW WE BEGAN

The early 1980’s witnessed a significant revival in Kuching through the Charismatic Renewal Movement. Many Christians went back to church and found new meaning in their faith. By the turn of the new century and millennia, a generation of believers had come of age. Youth Fellowship members saw friends getting married. Sunday school juniors were now in college while some had graduated and working. During this time some churches grew and matured while others experienced decline.

In September 2001, Crossway, a new Christian Bookstore was opened at an intersection at Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman, Kuching. The ensuing months saw many previous church acquaintances met up once again and started fellowshipping at the bookstore café around the subject of ‘Grace’ & ‘Unmerited favor’’. The spiritual refreshing of learning about the finished work of the cross of Jesus Christ - caused many who were no longer attending church or had left ministry came back to regular fellowship.

This was kindled by the many sermon/ bible teaching cassettes by Ps. Joseph Prince of New Creation Church, Singapore. Many were awed once again by the love of God , truly seeing the completed work of Jesus on the cross and His grace for every believer. It profoundly changed the previous mindset and beliefs that tried to please God by their own efforts.

Before long, Alex Choo and Thomas Jacques came to the conclusion that a new church is in the offing to contain this new wine. Their friends; John Koe of Frontierworks and Anthony Lau, who attends New Creation Church, also shared this view. Lau had met Koe by divine providence through a taxi driver and learnt had learned of Koe’s mission in China. When the idea of meeting up in Kuching to evaluate and test whether starting a new church was the right thing, there was tremendous agreement all round.

_{Commissioning of SIB Grace (6th December 2003) at SIB Olive Garden}

Eventually Jacques obtained permission from SIB Olive Garden to start a Preaching Point at Upper Room: Held at a function hall above the now defunct Crossway Bookstore on 30th June 2002. This was after a Gospel Concert Rally called ‘Hunger D’experience’ where Koe preached and many had accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Prior to this, Koe had spoken at Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship meetings - Paving the way for the systematic teaching on the grace of God. Pastors Joshua Lee and Henry Yeo of New Creation Church also came to Kuching and helped prepare potential members and leaders with their seminars and foundation stone classes.

Learning more about what was later called ' ‘the Grace Message’ caused an increase in the Preaching Point. It was evident that it had kick-started an unprecedented move in the region. It brought many people from diverse backgrounds to worship under one roof. A common testimony is the ease in relating to God and to be able to respond to Him through simple faith.

English Service at Upper Room (2024)

Chinese Sunday Service at Serenity Hall, Crown Square (2024)

BM Sunday Service at Zion Room (2024)

The Preaching Point continued until 6th December 2003 when it was commissioned officially as a church under the cover of Sidang Injil Borneo (SIB). Thomas Jacques was therefore transferred as Elder from SIB Olive Garden to SIB Grace; whereas Alex Choo was inducted as an Elder on 18th January 2004. He later resigned his membership in SIB Grace in October 2013 to commence another ministry.

25th October 2009 saw the addition of the SIB Grace Chinese congregation. A year later, ‘Turai Penghidup’ - A radio program broadcasted by RTM commenced with Elder Edward Langgie as its reader. In 2012, RHEMA Bible Training Centre began working with BEM Grace and still continues till the present.

Finally, on the 25th June, 2014, the Bahasa Malaysia Ministry was started from the prayer support of the BEM Grace Prayer Ministry as well as with the ministerial support of the Christian Healing Clinic Ministry led by Brother Quincy Kandoh. This was eventually formalized on 1st February 2015; blessed under the leadership of Pastor Oda Ato.

BLESS BEM GRACE

In the spring of 2014, during a pilgrimage tour of the holy land, Elder Thomas touched the western wall of Jerusalem intending to say a prayer. However, before anything was uttered, received within his spirit, the words, “Bless BEM Grace”. Naturally, Elder Thomas was surprised. As an elder in BEM Grace, he accepted it as meaning something good. He later related the experience during a Sunday service and asked for an interpretation from the congregation, if the Holy Spirit would reveal more about, “Bless BEM Grace”. Brother Adrian Luat stood up without hesitation and said, “I see a large building, our new church building.” There were no other interpretations given that day.

Up till then, BEM Grace did not have specific plans to construct a church building nor have a building fund. With that interpretation, chatter was generated about the subject. It was recalled how Brother Thomas Teo had in earlier occasions toyed with the idea of a church Cbuilding on native land but there were no specifics. There was no follow up on the idea. It was only confined to the ranks of ‘coffee-shop talk’. The thinking generally was that there was no likelihood of affordable land in the city for a church. Therefore, only native land away from the city was possible; seeing that there are BEM churches in those settings. Brother Thomas had used to own a pre-school named, Kid’s Eden, but has since retired from the business.

Elder Thomas’ professional training is in the line of a consulting civil engineer.Therefore it was natural for him to conclude that anything like a new and large church building to come about; land and money are required. It was natural to realise that we didn’t have both. On top of that, the word, ‘large’ compounded the subject.

Elder Thomas then approached Brother Henry Yeo - a director in a real estate company - to ask if he could reach out to his contacts to scout for state-owned land belonging to the government that might be available and suitable for a church so that we could apply for it. It was a request directed from simple logic, since land was necessary to locate a building. But the question carried with it some skepticism. There was the general assumption that even if such land was available, it would not be available for a church building. Regardless, there was nothing wrong to ‘Ask, Seek or Knock’. Not long after, a plot of just under 3 acres was identified in the Muara Tabuan area. It was known as Lot 674 within a developed residential area with nearby areas designated for industries.

There was excitement in the air and understandably so. BEM Grace is a church that is open to the leading of the Holy Spirit. This looks like and feels like God is doing something unexpected. The Chairman of BEM Kuching District at the time, who coordinates BEM churches within the district, was Rev. Tram Epoi. The whole story was shared with Rev. Tram up to that point and we invited him to consider including a new office for BEM Kuching District since the current location would suffer yearly floodings when the monsoon season starts. He agreed. We then shared with the leaders in BEM headquarters in Miri about the proposal. They were agreeable for us to commence putting the ideas together.

Elder Thomas called upon friends in the industry for their professional input: Ar. David Hollis (architect), Ir. Joseph Yong (mechanical & electrical engineer), Sr. Hong Boon Kheng (quantity surveyor) and Sr. John Cheu (land surveyor). Elder Thomas added himself as civil & structural engineer. Plans were drawn up and BEM applied for Lot 674 in 2015. “Bless BEM Grace” was in motion.

Elder Thomas shared with the members of BEM Grace that a building fund had to be started to realistically follow through the project in motion. The actual and eventual amount required will be beyond us in the natural, but need are the funds to offset some initial costs which will surely be incurred. We began a pledge drive to raise RM0.5m, which was accomplished in about three years.

Around this time, Sarawak had a new Chief Minister in the person of Tan Sri Pehin Sri Adenan Satem in April 2014. He soon began preparing for the next state election due in 2016. BEM had tried to meet with him in Kuching to discuss the application for Lot 674. However, as he was travelling to Miri, he decided to meet BEM there at their homebase. BEM leaders met with the Chief Minister in a formal setting for the first time in 2015. BEM presented their work with activities and an annual budget. The new Chief Minister generously approved RM2m to assist BEM. Concerning the application for Lot 674, the Chief Minister informed that the application was still in process by the Land and Survey Department and as such no decision could be made just yet. The election results in May 2016 gave victory to the ruling coalition. Tan Sri Pehin Sri Adenan Satem was reappointed as Chief Minister of Sarawak until his passing in January 2017. This side note demonstrates the generous effects of ‘Bless BEM Grace’ that included the parent body, BEM, and rightfully starts from there to reach BEM Grace.

We received the decision from the Land and Survey Department, Sarawak in 2017 that our application for Lot 674 was not approved. This was unexpected as we had thought that faith and works were working in harmony.

An opportunity came in early 2018 to meet with the Land and Survey Department to discuss our situation. We were given the opportunity to propose a new plot for consideration. However, we did not possess in hand any viable plot for that. As providence would have it, we were shown an alternative plot by the Land and Survey Department, in Taman Desa Wira called Lot 6591. We verbally accepted it and went away to prepare a new set of documents to apply for it. BEM’s application for Lot 6591 was successful in 2018. The project name is ‘Worship & Community Centre for Borneo Evangelical Mission’ on a 1.13ha (2.8ac) plot.

The next step was to find the funding, which was approved by the Premier of Sarawak in 2019. 2020-2022 were years disrupted by Covid-19 and MCO. 2023-2024 saw the completion of design details and approvals from the authorities on the building and engineering plans. Tenders were called in 2024. Construction began on 1st August 2024 to complete on 31st July 2026. Funding top-up approval on the finalised details was received in July 2025.

“Bless BEM Grace” continues to flow as we prepare ourselves to occupy and operate BEM Worship & Community Centre (BWCC) with BEM Daerah Kuching. Various words of prophecy have been given concerning the days ahead. We are edified. The will of God be done on earth as it is in heaven.

In Jesus’s name. Amen. “Bless BEM Grace”.

Elder Thomas Harold Jacques, 13th August 2025

How We Began

A Brief History Of BEM Grace

HOW WE BEGAN

BLESS BEM GRACE

In Jesus’s name. Amen. “Bless BEM Grace”.

Architectural Renderings of BEM Worship & Community Centre (BWCC)

Main Building

Parish Building

Office & Accommodations

Multipurpose Chapel

Newspaper Clipping on the Launch of BEM Worship & Community Centre (BWCC) (26 November 2019)

BEM Worship & Community Centre (BWCC)

Current Status (17 October 2025)

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