Reflections of 2018

As I looked back 2018... it has been a year of much transitions and personal growth for me as a young pastor. I transited out of my home church where I began my full-time ministry journey at Wesley Methodist Church since 2011. This was the church where I started serving as a youth worker and in the recent years with the Pastoral Care, Discipleship & Nurture and Small Group Ministry after my theological studies.

7 years later... I began my pastorate journey and was appointed as a Pastor in the Methodist Church on 1 August 2018 & was posted to Christ Methodist Church as my first appointment. Was sad to leave my old friends, colleagues & home church in the earlier transitional period, but since then I have been warmly welcomed by the leaders, staffs and congregation at CMC.

5 months has gone by really fast and I really thank God for this wonderful community whom have embraced my Wife & I as we slowly begin assimilating in this new season of our lives here. Many leaders and congregation members have reached out to us as we made many new friends in this “kampung” like family church in the east.

As I look forward into 2019... we believe God is leading us as a church into “uncharted waters”, I am excited to see what God has in store for us, yet I also have my fears or uncertainty of what the year will be like or new areas or people that God will be leading me too. Whatever the future holds, I believe God is reminding me with this promise from the Lord taken from Joshua 1:9 , “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

(📷: Photo order: 1: My last Sunday at Wesley, 2: My MOTs batch for 2018, 3: A new season at CMC, 4-6: Vactions in Hk 🇭🇰, Italy 🇮🇹 & Bali 🇮🇩, 7: National Day 🇸🇬, 8: Home for Christmas 🎄, 9: My new family at CMC!)

Mountain-Top vs Valley Experiences

Some personal musings after a conversation with someone today...



In the vicissitudes of life, we all go through the rhythms of mountain-top & valley experiences. I believe all of us desire and pray to always have that mountain-top experience, where either we encounter God’s majestic presence in a very tangible way, or everything seems to be going well hoping that we can just move from mountain-top to mountain-top experiences. However, there are also times, that we are thrown into the dark valley either by unforeseen circumstances or by our own doing. We get discouraged, struggle in those crisis moments and in desperation we either end up being very bitter or we press on praying for God’s deliverance for our situation.


Perhaps, if we see that the Christian faith is not only about having those transfiguration moments at the mountain-top, where we try to do all we can to stay up there, but it is something more counter-intuitive. It could actually be an intentional choice to walk straight into the valley so that we can learn to walk by faith, and not by sight. To put our trust in God, even in the most unsettling of circumstances. And that is what Jesus did, he knew it was God’s will for him to walk into the valley, when he was in the garden of gethsemane crying out in sorrow, “...remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Or even on the cross, Jesus felt the weight of God-forsakeness in that moment carrying the weight of sin. He knew it was God’s will for him to go through those period of suffering, yet he took that faith to do the will of God walking straight into the valley.


So as we look at our situations today, perhaps you know there is a valley ahead of you, or you are in a valley right now. Do not be discouraged, as perhaps God is leading you to put your hope and trust in Him, to take that step of faith forward, knowing that He will be there with you. These are significant circumstances in life when we avail ourselves to the work of the Holy Spirit in our life, surrendering our situations before Him that we can experience the shalom peace of God and the manifest presence of Christ with us even in the midst of the darkest of valley we are in.