Tim and Shendy Gibson

Dear Heirs of Christ

It is another year & we feel we need to send you our news to keep in touch with our friends who are overseas & have been praying for us. First of all, we were truly excited with what God has been doing in our lives & in our church..

Just last year, we managed to get 160 elderly folks & 200 pre-believers to church on Christmas Eve for a Christmas dinner & musical. This is the first time they knew the true meaning of Christmas & we praise God for that.

There is this song which says ‘they are more in number than the sand, they are rich & glorious & grand. His blessing, His blessings are more in number than the sand’. Indeed God has truly given us a breakthrough of answers to our prayers in the last year. The Lord gave us Ps 20:7 for last year. Some trust in chariots & some in horses but we will trust the Lord & this year is Ps 20:8 they have bowed down & fallen but we have risen & stand upright.

1. Just some months ago, Tim was having a very bad backache. Many people had been praying for him but it hadn’t changed much. One day, our cell member called us & mentioned that they were renovating their house & was wondering to whom they should give the bed & suddenly they thought of us. They felt God was asking them to give us the bed because it was a therapeutic bed which was good for the back. Of course we were happy to have the bed as our bed was giving way. When we received the bed we were delighted as the mattress was firm & it helped Tim’s back. Indeed God knew our needs & thank God for the people who thought of us.

2. Last year, we did not bring the kids for an overseas holiday because there were too many church activities, but God is always good and He provided a car for us for 2 weeks so that we could take our children to places that are difficult to get to without a car. It was really a close bonding time for us as a family.

3. Please do rejoice with us that Tim has finished his In Ministry Masters course & he will graduate this March.

TIM TALKS

Last year was a year where we saw the beginnings of great breakthrough in the ministry, which we are going to see the fruit of this year. The English service I am pastoring is becoming much more vibrant with the leaders taking their places and a sense that God is going to pour out His glory in our midst; something we are waiting for with great expectancy.

I am starting to travel overseas again with more frequency. Last year I traveled to Penang to teach on the “Doctrine of God” in a church affiliated with us and I also went to the Philippines with our worship director to teach on the “The Heart of Worship”. Both these trips greatly revived me and I know this year I will be traveling much more. Already the invitations are out for me to minister in Malaysia, Cambodia, the Philippines and Kazakhstan – WOW! Lord give me strength and wisdom to do His will in His way and still be there for my family and my church.

In the midst of all this we are planning a trip back to England from May 20th to June 20th as the last time we went there was in 2000! So, all in all, 2008 looks to be an exciting and busy year and I thank God for His faithfulness.

SHEN SAYS

Last year was a real exciting & fruitful year for me. I have seen how God has expanded & stretched each one of us spiritually by leaps & bounds. I really want to thank God how He answered my prayer as I got involved in a parents support group in Melody’s school. I desired to touch the community through Christ’s love. I have been approached by the school to give talks on parenting & before I could give a talk, I was given the task of handling Melody first.

Indeed Melody just turned 13 last December. It was quite a trying time at first because I was not prepared for her to grow up. I was not used to her talking back & questioning me. Suddenly I realized she has grown up & I need to treat her differently. Initially she did not do well in her studies in her 1st semester & I did not approve of her friends she mixed around with. However she did not listen to me & when all else failed, I realized I needed to go to the Higher Court & that is Jesus. After a short time I saw the change in her & she also stopped mixing with her former friends. One day she came to me & apologized for the pain she caused me & she mentioned to me that she had stopped mixing with the friends that I did not approve of. When I asked her why there was such a change, she mentioned that God has spoken to her. Praise the Lord that He did not call us to be a conqueror but to be more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus.

I am proud to say that we are now like the best of friends. She has been a great blessing to us by helping us look after her younger brothers without supervision. She has even released me to help Tim in his pastoral ministry. Indeed when we release our children to the Lord, He can do wonders with them.

MELODY MUTTERS

Even as the New Year begins I just can’t stop thinking about how God has done wonders in the last year…Firstly I want to thank God about how he took away something and blessed me doubly. Around October God told me one night to leave my friends but I was reluctant as they were my friends for the whole year, but the next day my friends just ignored me without me knowing the reason. However, even then I still stayed with them until there was a point I knew I had to let go. During that time I was miserable and felt lonely but thank God I had the support from my Mum and YI (Youth Impact – my youth church) and most importantly the King of kings Himself. I just carried on with life and after a few weeks I met another friend and she was good and most importantly a true friend. During my EOY exam I thank God I came 8th in my class and 35 in level position which is the top 20% and I got $250 for doing so well. God took away something which was important to me but not only blessed me in return but blessed me twice.

The next thing is that during the December holidays the YI advertised amission trip I really wanted to go on, but it was too expensive. I was disappointed and tried ways and means to raise the money until my godmother, Aunt Margaret gave me $100 for my trip & my parents also gave me some & that lifted my spirits. On another week Aunt Margaret said she raised $200 for me and offered to teach me to make carrot cakes, so I went over to her house and baked the carrot cakes and started selling them in church. I sold them all and raised MORE than enough funds, and I could go for the mission trip. Indeed my parents were right. They said if God wanted me to go to Tha iland, He would provide for me. Indeed He is faithful.

YAY!!!! Now I will tell u more about the trip:

This was my first mission trip and I really feel God's heartbeat and have seen things I never saw before. Before the mission trip I heard things like there would be many miracles, but in my heart I never really believed it. But after this mission trip I saw many wonders and miracles from God. and God never fails to turn up even in our deepest need and deepest discouragement we can always expect God to turn up. I have many highlights during this trip like I learnt to communicate with the small children and how they were so hungry for the Word and how they make you feel so welcome by giving you drawings or handmade roses and correcting the wrong Thai words you say. Another highlight is to see the lame, blind and the those in pain being healed and the joy on their faces.

There was this incident where my team was crowding around one lady and behind her was another old lady and another team was with her. Since they had no translator I decided to 'borrow' one to them because we had three but they said that that were only giving tracts and not sharing the gospel so I went over to share with the old lady but before I could share she said she had neck pain and I prayed for her and she was healed and I thank God that he showed me he can use me even if I am young. I am just looking forward to the next mission trip. This mission trip would not have been possible without all of your support and I want to thank all of you.

Another thing I wanna thank God for is that he knows that I wanted a laptop and a better hand phone and I never told anybody but just started praying and one day my father saw a laptop for $399 and he bought it for me. Even though it is so cheap it is working perfectly and just like other computers. Also, my mum received a letter saying that she got a free 3G hand phone and she gave it to me…..I just can’t wait to see what wonders God will do next!!!

GIDEON GURGLES

I just want to thank God that He blessed my studies last year. I was in the top 10% of my school and I got a bursary of $200 from the government. I was blessed when I attended the Kidz Camp on ’Go Share Jesus*. I am usually shy but after attending the camp, I was filled with boldness and I have been sharing with all my friends about my best friend Jesus. They are all excited and they also wanted to know my best friend, Jesus.

On Jan 5 was my 11th birthday. My parents gave me a birthday bash at the poolside BBQ at my cousin’s condominium. I was very excited and delighted because it was my first time having a party with 10 of my best friends. One of the blessings was God has once again proven He is real to me. Mel & I have been taking piano lessons from my cousin for 5 years. We have always wanted a piano & our parents asked us to pray & believe that God would bless us with a piano. Initially they prayed with us for the first 2 years & gradually it became my own prayer. God is good, just some months ago, my cousin brought a 2nd hand German made piano to our house. It was a really nice & good piano. I was so thrilled that I jumped up with joy & exclaimed that God had answered my prayer. My mum told me that God always answers a truly persevering prayer.

MATTHEW MUTTERS

Hi I am 4 years old & this year I am in Kindergarten 1. I enjoy school & I love to go to church too because I have many friends in church. Although I am small, I love to hang around with my brother’s friends. They are much bigger than me but it is cool. Just a secret, they always give way to me (hee….hee). By the way I have a new name in the family; they all call me TiTi because I am the youngest. Please pray for me because I am learning Chinese for the first time in school. My favourite toy is Thomas the Tank Engine & I am off to play now.

That’s all for our family news. It is a bit too long but we hope you enjoy reading it & continue to pray for us. We will be going back to UK this summer & if you want us to visit you in UK, please kindly let us know. We truly appreciate your friendship, encouragement & prayer support which means a lot to us. It makes serving a joy & a pleasure because of friends like you. This year we believe God is going to do greater thing & as a family we are focusing on 4 Fs. We want to have the FEAR of the Lord because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom. 2nd we want to have the FAITH of the Lord because faith comes by hearing & hearing by the Word of God. 3rd we want to FOCUS on the Lord because He is the author & finisher of our Faith. 4th we want to have the FIRE of the Lord to consume all our dross & leave only what is acceptable to Him. We pray the same for you & believe that this year is the year of favour for you.

SHALOM!

Lots of love from,

THE GIBSONS

Dear All


Time flies, 2006 has just passed and we are now in 2007. We are sorry that it has taken a while for us to write to you but it is better late than never. We had a wonderful Christmas and we look forward in excitement and expectation to what God is going to do in each of our lives and in the Church. Last year was a great year for us especially in terms of family and ministry. You will be able to grasp what the Lord has done as you read each of our sections. We know we would not be able to accomplish anything of worth without your prayers and words of encouragement.

TIM TALKS

Last year was a year of expansion in the ministry the Lord is giving me. After many years of hard work, one of the members of our church had a vision of me writing a book, with him as my sponsor. I was greatly encouraged as it confirmed what the Lord was saying and, as a result, we managed to get the book printed. It is called the Big Picture - Picture Perfect, the first in a trilogy of books on the will of God. This first book talks about the specific calling God has for each of us in the context of His big, general will for mankind (it can be purchased online at http://home.pacific.net.sg/~timshen/shop.htm). My church has been very supportive and many of the members bought it, getting my signature of course! Through the book, the Lord gave open doors for me to preach and teach in churches here in Singapore and in Malaysia. Late last year, I was supposed to go to Kazakhstan but instead the Lord brought me to the Philippines. It was such an awesome time that we even experienced a divine earthquake in the meeting room! I was one of two keynote speakers at the Church of God Worldwide Mission conference in Cebu, Philippines, speaking to about 200 local church pastors and leaders. The theme was "Proclaiming the Power of Pentecost". On the second night the other speaker was supposed to speak but after the worship the Lord moved mightily, filling many of the leaders for the first time with the Holy Spirit as evidenced by other tongues. Then the tables started shaking and the lights danced before the Lord! Everyone knew it was a mighty visitation from the Lord and we were all greatly encouraged and filled with awe. Later, we asked the hotel staff if there had been an earthquake and it seemed that the only "earthquake" was in our meeting room. In fact, one of the serving staff from the hotel who was in our room at that time immediately gave his life to the Lord. As we go into 2007 the word of the Lord to our church is that this is the year of BREAKTHROUGH. We look forward to the many breakthroughs to come. Hallelujah!!

SHEN SAYS

As I watched my 3 lovely children growing up, I can't help but to thank God because indeed He is my helper. Through my knowing Him & wanting to do what He wants me to do, it brings me security through Him. I used to think that my work as a homemaker was insignificant & I always wanted to have a career. However the Lord has been impressing on me that the best thing is to listen to what He says & do according to what He wants & He will satisfy the desires of my heart. Presently I am supporting Tim in his pastoral ministries & I can see that God is blessing the work of our hands. Through the pastoral ministries, we have made many good friends & God uses them to encourage us & bless us. We are living on one income but we trust God to provide everything we need (Here most people live on a double income). We have seen God provide over the years in marvelous ways. Truly, he has not only provided what we need, but abundantly more. There have been times when the temptation for me to work more has arisen, especially when some people will think that I am wasting my education but my answer is found in Matthew 6:19 where Jesus Himself gave this wise counsel, 'do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth & rust destroy & where thieves break in & steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys & where thieves do not break in & steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also'. Therefore I thank God for my blessed occupation that occupies my time! I thank God constantly for the privilege of spending every day with my kids because they are my polished shafts.


MELODY MUTTERS

Hi everyone, I just turned 12 last December 26. My parents gave me a grand birthday bash with a poolside bbq. It was my best birthday party & I want to thank God because He made all this possible for me. Last year I took my primary school leaving exam. It was a very important exam as it determined which Secondary School I should be in & whether I was entitled to go into express stream or not. My preliminary exam was not so good as I failed my maths and, based on my aggregate, I may not have been able to go to the express stream. My mother was very encouraging and inspiring. She motivated my studies and spoke positively to me that I should be able to get A for my English & Chinese and B for my Maths & Science. My aggregate should be above 200. Not only that she prayed for me and asked me to put my trust in the Lord because He will made all things possible for me. During that time, I studied hard and prayed earnestly for my studies. Thank God that He never fails me. Truly, I got A for my English & Chinese & B for my Maths & Science. It seemed really impossible for me to get a A for Chinese and a B for Maths but I know God performed this miracle for me because those who put their trust in the Lord will not be put to shame. Needless to say I am entitled to go to the Express Stream and what is more I have been admitted to a beautiful Christian school, Christchurch Secondary which is quite near to our house. Last year was also the year I started attending our Church Youth Impact and I am really loving this group as it is so exciting and inspiring and I am growing much in the Lord. Praise Him!


GIDEON GURGLES

Hi everyone, I just turned 10 this year. Today the cell group celebrated my birthday. Last year was a tremendous year for me. It was not only a year of a miracle for my sister, Melody but also for me. The Lord has been really good to me. He helped me in my studies because my mum says that my calling now is to be a good student for Jesus. I was in the top 20% in the whole level of primary 3 in my school. I was awarded $150 from the Government because of this fact! I shall continue to strive to be better so as to glorify God.


MATTHEW MURMURS

Hi everyone, I am 3++ & this year I have just started Nursery school. I did not like school initially as I am used to being at home. However this year my mummy and daddy said that I need to go to the big school because I am a big boy. I still do not like it but please pray to God for me that I will love school. Ok got to go & play with my Thomas the Tank Engine toy set.


We hope you enjoyed our brief news and do continue to pray for us just as just we pray that God's highest purposes will be accomplished in your lives. We believe this year is a year of breakthrough for all of us and we expect God to broaden our horizons and ministries. We have seen our cell groups growing after using the Masterlife books (an excellent discipleship programme). We have just finished volume 1 on the disciples' cross and volume 2 will be on the disciples' personality which teaches us to live a life according to His spirit and the need to renew our minds so that we will not walk in our carnally as the world. Whatever you sowed in tears last year, you will reap in JOY this year. Do pray for Tim as he will be teaching in Tung Ling Bible School this month, taking a camp in Myanmar this April and ,God willing, be going to Kazakstan and the Philippines (speaking in a stadium) later this year. Here is the Gibsons wishing you a blessed, joyous & fruitful 2007.

Thankyou so much for partnering with us in all of the above in whatever way, big or small. May God bless you all mightily to be a mighty blessing.

Lots of love from,
Tim, Shen, Melody, Gideon and Matthew.
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A QUICK SUMMARY OF OUR CHURCH WORK
God is good! Though we have been very busy over the last year it has been a fantastic growth curve for us all. Tim is still pastoring the English service in Church of Singapore (Bukit Timah), with a lot of administrative help from Shendy, and we are seeing this service growing both numerically and in quality. God has brought some real quality people into the service who are a wonderful help and asset to us.

We're just undergoing a period of training Disciple Makers who will start to lead MasterLife groups from July. Our existing cells have stopped and we'll be starting afresh with discipleship group, focusing on seeing real disciples being formed who will become Disciple Makers themselves.

PICTURE PERFECT - my first book
Last month saw the launch of my first book. It is called PICTURE PERFECT and is volume one in the Big Picture series on knowing and moving in the will of God. You can find out more about it at: http://www.timshen.truepath.com/bigpicture.htm . Sales went well in our church (sold about 200 in the first few weeks) and we're looking into other avenues of promoting and selling the remaining 700 books - our church will be purchasing 100 copies to give to all the Church of Singapore leaders who'll be coming for a conference in our church building in July and i'm praying for other open doors to make the book available to churches and Christian organizations.

THE WIFE AND KIDS!
Shendy is busy taking the kids (Melody and Gideon) through their exam period and giving tuition to some of the neighbourhood kids. Matthew continues to delight with his cute mannerisms. He is about to turn 3 at the end of this month (28th).

That's all for now. Hopefully we can give more regular updates.

Keep tuned...

Tim,Shen & Kids
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Just a short entry to let you know what's happening with us all.

Church work continues as normal. Tim is pastoring the Englsih gongregation which has about 110 attenders every Sunday and has a focus on Thailand/Cambodia missions.We have missionaries from our congregation in both these countries. Tim went to visit cambodia last month to teach 77 local church pastors. We're going through the book of Ephesians at the moment as a congregation and gearing up to go through the book of James (using the purpose driven life material) from July.

June will be a busy month for us. The kids are then on holidays and we'll be going to the church camp in the first week (Desaru) and to Malacca in the third week (as Tim is teaching there a few days and as a family we'll have some holiday time there).

Shen continues to look after the kids and the house full time (and Tim's stomach!). She tutored Melody and Gideon through their recent exams in which they did well. PTL :-)

Here we are again after a long break! We've just finished our 2004 newsletter which you can view at HREF="http://www.timshen.truepath.com/GibsonGazette04.pdf. This has all the news from 2004 with what's going to happen this year.

The motto the Lord has given us (and our congregation) for this year is "Come Alive in 2005!" It's interesting that I (Tim) was born in 1965, born again in 1975, Baptized in the Holy Spirit in 1985, was revived in the Toronto Blessing in 1995...what will happen in 2005?

The Lord put on my heart to pray for revival to come in our church. We devoted the entire month of Novemeber 2004 in our Church prayer meeting to pray for revival and I sense we are on the brink of it - especially as we're facing many problems in our English congregation at the moment - numbers have been dropping since Pastor Mark left, the worship team has seen key people drop out and there is a general lack of commitment and morale. Personally I have been through times of discouragement, coming to the point of being unable to pray.

Really it's a similar time to what happened just prior to the Lord's outpouring in 1995. I had come to the point of contemplating giving up the ministry and very dry spiritually. Then WHAM! The Spirit of the Lord came as I was teaching a Missions programme in Kuala Lumpur as a group of students from the UK prayed for me. I fell face forward to the floor where I remained for about one hour crying and receiving Father God's love afresh. Then, as I grasped the fullness of His grace towards me, I started laughing loudly and ecstatically for about another hour whilst ministering in an amazing flow of anointing to the group who were likewise being touched.

During that time I experienced a revival in ministry but my character remained practically untouched. I believe this coming revival will affect both and will also infiltrate our church(which did not happen last time).

Even as the Tsunami wreaked tremendous havoc in Asia, the enemy is coming in like a flood in the spiritual realm. Scripture says that in response to that flood the Lord is raising a standard - the power of His blood. We are to rise to his standard and raise that standard in the nations. We can only rise to this standard by His grace and we need a fresh baptism of grace once more.

Well, it's been quite some time since we updated out journal. Much has been happening but we'll fill you in on the main events.

Tim is now coming into the English congregation of our Church (http://www.cosbt.org.sg) more and will take two Sundays of every month whilst Pastor Mark travels more to fulfill his South East Asia Prayer Centre's projects and goals in Tibet, Cambodia and further afield. This means Tim will take on more of the English congregation pastoral responsibilities day by day.

Helping him to do this is tha fact that he's campaign director for the upcoming '40 Days of Purpose' (see http://www.purposedriven.com) which is a 40 days campaign developed by Rick Warren's Church and based on the best selling book 'Purpose Driven Life' - this is exciting as already many more groups are being formed for this time and the whole of the English speaking congregation will be going through God's purposes for our lives in listening to the Saturday and Sunday sermons and in the weekly small group meetings.

This 40 days of Purpose is preceded by our Easter event which starts this Thursday (8th April 2004) - Tim is singing in this. It's a colourful drama of the Easter story. After the 40 Days event is our Church Camp in Genting Highlands, Malaysia.

Shen is busy concentrating on the kid's schooling and looking after little Matthew who is growing well and seems to have fully recovered from his unusual birth (he was born with an imperforate anus - no anal opening) - he's now 10 months and can pass motion normally and is very smiley and cute! Amlmost anything (except being left alone) seems to make him laugh and it's a joy to be with him.

Meanwhile, Tim's Master's course progresses steadily (he has a mid-lesson exam tomorrow as we write). He is presently studying the Charismatic Movement which is a very inspiring and informative course - wait for fresh stuff to come from this!!

Well, that's it for now. Keep chacking back as we should be updating this more regularly.

Tim,Shen and Kids

Well, I've not had much time to update the journal until now and today we have a wedding on Sentosa to go to so I'll have to give a short outline of events that have transpired.

After my last log we went for a weeks holiday as a family to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. We stayed with friends there and celebrated our friend's adopted son's birthday. We also went to the new 'Times Square' they have there which is hguge (even though it's still noly 40% complete). There's a large indoor theme park which we spent most of the time at. The kids and Shen particularly loved it there (I found the crowds a bit too much).

The rest of our time in KL consisted of eating and shopping (things are much cheaper than Singapore there so we made the most of that).

When we came back it was straight into the Christmas events with our Church. Before the holiday I had led the Bilingual Choir in taking two days at Beauty World Shopping Centre. Many people gave their lives to Jesus during these days which we praise God for.

The Tuesday begfore Christmas (23rd) was Prayer Night and I led the prayer and gave a message on the Altar of Incense (Intercession) whixch concluded my messages on Altars. I will make these teaching available online as soon as I have time.

On Christmas Eve our whole family was performing on stage relating the Christmas story inbetween song presentations. The final song, Silent Night, with all the audience holding glowsticks was 'electric'. There were lots of new faces that night, showing the outreach at Beauty World was very effective this year.

Christmas Day for us was also busy. We spent time as a family opening presents and eating a Chicken meal for lunch. Then Shen and myself went to Alice Lau's wedding banquet for the evening - this was at Raffles Club near the Copthorne Orchid hotel. I was not feeling too well and spent most of the time in the foyer cooling down!

Boxing Day was Melody's birthday which we celebrated at home during the day. That night we wnet for a Turkey meal with friends to make up for not having Turkey on Christmas day itself.

The days leading up to New Year were busy too as one of our fulltime workers in Church passed away suddenly on the Sunday after Christmas leaving a wife and two young Kids. John was only 52 and had been hospitilized previously for kidney problems but seemed to be recovering well.

On New Years day itself I took the kids to meet up with Bill and Sarah and their kids in Sungei Buloh. Bill and Sarah were our leaders when we were in World Horizons mission in Singapore. There are now missionaries in North India and this was the only time to catch up with them before thay go back. Sungei Buloh is one of the few nature reserves in Singapore and is a wetland reserve great for bird watchers. We saw a water snake, two large moniter lizards and many Egrets and other birds.

Yesterday (2nd Jan) was our Care and Share group anointing service. Pastor Mark Geppert came and gave a wonderful message encouraging us to move in our Church mission - Adoring, Caring, Training and Sending. I'll be meeting up with him on Monday to discuss our Cell training.

Well off to finish off all my admin stuff before preparing for the wedding on Sentosa (Singapore's holiday island) tonight.

Shalom!

Tim,Shen & Kids
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P.S. The word God gave me for 2004 is Psalm 20:04 - "May He grant you according to your heart's desire, and fulfill all your purpose."

Well things have got back to normal now and nothing really startling has happened over the last few days - even last night when I led the Tuesday Night prayer meeting no one fell off their chair!

On Sunday it was a pleasure to listen to Ross Patterson (Leader of Antioch Missions and Derek Prince Ministires, Singapore). He gave a very powerful message about God using ordinary people into His purposes(Colossians 4:7-18)and gave a very touching story of how combined prayer saved the life of his daughter who was critically hurt in a car crash in Cambridge, England. She was bleeding from her liver and the doctors at the hospital (Adenbrook - foremost in liver transplanting) said there was little hope. A local church group prayed fervenly in the rain outside the hospital and Ross, his wife and team members prayed in East Coast Park, Singapore. She miraculously stopped bleeding from the liver and is now in stable condition. All glory to God.

Ross spoke in the 9am and 11am services and then I took the carol singing practice from 1pm-2.30pm - we will have to go early on Friday night to the Beauty World Shopping Centre to practice with the full sound system but it looks like we're sounding OK. Sis.Evelyn is coming up with a costume for all of us (about 14 in all) and we're all looking forward to singing our hearts out on Friday and Saturday nights.

On Monday I led worship at the staff meeting in the morning and the afternoon was taken up with admin and preparations. On Tuesday I led the Prayer meeting, talking about the three altars Abraham built (I'll soon be maknig my Altars teaching available on my teaching page - http://www.timshen.truepath.com/teaching.html ).

Today, Wednesday, is my day off and i've been resting at home, looking after the kids. Shen went out the whole morning and met some old church friends (David and Carol) who she spent a long time talking to. Melody had dance practice this morning (for her school competition). I took time to watch The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers on DVD when Shen returned and then Moira and her daughter (one of Shen's friends form the Kindergarten) came to pass on some baby clothes for Matthew - i'm writing this as Shen chats away with Moira and her daughter plays with Melody.

Well, i've been quite busy the last few days speaking at (and officiating) the wake and funeral of Bro. Kek Seng Lee who was taken to be with the Lord during our Tuesday prayer meeting! This is a first in the history of our church (indeed, i've not heard of such a thing in another Church).

Bro. Seng Lee keeled off his chair and went into a coma that led to death as I was in the middle of a sermon on offering our bodies as living sacrifices (Romas 12:1) and building an altar, rededicating our lives. He had just been singing with all his might and then prayed with my brother-in-law (quoting Jeremiah 33:3 - practically the last thing he said on this earth...'Call on My name and I will show you great and mighty things..').

At the wake and funeral Bro. Seng Lee's sister, Brother-in-law (an Aussie Pastor) and his two daughters shared very moving testimonies and I had the priviledge of leading those who don't know the Lord in the sinner's prayer.

There was grieving, but overall the atmosphere was one of hope and peace. I saw Kek Seng Lee's family really come together to bless the Lord and it truly was a precious and beautiful thing! Preacious in God's sight is the death of His saint.

Other than the above i've been doing the normal things - admin, preparing for Sunday (continuing the Carol singing practice - Bro. Seng Lee's sister says she now wants to take his place!!!) and visiting cell members off to the Philippines (collecting some fish from them for the kids) and blessing the house of a sister who is also from our cell.

Well, no one else fell off their chair when I preached at the funeral - but i've still got to lead the Tuesday night prayer this coming Tuesday!!

Tomorrow (Sunday) we have a guest speaker (Ross Patterson, an Englishman who speaks fluent Mandarin and who leads Antioch Missions, a missions organization with a China focus), so I will rest for the morning at least - then two hours of choir practice in the afternoon plus the usual.

Keep coming back for more - though I doubt if next week will be as exciting (or bizarre) as this week - but you never know :-)

Well,well,well. Last night and today have indeed been quite eventful. As mentioned, last night I led the prayer meeting and preached on Building Altars.

The worship was wondeful then we prayed for the missions teams in Thailand and China. Then we prayed for the Christmas events coming up. After that I started preaching on Building Altars.

Up until this point everything was going smoothly like normal. However, when I got half way through my message there was a loud thump and I looked out over the 50+ people in the meeting and saw that one man had fallen from his chair headfirst into the aisle and was lying still on the floor!

At first I thought either he had falled asleep and fell of the Chair or the Lord had touched him in a special way. But it soon became apparent that he was in a bad shape. There was a huge bleeding bump on his forehead and he appeared to be in a coma-like state.

Pastor Chi Hur and a few others carried him out straight away to get an ambulance and I continued my message which ended up with an altar call where all came forward to rededicate themseves to the Lord (probably aided by what they had witnessed earlier).

Later I found our that the elderly gentleman (Mr Kek, 63) had passed away and gone to be with the Lord. So most of today has been taken up with me going with Pastor Song who helped the wife and daughter arrange things for Mr Kek's funeral. I had to make a police report based on what I saw.

I'll be speaking at his wake on Friday and maybe on Saturday too. He was to be one of the Carol Singers in our Christmas presentation 'The Night The Angels Sang', which we are having in Beauty World Shopping Centre opposite our Church. I guess he will be with the angels singing as we sing in the shopping centre :-) The main thing he loved to do was sing to the Lord- which he did with all his heart.

So that's been my day, as well as taking Melody and Esther to Church Camp. picking them up and then coming home to call up our Cell members and Choir members to inform them about our dear Mr.Kek's departure.

Quite a few days really! I'm quite sleepy now and I have to get up early tomorrow to take Melody and Gideon for rehearsals for the Christmas presentation at Church (9am-6pm).

I'll be back tomorrow night to let you know what happens...(hopefully no more men falling off of chairs as I preach!!!!!!!!)

Well, i've just set up our web journal. I say 'our' because this is the web journal of a Christian couple. We are 'one' according to the Bible and so this journal is not just of one person's individualistic life but that of a family.

That in itself is quite different to the norm. Indeed, even setting up this journal I could tell it was designed with one person in mind (I was asked to choose male or female, birthday etc..).

Anyway, as you would have read in our intro., my name is Tim Gibson and my wife is Shendy. I'm an Englishman whose been living in Singapore since 1988 and my wife is a born and bred Singaporean. Our three kids were all born in Singapore and speak (those who can) Singlish (this is a mixture of English and a particular Sigaporean mix of words and grammatical constructions - eg. 'Can or cannot?' means '"Is it OK for me to do this?").

Well, let's get down to the events of today...

This morning I took Melody and her cousin (Esther) to our Church building (at the base of Bukit Timah hill) at 8am for the church camp. It started yesterday and will end at 6pm tomorrow. Although it's called a 'camp' it lasts only from 8am-6pm and then the kids go home to sleep and go back the next day. The 'camp' is held in the aircon church and consists of lots of eating, fun , teaching and worship. This is quite typical for all Singaporean Church camps actually!! (the adult ones are usualy in 4 or 5 star hotels in Malaysia).

Then I did some shopping and went home to find Shen tidying up the kids room with Gideon, Matthew being fast asleep on our bed. I then went to my office to do preparations for tonight (i'm leading the Prayer Meeting at the church from 7.30pm-9.30pm)and other admin things. I'll be leading prayer for all the missions trips our Church currently has out (Thailand and China). Then i'll teach on Building Altars and the spiritual meaning of them (i'll put the material for download on http://www.timshen.truepath.com/teaching.html soon).

Inbetween all this we packed Christmas prezzies for my family in England which was fun.

I'm just holding Matthew writing this before going off to pick up Melody and Esther with Gideon and then i'll lead the prayer meeting.

See you soon...

Current Music: Platinum by Mike Oldfield