Updates

This blog has again gone through a long period without any blue moons. Which is why I think its time for an update. Not much of significance has happened in recent months, save two worth mentioning. One was an incident that took place during Sunday service, which Bill Hybels coined as a “this is church” moment, the other being a wedding.

About a month ago, All Saints Prebyterian Church, an English speaking church that worships in the basement of the Bible House, approached us half an hour before service started with a problem of theirs: the air conditioning had broken down, which made Sunday service a very discouraging prospect. Their service is at 10, whilst ours starts at 930 (though I SWEAR many in our congregation thinks it starts at 10).

Anyway, within an amazingly short space of time, we ironed out everything, and the entire All Saints Presbyterian Church congregation duly trooped into our sanctuary, and we pulled off a surprisingly smooth bilingual service. All this from a church that usually take 3 months of deliberation to approve a minor budget adjustment!! I was so proud of my church that day, for the graciousness that we displayed, and also the fact that we were able to pull off the whole thing so well.

Actually, my emotional reaction caught me off guard. I could not figure out why I would make such a big deal out of a seemingly straightforward event, albeit a good one. Then I realized that it might have something to do with just how little I’ve come to expect from the church, that when something like that generates a bit of warmth, I am so moved by what I witnessed. Secondly, I realized it was nostalgia. The whole feeling where as a body we worked together and saw God’s work being done. It has been so long since I last felt/experienced something like that.

I went home feeling just that little bit recharged that day, having been given a physical reminder YET AGAIN of just how much good God can bring out of what I perceive as mere rubble. It seems that despite so many sermons preached on Nehemiah this year, I was still persisting in seeing rubble as nothing more than that. I guess God wanted to give me a more tangible lesson to learn.

The second event worth noting is that Weifeng and Peishan were finally married!!!! It was a very sweet and slightly unconventional wedding, but it bore all the trademarks of both of them: stylish yet understated. No fuss, but a lot of thought had evidently gone into the planning.

So, even though the two of them will probably never read this, kudos to JT and PS for a smash hit wedding!!!