Tjandra, Lukas

1931 - 2012
Founding principal of Malaysia Bible Seminary
Methodist
Malaysia

Reverend Dr Lukas Tjandra, a third-generation Indonesian Chinese from Nanhai county in Guangdong, China, was the founding principal of the Malaysia Bible Seminary. He was born on October 6, 1931 in Binjai in Sumatra, Indonesia, one of three boys the eldest of whom died in infancy. Lukas, who was a frail and sickly child, was raised in Binjai and followed his parents, Chen Dian Yang and Xu Yue Yi, in idol worship.

Lukas' father opened a gold shop and was a street dentist who had learned tooth extraction techniques from a Japanese military doctor and other aspects of dentistry from textbooks. In 1955, Chen was admitted to hospital for an operation due to severe stomach pains. He passed away four days later before his family could take him home to recuperate, leaving them in deep grief.

Lukas later fell ill with lung disease and was admitted to hospital for treatment. In the hospital, he heard singing in the next ward and went to see what was happening. A patient with a Bible at his bedside told him that it was a Sunday school song. Out of curiosity, Lukas borrowed the Bible and turned to the first chapter, which said: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

When Lukas saw these words, he immediately believed them and for the first time in his life, he understood the origin of heaven and earth. Soon afterwards, a believer friend lent him a copy of The Light of the Gospel written by Rev Lin Zheng Ye which deeply inspired Lukas. In 1955, at a youth retreat, Lukas and 40 other young people were moved by the Lord's love to lay down their lives to follow Him.

From 1956-59, Lukas studied for his Bachelor of Theology at the Southeast Asia Bible Seminary in Malang, Indonesia. In the third year of his studies, Indonesian President Sukarno ordered the nationalisation of property owned by non-Indonesian citizens in the country, including church land and buildings. At that time, there were very few Chinese Indonesian citizens.

The Southeast Asia Bible Seminary and Holy Word Church then were under the chairmanship and property ownership of Rev Andrew Gih from Shanghai, China. When Rev Gih heard about the nationalisation, he rushed back from China to Indonesia to choose an Indonesian Chinese trustee for the property. Someone suggested choosing one or two Indonesians from among the trustworthy seminary students.

In the end, Rev Gih chose Lukas as chairman of the seminary and Leung Shui Lung as the vice-chairman. Lukas accepted the responsibility with trepidation and saved the seminary from being confiscated by the Indonesian government!

After completing his theological studies, Lukas served in churches in Jakarta and Bandung. On February 22, 1961, Lukas married Dorkas Tjandra, an alumnus of Medan Methodist Theological Seminary. Dorkas, who was introduced to Lukas by Peter Huang and a Medan alumnus, admired him for his attitude on learning, sincerity, helpfulness, care for his family, and commitment to the Lord. [1]

Dorkas was born in Zhangzhou in Fujian, China. Her family moved to Palembang, Indonesia when she was three. She was baptised when young and brought up in the Methodist Church. She studied at the Methodist Theological Seminary in Medan from 1955-1957. After marriage, she served with Lukas in the district congregation of Gua Bliang'an.

From 1962-63, Lukas studied theology at the Melbourne Bible Institute in Australia as a part-time student and obtained a Licentiate/Diploma of Theology. While preparing for his graduation exams, he received a letter from his mother urging him to return to Indonesia. Soon afterward, Lukas also received a letter from his brother telling Lukas that he had terminal cancer and also urging him to return home immediately.

Lukas was torn between sitting for the examination or returning home. In the end, he reluctantly stayed and returned to Indonesia immediately after the examination. Unfortunately, by the time he arrived home, his brother had passed away. After the funeral, Lukas’ elderly mother, relatives and friends begged him to stay and take care of his mother, sister-in-law, and three nieces aged two, eight and nine.

The Malang Theological Seminary had urged him to return to teach. Again, Lukas was torn between the two. After struggling and praying for two months, Lukas decided to go back to Malang. He went to a relative's shop to say goodbye but the relative said, "Your father leaves a good business behind, and you do not take care of it and your family, but go to a distant place to become a monk." Lukas kept silent but another relative said, "Everyone has his ambitions; you can't force them. The boat has sailed, and there is no turning back." Lukas thought to himself, "Yes, you can't turn back once the boat has sailed. He who looks back with his hand on the plow is not worthy to enter the kingdom of God!" With tears in his eyes, Lukas embarked on his journey to serve the Lord for the rest of his life. But God who is faithful looked after his mother and granted her peace and happiness.

From 1964-71, Lukas taught at the Malang seminary and in 1965, he was ordained as a reverend. From 1972-73, Rev Lukas went to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago, USA, to study for a Master of Arts degree in Missions. After his studies, he returned to Malang as faculty dean from 1974-77 and was acting principal from 1975.

Rev Lukas edited and published more than 20 editions of Chinese and Indonesian hymns (Puji-Pujian Kristen) for the Chinese-speaking churches in Indonesia. This hymn book was sold throughout Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and Australia.

Rev Lukas first came to Malaysia in 1976 to visit his family and churches. He arrived in Penang and then went to Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur. Along the way, he lamented that many churches had no pastors. In 1972, the Malaysian government had decreed that all foreign missionaries were not allowed to stay in Malaysia for more than 10 years and would have to leave when their visas expired. Four years after the decree, more than half or 300 missionaries had left Malaysia. The Church was in great crisis.

At that time, a group of leaders of the Selangor Chinese Co-Workers' Union Prayer Meeting including Rev Peter Hsu, Rev Low En Kwong, Rev Hsueh Yu Kwong, Rev Gideon Chang, Elder Lee Chin Teng, Mr Koo Wai Wah, and Mr Teh Zai Hing met with Rev Lukas and sought his help in establishing a seminary but he declined, for various reasons. When he visited churches in Malacca, Batu Pahat and Johor Bahru, he saw that the situation was even more critical. His mind began to waver and his burden grew, and he sought God's clear guidance.

When he went to Hong Kong later the same year to attend the First Chinese Congress on World Evangelisation, he met again with the church leaders who requested him to start a seminary in Malaysia. God spoke to him from Acts 1:8, "You are in Indonesia, and Malaysia is your Samaria. Therefore, you need to go to Malaysia."

In 1978, Rev Lukas flew to Kuala Lumpur with his family. At that time, the seminary was in the process of being set up with only RM800 in the bank. The college rented space from Luther House for RM2,000 a month, and three months after it started, they were unable to pay the rent! At that time, there were only nine students. One day, a female student came to see Rev Lukas and gave RM50 to the college. He was moved to tears and said to the Lord, "Since the students love the college so much, God will bless the college!" 

During his tenure as the founding principal and lecturer of the Malaysia Bible Seminary (MBS) from 1978 to 1986, Rev Lukas was instrumental in building a solid foundation for MBS by liaising with churches, raising funds, and recruiting talents. In the early 1980s, after MBS purchased six three-and-a-half-storey shophouses in Klang for its premises, he started to look for land and raise funds for its new campus. Unfortunately, he was forced to leave in 1986 due to the non-renewal of his visa.

During the purchase and development of the new MBS campus in Kuang in the Gombak district of Selangor, Rev Lukas also raised funds from Indonesian churches and received approximately RM500,000 for the construction of the campus. In 2011, when MBS held its 33rd anniversary and dedication of the new campus, he was already physically weak and preached his last sermon with the title, "A Beautiful Place, Beautiful Footsteps.” 

Rev Lukas had also taught at Singapore Bible College, Western Theological Seminary in the USA for two years, and Bandung Theological Seminary for five years. After leaving full-time teaching, he still often taught intensive courses in seminaries in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, and conducted training in China. The courses he taught included Missions, Islamic Studies, Chinese Religions, and Folk Beliefs, New Testament background and hermeneutics, etc.

He remained committed to promoting literature work. In his later years, he was the chief editor and director-general of the “Golden Lampstand” in Hong Kong for three years and the chief editor of the "Gospel Express" in Indonesia. He wrote extensively, covering various fields and genres.[2] His book, The New Testament, won the "Tang Ching Christian Literature Award".

Rev Lukas was kind and humble and spoke in a steady and refined manner. He was a good pastor and scholar, godly, faithful, insightful, gifted and courageous. He was strongly committed to his missionary calling and exhorted his family “to serve the Lord and to preach the gospel”. He and his wife had one son named Andereas Tjandra who married Lily Andariani and had three children: Daniel, Joseph and Janice Priscilla.

Rev Lukas returned to the Lord on May 30, 2012 at the age of 81. He lived out the words of Revelation 14:13 and 2 Timothy 4:7-8.

 

Notes

  1. ^ Tan Hann Tzuu and Irene Yek Siew Hong, eds., Winter Cypress PineFaithful Till the End (Selangor, Malaysia: MBS Publication Sdn Bhd, 2018), 208.
  2. ^ Tan and Yek, eds., Winter Cypress Pine, 208.

    Books written by Rev Lukas Tjandra include the following:
    The New Testament in Context (12 ed.)
    Breaking the Mystery, Repelling Evil, and Casting Out Demons (6 ed.)
    Chinese Folk Religion in Southeast Asia (4 ed.)
    New Breakthroughs in the Chinese Church
    A History of Chinese Missionaries Pioneering in Nan Yang
    The Coffin Stops in Egypt
    Folk Religion in the E Age
    A Study of Islam and Christianity (7 ed.)
    Easy Bible Reading and the Method of Bible Interpretation (co-authored with Tan Kim Sai, 7 editions)
    In the Beginning God Created Heaven and Earth
    Truth, Reason, Emotion
    What Do We Know About Islam in China?

This story is excerpted by Edward Chuan from a book commemorating Rev Lukas Tjandra published by the Malaysia Bible Seminary.

(Tan Hann Tzuu and Irene Yek Siew Hong, eds. Winter Cypress PineFaithful Till the End. Selangor, Malaysia: MBS Publication Sdn Bhd, 2018.)

 

Bibliography

Tan Hann Tzuu and Irene Yek Siew Hong, eds. Winter Cypress PineFaithful Till the End. Selangor, Malaysia: MBS Publication Sdn Bhd, 2018.