My Crappy Christmas!
Christmas is a time of celebration and joy… or is it?
This Christmas we journeyed with Calvin, who have endured many seemingly meaningless or even “crappy” Christmas in our very own in-house drama musical.
Juxtaposing between videos and drama, the audience were treated with an entertaining exploration of how Calvin spent his Christmases through his student, working and dating days, only to find out that the Calvin they see in the video is actually approaching the end of his life.
“All I want for Christmas is love, all I want for Christmas is truth,” sings the final ensemble, highlighting the message brought by our Senior Pastor, Pastor Jeff, on the true meaning of life and Christmas – the love of God and the good news of Jesus. Over the various services, we thank God for more than 150 decisions that were made for Jesus that weekend!
In conjunction with Christmas, Hope Church Singapore also organised a celebrity concert and sharing targeted mainly at the Mandarin-speaking people. There was also a service for dialect-speaking people and services named in Tagalog targeted to reach the Filipinos.
One of the great stories we heard through the Christmas season is the story of Joyce from the University ministry. Her family had gone through a tough season yet God poured out his love abundantly and she gives thanks to God for her grandmother who came to know Jesus in the Christmas Dialect Service, three months after her mother rededicated her life to the Lord too.
Such is the joy of Christmas, the joy of life!
Project Sparkle : Making Hearts and Faces Sparkle!
Church is not a building, but the collective of God’s people. Once a year, we cancel services and step out to serve the communities through Project Sparkle.
This year, the number of households we served increased 5 times, from 350 to 1,800! More than just cleaning houses, the church was also mobilsed to paint gates and give out goodie bags of necessities. The amount of logistics and planning was beyond the team, and we can only say is Holy Spirit empowered!
“This is my second time being involved in Project Sparkle. I’m the area IC for Boon Lay. One thing that makes it enjoyable is the can-do spirit of the team. Even though there are new administrative hurdles due to regionalization, the team’s camaraderie allows us to overcome the obstacles. Everyone is tired yet help still keeps coming in and I’m thankful to God for the people.” – Jin Jyue, Area In-Charge for Boon Lay –
Since the start of the regionalisation, the church has been working on the momentum of reaching out wherever God has planted you, and to expand the mindset of each neighbourhood being a missions field. Project Sparkle became a great opportunity to do that. We started Project Sparkle in 5 new areas, and even partnered with the local grassroots to do so.
Most of the participants were blessed being a blessing. One group even experienced the joy of sharing the good news with the resident!
“We visited Mr Perumayan, a friendly Indian uncle who stays alone most of the time. We started working on our allocated tasks while one of the life group members, Melvin connected with Mr Perumayan. While cleaning the place, the rest of us could hear that the conversation has shifted from Mr Perumayan’s life and family to his illness (pain in his legs) and to his religious views. Then Melvin started sharing bridge diagram and his personal faith journey with Mr Perumayan! Holy Spirit is moving in Mr Perumayan’s house! Mr Perumayan allowed us to pray for him and his health and was very appreciative of what we had done for him and his house. He also expressed interest to know more about the faith and church. We really thank God for using us as vessels of His love to pour blessings over these people who may have been forgotten by the society but definitely not forsaken by our Lord.” – Kelvin, Downtown Core 7
As Pastor Dennis Loh shared with us, “We are not just making houses sparkle, we are making hearts and faces sparkle.”