Le Papillon
The young adults did a cool video to publicise the “Le Papillon” experience. I think all young men need a male version of Le Papillon, as much if not more. For more details go HERE.
8 comments November 12th, 2008
Posts filed under 'Home church'
another wedding: Clarence and Grace Yong
The morning church wedding was held at Trinity Theological College’s sanctuary and this was the oldest pageboy I had ever seen, and it was my son, the good friend of the bride.
They say it is very difficult for a man to give away his daughter in marriage, but does he have a choice? “Who gives this woman to be married?” could easily be addressed to the bride,”Which man do you give up to be married?” and she’d gladly say, “The older one.” 
They held the wedding dinner at the Hilton. That was where my wife and I had our wedding reception back in December 1980.
Grace’s church friends at the cocktail before the dinner.
We were seated beside “church pillars”: Agnes and Mark Chua, who were good company to have, and the evening passed by quickly.
The photos showed an obvious difference between Sony Eriksson phone 701 and Nokia E71: the pics above, taken with E71, were grainy, for indoor and low light conditions.
1 comment October 20th, 2008
mid-autumn festival celebrations 2008
The Chinese service spearheaded this community outreach project on Saturday night at Lorong 40 Geylang.
The fan dancers had intensive training and waited for their turn. Were they nervous? Didn’t seem so.
The comperes, the musicians were all from the church.
There were about 700 to 1000 from the community and about 100 plus from the church.
They were caught up in the song, dance and drama on the stage, the lantern walkabout, and the mooncake made by man Singapore record that was set.
Held in a park, the “getai” continued until over 9pm. The MP had left by then. Goodie bags have been distributed, with offers of counselling and parenting and marriage courses.
1 comment September 15th, 2008
thank God for the teachers
Its teachers day and I want to thank God for all teachers, those who work in schools and those who work and serve in the church. I don’t fully appreciate the load of responsibilities a schoolteacher handles. I did a stint of teaching in primary and secondary school during my teaching cadet days, but never under the full weight of pressures that today’s teachers carry. During my time, Dr Goh Keng Swee and his system engineers just finished their complete revamp of the education system. I parachuted out before it was implemented. Not that I was smart enough to anticipate what was to come; the call of God was just too strong. It was to be the beginning of sorrows for teachers. Yes their pay got increased; but so did their pressures. So I am very thankful to God for the teachers of our schools. They are heroes and should be treated as such, because our only resource is our brain power, and they are the ones that multiply that “one talent” that God has given Singapore.
Needless to say I salute our children’s church teachers as well. The children’s church is the nursery from which the trees planted by the Lord will blossom and bear fruit in abundance when they get to the youth and adulthood stage. In fact, they even bear fruit and are a witness even while their faith is being strengthened as little children, learning the ways of the Lord.
I myself once attended Sunday School in this church called Bukit Timah Evangelical Free Church, when it met near Binjai Park and later at the Singapore Bible College premises. They even had a van that came and fetched me from my home in Hillview. My parents sent my brothers and I to church, perhaps like owners sent their dogs to obedience school, to learn some good morals, or something. I went to play table tennis. I attended in spurts. I didn’t memorize the verses, though I did hear the Bible stories told with flannelboards, and did the coloring that followed, and collected cross-shaped bookmarks. I wonder how the teacher felt then about me. She must have prayed quite a bit. I remember an occasion when some teachers came to visit our family when we had been absent for a stretch.
My wife and I visited this church one day about eight years back, and we had a chat with the senior pastor Twie Khim, whose wife was my sunday school teacher. I had hoped that when she saw that I had become a pastor, she had said to herself, “It was worth it”, or “Lord, great is Thy faithfulness”, or “How on earth did that boy become a pastor?”
Anyway I was so grateful to the GNK teachers, I did a video to convey my thanks(and that of all the parents and children), for their dedication, untiring love, faith and hope. If you are a children’s church teacher serving another church, take it as a thanks to you too.
Shaping the Children for an Eternity from Blogpastor on Vimeo.
16 comments August 31st, 2008
hurricane of love from pittsburg
They came for the Go Forth Mission Conference 08, about thirty of them. Most were young ones. Some were on staff at Ywam Pittsburg, others were with the programs they had there. They came on a shoestring budget but not when it came to love and boldness. They hit the streets from Aljunied to Esplanade to the Merlion, like a short and intense hurricane, showing skits in the streets, singing in the open air, without police license (they were Americans!), and it attracted small crowds, and after the show and talk(interpreted into Mandarin), they mingled and interacted with whoever was around or wanted to talk. One of their leaders said, “Its like you don’t have to go all over the world; the nations are already here: Thais, Myanmese, Chinese nationals, Sri Lankans, Indians, Filipinos, Vietnamese….” The two Sundays they were around they brought some Myanmese, Chinese nationals whom they shared the gospel with, as guests to our services.
On Sunday, the Pittsburg group did those classic mimes of Ywam in the main and youth services and the youth pastor was so impressed with their evangelistic fervor and outreach that she organized an ad hoc training for the youths.
Later a big group went to the Philippines for a mission while others stayed on and later went across the Causeway. They left us a names list which we then invited to the Alpha Course about to be run in the church.
How were we hooked up with these Pittsburg folks? Well we support a missionary family based there that has close links with them. This family is a remarkable story in itself, but because their work is sensitive, no talk, lah.
We have been blessed by Spirit wind and fire.
1 comment August 5th, 2008
cell worship out where the needs are
A young adult cell meets at my place every Saturday afternoon. My wife and I have a growing affection for these godly and talented young people, mostly serving with the worship ministry. One of them is Sarah, and her grandfather, Mr Phua was ill. He was bedridden, unable to speak or care for himself, with a chronic bedsore. All this after a fall about two years ago. The cell decided to visit and worship and pray with him last Saturday(click on pics). We worshiped the Lord, sprinkled with scripture readings, prayers, words, and singing in the Spirit. I felt the anointing and presence of the Lord. My eyes were moist. This was no formal going through the motions; it was deeply meaningful. A few days later we received this letter from Caroline, Mr Phua’s daughter, who was present. She wrote:
“We would like to express our heartfelt thanks to you and Sarah’s Cell group for your visitation, fellowship and wonderful + inspiring worship time with my parents at my home last weekend. My mom had been touched and inspired by your cell group - the wonderful young people who can lead and pray for her and my dad during the worship time. She felt renewed inside and her faith in God has been strengthened once more. She felt that she was able to worship the Lord with them at my home as if she is in a church. My mom was very happy on that day after you all left. Her face was radiant. Praise God.I know my dad - he was able to hear and listen to the worship time and praying moments. I saw him shedding a few tears during that time. I thank God for giving my parents a time of uplifting and giving glory to God at my home despite not being able to go to their church.I am also inspired by what the Lord has used each one of the wonderful people in His ministry. They are His wonderful and marvelous tools to be used for His Kingdom and His Glory. I believe that God will bless and develop them much more to further His ministry everywhere they go. I was glad to be able to serve you with my bakery. I pray and hope that there will be another round of worship and praying time for my parents so that they will be brought closer to God much more through Sarah’s cell group. We are looking forward to it “
Reading the letter was an encouragement. It got me thinking. Bringing the cell and the worship outside where the needs are can be very impactful. These missional young adults has gotten out of the hype and emo of popular Christianity, and entered into the real world of suffering and need, and deliberately offering themselves there, they were used by the Lord to refresh a bedridden man, and a family worn out from caring for him.
It also got me thinking about the future face of ministry. By 2020 the number of senior citizens in Singapore would have doubled, and a percentage of that would be homebound. What kind of ministry would the senior citizens need? How will the growing aged population shape the ministry of churches in the next decade?
3 comments July 2nd, 2008
church camp 2008
We invited Rev George Ong to speak on “Unveiling the Glory of God”, subtitled Cat and Dog Theology. We were his fourth June church camp but he was energetic, engaging, humourous, penetrating and enlightening. Rather than the usual inspirational/prophetic fare for church camps I decided this time to go for some solid teaching for more balance. The teaching and preaching was appreciated and well received by the church. It served to deepen our call to glorify God in missions and not be so “me” centered. It was a corrective to our Singaporean Christian “consumer” mentality. He brought along stocks of the 12 humour books that he authored/compiled, and they sold well. It was wonderful to fellowship with this ex-Youth for Christ worker, former army captain, Trinity alumni, formerGrace Assembly pastor, and to hear about his faith-walk as an itinerant preacher, credentialed with the Assembly of God.
We were at Malacca’s Holiday Inn a spanking new hotel near the sea and next to Makhota Parade Shopping Mall. The facilities and food were great and so was the service.
4 comments June 15th, 2008
world-wide inflation: time for church to do something
Food prices have risen 45% in the past nine months, according to the UN. In other parts of the world it has incited social unrest. The World Bank has estimated a doubling of food prices over the past 3 years could push 100 million people further into poverty, and some 33 countries face unrest because of inflation caused by several factors: increased demand due to changing diet in Asia; bad weather; diversion of staples such as corn into biofuels; soaring transportation costs, and trade restrictions on farm produce. Are we seeing the third seal unfolded before our very eyes? “When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come!” And I looked, and behold, a black horse! And its rider had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard what seemed like to be a voice in the midst of the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil and wine!” (Revelation 6: 5,6). Famine, according to the third seal, will become so severe that a laborer’s entire wages will go merely for food. Families will have to buy barley, a lower quality of grain. Oil and wine will be spared perhaps a hint that the well-off will still be able to indulge themselves, like many of us Singaporeans.
I believe the church in Singapore must sit up and do something about this need of fellow-Singaporeans and even more the poor of Asean, and even the world. This may be worse than a tsunammi. In our church, the Chinese service has started the ball rolling with a small but wonderful idea, so we English service folks just piggy-backed on their idea of asking members to bring a packet of rice for the needy. So about 200 packs of rice were collected the Sunday before Labour Day and transported to the storeroom of Marine Parade CDC. These will then go to those who have been assessed as needing such aid. It was a privelege for us to participate in something like this. God would want the church to always look out for the needy. And in these days of unprecedented inflation, such help goes a longer way than we dare to admit. There are very needy people out there, especially outside Singapore. This was a once off project but it will probably take on a life of its own. After all, God has a bias towards the poor.
7 comments May 5th, 2008
International Baccalaureate:secret of perfect score
The International Baccalaureate (IB) was first offered by ACS(Independent) in Singapore and came with the reputation of a widely recognized pre-university educational program used in 125 plus countries. It is not easy to do well in it, much less get a perfect score. But let me tell you the secret, but please keep it secret. You have to drink a bottle a day. Drink what? New Moon chicken essence. Not Brand’s, but New Moon. You ask, “How do you know that, pastor?” Well, that sweet girl in the poster is in my young adult cell group. No kidding! Her name is Elsa Goh and she was one among a handful from the first graduating batch who had perfect scores.
Now for the real secret: First, she is very smart. Second, she is very focused and motivated. Third, she puts in consistent effort throughout the year. Now thats the secret! Please don’t tell anyone or it won’t be a secret anymore. Of course taking chicken essence regularly won’t do you any harm!
1 comment April 27th, 2008
pushing the climbers
Yesterday, Peter and I pushed the Kinabalu 3 climbers as time is running out and there are only about 3 training sessions left before March 7-11. To be prepared is of utmost importance and though at this time, the forced marches up and down the steps of Dairy Farm and Jungle Fall may not be appreciated, they will later understand why we are stretching them. Their strength and stamina have improved since they first started.
Perhaps this 8 minute video of the challenges that lie ahead will motivate them to train between Sundays too.
Add comment February 11th, 2008
