Dear Brethren and Friends,

“If it had not been the LORD who was on our side…” Psalm 124:1

Our Church commemorates our 27th Thanksgiving Anniversary today. 27 years is not a short time. Many things have happened in our Church in these 27 years. Many people have come and go through our doors including our Church leaders. Many problems have surfaced which could easily have divided the Church. Many heartaches and pains have come our way which could cause us to give up. There is only one reason why we are still here today and able to have another anniversary thanksgiving service. We echo the words of the psalmist, “If it had not been the LORD who was on our side”. If God has not been our Help, there will be no Tabernacle BP Church today. This is a certain truth. Hence, we must all give thanks and praise to God for preserving our Church. Truly God is a faithful God who will not fail us even though we have failed Him time and again.

“And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children…” Deuteronomy 6:7a

It is important to know the history of our Church so that we understand that it is God who directed our step in all these 27 years. Let all our young ones know our Church history. Our history started way back in 1976 when the Lord used a school teacher in Tanglin Technical secondary school to start a Bible Class for about 6 students who just heard the Gospel and trusted Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour.

The Bible Class was blessed by God and grew in number. It was later affiliated to Life BP Church and became known as Life Bible Class. In 1986, the leaders of Life Bible Class have a desire to launch out to form a new BP Church. The first place chosen was in the West area outside NTU. Can you imagine if we had settled there? Our Church would probably be made up of another group of people. However, God directed our path otherwise and led us to the East at Tampines in a warehouse for our worship premises. Rev Dr Timothy Tow gave our Church the name “Tabernacle” with the “T” reminding us of our origin in Tanglin Bible Class and like the tabernacle in the wilderness in the Old Testament, we must be on the go always for the Lord. Now we realized why we have moved our Church premises 4 times and thank God that today we can rent the premises at Changi Bethany Church for our worship.

By God’s grace, we started our first worship service in the Tampines warehouse on 28 June 1987 at 4pm. We had weekly evangelism session to share the Gospel and invite people to our Church. Gradually we had our choir formed and Sunday School class was started. We also started our Wednesday family worship. God blessed us with our first Church van in May 1988. Thank God that we just purchased a new van for our Church which is the third van that we have.

In the initial years, we also started Tabernacle Bible Club to reach out to primary school students. We had also “Chenxi” Bible study group and Tabernacle Bible Fellowship for youths and young adults respectively then. Many of you may not know of such groups that existed then but by God’s grace and leading, today we have Ebenezer youth fellowship, Shomerim young adults fellowship and the Adults Bible Study group. How wonderful is God’s leading and His way is perfect.

“Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” 1 Corinthians 4:2

If the Lord Jesus tarries, what will our Church be in the future? Only the Lord knows. But what is required of us is faithfulness and perseverance in the work of the Lord. There is a purpose that God has directed each member to Tabernacle BP Church. Remember how God started our Church with a purpose and God used a school teacher in 1976 to sow the Gospel seed for our Church. This is the mystery in the ways of God and only He knows how things will unfold to His glory and praise. Our prayers to God today must be that God will be pleased to use us as His instrument for His Kingdom and glory. May our lives count for our Lord Jesus Christ till He comes! Amen.

Elder John Leong