Warmest greetings to you ! We thank the Lord for His assurance to us that He is always watching over our coming and going and He will keep us from all harm.

This is our very first newsletter to you after we got married on 18 Jan (Sat) 1997 at our church, The Bible Church. We are very thankful for many of you (about 400 of you, including our relatives) who came to grace our wedding ceremony despite the very last minute notice. Due to some unforeseen circumstances, we were only able to send out our wedding invitation cards just about 2 weeks before the wedding day. So, if you received the invitation card somewhere around that time, be rest assured, you are no less important. A sincere apology for those who received our wedding cards after our wedding day and yet with good will, still send us greetings. We are encouraged by your gesture. And special thanks to a group of close friends who chipped in their precious time to make this event both possible and meaningful for us. A special mention to our wedding co-ordinators, Tuck Weng and Lian See. We would like to take this opportunity to wish them God's best in their coming wedding on the 3rd of May'97.

Ever since the wedding day, many things have happened. However, we recognise the accountability on our part has been lacking and we do hope and ask for your understanding and forgiveness. We will attempt to give you a quick look to our lives for the last 3 months.

21-24 Jan 97    Through a special gift from a group of friends, we went on a cruise to Port Klang/Langkawi. It was a much needed rest after all the heavy demand of wedding and house preparations on top of our regular responsibilities at work.

9-29 Feb 97    A team of 15 Japanese students with 4 Japan Campus Crusade for Christ (JCCC) staff members came to Singapore for a vision trip. The idea is to allow the students to capture a vision of a movement to reach their campus for Christ. The National University of Singapore's (NUS) ministry had the privilege of hosting 10 students during their first week of stay in Singapore.

24-28 Feb 97    We were both away to Awana, Malaysia for Singapore CCC National Staff Conference. In this conference, all staff from the different ministries in SCCC came together for a time of evaluation and planning. The whole conference was led by our new National Director for SCCC, Roland Tan. He comes to us with a wealth of experience. In 1974, upon his graduation from the then University of Singapore, he joined the SCCC team. After years in the local scene, he served as missionaries overseas with the family before he was posted to our regional office, East Asia Office. As a staff family, we welcome Mr Roland Tan and his wife, Ying Kheng as they take the lead to charge forward in making The Singapore Dream a reality - seeing Singapore becoming a missionary sending base- to be a Blessing Unto Nations. Indeed, it was a very meaningful trip to us as our vision has been sharpened. A mark of our new leadership is our new SCCC National Office (our lease at IMM was due in Feb) at: 9 Lock Road, #03-03 PacCan Centre, Singapore 108937.

13-27 Mar 97    Patrick was chosen and given the opportunity to go to London/Frankfurt to attend a International Level 1 University Consultation Conference. The purpose of this conference is to bring together countries that are either sending or receiving nations to strategize the allocation of our current resources. There was a total of approximately 150 staff members representing 35 nations, like the Middle East, China, Europe, Africa, the former Soviet Union, etc.

17 Apr 97   marks the finale of yet another batch of staff-in-training with the Great Commission Training Centre (GCTC). My trainee, Patrick Ng will be completing his training. Two weeks upon graduation, together with the rest of the staff-in-training (by then will be full-fledged staff), they will be heading towards Cambodia for a 3 weeks Mission Trip.

Immediately upon arrival in London on the 14th of Mar (after a 14 hours non-stop flight), I was assigned with another fellow staff member to travel for another 3 hours to Newcastle, which we were involved with a British staff couple in their campus ministry as well as providing training for their local church. Participants of the church "Jesus Video Project" were required to distribute Jesus video tapes as part of the strategy to evangelise in the neighbourhood. That Sat morning, I was assigned with an elderly man to visit 3 households that have accepted the tapes the previous week. When we visited the 3rd house to do the attached survey about the video tape, we were faced with the owner busy manning his shop. I decided at that point of time to initiate a conversation with Brian Jeremiah and to my amazement, found out that he was from Malaysia and his wife, Helen from Singapore! They are in their early 50's and have been in England for almost 30 years. With great excitement, he invited me to come back the following day to meet his wife which I did. I went together with Jimmy, a Singapore staff member and we chatted from 3 to almost 5.30pm! At about time for us to leave for the evening service which was at 6.30pm, I invited Brian to attend the evening service with me. They are a Catholic family but Brian seemingly was not interested in Christianity. Despite the fact that Helen is a devote Catholic that attends mass every morning, Brian remains unmoved. Out of sensitivity and courtesy, I asked Helen for permission to bring Brian to Heaton Baptist Church. "I've tried for so many years and he just rejects me. If you can persuade him, please go ahead". Guess what, Brian decided to go to church with me that evening! As the shop will only close at 10pm, Jimmy stayed behind to help Helen in the shop. After the service, on our way back home, he was just filled with praises and he even praised it in front of his wife so much so that Helen responded, "Are you trying to convert me this time?". On the following day, after a half an hour sumptuous farewell lunch specially prepared by Helen, we left Newcastle with hearts filled with thanksgivings as we saw how God has used our short stay there to minister to the Jeremiahs. As part of the follow through effort, Brian has been invited for a 5 sessions investigative Bible study with the church, which he has responded positively.

Wow ! Looking back, it is only three months after our wedding and so many things had happened. Well, how about you? Would you like to take some time to write us a note to update us of your happenings. You can choose to email us as we assure you that as long as we are in Singapore, we will read our mails every night before we go to bed. We look forward to hear from you and GOD BLESS!