Think

… there is no “quick and efficient” way to walk with another person through the vicissitudes of life. Afew months ago, I attended a conference in Port Dickson and asked the organisers to help me arrange my return journey. They suggested I take the train from Seremban; a journey scheduled to take about six and […]

Character formation is an essential part of a person’s education. Virtues like being trustworthy, upright, altruistic, just, peaceable, filial and loving are what any country, and church, would be proud to see in young people. This is perhaps why our government, as part of a continued wish to develop people of good character, introduced the […]

As various committees and boards meet to evaluate, plan and budget for 2014, it appears that invariably a large portion of the mission budget now includes a significant portion set aside for short-term mission trips. With budget air travel, and the attendant connectivity of the World Wide Web, there are now fewer constraints in the […]

Dixie Wong was just 24 when she was diagnosed with leukaemia. Now after a decade of agonising treatment with no improvement in sight but just constant decline in her physical condition, she came to this conclusion: “I’m sick and tired of the treatment because it is clearly not helping. The side effects are more unbearable than […]

  SINGAPORE HAS about ten resident crocodiles in the north-west, according to recent media reports. There are more in a crocodile farm and the zoo. Crocodiles are cold-blooded reptiles; having a very low metabolism rate, they do not need to maintain a body temperature within a narrow range to survive. They have a small brain – again […]

DIALOGUE BETWEEN the Methodists and Roman Catholics has been going on for many years at the international level. When Pope Francis was elected as spiritual leader for the estimated 1.2 billion Catholics, it was indeed heartening to learn of the warm greetings and congratulations conveyed by the World Methodist Council to the pontiff. Yet, this […]

Metallic sphere with world map and chain – 3d render IT’S BEEN ABOUT 150 YEARS since most countries banned slavery, but millions of men, women and children are still enslaved today. They are the victims of human traffickers who “acquire and trade” in individuals through coercion, abduction, deception, and abuse of power to provide forced […]

It’s been written about, preached, and discussed many times over. Yet some of us are still a little uncertain about what it means to be a Methodist. Methodist Message decided to pose candid questions to the Rev Dr Daniel Koh to get a clearer idea in simple language. This is the first of a two-part […]

THE FRENCH PHILOSOPHER DESCARTES said: “I think, therefore I am.” For many Singaporeans, though, the saying “I have, therefore I am” is perhaps more accurate. Many of us, consciously or unconsciously, measure our success and worth by what we have: our homes, our cars, our investment portfolio, our fashionable clothes, the label on the bags […]

IT HAS BEEN ALMOST four months since the ruling of a weekly day off for Foreign Domestic Workers (FDW) took effect on January 1, 2013, after the Government passed this mandate in March last year. To recap: This ruling applies only to FDWs – or “home helpers” as I like to call them – whose […]

Ezra 3:11-13   I OFTEN NOTICE two kinds of expressions in our churches. One is nostalgia for the past and the other is enthusiasm for the future. Nostalgia leads to weeping as we think of past glories. Enthusiasm always rejoices over the bright future.   We cannot brush aside either of these expressions. But we […]

TOWARDS THE END OF LAST YEAR, I started reading the engaging book Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places by Eugene H. Peterson. I would like to share an interesting part from one of its chapters, “Christ Plays in Creation”.   In it, Peterson related that a few years ago he had a student who lived […]