CENTURY CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
Our family has enjoyed worshiping in COR ever since we relocated to Singapore in 2010. All of us settled in well and made many friends. In 2016, we were looking at moving houses. It so happened that Bishop Kuan often talked about growing as a church in his sermons. One suggestion he made was for members to move to CCF and be part of the work there.
Being part of a smaller congregation and growing along with it was something that appealed to us. The vision was for Century Christian Fellowship (CCF) to be an Anglican congregation in Sengkang/Punggol and have the opportunity to reach out to the nonbelievers there. As we prayed, we also visited CCF to get a feel of how things might be. Thank God that we enjoyed the services and fellowship there. It so happened that CCF was very close to where we were intending to relocate to, and we felt that God was enabling us to make the move. Another important factor was that our cell leader, Cindy Tan and family, were also moving to CCF. Together with the fact that we felt there would be greater need and opportunity for us to serve in CCF, this helped us in starting our journey in CCF from around April 2017.
Needless to say, resettling had its difficulties. To begin with, service was in the evening at 4pm which we were not used to. Our eldest son Jonathan was already a part of COR's MSS and wanted to continue there. We felt it was important to attend one service as a family. It would be one more thing in common that could spark conversation at the dinner table, so even though the kids would attend MSS in the morning, we wanted them to join us for the CCF service in the evening as well.
The parishioners at CCF were extremely friendly and welcoming, which simplified our transition. The awesome tradition of each cell group taking turns to bring food to share after service really helped the conversation and bonding in the church. It was not long before my wife Sonali started serving in the children’s ministry. She later joined the music ministry, as did Jonathan and our daughter Johara. (Jaydon, our youngest, is still in the children’s ministry.) I joined the church committee this year, and I will be serving as the church camp commandant next year.
It gives us confidence to know that we are still connected to COR, and that there is a huge congregation behind us. Our prayer is that CCF will be able to achieve the mission it was set up for in the near future.
自从在2010年搬迁到新加坡后，我们一家人便开始在复活堂崇拜。我们很享受在那里的敬拜，并且很快地融入其中，也结交了许多朋友。在2016那年，我们正打算搬家之时，便听到Bishop Kuan在分享信息中，常谈到有关教会的扩展。其中一个建议就是希望我们当中的会友能过去Century Christian Fellowship (CCF)帮忙建立教会。
当时，想到能参与较小的堂会及随之成长就让我们的心有所感动。CCF的异象是能够在盛港/榜鹅一带建立一所圣公会的堂会，并向当地的居民传福音。在祷告的同时，我们也亲自拜访了CCF，去多了解那里的情况。感谢上帝，我们很享受那里的崇拜和团契。CCF的地点也很靠近我们想要搬去的新居，让我们看到是上帝的旨意在其中。另一个重要的因素是我们小组组长，Cindy Tan 和她的全家也决定参与CCF的崇拜。再者，我们也感受到在CCF有更大的需要和服侍的机会。这种种的原因促使我们在2017年的四月份左右，开始了在CCF里的崇拜。
要重新安置并适应新的环境必然会面对一些挑战。首先，我们不习惯在傍晚四点参加聚会。其次，我们的长子Jonathan一向参与复活堂MSS的崇拜并且希望能继续留在那里。我和太太觉得一家人参与同一个堂会的崇拜是很重要的，因会成为我们家人之间饭后的共同话题。所以我们决定，孩子们在MSS的早晨崇拜结束后，在傍晚时分还要和我们一起去参与CCF的聚会。
CCF的同工和领袖们非常亲切地欢迎我们，并帮助我们很快地适应那里的环境。CCF里有一个很棒的传统，便是每个小组会轮流准备茶点，在聚会结束后饮用，以促进会友之间的交流和团契。不久，我的太太便开始在儿童主日学里侍奉，过后也和我的长子Jonathan及女儿Johara一同参与敬拜事工（Jaydon, 我们最年幼的孩子还在儿童事工）。我也在今年参加了教会的委员会，并会担任教会明年生活营的营长。
认知复活堂与CCF仍有关联，并在背后支持着我们，给予了我们很大的信心。我们的祷告是CCF在不久的将来，能完成上帝起初所托付的使命和异象。
This article first appeared in Issue 20, December 2019 CHORUS Magazine.
Comments