When our good friend’s or loved one’s birthday arrives, we will try our best to celebrate this special day with them. Be it a greeting via phone, a gift or a sumptuous meal, all these are signs of our concern and affection for him. Last Lord’s Day was the church’s fifth anniversary and we celebrated its birthday. Our brothers and sisters in the Lord participated in the celebration luncheon enthusiastically and also invited friends to participate. I am very encouraged by this as I can feel everyone’s care for the church. I am very grateful to God for this, for it is God “who began a good work in you” (Philippians 1:6). Tree of Life Christian Church started from a scale alike a small cell group to its current size of a small church and this is to the credit of the effort and sacrifice put in by everyone for the church. Whenever the church has a need, particularly in the purchase of a property and supporting the annual gospel rally, the spirit of self-less contribution is prevalent in our brothers and sisters. I take pride in this too.

We faced many hurdles to start the church and some snippets of which were shared during the celebration luncheon. It is, however, precisely because of these difficulties that let us experience God’s power and recognize that the Lord is a true and living God. When man think it is impossible, as long as it is God’s will, He will surely make the impossible possible. Like what the Apostle Paul said in Philippians 4:13: “I can do all this through Him who gives me strength.” Witnessing Tree of Life Christian Church’s turning from nothing to the present state, God’s ability is right before our eyes. We started with no place for gathering and today God has given us a meeting place of our own. This is something we could not think of five years ago. Starting with only a dozen of “expedition” crew, we gingerly took on the journey to build the church of God. Today, God has allowed an increase in our members. This is also something we never thought of five years ago. (Five years ago, what came into our mind was how long could we sustain.) Thinking about this, we can only praise and thank the Lord! This is not a result of our ability but God’s grace! We also thank the Lord for using weak people like us!

With God’s grace, Tree of Life Christian Church has had its first five years and we saw some fruit in the process: lives were transformed by the Lord. In the next five, ten, fifteen years, what kind of church will we be? Will we still exist? Will we bear more fruit? Philippians 1:6 says: “being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” The Lord Jesus will certainly take care of His own church. He will bring to completion the beginning of this good work. In the past five years, we witnessed the Lord’s steadfast grip on us. What we need is to continue to obey the Lord’s word, to evangelize with on heart and to uphold the zeal for transforming lives.

This year, the church has commenced cell group meeting and also reorganized the youth ministry. We are also preparing to commence our evangelism work in the Bukit Batok area, to do gospel work among the residents and Chinese migrant workers. Thus, we need to mobilize every member of the church! Paul reminds us that “whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel” (Phil 1:27). The road to establishing the church road is difficult. It is, however, worth it because its value is eternal. Furthermore, when we do so, we are in fact leaving a valuable legacy of faith to our next generation so that they are able to face the threat of the world.