No Coincidence. Only God-incident - Part I

I've realised I have not blogged about God's amazing goodness in both of our lives as much as we'd like to. This does not mean at all that God is just a faint distant lightning, in fact it is absolutely the opposite. So as we only have a few more days left of the year 2007, let me marvel you with series of what I will call it 'God-incidences'. These are real life testimonies of what God has done in our lives so far in Singapore. It will move your spirit!

1) Finding the right church

When I first came to Singapore in March this year, I started to shop for the right church by visiting at least 4 different churches before finally settling at Centre of New Life (CNL) with about 500 members. I love the convenience of getting there via MRT (eg. it is located in the heart of the shopping street of Singers on Orchard Rd). I love the people there. I love the sermons. I love the Pastors. I love the fact that most of them were Melbournians or had studied there some point in their life so it was easier to relate to them. I love the fact that I fitted in the age group since majority of the congregation were young adults. But most of all, I love the people's tenacity & passion for God.

Fast Forward to August, prior to 'importing' my husband over, I had prayed to God that Kelv would fit into CNL just fine as I would be devastated to leave the church & its people if Kelv didn't fit in (although I had prepared myself to leave if it was called for). So when Kelv came, to my surprise, he fitted in perfectly. He got along great with everyone including the Pastor. We had thought CNL was 'it' for us.

After we came back from Thailand, I was so grateful to God that He has allowed this period of rest for both Kelv & I to get to know each other more deeply. We both really felt in our spirits that it was time for both of us to commit & serve in the church together as husband and wife. So we prayed for God to give us the right opportunity at the right time to place us where it needed us the most.

Immediately after that prayer in October, our dear Pastor from Melb, Ps Ken (who gave the sermon at our wedding) came to Singapore to be a guest speaker at River Of Life Church (ROLC) which has around 100+ members in Punggol. Kelv & I decided to take a day off at CNL to support our Pastor. I tell you, getting to ROLC was a challenge. It's literally in the middle of no where. Far from civilisation. No MRT stations. So this means we would need to cab it and we did. It took half and hour to flag a cab down because for some reason, the taxi drivers must all be in church as well as taxis on a Sunday morning are very hard to find. I remember so vividly both of us saying to each other 'Thank God this is only a once off!'. Then when we got to the church, we realised it was really in the kampong area & once again we said to each other 'thank God this is only a once off'. The church basically is a terrace house with 3 levels. I remember walking & feeling so out of place because the members were made up of the two extreme age groups: Youth & their Parents. No one in between (eg. no Young Adults, Newly Weds, New Parents etc). You were either a young teenager or a parent to some teenager. Once again both of us looked at each other saying 'Thank God this is only a once off'.
So after the sermon, a lot of people came up to us to welcome us, but of course Kelv & I didn't make a huge attempt to make conversations as we knew we would not return again... And boy were we wrong!

Next scene: Pastor John (Senior Pastor of the church), Pastor Rachel - 37y.o & very powerful woman of God (who is the Youth Pastor and used to be under Pastor Ken's Pastoral Care some donkey yrs ago) took Pastor Ken, Kelv & I for lunch to further fellowship with one another. As we were having lunch, automatically Ps Rachel & I hitted off so much so that we were having a conversation of our own while the 3 guys were chatting amongst themselves. I had no idea what the guys were talking about as I was just so engrossed by Pastor Rachel's life story & all of her testimonies. She did most of the talking. I listened & were completely amazed. Finally after lunch was over, Kelv & I didn't speak much to each other it was as if we were both trying to digest what each of the Pastors had shared with us.

When we got home, I asked Kelv 'how do you feel about the church?'. His response 'I feel compelled to serve in this church'. I was astonished & immediately replied 'me too!'. When each of the Pastors were sharing to us separately of what God has done in our lives, the Holy Spirit was already moving in our hearts separately. In our flesh, we absolutely did not want to attend the church as it was really so troublesome to get there & because we didn't think we would 'fit' in the church as we were the only Young Adult/Newly wed couple. But in our spirit, God was really calling the two of us to serve there. It's funny how God really stretch you out of your comfort zone.

From then on, we've been attending the church & everyday it's becoming more and more clearer as to why we've been called to serve there.
1) To help raise up their Youth who are approx 13-18y.o (which is approx 50% of the church)
2) To learn from the older generation who are all powerful men & women of God whom leads a very Godly family. This is the only church I've seen so far where all the men really steps up to lead in a lot of the ministries in church vs the women. It is also very unique in the sense that it is the Adults that really leads the church vs the Youth & these parents are extremely proud of their kids too especially when they grow closer to the Lord.
3) To help in their worship team of which Kelv & I has always love to be part of since our Melbourne days.

So there you have it. God has really answered our prayer despite the discomfort which mind you, it is now a privilege more than anything.

I've learnt too that you have to be very careful of what you pray for ;)