He Has Been, and Is, Faithful

SJSM’s Tamil congregation has seen first-hand that the Lord’s steadfast love never ceases and his mercies upon us never come to an end.

GREAT IS HIS FAITHFULNESS

We celebrated our 10th anniversary on 26 May 2019 in a grand way at Glory Sanctuary. Archdeacon Wong Tak Meng was the guest of honour and speaker; Revd Andrew Raman represented SJSM; Ps Steven (SAIB Chairman), Ps Lawrence who worked with Revd Solomon to establish the Tamil congregation, and other Tamil pastors came to grace the occasion.

We began with 40 volunteers in 2009. Now we have our own baptised and confirmed members, and are about 100-strong. We thank God for His grace and mercy, which helped to establish us. For one, we now have our own worship team comprising worship leaders and musicians. We had struggled in this area until God brought us a gifted musician, John Charles, who trained our worship leaders in singing and also taught guitar and keyboard to our members.

Our children’s Sunday School and youth ministry run every Sunday at 9.15am, and over the past two years we have seen about eight baptisms. We are thankful that He is continuing to add to our number.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ”— Lamentations 3:22–23

DISRUPTIONS AND SILVER LININGS

The global pandemic disrupted both our normal way of life and our worship services. Being unable to meet physically onsite caused great distress and discouragement among our members at the start. Initially, too, services were being pre-recorded, and the video files sent to our members to view on Sundays. But God provided a new tool to engage our members.

COVID-19 brought a new way of worshipping — via social media. We’re thankful that though one door closes, God opens a new one. Using Zoom, we can conduct services and engage with our members in real time.

We thank God that though we cannot meet physically, we can meet virtually. And it’s not only our local members who join our services, but also their friends and family members in India. This has greatly encouraged and lifted our members’ spirits.

THE VALUE OF DISCIPLESHIP

One thing we learned through COVID-19 is that our discipleship efforts among our members have not gone to waste. We are seeing the fruits of this training: In all the ups and downs of the pandemic thus far, our members have not lost heart, and have kept strong in their faith. Earlier in 2021 when restrictions were lifted and we could hold onsite services, every one of them came back with great joy. Their faith in Christ had not diminished — in fact it had grown stronger.

In this year of SJSM’s Jubilee, our vision is to see our congregation being effectively discipled and rooted deeply in Jesus Christ. We thank God for his faithfulness to us.