American Visitors

CERC had its annual church camp last week, and we were excited to welcome seven young adults from the United States who came to join us.  I need more time to gather pictures for a blog on the church camp itself but have a few pictures of the visitors who joined us.  Two were from Crete, one was from Hope PRC (Grand Rapids), and four were from Redlands.

Monica Koole talking with a few of the women from church

On a hike during the church camp

They were able to spend a lot of time with the youth in Singapore outside the camp as well.

At the Botanic Gardens

On Sunday there was a farewell dinner for them.  

If they answered questions incorrectly, 

all seven of them had to try some Chinese food.

Singing a few songs at the end of the night

Two of the visitors, the Buiters from Redlands, are still here and are able to attend most of this year's youth retreat, which began this afternoon.

And here is a group photo from Sunday:

What an encouragement to the church here that all these young adults came so far to attend our church camp.  We pray they may have been blessed by their time among God's people in Singapore too.

Wedding and India

As I was going through pictures on my computer tonight, I realized I had never posted a blog about the latest delegation from CERC to our mission in Kolkata, India.  I have also gotten a few more pictures from the recent wedding of Daniel & Isa and thought I would post those too.

A better picture of Jason and Jael

The marriage certificate is always signed during the ceremony 

by the couple, their parents, and the minister, followed by a photo of all of them.

A choir from CERC sang at the end of the wedding.

From April 19-25 my husband and Elder Leong went to India as a delegation to our mission there.  Two other men from CERC, Ishu Mahtani and Boon Suan Kiat, went along.  The main purpose of this visit was a church camp for the group there.  Over three days my husband gave five speeches, preached one sermon, and answered many questions in Q&A sessions after the speeches.  The purpose of the camp was to prepare the group there for eventual organization as a church, so the speeches were titled:  What is the Church?, What Does the Church Do?, Membership in the Church, Officebearers in the Church, and What Next for CERC Kolkata?  (I don't have many photos, but thanks to Ishu for the ones I do have!)

Suan Kiat, my husband, and Ishu with Sudip 

(in the black shirt), a man from the group in Kolkata

Some of the people singing together

Camp group photo

Enjoying some chai with Rev. Singh and Sonali

More chai outside a little shop in Kolkata

We pray that God will use this church camp to further prepare the group in Kolkata for organization as a church.  Our consistory is continuing to work toward that goal, and Rev. Singh continues to faithfully preach God's Word in Kolkata.  May God's church be gathered!

A Wedding and a "Graduation"

Last Saturday our church celebrated the wedding of Daniel Tang & Isa Chan.  I don't have any pictures from the photographer, so some of these are not the greatest quality, but here are a few photos of their wedding day:

Wedding pictures here are taken about a month before the wedding, 

so beautiful pictures like this are ready before the ceremony and displayed there.

Ready to start the ceremony

Jochebed and Gabriella

Jason and Jael

Elijah and Megan

Isa and her dad walking down the aisle

The wedding party

Megan

Yesterday our kids finished their year of homeschooling.  Jessica has finished grade school, so our family had a little 8th-grade graduation party for her.

Jessica and Megan

Following the Singapore cake-cutting tradition

We are thankful to God for bringing us through another year of  homeschooling--4 1/2 years already!  We also pray for His blessing on Daniel & Isa in their marriage.

Visitors and More

We have had a few more visitors in church lately.  In April we welcomed the Trinidad family from the Philippines.  Pastor Trinidad is the minister of the Maranatha Protestant Reformed Church there, and he was not able to be here over Sunday.  His son's family lives in Singapore.  Here we are with the rest of his family:

Pastor Trinidad's granddaughters, daughters, and wife

This past Sunday Rev. & Margaret Laning and John & Val VanBaren were in church, stopping in Singapore on their way home from Myanmar.  My husband and I spent an hour with them on Monday.

We had another infant baptism at the beginning of April.

Isaiah Chua, son of Lee Yang & Joanna

The youth had an outing in April, playing Captain's Ball and frisbee at Bishan Park.

We are back into the hot season here, so our family spent an afternoon at the beach last week.

We had another public holiday last Wednesday and spent a few hours with Curtis & Esther and Kong Wee & Dorcas.

My husband and Roman

Kong Wee and the kids in the pool

And finally, a picture of our family taken by Daniel Tang for a new church directory:

Sports Day

May 1 was a public holiday, so our church had its annual sports day.  This year it was held at beautiful Labrador Park, on the coast.

When everyone had arrived, we were split into groups for a scavenger hunt through the park.

Our group heading up a hill away from the coastline

Trying to figure out the clue

Another group thinking about their next clue

There was a lot of World War II history in the park.

Most of our group

The evening concluded with devotions, singing, and dinner.