Dear Brethren,
Praise God for the new Church Van
The Lord is good to provide us a new van with a new 10-year COE. Our old van has been scrapped and it has served us well for about 17 years. God knows our needs and the right time to change to this new van. I like to share with you how the Lord has led us to the decision.
We have hesitated to purchase a new van because of the high COE price. It would cost more than $100,000 to purchase a new van. Somewhere in last July 2013 we received a letter from LTA that we can receive a discounted COE if we convert to a Euro-5 standard low carbon emission van. The Church session agreed that we can explore to find out more about this new van. Surprisingly there was no Euro-5 standard van at that time at all in Singapore. Hence, we waited till the arrival of such van towards the end of the year 2013. Only Nissan and Toyota carried this new Euro-5 standard van. The Toyota model costs about $10,000 more than the Nissan model. Hence it was clear that we prefer the Nissan model.
The Church session made the decision to purchase to purchase the van in the early part of 2014. God’s timing was good that the prevailing COE PQP price was at a low price compared to the entire year in 2013. When we made the deposit in February 2014, the Lord granted His favour on us with a new announcement in the budget statement by the Finance Minister that there would be slightly more COE discount with the purchase of the Euro-5 standard van. Indeed, the Lord led us to the right time to purchase the van.
Throughout the entire process of acquiring the van, the Lord helped us step by step to get our approval. We prayed to the Lord regularly in our Church Tuesday night prayer meeting for His leading and help. We needed to scrap our old van before we can get the new van. We commit to the Lord in prayer as we plan to scrap the old van on Monday and to get the new van on Friday so that our Sunday worship transport is not affected. It seemed impossible with the delay in approval by LTA but praise the Lord that He made it possible. Indeed praise God from whom all blessings flow!
Praise God for Myanmar Mission Trip
The Lord is good to help and use us in the recent mission trip to Myanmar 22-29 March 2014. It was a step of faith to trust God in this mission trip with much to do for the Lord every day. The Lord never fails us in His grace and strength. When we go by faith, we will see the goodness and grace of God. I like to share this testimony written by sister Shermaine Tan who joined the mission trip for the first time. May more brethren be willing to come forward to serve the Lord in mission.
Testimony by Shermaine Tan
When I first signed up for the Myanmar mission, I did not think that I would be anywhere near serving as a teacher. How can I teach when I myself had not learnt? However, God was very good. We taught the life of David to the children in Myanmar and in my preparations, learning about David helped me to put my trust in God. Just like how David fought Goliath with faith and God’s strength and grace, I knew that it is very much a lesson for myself to do my part and rely on God to do the rest. I thank God for allowing me to serve Him in this mission trip, to do His work even though I have only just believed in Christ not long ago. It was a very blessed and faith growing trip and it is encouraging to see God’s love being exalted even in a underdeveloped country like Myanmar.
Perhaps in Singapore, we are sometimes too distracted by the world that we may forget to put God first in our lives, but to the children in Myanmar, God was their blessed hope and they desire to learn from God’s Word with lots of eagerness. It was shared by the members of NLOC that everytime after the mission team from Singapore leaves, they would pray every single day for God to bring them back again till the day they arrive again. I think that their fervency for the Lord is something we can all learn much from! 5 days passed by very fast and thank God for the good health, strength, wisdom and good interpreters He provided us for the 3 day VBS at NLOC and 1 day VBS at 2 other village churches respectively. Pray that the small work that we have done for the Lord will be glorifying unto Him and that the children have been edified and souls have been saved. God willing, I pray that a mission team can return there again next year and more will join to do His work.
“Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.” (Matthew 9:37-38)
Elder John Leong