Dearly Beloved Brethren,

Busy…Busy…Busy

It has been a very hectic and busy period for me. Three weeks ago, we were at Kemaman mission trip and prior to that, preparations had to be done to teach the VBS class and preach at the Kemaman worship service. Immediately after Kemaman, it was the Church camp two weeks ago. There was much feasting of God’s Word in the camp and coupled with other time of fellowship and exercise, I was left physically drained when the camp ended.

After the camp, I am currently attending an external course of 7 days that Temasek Polytechnic registered for me. While attending the course, I have to continue to do my office work. Thank God for the beauty of technology in the iPhone that I can multi-tasks while attending the course. Immediately after the course that ends on 14 December 2010, I have to fly to China for 7 days from 15 to 22 December 2010 to conduct interview and recruit International students for my Polytechnic. Upon return, it will be a busy time in Church on 24 – 25 December 2010 for our Christmas programmes. In the midst of all these activities, there are messages to prepare for preaching too.

In my busyness, I have to pause and ask myself whether am I trapped by a 24/7 lifestyle. What am I busy for? Do I still keep close fellowship with God in my busyness? I do not wish to be busy for the sake of being busy and the need to prove myself. I desire that everything I do, whether being busy or not, will be according to God’s leading and purpose for my life and I can sense and experience His comforting and strengthening presence every moment. Pray for me.

The promise of Jesus in Matthew 11: 28 is surely needed for every weary and burdened and busy person… “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

This is the Season to Share the Love of Christ If there is one thing we must be busy with, let it be in our soul winning. What better time to share the Gospel than now where we can share to unbelievers why Jesus Christ came to this world. He is truly the Unspeakable Gift (2 Cor 9:15). In all your gifts to others, do not forget to share the Greatest Gift of God sending His only Begotten Son Jesus Christ to this world for us.

Go and invite your loved ones and friends to the Church Gospel worship service on 19 December 2010 (Sunday) 3pm. Also, do not forget the 15 December 2010 Christmas Gospel Chalet to invite your students and classmates to attend. Make every effort to evangelise and Christmas will then be a meaningful one. Let us end the year in a wise manner by taking heed to what God tells us in Proverbs 11:30b, “He that winneth souls is wise.”

Elder John Leong

Church Camp 2010 Testimonies and Sharing from Camp Group Members

Thank God for the 5 days church camp. As usual before the camp, some major issues happened in my workplace and thank God that I am still able to attend this year church camp together with my family.

For this year we had attended the church camp without the helper. Thank God that the 3 kids had behaved well and especially for Hannah that she had attended the children lesson all by herself so that both Kezia and I can concentrate and focus on the church camp message by Dr. Alan Cairns. Also special thanks to Tammy, Joan and Brittney for helping to look after her during the camp.

I believe all of us had benefited a lot from the camp message on the theme “Full Salvation.” Dr. Alan Cairns’ humorous style of preaching had kept me focus throughout his message. Other than the message, I especially enjoyed the group sharing time together with sisters Doris and Rachel. I think this is the best sharing group I had so far from all the church camp. We shared openly on all our struggle and weakness we faced in our life and we also pray for each other at every sharing session for God’s strength to help us to put the Lord as our top priority in our life. We also pray that our life will be a God-centered one for the new year 2011. We had also set ourselves some target to meet and some task to be carried out in the year 2011 and we shall review and share with each other again in next year church camp how we had fared in our walk with the LORD for the year 2011.

Brother Alan Yeow

Attending the Church Camp has given me the opportunity to learn God’s precious Word, to praise God, to have fellowship with brothers and sisters in Christ, especially fellowshipping with brother Alan Yeow and sister Rachel in our reflection / discussion time.

We had to give serious consideration on our salvation and the spiritual needs. Do we care more for our bodies than our souls? Have we been neglecting Christ and placed more weightage on how our children’s academic progress with the ‘first and best’ results? Have we prayed enough? Read the bible enough? Redeem the time sufficiently?

Our ‘mini’ fellowship group has set our resolutions for the year 2011. They are :

  • Examine our hearts after Church Camp
  • Discipline ourselves (i.e. diligent in our daily prayer, praying and Bible reading every evening with family).
  • Pray to God if we encounter difficulty in our office work / homework. God must always come first in our lives. God wants us to put Him first.

We had suggested to meet each other to update our progress and to offer encouragement. Pray for us.

Sister Doris Sim

Thank God for the Church camp and the wonderful time of learning God’s Word. I have benefited a lot from the group discussion with Uncle Alan and Aunty Doris where we shared openly on applying God’s Word to our lives. This has been a great time as we got to know each other’s struggles and shared about ways to deal with them.

During the Church camp, I have benefited a lot from the messages. I learn that our salvation is something we should not take for granted. From the consecration message, I am reminded of putting God as top priority in my life. For in view of eternity, what are the things that really matter? I hope that after the Church camp, I can continue to strive on for the Lord’s sake until He returns and make the year 2011 the year of the Bible.

Sister Rachel Leong