On Monday, we have a youth sharing session on overseas mission trips and one on underwater photography. Listening to them on their motivation, their passion and drive to achieve what they thought was necessary set me thinking on whether there is an issue that I felt needed to be addressed. I thought about mission trips, not overseas but local. I have a friend who lamented that students nowadays want to go on overseas community involvement programmes (OCIP) because it was a school requirement in order to graduate or that it will look good on their resumes. Due to that reason, the focus was on overseas work, and the needy in our home country are pretty much neglected.
There is work to be done in Singapore also, and I wanted to find out how we can help those in need in Singapore. The needs include physical and spiritual. The churches were set up in Singapore for a purpose, to meet the needs of the people in the area at that time, and as time progresses, the church grew. The needs of the people change with time and we too must change the way in which we try to meet or tackle such issues also.
Living Praise Presbyterian Church, being the anchor church of Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Primary School, our mission field is just literally next door. Much can be done to reach out to the students. Coincidentally, part of our ministry project is tied to the school. So why not start with the Boys Brigade (BB) or the Girls Brigade (GB)? Our church currently has people who are committed to serving in the BB and GB. The challenge here is to encourage more on board. There is a camp this Saturday and helpers would be much appreciated! I intend to go and help, but now that I have injured my right knee, I am unsure if I could be of any help at all. Pray that God will provide the manpower needed and the program be run smoothly!
Learnt something new in biblical counselling, and also reaffirmed one bad habit of mine. I tend to judge people way before I find out the situation, something biblical counselling teaches you not to. The four steps to producing a positive fruit are love, know before speak and do. This is very important as there will be one day where people will confide in you and the least I could do is not to judge first without first finding out the issue. Oh and I also need to brush up on my mandarin again.
Reuben Yap
No comments:
Post a Comment