Dear friend,

There is no question that the pandemic brought many changes to a child’s experience in school.
He or she had to get use to learning remotely from home, and was restricted to having recess in class and only with friends from the same class. If the child entered primary one in the last two years, he or she does not even know the concept of morning assembly, where the whole school gathers to sing the National Anthem and school song, and to say the pledge.

Likewise, the pandemic also disrupted many ministry operations and limited our engagements with students inside the school. Nevertheless, I was invited to share about Christ’s work on the cross in one of the mission schools’ Holy Week chapel service recently. Due to Safe Management Measures, I could not share in-person and had to do so through a video recording. Even though this was not the most ideal, I decided that the opportunity to share with the students about Christ’s death and resurrection was too good to pass up.

The challenge was how to produce a 20-minute video that is both engaging and informative. Together with a small team, we decided that the concept of the video would be a documentary peppered with different graphic elements to capture the main points of the Good News. I did not know that it would be so time-consuming to make the video but my team and I were thankful for the learning opportunity. Our prayer was that God will use the video to speak to the students.

Incidentally, my eldest daughter attends the school that invited me to share and because of that, I volunteered as a parent to distribute gifts the chaplaincy team prepared for the students. Talking to the students and hearing their thoughts about what I have shared in the video reminded me what the staff and I would do before the pandemic — hang out in the canteen to talk to the students after chapel services. How we missed that! While I could not talk with them for too long, the brief encounters with different students just made me look forward to what we can do with the mission schools after the pandemic.

As Singapore lowers its DORSCON level from orange to yellow starting 26 April, I want to thank God for protecting us through the last two years of pandemic. Please pray with us as we endeavour to be relevant and engaging, so that the Good News of Jesus Christ may be shared in and outside of school.

All Glory to God,