Arts Museum Open House (20 Sep 09)

We had a wonderful time at our cell group family outing yesterday afternoon at the Arts Museum. The kids had lots of fun trying out painting, origami and balloon sculpting. It's also a great time catching up with one another and for kids' interaction and play.

Blessed belated birthday, Joseph

We celebrated Joseph's birthday yesterday at cell meeting.

"Dead Sea Scrolls and the Ancient World" Exhibition in Singapore

The "Dead Sea Scrolls and the Ancient of the World" exhibition is now showing at the Arts House, Singapore. It had been an eye-opener for me in witnessing the historical moment of the dead sea scrolls exhibiting in Asia for the first time.

There were guided tours and lectures at the exhibition, covering the discovery site of the dead sea scrolls, the canon of the Bible and the significance of the translation of the anicent Bible to English.

I've done up a mind map for the information on dead sea scrolls (above, click to enlarge) and hope to provide an overview of what I'd learnt at the exhibition.

Happy Birthday, Andy!

Happy and blessed birthday to Andy, our birthday boy in August.

FCBC's 1st Bowling Rally@Kallang Leisure Park

Last Friday's bowling rally saw such an overwhelming turnout that my cell group only started bowling at about 10pm. Nevertheless, we had a great fellowship time at Wang Cafe. Nathan had a great time playing with Joshua at Wang Cafe, which gave some respite to the frazzled parents.

It's also great catching up with Kim Seng, my ex-colleague from Webvisions.

Biblical Perspective on Chinese Customs and Beliefs

I read CH Kang and Ethel Nelson's "The Discovery of Genesis: How the Truths of Genesis were found hidden in the Chinese Language" (Concordia Publishing House, 1985) a few years ago with some understanding of how ancient Chinese words appeared to contain some aspects of biblical context. Some of the truths were etched in my mind and perhaps develop in me, an interest in traditional Chinese customs and beliefs.

Since last year, I have been practising Chinese body massage on my 2 elder children almost evey night before they went to bed. I learnt it from a book which advocated the many health benefits of Chinese massage for young children. I have been particularly conscientious of working on the Chinese way of eye massaging as I do not wish my children having myopia like me. Little do I realise the underlying origin of Chinese massage until I read Daniel Tong's "A Biblical Approach to Chinese Traditions and Beliefs" (Armour Publishing, 2007). Daniel advises against Christians learning and practising Chinese acupuncture and massage, tracing the origins of the practice to Taoism and Buddhism in ancient China.

I pray for God's wisdom in discerning the good and bad influence of traditional health practices.

Sex education - Responsibility lies with the parents

According to a recent report produced by the Ministry of Education (MOE), sex education is currently implemented in all schools, with two-thirds of all schools outsourcing it to external agencies in complementing their school programmes. Nothing alarming you may say, but today's newspaper article about the disengagement of parents in understanding the need or importance of sex education to their impressionable teens, is causing me unease.

Why? Because to me, sex education must be complemented by counselling from the parents, not just by the school or external counsellors! This concerns our young generation's shaping of moral values towards responsible parenthood, not just knowing the ABCs of the pregnancy process and use of birth contraceptives as taught during sex education classes. What more when school teachers are ill-equipped or embarrassed about teaching the subject in front of precocious students? Wrong or fuzzy concepts or moral values may be passed on and worse still, children learning about sex education through the Internet or illicit publications.

Last year, I bought a book which talks about the teaching of sex to our children in God's context. The title of the book is "I Want to Teach My Child About Sex: An On-the-go Guide for Busy Parents" by Dr Karl & Shannon Wendt (Standard Publishing, 2005). The authors emphasize the need for open communication with our children in creating the right and safe environment for sharing and listening. It has chapters dedicating to relevant topics relating to different age groups, which really help in systematically introducing the children to gender-specific messages, advocating learning through fun activities such as story-telling and the use of virtual aids. What I like about the book is the snippets of key points pointing to biblical truth to reinforce the right spiritual foundation in the process of learning. For example, for the age group of 3-6, key points such as "Tell your kids that God made their bodies and is very proud of His work!" and "Teach your child that God made us as we are --- the perfect and imperfect parts, the public and private parts, the whole thing -- and your bodies are good".

For Christians, it is our duty as parents to guide and teach our children in the ways of the Lord. I pray that Christian parents will rise up to protect our young ones against any wrongful teachings the world has so embraced in the guise of freedom of speech and liberalism, and that God will give us wisdom and patience in teaching our children according to His truth.

Reflections on the AWARE Saga

After all the brouhaha surrounding the AWARE saga and the public outcry about the alleged bigoted ways of a Christian group in the hostile takeover of a secular organisation (AWARE), I couldn't help but to pray against the threat of propagation of so called alternative lifestyles (the acceptance of homosexuality) to our younger generations in schools under the guise of sex education. Such subliminal messages to the impressionable teens not only destroy the foundation of our society's pro-family lifestyle, it run contrary to what God's consitution of a family unit since the creation of mankind.

AWARE's alleged neutral or positive standpoint of homosexuality and (shockingly) anal sexual activity is deplorable. Thank God for the revelation of AWARE's "hidden agenda" in their sex education programmes. Let us be guarded against the schemes of the evil one, who seeks to steal and rob of what God has created for good. May the Lord bless and let His light shine upon the leaders of AWARE.

Power of Parental Blessings

"God is a relational God", said Ed Silvoso at his sermon in the Chinese service this morning.

God loves Adam and Eve and treated them as His children and family. However, this relationship was broken when Satan messed it up at the Garden of Eden. Jesus Christ recovered what was lost when He died for us at the Cross! He restored our relationship with our Heavenly Father so that we could once again be restored as God's children.

Ed underscored the biblical importance of speaking blessings to our children (be them natural children or spiritual offsprings), that we need to let them know we love and like them. Ed revealed God's revelation that "curses can be broken but blessings cannot be destroyed", and that "curses last till the 4th generation but blessings carry on from one generation to another". Blessings have the compounding power and impact on our children and their next generations! The favour of the Lord from one generation would also be passed unto the next generations, as illustrated in 2 Chronicles, chapters 6 and 7. King Solomon sinned against God but God promised him that during his life time, he would not witness the division of the kingdom --- all because of God's favour on Solomon's father, King David.

In closing, Ed urged the church to invest in our children's lives by depositing blessings unto them. That echoed in my heart that as a parent of my three children, I need to be mindful of the words spoken to my children. May the words be of words that build up their characters and not to tear them down. Thank you Lord Jesus, for your divine revelation and reminder.