YOUTH with JESUS in our HEARTS
Heya guys! We know we’ve been MIA (Missing In Action) for the past months but we promise we’re gonna pick up from where we left off, soon!
Meanwhile here’s a little something that’s happening this Friday! So if you happen to be checking by here, head down this Friday (16/5/08) to Tampinese VFC, the Multi-Purpose Hall (MPH) for a night of Hawaaaaiian fun 😉
That Saturday was one “happening” day. United by the sole purpose to see souls enter the Kingdom of God, the outreach that took place at the Edge on 24th November saw drama, dance and a game of “Identity” combine in the one place every youth should be at on a Saturday evening, the Fusion Youth Hub at Yishun.
First up, the dance competition “Take the Floor”. J Crew, a same-but-different team from last year’s competition, represented our region in the competition. It wasn’t so much about winning or beating the rest but simply having the opportunity to unite as a dance crew for Jesus. And we’re quite sure they did it since they managed to clinch the spot as 2nd place winners! Well done J Crew, looks like the tireless hours of practice in between services, drama practices (for Shirgin and Nikki) and worship duties (for Matthew) on the weekends truly paid off. But of course, we have God to thank the most 🙂 We’ll let the pictures do the talking. And if you’re interested in the actual performance itself, you can bug one of the crew to do a solo/live demo for you or you could click right here for the youtube video.
J Crew: (the Girls, Top row L-R) Shereen, Daphne, Sook Yi, Fiona, Shirgin. (the Boys, Bottom row L-R) Marcus, Joshua, Nikki, Matthew, Elijah. First pic, with Karina.
Anxiously waiting to perform
Well, at least Nikki’s not that worried.
And Sook Yi looks happy too 🙂
J Crew in Action
Can you tell Marcus was excited?
And then there was the mime modeled after the now-very-famous GodTube Human Video “Everything” by LifeHouse. The strong performances played out by the mime’s lead actor, Gladys (from region 7/8) and the equally convincing showings by the other characters – with our very own Shirgin and Nikki as the Drunkard Friend and the Boyfriend, respectively – made for a moving performance. It was one that truly touched hearts and spoke of the huuuge love that God has for everyone of us. A Love that neither angels nor demons nor troubles nor death will separate us from. Hallelujah! 🙂 See here for the video.
Top: Gladys in action, Middle: Nikki doing a fierce Tango, Bottom: Shirgin portraying the role of a drunkard very well.
Of course, this mime was done in perfect timing following the skit and game show “Identity” brilliantly hosted by our Voice Personality winner Gladys Chung (see other article for more on this). Undoubtedly, the sharing that Pastor Jeremy gave on how our Identity is one that comes from God spoke the truth; and judging by the number of people who came up to the altar to give their lives to Jesus (the best decision anyone will ever make, we say), we know that lives are already being changed even as we speak/type/write/oh, nevermind.
In all, Saturday made for an excellent day of fun and excitement. But undeniably, it was the day of Salvation for many and that in itself deserves yet another celebration! Let’s win this generation to Christ fivesixyouth!
Photos courtesy of Joan.
Like they always say, never underestimate the reach of the internet (: While browsing through the comments page, we found a testimony written by a brother-in-Christ hailing from Malaysia. Seeing that it simply doesn’t do his testimony justice, residing in a comment, we’ve decided to publish it here. Above all, this testimony shows that God is truly doing a work in this generation of ours, far greater than our eyes can see or our mind can comprehend. We’ve gotta own it and claim this Promised Land given unto to us! To Jon Ngin, the writer of this testimony, here’s a shout out from Singapore and its was great having you with us at the Edge! We’re glad you came and that it impacted you as much as it impacts us each week. God bless (:
——
“It has been almost 4 months since I left Singapore and returned to my dearest computer back home in Kuala Lumpur. It took me some time to post this, mainly cos procrastinating is one of my greater attributes, but it struck me couple minutes ago that this was in my to-do list.
God has been great to me before I left KL and traveled south for my attachment, it was during my summer semester that I was supposed to do my internship, and as summer started to dwindle, I was indulging in computer games and oversleeping while I wrote my resume and applied for various internship positions outside of Malaysia. It was part of MY plan to head to Beijing and complete my internship while studying Chinese; but thank God! Cos He made my parents much wiser than me, so they told me to apply for as many positions as possible for my internship, and obeying your parents always is the best way. Sure enough CCTV didn’t reply my enquiry, and broadcasting companies from Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Qatar – all either denied my application or didn’t have a position for me. But my God is so big, and his plans are always greater than my plans. In the end he opened a window for me in the tiny red dot, and before long I was joining my relatives with Saturday morning soccer and winning. For this I thank God for always looking out for me, and giving me what’s best.
And it must have been His great plan because I was attached to a really great company with really great colleagues, all passionate about the things they do and most of all I was baptized with experience I’ve never had. And just when you think things wont get any better, I realized I was gaining weight because of my aunts great cooking; I was living with a family that was full of grace and it was certainly great living with the Wong brothers; I have 2 younger sisters, and throughout the whole 2 months while I was there, I had 3 younger brothers that joked and fooled around like I did (my sisters have no humor). It was also with this family that I joined The Edge on Saturday afternoons, and although I was late a couple of times (totally not my fault), I truly learnt a lot. I was inspired by the dedication of some, and its encouragement to me was invaluable. The experience of it all was great, and most refreshing – the people I met, full of quality and life; the laughs I’ve had, weighed more than gold; the smiles I saw, no silver can buy and God’s presence within it all, priceless!
I just want to give a big THANK YOU to my heavenly Father who always watches over me and giving me only the best; and encourage all you guys that we serve a living, never changing, all knowing, loving God; He gives only the best to us, he will never let you down. If you are planning to do something, seek Him and He will open doors to you that you can only dream of. HIS PLANS ARE ALWAYS GREATER THAN OUR PLANS!
AMEN!
The preteens graduated on Sunday 18th November. Yay! Welcome to the craziest and bestest bunch of Youth EVER guys and girls! 😀 Don’t shy k? We’re really friendly, really!
Here’s to more crazy and wacky moments together! 🙂
The most recent and probably biggest corporate event involving EVERYBODY, yes everybody, in VFC big or small would definitely have to be our 30th Anniversary Banquet which spanned over a whopping 2 weeks! Can you imagine a whole 2 weeks of feasting and fellowshipping? True blue Singapore-style man! And we’re glad the leadership is Singaporean enough to make this a reality for the VFC Family, past, present and future. Shirgin brings you the scoop on VFC’s 30th Anniversary, as we celebrate 30 years of family together.
—
It’s really amazing how God has been with us these past 30 years! Not 3 but 30! Though I’ve only been in VFC for 2 years, being at the banquet on 9th Nov (when it was our region’s turn to host) allowed me a glimpse into the things that made VFC what is it today. How Pastor Rick Seaward constantly expressed his thanks to everybody that was ever a part of VFC and certainly to God, set the tone of the evening as one of thanksgiving.
Actually, most of the youths didn’t know what to wear! Or well actually maybe it was just me, because no dress code was mentioned and obviously I was afraid I’d be over dressed, but that’s beside the point! The banquet promised to be a feast and what better than among Family? And so it was at the night of the dinner when I finally got my seat together with the Tampines zone people. For those who missed out, this was my reaction to all the food that was presented to us: I was really drooling at everything. Especially the cheesecake served at the end of the night!
The service that night was impeccable. Professional waiters they were not, but they certainly beat ’em pros hands-down! Nothing beats the service of Family, done in love I say. For that, I must really thank the region that served us that night! Good job done!
And oh, did I mention? Joan saw the younger Pasir Ris Net making music with their drinking glasses and she got so amused she got my whole table playing it too. A good way to entertain ourselves, in true “youthful” fashion. It later passed on to all the tables sitting around us. There was like a mini symphony playing during the mini sermon and testimony sharing time…oops 🙂
But of course we didn’t miss our dear Joan shared her testimony!!! How could we? And well done Joan!
Our region took its turn in serving on the 15th and it was really nice seeing our region serve faithfully as servants of God. But the Best Youth Server Award for the night certainly belongs to Darren! Not only did he deliver the platters to the table, he also gave each person at the table their portions of food! Well done! Now that’s what I call serving and doing your best for God!
Here’s to many more good and fruitful years for VFC!
*Of course, when the event finished on our hosting night (8th Nov), many more pictures were taken and a few of the youth headed to Downtown East for a few games at the arcade! And we found out a few hidden talents/secrets among some of the youth, like how Eeling was the parapara queen! You go girl! 🙂 Now who said Christians were boring?
Look at the satisfied smiles on our faces after the meal!
My Table!
Our symphony
It wasn’t easy finding a picture of Abel without his face covered!!
The young young table!
This was my table!! Joan’s taking the picture…
The tastey soup served by the gentleman at my table…
The other gentleman at the table. Look it’s Darren the Best server!
Look at te Pretty deco!!
Enjoying his meal….
That’s all we’ve got! See ya!!
Shirgin signing off!
Considering that our last net rally was last year, we finally had our net rally on October 12. This year was quite different, in a cute kind of way if we might say so, all the girls came in pink and the guys came in white; how’s that for unity? Go go! fivesixYOUTH!
The youth net rally wasn’t so much of a preaching but more of a sharing from Gary and preceding that was a presentation done by Zhini – cluing the youth in to the very real need the Church to be the arms and legs of Jesus, letting our light shine before Man as we do so. See this article for more on what happened that sweaty but certainly well-spent Saturday.
And the youth certainly had a chance to act on what was taught to them that night. True to being a “power-packed” night, the youth had workday in church! But that wasn’t before the shutterbugs in us burst forth and we had to take pictures with our beloved zone peeps. The pictures will speak for themselves! Enjoy!!
and after that we all continued the day with cleaning!!!
SLACKING!!
TIME TO GO HOME!!!! =)
One sleepy Saturday morning spent at the heart of Ang Mo Kio marked the beginning of many things. For some, it would be the first time they’d ever done this much housework. For others, it would be the sight of cockroach eggs what a few of us would call “jellybeans” resting in the corners. But for ALL who were there, it definitely was the first time the reality of poverty, yes right here in good ol’ prosperous Singapore, hit everybody in the face. Karina, who was part of the experience shares with a log of what really happened that day.
—–
0930: I message the Kang twins (Zhilin and Zhini) “ehh… i’m going to be late ar.. sorry sorry!” And i was met with a reply “okay, we’re here already but dun worry, the rest are still at tampines”. yep, that’s our youth for ya! 😛
1000: Gary’s van pulls up and the action begins. We’ve brought pails, mops, brooms (for wet and dry floors), scrubs, Gary’s very heavy duty detergent, rags, newspapers…and I can’t remember what else. But what looked like very little equipment actually went a long way. There are 8 of us, armed with the essentials: Gary, Joan, Julia, Thiam Siong, Zhilin, Zhini, Amos and me. We hear from the twins that the house needs a new coat of paint, and the general clean up issues. We feel ready for the mission. And so we head up.
1005: After struggling with the ‘equipment’ (with Amos’ head almost getting ‘decapitated’ or if not bumped by Julia’s mop swinging antics) we headed on up to the house, the top floor no less, leading us to speculate that it might be a penthouse unit after all 🙂
Here’s Amos looking like its all in a day’s work 🙂
1010: We meet the owner of the 2 room flat (it really wasn’t a penthouse), a sweet old lady who welcomed us warmly. According to the twins (Zhilin was the one who got us the contact for this house from one of her ol’ CCA coordinators), the old couple who stays there really really needed this help because the old lady has walking difficulties – even though she could walk short distances here and there, it was clear that she really needed the help – and her husband was visually handicapped – he was out for the day at an outing with the association for the blind (I think that’s how it goes).
The owner of the house
1015: Shock filled our systems. The first thing that shocked us: the ceilings. Peeling from years of age, remarks of how people could ever live in such conditions were definitely on our minds. It truly cemented within us the need to meet the needs of such households – to serve the least of our bros and sis.. and in doing so, minister to the Lord.
peeling ceilings in the kitchen and the bedroom
the kitchen
1020: After discussing what we needed to do, Gary and Zhilin headed off to buy the paint and the necessary tools needed for the task of scraping the peeled layers off before we began the painting. Meanwhile, the rest of us covered the area with newspapers and began shifting out stuff from the kitchen (which was really quite cluttered up) and began the scrubbing, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, wiping, washing… activities that we would be undertaking till it hit the afternoon at least.
doing it the old fashion way, using a broom to sweep the peeled off paint fragments off the cupboard
dutifully cleaning under the kitchen sink
scrubbing the kitchen walls
scrubbing the walls of the sink area, which was by the way, infested with ants
1050: Coming back with the paint, Thiam Siong aka Thumb Strong and Gary got to work with scraping the ceilings while the girls – Julia and the twins painted after them.
Now we all couldn’t possibly have done that right? Given the space of the house, we were pretty glad that 8 of us managed to fit in just nice. So while the painting and scraping were going on, we took turns doing the ‘miscellaneous’ clean up activities.
the scrubs and the drubs were our friends for the day
We also realize that Gary is really meant for the cleaning business. Check out how he makes old (all) things new (sounds like Jesus right?)
look at him go! he doesn’t let anything off, from the rubbish chute to the switches, Gary’s got it all!
And in between all that, we had lil’ breaks here and there.
they look like drink ads don’t they? 🙂
But of course, it was truly giving our best to make this house shine and let Jesus shine through what we were doing too!
1315: The ‘highlight’ of the day. We discover that the house is a breeding place for many baby cockroaches. In the words of Gary, “we killed many lives today”. But in our opinion, those lives were better gone than saved! -recoils in disgust- Thumb Strong mentions how the amount of cockroach eggs, ‘jellybeans’ he calls ’em, fill 3 filters when we attempt to flush them all down the drain. Joan of course, goes close-up in a bid to ‘capture the moment’. Beware: Graphic images ahead.
1330: Another discovery is made. We realize that the couple’s room (there’s only one other room besides the kitchen) has furniture that’s slowly crumbling away – either due to a termite infestation or age. The exposed wires seen at various parts of the room also seemed pretty dangerous to us.
1405: We’re almost done with the major cleaning and the house is already looking much better after a fresh coat of paint. Amos is our dedicated painter for the day as he touches up what we goofed up on…painting the nooks and crannies.
oops.
that’s the ceiling for ya!
1415: And then it was time to put back all the stuff we’d shifted out of the kitchen and the room. Boy, did the re-organization makes things look soooooo much better 🙂
1430: We look at the finished job and feel in our hearts that wow, we did make a difference. So as we pick up our ‘equipment’ we left, tired, yes but perhaps feeling more like Jesus.. cuz’ we were sure that this would have been what Jesus would have loved us to do.
Matthew 5:16 (NLT)
in the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your Heavenly Father.
—-
The next year will see our youth ministry move out in the service of making a difference to our community in these ways – getting down and dirty, giving our time to make tangible impacts in the world we live in. From the love that we have for Jesus, let it overflow into the things we do as we be the hands and feet of Jesus. So keep your eyes peeled for more of such opportunities and avail your hearts, for that’s the wellspring of life and the very thing we need in our world today.
We’ve got famous people in our midst! And it just goes to show that God truly pours His favour upon His children. Now who said Christians were boring? fivesixYOUTH brings to you an exclusive interview with Gladys Chung, winner of SMU’s Voice Personality Contest. Going on MTV, interviewing people with ChannelNewsAsia (CNA), welcome to the life of a Voice Personality. Feeling envious already? 😛
—-
1. What’s the personality contest about? Who was it organized by?
It was a contest that tested you on your voice skills and the personality to go with it! We had to do a radio show [campus radio] and tv show [campus tv] that would be part of our overall score. But the bulk of the results would be based on the final event! It was organized by SMUBE also known as SMU Broadcast and Entertainment partnered with Ripplevox.
2. We heard you won, great job! 🙂 What was your secret?
Haha, no secret actually. It was truly, truly God’s favor upon me because my competition was very, very stiff. Honestly, no one expected me to win, not even myself! So this win was really God’s doing, all glory to Him! Ha, but I stayed away from unhealthy food that would affect my voice and also to be myself as much as possible!
3. Having so much experience on stage, does being on stage still scare you? ABSOLUTELY! I still have stage fright every single time I get on stage because LIVE events are very unpredictable, you don’t get re-takes so you have to think on your feet and also to anticipate problems. You never know how the audience will respond to you also so that makes it quite challenging because you have to make them like you. I tend to mess up my words too when I get nervous!
4. How was the experience of being on telly, LIVE and not as some extra on a shoot but one of the main persons? Must’ve been exciting! YES! I did one with CNA before the MTV Asia one but that was for a totally different purpose. They were interviewing students on their views on terrorism for a panel discussion so that was more serious. But, haha, I was very nervous the night before the one for MTV Asia. Although, they prepared me with some questions and stuff they were going to make me do, it was still very nerve-wrecking. I was very tempted to back out last minute! You have to catch the episode of POP INC to find out! But the VJs, Denise and Utt, were very nice and supportive so it helped to make the environment more relaxed and casual. It was loads of fun though! You would be surprised to find out that the actual studio is A LOT smaller than what you see on television!5. What are your plans? Planning on emceeing professionally anytime soon?Haha, I enjoy hosting so it is definitely a possibility! I do also plan to become a newscaster in the future! 🙂 For now, I’m just having fun and gaining as much experience as I can!6. Complete this sentence: If I were a donut, I would be…a white chocolate kaya donut! 🙂 Seemingly westernized but ultimately still very Singaporean! 🙂Fun Fact: fivesixYOUTH got news that the previous winner of the Voice Personality contest was none other than Kenneth Ho! Remember our youth musical “Spectacular Spectacular”? Remember the Director? That’s him alright! So looks like we’ve got TWO reaaaaally amazing people in our midst. We’re proud of you!
Date and Time: 08.10.07, 7pm
Venue: Marina Square, Waraku Japanese Restaurant
Purpose: Catch-up dinner with Molly
Total No. of Pax: 12
Julia, who went for the dinner earlier on, is feeling so satisfied now. She finally sits down to write about the dinner… after much struggle not to lie on her cosy bed instead. -burps- Oops!
God is so faithful and blessed us with Waraku’s only private room, for our personal fellowship cum dinner session; even though we make a reservation only 1 hour before arrival! We are so honoured!
We have thoroughly enjoyed the marvellous mouth-watering Japanese food and the crazy photo-taking session, alongside with the wondrous fellowship with the other youths and Molly herself!
Let the pics below show you our little dinner session then! Enjoy… and dun drool in front of your computer screen or onto your keyboard please!!!
The entrance to Waraku’s private room =)
The long table that has 16 seats available!
While waiting for the latecomers, the early birds stone like stones…
Early birds starts self-entertaining themselves =\
Look at the colourful and yummy-looking food on Waraku’s menu!! -slurps-
Ever heard of this saying: “A hungry man is an angry man” We got 2 angry people here, venting their hunger on this young dude, Matthew.
Here comes the food!!!
Hungry people are smiling now, all thanks to the presence of food!!
More food!!
Someone is waiting so eagerly to attack his food… Hahaha!
All gone, wiped clean!
The star of the evening, pretty Molly! Chilling out at Starbucks after dinner.
The group picture in sepia effect
Attempting a retarded pose together ;p
Perfect retards ^^v
End of Dinner!
Photo credits goes to Joan mostly, Julia contributed just a minority of them =X
On the 5th September 2007, it happened to be Amos’ 19th birthday! With detailed planning and discussion from our fellow youth, we managed to come up with a birthday surprise for Amos! Shirgin will further elaborate on the occasion…
Well, majority of us arrived at Amos’ place at around 7 and anxiously waited for him to return, it took him quite a while though, but we trusted that Darren would bring him home quick enough.
It was indeed a very long wait, it took about an hour before he reached. As we patiently waited we occupied ourselves with the Mr. Bean Movie.
Look at the bored faces on most of us… just sitting and waiting for the birthday boy to come…
So the action began when… apparently… Darren finally informed us that he was arriving in 5 minutes time, so a couple of smaller sized people ran to the window to check on them and according to my resources, Amos saw the peeping heads and the sudden black-out of lights! So, our plan didn’t go as smoothly. But Amos was surprise by the number of people who turned up! So I guess there was still a bit of a surprise involved?
As he entered his home, we sang him the birthday song…he blew the birthday candle, etc… And finally, we feasted on the sumptuous food like pizza, KFC, etc…
Our faithful pianist who set the atmosphere…
Don’t you wish you were there for the food?? =)
Everyone was done eating and settled down and we put Amos in the spotlight and gave him a birthday interview! Funny questions were asked, from ‘your most embarrassing moment’ to ‘the wildest thing you’ve done’. I believe Amos was rather shy by the looks on his face. After that personal interview, we engaged ourselves with the ‘adjective game’ and the ‘animal game’.
In the ‘adjective game’, Jeremiah was crowned the biggest mouth, Esther the longest tongue, Sean the shortest fringe and Darren the most number of moles on the face. During the competition where they were looking for the biggest mouth, they used coslaw to stuff the most number of spoons into each persons mouth! It looked tough indeed, but at least all the competitors were fine with coslaw?
Due the limited amount of time and people who had work the next day, we couldn’t stay long and so we headed home before 11.
a sweet prayer by Amos’ sheep…
A couple of pictures before heading home….!
I sure do hope Amos enjoyed his birthday!
Here’s what some of the people at the party had to say:
Elijah Wong: “It was counter-shocking! Instead of him being super shocked, I was super shocked to hear he was drunk as a baby and dressed like a girl!!”
Darren: “It is really great to see different ones coming together, pouring out ideas of how to surprise our friends on their birthday. Ultimately, to see the joy on their faces gives great satisfaction!!”
Myra: “Waited and waited but it’s worth it when you see the smile on his face. haha!”
Joan: “Birthdays are times of celebrations that marks down another year of growth. Heee… Growing old! But of course staying young at heart. It’s also great to gather together to celebrate a brother or sis-in-Christ’s birthday because the fellowship, the fun & laughter is always the best! Happy Birthday Amos & to those born in Sept!! 🙂 God Bless!!”
The birthday boy himself has some heart felt things to say…
Amos: “I really appreciate it. its not easy to pull something like this off. I see the effort and thank God I’ve got amazingly great friends!”
fivesixYOUTH 