Two More Marriages

CERC just celebrated the marriages of two more couples, besides the couple that got married in June. The wedding of Ywee Ern and Hui Li took place on August 16.

Hui Li walking down the aisle with her dad, Cheng Chye

 Charis and Megan, the flower girls

Beautiful setting for an evening wedding dinner

The bride's aunt, Suet Yin, and mother, Suet Wan

The newly-married couple greeting the wedding guests

Part of the dinner

The bride with our table at the dinner

A group of church youth

On August 23 we celebrated another marriage.  Michael and June had been married at the Registry of Marriage a month earlier, and wanted to have their marriage confirmed before the church this past Saturday.  It was a simple and very nice ceremony held in our sanctuary and followed by lunch afterwards.

The couple walking down the aisle to have their marriage confirmed

Repeating their vows--They had made vows earlier, but there are also vows included in the marriage form in the back of the Psalter--which is the Form for the Confirmation of Marriage Before the Church.

Group photo after the ceremony, as is done at all weddings here

Part of the lunch--the Singapore version of carrot cake!

These weddings are big events in the life of the congregation.  As you can see from the group photo above, many or most church members attend each wedding.  May God bless these couples as they begin their married life, and may He continue to build His Church.

Dykstras' Stay in Singapore

Most of the time that we were in the U.S., Prof. and Mrs. Dykstra were in Singapore.  They have been here for extended stays a couple of times in the past, and the church here was very excited to host them again.  They arrived a couple days before we left and, apart from two weeks in Australia for a conference there, stayed in Singapore until the Monday after we arrived back here.

On the balcony outside our flat--They came to visit with our family

before we left, just as a Bible study was finishing at our place.

The annual CERC church camp was held the first week we were gone, with Prof. Dykstra as the speaker.  The topic was "God's Covenant in the Psalms."

This year's church camp photo (thanks to Daniel Tang)

While Prof. Dykstra was in Australia he was joined by Rev. Nathan Decker, who then came to Singapore on his way home to preach for one Sunday.  Rev. Decker also had a "Table Talk" with the youth--more about those later--and was able to join the congregation for a church outing.

Rev. Decker with some of the congregation on Sunday afternoon

When the Dykstras arrived back in Singapore, Prof. gave two speeches on Christian education, giving the principles of Christian education and the practical steps for beginning a school.  He also had a Table Talk with the youth on his last Sunday here, and we were able to attend that.  Table Talks are basically open question and answer sessions for any biblically-related question.  We covered whether it was okay for Jacob to show favoritism to Joseph and Benjamin, what our relationships will be like in heaven ("Will I know that that man was my husband?" etc.), how we can be thankful FOR everything, and a few other questions.

Prof. Dykstra looking at the questions, some of which are typed up beforehand; 

others may be asked from the floor during the Table Talk.

Following that, there was a dinner with the Dykstras, and then some singing and farewells.

Several of the youth lined up to say goodbye to Prof. Dykstra

One last picture I have to include--the congregation after the afternoon service on Prof. and Mrs. Dykstra's last Sunday here.

We are thankful for the work that was done by the Dykstras and by Rev. Decker while we were gone.  May the church here be blessed by their instruction, and may they be blessed as they pick up their work again in the U.S.

Back in Singapore

We are back in Singapore, after finishing our furlough with a trip to Mackinaw City and a few last visits with family and friends.

On Mackinac Island

Get-together with friends at Lawrence Park in Zeeland

Getting ready to set up one more tent for a camp-out 

with the Lanning cousins in Grandpa & Grandma's backyard

We drove down to Chicago on Monday, August 4, to fly out of O'Hare Airport.  My inlaws came with us, which was very helpful since we had much more luggage going back than coming!  That included two years' worth of homeschooling books for four kids, a little bit of food that is hard to come by here, and a lot of clothes for the next two years, since they are much cheaper and easier to find in the U.S.!

Our flights back went well.  After a night in San Francisco, we had an 11 hour and 10 minutes long flight to Seoul, South Korea, then another 5 hours and 35 minutes to Singapore.

In the Seoul airport--I just paid 4300 for four donuts, and I can't 

read the receipt and have no idea what the exchange rate is! :-)

We arrived in Singapore about 1:00 a.m. Thursday and were greeted at the airport by about 20 people from church.  We came back to a few changes in the neighborhood.  The most noticeable one was the installation of new "contraptions" (for lack of a better term!) for hanging laundry.  Before, each flat had little holes below the windows, where the ends of long poles with laundry hanging on them would be inserted.  Now instead of just holes, there are these contraptions where the laundry poles are inserted into slots at either end. It seems to be a safer way to hang the poles!

Also, progress has been made on installing new elevators in the buildings around here.

Flags are hanging for the August 9 National Day.

We also came back to find Ghost Month in full swing.  (You can read more about that here.) We smell burning often, as extra offerings are made to people's ancestors.

A lot of trash on normally clean streets, all from the papers people are burning

Offerings set up outside the nearest wet market (intended 

for the ghosts that are supposedly wandering around this month)

Once again we are thankful for God's grace in saving us and His saints in Singapore from the kind of fear that Ghost Month represents.  We look forward to worshiping Him with His people tomorrow.