Hard to believe that one year has passed since, Effie and I arrived in Singapore with 4 pieces of luggage and 6 boxes of books, files, and our favorite pots and pans. The first year has passed very fast. But, you probably already knew that from your own busy lives.
April has been a great month for visitors from the States. Two couples came from the San Francisco Bay Area, one couple from the Washington, D. C. area, one person from Orange County in Southern California, and another from the San Diego area. Effie was just recounting, that we got more visitors to our home in Singapore than we had all the years we lived in Texas! It has been great fun serving as an “unofficial tourist ambassador for Singapore”, even though we are limited in what we are able to show people.
Effie has been kept pretty busy. She is co-teaching a weekly Thursday morning Bible Study for a group of precious women. And, she got to be part of a team that helped put on a Vacation Bible School – but a very extraordinary VBS. It was held over a 2 day period – 12 hours each day! One of the special highlights is that one of the brothers in Christ took time off from work to cook several meals for the children and workers. He had attended a culinary school and is a great cook. The meals were great!
PTL, we believe 4 children received Christ as their Personal Savior. But, as God would have it, this was only a warm up. Many of the same people who did VBS in Singapore, including Effie, will be a part of a 28 member team going to Jakarta, Indonesia in July to hold a VBS for 200 students.
Effie had the chance to join the Ladies’ Ministry on an outing to Johor Bahru, Malaysia, a mushroom farm, and several food factories and outlets. It is just across the border from Singapore and a favorite destination for Singaporeans.
It was our first Easter and Singapore. The church has a Good Friday as well as an Easter Service. The Worship Ministry did an excellent job of bringing us into the presence of God at all the services. We were told that these services were very well received and attended. For this we thank the Lord and pray that hearts were blessed and opened to the Gospel.
Another milestone for us in April is that Arnold managed to pass the test to get a Singapore driving license. It was a bit close as his international driving license expired on the same day he took the test. It took over a month to get an appointment to just take the test.
As April winds down, May is soon upon us. We will be coming back into the States through San Francisco. We will spend 7 days visiting family, then fly to Huntington Beach in Southern California to visit Arnold’s two sisters. We go back to the Bay Area and then fly to Dallas on May 19th.
We will be going home for Kara’s graduation from dental school. Kara will move to Houston and begin a residency at the VA hospital. Along with the great blessing of Kara’s graduation, we will have a Wong Reunion – everyone will be able to attend, which is a miracle in itself. All 25 of us will be gathering in Dallas. We are really looking forward to seeing our children and grand children. Arnold has not even seen two of our newest grandchildren, Micah and Ryan.
We also hope to see many of you as schedules permit. If you would like to check out possibilities you can write us an email at arnoldjwong@gmail.com, or call us at our Texas phone number of 469.277.2487.
On June 2nd, Arnold will return to Singapore, where he will speak at the Church Camp. But, Effie and Kara will join our niece and Effie’s sister, Darlene, on a tour of Russia. They will go to St. Petersburg and then take a ship to Moscow.
We look forward to the next year and pray the Lord will use us to shepherd the Grace Baptist Church flock. We praise the Lord that we have this privilege of loving and serving His people here in Singapore. We treasure your continuous prayers for us and GBC.
We are very aware of what Jesus said in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” Please pray that in the midst of all this activity and ministry, Effie and I will abide in Him, always. You are an important part of all that is happening in our lives.
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