Personal and family – Page 2

Category: Personal and family

Having A Blessed Covid Christmas

26 December 2022 blogpastor Leave a comment

On Wednesday, my wife had a bad sore throat and cough. She had been accompanying her brother in and out of the National University Hospital because of an eye problem. She probably caught it from these frequent hospital visits. She tested herself and found that she was covid-positive. The home quarantine began that very Wednesday evening.

I was worried because I had to preach an evangelistic message in my home church on Christmas Day during the morning worship service. I quickly informed Ps Alvin Lim, the pastor of the English congregation. The decision was that he would be on standby while I continued to prepare to preach.

While I was adding the final touches to the sermon, I had also taken over my wife’s role of accompanying her brother to the eye clinic for surgery on Friday, and taking care of her needs. However, I was beginning to feel the beginnings of sore throat. Oh Lord, don’t tell me? On Saturday morning before I brought my wife’s brother out for a post-surgery appointment, as usual I did a test, and found that I too had been infected with covid. Thankfully, my son Joshua was willing to hurry out and he brought my wife’s brother to the hospital and back to his home.

My sermon was sent to Ps Alvin Lim and credit to him he preached the message based on what I have written. In emergencies like this we have to be willing to adapt very quickly. Meanwhile, I took the typical medicines: cough mixtures, Panadol, Betadine sore throat spray, and slept and slept and slept. Good good sleep. The chills were kept away by the Panadol. My appetite was erratic. Thus I was thankful for some surprise deliveries of cakes and salmon sashimi donburi from good friends Sunny and Annie, which perked up my appetite. Thankfully when I began to observe my medicine running low, my son Joshua and Pink his wife brought lots of cough mixture, Chinese medicine, and Panadol pills, and some porridge too.

I was disappointed I could not preach the message I took a long time to prepare and research, but was glad that it was at least delivered albeit through another pastor. Besides sleeping a lot, I also had time to watch Netflix’s “The Recruit” and a Chinese movie, and also analyze Bishop Solomon’s preaching style. More on this in the next blogpost. Perhaps, this compulsory stay at home rest will speed up my writing momentum. Only God knows what other good will come out of this interruption to my plans.

Lunch with Tung Ling Friends

18 December 2022 blogpastor Leave a comment

I cannot remember how we got together but my first contact with Rev Dr John Sim was through Facebook years ago. I had learned that he took speaking engagements whenever he was in Singapore visiting his in-laws, so I invited him to preach in our church in early 2019. John and I were in the second batch of Tung Ling (1979), when it was situated at the Church of Singapore, Marine Parade mother church. We then caught up with what happened in our lives over the 36 years gap. For me I had been pastoring in World Revival Prayer Fellowship all that time. For John, it was back to ministry with Canon James Wong in an Anglican parish, followed by training in Christ For the Nations Institute (where he got to know Marguerite, another of our course-mates), further studies, another stint with the Anglicans, and furthering his studies still more till he had two Masters’ degrees and a Doctorate from Princeton Seminary and Fuller Seminary. It had been adventure after adventure, school after school, until he finally landed in Vanguard University for two decades of faithful ministry as co-ordinator, then registrar, then instructor in digital pedagogy and adjunct professor. He is probably the most theologically educated among all of Tung Ling’s alumni.

John asked if I had contact with any of our Tung Ling Bible School course mates. I only knew of one and that was Benjamin Foo, who after Tung Ling went on to theological studies in Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. He returned and bacame a bi-vocational pastor who also worked as Executive Vice President of the Singapore Exchange (SGX). I bumped into him when I was a guest preacher at Geylang Evangelical Free Church (which is in the building next door to where the church I attend is). He is currently an Elder there, a speaker and author of two books. I remembered we had a few lunches together the three of us.

Then it was John who linked us with Marguerite in our Whatsapp chat group. I remembered her but we have all more or less lost contact with each other. She is low-profile and has to remain so because of the ministry she co-founded with her husband, which provides Bible and ministry training for indigenous workers in unreached countries around the world.

Since John came back for a short visit, we took the opportunity to have a long, long lunch fellowship at Orange & Teal at Rochester Mall. I could not locate it and had to ask a security guard outside some car park. The magic words I used was, “Do you know where Chee Soon Juan’s restaurant is?” Immediately he pointed me in the right direction, and told me to use the escalator up. We had a great time catching up and talking about our families, our ministry, US politics and culture, the Ukraine war, covid-19, and as folks over 60s were sure to talk about: health matters and remedies.

John could not preach in Singapore this time because he would need to apply for a work permit to preach in churches here and that would be too onerous. The church would miss his preaching but I got to fellowship with him, Marguerite and our lunch sponsor, Benjamin. I was energized and encouraged as I left for home after lunch. How lovely to be among such godly, faithful and humble leaders. How lovely for brethren to live in unity. It is like fragrant oil coming down on Aaron’s head down to his feet. Altogether a wonderful, refreshing time.

My Sister’s Home Visit

9 December 2022 blogpastor Leave a comment

The last time my sister Beryl was in Singapore was April 2018, when my eldest son Joshua married Ping. It has been four years (including the Covid 19 crunch years) that she has not returned, so we were glad that she would have some home leave. Travelling during this period is quite stressful because of the ever changing rules and my sister felt the anxiety.

During that four year period, she gave up her Singapore citizenship and took on German citizenship. She has been at the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary in Darmstadt, Germany for decades, with a short stint in the Sydney branch. She speaks German fluently, and occasionally cannot find the right English word to express her thoughts.

During her three weeks visit in Singapore, she stayed with Colin my eldest brother, Julian the second oldest brother, and I, the fourth brother. Mostly with Colin. She was moved about so she could spend more time with different brothers, and also for her convenience of visiting her old friends living near different locations.

We had many table conversations over meals updating on what has been happening, reminiscing about former neighbours, relatives and school mates from Princess Elizabeth Estate, off 9^th mile, Upper Bukit Timah Road. We also talked about spiritual stuff and helped her catch up on local news she might have missed out.

Unfortunately, her stomach has grown sensitive to spicy food and that meant a lot of spicy local favorites are out of the question. No laksa. No curries. No Thai food. No mee pok dry. No lontong. No mee siam. At least she could still have her durian, mango, mangosteen, longan, papaya and jackfruit. She ate a lot of fruits, especially local fruits – a fruit odyssey.

We are all getting older – over sixties, over seventies so it is always good to catch up more regularly and frequently as life is so unpredictable. Hope she will be able to visit more regularly.