He recalls that the church was at a low point in 1980. The church was in the red, the building was run down and there was an ongoing dispute with the adjacent school for the piece of land where the Covenant Centre now stands.

With the grace of God, membership grew steadily to the figure of more than 1,000 at present, church finances improved to a healthy surplus, the dispute was amicably settled and relations with the relocated school are better than ever.

But the most significant achievement in Pastor Kang's view was the building of the new sanctuary.

"A physical project can do wonders to the spirit of man”, he says, the memory clearly bringing fond thoughts to him.

More than any other project, the need to raise about $1.5 million brought the church leaders together to work as one, as they had to meet, discuss and pray every week, to crack their heads as to how to meet the target. The whole congregation chipped in.

In Genesis, God called upon Abraham to look at the stars to have faith in the future, as He would provide. "Just look at the stars” became a common greeting among the church leaders at that time, as they sought to place their faith and the future in God's hands.

The new sanctuary, dedicated on Christmas Day 1982, has become for Pastor Kang a "symbol of the spirit of the people”, reminding them that with the grace of God they are able to do things beyond their imagination.

His foremost priority has always been to build up the people. Focusing his energies on making the Sunday worship experience one that would uplift the people, he preached on as many as 50 Sundays in his first year.

He made the Beacon a monthly bulletin – previously it was a bimonthly - and introduced a mailing service to reach out to those who missed Sunday services.

His hope is that the people will "remember that they should become channels of blessings, that their religious experience is never an end in itself but to bless others.”

The building of the Covenant centre in 1987 — with its wide range of services from nursery to qigong — serves this aim of sharing God's blessings with the community beyond.

Now, with the church itself in pretty good shape all-round, there is only one direction to look – out. Pastor Kang's prayer is that the people will find new challenges and continue to go forward, as he called them to do on New Year's Eve, 1979.