by Lim Eng Chong
It was a familiar place. We had our last thanksgiving dinner here, the Little Lazy Lizard, three years ago. It has been a tradition for our CCMC Men’s Fellowship (MF) to end its programme each year in November with a Thanksgiving Dinner. On 3 November 2022, we could finally dine together for a “thanksgiving” after a disruption of three years. 41 of us, including our spouses, attended with our Pastor-in-Charge, Rev David Gwee, giving the word of encouragement.
The MF provides a place for our men at CCMC to come together to encourage one another to have a closer walk with our Lord. The Fellowship provides a safe harbour where men - faced with the pressures and expectations of society - can meet, learn, and grow to become supportive husbands and fathers, and to be pillars of integrity at the workplace, and reflecting who our God is.
2022 has been a better year for our Fellowship as many of our nation’s Covid-19 safe management measures have been relaxed. We finally could resume our on-site monthly meetings in July this year after two years of on-line zoom meetings. It is such a relief and joy as we could again have our simple fellowship meal (dinner) before each meeting and hence enjoy a more personal interaction with one another.
As we commenced the Thanksgiving Dinner, Joseph Lim (our Lay Ministry Staff who oversees our MF) led us in the hymn “Great is Thy Faithfulness”. Indeed, God has been faithful and good to us in the MF and we want to give to Him our thanks and praises.
Our MF’s theme for 2022 is “Choosing a Life of Wisdom”, with theme verses taken from Proverbs 9:10-11 which say “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding. For through me your days will be many, and years will be added to your life.”
Through this year, we were blessed with exhortations from the word of God by our very own speakers (Pastor Malcolm Tan, Pastor David Ho, Dr Mark Chan, Joseph Lim, Dr Tan Buck Chye, Mason Lim and Dr Mak Koon Hou) and also external speakers (Bernard Lim and Lam Kok Hiang). Precious lessons were learned about how to live wisely and make our life count; be good stewards of God’s gifts so that we can “pass” these gifts to our children; and how to live a meaningful life (Colossians 3:2 – “Set your minds on things above, and not on earthly things.”)
In his exhortation at our Thanksgiving Dinner, our PIC, Pastor David Gwee, reminded us (from Hebrews 6:10-12) that “God is not unjust; he does not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you helped his people and continue to help them.” We are to continue this same diligence to the very end and not to become lazy. We should not retire from God’s work.
As we look forward to the new year, we pray that more men will join our fellowship. May our fellowship continue to be a place where our men can encourage and support one another in our daily walk and in our involvement in the work of His kingdom.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 – “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”