Hello from gooky, gunky Singapore. The tropical beaches of

Hello from gooky, gunky Singapore. The tropical beaches
of Singapore turned a different color last week as we experienced an oil spill for the first time. A ship collided with
an oil tanker off of the coast and lost enough oil to make
a mess on about five
miles of coastline. We
noticed the smell before
finding out the source
since we live about one
half mile from the seashore. The cleanup took
several days but was
minor compared to the
problem in the Gulf of
Straits of Singapore
Mexico. Singapore is
just 9 miles from the Indonesian island of Batam. The waterway in between is one
of the busiest sea channels in the world as it connects Asia
with India and Europe so we expect plenty of ships. Thankfully, we have not seen many accidents like this one. It is a
reminder that everything can change so quickly.
Our church attendance has remained steady. Most of the new
young people have continued attending services. Reuben is a
rowdy nine-year-old among that group. His unsaved parents
hoped that church could help reform him. He seems to be a
bright boy that just gets bored easily. Michelle was quite surprised in
the junior Sunday School when he
asked about how to be saved. Reuben came back after class and said
that he believed in Jesus but was not
sure if he could be good enough.
It will take a little longer to reach
him, but he
Reuben Yeo
is close. His
behavior has
improved also. We are excited as each
of these youngsters represents an unsaved family that can be reached in the
days ahead.
Several of the unsaved
teens we mentioned last
time are able to come
for our youth camp. We
were disappointed when
their school scheduled a
Youth group and tuition kids at a
holiday camp so that sevtheme park
eral more could not come,
but we will try to reach them later. Our friend, Victor Ho,
will be the speaker. He is a Singaporean who has served for
many years as a missionary in Hong Kong so he should be a
good challenge to both the saved and unsaved youth. Most
of them joined in a trip to a local theme park where everyone
got better acquainted.
The last two months have
been busy for Steve in different ways. He finished the
night class on Genesis and
started a “summer school”
session teaching Hebrew to
his former student, Joshua,
who is now working on another graduate degree at Bob
Joshua Wong and family
Jones. Steve will start another night class in three weeks
too. In the middle of it all he had cataract surgery on his eye.
Cancer treatment early in his life had left a higher possibility of a cataract developing. The tropical sun is also hard on
eyes. His vision started getting wacky last fall, and a blurry
spot appeared in December. He could have waited, but we
decided to take advantage of our good insurance coverage.
The operation and recovery went well. One of our deacons
sells the surgical equipment and lenses so he helped in the
surgery to make sure his pastor was ok. Steve’s vision is better,
and we are thankful that everything went well.
The kids are excited to
be finished with the first
half of their school year.
Over the years we have
kept them on the Singapore schedule that starts
in January and ends in
November.
They are
enjoying
James and ZiXuan
more time
with friends during the break. James celebrated
his sixteenth birthday without much fanfare. A
few friends joined him for the day, but they did
not drive off anywhere. You
must be twenty-one to receive
a driver’s license in Singapore
so sixteen is nothing special.
In the midst of unsettled
times, the Lord has continued
to provide for us. We thank
all of you for being a part of
our ministry.