The Lord has furnished our church with many fellowship and ministry groups so that members and friends may have opportunities to grow and serve the Lord. We thank God that all of them are well-organised and wellmanaged for the spiritual benefit of His people. Apart from the regular meetings, they also arrange special events like seminars, retreats, fellowship-outings, prayer meetings, evangelistic programmes, etc. Our preachers and Session members regularly give leadership and teach God’s Word in their activities.

What benefits will you receive?

• Increase in the knowledge of God’s Word through Bible studies and sermons.
• Get to know more brethren in the church, and thus forge closer fellowship and friendship with other believers.
• Exercise your spiritual gifts and grow in the service of the Lord and His people.
• Become a channel of encouragement and edification to others in their spiritual walk.
• Pray together for one another and the Lord’s work.
• Introduce your friends and relatives to Christ and the church by inviting them to the fellowship.

What can you offer?

• Make it a point to regularly attend one or more fellowship/ministry groups and their activities.
• Open your homes or help to book places for meetings.
• Offer food and drinks, if there are post-fellowship refreshments.
• Help to fetch participants in your vehicle.
• Talk to worshippers and friends to encourage them to regularly attend meetings and special events.
• Offer your service wherever help is needed, to the best of your ability.
• When leaders of the church approach you to serve in responsible areas (such as in committees, or chairing the meetings), avail yourself as the Lord enables you.

So brethren, make every effort to participate in the fellowship/ministry groups of the church. “Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

Testimonies of Young Adults

Bro Aron Ong
The GYAF is an avenue which God uses to minister to His children, particularly the young adults of Gethsemane.

For me, the GYAF message on 20 May 2016 was an especially timely one. The exhortation taken from Hebrews 10:25 on “and so much the more” - as regards to the assembling of ourselves together and the exhorting of one another in Christ - was a reassuring and encouraging message for me. It exhorted me not to give up but keep pressing forward in Christian life and service. At that point, I was just a month into parenthood - a “newbie” dad still settling into the new reality, trying to integrate my newest responsibility with my existing ones. My wife Shan was in her post-pregnancy confinement (though nearing the end of it then), and so I had been going to church alone without my immediate family for that past month. This had been an emotional struggle within me - part of me wanted to attend church, yet another part of me wanted to stay home together with my recuperating wife and newborn baby.

The temptation to slow down in the things of God is always there, all the more so when burdens of life increase. It is very easy to just give up, if we become transfixed by our own circumstances and some others around. However, to do that would be unfaithful to Him who has called and saved us.

Amidst life’s struggles, busyness, frustrations and troubles, we are still to be growing, fruitful Christians. As the palm trees that flourish in hostile desert conditions to produce sweet dates, and like the strong cedar trees that grow in favourable fertile conditions, may our Christian lives be ever flourishing and strong throughout all of life’s changing scenes, that we may show forth the glory of our Lord who has planted us and will make us flourish in Him (cf. Psalm 92:12-15).

That message was an apt reminder, for which I praise God!

Sis Low Hui Lin
The Gethsemane Young Adults’ Fellowship (GYAF) has been a blessing to me in the years that I have been in this church. I praise the Lord for using the GYAF to minister to me in several ways.

It was through the GYAF that I was assimilated into the church. During the months before my husband and I got married, I started attending the GYAF meetings. Through this, I was able to get to know more members of the church. I am thankful for several sisters who put in the effort to talk to me and make me feel welcome at each meeting.

Through the past 7 years, the GYAF has continued to be a source of blessing for me. I especially am thankful for the faithful preaching of God’s Word during each meeting, through which I have learnt much and grown in the Lord. How I sometimes wish that the preaching would not end, so that I can hear more of God’s Word!

The GYAF has also provided me with the opportunity to be in closer fellowship with some brothers and sisters-in-Christ as we get to know one other better. God has used the brethren from the GYAF to encourage me at different points in my life, for which I am thankful.

I praise the Lord for His goodness to me through the GYAF. May the Lord continue to use the GYAF mightily to do His work.