Sentosa & DG history

Posted by spots (Singapore, Singapore) on 15 September 2009 in People & Portrait and Portfolio.

The second major outing we had over the Sep hols was to Sentosa--together with a few of our DG's families.

You know, here's some reflection about our DG (Discipleship Group). It started out as a bunch of singles, mostly newcomers, who met in Church. I remember Pastor Daniel Ong was our DG leader, only then, he was not yet a pastor! Just a staff worker.

I joined the DG in 2000 and that's when I first met Husband--at Discipleship Group. He remembers me sitting on this old church chair in the corridor behind the sanctuary where we had bible study. I sort of remember him walking through those tinted glass doors. And our eyes met haha.

Anyway, from a bunch of singles, people slowly started getting married. Luke & Peits were among the first and our DG quickly started meeting at their new home, at International Plaza. We continued to meet there even after they had Matty, which was some 3 years later, I think?

For the longest time, Matty was the only kid in DG--everybody else was still dating, breaking up, or just happily married without kids. Our DG grew to the point where we SPLIT into two groups some time in 2002. We gave birth to the WATERSIDE DG, which became known for its very hip and happening members who organised a lot of costume parties, outings and cooked fantastic food! Our side of the split--the IP DG (for International Plaza) was far more "staid" and "monotonous". We just had Bible Study and potluck. Haha. When Husband & I got married, in 2004, our DG was still largely singles and a few marrieds.

So what happened? Population EXPLOSION!!! Well, firstly, it must be mentioned that our DG has "matchmade" 3 couples--Husband & I, Hwee Yen & Cher Wee, and Bee Him and Wei Xiong. Having seen them grow from "innocent" DG mates to "lovers" and now "parents" has been an amazing journey! There were also a few couples who were already dating when they joined, like Karen & Wei Lee, Audrey & Wei San, Clarissa and Hong Meng.

I think the population explosion came when Kelp & Hwee Ling joined our group--at that point, Hwee Ling was pregnant with Isaac. Leanne, Jayson and Glen followed RATHER QUICKLY I must say. Within 5 years, she had 4 kids?! By 2008, we had Isaac, Leanne, Jayson, Matty, Timmy, Daniel, Benjamin, Gabriel, James....

And then, babies Charis, Naomi and Glen joined us in quick succession in mid to late 2008!

This year, Christina is expecting her 2nd kid. And Rachel & Sze Meng have joined us, adding their bucket load of 3 girls to the merry band!

All in all, we have 11 kids + I think!

Actually, the history of our DG reflects the history of our church too--cos I think now, the biggest demographic in church is young families with young kids, whereas it used to be that there were a lot of singles.

One very good thing about evolving as a community is that your kids have a lot of playmates of the same age group. With the exception of Matty and Isaac, all the other 11 kids are 4+ and below! Daniel & Ben love to play with their friends regularly every week, though there is also a lot of dynamics management--which you would expect, with 11 kids running around!

Also, we have changed the timing of our DG to be more kid-friendly--we now meet in the afternoons on Sundays, so that our kids can join in and have a kids' programme while the adults do "serious bible study" ahaha.

I am also very encouraged by the mums in our group--I think of those who come regularly, 2 are doing part-time work and 3 are full-time homemakers! That is quite uncommon for Singaporean women, who generally like to go back to work after having kids so as to "stay in touch" (don't ask me what that means--one of my colleagues said that and I'm still trying to figure that one out!). I am grateful that ARPC has so many mums who are willing to give up their careers and ambitions to look after their kids. I do think it is worthy of respect, though I am by no means against full time working mums or anything. Each station has their own challenges, struggles, strengths and weaknesses. But whatever it is, having a constant group of parents around has definitely been encouraging, especially when we learn from each other's styles of parenting--what to do and what not to do!

Anyway, the Sentosa outing was quite enjoyable. Daniel has fully overcome his fear of waves and water--and was happily showing off his "skill" of playing in the waves. Ben on the other hand was still scared like a chicken of water. We managed to find 2 crabs and a couple of shells that seemed to have some creatures hiding in them. We also blew bubbles, built castles and generally got ourselves dirty with salt water, sand and etc.,

I think I would have enjoyed myself a bit more, had I not been so exhausted already. But I do thank God for the good time!

Rachel's blog abt this outing is here.