Because Singapore is such a business hub and also a tourist destination, we have been able to meet many people from all over the world since we moved here. Besides worshiping each Sunday with Singaporeans and Filipinos (who live here for work), we have had the opportunity to meet people from the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Malaysia, Australia, and Nigeria. Most find us on the internet, although a few are brought in by personal contacts. Many pass through on their vacations, and we don't see them again. Some come to church at CERC for as long as they are in Singapore. The most recent has been a family from Germany. The husband had been here for work before, and worshiped with us. He just came back for four weeks of work, and brought his wife and two young children. Although the children hardly spoke any English, they joined the youngest Sunday School class all the weeks that they were here, and we had a couple of opportunities to get together with them outside of church.
Other recent visitors were a couple from Texas, Jonathan and Mary, who moved to Singapore for two years of work the same day that we left Grand Rapids to move here. Jonathan's father is a retired Baptist minister in Texas, who was a missionary in Mexico when his children were growing up. Jonathan told me that they met for church in people's houses in Mexico, which were one-room houses with dirt floors, and chickens and dogs running through the house during the middle of the service. Besides that, often only one half of the couple in whose home they were meeting was a Christian, so the spouse might be in the room making himself a meal while the service was going on. It is so interesting to hear about and see the different ways in which God gathers His Church throughout the world!
We also just met the family of a Baptist minister in England. His son lives here for business, with his wife, who is from the Netherlands, and their two children. Pastor Hartley and his wife were visiting them.
Last summer we had two women from the Netherlands visit us. They were in Singapore for the weekend, on their way to a vacation in Malaysia. They joined our women's Bible study, then stayed at church for lunch and the second service. They were moved to tears at finding a church here in Singapore with which they were one in the faith. It was such a joy to get to know them, even though on this earth we may never see each other again.
While preparing for a Bible study last week, I ran across Article 28 of the Belgic Confession: "This holy church is not confined, bound, or limited to a certain place or to certain persons, but is spread and dispersed over the whole world; and yet is joined and united with heart and will, by the power of faith, in one and the same Spirit." What a wonderful thing it has been to meet all these believers from all over the world, who are "joined and united" with us "in one and the same Spirit." May God continue to gather His Church until the day when we can all be together in glory!
