YF president's report 2006

YF President’s Report 2006 by Michael Chew

Psalm 111:10
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.
1 Thessalonians 5:18
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Praise to our almighty God for the year 2006. It is thrilling to see a year conclude, but I am more excited to see how God will direct the YF in 2007, especially with a proposed larger committee and new and young members. 2006 was certainly a tremendous year that I have much to praise God for.

I thank God for a small but hardworking executive committee of only 5 members, including myself. When it comes to running an event or program, we were short-handed in many ways, but God did not short-change us because we committed our plans to Him. The committee’s faith has surely grown since it began at the start of the year. When I was away for 2 months for an internship, it was business as usual at the YF. Yes, we had our rough times, but God was teaching and ‘polishing our rough edges’ through our Supervisor and Advisor. As the song, ‘O Rejoice in the Lord’ says, “for when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as gold”.

Dness Heng constantly reminds me that the YF is not seen in numbers, but as individuals that make up the YF. While it is encouraging to see more coming for our meetings lately after the camp, my prayer is that every YF member and participant including myself, like what Rev Ong often reminds, “grow up to be young men and women after God’s heart”. Our spiritual heart is very important in the process of growth, and the YF is the place where older youths set an example for the younger ones. In 2006, our spiritual feeding came in the form of Precepts Bible Study. We used Kay Arthur’s 40-Minute Bible study series, “Discovering what the future holds”. I am thankful to God that the committee members took turns to facilitate in this study, and in the process, have understood God’s word better and developed leadership qualities.

This year was a year of reaching out. We reached out in so many ways, from helping tend the church gardens to serving in the Christmas Puppet Musical. More importantly, there was a spiritual dimension to our reaching out. We increased the number of evangelism-related activities like having another round of evangelism training (in English) and having a total of 4 tracting sessions and 3 gospel Saturdays. In September, two of our committee members, Lydia and Darrell, represented the GCYF in planning a Combined BP Churches YF Meeting. This is yet another way that we reached out to not just the youths in our church, but we participated in obedience to God’s command to fellowship with one another (1 John 1:7).

Our other activities this year included more bonding and fellowship activities. We took pastor’s advice to teach more practical skills, citing the vibrancy of YF programs in his days. We organised a “Managing your live under God” practical learning session, where simple concepts of First-aid were taught and it was a time of learning actively. We have certainly built closer relationships with each other through purely fellowship sessions like trekking Bukit Timah Hill, and even Kite-Flying. All of these activities were accompanied by brief sharing of God’s Word by our committee members.

It is imperative to highlight the YF camp, which has been such an encouragement to me, and my fellow committee members. We planned for the camp, not knowing how many will be blessed by it. I am sure you heard the testimony of two teens during the watch night service, of how they were blessed. They were not regular at YF but were blessed by being at camp. We set out to reach out at the start of the year and we ended the year reaching out to many first-time campers in the YF camp. What a joy it is to see youths make the decision to come for camp, more so, seeing lives changed and the younger ones making decisions to draw closer to God. The YF camp is such an answer to prayer because it was effective as many were putting the lessons into practice, even within the duration of the camp. Let us all not leave these precious lessons behind in 2006, but practice them in our years in YF.

As we gaze into 2007 with the prospects of a larger executive committee, new president and new members, it is my earnest prayer that the Lord will give us wisdom as we grow up in the YF. But we have to fear the Lord first, as the Psalmist writes in Psalm 111, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom”. May God direct our paths and directions.