It was my great privilege to have met Mr Ang Chui Lai after the wedding of his sister, Poh Kim, on August 13, 1956 in Taiping Gospel Hall. He was a teacher in my school at King Edward VII School, Taiping. After seven years teaching and with help from his father, he saved enough money to study law in England in September 1956 when he was 28 years of age. The next weekend, we bid him farewell at the Taiping airport where he boarded a DC3 plane for Singapore. He then sailed on the British ocean liner, SS Chusan, which took a month to reach England via the Suez Canal.
He shared his cabin with Sothinathan Kanagasingam from Bukit Mertajam who was also going to the same college at Lincoln’s Inn. Both earned their LLB with honours and were called to the Bar on November 21, 1961.
On his return home in April 1962, Chui Lai began his practice with a reputable local law firm. He and Sothi then set up their law firm called M/S Sothi & Ang, Advocates & Solicitors in 1965 in the former MCA Building at Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur. Initially, they dealt in criminal law but quickly found their forte in commercial and corporate law. Both Chui Lai and Sothi enjoyed the challenges of their practice and doing business with foreign investors. Many of their staff were loyal and stayed on for 40 years. They celebrated their 40th anniversary in 2015.
Chui Lai was a God-fearing man and lived his life with high morals as a shining example for all those in contact with him. He would always stand by his biblical principles and held himself to a higher standard than his peers. He was young at heart and in mind and would often joke and fill people with laughter. There was never a dull moment with Chui Lai around.
As Chui Lai was attending Jalan Imbi Chapel in Kuala Lumpur, I had opportunities to meet up with him as I was at the University of Malaya studying engineering. We met often after Sunday services and had fellowship together with Bro Yap Kim Wan of Penang at the coffee shop diagonally across the road from the church. In fact, I had many things to learn from him and he became my learned mentor.
Chui Lai loved planting flowers and his favourite flower was the bougainvillea. When he was staying at Jalan Chawan in Section 6, Petaling Jaya, he used to plant many pots of bougainvillea of varied colours. It was an easy plant to grow and care for. That was his passion as a bachelor for 40 years. As I was staying nearby in 1965 and 1966, I would visit him on weekends for fellowship.
He was a longtime eligible bachelor and had many fine girlfriends, but he was selective. It was extremely difficult to find a life partner to match his personality. In June 1968, his good friend in the same church, Dr Peter Tong and his wife, arranged a blind date for him in Singapore with a fine young lady, a staff nurse in her late 20s. He courted her with frequent telephone calls and flying trips to Singapore and they were married in Jalan Imbi Chapel on July 12, 1969. They settled in Setapak Gardens as the neighbour of our good friend, Bro Yap Kim Wan. Siew Hoon became his grounding force after 40 years of bachelorhood.
He had been brought up in a third generation Christian family in Taiping and was a Bible teacher with the Taiping Young People’s (YP) group in Taiping Gospel Hall. Chui Lai was known as a “walking Bible” who could remember and quote scripture very well. He was also a very strong prayer warrior. He used to pray using scripture and these prayers could have been messages in themselves. When he expounded difficult passages of the Bible, it was what you might expect of a lawyer. His messages were anointing and inspiring and there was always a lot to learn from him and his Christian heritage and experience. Chui Lai was known as the “thundering prophet” whenever he spoke at the pulpit.
Chui Lai was also a joker and liked to pull people’s legs. He liked to tease people and give them nicknames or pet names so he could remember them better. For example, he would call me “Boon Pah Heah” (i.e. brother in Hokkien). He would call my thirddaughter “Char Bor Peng Tau” (i.e. army girl officer) because of her tom-boy character and her father being in the army.
Chui Lai became an elder of Jalan Imbi Chapel in the mid-60s. In January 1978, he was given a task by the chief elder of the church to meet and bring his good friend, Dr Peter Tong, back to church. Peter had left to join another church in Damansara Heights. Since they were working next door to each other in Jalan Ampang in Kuala Lumpur, Peter would share about his new, transformed experience in the Lord. Earlier, in June 1977, Peter had shared about the miraculous healing of his wife’s stomach ulcer which, as a doctor himself, he could not treat.
In August 1977, Peter organised lunch-hour fellowship meetings in his medical clinic on Friday afternoons. Initially, about eight to 10 of us would be present and we would have fellowship over take-away packets of chicken rice or “chap fun” (mixed rice). On other occasions, we would adjourn next door to Bilal Curry House (opposite the former Chartered Bank) to have curry lunch (Chui Lai loved Indian food and his favourite was curry fish or mutton). Conversations would go on for another hour while Peter shared his new experience. Soon Chui Lai became interested and met Peter more often on Friday.
After some months in February 1978, Chui Lai began to have Friday fellowship meetings in his home in Section 17, Petaling Jaya to learn more about this new experience in the Holy Spirit. In August 1978, a few of us were invited to have dinner in Dr Peter Tong’s home in Kenny Hill, followed by a time of praise and worship. A prophecy was then given by Dr Joy Seevaratnam, “Leave them, love them and you shall live.” Dr Koh Eng Kiat (elder of Life Chapel in Petaling Jaya) and his wife Poh Kim were also present for the first time with us in such a fellowship meeting.
Eventually, the fellowship meeting in Chui Lai’s home was filled with over a hundred people overflowing outside into the garden. Speakers from all over the world would come to share about this new experience in the Holy Spirit. After Dr Koh was filled with the fullness of the Holy Spirit in January 1979, both he and Chui Lai were encouraged by Peter Tong to start a new church in his bungalow home. Both became founding elders of a new church with 42 other like-minded people. The first Sunday service was held on April 8, 1979.
At this first morning service following the Brethren protocol whereby any Christian brother could share a hymn or exhortation, a deacon from Petaling Jaya Gospel Hall stood up and proposed the name of this new found assembly as Full Gospel Assembly (FGA). Actually, the term, “Full Gospel” was adapted from the Full Gospel Central Church in Seoul, South Korea. This was because we came from the Brethren Assembly and followed the assembly’s practice of priesthood of believers. Indeed, it was a new assembly with the fullness of the gospel of the risen Christ. FGA is a military term meaning “fighter ground attack” aircraft. The FGA engages in aerial combat or dogfights and interdiction behind enemy lines before its own troops moved in on the ground and captured the objective. “FGA” would fit this church spiritually in terms of spiritual warfare in the heavenlies and church growth at the ground level.
The hallmark of Chui Lai was his unselfish, kind and warm hospitality, including overnight stays for guests in his guest room, just like his parents had done in Taiping. In practicing hospitality as exhorted in the Scriptures (Romans 12:13; 1 Peter 4:9), he and his beloved wife were greatly used to bless many people who came to the saving grace and knowledge of Christ as their Lord and personal Saviour. As a result, many people were added to the church. As we lived nearby, his wife would help to look after our three young girls in their home in the late 70s/early 80s whenever we had formal functions at the Ministry of Defence. Indeed, we were profoundly grateful to them for their kind hospitality and service.
Chui Lai was a great man of prayer and of the Word of God. He was humble, approachable and an unassuming friend. On October 14, 2016, he passed on to glory peacefully at home, at the golden age of 88 years. He is survived by his beloved wife, two sons and a grandson.
