Life in General

There haven't been any major events lately, which makes blog-writing a bit difficult. :-)  So this is a miscellaneous post about some random happenings in the last month or two.

Actually, I guess this classifies as a major event:  at the beginning of October, Kong Wee & Dorcas Lee had a baby boy, whom they named Noah.  Another couple from church, Paul & Anthea, had a baby girl today.  The congregation is so excited about these new little arrivals! Our family visited the Lees a couple of weeks ago to see their new baby.

We are in our twelfth week of this school year.

Jessica (7th grade) watching her math DVD

Eric (6th grade) during art class

Nichelle Wong joins Jessica and Eric for art once a week.  We have finished a drawing 

series and are into a series of art projects, taught on DVD from a Christian perspective.

Emily (3rd grade)

Megan (1st grade)

We have our first teenager, and she's almost as tall as me!

Jessica with Jason on her birthday

Megan and Jason are still in the youngest Sunday School class, although Megan will move up a level in January.

Jason, Megan, and Jael

Gabriella and Jonam join the class for singing.

Lining up to say their memory verses

Listening to their teacher Hui Li on a week when Jael wasn't there

Some of you may know Ishu Mahtani, a member of CERC who has owned a silk store for the past 30 years.  He just closed his shop and turned the whole business over to his brother. He had a shop-closing event one evening and invited our family so Andy could give an exhortation.

The shop, looking in from outside

Ishu and his brother cutting a cake

Our homeschool outing this past Friday was rained out, so everyone came to our house for games and supper.

Ready for devotions

Shang Yuan, Eric, and Johann

We have no pictures of the kids playing, because we were too busy ourselves. ;-)

And finally, a little discussion about Hebrew with a few interested young men...

"Singapore Scenery and Life" (2)

Back in January I posted a blog that included pictures from a folder on my computer called "Singapore Scenery and Life"--random pictures of what life is like in Singapore. I've been able to fill my blog with church and family activities since then, but now it's time for another "miscellaneous" blog with pictures from that folder.

The government here often has different educational campaigns going throughout the city with suggestions on how to speak better English, how to be more thoughtful of others on public transportation, how to use public restrooms without leaving messes, etc.  First, some pictures of signs in restrooms:

Last December we saw a big advertisement painted on a bus:  "Speak better English," with several good grammar rules.  We were very surprised to see the same ads posted on a historical building near the Singapore River!

Part of the building from across the street

The signs closer-up

A couple of weeks ago a Christian funeral was held by our building.  It is so nice to hear familiar hymns floating up to our flat.  "Amazing Grace" is always played at Christian funerals, and we hear a few others as well.  But more often, the funerals by us are Buddhist--very loud, with a lot of chanting, cymbals, etc.  I've posted pictures of those before, and I think videos too.  But I don't think I've posted pictures of what some of the more wealthy or more honored Buddhists are expected to receive in the afterlife.  I think the first time we saw these things, it was for the funeral of a monk.  We have seen a couple more since then:

The mansion and car that the deceased person is expected to receive in the afterlife--

At the end of the funeral these are burned, and that is how they get to the afterlife.

Another mansion for the afterlife

(If I remember right, this was for the monk.)

Driving and owning a car here is different than in the U.S.  Here are a few driving-related pictures:

Many tiny car dealerships are side-by-side in 

this location, mostly in a parking-garage-like structure.

Tolls on the road--The rates depend on where in the city you are 

(Central Business District being most expensive) and what time of day it is.

Parking coupons--You pay to park almost everywhere, including by your own home and at the grocery store!  Most places have an automatic payment system, where money is deducted from the same card in your car that the above ERP (Electronic Road Pricing) uses.  But for the places not set up with that system, you have to use these tickets.  People come around and check to make sure you have them in your windshield and haven't parked longer than you said you would (by punching out the time).

And a few more random pictures:

Cutting the grass by our building

A fruit stand--The buckets are where the sellers keep their money.

A bridge for animals above the highway

How coffee is sold to-go in the coffeeshops

 

Gelato--Sold in beautiful displays, and if you pick the right flavor it's 

delicious.  But I would have to pass on the bell pepper flavor. :-)

 

The Singapore version of an ice cream truck

The ice cream from that truck

Follow-up Committee Dinners

CERC has a committee that is in charge of following up with visitors to our services--and we have many visitors!  One of the Follow-up Committee's recent projects is having dinners for some of the visitors.  These dinners are held at our house but completely organized by the committee. One of these dinners was held two weeks ago with some of the adult visitors. Last night we had another for some youth who visit regularly.  Both times, many members of CERC were also invited to get to know the visitors better.

Steven, a man with a Pentecostal background

Chew Lap Meng in the tan shirt--He and his wife 

have been attending CERC since early this year.

Some of the group

That dinner was held right before Emily's 9th birthday, and one of the members brought a cake so that we could all celebrate together.

Group photo at the end of the evening

Here are some pictures from last night's dinner, which was for several younger visitors:

The girls in the middle are sisters who recently began attending with their mom.

We sang a couple of Psalter numbers.

Dinner

Two members of CERC and two visitors

The young man in the middle is a classmate of one of our members.

Group photo

We're thankful for the many visitors to CERC and pray that God continues to gather His church in Singapore.