A Christmas Okerrance

Greetings to everyone! We thought it about time to get another Okerrance to you before the Christmas holidays to update you what has been happening with us since we last wrote (a long time ago… Ahem).

We are in the throes of the final weeks of term as I write this, and it has been an exhausting time for us over the last 6 months or so. When I last wrote, it was just before the summer, and I was looking forward to the summer bible studies in both the books of Mark and Romans at the CF, as well as our leader’s training. The summer is also a time to plan and prepare for the following year. However, things didn’t go quite as smoothly as we planned over the summer because I got a bit burnt out and sick. I had committed to a number of outside speaking engagements for the holidays to keep me busy and sharp, but I don’t think I realized how much I needed a break by the end of term! Maria has had a tough time with reoccurring bacterial infections and her health, ever since returning to Singapore (I’ll let her fill you in on that in a minute). I have therefore been spending a considerable amount of time looking after both her and the children, as well as trying to continue the work at SMUCF. So, by the end of June, although I had completed those outside engagements, and many of the students had gone away for their holidays, I still felt as though the fuel gauge was running on empty and damage had already been done to the engine! This meant that both preparations and the amount of discipling I could do over the summer and into this first term have been severely hindered as I tried to recover from my exhaustion. I am feeling better now, but my doctor said I will need perhaps up to 6 months of cutting back on how much I am able to do. Please do pray with me in this, that our Loving Lord will restore both Maria’s and my health.

Now, having said all that, we do have much to give thanks for at SMUCF, because the work has been ongoing, even though I have been limited!

At our Freshman’s orientation camp in July this year, there was an extremely enthusiastic bunch of freshers who came to see what we get up to at CF. I gave four talks from the book of Colossians, and many of them were encouraged to come back and hear the word some more (which they have). We followed through with a series of talks on 2 Peter, with ‘the knowledge that matters’ being our central theme over the first half of term. Since then, I have been doing a four talk series entitled ‘knowing God’, of course stressing that unless God makes himself known to us, then we can’t possibly know him! Whilst I have been giving those talks, the bible study groups have been training in the use of ‘2 Ways to live’, which has challenged some to think more about evangelism, but has encouraged others to know the Gospel that they believe in better! We have recently had one of our three camps for the year – the December Bible Camp – and we are really glad to have Andrew Cheah (another Moore College Graduate and now at St Mary’s Anglican Cathedral in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), speak on ‘Sin: How bad can it be?’ Pray that the we will all understand both ourselves better, and our great God who has acted mercifully in the Gospel towards us.

Not that numbers are a reliable indication on how the work is going at the CF, but we were encouraged and thankful to see the average attendance for the first half of term at 90+, keen to get stuck into studying the scriptures. Since the second half of term, that figure fell to about 60+, with increased academic rigour amongst other things causing the fallout. We have been very thankful that the students continue to bring their friends along to our evangelistic lunchtime talks that we had in weeks 10 & 11. We decided upon a ‘If I were God’ series at the start of the year for our evangelistic lunchtime talks. Christopher Ash (director of Cornhill training course in the UK) did a talk on ‘If I were God, I wouldn’t allow all this suffering’. We had about 6-10 newcomers, many of who had not heard the Gospel before. And the following week I did a talk entitled ‘If I were God, everyone would know who I am’, with a similar number not yet confessing the faith. On this occasion some with different faiths heard the good news, and have since been in follow up conversations and studies learning more about Jesus. Please do pray with us that they might repent and believe that Jesus is the Lord, the only way, truth and the life!

Thank you for keeping up with us, and praying for this very precious work.

Maria’s update

Greetings! Below is an attempt to give you a brief overview of the past half year!

Health
Just prior to writing our last newsletter, I had not been in good shape physically for quite a period of time – tiredness, lethargy, monthly re-occurring sicknesses – I often felt so weak that I had to stay in bed. After a thorough checkup, found out that it could have been a re-occurring bladder infection & that my stress levels were way too high. So naturally, I was hoping to concentrate on managing my stress levels & concentrate on getting back to health in the months that followed. However the month of April brought the full spectrum of emotions as we confronted news of pregnancy & then news of miscarriage. At the time, the knowledge that our God is good & is unchanging in both good times & bad times is always a comfort to me, but what I struggled with most was trusting God regarding my poor health over the long period of time. Being sick & weak, not only could I not help serve my family, I also was hindering James’ ability to do SMU work & to rest. It has been indeed a very testing time for me, but God has His purposes & they are good. (If you would like to chat more with me regarding this, I would be happy to.)

Thank God for kind & generous doctor friends in Christ who helped me through this period, please continue to pray for improvements in my health so I can continue to serve God in roles given to me.

Josiah
Even though primary one has been tough & full of school work, exams, assessments and so on, Josiah has been enjoying new friendships at school. When school ended in November, he was thrilled to have the chance to celebrate his birthday early with his school friends at an indoor playground nearby.

above left - Jos & some school friends at his party

below right - Jess enjoying the company of her two cousins from Australia

Jessica
Jessica is into all things pink & girly. Ballet, fairies, princesses, dress-ups, you name it, she likes it! She has been whirling & twirling away in our living room, asking for ballet lessons. She still thinks her brother is Number One, and is his greatest Fan!

Thank God for bringing the kids through the past year, helping them grow up physically, emotionally & mentally. Please pray that they would grow in understanding of the love of our Saviour.

SMU girls
Have really enjoyed keeping up & praying with some of the female graduates & students this past half year, they have all been a real encouragement to me in wanting to see their friends grow up in knowledge of Christ & in love for each other. Before school started in August, we also managed to go through with the female co-leaders a series of seven studies to help with knowing & explaining the Gospel & with what Gospel living looks like.

Thank God that He who started the good work in these girls will Himself carry it through to completion. Praise God for their growth & their enthusiasm!

Generous Gift
We have also been very thankful to generous brothers & sisters in Christ who contributed to the gift of a car for our use. We managed to purchase a car in September & it has been a tremendous practical help to us as a family.

Please join us in thanking our generous God for the generous hearts in God’s household.