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Crazy costs of owning a used car

7 July 2015 blogpastor Leave a comment

Looking at the online used cars market (sgcarmart) has been frustrating. Depreciation of used cars with one or two years left in their COE went at an average of $1,000 a month. This means I lose $1000 a month to own the used car. This is before adding the driving costs of insurance, road tax, petrol, repairs and maintenance. You wait and you wait and it does not get better. The prices of used cars went north. The costs of owning a used car in Singapore is crazy.

Was it ever like that in the past? I do not know. I drove a church van from 1985-2004, nearly ten years, so I never had to look at the car market. Only about ten years ago the church paid about $60,000 for a Hyundai Matrix. Today that amount is a wee short of paying for the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) – the permission to use a new car in Singapore for ten years.

But God answers prayer. He did say, Ask and it will be given, seek and you will find, knock and it shall be opened to you.

Help came to me in the grace I have received from God to cope with using public transport. I admit it is tough during peak hours in the MRT and I avoid this whenever I can. So I was able to take the train or the bus to the church office or to Trinity Theological College library. His grace and my umbrella and short sleeve cotton shirts were sufficient.

Help also came in the form of friends who went on overseas vacations for one to six weeks and let me use their cars – a blessed convenience indeed. Thank God for that. Once an American missionary, James Creasman went back to USA, and let me use his Toyota Picnic for several weeks since its COE had not expired and that covered a busy December period when I needed a car badly, bless his heart, and bless the Lord o my soul.

My champagne Nissan Latio for the next few months.

Help came recently through a cell leader and friend Sunny Chong. He had been actively helping me to look out for a used car. One of his colleagues Andrew had a Nissan Latio with a COE that runs till mid-November. His daughter bought a new continental car and transferred her Mistsubishi Lancer to him since it had two years of COE left to run. He wanted to sell his car to dealers and they gave him low prices. Sunny suggested he sell it to me for an additional sweetener. Throw in the transfer fees, insurance and the sums show a depreciation of half of $1000. I was thankful for this blessing. It is God’s answer to mysearch and prayer. Does God care about such down to earth matters? Yes the God who is attentive to sparrows, lilies and grass that grows and dries up on the same day does care about COE and second hand cars. And God cares for the big picture too of course – world peace, poverty, natural disasters and human conflicts – everything serious and global.

For now I am just thankful I can go into my Latio and drive to wherever I need to tomorrow. As to whether I should extend the COE by another five years or pay a ransom for an eight year old car or go back to public transport, I have put it in God’s hands. Today’s worries are sufficient, and I do not want to add tomorrow’s fears to today’s list of concerns.

Rev Dr Amos Jayarathnam: WRPF 2015 church camp speaker

30 June 2015 blogpastor Leave a comment

The camp speaker was Rev Dr Amos Jayarathnam and the theme of the camp was “Faith in the Face of Uncertainties.” It looked like we had to face the uncertainties right from the beginning when the advance party stepped into the hotel. They had a jolt with what they experienced. One had problem with room lights and another had problem with the bathtub. Will the people be able to accept this in addition to the hotel’s jaded look and facilities?

Avillion Legacy in Melaka is not exactly our ideal hotel except that this time we wanted to get a 4 days 3 nights church camp package for under SGD$300 pax for about 130 people. The hotel’s decor and colours are very ethnic Malay. It took a day to get used to. We were disappointed with the inadequate facilities. The swimming pool was the size of a badminton court. The hotel is an inconvenient 15 minute’s bus ride from the main shopping and food belt.

Nowadays, even with a strong Singapore dollar the hotels in Malaysia play hardball and charge a premium for church camps. Most hotels charge from $350 to $400. There are many churches in Singapore wanting to hold camps in June, and Johor and Melaka are popular places because of the relatively short travel needed. The hotels know this. Maybe the next time we should look farther afield at places like Bangkok.

What fell short in terms of facilities was made up for by great organization and the spiritual program. The organizers were young people: Huile and Tian En, with the steady and experienced hand of Ai Choo. I like it when there is an intergenerational team: “the young men and the old shall be merry” (Jeremiah 31: 13). This strict herding of youth from the adults is a sad homogenization that does more harm than good for the church. It may spur numerical growth in a few cases, but in most situations, it starves the church of the rich transmission of values, and the model loses the synergies that can be gained in an all-age congregational setting.

Rev Dr Amos Jayarathnam preaching the message

Mindmapping on the side for the primary school but others enjoyed it too — Aileen Goh mindmapping on the side for the primary school kids but others enjoyed it too

Lunch with Pastor Thomas, Pastor Amos, Agnes and Mark Chua

Rev Dr Amos is not new to us. He was in the WRPF family in the early years of his faith development. Now he is an internationally recognized prophet. He spoke on the theme in three sessions. His main point was that we need to learn to trust in God’s true character even in the face of circumstances and evidence that shows it is opposite. When things are uncertain, God is faithful and does not change. He spoke as one whose faithfulness and loyalty to God has been proven and tested. What he preached was seared into his life at great sacrifices, uncertainty and tears. Thus he was able to impart faith and courage and conviction. On more than one occasion, he risked his life and his family and was willing to die for the Lord. God saw that and entrusted him with great gifts and anointing. Despite that he is a very gracious, unassuming, and respectful man of God.

His God-given gift to give personal prophecies that were mostly accurate is priceless. Typically they described a person’s gifts and strengths and gave specific advice on pitfalls to watch and encouragement along the lines of their placement in the body. So typically after the message the campers went forward for prayer and ministry. Later we had to give out numbers on paper to campers as there were many more who had not been prayed for and he offered to pray for everyone. After the message we dismissed all but the 20 persons to be prayed for in the queue. By the time we finished on the third and last session it was about 2pm and most have gone off for the free and easy shopping afternoon.

In the end it was a memorable camp and most went home contented and encouraged to have been blessed with the strong messages preached, and each with a personal word from the Lord as bonus. They enjoyed the shopping and the durian pig outs. For me the personal prophecy affirmed my role as spiritual father in the church, and affirmed and watered the idea of writing books.

Ubike: best value for money foldable bike?

29 June 2015 blogpastor 2 Comments

I have been in conversation with him about folding bikes. He owned a mountain bike before but wanted to get a foldie. He researched Brompton, Dahon, Vert, Jazz and other foldable bikes and went to the bicycle shops to examine. His conclusion is that the Ubike is the best value bike in Singapore at the moment.

Brompton and its long tradition was certainly an attractive option. However he is one who is not into brands and will look at comparisons with an objective eye. He finally bought a Ubike citizen selling at SGD$980 for one main reason: it gives him the best value for the buck.

For one thing he found the Taiwan manufacturer is a tried and tested maker of durable bikes for many cities in Europe. This is their foray into foldable bikes and they won an award for design. The parts are Shimano and can be easily upgraded or replaced, unlike the proprietary Brompton. It came with mud guards and a rear rack. It has over 20 gear shifts. It’s frame is aluminium and when folded it can be pushed like a wheel barrow. Best of all you can actually buy 3 Ubikes for the price of one Brompton.

So when Sek Hong bought the bike I was eager to have a look and try it out. He came over from Holland Road and from my place in Jurong we cycled to the Jurong Lake Park Connector. I showed him the promenade, the fountain, passed by the entrances to the Chinese Garden and the Japanese Garden, and passed the view of the Jurong Country Club golf course.

At the end of the one way route, I tried out his bike. The bike aesthetics were good: paint, colour, the frame, the handlebars and tyres. The ride was smooth, effortless and quiet. There is no suspension but for recreational riding on the park connectors this does not pose a problem at all.

He was bowled over by the scenic and breezy ride. “I don’t know why you bother to ride the Ulu Pandan PCN when you have such a pleasant ride here.” “Yes there is no need to, but I do it for variety and to eat at Ghim Moh or Teban Gardens.”