Dear COA Family,
It’s been a year since our 70th anniversary celebration service. How time flies! As I pondered over what to write in this week’s devotion, I felt led to recount God’s blessings of us in the past year so that we can be reminded of and give thanks to God for his faithfulness. This is especially important since we are so prone to forgetting God’s keeping and leading us!
Firstly, I thank God for leading and guiding us as a church according to his will and direction. Last year, the Lord led us to Rebuild God’s House after a season of trial. This year, we are led to Grow Deeper to prepare ourselves for God’s new work in our midst. Our services were gradually restored in terms of being able to meet and sing freely without restrictions. Our members came back for physical worship services. We were also blessed by the sermon series of Nehemiah and 1 Corinthians last year and Encountering Jesus in the OT and Brokenness this year.
Besides that, I thank God for the renewing and refreshing of our cell groups. Our cell group communities are the crucial building block of our church. It is in these groups that we can truly share our lives with and support one another. We learnt how important cell groups were during the pandemic when physical gatherings in church were prohibited. Last year, by committing to meeting and participating in the church-wide bible studies, there was a renewed sense of fellowship with one another and vision to continue. A much-needed cell group structure was also formed to care for the cell leaders.
Our outreach ministries were also revived. Elder Fellowship resumed meeting on a monthly basis and has continued ever since with renewed vigour. We are seeing more ladies from the community participating in our Comlink outreach programmes. Our Kardia and children ministries have seen more youths joining, due to the camps and programmes that were organised. Our Visitation Ministry has seen an influx of volunteers to care for our homebound members.
Our chaplaincy to St Andrew’s Junior School, Ascension Kindergarten and Little Seeds Preschool (Ascension) has also seen closer cooperation between our church and the school leaders and staff. New opportunities and open doors were presented to us to reach out. An example was the Up and On Programme for the Primary 6 boys in SAJS that have yielded much fruit. Some of our members have also taken up the role of host parents for the foreign students in St Andrew’s Hall. We have seen an increase in our Chaplaincy staff strength to 4 and we thank God for each one of them.
Lastly, I also thank God for bringing in new friends and visitors from the community into our church. Many of them have been baptised, confirmed and have joined our cell groups. They are such an encouragement to us and we thank God for all of them. A growing church is a sign of a healthy church (see Acts 2).
All of these reminders echo what the Lord also said to the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land:
“During the forty years that I led you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet. You ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink. I did this so that you might know that I am the Lord your God” Deuteronomy 29:5-6.
May we be encouraged by God’s faithfulness towards us at our anniversary as we trust Him to lead us into the future He has prepared for us!
Revd Ian