Are we guilty as charged?

Straits Times, d. 6 Aug 2005:

What should our Christian's response be to such a claim? Do you think it's true in your school? Is it really a casue for concern?

Please comment.

3D Carcassonne by Dustin Miller! Modeled in 3ds Max 7, Textures Created in Photoshop

Check out BGG for more information about this wonderful game, Carcassonne, designed by Klaus-Jürgen Wrede! There is also a Christian-Jewish theme version of this game, The Ark of Covenant. Some say it's even better than the original.

Wilson's comments on Carcassonne:
"imo the best introductory game for new comers! i love it so much, it has been travelling with me to various places, "preaching" its gospels everytime, and winning many believers! the river expansion adds a whole new dimension to the game. i love it when the big cities are completed!"

IMG_5673

IMG_5673
Originally uploaded by synodym132.

For more photos from the Adventure Camp, please click on "flickr" flash icon on the right side-bar, this page. Thanks!

Wilson

a puzzled looking XY...Amanda had to explain to her the concept of teamwork

it's all about great "partnership"!

 

the infamous hula hoop game!

super fun...much harder than it looks. As a team, we need to lower the hula hoop together. Very, very hard...but some teams cheated! Hee! Hee! 

Mr Anthony Ang - Our Team Ministry talk speaker

 

Rev. Jimmy Tan - Our main talk session speaker

 

The awesome Worship Team from Jubilee Youth Ministry...

Some comments from the feedback forms:

Great! Can see people really worshiping, very good! Well-coordinated, suitable songs, good powerpoint slide, impressive musicians, cool! esp. the drummer, smooth transition, mix of sound was generally great, could see the effort put into preparation of this worship session… 

Our friendly volunteers...

from Jubilee Youth Ministry helping with the registration...

Thanks guys and gals! 

Freebies!!!

Pastor Siow Hwee: Come! Come! Collect your freebies here! ...you, dun run away, take this and this and this! : )

a "possible" re-enactment?

Many thanks to Pastor Siow Hwee and his Jubilee gang for helping with the registration and distribution of materials. 

Paparazzi chasing down...

Pastor Wesley!!! camera shy lah! 

The early birds from Covenant PC...

Welcome to Jubilee Church, our dear "sisters" and "daughters" of Jubilee!

P.S.: Covenant PC was branched off from Jubilee Church in 1989

Synod Youth Leaders' Adevnture Camp 2006

Finally, the photos of the Adventure Camp is up!! Well, at least some of them are. Thanks for your understanding. Here, Pastor Wesley leading his "troops" from Glory Presbyterian Church for Registration. We have 100+ youth leaders from about 10 churches attend our very first leadership camp. Way beynd our expectation in numbers! Praise God for He was good, real good to us. It was held at Jubilee Church on 20-21 Jan 2006. 

125th Anniversay Logo

Kien Seng: Hamsterology

In my kid’s talk last month, I shared about the death of my hamster, Snowflake. Some people came up to me afterwards to ask how he had escaped from the cage and how he had found his way to the gully. So I will take this opportunity to complete my story and reflections on Snowflake’s death. Ai Tin, my wife, has given me much input with regards to the lessons learnt. For the sake of those who had missed the kid’s talk, I am going to briefly repeat my earlier sharing.

Snowflake was given to my children by their uncle. My children loved him very much. I was a little apprehensive initially to allow my children to have pets in the house because I foresaw that once they grew tired of the pets, the latter would become my ‘baby’. After much persuasion from Gaius and Gracia, promising that they would be committed to take care of Snowflake, I acceded to their request. Well, they did show much enthusiasm in looking after the hamster, ensuring that he had enough food and water for the day, and cleaning the cage (with the parents’ help) once a week. After school everyday, Gaius would take Snowflake out of the cage and allow him to run around a certain corner of the living room. He had also built some obstacles using his Lego set for Snowflake to manoeuvre. After returning Snowflake to the cage, the children would usually not put back the cover. I did not object to it since I felt that if I were in the shoes of the hamster, I would like the cage to be as open as possible. However, I was always afraid that the hamster would climb out of the cage since he definitely had that capability. So as long as there was someone who could keep an eye on the cage, we left it open. I guess you can sense that disaster was looming ahead.

One Saturday night, we all went to bed without putting back the cover! I only noticed our neglectfulness the following morning when I woke up to find Snowflake missing. I looked all around the house for him but other than some hamster’s droppings in Gracia’s room, there was really no trace of Snowflake. I eventually had to wake everyone up to join in the search. There is an opening below our kitchen cabinet which allows water to flow down to the gully if we were to wash the kitchen floor. However, the opening does not lead directly to the gully. There is some distance between the opening and the gully, like a narrow tunnel that runs beneath the cabinet. We suspected that Snowflake might be hiding in that tunnel so we put his favourite sunflower seeds outside the opening, hoping to lure him out. I then made my way to church (recall it was a Sunday morning). Ai Tin called me later when she realised that the sunflower seeds had been shelled. Who else could have done it except for our dear Snowflake yet he was still no where in sight! By now, Ai Tin and the kids had to leave for church and so we thought we would try to lure him out again when we returned home in the afternoon…Well, you know the end of the story. Snowflake must have ventured too far into the tunnel, at the end of which was the fateful drop into the dark and damp gully.

Lesson 1: Boundaries are important. They were important for Snowflake because they served as a hedge, a protection to keep him safe and secure. He might think that the cage was a nuisance and that he was a captive, but he did not realise that outside those boundaries laid dangers that he knew not of. I was told that hamsters like to burrow and it’s their natural inclination to crawl into holes or tunnels. In the house, we know where those holes or tunnels lead to, that was why we could not afford to let Snowflake run around the house unsupervised. Only if he had faith in us that we were doing everything for his sake. Likewise, boundaries are important for us. In Deuteronomy, we know that the law was given to protect Israel from the wicked environment they were entering into. As fallen creatures, their natural inclination was to run into ‘tunnels’ that led to sin and death. As God’s children, living under His grace, He has given us his commandments as boundaries to protect us from living unfruitful lives. How can we be fruitful? “Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.” (John 15:4) How then can one remain in Christ? “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love…” (John 15:10) In short, if we want to be fruitful, we have to be obedient to God’s commands. Otherwise, “God cuts off every branch that bears no fruit…such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.” (John 15:2, 6)

Lesson 2: The God who watches over us neither slumbers nor sleeps (Psalm 121:4). We did not cover the cage in the day because we could keep watch over the hamster. If Snowflake tried to climb out of the cage, we could always gently put him back. However, in the night when the whole family went to bed, in our slumber, we had no chance to put Snowflake back into the cage when he attempted to climb out of it. So his escape and eventual death was really part of our fault because we did not fulfill our responsibility in making sure that the cage was secure. Aren’t we glad that we are under the ever watchful eyes of God who neither slumbers nor sleeps? The psalmist says, “You know when I sit and when I rise…You discern my going out and my lying down, You are familiar with all my ways…You hem me in – behind and before; You have laid Your hand upon me…Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.” (Psalm 139:2-6) With such a God watching over us, we can be sure that if we allow Him to rebuke and correct us, and often He does so through His Word and the Holy Spirit, we can have the confidence that we will never fall away.

Lesson 3: We may not be harmed the first time but that does not mean that the dangers are not there. The hamster went into the hole and thought that he had found his freedom and he was very likely feeling comfortable in that cool tunnel beneath the kitchen cabinet. When he saw the food, he came out to get it and he went back to the seemingly safe refuge that he had discovered. Little known to him that if he continued to stay in that tunnel and if he were to venture beyond a certain point, dangers were awaiting him. Sometimes we find ourselves in similar situations. We may engage in something that is not right but it is exciting and we enjoy it. We think it is safe because we haven’t experienced any ill consequences. Yet we may not understand the dangers that lie ahead. Satan is a deceiver. He would like to lure us slowly into the trap so that before we know it, we are on our way to destruction. We may not get burnt when we play with fire the first few times. But subsequently, the fire can become a furnace that will destroy our whole life. Is there something that you are doing which is not right? You know that it is not right but you are not too concerned because there doesn’t seem to be any repercussions. Repent before it is too late!

Lesson 4: I wonder whether for a moment Snowflake knew that he was lost and as much as he wanted to get back to his comfortable cage, he was not able to. Was he really so contented with the tunnel he was hiding in? Just assuming that he wanted to get back to the cage but he did not know how to, what should he have done? Staying put may be a good idea until help comes. The more we try the messier things may get. I am not advocating passivism here. But I am thinking of people who are trying to get their lives straighten out but the more they strive, the more they spiral downwards. They try to fill the vacuum in their hearts with all sorts of things and activities but their hearts remain restless. If you are in such a situation, allow God to come to your aid. You may want to consider letting go and letting God take control. We believe in a God who is the good Shepherd. He will go all his way out to look for the one lost sheep, even it means leaving behind the other ninety-nine sheep. (Matt. 18:12-14) Such a Shepherd will definitely be able to seek us out.

It was indeed our carelessness that had led Snowflake to his dreadful fall and we ask God for forgiveness for not being good stewards of something that was entrusted to our care. Snowflake will always remain in our fond memories, for the good times we had with him when he was alive, but also for the precious lessons he had taught us through his death.

Pastor Kien Seng

20^th November 2005

Jasmine: Karyn with her pants on her head

Hi! My name is Jasmine. I'm serving the Lord as a pastor of the Children and Youth Ministry in Bethel Presbyterian Church. I'm married to Boon Lee and we've a little baby girl named Karyn Kua (left)! She brought lots of joy and laughter into our home! Her Chinese name is Ke Fangting, "Fang" is for fragrance and "Ting" for family. It's our prayer that she will bring the fragrance of Christ to our family and our extended family!

The unofficial launch of the Synod Youth Ministry blog

Greetings in the name of our Lord, on behalf of the Synod Youth Council, I welcome you to our Synod Youth Ministry blog! We have 16 contributors, mostly in pastoral (youth) ministry, some as lay-leaders, and a youth from my home church, Jubilee Church. We are all amatuers here in the blog world. We are no Mr Brown here! So, we do beg your pardon if things are not as professional. I will leave each contributor to introduce themselves.

This is a blog about events and life in the Synod Youth Ministry. The Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Singapore (PCS) is the collective body of about 35-40 Presbyterian congregations in Singapore (not counting the Bible Presbyterians churches nor independent Presbyterian chuches). We hope to use this opportunity to share about the news and updates in the Synod Youth Ministry, provide a platform for healthy discussions on youth (or non-youth) related issues.

The Synod is the head-quarter of the Presbyterian Church in Singapore. We have only 4 full-time stuff here at the Synod. Elder Richard Chong (Prinsep Street PC) is the Executive Secretary of PCS, Deacon Goh Huey Huey (Chen-Li PC) is the administration assistant to Eld Chong, Sister Bao Hui is the administrative assistant of the Chinese Presbytery, and I am the Synod Youth Executive.

Technically, the Synod is not a church in the common sense of the word (even though we have an Elder, a Deacon, a young Preacher, and one lay- member). The Synod does not have a congregation, although Maranatha Presbyterian Church uses our compound for their service on Sunday regularly.

For my "first" post, I would like to share the good news that the Synod Ex-Co has just recently accepted Jubilee Church's (my home church) nomination for me to be confirmed as preacher of the Chinese Presbytery. Usually, new preachers begin their pastoral ministry at a local church for a year as preacher-on-trial, or probational preacher before they are confirmed as official preachers, but as i was serving at the Synod, the current constitution does not provide for this adjustment. So i had to wait for a year for the Synod committees to sort out this matter. My was a special case, and they back-dated my preacher-on-trial status to the day i started work at the Synod, on 1 Feb 2005. I will need to say my preacher vows in Mandarin at the next CP meeting in April. And so, in Rev. May Tan's words, "I was a probational preacher for a year without knowing it!" :)

Narnia tracts

I got some (300 remaining) FREE tracts from Golden Village about the recent movie Narnia, jointed venture with Bible Society of Singapore and Fellowship of Evangelical Students. So, if you want to distribute them to your youths, feel free to come by the Synod to pick them up. priority will be given to those who came for the mass-viewing on 27 Dec 2005. more can be obtained from Bible Society of House. they are quite an easy read, more for awareness than informative. for those who want to know a little more about the significance of Christian symbolism and the film, you can visit these websites...

Bible Society of Singapore: Narnia and Christianity

The United Methodist Church: Lewis, Narnia and Christianity from scratch

Washington Jewish Week: Is 'Chronicles of Narnia' a Christian allegory?

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

Catch the exciting movie of the Chronicles of Narnia with other Presbyterian Youths at Plaza Singapura on 27 Dec 2005, 3pm! Please inform your youth pastors or youth workers asap if you are interested as the seats are limited.

Visit Bible Society of Singapore for some interesting facts about Narnia and the Bible.

Edit: Wow, we actually had a turn-up of 256 youths and young adults watching Narnia together in two cinemas at Plaza Singapura last week (27 Dec 2005)! It was great...and we hope to organise more of these sort of events. Keep tuned!