Young Voices

A friend of mine whom I met in Junior College (JC) is no stranger to bullying. He is diagnosed with mild Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and though bright and highly gifted, he would sometimes be bullied and made fun of because of his social awkwardness.

Earlier this year, I attended Finding Your Place (FYP), a 3-month youth discipleship programme organised by the Chinese Annual Conference (CAC) Board of Youth Ministry (BOYM). Out of the many lessons, one that spoke to me was the session on common worldviews, in particular learning about the Singapore worldview.

Does making a game replayable inherently make them addictive?

Ah, dating. The strange phase between being single and being married. Whether you're single or married, there are explicit principles and encouragements you can turn to in the Bible. The Bible, though, doesn't discuss dating. Dating only became commonplace way after biblical times.

"I think you're weird and I don't want to be friends with you anymore!" "I challenge you to a fight, you idiot!" "You don't care about how I feel! This is why we can't be friends anymore."

Each Sunday, over 120 children in the ever-growing Children's Ministry at Aldersgate Methodist Church gather for a time of worship. The combination of dance actions, sign language and music engages the senses of the children and their teachers and leads them to worship God.

Did you know King Charles III, the current monarch, bears the title "Defender of the Faith"? This title was first conferred on Henry VIII in 1521 when England was still part of the Roman Catholic Church, by Pope Leo X. Known as Fidei Defensor in Latin, it was granted to Henry VIII in recognition of the theological treatise Defence of the Seven Sacraments which he authored, possibly working with Thomas More and Cardinal Wolsey.

"Don't come back a heathen!" I distinctly remember the first time I heard those words from the mouth of Rev Dr Isaac Lim who, while preaching at Covenant Vision Christian Church in February 2023, provided an anecdote of how a man once committed to serving the Lord, returned home from studies in the UK a completely changed man who now forsook the Lord.

Consider the following creature of the sea: it has neither heart nor brain, its body has a higher percentage of water than Coca-Cola and it reproduces by ejecting offspring into the unknown. If someone could create such a creature, we would be in awe at this inventor's ingenuity.

In the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy's (LKYSPP) inaugural street count of homeless people in Singapore in 2019, it revealed between 921 and 1,050 street homeless across the island.

This question undergirds many ongoing conversations on young adults in the Methodist Church. It lies beneath disappointments, disillusionments, and frustrations nursed by young adults who feel let down when their churches remain distant from scriptural precedents and ideals.

I have nothing against Father's Day. My family just never had the practice of celebrating it—along with other occasions like Mother's Day and Valentine's Day. Maybe it was because my parents were not the sentimental sort. The most we did was to attend the big, extended-family dinners my uncles or aunties would throw for my grandfathers on both sides.