Taking Singapore by Storm

Hi Everyone,

It has been a whirlwind, ever since we hit the island. In fact, on the very night we landed, a fierce storm had just passed through the island. As a clever joke, one of the members said she heard “we took Singapore by storm.”

In just a little over a week, we have found housing; signed a 2 year lease; bought and received furniture and appliances; got our “hand phones” (cell phones to you all in the States); ordered our T.V. and internet service; looked at new and used cars; got installed as the new Senior Pastor of Grace Baptist church; and preached our first sermon as the new pastor.

It has been just wild – but, a very productive experience. A whole group of individuals have come around us to help drive us around and even shop for us. This is the first time I have ever seen people get discounts off of items already on sale! It is something to behold. Also, the Lord has led a number of individuals to give us items that we needed to help get set up. We hope to move into our new accommodations on or just after Wednesday.

Effie says all this running around reminds her of a newly married couple setting up their first apartment with wedding gifts.

We are slowly trying to meet people and evaluate the needs of the church family. There are a lot of needs and it is hard to know exactly where to start. As soon as you think you know, something pops up out of the woodwork needing your immediate and undivided attention. So, please pray for us that we will have great spiritual wisdom in setting priorities and that the Lord will give us favor in the eyes of the people so we can do what needs to be done.

The people here have been very gracious, kind, generous, and patient with us. Even though Singapore is an English speaking country, there is so much we need to learn and assimilate. Their zip codes have 6 digits instead of 5 and their phone numbers have 8 digits instead of the 7 in the U. S. (don’t count the area code). Pray that we will be quick learners.

Last night, we were hosted to a birthday banquet at the Imperial Herbal Restaurant. There were a lot of new dishes for us. But, the unique thing about this is that each dish had Chinese herbs added to them for extra health benefits. For example, we had shark fin soup with ginseng in it. All in a day’s work.

That is about it for now. Please write us and let us know how we can help and pray for you. If you need us, you can call us at our local Texas phone number 469.277.2487. It is tied to our computer, so we can talk to you all, just like as if we are still in Plano. It is charged to you as a local call, unless you are out of the area, of course. Remember that we are 13-14 hours ahead of Texas time. If you have a webcam and want to use Skype to talk and see us FREE, our Skype address is arnoldjwong08.

Love to hear from you all,
Arnold and Effie