National Day Hike

Wednesday, August 9, was National Day here in Singapore.  Because it was a public holiday and people didn't have to work, the members of our church gathered at Windsor Park for a hike.

As always, we began with singing and an exhortation.

Huggy leading the singing

Josiah giving an exhortation based on II Timothy 3

After that we had an hour hike.  This included a spot on the trail where monkeys were sitting on the railings and looking for food to steal from the hikers.  We have somewhat of an American view of this--"How neat to see monkeys in the wild!"--but are also adapting a Singaporean view of them:  "They are such nuisances!"  I say that especially after one snuck up behind me on the beach a couple weeks ago and took off with one of our bags, thinking there was food inside!

This is Jonam...

...and this was Jonam's snack.

The rest of the hike was uneventful!

Jason and Elijah

Daniel Tang, who has always provided so many pictures for this blog!

Bernice and Naomi

After the hike we had lunch.  We were joined for this whole outing by Prof. & Carol Dykstra, who are in Singapore after participating in a conference in Australia.

Good fellowship and fun

Recent Outings

A couple weeks ago a few families from church got together at Curtis & Esther Lehnert's condo for an afternoon of swimming and fellowship.

So many little ones compared to when we moved here five years ago!!

The night before that we were on the island of Sentosa for our monthly homeschool outing. Our first stop was Port of Lost Wonder, a free water play area right by the beach.  A few of the kids also went to an animal show across the street (no pictures of that).

Port of Lost Wonder

You can see the beach and ocean beyond.

Jael, Jason, and Elijah at the bottom of the slide.

After Port of Lost Wonder closed, we headed to the nearby beach.

Playing water polo

Brothers Josef and Jotham digging in the sand

Megan and Jael

Recent Events

Thanks to Monica Koole, I have a couple more nice pictures of the young adults who came from the U.S. for our church camp and also spent a lot of time with the youth of CERC. One of their outings was the Botanic Gardens.

The youth outing for the month of July was to Fort Siloso on the island of Sentosa.

A couple weeks ago the women from our Wednesday Bible study group got together to celebrate the birthdays of two of our members.

Wan Teng and Jean

This past Sunday we had the ordination of three new officebearers, two elders and one deacon.

Elder Chew Lap Meng, Elder Lim Seow Thong, and Deacon Lee Meng Hsien

Laying on of hands

Signing the Formula of Subscription

Signing and reading of the Formula of Subscription

Youth Retreat

Each June, during the school holidays, the youth have a retreat.  This year it was held the week after church camp for three days and two nights at Changi Cottage in eastern Singapore.

The theme of the retreat was "The God of Zion's Youth," meant as a follow-up to the church camp theme, "Zion Founded on the Mountains."  There were two speeches.  These were videotaped by my husband, who had made a trip to Michigan for the PRC Synod, and the youth watched them on Youtube.  So, no pictures of speeches, only of the games! :-)

A different kind of soccer!

Captain's Ball with a leg tied to someone else's

Whoever answered the math problem correctly got to throw 

a cup of water at the person who didn't answer quickly enough!

The second evening there was a special dinner of steamboat.  This is a hot pot of broth in which you cook your meats, vegetables, etc.

And finally, a group photo:

Church Camp: Days 3 & 4

After the final speech of the church camp, the big activity Wednesday afternoon was a hike through the jungle.  It was quite an adventure!

The first, faster group of hikers

Nichelle, Zi Hui, and Cassia ready to go

Starting the hike

After getting all the leeches off ourselves and cleaning up, we spent the evening playing more group games, mainly Bible trivia.

Discussing an answer

Another team answering one of their questions

No one could beat Yang Zhi to the buzzer!

Wednesday evening ended with prizes being given for different activities throughout the camp.  Here are pictures of some of the teams:

The last activity of the church camp, on Thursday, was a "Ministry Fair."  CERC has several different "ministries" (committees), and four of them presented on the work they do:  the CK/CKS (youth group) Committee, the Christian Literature Ministry (publishes pamphets, magazines, etc.), the Salt Shakers Committee (youth magazine of our congregation), and the Follow-up Committee (follows up with visitors to our services).  We learned more about the work of each and were told how we could help each committee in various ways.

Cornelius explaining the Christian Literature Ministry

We close with a group photo and thanks to God for the good week of fellowship and spiritual growth!