To help Christians embrace the Kingdom’s way of living and to rekindle a fresh love for the Word of God were the two main objectives behind Tan Ye Peng’s, Deputy Senior Pastor of City Harvest Church, two-day mission trip to City Harvest Church (Kuala Lumpur) from 22 to 23 September 2009.

Over the span of two days, a total of six meetings were held, seeing a total of more than 2,000 attendees. Three of these sessions were to train and equip over 300 church leaders.

Tan emphasized the need for mindset to be renewed in order to have a new way of living. The change in our mindsets consequently needs to be reflected in our lives. This message was directed specifically in two areas — to love to the extent that we are able to lay down our lives for each other and the need to always be in a position of repentance and faith. In addition, it is also imperative for believers to bear fruits in their ministry, namely to love and serve one another.

Tan also gave an altar call for leaders to let God deal with those hurts and allow the love of God to renew their passion to serve again. Many leaders came forward and responded to the altar call, many with tears in their eyes.

PHOTOS: Courtesy of City Harvest Church (Kuala Lumpur)

In another meeting with the church congregation, Tan challenged the cell group leaders to have a greater love for the Word of God and to receive constant revelations from God. It is only when a leader learns to receive from God will he have new things to offer and teach the people he is leading. Tan proceeded to pray for hundreds of cell group leaders, interns, subzone leaders and potential leaders who responded to his altar call.

Many were ministered during the altar call over the two days, with others finding themselves developing a stronger love for God and people. And with certainty, this is a step forward in embracing the Kingdom’s way of living for City Harvest Church (Kuala Lumpur).

From 31 August to 4 September, Bobby Chaw from City Harvest Church led a leadership training session in Bethel Missions Church, Bangalore, India.

Chaw taught them on how to be an excellent leader from the book of Daniel in the Bible. He focused on the seven keys to excellent leadership and listed them as good physical health, being well-groomed, having wisdom, being well-read & well-informed, having initiative, being willing to serve and having good communication skills.

A total of 2,000 attended and Chaw felt that it was a good time for the people to evaluate their leadership traits and work on being a better leader.

Chaw was also the guest speaker at Bethel Missions Church’s Celebration of 30th Year in the Ministry. From a congregation of about 500 in 2004, they grew rapidly to the current 2,000 strong membership. Bethel Mission Church is now in three locations in the city. They also have several groups ministering to men, women, children, seniors, youth, couples, the poor and needy.

PHOTOS: Courtesy of Bethel Missions Church

Frank Goldberg, Senior Pastor of Bethel Mission Church also started a monthly Morning Prayer meeting, after being inspired by his trip to Yoido Full Gospel Church in South Korea with Kong Hee in the beginning of this year.

Chaw reflected, “It was also really quite amazing to see almost 2,000 people coming to pray from 5am to 7am. This is quite something as the town only has a population of 200,000 people.”

A half-naked man on stage, two men who belted out love songs for the women in the club, plus a cheeky host who suggested sticking the voting stickers “below the belt”.

Nuyou magazine’s Men We Love party on 12 November, held at Zouk, certainly set hearts on fire as 17 of Singapore’s finest men competed for top honors.

Grace Lee, editor of the popular Chinese fashion magazine said of the competition, “It’s about more than the superficial, it’s about the heart and the belief of the person.”

Men We Love started out as just a list of men that, well, Nuyou loved. But over the years, with the development of social media, this list became a competition that roped in the nominations and votes of the public. Tonight’s party was the finale in which the winner would be announced, and Nuyou got to “celebrate the men we love with the readers”.

These fine young men had to meet two important criteria: they had to be attractive on the outside and the inside.

Photos of the nominees were posted online and viewers could vote for their favorite (each voter could vote up to five times a day). The winner with the most votes would win the title plus prizes amounting to over $2,000.

What a party it was. The evening started with the men strutting their stuff down the catwalk and posing — to the delighted screams of the girls in the audience.

The fever heightened during the question and answer segment. Cheers for the contestants grew wilder, and hearts started to palpitate as Alvin Leong, 25, bashfully began to take off his shirt to the catcalls and chants of “Tuo diao! Tuo diao!” (“take it off” in Mandarin) after the host asked if he’d take off his clothes.

He didn’t take off his shirt in vain: the game young man walked away with two of the five subsidiary awards, Mr Urbane and Most Well-Groomed.

The most exciting part of the evening was the voting segment where the gorgeous men stepped off the stage and into the audience. Armed with stickers, the audience was instructed by the host of the evening to “stick them below the belt”. Naughty.

But it was all in the name of good fun as giggles erupted from various parts of the audience as the men walked back stage with their pants covered in little orange stickers.

Singer Kelly Poon stepped up to stage for an estrogen break, wowing the audience with her stunning vocals.

The evening drew to a close with the last two awards being handed out; the Most Popular, which was determined by the number of stickers decorating the contestant’s pants, and the most number of online votes.

Cheers rang in the air as Alvin won again. He said of winning the Most Popular award, “I feel very honored and lucky!”

The overall winner, and the winner of the most number of votes went to Brian Liu, 27, who was “completely surprised but very, very happy”. The charismatic gentleman was grateful to others for his win, “It was the support of my friends and family!”

Lee was especially taken by Liu. “He has a very beautiful heart,” she said. In an interview with Nuyou, Brian had talked about having been to a 9/11 church service for the victims, and just outside the church, a car covered in dust had the words “Mom, Dad, where are you?” Lee commended Liu’s ability to notice small, seemingly insignificant details.

Having proved to have a heart of gold and a personality that women love, looks like Liu’s datebook might start to get pretty full… if it isn’t already.

MEET THE MEN

City News grabs a quick one with five of the Men We Love contestants:

Name: Brian Liu

Age: 27

Occupation: Management consultant

The most loveable thing about me is… “that I’m not so loveable and that’s what ladies love. I hope.”

Biggest selling point: “Probably my spontaneity. I’m up for anything anytime anywhere.”

Fun fact: His friends made fun of him for joining the competition, “Go work out! Go start looking hot!” However, after this competition he doesn’t intend to carry on doing such competitions.

Name: Eugene Seow

Age: 25

Occupation: A student at Singapore Institute of Management (SIM)

The most loveable thing about me is… “My eyes, while I smile.”

Biggest selling point: “Commitment. The moment I make my decision (about a girlfriend) I won’t change it.”

Fun fact: Joined the competition after being scouted on the street.

Name: Alvin Leong

Age: 25

Occupation: Banking and finance student at SIM

The most loveable thing about me is… “My smile. I think it brightens up the atmosphere around me.”

Biggest selling point : “I’m quite romantic!”

Fun fact: He’s a baker, and used to sell Oreo cheescake online before got too busy to whip up these treats.

Name: Elson Soh

Age: 21

Occupation: Artiste, singer

The most loveable thing about me is …“My innocence. Most people think I’m very innocent.”

Biggest selling point: “My innocence!”

Fun fact: He writes his own songs, ballads. He’s preparing for his full-fledged album that will be slated for release 1 January 2010. He used to be a model with Puma when Grace spotted him and asked if he would like to join the competition.

PHOTOS: Gay Sen Min

Name: Calvin Rabendharen

Age: 25

Occupation: Guest duty manager at the Singapore Marriott

The most loveable thing about me is… “Personality. I’m an outgoing and fun person.”

Biggest selling point: “I’m one of the most tanned contestants?”

Fun fact: He hopes to take the experience and make new friends.

Christians are not spared from the challenges that married couples face. In fact, recent reports show divorce rates among Christian groups were significantly higher than for other faith groups, and, sadly, much higher than Atheists and Agnostics.

In Asia, Indonesia’s reform decade has also brought something unexpected: a tenfold increase in the rate of divorce.

“Around two million couples get married annually, and on the other hand, roughly 200,000 couples divorce annually. The divorce rate is 10 percent of the marriage rate, it’s very big,” Antara news agency quoted Nasaruddin Umar, the religious affairs ministry’s director general for Islamic public guidance in February 2009 in Jakarta, Indonesia.

All the more Kong Hee, senior pastor of City Harvest Church, felt the pressing need to address this issue on making marriages work in these trying times. The church must foremost be warned and taught about the dangers of unhappy marriages and how to avoid them.

In Singapore, after completing a series of teachings on “The Differences Between A Man And A Woman” and “Love Busters” in the first quarter of 2009, Kong goes on to bring the practical message of keeping marriages strong to Indonesia.

On 8 and 9 September 2009, Surabaya, Indonesia, a team of 24 comprising six church staff and 18 talented Indonesian members of City Harvest Church came together with Kong. The message was alternately illustrated in real life scenarios through a drama presentation which all of the participants enjoyed tremendously. The Indonesians could well-relate to the situations demonstrated as it took on local jokes, familiar places and settings that are very common to Indonesian families.

An estimate of 300 attendees came and they were from various cities in Indonesia such as Jakarta, Bandung, Gorontalo, Sidoarjo, Surabaya and Malang. The delegation had a fair ratio of singles and married couples and included church leaders, businessmen, housewives, volunteers and students. Participants were indeed grateful for the highly informative, entertaining, balanced and revelational teaching on how to make marriage work.

The singles testified that it excites them to enter marriage despite the challenges that may come along. The marriage seminar also fostered wiser decision-making for their future. Dating couples, though they had a glimpse of the realities of marriage, were allowed a healthy perspective through helpful guidelines that are Scripture-based. And for the married ones, it has been an opportunity for them to renew their vows and keep the fire of love burning.

PHOTOS: Seth Gan

Google Inc’s Dave Girouard shares six rules of effective innovation at the workplace.

It is in times of crises that eventual winners are determined, said Google Inc’s Dave Girouard at the APEC SME Summit 2009 in Singapore on 12 November 2009. Girouard, head of Google’s enterprise division, delivered a 15-minute speech on how companies can effectively innovate during an economic downturn. Stating that companies need to take advantage of the recession by innovating in order to establish themselves and achieve competitive separation, he shared six innovation-friendly principles practised at Google.

Hiring is at the heart of all they do. By hiring people that a company can first and foremost trust with information and decision-making, Google empowers employees to act fast, make mistakes, recover and do better.

20 per cent time. Employees get, for example, one day off in a week or one week off every five weeks to do what they want to do, based on the principle that when people work on what they are passionate about, commitment and productivity increases. While not perfect, the system has indirectly given birth to some of Google’s most successful features, such as Google News and Gmail.

Ideas can come from everywhere and everybody. Avenues for idea-sharing at Google go beyond the suggestion box, where open-mindedness is practised through a system that allows for ideas not just to be shared but explored, discussed, criticized, vetted, and ultimately fine-tuned into marketable products.

Share all information. Maintaining a degree of transparency, be it in letting everybody know what everybody else is working on, or sharing information discussed within the boardroom with employees comes with a certain degree of risk, but is important in nurturing an environment of trust and creativity.

Iterate products. Even after a product has been introduced into the market, Google gives employees the flexibility to improvise and improve on it in incremental steps, quickly and frequently— effectively allowing the company to have one foot in the market and another in the lab.

Users come first, not money. Asking “What is best for our users?” helps to clarify things at the decision-making process, and when the needs of the users are served, everything else will fall into place for the company, its employees, advertisers and shareholders.

“Serve the customer,” says the chief of Alibaba Group, amidst other smart advice for SMEs.

“Serve the customer.” That was Jack Ma’s answer when City News asked what advice he would give a company looking to expand into the Chinese market. The chairman and chief executive officer of Alibaba Group added that understanding the customers’ needs in the market was not difficult if one put in the effort.

Ma was speaking to reporters after his keynote address at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Small Medium Enterprises (APEC SME) Summit. His address, entitled “Small is Beautiful”, expounded on the strengths and challenges faced by SMEs.

Small is beautiful because in today’s consumer-driven world, success depends on how quickly one can reinvent or change in order to meet the needs of the market. Because of their smaller scale, SMEs are better positioned to be agile.

However, SMEs face great challenges when it comes to raising funds. Ma told the audience, “You can only rely on yourself, your friends and your dreams.”

Over the past 15 years, Ma has built eight companies within the Alibaba Group, a family of internet-based businesses including Alibaba.com, the biggest business-to-business portal in the world and Taobao.com, the Chinese equivalent of eBay.

PHOTOS: Jayson Lee

Ma highlighted three key areas that all SME bosses should focus on. Firstly, they should pay attention to their customers. Most shareholders are share-traders. When customers believe in the company, they will provide the funds for the company’s operations and expansion. Businesses should meet customers’ needs, which will in turn lead to innovation.

Secondly, business owners should focus on their employees. The team makes the difference. Companies must hire the right people, not the most highly qualified people, as the latter may not necessarily meet the needs of the company.

Thirdly, business owners must respect their competitors and learn from them. This can be achieved by looking for similar companies that are good role models.

Ma ended by urging business owners to have tenacity when facing challenges. He said, “Today is very difficult. Tomorrow is even more difficult. The day after tomorrow is very beautiful. Sadly, most people die tomorrow evening.”

In what felt like a meeting of the United Nations, City Harvest Church (CHC) held the first Expatriate Fellowship for its members on 30 October 2009. About 17 people ofover six different nationalites gathered bright and early at CHC’s Corporate Office in Suntec City to meet, chat and have a spot of breakfast along with cups of coffee and tea.

Although it was held early in the morning, everyone was full of energy and conversation quickly filled the room as people gathered to talk about almost everything under the sun.

For many of them, especially those who have been in Singapore for over two years, it was interesting to meet with other expats from different countries and cultures. “It gives you a sense of family warmth,” said John, an Indian who studied in Singapore and is now an IT Consultant.

PHOTOS: Lee Boon Bee

“It’s great to see how diverse the church is in terms of having members from all over the world,” said Naomi, who has been in Singapore for 8 years, and is a Japanese translator and interpreter for the church.

Julie Armstrong, from the US, who has only been in Singapore for slightly over a year said, “It’s also good to get to know other people who are from the same country as you. We can exchange notes on where to find the best authentic food from our home countries right here in Singapore.”

Derek Dunn, CHCs Executive Pastor who is leading the Expatriate Fellowship, plans to make the meetings monthly with more activities planned for everyone. He also explained that the reason for this fellowship was to help the expatriates forge relationships with one another and to help new expatriates better integrate into society.

PHOTOS: Tan Song Kow

After a rousing kick off of the APEC SME Summit with keynote speeches by Alibaba Group’s Chairman and CEO, Jack Ma and international movie star and founder of One Foundation, Jet Li, the high-powered conference entered into a series of plenary dialogue sessions.

One of these dialogue sessions —“Opportunities in Green Technology & What does it mean for SMEs?”— was on the subject of sustainable development.

This session featured a panel of green experts such as William Pazos, Managing Director and Head of Carbon, Standard Bank (Singapore), Ralph Dixon, Director of Environmental Investments, YTL Corporation (Malaysia), Edwin Khew, CEO and Managing Director, IUT Global and Chairman, Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS) and Brian Dumaine, Global Editor, Fortune as the panel moderator.

Edwin Khew started the session by providing the SMEs an insightful overview of Singapore’s environmental challenges with climate change in Asia. This has resulted in the growing importance of sustainable development with the need to protect the region’s environment.

However, climate change challenges do present opportunities with environmental factors turning into economic merits for Singapore.

“The Singapore’s government has identified Environmental and Water Technologies (EWT) including clean energy industry as key growth areas for SMEs,” said Khew, “these are strategic areas that will provide Singapore with the competitive edge to generate future economic growth.”

In a move to show that it means (green) business, Singapore’s government has already set aside close to S$700m to build R&D and manpower capabilities in various clean technology areas. It hopes to establish the nation as a test bed for emerging technologies like smart grids and green building technologies

To date, the city-state has attracted leading industry players such as Renewable Energy Corporation and Vestas Wind Systems of Denmark. It is expected that Singapore’s clean energy industry will contribute S$1.7 billion to its gross domestic product and create 7,000 jobs by 2015.

Establishing profitable business networks are the key to growth for SMEs in the coming decade.

“Building connections, unlocking opportunities”. That was the theme for this year’s Global Entrepolis @ Singapore 2009 (GES), held as part of the APEC SME Summit at the Raffles City Convention Centre in Singapore on 11 November 2009. At the official opening ceremony, Mrs Lim Hwee Hua, Second Minister for Finance and Transport said that companies that have managed to weather the financial crisis are now looking to seize global opportunities that have emerged from the aftermath of the crisis.

Quoting the findings from an economic intelligence survey, Mrs Lim said that SMEs are optimistic that by the year 2011, 70 percent of companies polled expect to see increased demand and growth. She also highlighted the importance of building networks in a global marketplace, adding that many global SMEs are taking the lead by forging linkages through partnerships and acquisitions in order to gain access into new markets.

While Singapore already presents great opportunities for SMEs seeking to unlock opportunities in Asia with its well-established physical connectivity and seamless integration with the global market through trade relations, the GES’ networking platform brings together businesses of all sizes, from all sectors and regions in order to highlight cross-border business opportunities through its business matching programs between local and foreign delegates.

Said Mrs Lim, “SMEs are the backbone of every economy around the world. By helping such companies build regional and global connections, and thus unlocking potential, GES will be a solid platform that will help SMEs become globally competitive companies of tomorrow and inspire young people to set up their own businesses.”

Among the booths present at the event was local enterprise The Marketplace Network, formed to promote the development of SME businesses by tapping on the expertise and knowledge of successful business leaders, through business luncheons, forums, seminars and a connect portal, among other means.

PHOTOS: Michael Chan

Said Mr Goh Yock Kiang, chairman of The Marketplace Network: “APEC only happens in Singapore once every 20 years, so this was a great opportunity for us to present Singapore SMEs and to provide a platform for them to network with foreign businesses, with the view of springboarding their companies overseas. APEC has just ended, but already we are seeing many successful matches that are resulting in many multi-million deals. This is very encouraging for local businesses.”

This year’s GES includes a new addition to the program in the form of the Forbes Asia “Best Under A Billion” Awards Ceremony, which gathered almost half of Forbes magazine’s 200 best mid-sized companies under one roof that evening.

The APEC SME Summit 2009 sought to address future trends while identifying strategies for growth.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) can potentially add about $1 trillion in trade and about $150 billion in annual foreign direct investments to Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies if they operate in a more conducive and business-friendly environment at home, and a more frictionless and integrated market abroad.

The above statistics, published in an APEC study in 2003, were quoted by Mr Lee Yi Shyan, Singapore’s Minister of State for Trade & Industry and Manpower, during his ministerial keynote address at the APEC SME Summit 2009.

Delegates from more than 30 countries attended the summit on 11 and 12 November at the Raffles City Convention Centre in Singapore. Respected business leaders addressed an audience of business owners and media, and took part in panel discussions on the challenges faced by SMEs, strategies for SME growth and initiatives that can be taken to facilitate it.

SMEs in APEC account for approximately 90 percent of all businesses and provide jobs for around 60 percent of the workforce across the APEC countries. On the other hand, they contribute to about half of the GDP of their respective economies and account for only 30 percent of exports. Mr Lee explained, “This profile shows that APEC SMEs have an enormous potential if the right structure is put in place to empower them to grow.”

It is no secret that SMEs face great challenges. Mr Jack Ma, chairman and chief executive officer of China’s Alibaba Group, highlighted during his keynote address that, among many hurdles, SMEs often find it challenging to get credit from banks.

A few delegates surveyed by City News highlighted other issues. Mr Aung Soe Naing, project director at Apcol Pte Ltd, a company dealing with telecommunication equipment pointed out that SMEs face fierce competition as they try to expand within their own market and overseas.

Dr S Kamaraj, a soil scientist at Kiat Lee Landscape and Building Pte Ltd, which handles projects in Australia, Dubai and Taiwan, said that his company has struggled with finding manpower overseas.

The challenges are not merely without but within as well. Mr Clarence Nah, general manager and consultant at Asiawide Franchise Consultants Pte Ltd, a company that helps SMEs franchise their brands, felt that some SMEs cannot grow because of their mindset. Having built their company from scratch, many SME bosses struggle to let go as they grow bigger.

In the closing panel, Mr Teng Theng Dar, CEO of the Singapore Business Federation, pointed out that restrictive trade policies have hindered many companies from tapping into profitable supply chains, causing one of the biggest hindrances to the growth of SMEs.

PHOTOS: Michael Chan

In order to help SMEs bring their businesses abroad, Mr Lee announced that Singapore has proposed two new initiatives this year, namely the Study on Export Technical Models and the APEC Business Fellowship.

The former aims to give SMEs advice on export, regulatory and technical issues. The latter is a five-day in-market executive training program to expose visiting APEC SMEs to practical business norms in each local market.

Indeed, over and above presenting delegates with opportunities to learn from leaders of successful businesses, the APEC SME Summit proved the rare chance to provide the milieu for delegates to network and forge new business relations across and beyond the APEC economies.