The Christmas Cheer Gift offering is received each year during Sunday services in Dec. May we prayerfully consider setting aside a Cheer Gift even in this unique and challenging year, as the Lord convicts and wills. The Cheer Gift will be apportioned to the needy as well as our full-time staff (pastoral, operations & missionary) and associated missionaries as their year-end 13th-month supplement and, if in any excess, bonus.

Eccl 3:1, 2 – “There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens…”
For most of 2020, we lived in the shadow of COVID-19. Governments and individuals have both been sorely challenged by the pain of disruption. While some may have flourished in the hiddenness of lockdown, most find themselves pining for things to return to the way they were.
Like it or not, 2020 has also surfaced pastoral issues that can no longer be ignored. For many, these have already become personal: challenges in emotional and mental health, finances, digital addiction, being neighbourly to the dislocated and disadvantaged.
The writer to the Ecclesiastes would be sympathetic. He provokes dialogue and reflection at every turn as he observes the pain and pointlessness of the inequalities or inevitabilities pervading his world. But if asked today, he would probably say even COVID-19 is nothing new “under the sun”. And ultimately, he would firmly point us back to revere God, apart from whom nothing can make sense, let alone be enjoyed.
Taking heed, instead of merely wishing 2020 away, why not set our gaze God-ward and seize the opportunity to form Christ-like convictions for lasting change in our walk and witness?
Drawing inspiration from Ecclesiastes 3, we picked eight of the 14 contrasting dyads to spark reflection, discern the times and so see Christ clearly in our midst and overcome.

As the global pandemic rages on, many remain fearful and disoriented by the prospect of mounting infections, job losses, social misery and political unrest. We are told these are part of the new normal.

As Christians, how are we coping? What do we trust in and hope for in a time such as this? The book of Psalms teaches God’s people to call and even cry out to Him, for true hope and assurance are found in the Lord alone.

It is thus timely that in this year’s BFEC Churchwide journey, we will explore a selection of psalms that give voice to our hopes and fears, and focus our hearts and minds where they ought – on God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, our only hope in life and death.

So join us on this journey as we pray and sing the Psalms together unto the Lord, for He is good and his steadfast love endures forever! In Christ, indeed, God has given us a new song!