THE HISTORY OF MALAYSIA WITH THE FOURSQUARE GOSPEL CHURCH

Dr. Mason and Virgene Hughes were appointment as missionaries from the Foursquare Mission International to pioneer in Southeast Asia. In 1982.

They left Los Angeles, California in August, 1982 and arrived in Singapore with their daughter Denise.  They had previously booked in a hotel owned by a Christian businessman.  It was not easy to get a place to live in Singapore without a green card.  After being there just two days they had a phone call from Goh Yu Keng, the owner and manager of the Yashia Camera.  He asked if Dr. Hughes would like a speaking engagement to speak at the Saint Andrews Cathedral.  Of course, the answer was, yes.  He said I will pick you up and take you to the service.

This is how we met Bro Goh.  We were taken just a short way to the beautiful old church of Saint Andrews Cathedral and there were introduced to Bishop Lomax, his office was on the ground floor.  We talked for a few minutes and on the way to the sanutary he asked,  “What is Foursquare?”  At that moment we heard the congregation singing Majesty.  Dr. Hughes said, “That song was written by a Foursquare pastor, Dr. Jack Hayford”.  Bishop Lomax said, “Well then, you are okay”. We had a great charmastic service.

From then on we had a lot of contact with Bro. Goh.  He booked many services for us, and we met many friends.  One of them had an apartment right on the coast as an investment.  The Government said, as long as you keep one room for yourself you can rent it out.  So we moved, after six weeks in the hotel, to an apartment on the 17th floor.

Denise had just graduated from Christ for the Nations in Dallas, Texas and wanted to have a break before entering LIFE Bible College and Los Angeles (Foursquare).  We had gotten acquainted with a missionary couple with Assembly of God that were in charge of a small Bible School and they invited Denise to attend to build up a few credits.   We were introduced to Ike in Kuala Lumpur. With the help from Ike's  friends we were able to get Foursquare registered in Malaysia.  Thus the first Foursquare Church was established in Kuala Lumpur by Ike Wong.  

  

We were busy having many services each week in Singapore.  We also had to leave Singapore every six weeks to renew our visa, even for just overnight.  Bro. Goh told us he had an apartment in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, which was just across the causeway and we could go there and say the night to renew our visa.  We could not buy a car without a green card, so we would take a taxi there; just a half hour drive and taxis were very cheap.

When we arrived we found that the apartment had been rented out and they were just moving in, but they wanted us to stay with them, we did this, thus our first contact in Malaysia. 

They invited us to come each week and have a Bible Study with them.  It was there that we met Aris and Bettina. They in turn said they knew of a young couple who had just graduated from Bible School and wanted a covering.  This was James and Monica Supayah.

By this time the Hughes had waited one year and seven long months and were finally granted their green card.  They had moved in a home and they had started having meetings in their home while waiting for their green card.  When their green card was granted they started having meeting at Hotel Royal and God was blessing.  Most people started churches in hotel conference rooms.

Then one day Rev. James Supayah came to visit the Hughes in their home and he was very excited to join with the Foursquare Church.  So Dr. Hughes encouraged James and Monica begin their church in downtown JB. since Foursquare was already registered in Malaysia.  There were 3-4 other churches started with Pastor James over seeing them.  During the days following all these churches grew and many souls were saved.