A Visit from Friends

The past few days we had a wonderful time with our dear friends Kurt Kaptein and his daughter Laura.  They came to Singapore "on their way" to South Korea to watch their daughter and sister Amy compete in the World Special Olympics.  We had been eagerly awaiting their visit, and we had a few very busy and very fun days with them!  Most things we did with them we had not done before ourselves, so we saw a lot of new Singapore sights too.

On Thursday we went to the Singapore Flyer, the world's largest ferris wheel.  Afterwards we met a few young people from church at Jurong East Waterpark.  That was fun, except we had so many issues with the MRT (trains) on the way there that by the time we got to the waterpark we only had about half an hour to swim before the lightning storm came in and we had to get out of the water.  You can ask Kurt sometime what it's like to get separated on the MRT, when half of the group gets on the train and the other half doesn't. :-)

Laura and our girls on the Flyer

On Friday we went to Sentosa, a resort island off the main island of Singapore, with a few of the young people from church.  We visited an oceanarium, tried some Malay food for lunch, went to the beach, and saw an animal show in which Laura starred as the one who got to hold the giant python. :-)  The day ended with a laser light and water show.

Kurt and Laura left Michigan in a blizzard.  This is as close as we get to snow! :-)

Tian Loong teaching Laura how to use chopsticks 

at lunchtime.  By the time she left Singapore she was a pro!

Beautiful!

When Jason was finished swimming, I set him on the ground to crawl around.  This whole group of people was walking past and all stopped dead in their tracks to watch Jason and take pictures of him.  I just post this picture because this is "normal life" for Jason here!

On Saturday we went to the zoo.  That evening the Covenant Keepers Seniors (young people ages 17 and up) celebrated their 5th anniversary.  The celebration included a speech by Elder Lee, a program, and supper.

The Covenant Keepers, Covenant Keepers Seniors, 

and honorary CKS member, Laura Kaptein :-)

Everyone who was there for the celebration

Sunday was a good day at church.  In the morning we had the privilege of witnessing seven confessions of faith and two adult baptisms.  Thanks to Daniel Tang for the following pictures!

Baptism of Paul Ong (with Elder Felix Chan assisting)

Baptism of Melina Chong

Elias, Marcus B., Paul O., Joanna, Isa, Samantha, Hui Yi, Noelene, and Melina

After both worship services, the youth had a "workshop" on Psalm-singing versus hymn-singing.  This involved a speech by my husband and his answering several questions that the youth had put together beforehand.  Then a group of about 15 young people stayed at church for dinner with the Kapteins and singing afterwards.  It was a very special evening for the Kapteins especially, but for us too.

This is a video Laura took of the youth singing the first stanza of #64 in Chinese, from Chinese Psalters.

On Monday we went to Chinatown with a couple from church and three young people.  The "highlight" (if you can call it that) was seeing two temples.  One was a Chinese temple. This was very full of idols.  I was told that many of the idols hold different things in their hands. If you want to have a baby, you go in front of the idol holding a baby and pray to that "god." If you want to be rich, you go to the idol holding money and pray to that "god."  We watched people bow down in front of the idols.  It was quite an experience.  Some of the people in the church here come out of this kind of background, and grew up worshiping these idols.  What a blessing to be saved by the one true god!  Eric (yes, Eric!) was playing the piano tonight and played Psalter #373. I've had the eighth stanza in my head ever since.  "Men's idols of gold and of silver Can speak not, nor hearken, nor see; Like them shall their makers be helpless, Unblest shall their worshipers be."  That's a very sobering thing when you actually see the people bowing down to these idols and can put faces to these worshipers.

An altar with joss sticks (incense sticks) right outside the temple door.  We were puzzled by all the white people offering incense--maybe just something they thought would be fun to do as tourists??

This last picture is in the Hindu temple.  This was full of many idols of all different

kinds than the ones we had seen in the Chinese temple, including their sacred cow.

As I think about it, what a contrast we had between Sunday and Monday.  Monday we witnessed the idolatry of those who bow down to idols made by men's hands.  Sunday we witnessed the confessions of faith of those who love the one only true God, and the baptisms of those who have more recently been called out of darkness into God's marvelous light.  The sermon yesterday morning was on Ephesians 1:3-4, and those contain appropriate words of praise to God with which to close this post.  "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world..."  How thankful we are for God's salvation of us!!

Our neighborhood

We live in what is called an HDB flat.  These flats are managed by the government's Housing & Development Board (thus the initials "HDB").  About 85% of the people in Singapore live in HDB flats.  Within a very short distance of each building you can get groceries, go to the doctor, get a haircut, use an ATM machine, eat and eat and eat some more, and do many other things.

The most popular shop for our family is what we just call "the provision shop," although I think all the shops around our flat would be referred to as provision shops.  But the closest one sells milk, juice, and bread, along with other food and household items.  Milk here is sold in very small containers, and our refrigerator is also smaller than the one we used to have, so we are always running out of milk.  No more buying 5 gallons a week at Meijer and being set for the week!  The milk here also tastes different, so some of the family drinks chocolate milk since the chocolate disguises the taste of the milk. :-)  When we're not out of white milk, we're out of chocolate.  Good thing this shop is so close!  Eric, who normally can't stand shopping, LOVES to go down to the provision shop and buy milk or anything else we might need.  It seems like he goes to this shop about once a day.

Next to that shop is a clinic.  My husband has been here twice.  The first week we were here he got very sick and went to this clinic; he was also here with Jason once.  He was very impressed both times.  You take a number and "queue," and when your number comes up you are seen by the doctor.  The pharmacy is right on site, and when he went with Jason he was home with a diagnosis and prescription within about fifteen minutes.  I did miss my Meijer pharmacy when I opened the prescription and saw that it was in powder form and I had to mix it myself!  But they had given my husband directions, so in the end it wasn't so bad. :-)

Between the clinic and the provision shop is the opening to a whole "alley" full of what the people here call "coffee shops."  They are little outdoor eating areas that sell local food meals for cheap prices.  My husband is a recognized person among the coffee shop owners.  Me...not so much. :-)

After walking through the coffee shop area, we come to a little playground.  Next to that playground is a small shop where we can buy office supplies, flip-flops ("slippers"), cards, hair stuff, toys, and other things, and this is also where we can get pictures printed.  

''

The following building is kitty-corner from that, across the playground.  Reminds us of my husband's trip to the Philippines, but hopefully he won't get acupuncture here! ;-)

Next to that building is a shop where we can get Kleenex, toilet paper, diapers, and a bunch of other stuff that I don't recognize.  The prices here are actually cheaper than in the grocery stores, plus I don't have to haul it home on the bus!  Some of the things are sold inside the building, and many are placed on the sidewalk outside the building.  This is true of most or all of the provision shops.

When we turn the corner by this shop, we are next to a large market area, including a wet market.  Here we can buy more groceries and a lot of fruits and vegetables, flowers, and meat, as well as clothes, towels, jewelry, etc.  This area is only open in the mornings, or maybe to mid-afternoon.

This is how fish are sold everywhere, even in the grocery stores.  You
 always see whole fish on ice, out in the open, just waiting to be bought.  

Prepare yourselves for the next picture.  You only have it thanks to Eric.  It was way too much for me, and the owner was trying to get me to buy his meat...no way!!  I left, but Eric went back with Emily and Megan and got the picture for me.

Eric said that when the stall owner saw him taking pictures, he moved the pig's head closer to the glass and wiggled its ears and showed the kids its tongue.  Ahhhhh!!!!! :-)

Along these shops and markets, every once in a while--or more often than that--you come to idols set up on the walls, with incense burning in front of them.

And among all the Chinese shops, there is one with a familiar name--well, partly familiar anyway. :-)  But the snacks are not familiar!

Now our tour of the neighborhood is finished, and we head back home. Our elevator is to the left of the awning at the far end of the picture. This picture is taken from "our" provision shop, so this gives you some idea of how close we are to our milk and other basics.  When we get off the elevator on the sixth floor of that building, we are right by our flat.

Homeschooling

As many of you know, we had a crate full of belongings that came from Michigan.  On that crate, one of the most important things was all our homeschooling materials.  When the crate got here on December 31, we took a week to settle in and get lesson plans made, and then we started school on Monday, January 7.  We have a nice area right inside our front door where we have "school."  Megan sits in sometimes, even though she isn't in school yet.  She mostly colors pictures, although she likes to ask me for worksheets once in a while too!

A typical day begins with devotions and singing.  The last song we sing is always a "Psalter of the Week," which is one that we will be singing in church the following Sunday.  We learn a couple verses of that song, and hope that by the time we've sung it a few times, the kids will know it during church.  Then we have a Bible lesson, and Emily does the calendar like the kindergarteners at Heritage have.  Our "season" (on the calendar) is always summer, but sometimes we talk about what the weather is like in Michigan just for a little variety!   :-)

For Jessica (4th) and Eric (3rd), this is followed by reading and math, and later in the day by English, penmanship, spelling, science, history, geography, and D.O.L.  (Not all these subjects are taught every day!)  On Fridays there is art, and I plan to add music too. Science and art are taught by my husband.  

Jessica working on her English assignment, while Megan writes some "A"s

Eric and Emily, sweaty after a recess break, working on their assignments

Emily sits in on science, and otherwise follows a similar schedule to what she had at Heritage.  On Tuesdays she has a show-and-tell that starts with the letter of the week.  On Thursdays she does "work stations," made as similar to Heritage's as possible, with a worksheet or two about the letter of the week, a story read to her online for the "listening" station, a food that begins with that letter, a journal entry with a picture starting with the letter, and one or two other activities.  This week's letter is "B," and she brought her "baby brother" for show-and-tell today.

When I was finished making the homeschooling schedule a couple months ago, I asked Jessica and Eric to look at it and tell me if I had missed anything.  One said, "S.Q.U.I.R.T.!" and the other said, "D.E.A.R.!"  ("Sustained Quiet Un-Interrupted Reading Time" and "Drop Everything and Read").  So I added that into the schedule, and the first time they had it, Jason even joined them!

Of course we have recess too!  Conveniently, there is a playground located right off the elevator below our flat.

 

While the kids are doing their assignments, I throw a load of laundry in the washer or dryer, empty the dishwasher, grade papers...or rescue Jason from his latest predicament or mischief.

While we enjoyed our first few days of homeschooling, we very much miss Heritage. Homeschooling just isn't the same!  We pray for our schools, teachers, and former classmates often.  We pray that God will bless our efforts here, and the efforts of our teachers in the good Christian schools in the PRC, and use all of us for the good of our covenant children.

Lingo

The other day my husband said to me, "Here you stand holding a pram, waiting for the lift while the lorries drive past."  So I decided this was a good time to post a little "Singapore lingo" so that you all know what to expect when you come visit us someday! ;-)  This is all meant for fun--we love the way Singaporeans talk!

"Follow"--to ride with someone.  I was so confused the first time someone said, "I will follow so-and-so," then climbed into his car.  I was expecting them to go in a car behind that person!

"Queue"--a line, or a verb meaning to line up.  I knew the meaning of this word before we moved here, but heard it more in the first two weeks here than in my whole life up until that point.  People "queue" for everything here, even doctors.  If you go to the clinic, you take a number and "queue."

"Dust bin"--trash can

"Make a move"--get going.  People say this when they are ready to leave your home.  "Well, we'll make a move now."  We all shared a laugh when we told some of them what "make a move" means in the U.S.!

"Stay"--live.  When we say, "We live in Bishan," we might hear, "Oh, we stay very near you!"

Toilet--the whole bathroom.  It can mean the actual toilet also.  Some girls were over one night and played hide-and-seek with my kids.  After Emily couldn't find one of them, the girl appeared and said, "Did you check the toilet?  I was in the toilet!"  We laughed so hard together over that one when she realized we would have said that differently!

"Petrol" and "petrol kiosk"--gas and gas station

"Horn"--a verb, meaning to honk your horn.

"Dinner"--what we normally call supper.
"Supper"--a snack later in the evening.  I guess the mealtime terminology varies from place to place in the States too.  But I keep calling the evening meal "supper" out of habit.  One week shortly after we moved here, Jessica and Eric spent a few days and nights at the church's annual Vacation Bible School.  I was worried about them being gone from home in a new place, and worried that they wouldn't get enough to eat since they aren't really fond of the food here.  One evening we got a phone call about 9:00, and the young person at VBS told my husband, "We're eating supper."  When he reported that to me, I freaked out.  "They're just eating supper now?!  Oh, those poor kids must have been STARVING!!"  Found out the next day they'd had DINNER at a decent time...supper was their snack before bed. :-)

"Carpark" and "parking lot"--The "carpark" is a parking garage or parking lot.  The "parking lot" is a parking space.

"Slippers"--flip-flops

"Nine plus" or "Six plus"--anytime after 9:00, or anytime after 6:00.  For example, "People will be coming at six plus" means they will show up at 6:00 or later.

"Pass it"--give it.  "I have something for you.  I will pass it to you on Sunday."

"Swimming costume"--swimsuit

"Plaster"--bandaid

"Flyover"--overpass.  The first few times I saw signs for "Bishan Flyover" or "Braddell Flyover," I was wondering where the airplanes were! :-)

"Hall"--living room

"Boot"--trunk of your car

"Pax"--persons.  Before I knew this, we were given a survey in the Sunday bulletin one week, with three choices of where to hold this year's June Camp.  The survey included prices, number of beds, etc. for three different places.  Throughout the whole survey were the words "per pax."  I was like, "I'll let everyone else fill this out.  I don't have a clue what this is talking about."

"Uncle & Auntie"--This is what people use instead of "Mr. & Mrs."  So our kids are learning to call people in church "Uncle Felix & Auntie Angela," "Uncle Seow Thong and Auntie Jean," etc.

And finally, to translate what my husband said to me:  "Here you stand holding a stroller, waiting for the elevator while the trucks drive past." :-)

Youth Outing and Sunday School

On Saturday the youth had an outing at beautiful Bishan Park, near our house.  Although high rises abound in Singapore, the government still makes sure there are plenty of "green areas" for the people to enjoy.  This park is very large.

Elder Leong, his granddaughter Jael, and three of the 

young people, with more of the park in the background

The outing began with the singing of some Psalter numbers and an exhortation by one of the young people.

After this there was a little "party" since it had been one girl's birthday the day before, and was my birthday and another girl's that day.  The group sang "Happy Birthday" in English and then in Chinese.  Needless to say, I didn't understand a word of the second one, but it was fun to listen to anyway. :-)

Me with Ming Hui and Cassia

Next there were some games.  One involved writing New Year's resolutions for other people.  For another game we had to stand in a circle, then turn around backwards and link arms.  Candy was placed on the ground in the middle of the circle, and we had to try to get it with our hands, without breaking the circle.

The other game was to put the following events of 2012 in order.  (The one in green is hard to read--it says "Mary & Martha in Sg.")  Along with this, each group had to try to list in order the P.R. ministers that came to Singapore in 2012.

The youth get together like this at least once a month.  It was a great time of fellowship around God's Word and in the games.

Finally, I thought I'd include a picture of Emily and Megan's Sunday School class and teachers.  The teachers teach a month or two at a time, as Sunday School goes year round here.  Next Sunday catechism will begin instead for those ages six and up, so Emily will no longer be in Sunday School, at least not for the six months a year that catechism is going on.  But for the past couple months, these have been her classmates and teachers.

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