Singapore church celebrates milestones

SINGAPORE

The church at Pasir Panjang in Singapore recently celebrated three milestone events in its history all on the same Sunday. On October 24, church members marked the 35th anniversary of the congregation, the "burning" of the mortgage on their building and a record-setting Missions Sunday contribution.

The Sunday evening service was a celebration of 35 years of growth since the congregation began meeting in an apartment Oct. 25, 1964. Since that time, the church has grown to be the largest in Southeast Asia. In the present property, five worship services are held each Sunday, with outreach to the Chinese, Filipino, Thai and hearing-impaired communities. Henry Kong, who has been with the congregation since 1966, serves as its minister and Patrick Ong serves as minister to the hearing-impaired.

When Kong began his work, he was fully supported by the Quail Springs church in Oklahoma City. Pasir Panjang later became self-supporting, but the two churches have continued to enjoy a close partnership. In 1982, Pasir Panjang had the opportunity to purchase its own building, so Quail Springs provided a long-term, interest-free loan of $400,000. The 20,000-square meter property, for which the church paid about $1 million, is worth approximately $8 million dollars today. New offices and a 300-seat auditorium have been added, with plans for remodeling in the near future.

In August of this year, Pasir Panjang surprised Quail Springs by announcing that it would be repaying the entire remainder of the loan, several years ahead of schedule. The Singapore church returned $107,000 to Quail Springs as the final payment on the building loan.

Along with the repayment, Kong included an invitation for Quail Springs to send two representatives from the leadership of the Oklahoma church for an "all-expense-paid trip for a week or more" to Singapore. Kong recommended that the representatives come for the October 24 service to help celebrate the anniversary and take part in the "burning" of the building note. The Quail Springs elders and missions committee selected Penny Eubank, a missions committee member, and her husband, Nelson, to represent them at the Singapore church.

As part of the Sunday evening anniversary service, Kong invited the Eubanks to the podium to participate in the burning of the note to officially "retire" the debt. Nelson presented a letter from the Quail Springs elders to the Pasir Panjang church and a plaque to commemorate the occasion.

The elders stated, "The members at Quail Springs will always feel a special kinship to the brethren at Pasir Panjang. The concerted effort of Quail Springs and Pasir Panjang over the years to preach Jesus in Asia is testimony to the fact that God’s Plan continues to work. We believe that this church serves as a model of how missions programs should function. The congregation was started and nourished by a few dedicated Christians who had a great vision and who devoted their lives to making that vision a reality."

On Sunday morning, the church had its annual Missions Sunday, when members pledge funds for the entire year’s missions giving. In 1998, the Pasir Panjang church contributed $27,000 for missions, but the 1999 goal was set at $36,000.

Kong reported on Sunday night that the congregation had given $40,000 to missions that morning, which was met by resounding applause. More applause followed when Nelson announced that Quail Springs had sent a check for the missions fund, adding $27,000 to the other contributions.

In a letter to the Quail Springs elders and missions committee, Kong said, "This amount was given in spite of the fact that we are just recovering from the Asian economic crisis and that just two months ago the church raised more than $40,000 to top up the repayment of our building loan. This growing generosity of Pasir Panjang was caught from the totally ‘reckless’ way in which Quail has supported us, and in a small way, we are reflecting this spirit in the way we go about our Father’s business."

Pasir Panjang is now supporting mission efforts in Indonesia, East and West Malaysia, and an outreach to Muslims in Manchester, UK.

Present missions are taking Pasir Panjang members on campaigns to Mainland China. The congregation’s mission funds also go to World English Institute and to World Christian Broadcasting, as well as other outreach programs, both local and international.

Before the collection was taken, a Missions Seminar was held with guest speaker Pence Dacus. Dacus was a minister for the Pasir Panjang church for a brief time in its early years and has served for many years as a missionary in Asia.

Dacus commented on the recent exchange between the two congregations: "I feel it is a unique expression of faith on both sides and both have acted with amazing responsibility. Quail Springs had enormous faith to extend this loan in the first place ... And Pasir Panjang has responded by paying the loan back responsibly." — PENNY EUBANK, Oklahoma City. Eubank teaches at Oklahoma Christian University. E-mail: penny.eubank@oc.edu