Alpha Conference in Kuching
The first Alpha Conference in Kuching, East Malaysia was attended by 1200 delegates from fifteen denominations.
Speakers included Nicky Gumbel, Jamie Haith, Tim Hughes and Al Gordon.
The two day conference was held at Trinity Methodist Church, and included seminars on running Alpha in Mandarin and dialects as well as running Prison and Workplace Alpha.
The conference was organized after an invitation from Roman Catholic Archbishop John Ha. He gave the opening address saying:
"There has never been a greater and more urgent need to draw our people to Christ and deepen their relationship with him than today.Thank God we do not need to go back and scratch our heads and think what program should be devised or drawn up, we have Alpha given to us by God in our hands.'
Anglican Bishop Bolly Lapok agreed that the Alpha course is needed to unite the churches in Malaysia:
'We need a credible common denominator such as the Alpha Course. In the present situation, I would say a conference like this, the Alpha Course, is God sent.'