I remember during one of the fellowship meetings when the worship chairman announced that there will be a Library Day, he mentioned that he had never heard of a program like ‘Library day’ even though he has been a church goer for many years. Planning for ‘Library Day’ was in fact our church’s attempt at something new. Why do you get coffee when you borrow books during ‘Library Day’? Why is there is a storytelling session for children? I have never come across such an interesting Library Day. Thank you all brothers and sisters who have planned this special ‘Library Day’ for us. Through it, we had the chance to browse a variety of spiritual books at a leisurely pace which piqued our interest in these books. This day has left a deep impression in my church life at Tree of Life Christian Church.

First, I am touched by the positive response from our brothers and sisters. After the ‘opening ceremony’ by our pastor, our brothers and sisters swarmed the book counters to browse the recommended titles. People started borrowing the books shortly. At the end of the Library Day, a total of 20 odd books were borrowed and this is currently our church library’s best record. It was not only the adults who borrowed books on that day, the teenagers had a share in it too.   May we continue to be motivated to read spiritual books so that the good habit of reading becomes popular in church. If you did not borrow that day, we welcome you to get a title from the book shelves beside the reception area after worship service. You can ask Pastor or the deacons for recommended titles. At the same time, the Library Ministry has started expanding our book collection. In the near future, I believe that there will be more good books which will be catered to our different needs to better equip us spiritually.

Of course, reading spiritual books is not only the privilege of adults or teenagers. We also specially arranged a children’s storytelling session that Library Day. This was to cultivate the children’s interest in reading Christian literature. With Deacon Lawrence’s animated storytelling, the bubbly and active children were all sitting down quietly listening to him, asking and answering questions. We often encourage our children to browse or borrow books from their school library or the National Library. We should also have the same attitude for the church library. We ought to encourage our children to browse and borrow Christian literature. If our children do not know how to read, parents can explain the content of the book through storytelling. Although we do not have many books of this genre at the moment, it is definitely in our shopping list for the church library.

When I saw our brothers and sisters making a conscientious effort to browse and borrow the books, I think the brothers and sisters who were in charge of this Library Day must have been really happy and encouraged. I was also encouraged when I saw how they delegated the tasks, came up with fresh new ideas to decorate the book counters, purchase new titles and even brought their own coffee machine from home just to attract more people to borrow books. The Lord will definitely remember their zeal, in that they served with one heart and did not hesitate to go the extra mile. Their hard work has certainly motivated the rest of the brothers and sisters. Just like every other ministry in church, besides having a few of our brothers and sisters to actively promote the library, we should also give them our support. Other than borrowing more books to support them, we can also share our reflections after reading the books with our brethren. What we have learnt can be good topics for sharing amongst our fellow church mates. Perhaps through your sharing, another brother or sister may understand the benefits of reading spiritual books and be motivated to pick up a spiritual title to read.