MEMBERS of Chapelwood United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas, have donated US$47,941.30 (S$73,350) to the Methodist Missions Society (MMS) to help the Singapore agency carry out its rehabilitation work in the 2004 tsunami-hit fishing village near Phuket.
A cheque for the amount was sent to the MMS following the American church’s appeal to its members to raise funds for the MMS after its members had read of the plight of the tsunami victims in the October 2006 issue of Methodist Message.
The funds will be used to build fishing boats and toilets for new houses in a fishing village in Ban Nai Rai, a town 80 km north of the resort island of Phuket, according to Col (Retd) Quek Koh Eng, the MMS Home Director.
He said: “We want to thank members of Chapelwood United Methodist Church for their partnership in our work. We praise God for His faithfulness and provision.”
Course on Christian counselling
OASIS Family Life Education Centre is offering a course on Christian counselling next month to those who want to help out in counselling work.
The course will also give participants a feel of what counselling is all about before they decide on doing a diploma or degree programme in counselling.
The centre will launch the course leading to a Certificate in Christian Counselling with four objectives in mind:
1. To enlighten participants about the uniqueness of Christian counselling;
2. To help participants discover and develop their gift in Christian counselling;
3. Te equip participants with Christian counselling skills to help others; and
4. To prepare and recommend participants to become registered members of the Association of Christian Counsellors of Singapore upon being awarded the Christian Counselling Certificate by Oasis Family Life Education Centre.
Depending on the response, the course may be held at Grace Methodist Church at Telok Blangah Road on Thursday evenings from April 5 to Dec 20, 2007.
The course covers 10 modules. Included in the course content are Biblical foundation in Christian counselling, spiritual development, introduction to counselling psychology, basic counselling skills, ethical and legal issues in counselling, basic marriage and family counselling, and grief counselling. Course details can be found in www.oasisflec.org.sg
Those who have attended the 10 modules without absence and got involved in at least 12 hours practicum will be certified as a Christian counsellor and will qualify to apply for membership of the Association of Christian Counsellors of Singapore.
The course fees are $50 per module. Please submit your registration online by March 30, 2007.
The instructors are Dr Spencer H. H. Lee, Dr Victor Tai and the Rev Dr Francis Ngoi, all professional counsellors.
Dr Lee holds a Ph.D (Counselling) from Vision Internal University, the United States, and is a Master in Christian Counselling. He also holds a Bachelor in Theology from Trinity Theological College. He has more than seven years of experience in counselling and has conducted many counselling training courses and family life education talks and workshops in churches, schools and for the community.
Dr Tai is the Senior Consultant Psychologist at Adam Road Hospital and Senior Management Consultant at Psyscan Consulting International. He has lectured and trained several thousands of executives, managers and professionals from numerous organisations.
He was previously Chief Psychologist for almost 10 years at the Ministry of Defence. He was a past president of the Singapore Psychological Society and past deputy chairman of the Singapore Professional Centre.
The Rev Dr Ngoi has been a member of the Association for Marital and Family Therapy (Singapore) since 1997. As an elder in the Chinese Annual Conference for more than 30 years, he has taught Pastoral Care and Counselling at Trinity Theological College.
Serving as the Director of Oasis Family Life Education Centre since 2002, he has been promoting family wellness programmes among churches and training family support groups’ facilitators and lay pastoral caregivers and family life educators to support the family life ministry of local churches.
GC-WSCS leadership seminar
THE General Conference Women’s Society of Christian Service (GC-WSCS) will hold a Leadership Seminar at Sophia Blackmore
Hall, 6th floor, Methodist Centre on March 17, 2007 at 1.30 pm. The seminar will feature Methodist women leaders in the corporate world who will tell how they juggle their time between corporate leadership and spiritual leadership.
All women in the Methodist Church are invited.
MSM Children’s Choir
THE Methodist School of Music (MSM) Children’s Choir was launched in January 2007 for children aged six to 15.
Its goal is to provide a comprehensive music education and performance programme that will develop the children’s spiritual maturity as well as musical and social skills.
Please call Judith or Chet Wei @ 6767-5258 or visit the MSM website at for more details.