The Night Before...

People would often ask me if I still get nervous before preaching. My answer would be "yes" most of the time. Thus, I am inspired to pen down my feelings before the services tomorrow.

I had done all my preparation as best as I could. In fact, my sermon preparation for tomorrow was completed on Monday. This is very rare as I mostly complete my weekend sermon only on Thursday. It was faster this week as I had more lead time this time round.

On the one hand, I am rather nervous when I think of the 45 minutes of preaching in front of all the people. I start to think of the many things that could possibly go wrong. "What if I am unable to connect my points? What if my mind goes blank (and it had gone blank before)? What if people find me boring and the sermon unhelpful at all? Wouldn't it be good if someone else was preaching beside me? Should I call in sick tomorrow?" These are the many reasons that would cause me to be nervous.

Then there was this time that it occured to me that all these concerns are I-me-myself focused. All these reasons are self-focused.

Gradually, these better thoughts would begin to bounce in my head. "I need to do my best to help people see the light: the believers must grow in Christ and the pre-believers need to hear a clear presentation of the gospel. It's not my word and my work after all; God only requires me to do my best and no more. I am a nobody doing God's work; a nobody should not be self-conscious and self-focused at all"

Over the years, I have matured in my understanding of my serving role. It has really helped me to put things in the right perspective about God, about others and about myself (and in that order of priority as well). I still struggle from time to time but I am doing better as time progresses.

Be it preaching, ushering, serving communion, leading worship, leading games in small groups, teaching in meetings, leading a meeting, sharing testimonies, putting up a drama; these God- and others-focused thoughts would serve us well.

To sum it up, John 3:30 says it excellently... "He must become greater; I must become less."

True servanthood, at it's deepest core, has no rights but only responsibilities.

Celebrating Pris’ Birthday

As Pris turned xx years old, a few of us had planned to surprise her with a birthday party. Claudia had asked some of us to hide in the bedroom and two of us (Mike and I) to hide in the airless bomb shelter when Pris arrived. To be honest, I did not really buy into such things. I had always felt that it was a female thing but I played along anyway, while dragging Mike with me.

After Pris arrived, those who came with her tried to keep her occupied with the food preparation. Pris had no idea that the rest of us were in other parts of the house. We took turn to pop out of our hiding places to surprise her. But the person who was most surprised was not Pris but me. I was surprised that Pris was genuinely surprised and she was touched that we had gone through all these efforts to make her birthday a little more special for her. I am learning new things all the time!

As Pris had put it, “it is the little things that matters most; the hiding of the shoes to not her know that more people are in the house and the choice of food knowing her allergies and protein needs. It’s a good feeling to realize that the people around you know you well.”

I must confess that most of the time, I do not take notice of small things. I even take pride that I am a “big picture” person!

I had to learn and re-learn again and again that it is in the little things, when done out of a sincere and loving heart, that touches the deepest part of the human soul. I guess the question is not so much if I am a big or small picture person but if I am a loving person or not. By God’s help, I shall do better in this department of my life.

I guess that is why the bible tells us that God even numbered the hairs on our heads. He loves us in small and big ways; in every ways.

Luke 12:6-7
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.





Shirley, Ee Lee, Tamar & Pris






The food spread





Priscilla Tan...the birthday girl





Jas & Mike presenting the pregnant Limei






Jas & Lean Choo





The Chocolate Fondue Health Food





Pris making her birthday wish (she is shy about it)

Our Indonesian Group

On last Thursday, Yin San and I visited the combined meeting for our Indonesian group. There were more than 30 of us in the meeting.

We started with the “getting to know you better” session. The chairperson was very creative. She had asked us to form the full name of the person on our right with the alphabet from the newspapers given to us.

The guy sitting on my right was Alex. His full name is “Alexandra Guntra Tjinwaranto”! I gave up the moment he showed me his permanent resident card. It was not a lack of faith but a lack of patience.

After the introduction, we went into the time of praise and worship. The part I liked best of the whole praise and worship was when they began to sing in Bahasa Indonesia. The energy and the voice level gone up by at least 200% when the songs were sang in their heart language. It was totally awesome!

It reminded me of the feeling I had when I first heard the Mandarin church sang in their heart language during their church service.

The main purpose of the whole combine meeting was for me to challenge us to be prepared for the commencement of the weekly Indonesian service by the end of March 2007. We are starting something that has the potential to touch all types of Indonesians ranging from kids to youth to tertiary students to adults to families to business people. We also want to be invovled in training and sending out church planters as well.

We were challenged by the fact that there are more than 100,000 Indonesians residing here in Singapore (estimated facts from various sources as we could not get a firm figure from the embassy) By the way, Indonesia is the 4th most populous country in the world.

All of the people in our Indonesian group readily agreed that if there were to be a service where the main operative language is Bahasa Indonesia, more Indonesians would certainly be attracted to come. We want to remove as many unnecessary barriers as possible to reach and disciple more people for Jesus.

At the end of the meeting, many of us not only left with a vision throbbing in our hearts, we were also challenged to be prepared for the upcoming services. We want to enter into this venture with faith in God and with our eyes wide open to the challenges too.

The present leaders have been challenged to prepare their lives and up their ministry skills. We will commit to growing in our walk with God and to work on our chairing, singing, guitaring, singing and many other skills.

The members have also been challenged to reciprocate to God’s total commitment to their lives. We want to give our best because of His best.

May God bless the works of our hands as we seek to honor Him and to extend His reign!




Yin San and some of the Indon brothers






The whole herd of brothers




Jorry (in red) and his guys trying to act cool






The whole gang!

Meeting With The Leaders

Two persons in their 40s asked me why I did not update my blog recently. I thought that blog would attract younger crowd but it seems that many of our older friends are rather e-connected as well!

This evening, we had our meeting with the leaders from various congregations. We had a really fun and spiritually enriching time. We started with dinner and then Alan shared a wonderful testimony on how he served fresh manna (fresh spiritual insights from the bible) and do holistic ministry with his gang. I am truly amazed at how Alan had become a soccer fanatic since World Cup. Alan had done this to better connect with the guys and he is really enjoying soccer in all its glory! He said that after 30 years on planet earth, he had finally understood why soccer is called "the beautiful game".

After that, I shared some thoughts on how to build strong values into our groups. Basically, we need to model from our lifestyle, teach from the biblical perspective and have creative and consistent reminders in various forms.

I shared about how leaders need to take the responsibility to impart values. As leaders, we may be able to teach what we know but do not necessarily possess in our lives; but we cannot impart what we do not first have in our lives. To impart faith, we must first have faith. To impart the spirit of servanthood, we have firstly be servants ourselves.

We also went through a listing of the saying in Hope. Below is a listing of these values and sayings…

• pour a bucket of blood to inspire a drop

• its not what you expect, its what you inspect

• always give the benefit of the doubt

• economize to evangelize

• the window model

• the sandwich model

• never do something that other can do; do something that no one else can do such that together, we will do more for the Kingdom

• Kingdom Mentality

• willingness is key

• availability over ability

• character is key when choosing leader

• we believe God so much that’s why we work so hard

• we emphasize everything according to the weight-age of the bible

• we can have quantity without quality but when we have quality, we will have quantity.

• serve God as if no one else is doing it

• Jesus #1, Others #2, I #3

• it's normal to grow

• love God, love people

• do all that is humanly possible leaving the impossible to God

• 99% of the people will not do anything until they are being challenged to

• major on the major and minor on the minor

• accounting versus informing

As I shared these values and sayings, many of the leaders were able to complete these statements and taglines when I only mentioned part of them. All of us were challenged to live out these familiar values and to pass it on to the future generations of leaders.

Let’s build our church even stronger together!

A Tribute To Our Unsung Heroes

We will be celebrating our 15th Anniversary soon. Even as many of us are preparing our hearts to check out what God will be doing in our church, there are many people who are busy preparing for the celebration service.

I know that some of our staff have been working overnight in Nexus to ensure that the video production and the décor will be properly done up. Steven just left home yesterday morning at 6am and he was back at work again with only a couple of hours’ rest. I was really blessed to have the opportunity to pray with him on the ongoing video production in the evening.

I also heard about how some of our students and adults, took the initiative to volunteer their services in any way possible to make the celebration more glorious for Jesus.

Some of our full time staff even took their annual leave to just be available to help out. Kam Weng is such an example that I know of.

During our lunch meeting, Wan Leng told me that Dasmond had been working very hard on the décor. I called Dasmond, expecting to hear a very worn-out soul at the other end of the line. Instead, Dasmond was ultra excited about his part of the anniversary celebration. That's a spirit-filled soul for you!

Hong Teck was also there yesterday morning to help out with the Hope Kids part of the game. Pastor Lawrence, in his words, was there in Expo to “simply encourage and raise up the morale of the troops”

I also saw Emma leading the rehearsal on Tuesday. She was awesome. The 100 people choir from all congregations was also there. The dance team, the band and the worship leaders were there as well. All of them gave their all!

I am sure that there are many sacrificial acts of service that must have gone un-noticed. All of you are indeed the unsung heroes of our church. God's smile be upon you all!

As far as I am concern, the celebration service has already started. This is what church is all about. This is church life at its best! This is why I was attracted to our church some 14 ½ years ago.

Let’s take the time to really thank these people who worked so hard for our church. Let’s all be deliberate to thank them when we see them over the next few days. We just have to let them know...

1 Corinthians 15:58
Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Dinners & More Dinners

When I said that my birthday was celebrated over a 7 day/7 night period, I was not exaggerating. I had received so many well wishes and kind words of encouragement! They have really strengthened me greatly.

On last Wednesday, dinner treat began when the elders brought me out for a buffet meal. It was a rather ritzy hotel and we had plenty of good food. We had sashimi, scallops, fondue dessert, soft shell crab and many many more. But no one brought any camera....

Then 2 days later, the tertiary leaders brought me to an exotic Turkish restaurant. I thought they were joking when they told me about this eating place. To make matters even more suspicious for me, when I arrived, no one came until at least 15 minutes later. I sincerely thought that this could very well be a birthday trick.

To my relief, the rest came shortly after that. I must say that it was a very unique experience for me in a Turkish easting place. I really enjoyed the meat part of the food. The salad part was challenging for me. Fortunately, psycho Benaiah liked it and he ate part of it off my plate.





The Tertiary Team







Leanne & Claudia



Ben, me & Joshua (Ben is the psycho that supported a club who claims that they never walk alone. Josh & I support Man U)






Lennon & Sam (both Man U fans!!)







Shirley, Jas & Xini






Then on Sunday evening, after preaching in the Filipino service, the Adult team treated Claudia and I to the Rice Table. I really appreciated the effort put it to spend time together.

The adult leaders were really loud and they love to talk. Yean Shien told stories about how most of her pet died terribly death under her family care! Wendy shared about her love language. Mike & Lean Choo shared about their hair experience and encouraged some of us to visit the hair saloon as well. Cara shared her weight loss recipe. Jorry laughed loudly most of the time and boasted to us that most Indonesian are gentle. And all of us ate and ate and laugh and laugh.

We had a great time and I affirmed them for serving God together with the rest of the church.





A Group Picture... courtesy of the waiter







The Indonesian spread...






Yean Shien telling us about her dead pets...







Choon Yam & Mike






Thanks all for the food, the gifts and the encouraging words. Most of all, thanks for giving yourself fully to God. I have really been blessed by your lives.

My family is planning something for me on this coming Sunday…

Hope Kids Went Zoo Hunting

On Thursday, I spent my birthday doing what I enjoyed the most. I spent my birthday serving God with people that matters so very much to me.

I arrived at Nexus for the preparation at around 4:30pm. It was really fun to be with the team. I offered my help in some of the non-artistic part of the preparation. The only thing I could do was to help set up a black cloth that functioned as a partition. It was no big task but it was a fun to do it together with Cady, Eilton and Joanne.

At around 630pm, Hong Teck (our children church pastor) gathered us for a last minute briefing before the "show begins". He was clear in his instruction, warm in his tone and faith-filled in his heart. We prayed and asked God for His divine guidance and to have an enjoyable time together with the kids as well.

When the door opened at 730pm, it was mayhem at its very best. I joked that this could be the best contraception for those who feared hyperactive kids.

Kids were coming in (some were running in) from every perceivable direction. Some were 'experienced" kids that were as familiar to the church environment as fish is to water. There were also many kids whose parents were not believers as yet who came in with a sense of lost-ness and yet exciting anticipation.

Claudia and I managed to bring our two young nephews along. They had a wonderful time. All in all, there were more than 200 kids in the auditorium. It was awesome!

The Hope Kids team outdid themselves in almost every segment of the program. The games were engaging. The praise & worship was lively. The hosting was creative. The teaching was concise and clear. The team did really really well!





The culprits of a job well done!








The praise & worship team in action!






The most precious time of interaction with the kids!



I am so thankful for Hong Teck and his team. I am also so thankful for many of our members from every congregation who cared enough to bring and invite their young relatives and friends to the zoo hunt. I heard a testimony of a kid who told his pre-believing parents that he wanted to come to Hope Kids Live again on the coming Sunday!














I spent my birthday capturing a God-filled childhood that I never had.

The Day Our University Group Went MAD!

On the 3rd of September 2006, it was the day our University ministry went totally MAD. The madness started in the early afternoon and it only ended after 11pm. After preaching in 6 services, I was really excited and privileged to be invited to play a small part in this day of madness. I was looking forward to meeting our people and doing my best to impact as many lives as I could.

The University group goes MAD once a year. MAD stands for Membership Appreciation Day. It is a day when we take the extra time and effort to let our members know how much God and the leaders value them. It is a day when we take the time to eat, laugh and simply do life together.

At MAD, we not only celebrated the friendship that we have with one another, we also celebrated the wonderful things that God had done through our lives.

When we started our matriculation program, we set a goal of reaching and retaining 20 freshmen into our communities. Thanks be to God! We have exactly 20 freshmen added to the Kingdom to date. This is perhaps one of the most successful matriculations we have had thus far. Joshua, Claramae and their team have really outdone themselves in this matter. Well Done!

MAD ended in the evening at the Bukit Batok Civil Servant Club. I must tell you that this is a really beautiful Club. I kept reminding Joshua (a civil servant working in Ministry Of Foreign Affairs) that this is built using my tax money!
















During the meeting, I took the time to thank the people for their contribution and reminded them that their hardwork would never be in vain. It had blessed many lives; more than they would ever know on this side of heaven.















I also took the opportunity to introduce Jasmine, who will be leading the entire Tertiary ministry from September onwards. On top of the present Poly ministry, Jasmine will also be working with the University leaders in overseeing the University ministry. We ended that section by praying for God’s anointing, wisdom and help over Jasmine and the leadership team.




Jasmine and Ellson








The University leaders then took the opportunity to present a song to thank the people. It was very heartwarming to me. The whole spirit of encouragement and affirmation was really evident in the entire place as leaders thanked their members and members taking the time to appreciate their leaders as well.





The leaders presenting their song






Then at the end of the meeting, I was very pleasantly surprised when Joshua ushered in a whole suckling pig (the famous one from Tiong Bahru) for my birthday celebration. This is the first time I had suckling pig for birthday. Joshua said that the usual cake and stuff was boring and too safe. This surprise would be forever etched into my mind for the rest of my life!






Kermit's BBQ gal pal. His pain is our gain!










Thanks all for the memories and most importantly, for playing a significant role in building His Kingdom.

September – A Month Of Birthdays & Celebrations

This is a month of birthdays. Within the next 10 days alone, I know of at least 8 friends who are celebrating their birthdays. I was telling Simon Tan (whose birthday falls on the 5th Sept) that it could be because many parents were overjoyed when they received their year-end bonus and thus they started the baby-making process some time in early January. You do not have to be rocket scientist to get the Math correct!

I know that our founder and the icon of our nation (i.e. Mr Lee Kuan Yew) were also born in September.

What’s even more significant is that we are also birthing a very significant outreach to Kids program on the 7th September. It is a big time outreach program for kids. We want to be proactive to reach kids whose parents may not be in church as yet. The kids, in turn, will bring their parents to the church instead of the usual way round. It’s on Thursday at Nexus from 7pm to 930pm. Be there and bring some kids along!

One of our regular visitors told me that he is planning to bring his nephew and niece for the Zoo Hunt event. He later reminded me that I should do my part as well to bring some young relatives or friends. I was convicted and I will invite my nephews and niece as well.

Then on the 16th September, we will be celebrating the 15th birthday of our church. It will be a great occasion for us to remember God’s call and goodness in our individual and corporate lives. I am believing God for a grand occasion where He will affirm His own purpose in our Movement and church.

May those who have been around for some time be reminded of why we join this movement. May those who are newer know why they should join this movement. May those who are pre-believers also know why such a movement was first started by Jesus. I covet your prayers greatly in all these areas.

May God's purpose alone reign. May God be lifted up in the highest and numero uno place!

Today's the 1st day of the month... let the party begins!