Arrived in Singapore more or less on schedule last evening, greeted as I landed by lush green gardens dotted with flowers, palms, and manicured lawns lining the runway. It’s a little cooler here than in India (about 30c when I landed at 5 pm, compared to 42c in Delhi), but much more humid, so it feels almost the same to me.

Singapore is an amazing city, noted for its cleanliness, no chewing gum ordinance (see prior item), strict laws against drug smuggling (mandatory death penalty with no extradition), and cosmopolitan mixture of Chinese, English, Malaysian, Indonesian, and Indian cultures. Huge highrises downtown, and apartment buildings everywhere help house everyone nicely, and the traffic flows along with less (apparent) chaos than in India. A friend in India told me with a smile several times, “India has everything, it just is not in order!” Here, it’s in order.

The first “order” of the day was to meet my dear friends, Jack and Angie Sin. They are keeping me at their flat in what I now consider to be my room, since this is my fourth visit here. Let me tell you, there’s not a B&B anywhere that can do any better at making someone comfortable and welcome. I’m going to have to avoid telling about all the great stuff they are feeding me, or you’ll think that all I do here is eat! Well, OK, we went out for steak last night, and Angie prepared homemade laksa, which is a spicy soup that is a great favorite of mine, for lunch today. Oh man, was that good. The Lord just keeps the culinary blessings that he started in India coming my way.

After an easy morning of getting oriented for the weekend, we headed off this afternoon to the mother church of the Singapore BP world, Life BP Church. We held the afternoon conference there because of the size of the anticipated gathering. The conference was called “Father God or Mother Earth? A Christian Response to the Ecological Crisis.” One of the pics, above, is of the large flyer they designed and printed up for distribution. I had the privilege of the pulpit as I spoke, and the 250+ people had the opportunity to ask questions of a panel after my lecture and tea time. Anyway, the questions were good, and I was joined on the panel by the Rev. Dr. Jack Sin and the Rev. Charles Seet. Dr. Sin pastors Maranatha BP church and Rev. Seet is pastoring Life Church. Rev. Isaac Ong chaired the panel discussion. It was a blessing to join with the congregation in singing hymns at various times trough the afternoon. The Singaporean believers love to sing praises, and they do it with great zeal.

The seminar was just about three hours long, and afterwards I had the privilege of — you guessed it — eating again! We went to a little Chinese restaurant not far from the church and enjoyed a wonderful dinner there with a number of the pastors and a gentleman who is preparing to study for the ministry. It was a blessed time. I also had the privilege of providing some light entertainment for the brethren as they enjoyed my exasperating attempts to devour a large prawn still in its shell with chopsticks and a spoon. It took a bit to dismantle it, but I did it eventually. Seemed to work off some of the calories, so all in all it was a success.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day at Maranatha, preaching, teaching, and singing. (Probably will eat again, too.) I put in a picture of the congregation as it was last summer, since I probably won’t get one of everyone tomorrow. Hope to get more pictures from the services, fellowship times, and afternoon seminar on discipleship. If I can scrounge a couple from someone who took some at today’s meeting, I add them later to this post.

As always, thanks for your prayers. God is so good to me.