Miscellaneous

Our daughter Jessica turned 14 at the end of October.  She and her friends like to bake cakes for each other's birthdays and try to surprise each other, and four of her friends showed up at our house on her birthday with a cake for her.

Our kids with Given, Zi Hui, Nichelle, and Tze Yan

Our family

Jessica and her good friends Zi Hui and Nichelle

We have had a couple more homeschool outings recently.  At one of them, we saw some strange goings-on with groups of people in the park.  We weren't sure at first if they were doing some form of exercise or some form of Buddhist ritual, but it turned out that some of it at least was Buddhist ritual. 

 The November homeschool outing was at West Coast Park.

One or two young men from church are doing their National Service right now.  This is a time when all Singaporean males are required by the government to spend almost two years doing army training, usually beginning at age 18.  One of our young men, Yang Zhi, just spent three weeks training in Brunei, including ten days living in the jungle.  Our daughter Emily got to go to the airport to see him off.  You will see by her dress that it was a Sunday. The National Service training week often seems to begin on Sunday nights, but we are thankful that most of the time during their two years of training, the young men can still go to church activities on Saturdays and church services on Sundays.

Yang Zhi on the right, with his girlfriend Nicole and our Emily

Yang Zhi with Nicole, his mom and sister, and Emily

Emily, Tze Yan, and Marcus

Our three oldest kids take an art class with Nichelle Wong from church.  For the past couple of months Megan has joined them, and Nichelle's older sister Noelene has taught them. They did a few projects together, and one day some extra kids from church joined them.

A big batik project (fabric dyeing technique)

Johann, Given, and Eric with chalk pastel drawings

Jochebed, Megan, Emily, and Jotham

Nichelle and Jessica

The youth recently went to a trampoline park for an outing, and my daughter forwarded me a picture of the girls.

Orchard Street is a very busy road in Singapore.  We are always amazed at how many people can fill the sidewalks there, so that when you stop for a traffic light, probably a couple hundred people cross the street in front of you!

And finally, one group photo that I missed on my last blog about the Bruinsmas and Singhs:

Visitors (2)

After the Kleyns returned to their work in the Philippines, we had another week with the Bruinsmas and the Singhs.  Our family spent some time with each of them.

Rev. & Mary Bruinsma at Gardens by the Bay

Sonali and me in the ArtScience Museum

Sonali and Jason outside the museum

One evening we joined the Bruinsmas and a couple of families from church for dinner at Lau Pa Sat (a street that closes down at 7:00 so that tables and chairs can be set up for dinner in the street) and then a walk to Marina Bay.

Dinner

Beautiful view of the Central Business District at night

Group photo

After the Reformation Day Conference, several of us gathered at the condo of a family from church for swimming, dinner, and visiting.

Jean and Mary talking near the pool

Dinner

Rev. Bruinsma visiting with some of the youth

We gathered inside after dinner to talk and also to listen to Sonali sing in Bengali.

Ah Moi, Jean, and Sonali

Emmanuel & Sonali enjoyed visiting with the people in church.

Sonali and Megan

On his last Sunday here, Rev. Bruinsma was asked to participate in a "table talk."  This is two hours of answering questions for members in the congregation--many of which have been prepared in advance, but some of which are asked on the floor.  His questions included "What is the place of domestic missions in a small country like Singapore?"  "How do Christians differentiate whether an issue falls under Christian liberty vs. Christian 'weakness'?"  "What is the place of discipleship in the church, where a more mature Christian is accountable for the spiritual well-being of the less mature one?"  "In I John 5:8, how do the spirit, the water, and the blood relate to the Triune God?"  "Please explain Psalm 87:2, 'The LORD loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.'"  

And finally, one last picture of the ministers with their wives.  We are so thankful for the time we could spend with them and pray God's blessing on the work of preaching the gospel in the United States, India, the Philippines, and Singapore.

Visitors (1)

Revs. Bruinsma and Kleyn were kept very busy while in Singapore.  In addition to Emmanuel Singh's exam and the Reformation Day Conference, they did the annual church visitation with CERC's Session, each preached once, and they did some other work as well.  But there was also time to spend with our family and with many of the members of church.

The Kleyns were the first to arrive in Singapore, and they spent a couple of days with our family.  Our main outing was to the ArtScience Museum on Marina Bay.

Rev. Kleyn and Jason in the huge mall on the bay

I include this picture to give you a glimpe of this amazing mall.

(Yes, that's a canal down there.  You can take boat rides on it.)

Rev. & Sharon Kleyn outside the museum

This is an old photo, but I had to show the 

interesting architecture of the ArtScience Museum!

In one of the rooms of the museum

The kids inside the museum

Megan with the Kleyns

The adults ate dinner at Newton Hawker Center one night, and the Kleyns spent some time at our house talking and playing games.

Dessert!

Playing a game of Bible Trivia

When the Bruinsmas arrived in Singapore, we were invited to lunch with a couple from church and their daughter (Jimmy & Phebe Teo and Ruth).

We also joined the Bruinsmas, Kleyns, and some friends from church for a zoo outing.

Waiting for the sea lion show to start

Kids and Elder Leong

Jason and Jael

Megan and Elijah

Couldn't resist another picture of Jason and Jael :-)

How high can we stack them?

More next time, Lord willing!