hey people!

kay my first post here.

had so much fun during the retreatt! :D
the most fun part was:

*drumrolls*

SABOTEUR!

it was totally fun man!
we like. played till 2.03am? :D

haha totally addictive.
and thank God that we actually managed to wake up,
the next morning
at like? 8?

early muchh.
hahaha.

worship was totally cool :D

yes and finally.
HOME SWEET HOME! :D

I am thankful...
For God, a reminder of His love and grace.
For the family, a sisterly love, words and acts of kindness, service and love.
For the retreat, a time for bonding.
For the house, a warm, cosy and peaceful place.
(I know who to be my interior designer next time when I have my own place)
For the lovely weather, it was not too hot, the rain stopped/drizzle when we had to go out.
For fun, every loves fun.
For being able to thank God for His bountiful blessings.
For remembering God's faithfulness in the year of Sabbath.
For an insight of what is to come in 2009.

I am looking forward to building relationships in the family and cluster
I am looking forward to appreciating diversity and meet the needs of others
I am looking forward to mark a difference in the lives of my neighbour.

I COMMIT TO LOVE MY NEIGHBOUR.. :-)

What to expect at this year's retreat?

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

A prayer for the season of seeking God's Kingdom

Our Father which art in Heaven

Hallowed be Thy Name

Thy Kingdom come

Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors

And lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil

For Thine is the Kingdom

And the Power

And the Glory

Forever Amen!

4-month discipleship

This is an exciting phase. I believe if you fully commit yourselves in the discipleship phase, fruitfulness and anointing will flow into and out of your lives....

May you be blessed to grow under the discipleship of your leaders:

Sharmaine - Shufang
Grace - Cynthia
Yating & Adeline - Michelle
Choi Ying & Weiqing - Shao Qi
Huili - Wang Ying
Sharon - Yifan
Jess & Joan - Fang Siang

There are reasons for the arrangement as I see strengths in these leaders which you can learn from. Talk to me if you want to know what you can learn from. =)

G12 this week

Hi all,

I think to get all of you to come to this blog and post new entries, I'll start first by placing announcements here.

G12 this Friday will be at TCT Seminar Room 1.

Room opens at 7.30pm. Meeting starts 8pm.

Sharmaine will be leading worship. Who's your guitarist? Sharon, accompanying guitarist?

THE 4 Questions

Hello girls (my 12 only),

These are the 4 questions you have to prepare for G12 this coming Fri:

1. Does G12 meetings meet your needs?
2. What are your needs (physical, career, marriage, family, emotional, personal growth, etc)?
3. What are your prayer requests?
4. What do you want to learn from me?

This little exercise is really for feedback for me, as a leader. We are NOT promoting consumeristic attitude, meaning we do not attend G12 for needs to be met. We meet to worship God and edify the body. As worshippers, our only concern is to worship God, trusting that God will meet our needs. As a spirtual leader, my concern (and eventually yours too, when you are a spiritual leader) is to lead the rest to worship God, and to be an instrument for God to use to meet your members' needs.

Must come prepared. Type it out or write it out. In short, "pass up your homework on Friday!" says Mrs Tan =)

Melvyn and Choi's wedding video..

:-)

well, not the exact same one, but same content haha hopefully this helps :)
anyway, it takes some time to load... yea.

Looking for Mother's Day Video Clip

I'm looking for the video clip from youtube that was shown about Mother's Day during service. The very funny one about nagging. Want to show my kids (aka students) Can't find, dunno what keywords to use (should email Ps Nina ya? :)

Anyone can help?

GDOP 2008...

Anyone wants to go??

Tommy Tenney comes to FCBC...

‘The GodChasers Seminar with Tommy Tenney’
Sat, 10 May 2008 2pm-7pm The MAX Pavilion
Free admission by tickets
- Please obtain your free tickets through your G12 / open cell leader or network pastor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'One Night With The King' - A special Sunday message by Tommy Tenney
Sun, 11 May 2008 9am, 11.15am & 1.30pm The MAX Pavilion

See you there!!!

Look at how she's grown!

Here's Hannah.. now 4mths old..



Now she can support her head.. an active baby!
was carrying her today and she leaned backwards and i quickly supported her back.. thank God she was ok..
then Seth shared how she did a double flip (a gymnast?) and ended up on the floor at home the other day.. Of cos the daddy and mummy sent her to see a doctor. Thank God for His divine protection on her..

Was waiting for FS to finish ministry today.. then was with Seth when I took this video before she decided she was hungry and started to cry..
So the calm daddy decided to wait for FS to come to feed her but Hannah had her own mind and cried for so long, was inconsolable so daddy Seth decided to give her some semi solid food.. but this amazing baby decided not to consume the food..

why? cos the milk that was added to the food was not chilled and after service, may have probably gone bad.. so she cleverly refuse to drink it!!
Thank God that for His protection cos if she had drank it, she may have gotten real sick!!

Parenting 101:
Barricade when baby is elevated even when u are not around for juz a few seconds.
Chill the milk.. else it turns sour.

i'm amazed at God's protection.. even for someone as vulnerable as a babe..

Indeed He is our Fortress, our Saviour.

It's March 8!!

Happy International Women's Day!!!

Let's celebrate women!!!

Tim Hughes in Singapore

Heya Ladies,

Interested in going for the following events? Click on the links for more info. Thinking of going for the Thursday session (10th Apr). Let me know if you wanna go. I'll register for the free tickets! Let me know latest by next Sunday ya?

Ady

http://www.alpha.org.sg/wcps/

http://www.alpha.org.sg/wcc/program.htm

Pastor on the cover page!!...well, sort of

And here's the full story. Though not really on FCBC, but you can read for leisure! :)

Expo, the way to go

Centre making a name as a church hub

Monday • January 14, 2008

Alicia Wong
alicia@mediacorp.com.sg

IT HAS always been a venue for conventions and exhibitions, one of the top in the region. But strange as it may seem at first glance, this same site looks to be South-east Asia's hub for churches as well.

Whether attending youth rallies, outreaches or weekend services, a sizeable number of church-goers have religiously flocked to one of the few places that can accommodate their numbers — the Singapore Expo.

Which says as much for the Expo as it is a sign of the growing numbers attracted to churches in Singapore and their subsequent need for space.

It is "one of the busiest and most popular venues for church events," said a spokesperson.

Each weekend, as many as 27,000 church-goers head for the Expo, and could contribute to as many as 90 per cent of its visitors on a non-event weekend.

From 2005, three of its 10 multi-purpose halls have been leased to two churches every weekend.

The City Harvest Church (CHC) holds three services on Saturdays and Sundays at hall 8 for its 17,000-strong congregation. The Faith Community Baptist Church (FCBC) rents the Max Pavilion and hall 9, drawing about 10,000 attendees over the weekend.

When Today visited FCBC's youth service, parked cars lined the roads leading to the Max Pavilion. The auditorium was about half-filled but the remaining seats, yet to be filled, were reserved.

Smaller-sized Bethesda Community Church, which has held its Sunday services at the Expo for the last seven years, occupies about half of the total conference and meeting rooms at the centre.

CHC's executive pastor Reverend Derek Dunn said his church chose the Expo for its large hall size and long-term availability. "There isn't another venue with more than 10,000 sq m of floor area that could offer that to us," he said.

CHC had "maximised" usage of its Jurong West building and needed more space for its English-language service.

Expo officials would not reveal lease or rental costs but a regular user of the centre told Today the daily cost for the use of an empty 10,000-sq-m hall could start from about $50,000.

A hefty sum to pay to worship in airconditioned comfort?

Perhaps, but the tithe and donations from worshippers undoubtedly help foot the bill.

The CEO of a medium-sized company told Today she contributes 10 per cent of her monthly salary — about $1,000 — every month.

Mr David Chew, 56, who attends FCBC with his wife and three children, said the move to Expo was "practical". FCBC has held many smaller services at Marine Parade in the past.

FCBC provides shuttle buses from Simei MRT startion, he added, to make it easier to travel to the Expo.

Mr Jonah Wang, 26, an FCBC member who spends about an hour travelling to the Expo from Yishun, said the distance was "not an issue".

"My spiritual family is here," he said referring to his church at the Expo.

According to the Expo spokesperson, CHC and FCBC each hold about five additional annual events annual and other churches, including New Creation, hold a total of about 15 events at the Expo.

The Catholic Archdiocese Youth Centre (CAYC) held its youth rally at the Expo last year.

Citing economical pricing as one reason, CAYC's youth coordinator Edwyn De Souza, said CAYC also chose the Expo because of its big bus bay.

Members of the various congregations also liked the Expo's relatively isolated location as it reduced distraction and the halls being on "ground-level made it safe and convenient for the elderly, the handicapped and children", the Expo spokesperson said.

Church-goers, by their sheer numbers, also served as a draw for event organisers planning to use the Expo to stage exhibitions, she said.

Miss Ng Xuehua, 19, told Today she would visit exhibitions at the Expo after attending FCBC's Mandarin service, "especially if it was an IT fair", while Mr Calvin Hue, 53, said car exhibitions and computer fairs attracted him.

The Expo plays host to about 700,000 to 800,000 visitors on a weekend when events are held.

Can Singaporeans expect more churches to hold their services at the Expo?

Cornerstone Community Church will be hosting its second event at the Expo this month.

A church official said: "As it is, there is a shortage of medium to large facilities in Singapore, halls that can hold 2,500 to 5,000 people will be in great demand."

One mega-church, New Creation Church, however, has chosen another way to house its large congregation — it will be moving to an integrated lifestyle hub at one-north in three years.

Now holding its Sunday services at Suntec City's the Rock Auditorium, it attracts a congregation of over 15,000 and many members have to be "directed to our overflow rooms where they can follow and participate in the service via simultaneous telecast on projection screens", a church official said.

Thanksgivings for 2007

1) Xide's marriage proposal to me
2) Thank God for helping me to raise more than $500 for the QQS trip
3) My relationship with my colleagues and Xide's family have been better than last year
4) I got my bonus and it's better than last year (haha, cos i work one year already!) :)
5) Thank God also for adding Hannah to our family.

Thanksgiving for 2007

I thank God for....
a) Surfacing hurts through my "tennis elbow"
b) Change of job
c) Last revelation of the year - To stop complaining like Israel
d) Everyone who loves me! :P

Entering 2008...

Yat, Grace and I decided to pay Seth, FS and Hannah a visit before heading down to the Countdown Party on New Year's Eve..

It was my first and last time carrying Hannah in 2007.. but i look forward to more opportunities in 2008!! :-)
We were trying real hard to wake Hannah up but she was so soundly asleep.. Maybe she wanted to join us for the Countdown Party at Expo!!! When she finally did stir for a moment.. I jumped at the opportunity to capture her many different expressions!

Anyway, us 3 aunties (yes Yat, you din manage to wake Hannah up..) headed down to Expo.. met Yanling near Hall 7 and started to queue up to enter the hall..

It was a great time of celebration.. and as usual, some came earlier than others.. thank God for the seats! For me, what was meaningful was reflecting on 2007 and giving thanks for the victories in my life. I'm sure there are others who share the exact sentiments!

The main highlight was the pyrotechnics and balls and balloons galore at the stroke of midnight!!

The celebrations at the party may be over.. but let's continue to give thanks and look toward 2008, the year of Sabbath!