Recent Visitors

A lot of Americans have come through Singapore lately!  I have already mentioned the Haaks and Kleyns.  Besides the church events that they were a part of, our family got to spend some time with each of them.

With the Haaks at our place on a Sunday evening

With Kleyns at the zoo

Carriage ride at the zoo

The day of my husband's installation here, three men from Hope Church--Dave Jessup, Jonathon Kamps, and John VanBaren--were visiting Singapore on their way to Myanmar.  

 On the rooftop of the building where our church meets

With some of the church members after the second service

Because of all the American visitors that day (those three men and the Kleyns), the youth hosted a dinner after the second service.  Before dinner, we played some games.  The men from Hope had to do pictionary, including such things as "Canons of Dordt" and "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity."  The Kleyns had to do charades, including "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."  My husband and I had to do Singapore slang, deciding which Singapore word (Bo jio, Abuden, Swee, or a few others) belonged as a proper response to some given sentences. Finally, there was a math question that one member of each team tried to tackle.

Ivan leading the games

Dave Jessup drawing "Nothing new under the sun"

Charades

We didn't know the Singapore slang, but we gave it our best 

shot and got some good crowd reactions!

Our math question (#1), which 6th-graders here are expected to know how to do

After a few minutes I gave up and watched John VanBaren, while Rev. Kleyn 

waited to write down John's answer as his own as soon as John finished. :-)

This picture pretty much sums up our afternoon--lots of laughing.

Group photo at the end of the evening

The last few days we enjoyed a visit from Justin & Cathie Koole and Gary & Judy Kaptein from Faith Church.

Lunch before a river cruise downtown

Some adventurous ones tried jackfruit, coconut, and even durian!

Lunch in Chinatown

Shopping in Chinatown

Fellowship at a homeschoolers' outing Friday--

They were able to meet quite a few people from church Friday evening.

At the Singapore Zoo on Saturday

Renewing acquaintances--Gary and Gim Theng were elder 

delegates to the same synod a couple of years ago.

At church on Sunday

We had a wonderful time with all of these visitors and are also glad they were able to fellowship with the saints here.

Conferences and Installation

Each year CERC holds a Reformation Day Conference (RDC), and the youth have their own RDC as well.  On November 1, Rev. & Mary Haak were in Singapore on their way to India on behalf of Georgetown Church.  Rev. Haak spoke for the Youth RDC, giving a presentation on the work in India and then a speech on missions from Psalm 96.

The next weekend, Rev. & Sharon Kleyn flew in from the Philippines for the regular two-day, three-speech Reformation Day Conference.  This year's theme was "The Reformation and the Development of the Truth."

Dinner before the Friday evening speech

Book sales table

Good turnout at the speeches

On Sunday Rev. Kleyn also officiated at my husband's installation into the office of minister here in CERC.  For the past two years he has been a minister-on-loan from the Protestant Reformed Churches.  Now he has become the minister of CERC, and our family's membership papers transfer from Grandville PRC to Covenant Evangelical Reformed Church of Singapore.

Rev. Kleyn reading the installation form

The congregation

Answering the questions in the form

Signing the Formula of Subscription

These were all joyful events in the life of the congregation.  May God bless all of them for the good of His church in Singapore.

The Philippines (2)

The other highlight of our trip to the Philippines, besides meeting God's people there, was spending time with the Kleyns and Smits.

On a hill in the missionaries' subdivision

Two of the men deep in discussion

Hard at work in the Kleyns' house

Rebekah, Irene, and Rosalyn Smit with Jessica

Kindergarteners--Ryan Smit and Megan Lanning

Football on the beach

Subic Bay 

Kleyn, Smit, and Lanning families

One thing that stood out to us in the Philippines was the religion there.  Over 85% of the population there is Roman Catholic.  We went inside a Roman Catholic cathedral and watched people bowing down to statues of Jesus and Mary; we also heard about how, on All Saints Day, the Filipino Roman Catholics will spend the night in the cemetery with their deceased relatives and put offerings out for them.  We were astounded at how similar the Roman Catholicism there is to the Buddhism here in Singapore!  Different gods, same form of worship.

Walking towards the cathedral in Antipolo

Open idolatry

Priest sprinkling "holy water" on the worshipers

We got to take a trike ride, a very popular form of transportation in the Philippines, and also experienced the Philippines traffic!

Walking in the city of Antipolo to try to find three trikes for our whole group

We crammed three people into the sidecar of each trike, 

and had two people sitting behind the driver.

Taking off down the road and around the corner

We enjoyed our trike rides--quite an experience. :-)

Philippines traffic

People selling things among all the traffic

A few more sights from some of our drives:

People crowded onto the back of a jeepney,
another form of public transportation there

We also were able to see some of the incredible beauty of God's creation.

Taal Volcano

Tropical plants

Subic Bay meeting the ocean

Sunset on Subic Bay 

(photo by Rev. Kleyn)

We are thankful that we were able to spend this time in the Philippines.  Please remember in prayer God's saints and His servants in Southeast Asia.