Living In Financial Excellence (L.I.F.E.)

Contributed by Li Bijia

PHOTOS: Tan Song Kow

Money makes the world go round. .. as the saying goes, but some may beg to differ. Revile it or revere it, money rules in a materialistic world. Money can be seen as power — power to fulfil not just needs, but also wants. On the flipside, having money also gives one the power to do good — to feed the hungry, clothe the poor and make a difference in the lives of others. Perhaps it is the recognition of this fact that caused the participants from different walks of life to come together over two Saturdays to learn more about money: “what it can do for you, how to keep what you’ve got and, how to get more of it.”

The instructor of the useful course was Bernard Lim, 40s, a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and Financial Services Director in a major UK-based financial institution with 17 years of experience. Lim is a Principal Trainer of Wealth College — an organization that was formed for the sole purpose of educating, equipping, engaging and empowering not only financial planning professionals, but also, the public in the area of wealth planning and management. When asked about his purpose for developing and running these courses, Lim replies emphatically that he wants to “empower people to make intelligent, informed decisions; taking charge of that which is important in their lives — money.”

The course began with a short introduction on the role of money in people’s lives. The participants had a chance to share some of their views on why they had decided to take charge of their finances, and enrol into the course to learn more about it. Reasons given ranged from wanting merely to enjoy the freedom of financial independence, to wanting to be able to wield the power of money so as to be able to make an impact in the world.

As the course wore on, the course delved into the technicality of financial management, financial independence and financial empowerment. The participants were given a comprehensive overview of all the components of their financial lives and also touched briefly on the finer workings of the government’s financial planning: such as, how to navigate the sometimes confusing sea of schemes and policies.

Through the course, the participants learned how to avoid the common mistakes that many make in the different phases of life. They also learned about the cost of ignorance and the empowering value of being able to take one’s finances in hand and work intentionally towards financial goals. One of the participants, Kevin Lau, a products specialist for Bloomberg, managed to put it quite succinctly when he said that “… this is an education on life.”

Kids@Play on Weekends

With a two-storey high playground, mini slides, inflatables and state of the art bicycles and tricycles, children attending City Harvest Children’s Church (CCH) services at the Singapore Expo Hall 8 are experiencing the time of their lives.

The facilities, known as “Kids@Play” was introduced in CCH at the Expo location since 2008. Lynn Tan, 30s, manager of the facilities explained that the rationale behind Kids@Play is “to make church a fun and memorable experience for the children, as well as to benefit them in terms of development and social interaction.”

According to Tan, the current hot favorite among the children are the rides and bicycles. A visit to Kids@Play during operating hours found several children laughing away as they zipped around on their bicycles, or dived themselves into a pool of coloured balls.

A volunteer for Kids@Play, Regina Kam, 20s, observed that the children do not just have a good time playing, they also learn how to wait their turn, share, and problem-solve as they interact with others.

PHOTOS: Alvin Loh and Gabriel Seow

The equipment is well maintained and sterilized to ensure that it is free from germs and bacteria. The area is cleaned at the end of each operating day and even the coloured balls in the playground are properly sterilized once a month.

Kids@Play is open on Saturdays from 4pm to 5.15pm, and from the time the worship service ends to 8.30pm. On Sundays, the facility opens from 9am to 9.45am and 12pm to 2pm.

CD Review: Writings on the Walls

Writings on the Walls is the latest album produced by City Harvest Church (CHC). This album is essentially a sampler of the latest songs, majority of which are written by KC Gan and David Yem, Creative and Music Directors of CHC. The tunes found in this album sound the heartbeat of CHC. The main focus of WOTW is to present heartfelt melodies that carry the redemption message of Christ.

WOTW features different styles and genre from CHC’s previous albums, such as ‘Your Generation’ and ‘Beautiful’, crafted and styled with evergreen talents in mind—Annabel Soh, Alison Yap and Calvin Ho.

For Gan, who has written numerous songs for local productions, musicals, films and the pop industry, it is a privilege to pen the love of God down in songs that enable people to be drawn closer to God.

One particular track on the album that tugs at the heartstring is ‘Because of You’. This song is the especially personal to Gan, as it symbolizes the 20 years he has been a believer of Christ, reminding him of God’s unfailing grace, love and forgiveness.

There is a simple, hymn-like track in the album entitled ‘For Janelle’. Janelle is the 4 year old daughter of a personal friend of Gan and Yem, who is diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. This song is dedicated to the brave girl who is battling for her life, telling her that God is holding her in His hand, just like how He hung the stars and carried the cross. It’s a song of comfort and assurance of the love of God.

Writings on the Walls is available at Attributes Online.

The Big Screen: Funny People

At first glance, this sounds like a fail-proof partnership in comedy. There’s the king of crass humour Judd Apatow (of The 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up fame) behind the camera, and leading funnyman Adam Sandler in front of it. But Funny People is wrong on so many counts, as it tries to tread both drama and comedy.

In one of his less memorable roles, Adam Sandler plays George Simmons, a successful comedy actor living the high (but lonely) life. When he not only gets diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia but faces a slim chance of survival, he falls into depression. After some introspection (aka re-watching his lowbrow blockbuster comedies), he decides to go back to his roots performing stand-up comedy. While he hires Ira Wright (Seth Rogen, Apatow’s preferred accomplice), an aspiring stand-up comedian to help him write lines and run errands, Simmons himself plots to be reunited with his now married ex-fiance Laura (Leslie Mann, who is in real life Apatow’s wife)” part of his own live-your-life-to-the-fullest regime.

It seems that Apatow is gunning for more out of his audience besides laughs here, but with a bumbling narrative that is neither serious enough nor funny enough, it fails to cover any base. It also looks as though he has bitten off more than he can chew, in attempting to weave comedy into comedy by having the characters perform stand-up routines. But either the audience lacks Apatow’s sense of humour, or the jokes are just not funny at all. There are admittedly a few good lines, but those are too few and far in between. What fills up the gaps are endless jokes about the male anatomy but then again, this is a Judd Apatow outing.

With the premise of juxtaposing mortality against a comedic backdrop, Funny People could have been so much more, in terms of tone, depth and quirk, and so much less at 2 hours and 20 minutes long, the movie was unbearably drawn out. We did not leave the cinema with split sides so much as a splitting headache.

Rating:

Mission Trip to City Harvest Church, Kuching

In September, City Harvest Church (CHC) organized a mission trip to one to our affiliate churches in Kuching, Malaysia, helmed by George Tiong, Senior Pastor of City Harvest Church, Kuching.

A team of 16 went up with Kong Hee, Senior Pastor of CHC, to assist in three fully-packed evangelistic services and a power-packed leadership training session. All held within just two days, from 21 to 22 of September, it was a short but impactful time for the missions team from CHC, the staff of Kuching Harvest Church, as well as the many who had attended the services and training.

It was evident that this was a much-anticipated event, as the people were highly excited to receive Kong, and were obviously hungry to hear the word of God. From the very first session to the last, the praise and worship was loud and exuberant, with youths and adults packing the 400-seater hall.

At the leadership training session the next day, Kong preached powerfully and the presence of God was very tangible. During the last evangelistic service, the atmosphere of expectancy was so strong that it led to a great move of God as Kong laid hands on the many that came forward to respond to the altar call.

PHOTOS: Seth Gan

It was truly a time of impartation for City Harvest Church, Kuching as they received motivational teachings from Kong, and gained practical advice from the CHC praise and worship team on how to play better to bring down the presence of God. The mission team from CHC felt ministered themselves too. Alan Chan, 27, IT Executive, who was part of the mission team, mused, “The way the Malaysians praised and worshiped brought back memories of when I first gave my life to Jesus. I am inspired to love God more.”

Record Attendance at Glory Christian Center

On 20 to 25 September 2009, a team of 16 City Harvest Church staff and members embarked on a mission trip to Glory Christian Center, located in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.

The contemporary church, led by William Vun, has a great hunger for God, and has began preparing for the evangelistic weekend with Kong Hee, Senior Pastor of City Harvest Church, weeks before the actual event. Some members even went to online social networking site Facebook to spread the news about the evangelistic weekend. The members’ fervency paid off, with many new friends coming to church that weekend.

PHOTOS: Seth Gan

During the services, Kong preached powerfully on salvation, healing and prosperity. These messages impacted the hearts of the people, many of whom were first-timers to church. The relevance of the messages brought home the truth of God’s love and mercy, and hundreds of people responded to the altar call.

Truly, the mission trip was a success. Not only were new believers added to the church, the members were also strengthened and edified by the preaching of the word.

That weekend, Glory Christian Center experienced a breakthrough record attendance of 1,213.

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