CK/CKS Anniversary

The Covenant Keepers (CK--young people) and Covenant Keepers Seniors (CKS--young adults) celebrated their anniversaries on January 25--14 years for CK, and 6 years for CKS. I was home with sick kids, so once again all the picture credit goes to Daniel, and the details come from another of the young people, Bernice.  Of all the pictures I could have chosen, I tried to choose people you may not have seen before on my blog, so that I can introduce you to more of the youth here.

The celebration began with the singing of some Psalter numbers, and an exhortation by Elder Felix Chan, based on Romans 11:36-12:2, in which he spoke of using everything in this life to serve Christ.

Next was an address by one of the youth, Marcus Wee.

Following that was a welcoming of new members to each group, and the giving of gifts of appreciation to Bible study leaders and committee members.  (CK & CKS have a committee that plans activities and discussion topics.)

New CKS member Ming Hui with committee members Noelene and Bernice

Lisa Ong and Daniel Tang

Deacon Lim Seow Thong with Jemima Lee

Christine Ong

Iva Chan

Two of the men from church own a brownie shop, and they provided the "cake" for the celebration.  There was time for group pictures too--first the committee members and their advisors, then the CK/CKS members, and then all who were present for the anniversary celebration.

The evening concluded with dinner and a time of fellowship.

Shang Ren

We are thankful to God for the zeal of the youth here, and their love for the truth.  May God continue to bless them!

Visit from Family

I mentioned earlier that my husband's parents were here in December.  I thought I'd share a few more of the things we did with them, in addition to the trip to Malaysia.

We showed them our neighborhood, including the wet market and fruit stand...

...enjoyed some of the Singapore scenery...

  

On the Singapore River

 

At Gardens by the Bay

View from Gardens by the Bay looking toward 

the Flyer (world's largest "ferris wheel")

Merlion and business district

...went to the Jurong Bird Park...

...and enjoyed the communion of the saints in Singapore.

Annual church caroling at different people's homes--This is

the home of an aunt and uncle of two young people from church.

We also spent a while at the Buddhist temple in Chinatown one day.  That's always an eye-opener.  These are only a few of the pictures I took of people worshiping the many idols in that temple.  We also had to stand aside for the monks to walk past us between chanting sessions.

 

Toward the end of Mom and Dad's visit we went to Sentosa island.

The southernmost point of continental Asia (because this tiny island we 

were on is linked by a bridge to Sentosa Island, which is linked by a bridge to 

Singapore, which is linked by a bridge to Malaysia, which is part of the mainland

...Does that really count?!)

This next picture sets up the following one.  See where the family is swimming?  And see the little island just beyond them?

Now, if you saw this walking across that little island and entering the water to go for a swim, would you keep swimming or not? :-)

(Just for the record, one got out, and the rest stayed in.  I wasn't in the water to start with, or there would have been two getting out!)

A New Year at CERC

CERC begins each year with a gathering at church.  The church theme for the year is presented, a speech is given, we eat lunch together, and this year there were also discussion groups.  The speech by my husband was on II Thessalonians 1:10--"When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe..."  When we reach the end of this year and others look at us, what do we want them to say about us? Our desire should be that they see Christ in us in the way we have lived, and then glorify and admire Him.

Presentation of the church theme and church calendar by Elder Wong

One of the discussion groups

When we went home after lunch, we saw another gathering--this one right outside our church building by the shrine of Ganesha, the elephant god.  It involved drums, food, and offerings to Ganesha.  I seem to remember the same thing last year, so apparently they begin their year in worship too...to an idol made by human hands.  Sad.

On Sunday, January 5, there was a program to kick off the new Sunday School year.  The school year, and therefore also catechism and Sunday School, goes from January-December here.  The kids gathered with their last year's classes, but from now on a number of students will be moving up a level in their Sunday School training.

 Meng Hsien chairing the program

 

The youngest classes (preschool through grade 4) sang "Jesus 

Loves Me" both in Chinese and in English, and also sang Psalter #268.

Elijah and Megan--good friends!

The next Sunday School class talked about 

lessons they had learned from the life of Abraham.

The high school students sang a couple of songs.

Jessica's class with their teachers

We pray God's blessing upon another year of covenant instruction here!

Christmas in Malaysia

On Christmas Day we took a train trip into Malaysia with a number of families from church, along with my husband's parents and Jessica Smits from Crete PRC.  Here are some pictures of our day there:

 

Another view from the train

When we arrived in the town of Kluang after two hours on the train, there was a chartered bus waiting to give us a tour of the area.  First we went to an organic farm.

On the bus

Feeding bunnies

Harvesting kangkong and other vegetables

A Muslim country, but we have seen plenty of
Chinese religions represented in Malaysia too

At the organic farm, we had lunch before continuing on to a coffee factory in Kluang.

Fish (always cooked whole here, eyes and teeth and all!) with passion fruit

Dad was the big attraction while he tried durian-flavored fried ice cream!

 

At the coffee factory

Another shrine outside the coffee factory

From there we went to Gunung Lambak, a small mountain outside Kluang.

Malaysia is not known for maintaining things.  Emily managed to avoid the big holes
in the centers of the steps up to the slide, but couldn't go down the slide because
of all the cracks in it.  This did not inspire confidence in us when the next thing

we had to do was cross a couple of suspension bridges! :-)

A monkey in the tree next to the hiking trail

 

Jessica, Eric, and quite a few of the youth climbed up this waterfall.

We ended the day at a mall, where we ate supper and had a little time to shop before heading back to the train station for the ride home.

Daniel Tang and Jason in the mall

Waiting for the train

Going to Malaysia is always a very interesting experience.  We are glad we had this opportunity and could spend the day with so many of our brothers and sisters in Christ.