Ministry House

Starting from the age of 11, I studied overseas living in 3 boarding houses in Singapore and Perth over 11 years. When the church started I stayed in a ministry house till Dinah and I got married in Jul 92. After we got married, we had different single leaders come stay overnight in our guest room for extended discipleship.

My buddy Lawrence is a min-house veteran. He stayed in 6 different ministry houses. He said it's 7 if you count the office when he was in-between ministry houses. He reminds me of Christ who lived with his disciples for several years, and Paul who lived with different apostolic teams with whom he traveled.

The purpose of a ministry house is to encourage discipleship through learning and sharing a Christ-centred lifestyle with other disciples. They are also a great way for singles to enjoy the benefit of Christian community.

A ministry house is started when a few guys (or a few gals) from a mid-size group come together and rent a place. Ministry houses like all homes have ground rules and there are 'house captains'. We provide guidelines and our leaders assist and advise house captains even though this leadership is not an official office in the church.

Today we have people staying in 18 ministry houses. Most come from overseas. We also have ministry houses when our go-teams land overseas for missions.

I'm sure those of us who live or have lived in a ministry house can sure tell a few blooper stories. The overall discipleship effect over the years has been good. We have seem many people (pastors included) growing in character and building close relationships, while serving the local church.

It's Wednesday

Wednesday was the first day for our Staff Intern. Xue Ting is a third year accountancy student from Temasek Polytechnic. In fact her Polytechnic lecturer came to the church office last week. Xue Ting will be attached to Lean Choo, our church accountant for 11 weeks. Today I asked Xue Ting how she came to join our church. She told me her that her Chinese teacher in secondary four brought her to church in August 2002. Thank God for teachers.

Later that night Lawrence, Pat, Dinah and I brought Jeff and Claud out. We're having a belated birthday celebration for Jeff. He opted for Chomp Chomp and that's where we went. Lawrence and I've never eated so much cockles before. Then the birthday 'boy' suggested ice cream. We had nice ice cream. I guess this replaces the traditional birthday cake. Yes I ate too much (again). After this we went to fetch the kids from our sister's place.

Enriched

We spent Wed night with pastoral leaders and staff. It was exciting to share about how to develop romantic relationships. Instead of arguing for courtship or dating, I put forth that romantic relationships should be about covenant with commitment as the key element. We all want to do a better job of learning and helping ourselves and others in relationships. We had a good time discussing this late into the night.

The weekend past was quite unique. Saturday was 'Marriage Enrichment' day. Dinah and I spent Saturday with almost 50 couples investing into our marriage. The couples came from across the church. You have to see the photos to believe the things that happened. Our guest speaker, Edwin Choy from the Centre for Fathering covered key areas in the afternoon. He said that it's all about covenant and commitment. This sure resonated with Wed night! We ended at 5:30 pm so there was just enough to go preach at our tertiary service.

Sunday was special. We had Pastor Dominic Yeo from Trinity Christian Centre as guest speaker. I have known him for over 5 years. This is the first time he is speaking for us. Amazingly he spoke on what we're going through right now - 'breakthrough'. It was great catching up in between morning services. Must catch up with him more. We had Vivien who co-led worship for the first time. She sure did a great job. Then Ying Soon's Breakthrough story was powerful. This week was enriching.

Every 3 months

It was great to have lunch with my old friend Alex after the service on Sunday. Then I spent the afternoon and that night working on a new lesson 'The Future of Love'. I have been working on this for almost 2 weeks now.

Before Sunday I was asked by a member on how he can pray for me. I had to think real fast. Most members see me preaching and leading people. They probably imagine me in key meetings. So I began to think about one role that that he may not know about.

Since I am in the midst of preparing a lesson and also since we plan our ministry in quarters or blocks of 13 weeks, this is how I'll answer...

"When you pray for me, pray that I get plenty of freshness and spiritual vitality in the teaching ministry. This is because I need to develop 7 sermons, 3 leadership lessons, 2 special messages and write several forewords every 3 months. Then I also help write proposals, policies and papers. Not to mention writing replies to questions that we get. Yes I do covet your constant prayers."

We play several roles in God's Kingdom. As a Christ follower, I thank God for giving us a sense of destiny - that God has prepared us all my life to carry out what He has prepared for us. I also thank the local church for giving my family the opportunity to play a part to serve.

It's raining retreats

I almost couldn't get up on Mon, 29 Aug because yesterday was such an exciting day. My faithful wife was there to help me. I was up and about on Monday, a day of preparing for upcoming retreats.

Then it was raining retreats. Tue and Wed (30-31 Aug) was our planning and praying retreat for 2006 ministry. Tuesday is normally our day off but we needed to be here. Wed was to follow through on many matters before taking Thur off.

We spent Thur with my aunt from Canada. She is en route from Sabah to Canada. She had a great time sharing my childhood stories with my kids. I was glad to be able to catch up with her after so many years.

Fri and Sat passed by quickly as the weekend set in. Dinah was on duty at our Sunday morning services. I had lunch with a Nigerian couple who has been attending our church. It was a great time to get to know our guests. Later our family did not get to swim due to the weather. It was packing time again.

Mon to Wed (5-7 Sep) was the annual staff retreat. We met at the East Coast beach on Mon morning and we did a 'bike hash'. Then we took the coach to Kukup in Johor. This year the retreat venue was a fishing village by the sea.

We stayed in a house built on concrete columns. We arrived late afternoon and a few of us enjoyed the view and the sea breeze on beach chairs. The rest enjoyed board games and just catching up with colleagues. We celebrated Simon's birthday. There was a steamboat dinner followed by more board games, karoake singing and sea breeze on beach chairs. I was so glad to see good bonding among staff. I must mention that the wash room is quite basic so the ones who tend to spend a long time in the bath room don't anymore.

We awoke on Tuesday to fish porridge. Then we had devotion from morning till noon. It felt strange but good to have lengthy time with God. I sat there with the Bible, journal, sea breeze in my face, surrounded by fish farms and a community whose entire livelihood revolves around the sea. Civilisation seems distant and less attractive. At lunch we celebrated Cryst's birthday. Afternoon was a boat trip to the forest reserve in a swamp followed by an awesome excursion to a fish farm on the sea. I loved this floating farm learning experience. Then we went back. Evening started with a praise and worship followed by a seafood barbeque dinner. We had hilarious team presentations. Hope those photos don't get circulated. We capped off the evening with fireworks that Steven got.

Most of woke up later on Wed. We had praise followed by open sharing. Today we celebrated Jeff's birthday. Then we packed up and had lunch at the restaurant. The coach driver for some reason drove very fast on the bumpy road out. So I got this headache. We finally reached Singapore. We reached home and unpacked a little. Then we swam followed by more house chores. Later I read my blog and realised someone said I haven't updated my blog recently. So comes this post.

A Full Weekend

Dinah and I just came back from Kenya last Tuesday night. Deborah got sick while we were away. When we came back Daniel just got sick. We prayed for our kids. There were also church matters to catch up on. The weekened started early for me. I preached the opening message of our new sermon series in all three student services on Saturday. (This Tabernacle series is fascinating). It was great to meet our young people. I was also glad to meet 3 Africans at the tertiary service. Yes I slept soundly that night.

On Sunday I preached the series starter twice in the morning. There were three persons who walked up after the second service. One of them found us on the Yellow Pages and showed up today for the first time. He brought a friend who gave her life to Christ. Then I had lunch and rested awhile. Pat was so kind to drive our daughter to our sister-in-law's place. Daniel is resting there.

Then my wife and I are off to the membership class. There were a hundred and ten people present and we did not recognise most of them. It was great to meet new members. We ended after 7 pm but enthusiastic new members stayed behind with additional questions. We finally picked the kids up at 8:30 pm then it was an early night for all of us. The next day is a school day when we leave before 7 am. This was a very full weekend.

Wrapping up

Monday is our last day here. The girls suggest we go to a tea plantation. We started with a long breakfast. We drove to a refreshing tea plantation. The hilly terrain of tea plants was just breathtaking. This is tea like you’ve never seen it. Later we got the girls a nice lunch and nice Italian ice cream.

We spent some time with James in the early afternoon.

Later we spent time praying together. Then my wife packed and I journaled.

We had our last meal dinner together as we wrap up our time here. We showered and travelled to the airport. It was a sad to say good bye. Now was time for the 14 hour flight home incl 2 hour transit. No upgrade this time but the Dubai to Singapore leg was not full so we got seats with ample leg room. As I wrote this blog I just got a thank you email from the girls. They have timed it well, thoughtful as usual. We miss them already.

A Nairobi Weekend

We woke early on Sat and had breakfast. The girls had arranged for us to to visit the nearby Nairobi National Park. I guess this is a must-see here. We had plenty of time to chat as the driver from the tour company was 2 hours late. Punctuality isn't common in many parts of the world. He finally showed up and his name was Peter. He drove a reinforced van with a modified sun roof. At the park we saw wildebeest, vultures, impala, deer, monkeys, giraffe, warthogs and zebras in their natural habitat. The kids would have loved this. Maybe next time we'll visit the large safari park further away.

Peter is from the Kikuyu tribe. He explains the safari. He says wildebeest are forgetful. They can be running from a lion and sudddenly stop to eat grass. Then he took us to the Giraffe centre, a place for orphaned giraffes. This ended our half day excursion.

In the afternoon we walked out to get groceries for the household. The weather is hot and cool at the same time. The sun is strong and the air is dusty. We had dinner out with an Australian friend, Paul and his dad. We came back and related with the girls till late.

Sunday saw us having a proper breakfast as lunch will be late. We drove to a village in the slum. There we met James.

James walked us through this shanty town of tin shacks. The sights, smells and sounds for these 15 minutes was emotionally draining. It didn’t look as if many dwellers had seen Asian people before. He showed us around the school premise and brought us to the new one that is still being built. My wife and I brought a lot of books from Singapore for the needy kids here. We learnt more about the school in the school office. Then he showed us the church premise. As we walked in to the Sunday service, I was invited to preach. I should have said yes. Worship time was great. Kenyans have good rhythm and strong vocals. We sang, danced and soaked in the atmosphere. Dinah and I were invited to share a few words before the sermon.

Then we took a long drive east to visit his wife. The road to their large home was long. The road had many potholes and car fumes are plentiful. The couple could not get help for the two young ones so she stayed home. They adopted two beautiful kids. We exchanged greetings then he brought us to Blue Post hotel near a waterfall. Lunch was about 4 pm. We were glad to host this busy family for lunch.

We went to buy dinner, came home and showered. Jeb, husband and 3 kids came for dinner. She is a local and close friend of the girls.

In East Africa

It's Friday the 19th of Aug. Our colleague Simon kindly drop us off at the airport. We checked in at 1 am for our 3:25 am flight. We went in early. At the wash room mirror I looked as if I just touched down after a long flight. Normally I only look like this when I arrive not before I leave. We went to the departure gate. I dozed off as we were up since 6 am Thur morning. Then we heard our name over the intercom. We walked to the staff and they said, “These are your new boarding passes for Business Class.” We almost couldn’t believe our ears. This was the first time we were upgraded in all of our ministry trips. My wife said I began smiling after this point.

We went in the plane and sat down on the huge leather reclining seats. The welcome drink was apple juice, orange juice and champagne. We had apple juice. We got linen napkins and personalised service. "So this is how it’s like". We slept well for this 7 hour flight to Dubai.

We then arrived at the impressive Dubai international airport. We have heard many good reports of this city. It is a modern desert city. Whatever illusion we have about self, it quickly disappears when you travel. The washrooms were not as well maintained. We were on transit here for almost 2 hours.

Then we were back on Economy class seats for the 5 hour journey to Nairobi. The Nairobi international airport look like Singapore in late 1970s and they were playing ABBA songs – definitely very 70’s.

We were so glad the customs officer did not ask us to open our suitcases because we were so tired. We were so glad to see Li Chuang and Lisa. We hugged them. Their car was a hatch back so they hired a sedan taxi. They're so considerate. The road from the airport has grazing land where we saw Masai herders and their cattle. Nice!

We arrived at their place in a compound fairly near the city centre. We notice there are no traffic lights as they prefer roundabouts. There are hardly any street lamps but there are large pelicans that live on trees and feed on garbage.

We drop the stuff, have a drink and they brought us to a mall for lunch. Then the girls bring us to Kazuri, a handicraft place and to a Masai bazzar at Village Market. My wife was fascinated but all I wanted was a shower. (Also my wife sleeps better on planes than me.) We finally went home, showered and I saw a huge mosquito. Then we had dinner and catch up. Dinah and I enjoyed time with our old friends.

8th Birthday

Tonight was our Filipino service's 8th anniversary. We rested after morning service then we dropped the kids off at Dinah's sister place and made our way here. Dinah went in the front as I made my way to the backstage. Later she recounted how she noticed two guys with an invitation card asking for directions. The person they asked obviously gave them the wrong direction because they walked off in another direction. So Dinah called out to them and then offered to bring them. It turns they arrived in Singapore only 4 days ago, going to start work soon, looking for an apartment, looking for a church and got an invitation card on the street only this afternoon. How amazing. Dinah also got their details for our leaders.

I enjoyed the musical based on Gilbert's life. He has a great life story. The musical was elaborate and a total visual spectacle. Scores of our people have been rehearsing twice weekly since June. The preparation and quality came through. The modern dance item was quite good too. The auditorium was very close to full-house. Filipinos are also very celebratory people, so it was a great atmosphere.

Praise and worship session was one of the best we have participated in here. It was my turn to speak, being my third message of the day. I sensed the affirmation of God's Spirit and of the people. Many people responded to God's Word. We sang Happy Birthday and then worshipped some more. I turned to Christie saying, "This is just excellent". Then it was photo taking all across the auditorium before dinner. What a celebration. My wife and I went off to fetch the kids with great joy in our hearts. Thank you God for your church.

At about midnight I went to the airport to fetch my aunt from Canada. She 'was' my older cousin from dad's side who grew up in our home in Sabah. She was like an older sister to us. Then she met my mom's brother, courted and got married. She 'is' now my aunt. They eventually moved to Canada. I haven't seen her for over 10 years. It was a joy carrying her luggage to our home at that ungodly hour. My body's tired but my heart is rejoicing. (Time to apply what I spoke on Isa 40:27-31 earlier)

Pastime with Good Company

Tonight Jeff, Claud, Lawrence, Pat, Dinah and I had dinner at the Esplanade. Claud was disappointed with her noodles so she's probably having supper now. Well I simply love the Esplanade. It is such an icon for Singapore. We were here for an A Cappella concert to support a church member, Rebecca. She is a church vocalist. She is also part of this UpBeat A Cappella group doing their first concert 'Pastime with Good Company' at the Esplanade Recital Studio. Thanks Rebecca for inviting us all.

Dinah liked the Arioso Bach rendition. I thoroughly enjoyed the Under the Sea and Soul Bossa Nova from the movie Austin Powers numbers. (In case anyone is wondering, no I did not watch Austin Powers.)

I think Lawrence and Jeff seemed a little bit disappointed they were not asked to sing during the audience participation segment. Perhaps next time. Neverthless we had such a great time tonight over dinner, at the concert and afterwards talking with Rebecca and her parents. Her mom sings too. Like her parents, we're so proud of Rebecca.

Reach Out for the Skies

Today is Singapore's 40th birthday. It is also a public holiday.

My family and I spent the first part of the day with our worship arts media (WAM) team in their retreat. The venue at Sentosa island was great. I did a message on renewing spiritual passion. (It was tough to put a message together on a holiday but it was all worth it. I can't think of a better group of people to spend our day with.) After the message, I invited Jeff and Dinah up where we prayed and prophesied for people. Then all 50 of us walked out for lunch. Food here is more expensive but not better than on the main island. But we got to know new people as we walked and talked. Then we had appreciation and thank you awards. We took our leave as Jasmine was about to start on the second message. They are such a great bunch of people.

On the way home we stopped to get early dinner in Bedok where we bumped into a church member, Janice. She was so excited because she just came back from a mission trip to Thailand. What a great chance meeting. We gave her a lift to Bedok interchange where she was going to meet her mentor. Then our family went to visit Lawrence and Pat. Pat asked us over to pick up her yummy-delicious pasta salad. She served us with iced fruit juice too. The food is quite healthy in this household.

The kids rushed us home to watch the National Day Parade live on TV. It's the only time where we do a TV dinner - once a year. The kids were glued to the TV. The theme song 'Reach Out for the Skies' does grow on you. The entire show just gets better every year. It's truly worth watching. This has been a great day. Happy birthday Singapore. God bless Singapore.

July 31st

Today is commitment Sunday. I have thought of this this day for over 8 months. First our research assistant Kam Weng proposed an incredible passage of Scripture. Our morning lead worshipper Jac introduced a jazz-themed praise and worship. Our guest soprano Renae Smith did a powerful Gospel song. Then I did two morning messages. I was very excited to pray with two persons who made first time commitments to Christ in the midst of a commitment Sunday.

It was encouraging to see members making prayerful campaign commitments. Friends also participated. Cara told me that a not-even two month old believer made a sacrificial pledge. By the end of our evening service, we had 553 people making campaign commitments.

In between all the excitement my wife and I hosted Evelyn Biles to lunch. I also met Jerry Vuncannon later. Evelyn is a friend of our church and is here to help us with discipleship seminars. Jerry and Renae are part of Evelyn's team.

July 31st will go down as the first commitment Sunday of the Breakthrough campaign. What a day.

A Nice City

We were at the Changi Airport with Limei and Deb on Friday. Our son had his weekly scouts meeting at school. It was good Limei was there as Deb was sad. Well this was our first time on ValuAir. We were pleased that the seats had ample legroom. This was also the first time we were seated next to the emergency exit. So the air stewardess briefed us how to open the emergency exit. Several members commented on my blog before we left that you would pray for our trip so the briefing was actually unnecessary but she was just doing her job.

This is my third visit and my wife's first visit to HK. We arrived at the very impressive modern HK airport. A member of the HK church met us. We travelled on the express train with two Brisbane friends. The airport express is very comfortable. Then we took a taxi to the hotel. We passed by the business district and the commercial buildings are impressive. The city buzzed with activity even late at night. The hotel room was small and compact. We had a quick bite as the sandwiches onboard wasn't a full meal. People smoked inside the restaurant.

Saturday breakfast was yummy tim sum. I love tim sum. Our conference started. Lunch was tim sum hosted by 2 Singaporean members of the HK church. I wanted to do mobile blogging but my wife insisted that I concentrate on the conference. We had fruits for dinner (lot of meat in the day) then more teaching. The first day was a long day.

We had Sunday breakfast with Jeff and Claud. The stranger seated next to me smoked. This was day 2 of the conference. Lunch was with 3 Singaporean members of the church and HK leaders. They are so eager to learn. The leader, Deborah asked us 8 questions. We had time off in the afternoon. My wife spent time with a friend. Connie who grew up in HK brought the rest of us Singaporeans to Causeway Point. You can get anything here and it's really crowded. I tried some famous dessert. Otherwise Sunday was another long day of conference.

Dinah and I had simple breakfast in our room on Monday. This was the last day of the conference. It was great having lunch with my old friend James. It was interesting to accompany him to a Traditional Chinese Medicine expert in HK. There were meetings in the afternoon. Then we had a special dinner on a boat. The view was simply spectacular. This ended another long but fruitful day.

On Tuesday we had tim sum breakfast with four of our youth leaders. Then it is off to more meetings. We lunched in. Hong Kongers sure eat large portions and quite a lot of meat. My wife was very relieved with dinner cause it was primarily veg. Then Dinah and I with 3 friends went to The Peak. The night time view was amazing. (Here is a photo taken by Gavin)

HK is probably more vibrant in terms of night-time buzz. The airport, skyline, the river boat cruise and Chinese cuisine seems nicer than in Singapore. HK is a nice city. But I still appreciate Singapore. Our city is cleaner, greener, more organised and feels safer. Homes here are larger and public places generally less claustrophobic and less smoky. We flew back on Wednesday and yes their airport looks even better in the day.

An Appointment

Wednesday night was spent with some of our church leaders. (Attach a photo of us taken in Sep 03). Last night I defined what a breakthrough is, explained why God wants us to have a breakthrough and finally how we get breakthroughs. You can expect this lesson to be taught at this weekend's huddles around the church.

In the book of Ecclesiastes chapter three we read of seasons and times. There is a time and a season for everything. Currently we are asking God to breakthrough any dead works so that we can be who we are in Christ, so we can function out of love for God, out of faith in Christ and not do anything from a human perspective. I want to get out spiritual lethargy. My prayer is “Give us a breakthrough! Lord, come into my spirit and change my perspectives and heal my brokenness!” Breakthrough is a divine appointment I want to keep.

Today is Thursday. There were four meetings today. I was glad to have some time with Matthias and Yvonne between meetings. Uli's attachment started earlier and she has gone back to Berlin. I asked Matthias and Yvonne about two of our members who are doing missions in Germany. They asked about church planting in Europe.

Also my wife and I are clearing stuff so we can fly tomorrow with peace of mind. We're coordinating so that work-in-process gets attention while we're away. We have to bring folders and reading materials for the trip. My wife is not just packing for the trip. That's the easy part. She's drawing up a detailed schedule for our kids while they are here. Our twins will stay with two families (Pastor Lawrence and Pat as well as my wife's sister), so there are logistics ie handovers and pickups. My wife does a great job. We do have our moments. There was one trip where our kids got two skirts for the's day school uniform. My son chose to wear his school shorts that was unwashed rather than the fresh skirt. (Good choice)

These Past Few Days

Sunday, 17th July was a full day. There was preaching in the morning and it was gratifying to see three new persons coming to faith . This was quickly followed by 3 back-to-back campaign launches. Then the campaign planning team had an evaluation after the third launch. Our family and I were supposed to swim in the evening. We hadn't swam since Tuesday thanks to the rain. But we were so flat out that we just went home and crashed.

After shower and dinner, we felt refreshed. Then I saw members and one pre-believer responding to my blog. The responses grew as I read at different points in the night. People are actually reading it! It's great to get to know so many members as I click on their response to go to their blog. The day was long but what an ending. Yes we slept well.

Monday was a another full day. Wan Leng and Hong Teck from our IT Dept worked to get the campaign webpage up by 1 pm. I helped to edit the content. We just made it in time. Then it was off to lunch celebrate Limei's birthday. Limei is our amazing assistant. What would we do without her? Her birthday is actually this Friday but my wife and I will be flying off for a conference on Friday so we're celebrating early. Then it is a series of meetings in the afternoon. Our family finally got to swim on Monday night. Monday night was also the first time we allowed Daniel to sit in the front passenger seat of the car. With glee on his face, "This is SO exciting!" It's Deborah's turn tomorrow night.

Tuesday is our day off. It's often slow paced consisting of errands. My wife started packing for our upcoming trip and the kids' things because they will stay over with two families here when we're away. Yes Deb had her front-seat experience. She was just as thrilled as her brother. Each new experience for a child is such an adventure. In the afternoon we swam again as we may not be able to exercise much in the upcoming overseas conference.

Today's Wednesday. I'm focusing my devotion time on breakthrough. This is a short reflection... Our Lord God is known by many names in the Bible and His names reveal His character. The Scripture is 2 Samuel 5:20. Before the breakthrough, the scene in the Scripture is called Valley of Rephaim (1 Chro 14:8-11) meaning house of the giant. The enemy thought this point is where he is the strongest. After the victory, King David called it Baal-Perazim meaning God broke through in the strongest place of the enemy. The word literally means 'Lord of the Breakthroughs'. This is where I want to be. Let's make our way here.

Breakthrough Living

Our church is going to start a journey of breakthrough.

Many may think a breakthrough is a peak or mountain top experience. A breakthrough isn’t the highs or the lows. In all things we may find the imprint of the hand of God leading, embracing. And I am free to respond.

A breakthrough comes when you take a new look at your life – a long, loving look at where you are stuck and whether you are prepared to hear God’s voice say to you: “hang on tight, you are about to come unstuck”.

A breakthrough comes when we apply the good news and give our situations a little shake and see who’s at the other end. Then we see breakthroughs to fuller living. We see our small life invaded and enhanced by the Absolute Life. We see breakthroughs in all aspects of our spiritual lives, in our studies, in our marriage and in our businesses.

Often when I’m on the verge of a breakthrough, the enemy tries to discourage me. So we’re got to learn to pray and overcome spiritual attacks with a degree of excitement because we know that something great is right around the corner.

Breakthrough moments happen when your life and your faith come together. Christ in Luke’s gospel calls it a mustard seed faith that can move mountains. No doubt we’re already got the life and the challenges. Now all we have to do is to put the two together. Then as Christ says, you’ll start to move mountains around you.

Guests from Germany

We are currently hosting three church leaders from Germany for three weeks of attachment. Ulrike Bachmann "Uli" is the young lady on the right. Yvonne Fiedler and Matthias Keller are on the left. Uli and Yvonne are from Berlin. Matthias is from Chemitz (East Germany, 300 km from Berlin). I first got to know them during previous ministry trips to Germany. It's great to catch up again this time in Singapore.

Last Sunday we invited Uli to shared a testimony at worship service. She told us she had just finished uni in Berlin. Then she shared what she learned here. She said, "The people's life really inspires me. May Hoong for example works long hours (as an architect) yet she makes time to shepherd her sheep weekly. Seeing such examples of sacrificial people, I have no excuses when I start my first job in August." It was a very heart-felt testimony.

Today Dinah and I had lunch with all three of our guests and we asked them first hand about their attachment so far. Matthias said because he comes from a church made up of primarily uni students, he appreciated learning about adult and family ministries. He also liked what he learnt about church corporate communications. Yvonne was keen to learn about helping Christian couples prepare for marriage.

It is a joy to host overseas church leaders. Even our kids got to meet these fine young Germans. As a church, we remain committed to equipping leaders do a better job in leading the local church. Our lives are enriched interacting and learning together with people from around the world.

Thirteen Years Today

Dinah and I got married exactly thirteen years ago. Today is our wedding anniversary. As we arrive at our thirteen year mark, I realise that I am so very blessed to be married to a Godly woman like Dinah. Our kids are so fortunate to have a Godly mom like her. I am so grateful that God put her in my life. This anniversary is a special time of thanksgiving and for me to count my blessings.

I also thank God for our wedding anniversaries. Last year we spent our 12th wedding anniversary with church friends in Melbourne while speaking at their church camp. Before that we celebrated our 11th anniversary in New Jersey. I was on course at the Princeton Theological Seminary and Dinah and the kids joined me. (Airfares were low due to SARS and the war.) Then in 2002 we spent our anniversary with church friends in Zurich while attending to church matters there.

This year we decided to celebrate the day before our actual anniversary, which was a Sunday. The kids would be with Claudia. Last week Claudia had offered to take our kids out and we took up her offer. (Thanks Claud)

Sunday came and we had a guest speaker, Rev Melvyn Mak. He was a blessing. After the worship service, I hosted lunch for him and then made my way home. Dinah had gone home first. She was battling flu symptoms and my own health wasn't that great either. We both took a short nap. Then we went out to have a quiet dinner.

We thoroughly enjoyed dining together at this nice restaurant. We even got the waiter to take a photo of us. That photo didn't quite turn out as expected. Here's an older photo.

It has been a very good thirteen years. I look forward knowing that our best years are ahead of us.

My First Mentor

Almost twenty years ago, I spent six months in Sabah before going to uni. In that time I tried everything under the sun. I even got a job at a property development company. After about two months I was either still bored or wanted more challenge. So I tried church, which was the traditional church mom was going to. This was the same church she made us go to when we were young.

I had never been to a small group and out of curiosity decided to check it out. It turned out to be the youth group (there was no young adult group). There I got to know a young pastor by the name of John William. He was well educated and enthusiastic about Christ. This was the first time I had close contact with a spiritual leader. His joy and commitment in serving made an impression. So I thought to myself, "If and when I ever serve, it will be wholeheartedly and with joy."

When I left for Perth, he gave me a book 'Spiritual Leadership' by Oswald Sanders. This must have been the first book I read on leadership. Some months after I left he moved to London and we lost touch.

Early this year he met my younger brother. So out of the blue I got this email from him. He kept saying how surprised he was to hear from my brother that I was serving as a pastor. He never imagined me as a pastor - that makes two of us.

He came into town on Monday and dropped by the office yesterday. We caught up and my wife and kids joined us for dinner. My wife even took a photo of us together. Over dinner John kept telling Dinah how thrilled he was to know what we were doing.

For me, it was so great catching up with my first mentor. He left today to go minister in West Malaysia. I thank God for what he left in my life, that his example shaped my understanding on how to serve God. This inspires me even more to help others along as I have been helped.