In the second half of 2023, many of our English growth groups looked at the wonderfully practical study book, ‘6 Steps to Loving Your Church’. We saw God’s vision for church as a community of people regularly speaking the truths of His Word to one another. We were challenged to not be pew-warmers who attend Sunday service but leave having no impact on our fellow members. Rather, we considered together how we might be outward-looking servants, seeking to care for and grow our brothers and sisters each Sunday. One of the culture shifts that came out of this study series was seeing members sit in different spots during service in order to meet and speak with people they would not normally encounter. The learnings in this short study are ones we must continue to be reminded of and resolve to live out at church.
This last year also saw many growth groups enjoy weekend aways together. These were times of fun and deeper conversation which helped our communities better understand and grow each other.
In 2024, our groups encountered the person of Jesus through the gospel of John. Spending each study looking insightfully at often familiar passages has been so fruitful. It is so easy for us to be dulled to these claims and miracles of Jesus but the brightness of the treasures in each passage refreshed our worship and discipleship in the Lord. We have been encouraged by his character of the Good Shepherd and of Living Water and strengthened to live lives bearing fruit and rooted in Him.
Next year, our groups will hit their 2-year mark and be doing a reshuffle. Praise God that the new year will see new members joining our groups. As leaders, we are selecting and training suitable people to be future leaders in this ministry – may the Lord of the harvest raise up many workers for the EM fields!”
Dear Brothers and Sisters, it is time to report what happened to our Church in the eyes of the Board of Deacons.
In 2024, we have nine Deacons: three from Cantonese ministry, four from English ministry and two from Mandarin ministry. We continued improve the administrative work and being more transparent to brothers and sisters. Deacons hoped moms and dads love the gift prepared for Mother’s Day 2024 and Father’s Day 2023. We have assessed the workload of our administrators to balance the time they spent on church administration. We also initiated the quarterly financial briefs, which we wish brothers and sisters to understand the financial situation of NSCAC, and where the offerings go. We thank God that we have a youth Deacon joining the team. The Board of Deacons are happy that more and more young people would like to step up and serve God in handling administrative matters of our Church.
2024 is also a challenging year for the Board of Deacons. NSCAC experienced huge growth in the number of patrons. We encountered cash flow difficulties at the beginning of 2023/24. With God’s grace and the love of brothers and sisters, NSCAC managed to repay a temporary cash flow loan and most of the development fund loan. the Board of Deacons are working on several projects in 2024:
Introduced Church quarterly finance updates
Implementing Elvanto system to effectively manage membership information, newcomers, Children Sunday School administration, and serving rosters
The Board of Deacons is thankful that Deacons worked extra step. The Deacons also thanked for your prayers and ongoing support, especially when our Church is growing, we really need God’s grace to make all the beautiful things happen.
Praise the Lord for His abundance grace and the in-time provision on the needs of Children Sunday School. Through these, we deeply experience how God, as a potter, is moulding us so that we can be drawn closer to Him and be more like Him.
The Core Team, which includes Rev. Hiram Lau, Lemon Choi, Emily Dou, Miriam Kwong, Holly Hui and Deanna Or, continue to administer the day-to-day operation of Children Sunday School. There are over 70 brothers and sisters serving in the teaching fleet with about 20% of the total are the youths of our church.
As the teaching fleet is comprised of brothers and sisters from different congregations and generations of church, there are regular formal and informal meet up of the teaching members within each stage to build up the bonding as well as discussing any matter of concerns. The prayer time before class on each Sunday that was started at the beginning of year 2024 provides another platform for the teaching members to support each other, the children and parents through prayers. In addition, a Teaching Fleet Fun Day was organised in Apr 2024 for teaching members to get along in a casual atmosphere.
To root the Word of God in the heart of our children, there were different special programs to share the Gospel with them on top of the usual teaching. We had a puppet show from QuizWorx for our Christmas celebration in Nov 2023 and a musical from the Youths of our church for the Easter celebration in Mar 2024. Also, an online scheme called “Bible Reading Challenge” was initiated in May 2024 for the children of senior classes to read the bible together every night on weeknight during school term. The aim of the scheme is to build up the bible reading habit and love the Word of God from young age. It is encouraging to see that children who participate enjoy the time of reading Bible together.
Apart from the foundation of biblical truth, children are taught the heart of worship through the resumption of Senior Singspiration in Sept 2023 and Junior Singspiration in Jul 2024, and they are able to taste the sweetness of worship God together.
Besides, the message of serving God, caring and serving the people around us was delivered on different occasions. During the Mission Week Special Program in Oct 2023, Yakim and Grace’s family shared with us about children with disability in East Africa. Children were taught how they can support the missionaries to share the good news of Jesus with the unreached people. In our annual Children Sunday Service in Aug 2024, a kids talk on “Be the uplifting salt” was delivered by Rev. Hiram Lau. Some of the children were being invited to be the serving team in the Service and the children were really devoted in their serving roles. We are truly thankful for their serving hearts.
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.“ Proverbs 22:6
Bringing the children to God so that they can build a lifelong relationship with our Heavenly Father is one of the most important visions and missions of Children Sunday School. We are blessed with a supportive community, which includes the teaching team, parents and all other brothers and sisters at church. Through the hard work of the community, pray that the seed of gospel will slowly grow in the hearts of our children in His time.
May we also invite you to keep the following in your prayers:
The wisdom from Above to collaborate with other parties of church on the most suitable arrangement for another potential Children Sunday School / Kids’ Church
The transformation of current Children Sunday School to Kids’ Church which will support our children for a smoother transition at the youth stage
The teaching team is trialling on teaching materials from 2 different organisations. Pray that we are able to acquire a gospel centred teaching materials which is suitable to the children of our church and enable our teaching members to deliver the gospel message effectively
Our God is faithful, and we trust that He will continue to guide us through.
感谢神的恩典和带领，国语堂于去年7月16日正式搬至Roselea Public School 主日崇拜，但同时面临设备搬运、影音设置、年长弟兄姊妹接送、总务安排等诸多的要求，感谢神带领弟兄姊妹们以爱心彼此关顾，搭配服事，使得新场地的崇拜和各项事工得以顺利进行。不但首期“塑造主生命”门徒培训经过一年学习，于去年年底顺利结业；九月份的中秋晚会，十月份的“青苹果节”福音外展，以及参与十二月圣诞平安夜的圣诞颂唱会，都不断激励弟兄姊妹们同心合意，为主作工，生命成长，活出见证。去年底今年初，我们还新开展了每周三的“佳美脚踪”福音外展，学期间每周五的英文班及周二的英语角，接触服务社区，传扬福音。今年，正值国语堂感恩十周年，我们不但以二月底的第二届“福杯满溢新新春晚会”拉开了感恩庆祝活动的序幕，更以每周三的“佳美脚踪”福音外展，学期间每周五的英文班及周二的英语角，接触服务社区，传扬福音，五月份的感恩月暨多场香港基恩敬拜聚会，七月初的十周年感恩崇拜，九月初的Murray Farm嘉年华福音外展，九月底的感恩踏青之旅，七月到十月每月一次的健康系列讲座，以及十一月份即将推出的十周年感恩纪念特刊以及感恩视频等活动，数算神的恩典，激励弟兄姊妹为主而活，生命更新。
