Meeting My Benefactor

I am meeting my benefactor this coming Sunday for the first time in 14 years. I owe my education to him indirectly. He is the who convinced my father that I should be allowed to go to Calvin College. He also helped pushed my application through an already closed deadline. When I heard that he is coming to preach this Sunday, I feel that I will be called upon to account for my accomplishment since I graduated. It's not that I have not accomplished anything. But I felt my accomplishment is meager compared to the opportunity I have been given.

In my ideal world, I would have liked to show him my Phd, and may be my thriving private practice. Of course I'd also like to keep the family that I have now: a devoted husband and two beautiful and intelligent children who in their immature ways continue to do things that's pleasing to God.

If the idea of meeting him has this effect on me, what would it be like meeting Jesus, my biggest benefactor to whom I owe my life. With much trepidation I can only wonder what he would say. That really put everything in perspective, doesn't it?

Supervision for Junior Preachers

I always feel that Indonesian full time bible teachers (guru injil) or pastors are heavily burdened with preaching duties. It was mentioned recently in the 23 September 2008 blog entry of this blogger. His entry really got me going for days. I have to write something to get it out of my head. I may offend some people. Please accept my sincere apology.

In Indonesian church life, preaching is part of prayer meeting, women's fellowship, youth fellowship, housewarming party, thanksgiving, business opening, casket closure ceremony, consolation service, pre-funeral service, grave-side ceremony, wedding, malam widodaren (Indonesian version of bachelorette gatherings) and many more.

My first concern is whether the congregation ever felt preached out sometimes. Secondly, whether the preacher has ample time to prepare for his or her sermon. And thirdly, with so many sermons delivered, are there any supervision for the junior preachers?

I believe there should be less sermon delivered on a weekly basis and each sermon delivered (especially by juniors) should be properly vetted and supervised to maintain quality and faithfulness to biblical teaching. In my line of work as an Educational Psychologist, my first 1000 hours with my clients has to be supervised. Practically, my first 250 to 350 psychological reports has to be vetted and co-signed by a registered psychologist. Why not evaluation and supervision for new preachers who are doing important work as God's mouthpiece? Evaluation and supervision is important for the following reasons.

First, sermon text should be vetted for correct teaching to ensure that nothing that's contrary to the bible is inserted. I recently cringed over a joke delivered in a sermon by an ordained pastor. On writing it doesn't sound funny but his delivery made people laughed. In the joke he related to a question by a youth, "Pastor, can a Christian go to night clubs?" He said he answered the youth by saying simply (I don't remember word by word), "If Jesus returns or you die today, is that how you want God to find you?" I was waiting for him to provide explanation of what his point was or was not but it never came. There were several things inferred from that illustration. First, that God only sees the external, and not what's in a person's heart. Secondly, there is greater weight placed on to our last act than the rest of your life. The pastor sermon overall was easy to listen to and his delivery was pleasant. But that little speck really bothered me.

Second, vetting of text and evaluation of delivery is important for the preacher's own personal development. I heard another pastor preached. He was a very senior one, and I cringed. This pastor liked to use "saudara saudara" excessively in his sermon to the point that it was distracting. In fact I was so distracted I started counting how many "saudara saudara" he used. I counted the rate per minute for 5 minutes and I counted 13-15 "saudara saudara's" every minute. That means there were a total of 650 to 750 "saudara saudara's" in his 50 minutes sermon. This debilitating habits could have been dealt with if during his junior years he was properly supervised. Now he is so senior that I don't think no one's evaluation is going to be received kindly.

Third, sermon text should be vetted so that it's worth (in delivery time) could be decided before delivery. If a sermon worth only 20 minutes of the congregation time, then the preacher should not spent 45 minutes. I often suffered through sermons which main points could have been delivered in less than 20 minutes. But because of inexperience or insecurity over delivering a short sermon, junior preachers often just padded his or her sermon with fillers to make it twice longer. Good preachers usually know when to stop preaching and they do not pad up his sermon with meaningless words. Good preacher words are insightful and succinct and overall sermons are usually is shorter.

On a side note, the pulpit of First Presbyterian Church of B0ulder, Colorado was equipped with a built in digital clock. I was told that the clock would blink at certain time to remind preachers that they went overtime. I thought that was hilarious. Maybe in all pulpits, there should be a timer so that preachers know when they have spoken too long. I believe the length of the sermon is not the issue. The issue is when a sermon went over 30 minutes and nothing insightful of new is being said.

Junior preachers can learn a lot from good senior preachers. They need to have their content and delivery style evaluated. A good evaluation should point out the things he/she did right as well as areas that need improvement.

Getting published

I have been on occasion sent my comments to Strait Times writer. Sometimes I received a reply but most of the time, there was none. This week I sent another one and Strait Times wanted to publish it. Here is a copy of my comment on "High-crass service" publish on Sunday Times, 14 September:

" Sigh... sigh... sigh...
I totally shared your experience. I am technically an Indonesian, but I don't look or act like one. Over the years, I have often acted as a buyer/procurer of branded handbag for my sister who lives in Indonesia. I have made quite a number of purchases over the years in various locations such as Taipei, Denver, Boca Raton, and Singapore. I don't own one myself. When I walk into a store, I usually has a model and its number on hand. I don't even pretend to make a choice. But even within that short period of time, I can sense when I was regarded as an interloper. That happened exclusively in Singapore. Here, it seems that salesperson are trained to assess the potential of making a sales when a customer walks in. The message they projected about their opinion is loud and clear. Sigh... sigh ...

Poor service is not only in high end shops though. It happened usually in apparel shop like Samuel and Kevin, Giordano etc. When I walked in, no one greeted me. But the moment I touched the neatly piled clothes to find my size, some one jumped in to stop me and ask what size I needed. They even put their hand on top of the pile as precaution some time. I usually would say, "o good that you came in time. I was going to make a big mess of your neat pile. " Sigh.. sigh.. sigh...

Some nice changes I observed recently since a number of Filipinos sales person are in retail sales force. Bossini and Esprit hire quite a number of them and it made shopping there much more pleasant."

I didn't give much thoughts and I did not give permission to publish with my name. So unless they really need a filler on Saturday's mailbag forum, the most likely will not publish it. Why I don't have the nerve to have my opinion published? I guess I am a chicken.

I know of one person, Michael Loh Yik Ming, who make some world record of have the most number of letters published in the newspaper within a year. He had one letter published almost every day. What a nerve. I guess I am not Michael. In fact, there is one blog post on the Serangoon Garden workers dormitory which has been sitting as a draft for some time. I am too afraid to publish it because it implicates the Ministry of National Development of Singapore. When I get the nerve, I will publish it, I guess.

Choosing a church

Somebody told me a while back that one should choose a church for its teaching and fellowship. In the past I chose the church I worshiped in based on the quality of its music and sermon. Is it wrong? Good music and good preaching make worship enjoyable. You hardly had a need to check your watch and the service usually ends before you feel bored. I left the first church we worshiped in during our first year in Singapore because the music and the preaching were simply awful and the fellowship was not happening. I truly felt that the hour and a half I spent in the church was not time well spent.

Many say that the church is not in the business of entertainment so one should not expect to be entertained. Is it my attitude that I expect to be entertained during a worship service? Is it too much to expect a modicum well thought out sermon and well chosen songs? I guess I should make it my priority every week to pray for the people who are going to preach and to lead worship service that God will bless and make perfect the preparation they do.

Foreign workers in Serangoon Garden

Recently, there is an issue regarding the government plan to set up foreign workers dormitories housing 1000 workers in the old Serangoon Garden Technical School. I attended the school for several months years back. I know it is located right in the heart of residential landed properties. Needless to say, the residents of Serangoon Garden are very unhappy. The polemic in Strait Times has been revealing. On one hand, there are those who sympathize with home owners and on the other hand there are those who are disgusted by the discriminatory and intolerant attitude of these homeowners. The politically correct people chastised home owners for its intolerant, racist and elitist attitudes. While it's true, many Singaporeans has a long way to get over their xenophobia, I can't help myself to feel there are elements of injustice toward the homeowners and inconsistencies on the government part at play here.

One of the argument set out by homeowner is the loss of property value. Without a doubt, the value of those premium landed houses in the immediate vicinity and possibly in the whole Serangoon Garden neighborhood will suffer a drop and may not recover so long as the dormitory is there. Considering that the home is a single most valuable asset a Singaporean most likely to own, the loss in value is going to have significant effect. One solution is to compensate homeowner with a higher plot ratio (click here to understand plot ratio) assignment for their landed home which will immediately boost up their property value at no apparent cost to the government. No one has propose this so far though.

Many, from government officers to private citizens, including Strait Times editor, has called for greater tolerance and acceptance of these foreign workers into Singapore society. However, governmental policy all along has made the call sound off key. You see, government policy all along forbids local Singapore citizen or permanent residence to be romantically involved with foreign workers including foreign domestic workers. In fact, if a foreign domestic worker became romantically involved and got herself pregnant, she would have to be repatriated even if the man responsible is willing to marry her. Future return of the mother and child to join the Singaporean/PR father of the child is almost impossible. Foreign worker policy is such that businesses are allowed to pay them so little that there is no way for them to be fully part of Singapore society and participating in the wealth they help create. In fact, with the amount they are paid, they can barely subsist in Singapore even with the cheap housing for foreign worker.

If you look at selection of foreign talent or people who are accepted to be permanent resident, it is no wonder, the citizen of Singapore is choosy in who they want to have as neighbors. To be considered for permanent residence status, you almost need to have a degree, or some sort of financial investment in Singapore. If you are poor and uneducated, you can't get a PR status even if you marry a Singaporean who are also poor and uneducated. The message is, if you are poor and uneducated, you are welcomed only as long as you are useful i.e. willing to do jobs that no Singaporean is willing to do.

It's not my intention to argue that current immigration policy is not good or vice versa. In fact, it is precisely this policy that allows stability and survival for Singapore. However, in light of this, let's not be too hasty to name call Serangoon Garden residents as racist, elitist and intolerant.

To Serangoon Garden residents, you have my sympathy. I know not all of you are xenophobics. I wish you speedy resolution to your plight.

The lack of preparation for the influx of foreign workers is an oversight on the government part. After all it was never the government's plan to use old Serangoon Garden Technical School site as foreign worker dormitories, is there? Both parties, the government and the homeowners need to find a solution acceptable to both.

9/11

On September 11, 2001, America was changed. But unbeknown to many, a little boy's life in Singapore was about to be changed as well. My son was a little over 4 years old at that time. His favorite TV show at the time was Barney. "Barney is a dinosaur from our imagination...Barney can be your friend too if you just make believe him," goes Barney's theme song. The program teaches children to use their imagination and to make believe things. One night the boy was afraid of the monster under the bed. We told him that there is no monster. It's just in your imagination. Like Barney, it's not real, we told him. Then we suggest to pray and ask for God's protection. After we pray, he asked, " Is God real? How do you know that he is not just our 'in-magician' (imagination). He doesn't feel real to me, you know." I immediately went oh oh. Bells were ringing in my head. I had a skeptic or possibly an agnostic to raise. Being trained to use his imagination by Barney didn't help at all. In the end I told him, "The Bible says so, and the Bible is never wrong" and it seemed to satisfy him.

Several weeks later, 9/11 occurred. He saw the images and we talked about it. Suddenly, my son at 4 years old realized how fragile life was. I didn't know how much he was effected until several months later. We were preparing to go to Indonesia by plane. Usually, he was delighted with the prospect of getting on an airplane. Weeks before our departure date, he mentioned several times how he wished we didn't have to go. It wasn't until 2 days before the date that he told me his fears. His fear was simple. At the bottom of it, he was afraid that if he died suddenly, God in heaven will deny him entry because he was a stranger to God. He understood that we didn't normally allow stranger into our house. So on that day I explain to him what he needed to do to become one of God's children. Then I said a prayer introducing him to God, and also helped him to say a prayer to receive Jesus Christ.

Whenever the anniversary of 9/11 comes around, I always remember how the event set the wheel of change rolling in my son's life. Daniel doesn't remember anymore how he became a believer, but he knows beyond a doubt that he belongs to God.