Church events

CERC does not have special services, but that does not mean that Christmas Day and New Year's go unnoticed.  On Christmas Eve there is caroling.  Members are asked to open their homes for church groups to come and carol.  The purpose is to invite your unbelieving family members, friends, and neighbors.  Along with the caroling is an "exhortation," so this is a good opportunity to witness to those people.  Although we did not have anyone to invite, we were asked to open our home this year.  There were three homes besides ours, so the whole congregation was split into four groups and sent to these homes.  We sang, and at our house Aaron Lim gave the exhortation.

The songbooks look a little bit different than our caroling songsheets at Faith! :-)

After the caroling and a time of refreshments, everyone met at church for more singing.

So that was the Christmas celebration.  Yesterday was New Year's Day.  Each New Year's there is a "Prayer & Praise" meeting.  There are seven different Bible study groups at CERC, with attendance mostly based on location.  For example, those who live in eastern Singapore meet together for a Bible study.  Another group is called "Central."  Each of these Bible study groups sang a song to start the meeting, with someone from the group giving a short introduction before the song.

The Covenant Keepers & Covenant Keepers Seniors 

(like our Young People's and Young Adult's Bible studies)--a very large group!

After singing and a time for prayer requests, the church theme was introduced.  Each year the Session (council) chooses a theme for the year and presents it on New Year's Day.  This year's theme is "Doctrine According to Godliness."  Before the official presentation, we played a game.  We were split into groups and had to find objects that began with each of the letters in "Godliness."  Most of us chose things like an iPhone for the I, the door for D, employment pass for E, etc.  One group had Megan's "golden hair" for G.  And one group of young people came up with animal names for each letter, then acted like a gorilla, an orangutan, an elephant, etc.  We had a lot of laughs.

One of the groups presenting its findings for each letter

After the game, my husband gave a short speech on "Doctrine According to Godliness." Then he and Elder Wong presented a slideshow with the goals the Session has for this year, based on this theme.  The day concluded with lunch together.

We pray that all of you will have a blessed new year, knowing that our sovereign God is in control of all the events of our lives.  

The man who once has found abode

Within the secret place of God

Shall with Almighty God abide,

And in His shadow safely hide.

I of the Lord my God will say,

He is my refuge and my stay;

To Him for safety I will flee,

In Him my constant trust shall be.

Thou shalt beneath His wings abide,

And safe within His care confide;

His faithfulness shall ever be

A sure protection unto Thee.

                        --Psalter #248, stanzas 1, 2, & 4