“I can’t see, I really cannot see!” Teresa Ng tried repeatedly to convince the disbelieving supermarket cashier who had just pointed her to the payment terminal, instead of guiding her there.

To be fair, there is little in her appearance to suggest that Teresa suffers from a degenerative eye condition, which causes blurred vision. It took a bit more explaining for the cashier to realise the situation and change her tune to be more helpful.

Teresa ‘s point was that one need not wear dark sunglasses and hold a white cane to be a person with impaired vision. Another encounter she shared was how a “kind soul” had pushed a wheelchair user down a ramp he had just taken great pains to mount, without being asked!

These were examples from the Being a Neighbour introductory workshop on 4 May that illustrated how many of us do have stereotypes or assume to know the needs of people with disabilities. It was conducted by Koinonia Inclusion Network (KIN), where Teresa is a consultant,

The sharing helped me understand the Persons with Disabilities (PwD) landscape better and how our church can be more welcoming for people of all abilities. The speakers provided an overview of various types of disabilities and their characteristics. Universally, there are many forms of disabilities and each person may have varying degrees of impairment, but they fall under three main categories – physical, sensory and developmental.  

What was important for me were the ways that we can ensure the safety and accessibility of our spaces and events, and the respectful way to communicate and interact with them. I group them into three buckets using book analogies (sorry, occupational hazard of being a librarian!):

• Don’t judge a book by its cover

People with hearing loss or who are on the autism spectrum may not visually display a difference in abilities until we interact with them.  Therefore, don’t assume that they are ignoring us when we speak to them, and get upset.  Understanding the characteristics helps us to be more sensitive to people who are differently abled, and allows us to interact with them better.  The church’s role in Disability Inclusion can be seen in the parable of the Good Samaritan, where Jesus taught us about the extent of being a good neighbour. In building relationships with people who are different from us, the Good Samaritan demonstrated 4Ps in showing love: To be Patient, Perceptive, Persistent and Prudent. And it all starts with having empathy.

• Give it the right title

The workshop shed light on a people-first language that aids to remove misconceptions and stereotypes.  This refers to preferred words to describe people with different conditions, such as ‘wheelchair user’ as opposed to ‘wheelchair-bound”, and ‘person with hearing loss’ instead of ‘hearing-impaired’ or ‘deaf’.  The main idea is that we are all differently abled, made and loved by God.

• If God created the story, stick to it to the end

The Good Samaritan did not just stop to assess the injured victim, but he also took care of his wounds, brought him to an inn to be taken care of, and told the innkeeper that he would come back to check on him. Our quest to be an inclusive church is not a one-time encounter or effort, but needs to be a life-long or long-term commitment.  Our Lord is giving us the opportunities, so let us embark on this journey for the long haul.

Basically, all of us can do our part to fulfil our mission to be a family blessed to bless the community and the nations. It all starts with a simple prayer and an open heart.

The 75th Junior Boys’ Brigade Company was established in 2000, and we have been recruiting boys from P3 to P6 till today. 

The objective of The Boys' Brigade is the advancement of Christ's Kingdom among boys and the promotion of the habits of Obedience, Reverence, Discipline, Self-Respect and all that tends towards a true Christian Manliness.

Despite the difficult pandemic period the past 2 years, we are thankful that adult leaders serving as officers and teachers had continued to serve in the company.

We would like to thank God for the generously support given by Paya Lebar Methodist Church, our sponsoring Church, in helping out in our weekly parades. They have been a source of motivation and inspiration to our Boys.

When I signed up for the workshop on equipping parents and children's ministry leaders, I expected to be taught how to make the word more pertinent and exciting to my children. However, what I learnt instead were very relevant, practical tips and techniques on how to better connect with my children. I like how these tips were taught using the acronym L.O.V.E which stands for Love Languages, Openness, Validation and Empowerment.

Being a huge proponent of the Love Languages, I was delighted to see how we were encouraged to find out and speak our children's love language so that our children will truly feel our love for them.

I also really loved the idea of empowerment. Many times in our protectiveness or our desire to get things done as efficiently as possible, we forget that our children are capable, and need us to trust them and give them room to grow.

Together with being open and validating our children, these tips become a powerful tool in helping us to connect with and love our children.

The mini practices and quizzes also helped me have a better idea of what these tips would look like when carried out. We received timely and effective feedback from the workshop trainers and also had our questions answered in great detail as well.

Overall, the workshop was enjoyable and I feel more equipped to parent and love my child the way God intended. (Su-Mei Lenden-Hitchcock, school teacher by profession, and mother of two children)

The workshop though done virtually was effective and inspiring.  David and Cynthia imparted their knowledge in relating to children in an easy-to-understand, easy-to-remember and practical way.  The lesson topics in the acronym L.O.V.E. helped a lot.  L for Love languages, O for Openness, V for Validation and E for Empowerment.  I especially like the Love Languages topic.  Though I’ve read and learned about love languages in many forums, their tips on using “see, hear and feel” were especially helpful and useful, and I will definitely will start using these tips when teaching the children in Silver Boxes. (Angeline, mother of two young adults, who is serving in our Silver Boxes)

On 27 June 2020, I attended my first PLMC webinar called Beat the Blues by Benson Soh. In the past few months, mental wellness has been a popular topic, and this was a very topical subject. Mental health is a cause that is very important to me and I was very pleased to see such a webinar being hosted by PL.

It was a very interactive session, with the use of polls and Q&A for participants to interact with Benson and Kwang Meng, who was facilitating. The agenda covered anxiety, depression, treatment and intervention/prevention and was conducted in a myth-busting way.

The image above is an example of statements that we had to indicate whether they were facts or myths. It turns out that these are all myths! While there is some awareness about anxiety or depression being medical conditions, it was an eye-opener for many that the way to deal with mental health issues isn’t to avoid triggering situations, but to seek help and begin the journey to recovery.

Benson also challenged us to examine 9 different negative thinking habits including black & white thinking (seeing things in extremes) and blaming everyone else or ourselves for everything that goes wrong. This was a useful list of questions to examine our thought patterns and recognize their flaws.

We had an extremely lively Q&A session at the end of the webinar that spanned advice on medication and activities, recognizing depression or anxiety in ourselves and others, and advice for responding to and supporting a friend or family member who might be dealing with a mental health condition.

While we can provide others with a listening ear or accompany them for therapy sessions, we were also reminded to be fervent in prayer. I was encouraged by Psalm 55:22 that even if we struggle with mental health conditions ourselves or find it difficult and tiring to support someone dear who does, we can “cast [our] burden on the Lord, and He will sustain [us]”.

Grasping the Word of God was held from 15 April to 13 May 2020, facilitated by Mr Low Kwang Meng. This course took place over Zoom, allowing us to deepen our knowledge of the word of God even though we could not meet physically in an effort to practise safe distancing. Praise God that with Him, all things are possible and His work transcends our circumstances

Over the course of the 5 weeks, we understood how to apply the steps of the biblical interpretive journey, how to analyse a biblical text from the level of the sentence to the discourse level, correctly apply the biblical principle and understand the importance of historical-cultural and literary context of biblical text. The process of interpreting and applying the Bible may be compared to taking a journey - applying the principlising bridge to cross the river of differences of culture, language, time, situation and covenant, to find the principle we can apply from the biblical text.

However, even though we could achieve the primary goals of this course, a larger question loomed and it found its way into our discussions. Since Bible study is tedious, it inevitably causes us to wonder: Why do we have to read the Bible for ourselves and understand God’s word through our own reading instead of reading a study Bible or solely relying on our pastors’ sermons and Circuit Breaker Devotions? As we shared our personal insights during the lesson, we found our answer: it is precisely because we struggled that we grew spiritually through the process of studying the Word of God and learnt to understand God’s message for us at a deeper level. 

For the confused, as I was, Kwang Meng offered an apt analogy: Understanding the Bible solely through the lens of Bible study resources is just like taking a car trip to our intended destination, while studying the Bible on our own is likened to walking the course of the journey instead. While it is takes much more effort to walk, we would see more along the way than if we were in the car; similarly, we are more likely to be able to grasp God’s message for us when we read and study the Bible for ourselves. After we shared our reflections, I can safely conclude that we are all grateful that this course has equipped us with the skills to stand on our own two feet as we read the Bible.

As we studied Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path”, we discovered figures of speech and contrast embedded in this short sentence. More significantly, we understood the biblical principle that we would stumble in the darkness without the Word of God to guide us. May we all seek to study the Bible, grow deeper in the scripture and dwell upon the Word of God!

Look out for more Discipleship & Nurture courses coming your way on PLMC TODAY!