Kids in the house!

The joy of being a Sunday School teacher/helper is... interacting with the kids! Today we invited the worship team over for a little post-PSLE get-together cum "meeting" to discuss the songs for the next two months.

 

First time we are doing that, and it was because one of the older ones said it's better to give them heads-up on what songs we choose, so that they can lead the session better. 

 

So we had pizza, fried chicken wings, fries, potato chips, coke etc. It was a short two hours and we probably screamed the whole estate down. But it was great having this bubbly bunch over; their unlimited level of energy was almost contagious.

 

Pizza by the balcony.

 

"What songs should we choose?"

It was quite funny how earlier in the day at church we were approached by parents who had concerned looks on their faces. "We heard that you are having an 'open house' today for the kids," they said, half-jokingly followed by a good-luck-to-you and I-hope-you-know-what-you-are-getting-into kind of look.

 

Granted, we had to do some major cleaning up after the kids left (we do that every time we had guests anyway). But the kids were awesome and I think they did their best to keep clean and tidy.

 

You know what people say, about how you go into something thinking that you are giving but in the end you are receiving? That's exactly how I felt today.

 

So thank you kids, for the wonderful time today. And most of all thank you God, for the chance to experience your love through your wonderful little creations.

 

 

 

 

 





Train a child in the way he should go...

"They have short attention span." " They lack joy in worship." "They don't know how to pray." "We need more parents' involvement in the children's spiritual life...." "We need more teachers!" "Got more budget?"

Interesting thoughts from about 20 of us at the Children Ministry retreat held at the British Club today. I had thought that only the worship team (where Mr. Jang and I were involved) faces such issue since we deal with a big group of kids but in fact, the smaller care groups are facing just the same challenges as we do.

My 1000km/h brain immediately thought of the solutions to all these and I was wondering why PC, who was organising the session, kept asking us to hold discussions on the solutions. I realised after lunch that she wants us to think through why we are here in the first place: Our purpose (the "mission" of Children Ministry), Our product (we actually want the children to be disciples of God who produce more and more disciples!), and Our priorities (building an atmostphere of love, a dependence on prayer, a tripartite relationship with parents and the larger church, a word-centred ministry and inculcating the proper knowledge of Christ and the Gospel).

And then we think about Our processes - do we want more parents-teachers interaction, do we want to plan local missions to orphanages and old folks homes, do we try to have a greater alignment of adult worship and children worship? All these will have to be thought through with the first 3 Ps in mind.

The session was peppered with funny moments too - thanks to Mr. Jang. Our team tried to come up with hilarious acrostics e.g. for the values of Children Ministry, we had "iSWAT" - i) not "I" but "others", ii) Servanthood, iii) a heart of Worship, iv) Applying biblical wisdom to life and v) Togetherness in prayer, sharing of each other's burdens and encouragement.

I was also secretly glad that Mr. Jang and I were in the same team - more that just being husband and wife, I think we complement each other well in that I take down notes and do the writing while he does the talking (what he is good at). Also got to learn much from H and EK, who had loads of insightful thoughts.

The session was finally over after long discussions and presentations (and loads and loads of food!) The road to building an effective Children Minstry won't be easy with so many distractions for the kids today, but at least this team of dedicated teachers will persevere to the end despite occasional burntouts! A demonstration of servanthood indeed!

"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it." - Proverbs 22:6

Four times Christmas at Cafe Lumiere

26 Dec, Singapore - Following its soft launch earlier in the month, Cafe Lumiere officially opened its doors to host four Christmas gathering over the long weekend. It first welcomed a care group cum pot luck dinner on Friday evening, which ended at 1.30am and broke the record of previous care groups hosted. It was mainly due to the difficult book of Isaiah, which somehow ended up into a prolonged discussion on tithing. The co-owners, Grace and Mr. Jang, had no recollection of how the topic has gone off the path.

On Christmas eve, Cafe Lumiere hosted a close group of colleagues from Grace's old office, Meeka.  It was the first lunch that Grace ever prepared in the sit down western meal kind of setting. There was pork rib (from NTUC), honey baked ham (from NTUC), wine (from NTUC), and a gigantic log cake (from NTUC). The non-NTUC items were pasta, stringed pineapple and cheese hotdog, and salad with homemade vinaigrette dressing. When asked how she felt on her first attempt to prepare a meal, Grace said: "I was really excited and am just glad that there are no reports of food poisoning thus far! The only negative comment I had was from ex-colleague, Meds, who said my fireplace decor failed... But that's sort of OK coming from Meds!" She quipped.

The Christmas eve dinner session was dedicated to Mr. Jang's JC and majong friends. Interestingly, Cafe Lumiere is also known as MJC - the short form for "Majong Club". True to its name, MJC members presented a majong table as a housewarming gift to the couple. It was quickly put to good use after the members had their Christmas feast and the party ended at 3am in the morning, or so Grace heard as she has already collapsed into her four-poster bed slightly after midnight due to the long day spent in the kitchen.

As for Christmas day, it was a relief for the owners that the party only started around 7pm. Grace and Mr. Jang were exhausted from helping out at the Children Ministry in the morning. Some of the junior kids apparently ate the chocolate stars that they hid in the santuary for the older kids. The latter could not find the complete set of stars for them to piece together the words of "SAVE", "(L)AMB", "H(O)PE" and "LOV(E)". The couple spent some time trying in vain to locate the stars which had mysteriously gone missing.

At 7pm, Grace and Mr Jang welcomed their friends and family to Cafe Lumiere for the grand finale Christmas Day dinner. And what a feast the group had - it was all from a catering service! But it was all made cosy and personalised by the wonderful presents, desserts, and wine brought by their pals. The Christmas spirit was further enhanced by the fact that everyone came dressed in the theme of "Winter" albeit with various interpretations - tropical winter, temperate winter, but luckily no north-pole winter as the air-con could only go as low as 17C. Come gift exchange time, everyone had a fantastic time unwrapping the goodies brought by one another. Even Grace's brother-in-law, OSH, bought a proper gift from L'Occitane this time round. Suspiciously though, he did not know what L'Occitane is when asked. Being the good wife that she is, Est, Grace's sister, refused to comment when asked if she bought the gift on his behalf. The night ended on a high note as the group laughed their guts out watching an old movie, 唐伯虎点秋香.

We bring you some photo highlights from the dinner finale, which is not a lot as Grace was either too busy in the kitchen or at the dining area eating. For the rest of the other events, there were no photos taken from Grace's phone cam (she totally forgot).

Cafe Lumiere wishes all a Merry Christmas once again!

Cafe Lumiere co-owner Grace (right) with her favourite sister Esther (left) and dog Almonn. She calls them collectively: Sismonn.

Almonn was almost put up for sale, if not for his hidden ferocious character. 

The Crazy Trio from Sec One. From left: Grace, Chick, and Hwei.

(*Grace realised that she also forgot to take a Christmas photo with cafe co-owner and husband, Mr. Jang. Oopsie!)

how I tried to memorise the whole of Psalm 23 in 10 mins.

If God is a boss...

There is no "if" actually - God is THE boss. But let's just put aside the fact that He is the boss of all and imagine Him as a normal employer. I would say He is one who stretches His staff to the maximum. Shortly after I said I want to contribute more, He dished us with greater responsibilities in the children ministry, by letting us take on the whole group by ourselves on alternate Sundays from July onwards.

The first gulp is for not having the luxury of all teachers around to manage the hyperactive kids anymore. The second gulp is for not having Howard around to play the guitar, which means we either have rely on CDs, or for me to play the piano. I personally don't like the CDs because the music tends to drown out the children's voice. On the other hand, that leaves me with 2-3 weeks to at least bang a few songs on the piano.

It's probably God's way of a half-year work review for us. He's saying, you have been trained on the job for the past six months now. Time for you to step up and do REAL work, so that my other officers can take a rest. Fair enough.

I'll give God the answer I give to all bosses. I will try my best and work hard. Please let me know how to improve.

TMC's church camp at Bangi, Malaysia

Mr. Jang and I went to "help out" at TMC's church camp in Bangi, Malaysia the past few days as part of the requirement under SU's course on children ministry. We were quite sceptical that we can do a good job as the complete materials arrived only a couple of weeks earlier and there was just no time to do a thorough read-through and practice in between our busy work schedules. And lo and behold, a surprise await us upon arrival. While we had earlier agreed that we will concentrate on teaching the songs and TL on the actual course materials, TL changed his mind and asked us to do the actual teaching only the night before the actual start of the programme (!?). I practically had to eat up and digest the whole book within one night, just to make sure that I know what I was going to teach the next day. For Mr. Jang and I, it was definitely the first time in our entire life that we are teaching a class. (There were some other issues with TL which we didn't agree with but that was a separate matter...).

By the grace of God, the kids were a lovely bunch to work with. The older ones were as usual more "cool" but they seemed to warm up to the games that we racked our brains to come up with. Seriously, I haven't skipped for the past ten years but I managed to skip AND recite a memory verse at the same time (yay!). We also managed to scrap together some materials for another memory verse game. The younger ones were undoubtedly the sweetest. They volunteered for almost anything and the kind of energy they had just rubbed off the both of us. I love it most when they sing out loud, because it is a combination of enthusiasm, innocence and love for God.

It was a pity that the camp had to end just when we were getting to know them better and could call them each by name. I now understand why some people said they are very attached to the children they teach, because there is really a great sense of fulfilment and joy in engaging the young ones. The greatest take away I have from teaching at the camp is that, children can accomplish much if you trust them, and they do remember what they learn and can even teach you back. There is so much potential to be unleashed and I do hope they will practise what they learn. For Mr. Jang and I, I hope we will continue to have the same level of enthusiasm and passion for the children in our own church, as we did for those at the TMC camp.. and for the TMC folks (the adults esp the Choo family (Wennie), Kelvin & Poh Kit, Sherry, Alice, Anthony, Christina, Rev Bernard etc etc), hope we will have a chance to visit you guys one of these Sundays.

In His Love...

Photos:

Children sitting in their groups


Children doing group work


Mr. Jang and the groups' unshakable straw towers


Children doing sand art


Children rehearsing for the celebration performance

just another random day

Had a so-so day at work. Simply couldn't concentrate cos of all the emails that are flying everywhere and the follow-ups that need to be done. In the midst of all the mess, thank God I had sane colleagues to rely on, not-so-sane ones to laugh with/at, and just sufficient energy to get through the day. Indeed, Jesus is the rock!

(Did this in class today. Suppose to practise for children's camp two weeks from now. Haha. Am such a "sucker" for these things. Oh when will I ever ever grow up!) :)

By me:


By Mr. Jang (yes this big man loves hearts):

Balloon ministry

This week's children ministry is on the use of balloons to convey your message to the kids. For the first time in my life, I managed to twist a doggie, a "gospel" flower, a snake, a bee, and two apples. My fingers hurt and my nails were scratched at the end of the lesson. But I think it's sooooooo cool. Too bad Mr. Jang was at work and couldn't make it. He missed out so much fun!

Long time no update.... :p

Always start out switching on the comp to blog but always end up checking FB, checking mails, doing 101 things and then forgetting what I want to write or getting too sleepy.

Things have been pretty hectic at work. That aside, have been trying to work hard at equipping myself for the role at children's ministry - practising piano as much as I can (small progress but still a long way to go!), reading the book that Vivien lent me (finally completed it this evening!) and reading the Bible. Maybe it's because I feel that I am so not qualified to help out yet, and want to really want to build up on my Bible knowledge. And the more I read, the more I want to learn (cos there's like endless teachings inside!) So, sometimes can get frustrated and impatient... but then am reminded that the Lord is good and all He is asking for is obedience and faith. :>

So, in summary, am learning tons and tons, and it's taking loads and loads of effort, but I know that it's really really worth it! ^ ^ Am keeping the faith and reminding myself to focus on Jesus! :)