Singapore 2 of 3

On our arrival we were made very welcome at the service which was held in a large modern underground auditorium. A visiting Malaysian evangelist preached on forgiveness from Matthew 6. He challenged his Chinese brothers and sisters to follow Jesus' example of forgiveness demonstrated in his free gift of forgiveness won and expressed throughout his life on earth and from the cross. He referred to how hanging onto resentment, the family honour of 'payback' and the harbouring of bitterness is so damaging both physically and spiritually and cripples us inside. Forgiveness others sets me free, sets the other person free and there is emotional healing as expressed in, James 5:16. The singing was joyful and we were blessed by this service. Afterwards all visitors were invited for coffee at the church coffee shop where one of the welcoming members bought us coffee and talked with us as we filled in welcome /contact cards.

We'd met Brenda, a Filipino girl who had just moved to Singapore last week and is looking for a job in IT. She sat next to us during the service and we encouraged her to link up with the welcomers as this was her first visit to the church. Over coffee she shared her story with us and said she doesn't read the Bible often as she does not know where to begin. Our welcomer was able to show Brenda at least 2 home Bible Studies she could attend in homes near the area where she is living and Brenda became very excited about having found a welcoming church family. She also learnt that there was a 2pm Filipino service which she planned to attend so that she could meet other Filipino Christians. We exchanged emails and intend to keep in touch in the future. We believe that we were meant to attend this service because when we first spoke to Brenda she was not confident to meet with the welcomers but because we encouraged her she was so glad that she felt included. Maria, our welcomer assured us that the church would follow up Brenda's interest in joining a bible study home group within the week. How encouraging this day was to Ken and I. Several people in the coffee shop were interested in our HSM and took cards from us so that they could learn more about HSM and we asked them to pray for us on board the Sea Princess over the next2 months. We prayed with Brenda and took photos before saying farewell to her.