The Philippines (1)

We just returned to Singapore after spending eight days in the Philippines.  One of the highlights of our trip was getting to know some of the saints in the churches there. Our first opportunity to do this came last Thursday night, when my husband and I went with Rev. & Sharon Kleyn to a class at Provident Christian Church.  Rev. Kleyn is teaching Essentials of Reformed Doctrine, and the class Thursday was about God's Church.

Walking into the church

Rev. Kleyn with Rico, one of the men from Provident

Food and fellowship after the class

On Sunday Rev. Kleyn preached in Singapore, and Sharon took us to two different churches. My husband preached in Bulacan in the morning.  On the way to church (about an hour and a half drive), we got caught in a lot of traffic by a market that was open next to a big church so that the church people could shop when their service was finished.

We finally did arrive at the church in Bulacan.

The street the church is on

Jessica crossing the street to enter the church

Jason making new friends after the service

Many pictures were taken in both churches on Sunday!

My husband with the consistory of Bulacan--

Pastor Flores is next to him, in the gray shirt.

Group photo

The first service in Bulacan was at 8:30 a.m., and we left just before the second service, which was going to start at 10:45.  We drove to Berean PRC, about an hour and a half drive from Bulacan, for their 1:30 service.

This is where the Berean PRC is currently meeting.  

They are building a new church next door.

There were many visitors, so the building was very full.

Me with some of the women after church

A couple of moms with the kids in Berean

I cannot describe the feeling of worshiping in these places, with groups of God's people in another land wholeheartedly singing the same praises to Him that we sing in Singapore and in the U.S.  The class on Thursday and the services on Sunday were truly blessed experiences.

School Society and Board

Following Prof. Dykstra's speeches this summer on Christian education, the Session of CERC called two meetings for the congregation for the purpose of beginning a society for Christian education in Singapore.  The first, on September 19, was an informational meeting.  My husband followed up on Prof. Dykstra's speeches, emphasizing the importance of Christian education, explaining Session's goals in setting up these two meetings, and explaining the purpose and function of a school society and a school board, as well as how these two groups work.

The second meeting was held three weeks later, on October 10.  At this meeting a school society was formed and a school board elected.  Twenty-seven men present signed up for the society; three who were not present but had requested to join were added to the list; and my husband was added pending the arrival of our family's membership papers in CERC. (The requirements for joining the school society were that the men be confessing members of CERC.  My husband has the call to serve as CERC's own pastor right now and will answer that call Sunday, Lord willing.)

The men begin to sign up to join the school society.

The line of those who desire to join the society grows.

Following the formation of a society, six men were elected to the first school board.  These men will now begin an incredible amount of work to determine how and when a school might begin here.

Four Session members counting the votes for board members

The first school board--Ivan Chew, Wee Gim Theng, 

Lim Seow Thong, Lim Beng Young, Daniel Tang, and Roy Tan

The board has its first meeting planned for Thursday night Singapore time--Thursday morning U.S. time.  We ask that you join us in prayer for these men and for the cause of Christian education in Singapore, that a good Reformed school might be established here according to the Lord's will!

More Homeschoolers' Outings

The homeschoolers in CERC continue to get together once a month for an outing.  In August we went to Jurong East Swimming Complex.

A great waterpark--and it costs our whole family less than $10 to get in!

Some of the kids in the lazy river

KFC for supper

Group photo of the kids at the end of the night

(not sure where Jessica went!)

In September we spent an evening at Gardens by the Bay.  I wrote about another outing there earlier, so this time I won't include pictures of the playground area.  The children's section closed early this time, so we ate supper in the center of the Gardens, by the Supertrees (see below), and the kids played around there for a while.

Devotions under the Supertrees
(It gets dark in Singapore around 7:00 p.m., year-round.)

Getting ready to play hide and seek

Jotham, Megan, and Elijah

Jessica and Jochebed

Some of the boys kicking a ball around

We had an extra outing at the end of September:  Kids Stop, a nice new building connected to the Science Center, with many fun activities for the kids.

Emily the pilot

Megan and Jotham

Jessica and Nichelle

Checking out groceries

We spent a lot of time by this big slide.  The kids (and my husband!) would lie down at the bottom of the slide, hang onto the handle, and be pulled up between 3 and 7 meters high, then let go of the rope and drop/slide down.  Eric's friend Johann is above.

Eric

We have another outing planned for next week and always enjoy these times of fellowship.

Another Year of School

It has been a long time since I posted a blog about homeschooling, and quite a bit has changed since then.  This year we have four kids in school:  Jessica in 6th, Eric in 5th, Emily in 2nd, and Megan in kindergarten.  The three oldest kids have rearranged their bedrooms to fit their desks in there, which is a better working environment for them--less distractions if they are not in the same area as the two-year-old. :-)

This year Jessica and Eric are taking science via DVD from Bob Jones.  This company and its science teacher came very recommended by other people from church, and our kids are learning a lot.  Jessica and Eric were also interested in learning Spanish, which I said they could do as long as it didn't interfere with their Chinese!  I loved Spanish myself, so it's fun for me to take it with them too.  That is also done on DVD.  So we moved one of the TVs that the owner of this flat had left here into the boys' bedroom and bought a DVD player, and now Jessica and Eric do their DVD classes in there.

Learning about chemical weathering  

Doing one of their science experiments on the 

balcony outside our flat--making a volcanic eruption

Jessica and Eric are also taking Bible from a different teacher this year--Mike VanderVeen in Randolph.  Mike has been videotaping his class lectures and putting those on a website for our kids, and has also emailed me worksheets and tests--and does the grading for me. Last year he also included Jessica in a reading unit he did with his class.  We cannot express enough appreciation to Mike for all the work he has done for our family!

My husband continues to teach Bible and science to Emily and Megan, and often Jason sits in on the classes too.

 

We have joined another homeschooling family from church for art class once a week.  We meet on Wednesdays, at our house after Bible study every other week and at their house the opposite weeks.  Nichelle Wong is in 7th grade ("Secondary 1" in Singapore) and in her first year of homeschooling, and her mom found some drawing DVDs taught from a Christian perspective.  Jessica and Eric are taking and enjoying that class.

Nichelle, Jessica, and Eric (and Jason!) taking art at our place

One of the youth from church, Tze Yan, comes to our house once a week to do a craft with the younger kids.

Tze Yan's mom, Jean, still comes to our house every Thursday afternoon to teach us Chinese.  In January we started learning the Chinese characters, and it is very fun to be able to read some words in Chinese as we go around the city!  We also understood a few more words at this year's Mooncake Gospel Meeting at church, where the speech is given in Chinese each year.  Jessica, Eric, and I take the class from Jean, and just this school year I started teaching the younger girls Chinese.

The rest of the classes are mine to teach.

Kindergarten work stations like Heritage has--Megan working on her "A" journal page

 (A is for animals, in case you look closely and see frogs on the top! :-))

Calendar work

Doing the "revise and proofread" part of Eric's English writing unit

Emily doing her math worksheet

We think often of the teachers and students in the Protestant Reformed schools, and pray for them when we begin our school day.  May God bless the education of His covenant children.