Thursday, 9/1/2014

Today was the day that we were testing out our worship leading with songs. Our three teams came up with three different selection of songs based on the themes given to us. The only drawback was that there were Chinese songs. For Otniel and me, we were trying to understand the incomprehensible, unfathomable Chinese characters.

After each time of song leading, we were evaluated by the two nice men from New Heart Music Ministries Ltd. to further improve our time we can use for God. Adding rhythm, knowing when to add and even playing the different pitch/tempo/notes mattered to help in our sessions that we might conduct in the future.

Another point was to link the songs to the sermon so that the songs are related and applicable for the congregation. We would definitely take that into account in our preparation for our upcoming mission trip.

During the afternoon, we discussed the book of the Westminister Shorter Catechism and Preacher Gideon went through with us by kindly reading aloud all the 107 questions while we answered them to help us go through and understand the answers and their Scripture references. We understood more about the basics of our faith and the Catechisms that help to define it so that we will know what is Orthodox and what is Liberal.

Soli Deo Gloria,

-Joson

10/01/13

Today was yet another work day.

Devotions in the morning was led by Grace!

Grace did her daily devotional from John 9. John 9 was about the Jesus healing the blind man and how it tied to the later passage of spiritual blindness. We talked about how the blind man just trusted Jesus despite not knowing who he was and just went all the way to the Pool of Siloam to wash off the mud Jesus put onto his eyes and it paid off! His trust in Jesus despite not knowing that he was the son of God led to his eyes being healed! As for the spiritual blindness, we talked about the Pharisees, the normal people and Jesus. How those who claimed to be knowledgeable and claimed to be able to "see" were so blinded by themselves that their guilt remained as they could "see". However those who were blind could have their eyes opened by Jesus and not be guilty as they could not "see" the right path.

Afternoon we had missions training by brother Keet. All of us sat in for the beginning of missions training where there was a sharing of the proper way to do testimony sharing. We listened to the incorrect one and the correct one and had to all say what were some of the good and bad points of the testimony. We were also all paired up and made to learn a skit for the Myanmar mission trip. The skit was rather simple and it was about giving your heart to God.

Grace leading devotions

Terence is balding?

 

So Kawaii

Discussion!

Blessed Emmanuel Day!

Today started with a bang. Well not much of a bang, but there were tears and there was fire. A special day for a special man calls for special effort to come on time to celebrate. Today we celebrated Emmanuel's 18th birthday!

Birthday Boy against the 'blackground' after much hilarious confusion with the lights

Birthday Boy and Friends

Even Emmanuel Day could not pardon us from another intense and fruitful day of learning, and we are grateful to Pastor Roger from ARPC for coming down to teach us about Presbyterianism and the uniqueness of the denomination in which our churches all fall under. The lesson was split into three progressively shorter parts, on our Beliefs, our Practices and our History respectively. From the lesson we each emerged with a more in-depth knowledge about the principles that Presbyterians hold on to, the significance of our practices, and we were able to trace our roots and understand our rich history.

 Listening attentively

As per the wishes of Prince Emmanuel on his birthday, we headed to Subway at SMU for lunch and a time of good fellowship .

L to R: Otniel, Prince, High on Sandwich and Homer

(almost) all dressed in Blue and Green, the favourite colours of Prince E 

We returned to church to continue with the programme for the day. After a short time of worship, Dorothy led us in a time of devotions and she did a great job in sharing and leading the discussion based on Acts 3:1-10. We reflected upon the importance of faith, and believing that we are empowered because of Christ's work in us. (amongst other lessons learnt)

Dorothy attempting to meditate leading devotions

We spent the remainder of the afternoon rehearsing for tomorrow's worship session in our groups until 4pm. 

Emmanuel was not the only person to be surprised today, as we learned that the Cambodia Team would now be heading to Myanmar instead for our trip next week. No shock was too much for anyone to handle, as we quickly adjusted our focus to our new destination, similarly trusting that God will use us in His special way. We ended off with preparation for two trips with our teams.

Random cake-cutting as Emmanuel led the discussion on the skit

 Terence high on cake

The day ended on a sweet note, as most of us left with bits of Emeh's birthday cake in our mouths. Once again, Blessed 18th Birthday Emmanuel! God loves you!

-Keng Gene

Second Day of WORK DAY

It's Friday Friday~
今天是开的第二天，appanrantly 我第一个到教会。今天由 keng gene 来带领，他分享（luke 路加福音 ) (9:23-27; 9:57 to 10:4）他开始分享
时我几乎一头雾水但他很仔细的解释 “ 耶稣又对众人说，若有人要跟从我，就当舍己，天天背起他的十字架来，跟从我。”  那我们背起自己的十字架了吗？ 而一旦背起了，还会挂念世上无谓的事吗？因耶稣说“手扶着犁向后看的，不配进  神的国。”

 

 

之后 Preacher Gideon 向keng gene “评分” 和回答我们发问的问题。

 

 

之后我们很有荣幸的邀请 Jeaney yip 来到我们当中分享 Marketing God:Mega churches and Business of Religion 和调查 mega churches 的资料。内容很丰盛和非常有趣，大家都很专心听和做笔记。

 

12.30 吃饭！差点饿昏的 Homer 吃了一碗又一盘。

 

接着我们会到教会和 Preacher Gideon 一起讨论 “What is a reformed church?” 我们学到以前败坏的教会错的教导和现在的教会不同价值观，也回到了 sola scriptura,sola fide,sola gratia,solus christus 和 soli Deo Gloria.

 

 

 

放工了！ 怡萱和 Justin初次与我们共享晚餐 ！

 

 

请为在国外的 xue ning 祈祷，让她早日平安回到我们当中。若察觉错字错词， 多包涵。

 

-Joel.

 

今天，是这个礼拜第一天开工。我们早上九点半一起在ＯＲＰＣ集合。由于我前天不小心扭伤了脚，并且又要爬上楼梯，使我感觉到痛苦的滋味。我们到了第二楼集合目的是为了想要从 New Heart Ministries 学习不同的崇拜的方式与更了解我们崇拜的真正对象与主动者。后来，我们才发现真正的崇拜对象与主动者全都是上帝。过了崇拜的认识之后，我们也认识到崇拜的一些困难与问题，而怎么更好的办法来处理。并且我们也分组来学习在观众面前学习领唱。

Keng Gene 津津有味的吃他的午餐

大家从午餐回到ORPC

强壮的 Jonathan 背着我疲惫的身体爬上楼梯。

大家都在注意听Nicholas的分享。

大家都在18厨师(18 Chefs) 吃晚餐！

明天就是MR Emmanuel 的生日！阻尼上日快乐。希望你能够开开心心过这你这一天！

Finally some english!

-Justin.

Second day of the NEW YEAR!

今天是今年“开工”的第一天，大家大概一个星期没见面了，所以大家看到彼此都很开心。今天的daily devotion是由Elaine 负责。她分享了马太福音（ Matthew） 20:1-16，主要的内容是在讲公平的对待。Pr Gideon 过后也讲解了我们对神的付出，不需要计较多少，最终要是尽力，我们不需要计较回报，因为主已经答应了我们永恒的生命。

过后，我们有机会听到Nathaniel的分享。他讲了Health&Wealth in Mega Churches，分享了很多有趣的故事，让我影像最深刻的是那患了糖尿病的小男孩和他的死。真的没想到会有那么不可思议的事。虽然Mega Churches的习惯和行为有点难接受，有点错，可是我们也明白他们的出发点是好的可能有一点twisted而已。

分享了过后，就是吃午餐的时间！

吃了午餐，我们会ORPC，Keet 和我们讲解了短宣应该知道和注意的事，大家都很期待短宣， 所以都很专心的听。之后，我们分成PPC & Others, 讨论我们应该要做的事和各自的岗位。

工作了长长的一天，终于“放工”了。多数的人都流下来玩/看其他人玩Saboteur。

之后，有一些人回家，其他的人就一起去吃晚餐。

Merry Christmas everybody! God bless^^