By Rev Dr Forest Koh

 

 

“You are my little flower girl.” These words have stayed with me over the years. I still remember carrying you in my arms when you were a baby. You were so tiny, so full of life, completely unaware of what God had prepared for you. Like every child, your story had only just begun.

Then came my wedding day. You were my flower girl. With your little hands, you scattered flower petals down the aisle, preparing the way for the bride. Everyone smiled at your innocence. None of us imagined how quickly time would pass.

By Rev Dr Forest Koh

 

This was a new expression our young people coined during our Taiwan mission trip. It simply meant, “I have no idea what you’re trying to say!” Since many of our children are unfamiliar with the traditional Chinese characters used in Taiwan (fántǐzì  繁體字), whenever anyone of us spoke Mandarin in a way they could not understand, they would laugh and say, “He is speaking in Fanti Zi!”

By Dr Jeremy Chew

 

When I first came to GPC as a pastor, some of the young people were intrigued by my title, “Preacher Doctor.” I told them they could simply call me “Uncle,” and, with tongues firmly in cheek, they addressed me as “Uncle Preacher Doctor.” After my contract with GPC ended in July last year, I felt the need to take a sabbatical from my 35 years of ministry. During this period, I was neither “preacher” nor “doctor,” so those same young people began calling me simply “Uncle J.”

By Rev Dr Forest Koh

 

I have spent many years moving from place to place, searching and finding. I thought I knew what “rest” felt like. But standing on South Bank, watching the Swan River hold up the Perth CBD like a mirror, I realized something: I was lost. Not geographically. I knew exactly where I was. I was lost in that liminal space, not quite home, not quite foreign.

By Rev Dr Forest Koh

 

Lord, how could I trust You with all my heart if I do not spend time with You? How could I say I trust You when I rarely slow down to listen, to pray, to meditate on Your Word, to know Your heart more deeply? Trust is never built from a distance. Trust grows through relationship. The more I know You, the more I learn that Your wisdom is higher than mine, Your love deeper than mine, and Your ways far better than my own understanding.

By Pr Dr Benita Lim

 

My story with GPC begins with my maternal grandparents who came to Singapore from Quanzhou, Fujian in the mid 1900s. They settled at the foot of Bukit Timah hill as hawkers and began attending the oldest Chinese Protestant church in Singapore just up the road. My mother was the first to be born here among her siblings, and many of them also attended Pei Hwa Primary School, myself included.

 

My father’s family moved to Singapore from Moro, a small Indonesian island, and he became the first Christian in his family and joined GPC’s Chinese congregation where he met my mother in the choir. My father served as an elder before he too became a pastor.