The former Keat Hong Camp was where national servicemen collected their soldier uniforms, caps, socks, belts and boots. As I stood at the worship hall of Christian Gospel Mission and looked out across Choa Chu Kang Avenue 1, I saw a large spacious bare land. Keat Hong Camp had been flattened. In its place, the Housing Development Board will be building thousands of apartment units. The harvest is coming to where the church is.
The Christian Gospel Mission, which first began in Jalan Cheng Hwa in Bukit Panjang, had relocated here, and has remained here for decades now. It is part of a stretch of shop-houses opposite what was once Keat Hong Camp. They are a church, a kindergarten and a student care center. They are Mandarin-speaking but the children of the original church congregation, have grown up and are mostly effectively bi-lingual. They are about 70 members and with a good mix of young and old and middle-aged. They have a new pastor, a former teacher, and he has taken over from his father, Choo Fah Chong. He is pastor Kevin Choo and he preaches the message of radical grace. The church is currently adjusting well as they sit under teachings that bring a new perspective to the outworking of the Christian life.
Grace-based, bi-lingual, interesting service
The unique thing about this church is that besides being “grace-based” and bi-lingual, the church’s Sunday service has an interesting format that my Christian education director would have been proud of. After the singing, the offering and announcements, the church would break into discussion groups after the pastor gave them some directions. The fruit of the discussions of each group would then be shared, and the pastor would teach the word, using and referring to the input as he delivered the message. This is learning that is interesting, engaging, interactive and dynamic.
Teochew muay
Since I was a guest preacher they did the usual traditional order of service. I had an interpreter Joseph, who translated my message for the congregation. I spoke about “God’s Love Tattoo”. One of the sermon illustrations I used was about Teochew muay. It tickled them so much that I heard this Easter service they had that after the service. They have a retired hotel chef, so their Teochew muay must have been plus, plus. I brought along a friend, Euclid, who had been trained for a year in the School of the Supernatural in Bethel. He was a great help during ministry time when we prayed and prophesied over people who came forward with needs.They were friendly and hospitable and after the service, we lunched at a coffee shop nearby: Teochew muay…well almost.
Being equipped for a great mission
I left the place thinking of its potential: the congregation experiencing new beginnings in the gospel of grace; the vast numbers of new families that will have new beginnings in the apartment blocks that will be built within four years. For such a time as this, the congregation is being tutored and equipped in the truths of grace, and I pray the Lord’s word will prosper and bear fruit through their faithful stewardship of the gospel to the new harvest field in front of them.
The Straits Times on Sunday published an inspiring story of how a lawyer who was brain dead woke up. The Hong Kong medical specialists advised the husband to pull the plug. But something …or Someone held him in check….and God did a miracle through the prayer of His people. This is apt for Good Friday and Easter when Christians remember the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
“Lawyer Suzanne Chin is convinced that what happened to her four years ago is nothing short of a miracle. The mother of two was living and working in Hong Kong when she suffered a heart attack, was hospitalised in a coma and declared brain dead. The head of the intensive care unit, two neurologists and a cardiologist told her husband to prepare for the worst. Soon, he was advised to take her off life support because, simply put, there was no hope. Then, three days after she was admitted, she woke up from her coma. She recovered within a week and left the hospital. Today, she is living in Singapore, still working as a lawyer, still a wife and mum. She is well, and she is alive. Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon recalled her remarkable story in a speech earlier this month on euthanasia and assisted dying. When The Sunday Times contacted Ms Chin for her story, she agreed only to answer questions via e-mail. Her husband, private investor John Alabaster, described what he went through too and said one thing was clear to him throughout their ordeal: “I did not talk to my children about switching off the life support simply because it was not an option for me.” But first, this is what happened to them in April 2009. April 20 started out as just another morning in their household. The usual scramble to get the children off to school before Ms Chin took off on her usual morning hike with her dog. But a few minutes after leaving home, she returned. She was in no pain but felt something was amiss. It was after she showered that she felt something was wrong and alerted her husband. “The last thing I remember was expressly forbidding him from calling an ambulance,” she said. She was taken unconscious to hospital and sent to the ICU. She had no history of heart problems, but had suffered a cardiac arrest. It was a huge shock for her husband. One day, everything had been normal for the couple, both in their 40s, and their children then aged 12, and seven. The next day, she was in a coma and it looked very bad. The specialists told Mr Alabaster she had suffered brain stem death and he had to prepare himself for “letting her go”. “In their opinion – and they were very firm – there was absolutely no chance of any sort of recovery,” he recalled. The next day, a doctor asked him if he had thought about it because his wife was neurologically lifeless, a valve in her heart had been severely damaged and there was no point keeping her alive. Things looked “worse than bleak” but he refused to say yes to switching off his wife’s life support, even though the doctor had been well intentioned. “But his demeanour when I told him of my decision to reject his opinion was one of patronising incredulity coupled with an unsaid ‘oh, you’ll come around’,” he said. On the third day, she revived. Ms Chin opened her eyes to see her husband bending over her, then she realised they were not at home, and noticed the wires and tubes stuck all over her body. “I realised that I was in a hospital and with tears in his eyes, my husband said that everything was going to be all right,” she said. “Within a very few hours, I was able to grasp a marker pen and I was able slowly to converse with the people around me.” What remains vivid is what she described as a recurring vision during the lost days when she was in a coma. She said: “I saw myself lying on a bed unable to move or speak. A man appeared by my side. He did not seem overtly threatening in any way but something in me sensed that he was not good. “He told me that if I wanted to move or speak, all I would have to do was to follow him. I demanded that he leave me alone, but he would not go away. Over and over again I repeated this. I also prayed without ceasing. “After a while, the man faded away. This vision repeated several times, but on what turned out to be the last occasion, the man started to get angry. He threatened to ‘take’ my daughter if I refused to ‘follow’ him. Again, I was resolute and unyielding, telling him he had no power over me as I was a child of God. “It was at that moment that I woke from my coma to see my husband John standing by my bed.” People she has related this to have asked if it might have been a dream. She said: “What is amazing is that this happened at a time when medically, I had been pronounced as being brain dead.” Ms Chin’s recovery from first opening her eyes to sitting up with her feet over the side of the bed took just 36 hours. “Not one doctor who treated me while in hospital or subsequently any specialist that I have seen since, either in Hong Kong or later in Singapore, has been able to account for the speed of my recovery or that I was able to come back from that hopeless position at all,” she said. “There is no doubt that I had suffered massive brain damage resulting in brain stem death. If one looks at the situation rationally and logically, there is no explanation for what happened. I truly believe that this was a miracle from God and that I have been blessed with a second chance.” Ms Chin and her husband said that while both are Christians, neither was committed or active in church at the time. It was her brother, Dr Alan Chin, a Singapore doctor and a fervent Christian, who flew to Hong Kong, prayed with Mr Alabaster when she appeared the worst and believed that she would pull through. Dr Chin told The Sunday Times he was shocked to find his sister diagnosed with brain stem death. “My medical training told me there was no hope, but my faith in God said that there was hope in Jesus Christ,” he said. Mr Alabaster recalled mounting pressure from the medical staff treating his wife to “put Suzanne – and ourselves – out of our misery by switching off machines that were keeping her alive.” Even when she made an occasional twitch, they quashed his hopes by insisting that it was purely a reflex. Their talk always returned to “saying goodbye” and “letting go”. “I, on the other hand, hopefully and prayerfully saw in these very slight movements a base from which to see further progress,” he said. They made him wonder if his brother-in-law could be right, that she would be healed. What was also distressing was that as news of Ms Chin’s sudden illness spread, many of her friends from Hong Kong and elsewhere began arriving at her bedside, and Mr Alabaster knew that from talking to the medical staff, they too expected the worst. What was hardest for him though, was talking to his daughter and son about their mother. “I had told them that Mum was sick and in the infirmary – that was understandable to them as they had both been born at the same hospital,” he said. He tried to put up a cheerful front and hoped to slowly break the news that they might lose their mother. But soon friends and family were arriving and he had to tell them she was seriously ill. But he never told them about switching off the life support. “It wasn’t that it was a choice I did not want to face, it was just not something I could or would ever sanction. The point was not that the person on that bed connected to all those austere machines was my wife. “It was more fundamental than that… If that machine were to be turned off, all hope would vanish and I only had God and hope to rely on.” Then, as suddenly as she had taken ill, Ms Chin made a recovery that astounded the doctors and nurses. “But their confusion and bafflement was juxtaposed with the amazement, relief and total ecstasy that my children and I were feeling as, by God’s grace, we had got our Suzanne back. “Ten days after the attack she was as good as new. The tear in her heart valve that was so obvious on several ECGs and the ensuing poor heart performance was totally healed. This restoration, I am told, cannot happen without open heart surgery as heart valves do not repair by themselves. “Suzanne’s brain activity was totally back to normal and from that day to this has never had even the slightest relapse.” In the days that followed her recovery, Ms Chin learnt about all that had happened and how her doctors were convinced there was no hope and it would be best to let her die, but her brother was so sure she would live. She said: “It pains me to think about what my husband, my children, my family and friends went through. It was a tremendously difficult time for all of them. Yet when faced with such a difficult decision, they chose to fight for me. Without their faith, I would not be here today, able to recount this story.” (vijayan@sph.com.sg)
Suzanne Chin shares her story
And if you are interested in another story of a member from our deaf congregation who also came back from the dead, read I VISITED HEAVEN for more.
What are we to do with advanced medical directives now?
I was disappointed to learn that Bill Johnson would not be at the Kingdom Invasion Conference 2013. I was looking forward to hearing more from him “live” after hearing some of his free downloads online. It was announced with apologies that someone very near and dear to him had gone home to the Lord.
My colleagues told me how good the last conference was so I decided to sign up for this one. As the conference went on they told me that the last time round they had more systematic teaching that laid down the kingdom framework for God’s people to exercise a ministry of the supernatural and healing. This conference was different in the sense that there were more soaking times, long stretches of waiting in God’s presence and enjoying communion with him. This was probably due to Heidi Baker’s unique ministry and gift-mix.
Those who came largely for cognitive input would probably be somewhat disappointed, but I was not. As it were, I have always leaned too much on my left brain – the rational, the analytical and logical. The few day’s sessions of sitting with the Lord among God’s people filled me up to the brim with the power of his presence. I felt liberated and strong in the spirit, able to tackle any challenge and temptation. “……they beheld God, and ate and drank”(Exo 24.11).
One of my takeaways was that the impressions of Holy Spirit can be very light, or weak, or slight, a passing thought flashing by. Too often such a thought would have been judged in split seconds to be our own thought. Randy Clark and Tom Jones gave examples of doubt and hesitation about the impressions that they had, and how when they obeyed remarkable things had happened. Many of us could relate with their examples. They encouraged us to act upon these weak impressions, as God would be pleased with acts of faith. We were urged to take some risks and see what the Lord can do when his people step out in faith and respond boldly to such thoughts. The practice of the supernatural was placed in the larger theological framework of the kingdom of God, a kingdom of power that has already come in the person of Jesus, a kingdom of which Paul preached about, and demonstrated.
I had a chat with Pastor Rupert from Cornerstone Church over coffee and he said it costs the church money to run these conferences. The conference fees were insufficient to cover the costs. They had pumped in finances because they felt it was what the Lord wanted done. That’s wonderful. Praise God for this church.
The church in Singapore could do herself much good by reorienting her focus on God’s agenda for the gays, instead of the publicly perceived homophobia of the church and its fear of the gays’ agenda for the world. The gays may have an agenda, but so does God, and God’s agenda and love plan for the gays and the world is what will prevail. The church can ask, “Lord, how can we partner with You in what You are doing among the gays, and how can we join You in Your work”? One thing this would involve is the church seeking to understand and inculcate compassion and develop church ministry and care of gay inclined believers. It will take the church out of a war footing into a posture of peacemaking, towels and basins. It will mean the church identifying with the marginalized, taking risks, and serving with humility.
I was reading a friend’s review of a book titled, ‘Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality’ by Wesley Hill, who is Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies at Trinity School for Ministry. Sze Zeng summarized three lessons he picked up. They helped me see the struggles and loneliness of believers who experience same sex attraction. It helped me feel the plight and pain of brothers and sisters who often endure it all in anonymity. I have quoted two of his lessons. For the third lesson, please read his full blogpost.
Lesson 1: Same-sex attraction is real—the need to struggle with it.
There are those among us who are really and genuinely feel attracted to people of the same gender. For this reason, many have tried to find a connection between same-sex attraction and their childhood. Some even try to link sexuality to gene. Hence the whole debate between ‘nature versus nurture’. Accordingly, there are ‘therapies’ designed to help people to change their sexuality.
The author cuts through this impasse debate by talking about his own personal discovery of his homosexual orientation. He was brought up in a non-abusive childhood and had a fairly good upbringing. It was during high school years that he sensed a “steady, strong, unremitting, exclusive sexual attraction to persons of the same sex” (p.13). The unchangeable sexual desire for homosexual relationship is real to him and to those who experience it. Since then his life is marked by fear, persistent loneliness and inner conflict.
Hill asked a probing question, which I think many homosexual Christians are asking as well, “Can we gay and lesbian Christians who experience no change in our homoerotic desires live in the joyful assurance that our lives are satisfying to God? Can we who remain homosexually inclined actually please God?” (p.135).
To Hill, the answer depends on our understanding of homosexuality: What do the Scripture and Church tradition say? Hill is clear that same-sex attraction is “one of the myriad tragic consequences of living in a fallen world stalked by the specters of sin and death” (p.32). With full conviction and tireless struggle, Hill writes, “I abstain from homosexual behaviour because of the power of that scriptural story” (p.61), and such endurance is a “daily dying” (p.71). As Hill further affirms, “I am waiting for the day when I will receive the divine accolade, […] “Well done, good and faithful servant” (p.150). Hill’s spiritual persistence is exemplary for all Christians in dealing with our own temptation, be it on sexuality or otherwise.
Lesson 2: Homosexuality comes with unbearable loneliness—the necessity of a trustworthy and supportive community within the church.
The loneliness experienced by those with homosexual inclination is not easily understood by heterosexuals. Gay Christians cannot relate to their heterosexual peers’ interest in the opposite gender. They have to be careful not to jeopardize their friendship by developing romantic interest with friends of the same gender. They are afraid that they will be rejected and discriminated when their sexuality is known by their family, friends, and church-mates. They have to constantly struggle against the desire of entering into a monogamous homosexual relationship, especially in society where homosexual practice is widely accepted and legally protected (e.g. civil partnership and same-sex ‘marriage’). On top of these, they have to face negligence in various degrees by their heterosexual friends who eventually get married and start their own family. To Hill, loneliness is the “defining struggle” of his life (p.92) that makes him feels “painfully contradictory” (p.115).
“What I wish,” as Hill once said to his pastor, “is that I could feel the church to be a safe place” (p.42). “The remedy for loneliness—if there is such a thing this side of God’s future—is to learn, over and over again, to do this: to feel God’s keeping presence embodied in the human members of the community of faith, the church” (p.113). Writing from Hill’s own experience with his church, “I began to learn to wrestle with my homosexuality in community over many late-night cups of coffee and in tear-soaked, face-on-the-floor times of prayer with members of my church” (p.48, italics original) Are we, as part of the local churches, willing to learn to provide the kind of safe space for our brothers and sisters in Christ to wrestle with their same-sex attraction?
Mt Alvernia Hospital was still under renovation as you came into our world. It’s the same hospital your father was born in. You came out straightforwardly at about ten at night. You are such a beautiful girl, with simple habits: cry, drink, pass motion, sleep. You are altogether beautiful – just look at your toes! You are so low- maintenance – to us grandparents, at least. It’s surprising that one so little like you can bring so much joy to so many. It is a privilege and blessing to be called ah kong (grandfather) before people have a chance to call me ah pek (old man).
You probably do not know but you have been born in Singapore, not Korea. What kind of world is this? Well for sure it is kind of stressful. From the time you are three till you die the stress will ebb and flow all through life. It may get overcrowded – as overcrowded as what your mum says Seoul has become. But this projected overpopulation has yet to happen, for we have four general elections before “Excuse me” becomes the most used phrase in Singapore. The cost of living has risen while our wages have been stagnant. Cannot be helped, the experts tell us: global competition. As far back as I can remember, every ten years or so, prices have doubled for most things. I will change tack now lest you suffer infantile stress or depression.
The world you are born into is one with baby bonuses and one where young couples get the red-carpet for doing what the government wants. It is a world which will shape and condition you and you will need the help of good people to resist some of the pressures to think and behave in certain ways. Things are gradually changing with regards to this and you have come at the right time to this country.
This world is also a safe place to be in. It’s something we are happy for and have often taken for granted. You will feel safe walking down the streets at night. Just watch out when you cross the roads, especially at traffic lights. The healthcare here is generally good. The education system is generally improving and better than in many countries but it is also highly competitive. Your mum says it’s worse in Korea, so take her word for that and be thankful you are in Singapore! I pray you will be linguistically smart. You need to be. Here it’s English and Mandarin. And you need to learn Korean too to communicate with your grandmother, aunty and other relatives.
Lord, have mercy. You know I was never good at foreign languages. Let Chloe have it easy with learning languages.
Chloe, you will grow to be tri-cultural. You will be enriched by two proud cultures rich in history: Chinese and Korean. You will also grow up in a home and a church culture and an atmosphere that exudes God’s love. May this kingdom culture take root in you and grow to be the grand tree that overshadows all others. May you grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Besides the loving watch of your father and mother you will be soaked in the love and favours of your uncle, aunties, grandparents, loved ones and Christian community.
Who knows what this world will morph into? All kinds of changes will take place in Singapore. All you need to know is that God does not change. So whether in sunshine or darkness, in valley deep or mountain peak, you have a Father God who will hold your hands and provide and lead you on. You have family and church who will teach you and journey with you. Through it all, God is your ever present help in times of trouble.
Chloe, you are one very blessed girl.
May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.
Grace-based, bi-lingual, interesting service
congregation. I spoke about “God’s Love Tattoo”. One of the sermon illustrations I used was about Teochew muay. It tickled them so much that I heard this Easter service they had that after the service. They have a retired hotel chef, so their Teochew muay must have been plus, plus. I brought along a 
friend, Euclid, who had been trained for a year in the School of the Supernatural in Bethel. He was a great help during ministry time when we prayed and prophesied over people who came forward with needs.They were friendly and hospitable and after the service, we lunched at a coffee shop nearby: Teochew muay…well almost.
