Friendship

Church Life

3 ways to prepare your heart for youth camp

For many churches, this will be their first time having a full-scale youth ministry camp after a long hiatus.   As a youth and a youth leader, I’ve been reflecting on how we can prepare our hearts...

Friendship

The practice of friendship

What does it mean to be a friend? In recent times I have been looking to the gospel of John for some answers. John is the gospel where Jesus calls His disciples friends (John 15:14), and then...

Friendship

I’m super sentimental. Is that a bad thing?

I’m a pretty sentimental person. I’m the sort who will always look back to wave at my friends after we part. Goodbyes don’t sit well with me, whether it’s saying goodbye to...

Discipleship

Hurt in church? It wasn’t easy for me to forgive either

As we spoke, her question stopped me in my tracks.  Essentially, she was asking me how my Christian faith plays a part in helping me to forgive others. My good friend, who was a non-believer, went...

Friendship

Burning Bridges or building them? Reflecting on the not-so-innocent games we play

I was at a friend’s house one day when she introduced a new game to me. “It’s quite a fun game!” she promised, and promptly laid a pack of cards on the table. This brought...

How-tos & Handles

Help! How do I journey with a “difficult” person?

Have you ever found yourself in a position where you had to deal with someone difficult? In most cases, our instinct would be to walk away from people that we can’t handle. But what if this...

Real Life, Real People

Once ostracised and feeling like a failure, one defining moment changed my life

TRIGGER WARNING: This story contains material about suicidal thoughts and a suicide attempt that some may find distressing. Growing up, I helped my mother collect cardboard boxes to sell after school...

#PublishPeace

Planting the seed of faith: How long does it take for a friend to come to Christ?

Ashley Tan, 23, and Jewel Chang, 23, first met at their polytechnic orientation. The two girls hit it off immediately and later found out that they would be classmates. While Ashley had not intended...

Church Life

I ran away from cell group and returned: A second-gen Christian shares his story

We were the graduating cohort of Primary 6 students — a group of bright-eyed 12-year-olds. We had spent much of our childhood seeing each other every week for Sunday School. Most, if not all of us,...