Johor Deacon publishes first book

Director of the Johor Malacca Diocese Pastoral Institute Sherman Kuek, 36, has just written his first book which consists of 100 of his reflections.

Kuek told Citizen Journalist Malaysia (CJMY) that three years ago, a publisher from Singapore approached him to write this book.

A convert himself, the publisher was interested in Kuek, a fellow convert.

Kuek agreed because writing is one of the tools to spread the word of God.

In the Catholic church, there are two kinds of deacon.

Kuek is the first of eight permanent deacons who is married.

Most are celibate deacons who did not get married and who will eventually become priests.

Deacons (diakonoi) are the assistants of the bishops and are responsible for teaching and administering certain Church tasks.

He explained to CJMY that people should stop seeing Jesus as a string of words.

They have to relate to him as a person. He urged them to have a journey with him and recognize his voice.

The title for his book can be translated as  “What I heard in my life from  the Master.”

Kuek is a former Anglican theologian who was converted into the Catholic faith.

Among the ordinary Catholics, it is more common the other way round.

When asked by CJMY how that happened, he said “maybe it is a divine conspiracy.”

For him it was a long journey which included many special events that provoked him to think and search.

When he went to attend a meeting in Rome as a protestant pastor, he realised how far he had drifted from the protestant faith and close he was to the catholic faith.

A deep thinker even when young, he found answers about his faith and it all pointed to one direction, the catholic faith.

He said,”I had no choice but to be a Catholic.”

At the end of the interview, Kuek said, “An important message that the book can bring to the people is that God still works through the harshest realities of life’”.

After this book, what next? He and his team have started producing DVDs as another way to spread God’s message.