An Eventful Week

Last Sunday (March 24), Pastor Lau Chin Kwee passed away.  He attended the Protestant Reformed Seminary years ago, and was the pastor at First Evangelical Reformed Church in Singapore until the split in 2006, when he and his family came to Covenant ERC.  However, he was never an active pastor at CERC, because by that time he had serious health problems.  In 2009 he had Asia's first heart and liver transplant.  For the past three months or so he had been in the hospital, and the Lord finally took him home last Sunday.

I hope to write a blog about funeral customs here in general another time, but for now I will just say that it involves a few days of wakes before the funeral.  On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday nights there were services, with some singing and a 30-40 minute speech, followed by fellowship with the many people who attended the services.  My husband led the services Monday and Tuesday nights, and Rev. denHartog flew in for the Wednesday service and the funeral.  Rev. denHartog said that he had ordained Pastor Lau, officiated at his wedding, baptized his two oldest children, and had the confession of faith of at least one of those children.  So it was a blessing for him and for the Laus that he was able to be here now.  The funeral was held Thursday.

The following day was Good Friday.  In Singapore each major religion is allowed to have two holidays.  One of the Christian holidays is Good Friday, so everyone has off work that day. Because of this, CERC holds a "Good Friday Gospel Meeting" in the morning, and people are encouraged to invite unbelieving friends and family members to hear about the cross of Christ.  The meeting this past Friday included singing a few Psalter numbers and a speech about "Christ's Life-Giving Death" based on Romans 5:10. "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life."  We also had a time of fellowship over lunch, and many of the visitors stayed for that.  We hope and pray the Lord will use this as a means to work in their hearts.

On the way to church Friday morning we saw a long line of cars near a crematorium.  We were told this is a time of year when people go to clean the urns of their ancestors.  On the way home we saw cars lined up by a mosque for Muslim prayer services, which take place every Friday.  The guy who gives haircuts to my husband and sons is one of the leaders of these Muslim prayer services.  There's always something going on here in regards to other religions!

Now we celebrate the resurrection of Christ and are thankful, especially after standing at the graveside this week, that Christ rose from the dead so that we also might live.  "I am the resurrection, and the life:  he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:  And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die" (John 11:25-26).

Sightseeing in Singapore

With friends here the last couple months, we got to do some extra sightseeing.  I thought I'd share some of the sights of Singapore with you.  We'll start with the food and move on to the scenery.

A dessert called "cendol"--It contains coconut milk, "jelly"
with green food coloring (different from the jelly we put on bread!),
red beans, shaved ice, and maybe a few other things.

Cendol after it's all mixed together--You can see the green "jelly" in this picture.

Seafood in the Chinatown wet market

Seafood in the wet market by our flat

Inside those leaves are rice cakes.  On the sticks are "satay," pork or beef or chicken seasoned deliciously. You usually dip them in the cups of peanut sauce, but I like them plain--my favorite food here!

Otah, a spicy "fish paste" wrapped in banana leaf

One of the views from the Flyer (world's tallest ferris wheel)

Looking out into the bay

Marina Bay Sands, a hotel and casino

View from a river cruise

The Flyer at night

The symbol of Singapore, the Merlion

View from the cable cars which run from Mt. Faber in Singapore to Sentosa Island

Another view from the cable cars

On Mt. Faber with Jeff Kotman and Yoon Chuan & Jee Fung, a couple from church

Flowers and oranges on Sentosa

Beautiful flowers at the Singapore Zoo

More flowers at the zoo

A palm leaf at the zoo

Church visitors

I feel like it's been a while since I've posted here.  I think that as life "settles down" there won't be as much to write about as there was when everything was new.  But I will try to keep up on it as often as I can without being boring. :-)

For the past ten days or so, Rev. Koole and Elder Tom Bodbyl from Grandville PRC have been in Singapore.  Their main purpose here was church visitation.  In the PRC each council receives a church visit every year from two ministers appointed by Synod.  CERC has never had that, being alone here.  So as part of our sister church relationship, they requested the PRC to send church visitors here.  Because Grandville is the calling church for the minister-on-loan to Singapore, this year the church visitors came from Grandville.  Because our family's membership papers are in Grandville, they also conducted family visiting with us. We had such a nice visit and received so much encouragement from them.  Rev. Koole also preached the afternoon services both Sundays they were here, including one Applicatory service, after they were able to join us for the Lord's Supper the first Sunday.

I only have a few pictures of their visit here, from a day when we joined them and some of the youth for an outing to the oceanarium on Sentosa.

Talking with some of the youth

 Cornelius, Marcus, Mr. Bodbyl, Tian Loong, Rev. Koole

 Cheryl, Rev. Koole, Joanna, Mr. Bodbyl, Jason, Noelene, Samantha, Jessica, Megan, me

Playing a touch-screen game in the oceanarium building

Mr. Bodbyl with his adopted grandchild :-)

We thank Rev. Koole and Elder Bodbyl for coming, and the PRC for sending them.  Their visit was a big encouragement to us, and we pray God will use it to continue to strengthen the ties between the PRC and CERC.

Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year, or the lunar new year, is a huge celebration in Singapore, lasting for two weeks.  This year it began on Sunday, February 10.  Before the new year begins, you see the signs of it all over Singapore.

Countdown to the new year in a grocery store

Above the guy's head are the number of days, hours, minutes,
and seconds until the new year begins.

This year is "the year of the snake," and this snake was at the Singapore Zoo.

A snake above the street in Chinatown

When Chinese New Year begins, so do the "visitations."  People have "reunion dinners" where they get together with family; and friends and church people visit each other throughout the two weeks as well.  Wherever you go, you bring two oranges with you to give to the host--and the host gives you two oranges in exchange.  Another thing you bring are "ang pow," or red packets.  Inside these envelopes are money, ranging from a few dollars for friends to higher amounts for close family.  These are given by married couples to single people and children.  So when we went visiting, our kids would receive red packets, and my husband and I would hand them out.

Ang pow

We were happy to be able to share our first Chinese New Year experience with our friend Jeff Kotman!  We were invited to the homes of a couple families from church.  At the first home, dinner began with the mixing of a Chinese salad.  After all the ingredients were ready (first picture below), we were all given big chopsticks and mixed the salad together (second picture).  We attended this dinner with another family from church, and some friends of the family who hosted us.

The meal

The people with whom we shared our first Chinese New Year dinner

At the second home we went to, we sang some Chinese songs.  The tunes were unfamiliar, and so were the words, even if they were written out for us in regular letters (as opposed to Chinese characters), but we tried to sing them anyway. :-)

Angela and Yoon Chuan explaining the meaning of the words before we sang

On Saturday, February 16, the church had its own Chinese New Year visitation.  Members were invited to one of two homes, and then all met together at church afterwards.  As with Christmas caroling, this is used as a method of evangelism, so that those who host the visitation can have their unchurched family members present.  At the house we went to, we sang, shared some food, and heard an "exhortation" by my husband.  He gave a different speech at church, where we also sang a few songs and then had lunch together.

When we were leaving church, the following sight met our eyes.  It was accompanied with loud music, similar to what I heard when I was home from church the next day...trying to listen to the P.R. Psalm Choir, which was very much drowned out! :-)

At midnight that same Sunday night, we started smelling smoke.  Around each building here there are barrels used for burning offerings to ancestors.  Those who practice this type of idolatry believe that anything they burn here will go to their ancestors in the afterlife.  So they burn paper cars, paper iPads, paper houses, paper servants, you name it--and they believe their relative receives the reality of those things in the afterlife. When we started smelling smoke on Sunday, we looked outside, and the burn barrels were surrounded by people, with the fires roaring.  This time, instead of ancestor worshipers, it was some Hokkien people (a particular Chinese ethnic group), who use the ninth day of the new year to burn offerings, especially sugarcane, to their god, the Jade Emperor of Heaven. We had to shut our windows, because the smoke made our flat hazy inside, and when my husband went for a walk the next day, he saw many piles of ashes.

A couple of other random notes about Chinese New Year:  First, it is a time for buying new things.  People will clean their houses well, and buy new household supplies as well as a lot of new clothing.  Secondly, a popular food during Chinese New Year is bak kwa.  I've heard that bak kwa is eaten year round but is more expensive during Chinese New Year because it is so popular at that time.  It tastes quite a bit like bacon, except it's "chewier," and it really is good!

So we have experienced our first Chinese New Year.  I was told today that in the seventh month of this lunar year, the above-mentioned burn barrels will again be in full use, because that is the month that "ghosts" come back, and those who worship their ancestors have to keep the ghosts away, or at least make them happy.  There are performances held, where the front row of seating is left open so the ghosts can sit there; and people are afraid to let their kids go swimming because the ghosts might do something to them.  It seems we have a lot to learn yet while we live here!

Junction 8

A couple posts ago I told you about our neighborhood.  We can get some groceries right in our neighborhood, but for most things I go to the nearest mall, Junction 8 (or "J8"). Junction 8 is a mall four stories tall, plus a basement, and in and around it are many fast food restaurants, coffee shops, the post office, some banks, the library, three grocery stores, the nearest bus interchange, and the nearest MRT (train) station.

To get there we first walk for maybe five minutes to the bus stop.  The covered area a little ways up the street here is our bus stop.  Three different buses stop here, and all of them end up at the Junction 8 bus interchange only two stops later, so we can get on any of them.

The next couple pictures show the bus interchange.  There is a drop-off area ("alighting only"), and then the buses drive to the center of the interchange and park until it's time to start their next route.  The second picture shows where we wait for the buses to take us home.  There are three pick-up areas like this, with three buses coming to each one.  You "queue" between the railings marked for the bus you are waiting for.  For example, Bus 54 has its own line, Bus 410G has its own, and Bus 56 has its own.  Those are the three that will take us closest to home.  There are screens telling us which bus will be leaving at which time, so we can choose the one coming the soonest and get in line for that one.

The following picture shows the Bishan Library, right across the street from Junction 8.  It is four stories tall, plus the basement.  The basement level is entirely dedicated to kids' books, so we have a great selection!  We miss some of the books we were used to, but there are many like we would find in our U.S. libraries, and the kids still have plenty to read!  The yellow, blue, and green "boxes" sticking out from the building are little reading areas where people can sit to study or read.  We usually only go to the basement, but the few times we've gone to other levels, the kids love to sit in those windows and read!

The first two pictures below were taken right outside the bus interchange.  Everywhere there are idols!  The third picture below was taken in the parking garage of J8.  We found a parking spot one day in the corner of the lowest level--and in that corner was an offering left to some ancestor or god.  We shouldn't be surprised anymore, but somehow we still were!

Of the three grocery stores, I usually shop at the one right inside the mall, on the basement level.  It is the busiest, which I don't like so much, but it also has the best selection of food.  It can be very difficult to find some foods here, so I need all the selection I can get! :-)  One of the other stores is open to the outside, as you can see in the picture below.  I post this because this is quite typical of things in Singapore.  They don't have to worry about cold weather, and the awnings outside are big enough to protect the stores from the rain.  The second picture shows some of the fish selection in one of the stores.

A few weeks ago the kids and I were shopping on the third floor of the mall and found this playground. It was called the "Roof Garden," and I wish I had better pictures of the garden itself.  It was beautiful!  We just went through a little doorway out of the mall, and the kids had a great break from shopping for a little while!

When it is time to go home, we wait for one of the buses and take it two stops until we are close to our building.  We are carrying our purchases in a backpack or on the stroller handles.  The first picture below I took from our bus stop going home.  Our flat is in the building behind the farthest building in the distance, straight ahead.  So you have some idea of how far we have to walk.  I think it looks worse than it really is...either that, or we are just used to it!

Finally, here are a few pictures of one of the stores preparing for Chinese New Year.  That is going on right now and will be the subject of my next post, Lord willing!