Our day at church

Every year CERC (Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church) has a Reformation Day Conference.  "RDC," they call it.  This year Prof. Engelsma was asked to give four speeches on the topic "His Church Shall Stand."  I was home with kids during the first two speeches, but today our whole family went to church for the end of the conference.  It began at 10:00 and ended after supper.  Two speeches were given today, and the rest of the time was for meals and "free time."  Kids played, adults talked, and some of the young people gathered around and sang for a while.  It was very enjoyable.

During the speeches, some of CERC's young people take care of the children.  They lead them in singing, and then do crafts.  This morning the kids all made bookmarks with a Bible verse on them.  This afternoon they made a calendar with Bible verses on each page.  Our kids really enjoyed it and continue to make new friends at church, which is so good to see.  The young people also love Jason, so I don't see much of him when we're at church. :-)

When the day was almost finished, some of the people brought out durian for all of us Americans to try.  (Besides our family and the Engelsmas, John & Val VanBaren and Hank VanderWaal are here.)  Everyone gathered around, some with cameras, and couldn't wait to watch us eat it.  I managed to avoid the attention for a while, but just when I thought I was safe, a few young people said, "Mrs. Lanning, aren't you going to try it?  You have to try it!"  So I took the very tiniest bite.  It lived up to its expectations, that's all I will say. :-)  But now I've tried it, so hopefully I won't have to try it again. ;-)

A couple of unrelated topics:  Everywhere we go here, we get looked at.  I think it's a combination of the blond hair and the fact that we have five kids--more the latter.  Five kids is so uncommon here.  And everyone loves to see Jason.  The first day we went out walking below our building, someone asked if she could take pictures of him.  When we were out for lunch with someone from church, a waitress wanted to carry him around the restaurant.  Others say hi to him and want to "play" with him.  He grins at everybody and doesn't mind the attention at all!

Last night some people were working in our kitchen at suppertime, so we went down to what are called "coffee shops"--little eating places right below each high rise.  There was one with American food, so that was our main goal, although my husband wanted to get some local food too.  The American food place had an idol on the wall, with what was probably incense burning in front of it.  We had heard that was common here, but it was our first time seeing it.  When we got home we read Psalm 115 for devotions.  "Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.  They have mouths, but they speak not:  eyes have they, but they see not..."  And on the other hand, "Our God is in the heavens:  he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased."  What a blessing that one of the things that "he hath pleased" was to call us out of such darkness into His marvelous light!

I know you are waiting for pictures, and I can't wait to post them.  However, I still don't have a computer and am still not much better with this tablet than I was a week ago when I started using it. :-)  In order to get a computer we need to get a Singapore credit card, or we'll be paying a foreign transaction fee on our American credit card.  But in order to get a credit card, we were told we'd have to jump through some hoops, including getting a letter from the church saying how much money we will be making.  We hope to start this process tomorrow.  In the long run, not a big deal--but it's just one of those things about moving to a foreign country that makes it a little more challenging than just moving in the U.S. would be.  In the meantime, please continue to wait patiently, and I will post pictures as soon as I can! :-)