1st Petaling Jaya Company

The Girls’ Brigade in Malaysia

Aim
The Aim of the The Girls’ Brigade, being a Christian organisation, international and interdenominational, shall be : To help girls to become followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, and through self-control, reverence and a sense of responsibility, to find true enrichment of life.

Motto:

“Seek, serve and follow Christ”

Principles
The Girls’ Brigade acknowledges Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord according to the Scriptures and seeks to fulfil its aim to the glory of one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The Brigade witnesses to the standard set by Jesus Christ and gives positive teaching on the Christian attitude to life. The Brigade promotes a just society where all people are equally valued.

Typical Weekly Programme
• Roll Call
• Singspiration
• Devotion / Bible Study
• Badge Work
• Drill / Games
• Dismissal

Who can join?
• Cadets : 6 – 8 years old
• Juniors : 9 – 11 years old
• Seniors : 12 – 14 years old
• Pioneers : 15 – 21 years old

Contact
Trinity Methodist Church Petaling Jaya
Address: 6 Jalan 5/37, 46000 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-79565989
Email: admin@trinitypj.com
Website: www.gbmalaysia.org

Captain Tan Hzu Fernn: 0163352303
Advisor Chew Lee Fuang : 0162853028

Four Square Programme

The programme includes everything that is done for and with the girls. It takes in the activities and projects of the church, the local community, the wider boundaries of Girls’ Brigade, as well as the Company meetings.

SPIRITUAL
Her understanding of Christian living through learning from Scripture, seeing how Christianity works in the lives of others and participation in church activities

EDUCATIONAL
Her knowledge and skills, finding meaningful activities and interests through achievements

SOCIAL
An understanding of herself in relation to others and the community in which she lives, by becoming part of a team, working in small groups on achievements and projects, carrying out service projects for the community as well as through leadership training

PHYSICAL
In physical health and skills as she learns how to care for herself and by participating in games and physical activities

History of the 1st Petaling Jaya Girls’ Brigade

The 1st Petaling Jaya Girls’ Life Brigade (PJGLB) Company was started on November 1960 under the leadership of Mrs Khoo Onn Soo at Trinity Methodist Church Petaling Jaya (TMCPJ). At the time of its founding, there were about 23 girls and officers, 22 of them were from Kuala Lumpur and one girl from Petaling Jaya.

Mrs Khoo was an active brigadier herself at the 1st Penang GB Company. She thought that it would be an excellent idea to start a GB Company at TMCPJ. She mentioned during an interview that the Lord had impressed upon her heart to “feed His sheep”. The GB meetings were then held henceforth on every Saturday, which was the day for youth activities at church. The agenda of the meetings were the typical GB meetings; beginning with prayer, followed by worship, Bible study, badge work and drills.

In 1964, Ms Rasathi Pragasam became the captain of the company. In the following year, the name of the organisation changed slightly with the omission of the word “Life”. This change was dues to the amalgamation of The Girls’ Brigade (Ireland), The Girls’ Guildry and The Girls’ Life Brigade worldwide.

There were high and low notes in terms of company membership, dipping as low as 5 girls at a single meeting in the 1980s. Through the years, there were many church members such as Mrs Lim Choon Teng, Mrs June Ng, Ms Anne Wong, Mrs Pauline Choo, Ms Aileen Khoo, Ms Rani Samuel, Mrs May Soon, Mdm Leong Sow Yoke, Mrs Magdeline Tan and many others who served in this ministry as Captains, Officers and Helpers.

The 1st PJ Girls’ Brigade spread its wings to the neighbouring Methodist Primary School in 2008. There they have their meetings every Wednesday afternoons from 1pm – 3pm.The current teacher advisors are Mdm Chua, Mrs Meena and Ms Rita.

Besides the weekly Saturday meetings, 1st PJGB have our own Junior Camp, Drill Camp. Other than that, we also participate in the camps held at national level such as YLPT, YLGBSL, YLRALT, NOR, BOT1&2, the Fonomarae, the National Cadet Camp and the National Drill Camp.

The first achiever of the GB National Award, the Pioneer Pin from our local company is YL Tan Hzu Fernn in 2009.

Sources: Mrs Khoo Onn Soo, Mr Lim Tong Juan (the then Church Historian), LCEC Minutes (Church Archives)

Enrolment 2013

The 1st Petaling Jaya Girls’ Brigade had their Enrolment Sunday on 28th April, 2013. Enrolment Sunday, held every year to enrol new girls, re-enrol the existing members and promote the girls to become Young Leaders. Also, this Enrolment Sunday is to get other girls interested in the activities of the Girls’ Brigade and join the Brigade.

Weeks before the Enrolment Day, we, the girls of the 1st Petaling Jaya Company practised hard to show our best on this special day. Band lessons started and a relatively big number of girls had joined. This was a quite a big achievement for our Company as previously when our band was first formed, only a small number of girls joined. Dance practices were also held for their performance during worship on Enrolment Day. And there was of course parade drill practice, the highlight of the day! The Senior and Pioneer girls and two Officers took part in the parade drill.

The special day had finally arrived and everyone was excited. The day started off with the parade drill at 10.15 am. After that, it was the marching in of the girls. The programme continued with the worship session which was then followed by scripture reading and a message by Pastor Ting, the Chaplain of the 1st Petaling Jaya Company of the Girls’ Brigade. Following that was the most anticipated event of the day: the enrolment and promotion of the members! New girls were enrolled, existing members were re-emrolled and some were promoted to Young Leaders as the had completed their training and met the requirements after the Young Leaders’ Preliminary Training (YLPT). Following that was the Captain’s speech and a slideshow of the activities of our Company   from November, 2012 until April, 2013 and what was coming up in the future.

Then it was time for a little appreciation of the parents who attended our Enrolment. Chocolates and testimony books were given out as an appreciation. After that, we marched out and had our dismissal. Our programme was completed and our day was done at approximately 12.45 pm.

I’m proud to say that this is my eighth enrolment as I had been a member since 2004. As a Young Leader of this Company I have seen the Company grow from a small group of girls to a large group of girls. I’m proud to say that I am a GB girl!

Young Leader Leong Jia Qian

 

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