It was the 19th of December and the Christmas celebration began with dinner. Earlier they had streamed in with presents for the gifts exchange. People sat around tables and chatted. There was a bumper 37 guests who turned up for the party. After a relaxed catered dinner, it was time for an icebreaker. There was much laughter and movement and both young and old enjoyed themselves thoroughly. Then we sang several popular well known Christmas carols and showed a meaningful locally produced video of how an ex-stewardess who was a gambling addict was transformed by God’s power and grace. Lily Koh followed this up with her story of how Christ set her free from a gambling addiction too. How relevant these were as the integrated resorts and casinos were opened just a few months ago for “business”. Then everyone broke into groups and shared their stories too. It was a meaningful Christmas.

It started with when Sunny Chong attended the MLM and Pastor Alvin was the trainer. The pastor expressed his passion for badminton which he played every Sunday without fail with his Eternal Life Assembly members. He invited the Sunny’s  interest group (mixture of pre-believers and church cell members of the West) to play a friendly game with them. This friendly was a good start to show pre-believers that Christianity is also fun and giving.

As for the report of the night’s game, we lost 5, won 4 and drew 1. In conclusion, we lost. Out of the 4 wins, they were won by Marcus (3 games, our star player of the night) and Annie Chong. Without these two players, we would have been relegated to Division 2.  We will be challenging them with a return match 3 months later. Sports is a good way to share the love of God as well as to fellowship with other churches.

The first event was a  cell dinner outreach on Feb 14.  We bought gifts and 10 (BY FAITH) inspirational books authored by Kate Cheah (owner of POLAR CAFE).  The Lord provided a friend who got them at special price and autographed-Praise the Lord!  Daphne (Lily’s colleague) came, who also came to our last Christmas outreach, since then, Daphne has been attending our cell weekly! The Lord is working miracles and touching her tremendously, she is a great cook and ask us to pray for  4 friends whom she wants to bring to the soon coming ALPHA COURSE.   The following week, my sister Jasmine and her son Brian, came to join us and have been quite consistent since.  It is my utmost heart desire to reach out to my family and by faith  and prayer I had declared I wanted to see my family saved this year.  The Lord provided the opportunity for me to share Christ with her on the second day of Chinese New Year and I invited her to the Clementi cell when she went through a difficult time and, even though we were not close knitted in the past, I am now walking closely with her through the challenging situation. The Lord is good!

The second cell event was on 24april 2009: a  sharing by Bruce and Yit Leng (Lily’s dept.head).  Bruce, an ex-drug user, and in and out of jail,  turned to Christ during a Christmas event in jail.  Currently working with The New Charis Mission, he shared his testimony with the cell. ( By the way, Bruce & Yit Leng met and got married during a disciple training course conducted in our church premise!  How amazing!)   Three  guests came- Candy, Molly and Noon (a Thai lady).    Candy (Donny’s friend), a China national, currently still in very close contact with us, attended our church service thrice already, the most recent was last week.  She is very open to the gospel as the Lord answered her prayer for a place in NTU to do a 1-year Masters in Computer Science this August, she came on her own last Sunday as she wanted to thank the Lord for this. Amazing and encouraging!!   Molly, Daphne’s friend, and  Noon, Angeline’s colleague, and Jasmine, my sister, are three persons whom we want to invite for the ALPHA COURSE.

24th April was a night of LORDS’s anointing and presence.  As this was our first ‘big’ event, we were quite apprehensive initially.  Instead, in our weakness, we really saw the strength and power of God demonstrated. While Bruce & Yit Leng shared the Lord’s blessings,  the guests asked questions, some pretty tough ones from Noon.  I was really interceding in my heart and wondering how the night would end up?  As much as we love to have salvations that night, we recognised the most important  was to have seeds sown first.  As the sharing near ending,  I was really asking the Lord for wisdom what to do as the clock ticked….  We sang two closing songs, Bruce played with anointing on the guitar, and the Lord’s presence was very evident and powerful. The guests allowed us to pray for them individually.  We (the cell members) were very blessed and awed by the Lord’s presence!!   Bruce and Yit Leng shared with Lily that too, the presence of the Lord is very powerful that night and they were very blessed and touched by our cell’s earnest involvement and hearts’ desire to reach out.

As the cell reflected, we truly agreed and recognised that the Lord is anointing what He has first started out to do with CLEMENTI cell since February, that is to continually reach out, BY FAITH, to ten souls! And I am sure we all agree that when one soul is saved, the whole heaven rejoices!!  As we strive to go forth in this direction and calling, asking Him for wisdom, knowledge and creative ideas, working together with Him, according to His agenda and anointing, ten souls are possible.

All my fellow cell family are very united and excited in this mission calling. (report by Cavelyn Cheong)

It was relaxed and fun. The young adult cell that my wife and I hosted for a year and a half bought us a Japanese buffet dinner at Chow House along Robinson Road. Samuel Chan was also going back to Adelaide so this was a goodbye meal too. The sashimi was fresh, the food was good and the company was just great…..with Bible trivia thrown in too.

There was a lot of banter and laughter. This group has developed a spirtual intimacy: very open and honest in their sharing about their lives, caring and praying for one another. This is certainly one of the most important thing about being part of a small Christian community: we can love one another deeply, and share openly in safety and vulnerability and full acceptance; and strengthen each other’s faith while engaging in mission (John 13:34,35). This is what church is meant to be about; this is what I believe folks in their twenties are searching for, what will deeply satisfy them. It has to be more than the kind of friendships, or thrills and varied experiences you can find in the world; it has to be deep spiritual friendships of committed love: a commodity as rare as uranium, and potentially, even more explosive!

The cell leader is XX and he leads well and feeds Joel the “flock” well too. 

We were blessed to host this group in our home, to see them through ups and downs, to steady them through unmet expectations. We grew in our affection for them, and after a long stretch of rootlessness, visiting cell after cell every Friday, we felt a sense of belonging in this cell. But from the beginning, this arrangement was not meant to be permanent, and it won’t, but we are enjoying it till the page is turned.

If love is not the greatest, then what is?

(Report by Kenny)