In Honour of Brother Chew

Today as we celebrate 41 years of SCC’s existence, we would like to take the opportunity to honour a brother who has made tremendous contributions to this body of Christ. He is none other than our Brother Chew, who is seated here in our midst.

Brother Chew & Sister Alice joined the church in 1986. At that time, SCC was a ‘homeless’ church – that means we did not have a permanent place for our church office & our Sunday services. So, for many years, the church operated out of rented premises, which was very disruptive because we had to change meeting locations ever so often & sometimes even at very short notice. Indeed, those were challenging times!

During those formative years, Brother Chew played a key role in helping to look out for suitable properties for the church to either rent or purchase. That was an almost impossible task! Why? Because as a church which started from scratch, we did not have any funds to finance a property. And without any collaterals, the banks were not willing to give us a loan. In spite of this, Brother Chew did not give up. He persevered & acted in faith, rallying his close friends to seek their advice & roped them in to help the church. He worked tirelessly, & whenever there was a potential property for viewing, he would take time off his work & personally drive Pastor to view these properties. I also remember the many occasions we would meet with his lawyer friend in his own office, to painstakingly work through all the legal requirements to prepare the church to acquire a property. His efforts finally paid off, because one day, the impossible did happen - when we purchased our first property, a walk-up apartment at Pasir Panjang.

Some years later, when we sold the Pasir Panjang property in preparation for the purchase of a bigger premise, the church had made a handsome profit of close to ¾ of a million $! Isn’t that awesome? I believe our Heavenly Father saw the big heart & faithfulness of this brother, & it pleased the Lord to multiply our finance & resources for the building of His church.

Fast forward to where we are today - when we moved to this current premise in Year 2000 - Brother Chew too was instrumental in working with his lawyer friend to help the church with all the paper work. You may not know this – but it is so much easier to buy a personal property than for a church to buy a property because to do so, the church would need the collective agreement from a majority of its members - that in itself, is a hard thing to achieve!

Today, we own not only this premise & also the one at Level 3, & as a church, we are totally loan free. And through the years, God’s faithfulness never fails to lead us step by step. We have consolidated our operations, & with a united leadership team, we are in a strong position, both financially & spiritually, to enter a new season of growth to continue the mission of Jesus Christ!

Many thanks to everyone here who has played a part in this journey. And a special thanks to Brother Chew, for his selfless co-labouring with Pastor & the team in those crucial foundational years. Thank you too, Sister Alice, for your important supportive role in all this, for generously opening your house for prayer meetings & home fellowships during the transition period when we had no place to go to. And yes, you always bought so much delicious food for us all to enjoy! We will not forget the generosity & the love & kindness of you both. So, Church, please join me to show our heartfelt appreciation to Brother Chew & Sister Alice!