I had the privilege of having lunch today with the original local blogging pastor (or Blogpastor, as he’s more commonly known), Ps Kenny Chee.
I chanced upon his blog whilst starting up my own blogging journey in 2007, where he had already been blogging regularly for a few years, and had quite a good following. Since then, we have had sporadic interactions, exchanges through our blogs and social media, and a few near-misses (being at the same events but not meeting), e.g. Pastors Prayer Summit, him visiting the church I was pastoring youth at.
Finally after 8+ years of virtual friendship, by divine appointment (I only found out the night before through his FB post that we were attending the same conference), we arranged to meet today for the first time over lunch at the EPPI preaching conference. Such is the culture and times these days I guess, where people can somehow be connected, yet disconnected, virtual friends, yet never meeting IRL (in real life). But it is also interesting times, where we can actually meet and cultivate kindred friendships across continents, borders, cultures, churches and denominations via social media and the Internet.
We kind of hit it off quite well from the get-go, perhaps as we have some mutual acquaintances and common backgrounds. He shared about his pastoring journey of 35+ years at WRPF, as well as his challenges and struggles. It was a relatively short time, but I was really encouraged and blessed by this humble and faithful man of God, and in his words, I definitely gleaned some “gold nuggets” of wisdom on life and ministry from him. Interestingly, we never really got down to chat about our common, shared interests of blogs and bikes. But as I was reflecting, writing this post, perhaps it was for the better, as we shared about life and Bible ministry, pastoring and preaching, that which counts for eternity, of lasting eternal value – the Word of God, and the souls of man.
Looking forward to more encounters and interaction in the future! Continuing to keep you, Ps Kenny, your family and your ministry into God’s hands.
