The Nelson Family Indonesia

I was blessed to lead Word & Sacrament this past Friday evening in Singapore for the first time since February. Although our full contingent wasn’t available, our small gathering of four (including me) was still beautiful.

We met in a different room than we have for the past year. Once I began regular ministry visits to Singapore I opted to look for different accommodations than had been used in the past. Those accommodations (through a Christian organization) were good, but the location was a long way from everyone in the group and the costs to rent worship space were high. After a request for help one of our members, Amy, a recent transplant to Singapore from Taiwan via the US, located a rental room in the heart of downtown Singapore.

I viewed the room and found it curious in terms of access, but I’m not a local. So maybe it’s not uncommon to have rental rooms on a floor not serviced by an elevator, so you can either take an elevator up three flours and climb a flight of stairs to the fourth, or you can take the elevator to the fifth floor and go down a flight of stairs to the fourth floor. The room itself is a small classroom or meeting room with narrow tables and business-style chairs – more comfortable than folding chairs but certainly nothing extravagant. But the price per use was a quarter of what the other location was charging so I opted to make the switch.

I learned after our first meeting from some of our local members that the reason for the elevator inaccessibility is that it’s one of the older public housing buildings in downtown Singapore. So above the fourth floor there are residences with subsidized apartments (80% of Singapore’s population lives in government subsidized housing), while the four floors below (as well as the basement) are all for commercial rentals. Restaurants, shops, philanthropic organization offices, dance studios, a bicycle shop, etc.

So while we were in the same building on the same floor it was a different room. Small but adequate for the four of us. I arrived about an hour early to set things up. There’s a suitcase I pay to store in the building so we have access to it, and it contains paraments, Communion-ware, and LSB hymnals. This means I don’t have to lug an extra 25 pounds of gear back and forth to Singapore each time I go, which I’m grateful for! It didn’t take long to set up a table as altar with appropriate paraments, prepare the Communion setting and rearrange the other tables in the room out of the way for chairs.

When we assembled I used a combination of vespers with the Service of the Sacrament from Divine Service Setting 3. We chanted through the liturgy together – something I’ve only begun to feel more comfortable with.

Afterwards the group helped me clean up and set the room back up the way it was when I arrived. Then we were off to dinner. Stephen introduced us to a small cafe run by the Roman Catholic Church in the next building over from where we meet. The proprietor is a Trappist monk who is famous in the area due to his long years of service here. I think he’s Belgian. Our first visit we were amused to find out his name is also Paul, he’s also an ordained minister, and he’s also the bartender for the establishment, and is famous for his Manhattans. The added bonus to ordering his Manhattans is that the price (very reasonable by Singapore standards!) includes a serving of his homemade rice pudding. At least on Fridays when he works. He’s getting up in years and apparently now is down to one day a week in the cafe, where he makes the rounds of tables, suggests menu options, mixes drinks, and welcomes everyone with a humble love of Christ.

We enjoyed our time together. Amy is a researcher. She obtained her doctorate in the US and worked in Idaho for several years, and her special area of research and interest is in carbohydrates and how to make these necessary critters better for human consumption. She loves to hold forth on the beauty of potatoes (she loves French Fries so long as they’re enjoyed in moderation). Unfortunately for us, she announced that she’ll likely be leaving Singapore early in the new year, riding on a wave of soon to be published academic articles that will make her one of the leading experts in her field, and she wants to try new things. While we’re all excited for her, it’s sad to see her go.

It will be a year in September since we lost another member of our group, Hayley. Chinese-born she also studied in the US and then took a job in Singapore for a short period of time. But the brutal expectations of long hours of work and very little personal time proved to be an undesirable environment for her and she returned to China to determine her next work.

It’s part of the nature of Singapore, where things are so expensive and the pace of work is so fast and hard that people often come and go quickly. The allure of Singapore is understandable but that allure fades a bit once people realize they won’t get to enjoy very much of the local beauty because they’re always at work! It’s a pace of life locals and ex-pats alike have to learn to navigate and do so in myriad ways. Sometimes that way is to leave.

I trust the Holy Spirit will continue to draw others to our little group. At this point the regional intention is not to pursue establishing a full-fledged congregation. Perhaps at some point down the road. But that road will take some time to pave. In the meantime, it’s a blessing to care for the small band of LCMS Lutherans that reside there and are grateful for opportunities to receive the Lord’s Supper and participate in a familiar liturgy. And as it’s such a small Lutheran world, it’s always good to build and maintain relationships with brothers and sisters in our midst. After all, while we know where we’ll all be reunited eternally, who knows where we’ll run into one another again in this world?!