More Visitors!

Early last Friday morning my sister's family arrived in Singapore.  Jon & Michelle and their six kids came to visit us for almost two weeks.

Arriving at Changi Airport in Singapore

We have introduced them already to some of the sights of our neighborhood and our "everyday life" of grocery shopping, library, etc.

The wet market in our neighborhood

Some of our kids and their cousins walking down our street

Almost-full elevator by our flat

At one of the libraries we go to

Kids playing dodgeball near our building

And there is the chaos of 15 people sharing a flat. ;-)

Liz VanDrunen (Faith PRC) is also in Singapore right now, and we met her at church on Sunday.  Here are some Sunday photos of our visitors:

Liz, Jemima Joy, Cornelius, and Yang Zhi getting ready for a group discussion

More of the group

One of the catechism classes--Megan, Elijah, and Luke

Seth and Hannah joined the youngest Sunday School class.

Jon & Michelle talking with some of the young women 

 

Visiting after the second service

Today all of the visitors went with our family and Yoon Chuan & Jee Fung to the island of Pulau Ubin.

Lunch before heading to the island

Liz and Emily have both been to India and enjoyed 

comparing their experiences after looking at the lunch menu together!

Joel, Emily, and Liz on the boat to Pulau Ubin

Walking on the island

The new Ubin Fruit Orchard

A guava tree in the orchard

 

Jee Fung showing Luke a rubber seed

I think at this point we were watching some monkeys along the trail.

Break time

Joel and Jessica at Chek Jawa

The three oldest boys

Ready to head back to the entrance to the island

At the last minute we got to see a wild boar!

On the boat back to Singapore

We really enjoyed meeting Liz and are looking forward to the rest of our time with Jon & Michelle and their kids!

The Last Few Weeks

Jim VanOverloop was in Singapore from February 23-March 15.  We went to the river safari one day, he spent a lot of time with other members of the church, and he did word searches and played games with our kids.

Kids at the river safari

Panda hanging out

With Ishu and Emily at a Macritchie Reservoir hike

(The monkeys were very aggressive that day, which probably explains why Ishu

is holding Emily's backpack for her!  They try to get into backpacks for food.)

Some of the other hikers

Visiting with the Tang family

Word searches with Emily

A couple weeks ago someone from church gave us a new kind of fruit that we hadn't seen before, although somehow we've seen it several times since!

Snake fruit, or salak

There are three hours between church services on Sunday, so even after the catechism and Sunday School classes have finished, there is still time to play!

Megan and Jael playing a card game on my husband's desk

Elijah and Jason playing with Legos across the hallway

One of the two Heidelberg Catechism students couldn't make it to class last Saturday, so my husband taught catechism at our dining room table on Wednesday afternoon instead!

Eric and Given

This week was a school holiday for Singapore, so we had our annual CI outing.  (CI = covenant instruction--the Sunday classes for children and young people.)  This year we went to a trampoline park.

Exhortation by Kong Wee on Psalm 119:11

"Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."

Dodgeball area

All the kids

Miscellaneous

In February our congregation was blessed with another infant baptism.

Hannah Lee, daughter of Michael & June

And a couple more baby pictures...

Emily and Joezer Chin

My husband with the newest addition to CERC, Isaiah Chua

Our family had to go to the U.S. Embassy last month to get the kids' passports renewed.

Last month's homeschool outing was at Sengkang Swimming Complex.

Elijah and Jason

Eric and Shang Yuan

Last week my husband had a funeral, the grandmother of a young man from church.  Across from where the funeral was held, there was a shop that makes the cars, mansions, etc. that are burned for those who have died to receive in the afterlife.  It was interesting to see how they are put together.

Two cars and one completed mansion in the back,

and the frame for another mansion in the front

Another mansion

I got a couple more pictures from Jeff Kotman's visit since I last posted and thought I would include those here, since they are pictures of him with people from CERC.

With some of the youth at Sungei Buloh

Dinner with Beng Young's family

Trying durian desserts after a Friday night Bible study

We had a visitor in church a couple of weeks ago from the Netherlands.  Rebecca was planning to spend a week in Singapore, so the youth from church invited her out several times during the week.

On a hike at Macritchie Reservoir

In Chinatown with Jessica, Jemima, and Cassia