Friends, please be in prayer for the family and friends of Alvin Lim, an occasional contributor to these forums.

I have this information third hand, but apparently he passed away from a heart attack yesterday while on holiday in Hong Kong. He was called home in his mid 40s.

Alvin was a Godly man, and has been so for all of the nearly 20 years that I’ve known him and his wife, Michelle. They have 3 children, Jeremy, Erica and Zac. Their ages range from 14 to 6 (I think).

Alvin was a very active member of St Paul’s Menai, so please also be in prayer for those who will comfort Michelle and the kids over the next few weeks and months. We are all in shock.

Pic of Alvin

I’m in shock about this news. I had the privilege of meeting Alvin and his family at the 2004/5 Anglican Youthworks Family Camp. They were in the room next to ours and our kids played together a fair bit. We caught up again a couple of years later through these forums. He was a nice guy. I will be praying for his family.

Yours in Christ,
Mark

Thank you for letting us know, John. I will be praying for the family and asking that God will help to sustain them in his grace.

Alvin was a regular letter contributor to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Not sure which was his last letter published but this was Alvin’s letter on 12 May 2007:

Error of epic proportion

Craig Selman, neither the Christians nor the archaeologists are wrong on this one (Letters, May 11). It was Dionysius Exiguus who got it wrong. He developed the AD system in 525 and got the year of Jesus’s birth wrong and we have been stuck with it since. Most people believe Jesus was born in 5BC.

Alvin Lim Menai

Once I’ve firm confirmation of this news, I’ll post and tell of my connection to Alvin.

I’m praying as well. What terrible news.

I’ve confirmed the sad news with St Paul’s Anglican Church, Menai.

Alvin will most likely be cremated in Hong Kong.  When Michelle and the children return to Sydney, a memorial service at St Paul’s may be arranged.

I only know Alvin by name but we both share the same history of having
been nurtured in the Christian faith through the ministry of the Overseas Christian Fellowship (OCF) when we were overseas students studying at uni years and years ago.  Alvin was my senior by several years.

In fact, I’ve just joined an OCF Yahoo Group yesterday and I read Alvin’s last post on Friday July 6.  Alvin said that if he saw one of my published letters in the Sydney Morning Herald, he would post it on the OCF Yahoo Group.

There is also going to be an OCF Sydney 50th Anniversary at the end of September that Alvin and many ex-OCFers, like myself, were looking forward to, in thanksgiving to God.

We, ex-OCFers, thank God for Alvin’s life and testimony.

May our heavenly Father comfort Michelle and others bereaved.

The Sydney Morning Herald has confirmed that the above letter was indeed Alvin’s last published letter.

However, on the same day, May 12, Alvin scored a quinella: on the regular letters page (see above) and also in the sports page (see below).

Perhaps Mr Mathivanan from Sri Lanka Cricket could try batting with a squash ball in his glove before he starts mouthing off about Adam Gilchrist. I thought they grew tea in Sri Lanka, not sour grapes.

Alvin Lim, Menai

Alvin was a keen follower of the Wallabies (whom Alvin referred to as the Wobblies) and cricket.

I’ve since remembered that Alvin was the youngest of a large family (9, I think), and his Mother is in her 80s. I can imagine that losing your youngest when you are at such an advanced age has its own complications. Please pray for her also. To my knowledge, Alvin was the only Christian in the family, so please pray that they remember at this time his witness to them over the years.

For those who are interested, Alvin was cremated today. Michelle’s mother and brother have flown to Hong Kong to be with her and the kids.

Michelle sent a SMS to St Paul’s, asking for people to pray that Alvin’s Mum becomes a Christian. Personally, I am very encouraged to hear that Michelle still has a heart full of God’s love at this dark time. Please join those praying this prayer.

While I had never met Alvin, I always appreciated his contributions to the SMH. I would eagerly scan the letters section for his name so I could be enlightened by his wit and challenged by his godly understanding of an issue. He will be missed.

Thank you John and others for all the information you have posted to allow us to pray for our brother-in-Christ’s family and friends.

May the mercies and compassion of our Heavenly Father sustain and encourage Alvin’s family. I rejoice in the fact that death did not defeat Alvin nor has it robbed him of eternal life.

I have received an e-mail from Alvin’s sister, Lesley. She very much appreciates the tributes and words of comfort supplied by you all in this thread.

She has asked me to post her words below. Of course, she is much more of an expert on her family than I am! I was simply recalling from memory. I appreciate the correction, and the additional information. This was originally an e-mail that she sent to people she knew. The bold parts are the latest updates.

Lesley Lim said:
Alvin was the youngest of 9.  He was five when our father passed away suddenly in 1966.  Dad was 39.  Alvin did a medical degree at UNSW.  There are two other older brothers who attend churches with their families in Kuala Lumpur.  Alvin was 46.  (John Anderson mentioned Alvin passed away from a heart attack.  I am unable to confirm that as the autopsy will be conducted this morning.)

Our brother, Hok Lim and his wife left Kuala Lumpur for HK yesterday.  Our Mum and our oldest sister left Kuala Lumpur for HK this morning.  The four of them, the Australian Embassy staff and Alvin friends will assist Michelle.  The cremation will be held at 4pm today (After this email went out it was postponed to 10:15am on 12/7/07.) Michelle’s brother, Brett who will be flying out of London to accompany Michelle and the three children (5 - 13) back to Sydney on Saturday 14/7/07.  They are coming home with Alvin’s ashes. At this stage, we don’t know when the memorial service will be held athe the St Paul’s Agnlican Church, Menai.  (Michelle has suggested 24/7/07 but there is another booking.  I will chase up on 13/7/07.  Once the booking is confirmed I will then place the personal notice in SMH asap.)

Alvin was a Godly man.  He was a well loved and respected son, husband, father, brother, brother-in-law, uncle, nephew and friend to our Mother, Madam Tan Cheong Wan, his wife, Michelle, his 3 children, Jeremy, Erica and Zac, his three brothers, his five sisters, his brothers-in-laws, his sisters-in-laws, his parents-in-laws, all his nieces and nephews, all his relatives and all his friends and associates.  We missed him badly.

Thank you for letting us know about the passing of a fellow Christian and contributor to these pages.

I pray that his faith in Christ may continue to witness to his family and that members of his family may come to share his faith.

Was Alvin related to the Australian composer, Liza Lim?

Lesley has advised me that Alvin’s memorial service will take place at 2pm Tuesday 24/7/07 at the St Paul’s Anglican Church, Menai.

She thinks that Michelle is coping well, all things considered. That is an answer to prayer.

I got home yesterday from holidays to the sad news about Alvin. He was a friend and also my doctor. I’ll never forget when he first set up in Menai he said that the wanted a practice that didn’t make him financially rich, but enabled him to serve the community with the skills God had given him.

He did that! For example, he was the only doctor in the area (that I know of) who would do house calls for his regular patients, who would get up in the middle of the night for an emergency consultation (rather than tell you to go to some stranger at the medical centre) and who would visit elderly patients in the local nursing home on a regular basis.

Alvin loved and served the Lord Jesus Christ. I’ll be at his memorial service for sure - and I expect it will be a very big local event. I don’t know how the practice treated him financially, but I do know that he was rich in God’s grace in the way he conducted it. I’ll miss him. My prayers for Michelle and the 3 kids - for God’s comfort and peace amidst their sorrow.

Just bumping this up the top 10 list, to give those who haven’t yet seen this and who want to go to the memorial service a chance to find out about it. The service is tomorrow at 2pm, as explained further up the thread.

Michelle has asked for prayers for courage, because she wants to speak at the service. I really admire her for that.

Warren (and anyone else attending), if you can, can you please make yourself known to me. It’s always good to ‘eyeball’ people on these forums once in a while, and seeing as I’m based in Bris Vegas, I don’t get the chance to do so often. I might be doing one of the readings, so if I am, it’ll be easier to pick me out. Otherwise, we’ll just have to figure it out as we go.

JA

Well, Alvin’s memorial service is behind us now. It was a wonderful celebration of Alvin’s life, his relationship with God, who he was, and what he meant to those who knew and loved him.

It was very well attended. My brother, who also attends Alvin’s church, had never seen it so full. I heard more than one person say “I think Alvin would have liked to have been here”.

The service was recorded so that it could be seen in a few days by those of Alvin’s family back in Malaysia who couldn’t attend. I reckon it could easily be used by God to answer Michelle’s prayer that Alvin’s mum will become a Christian.

I’d like to share what Michelle and the kids wrote on the back of the service sheet. It was very moving, and a fitting tribute to Alvin.

Memories of Dad

Dad made a song out of anything you said. He was passionate about sport, and enjoyed playing with us.

Zac jumped on top of him as a toddler shouting Gaa! This became known as a double Gaa when two or more people squashed another member of the family.

He was very competitive. Backyard cricket was serious but silly at the same time. Dad perfected trick bowling and loved to tease all of us.

When we needed him he was trustworthy and understanding, he shared his thoughts freely. Sometimes we would read the Bible and pray together. He often gave us “special time” as a one to one conversation about anything at bedtime.

He was enthusiastic. We danced around the living room acting silly when we spent a weekend ain Kiama to celebrate mum’s 40th birthday.

He experienced loss of hearing (he would completely mishear you and think it was something totally unrelated).

Dad liked to do thinkgs properly to the extreme! He always liked to frustrate us and then made a joke about his obsessive compulsive and pedantic personality.

Dad would say “Have you read my letter in the Herald today”? He was good with words (particularly spelling).

On our last day together Zac lost a baby tooth when watching the pandas at Ocean Park and we all had fun in the cable car.

We swam in the hotel pool and the boys had a noodle fight with Dad. He really enjoyed good food, and was a good cook too. Our last meal together was a great adventure in an Indian restaurant.

That night Erica & Jeremy and Dad greatly enjoyed city lights show, with music and lasers flashing everywhere then walking home eating ice cream. It was a great last memory.

Our prayers should continue for Michelle and the Kids, for his mother, and for Lesley, Kit, and all Alvin’s other siblings as they sort out his affairs over the next few weeks and months, and learn to get by without him. Also pray for those who seek to support them.

It was nice to meet you Warren, and I’m sorry to have missed you Hendry. I also ran into a couple of people from Barney’s days whom I haven’t seen for about 15 years, which was a very pleasant suprise, given the circumstances.