Some Recent Events

We live in an HDB flat--public housing run by the Housing & Development Board of the Singapore government.  Right now there are renovations going on in our building and the others around ours.  The main thing is the replacement of all the bathroom tiles--which is a big project, since the entire bathroom (including walls) is tile, and the buildings are made of cement.  While bathrooms are being redone, each flat is given a temporary shower, and residents have to use bathrooms set up below the buildings.  We were very glad that the owner of our flat opted out of these renovations. :-)

A shower and some other work materials, ready on the balcony

outside our flat for a flat down the hall from ours

Toilets downstairs for people to use

Old toilets and sinks sitting outside our flat

The work is extremely noisy, so that for a couple of days we were not able to have school. We did have a couple of classes outside by the condo of another family from church one morning.  Another day the kids and I met Dorcas and her kids (from church) at an indoor playground.

The two-year-olds

Another recent event here has been the worst drought in Singapore in over fifty years. One of our outings during the days we couldn't have school was to the Botanic Gardens, where streambeds were completely dry and lake levels were way down.

We were all excited to hear a thunderstorm during church two Sundays ago, and since then God has sent rain several times, for which we are all thankful!

A women's Bible study meets at our place on Wednesday mornings twice a month.  The last time we met was my husband's birthday, so the women brought a cake, and we all sang together.  A couple of women brought their homeschooled children, and a couple of extra youth were here, so we had a nice big group to sing Psalter #55 together.

This past weekend were were very happy to welcome our friend Josh Hoekstra from Hudsonville PRC to Singapore.  He stayed with us for four days before moving on to Malaysia for business.  I think we managed to cram quite a bit of sightseeing into those days, and he really enjoyed meeting the people of CERC and worshiping with them.

 Singaporeans laugh, but to us Americans it is great fun to see monkeys in the wild! :-)

(They can be very aggressive, but a couple of sticks in our hands held them back very well.)

There were at least eleven monkeys along the roadside as we headed to a reservoir.

 A Sunday evening gathering--"Behold, how good and how pleasant

it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" (Ps. 133:1)