On Saturday, November 16, a missions seminar was held at church. This was supposed to consist of a speech, discussion groups, a question and answer session, and dinner, but the discussion groups portion had to be cancelled because of a funeral wake that evening. The theme of the seminar was "Bearing Witness to the Truth: Speaking the Timeless Truth in a Postmodern Age."
Ishu Mahtani leading in prayer and singing before the speech
A conference on postmodernism, with Rev. Eriks and my husband as the speakers, was held in Hudsonville Church a couple of years ago. Some of the same ideas were brought out in this speech, but this seminar had a distinctly Singaporean flavor to it. The aspect of postmodernism (which rejects an absolute standard of truth) that is most clearly seen here is pluralism, the idea that all religions are equally valid. The government in Singapore pushes this idea very strongly, including setting up national holidays based on religion--giving equal validity to the holy days of each religion, and allowing each religion to choose two public holidays. The government has also established the "Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act," which says that no one may use religion in politics or to incite ill will against people of other religions. Singapore also has many "free thinkers," those who don't practice any religion. Thus, they would admit to no absolute standard of truth.
During the Q&A session, the "distinctly Singaporean flavor" of the seminar came out once again. A question was asked about how to relate to our neighbors whom we see worshiping Buddha, or the Muslim classmate who leaves the table at lunchtime so she can go to the prayer room, or the Muslims we see entering the mosques. My husband in his answer gave the example of his Muslim barber. His barber is a Muslim imam--he leads prayers at the local mosque and also leads pilgrimages to Mecca each year. During a discussion on those pilgrimages, my husband was able to tell him that Christians are also sojourners, but not going to some earthly city but to "the city which hath foundations." They have also had a discussion on the place of good works in our lives. So we can use different elements of their religion as a starting-point for discussion, and present the truth during those discussions.
After the Q&A session, we had dinner together. One or two people who read this blog have recently told me they like pictures of the food, so here they are!
Nasi briyani with an Indian cracker
I didn't get the best picture here, but inside this little bag is curry sauce to go with the
nasi briyani. I don't know if it was chicken curry or fish head curry. :-)
Ah, McDonald's delivery too :-)
A couple guys also brought durians to church. Durians are called "the king of fruits" and are not allowed on public transportation because of their very strong smell. We could smell the durians as soon as we got on the elevator on the ground floor, four stories down!
Cornelius, and Josiah cutting up a durian--Check out that knife,
and the special glove he is wearing to handle it!
A durian--Inside those yellowish parts are pits, so you suck/bite the gooey yellow stuff off.
Quite a few people were enjoying durian after dinner!
In spite of the distinctly Singaporean flavor to the conference and the meal, the unchangeable truth of the gospel and our fellowship in Christ remain the same, no matter where we are. Thanks be to God!
