TWO YEARS AGO, God placed in me a burden to draw a closer link between the Methodist Church and the Methodist schools. Having been brought up in Fairfield Methodist School for 10 years, I heard of God’s agape love through the daily devotions and weekly chapel services. But more importantly, I experienced it through godly teachers and volunteers from The Boys’ Brigade (BB) who poured out their life for me and my schoolmates.
rough various confirmations from God and with the support of my church, Aldersgate Methodist Church (AMC), I took up several areas of service which have been most encouraging in my walk with God.
Having a special passion for children and the desire to see them being moulded in faith, I took over as Captain of the 33J Singapore Company BB in Fairfield Methodist School (Primary). God has blessed us tremendously over the past year as He revealed to us the importance of fathers in families, as written in Malachi 4:6a, “He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers.”
Through my interactions with the BB Boys, I have come to truly understand what it means not to look down on the young, for they can also be examples for believers in speech, life, love, faith and purity (1 Tim 4:12). One such example was when a Primary 6 Boy gathered his friends to pray for a fellow BB Boy that was injured in an activity. He prayed with conviction of God’s ability to heal and with a child-like faith, claiming that God’s angels will surround this injured friend of his. Praise God! Indeed, He uses the weak to shame the strong (1 Cor 1:27).
As the supporting church of the Fairfield Methodist Schools, AMC has been organising Chapelthon, a praise and worship night held every April to coincide with the Passion Week. is year’s Chapelthon saw more than 700 past and present Fairfield students (also known as Fairsians) praising God in the school hall, declaring that God was sovereign over Fairfield.
As my team and I, comprising Aldersgate youths and Fairfield alumni and students, sought the Lord for direction, He revealed the three-year theme of “ONE love, ONE life, ONE legacy (ONE Fairfield)”. God impressed upon us that students needed to experience this love that God has for them, and with that knowledge of God’s love, they would live their life to the fullest and leave a faith legacy for future generations.
God was at work as the Fairfield schools decided to take up this “ONE Fairfield” theme from 2011-2013 to gear towards their 125th anniversary in 2013.
Through Chapelthon 2011, our church has experienced a better understanding of the ministries involved in the schools. As a church, we observed Fairfield Month during the Sundays leading up to the event. The BB and GB (Girls’ Brigade) companies were given opportunities to serve the church congregation. A seven-day “Prayer for Fairfield” booklet was distributed to encourage church members to pray for the staff and students.
God’s love overflowed from the hearts of early missionaries like Bishop William Oldham (Founder of Anglo-Chinese School) and Sophia Blackmore (Founder of Fairfield Methodist School and Methodist Girls’ School). They lived their lives for the glory of One and left a spiritual legacy we enjoy today. God is doing something marvellous, raising up the next generation of godly men and women from our schools to extend this Christian heritage. Will the Church be part of it?