I love Christmas in London! It's my favourite time of the year!
It's the time where the church has its annual "Women's Christmas Party" and the "Men's Christmas Gathering (supposed to be more manly I guess!)". It's when the church is most busy because it's the season for people to remember how the momentous event the Lord's glory came to earth.
It's the prime time that gives God's people opportunity to share with non-believers who Christ is. So it is the most exciting time to see God's people bustling about.
But more importantly, it's the time to see the church decorations go up, though I wonder what it'll be like this year since creative extraordinaires May and Sara is no longer with IPC to do their magic. So in some ways, I'm glad I don't have another thing to miss!
It's the time where IPC will have its traditional Christmas Eve service in the cosy lil chapel where it's filled to the brim with people who come to church only during Christmas service.
I'll miss the excitement of bundling myself up as warmly as possible and be in church exceptionally early to make sure I get a seat right up the front because we always run out of space. I miss seeing the excited faces, seeing David, Naomi and Hannah L with all the accomplished musicians and tuning up their instruments. And I'll miss seeing the excited children's face squeezing up the front and familiar and new faces filling out the seats.
I'll miss seeing Paul L restlessly moving about as he preps himself to lead the service. And I'll miss not being able to read the Bible passage during the service. Every year since I joined IPC, I had always been one of the Bible readers for the Christmas Eve service!
I can't lead in prayer well at the pulpit at all during service, but I've found out there's a certain something about reading aloud Bible passages to the congregation. It's as if something about the passage grips my stomach and I feel like my eyes want to blaze brightly and I want to read it as if the voice of the writer was my own.
How I miss the people in IPC but how excited I am to be in Singapore. I see the faces in church here and I can't help feeling excited about the lives that are in the process of change!
How many of these children will one day stand before many more congregations and be gripped by the Word of God and feel the fire of the Lord's glory blaze in their souls?
How many more people through these lives today come to know the Lord and know the joy His salvation?
And how many more lives will I continue looking forward to meet in the grand reunion we will have in the new kingdom of heaven and earth?
I will always love and miss IPC, but it is because of them in IPC I have learnt the depth of love we can have as a body of Christ, and they have given me the courage to look boldly forward to build and edify others.
Sometimes it is at the tip of my tongue to say how I miss IPC and wish I could be back with them. But to do that, to look backwards will only be a disservice to them and all the love they have poured into me.
Labels: Church tales