Aaron shares an extremely heartfelt post about the kind of community he would like his newborn baby to grow up in. This is without a doubt the shortest post he has ever written! – It can be read in less than an hour! This is the second post in our series ‘Community and Fellowship’.
For those who don’t know, Hui Ying and I welcomed a baby boy, little Edward Tan, in July. As we begin on our long journey of parenthood, we keep praying for little Edward to grow up as a godly boy/man who both loves and fears God, and who will do His will faithfully as a servant of the Gospel on earth.
What makes a person godly and faithful? Surely, only the Spirit of God residing in us, who works in us to bear fruit with each passing day (Galatians 5:22-23). But God has also given us each other to encourage and build each other up (1 Thessalonians 5:11, Hebrews 10:23-25), bear each others’ burdens (Galatians 6:2), teach and admonish each other with wisdom and thankfulness (Colossians 3:16), and generally sharpen each others’ faith (Proverbs 27:17). In short, God gives us community for our holiness.
Looking back, I was blessed to have had a wonderful ARPC Children’s Church and BASIC community to grow up in. (Though back then, it was called The New Youth Fellowship or TNYF, which we had to stop calling it after a while because it was really no longer *new*). My peers were good fun to be around – you can ask Auntie Karen about the havoc we used to wreak in the children’s playground. As we grew older, we moved on to other things – meals after BASIC and services, movie and LAN game outings, late night suppers, New Year through-the-night mahjong sessions, even a half marathon that a few of the guys trained for. (I swore after that never to do something so stupid again). We were a group of fast friends, doing everything together, and enjoying each others’ company immensely.
It’s up to all of you to build this sort of community and make BASIC a true family in Christ.
But more importantly, as we grew and matured in the faith, we also grew closer together as brothers and sisters in Christ. We learnt how to keep each other accountable. We prayed for each other. We had emo tearful sharings where we unburdened ourselves and cried with each other. We supported each other through difficult times with hard words of truth that needed to be spoken and heard. We knew about each others’ problems, and we were each others’ closest friends because of that.
Of course, it wasn’t all good. We argued, we fought. I dated someone in my year for a while and it ended badly, forcing our friends to take sides until we reconciled two long years later. We grew apart as we went along our different paths – some as youth leaders while some as youth, some going overseas to study while some remained here. We accused each other of being bad friends at times, and had to humble ourselves to apologise and forgive in turn. Today, we aren’t as close as we used to be, though we still meet every once in a while.
Nonetheless, looking back, if not for these brothers and sisters who journeyed with me during my crucial teenage years, I am certain I would no longer be in church or calling on God as my Lord and Saviour. They walked with me when I needed it, they loved me when I was unlovable, they dragged me back to church kicking and screaming when I refused to come to God for my problems. I will always be grateful to God and them for the things they’ve done for me.
If I were asked what kind of community I hope little Edward would grow up in, I pray that he would have the same kind of community I had: imperfect brothers and sisters living under God’s grace, striving to love and serve each other in all circumstances, while still able to enjoy each others’ company and have lots of fun.
As for today, 13 years before little Edward is due to join BASIC, I pray that this is the kind of community that BASIC can be – where we value Bibles over electronic devices, and each others’ company above our homework or school or CCAs. It’s up to all of you to build this sort of community and make BASIC a true family in Christ, so that as new generations (like Little Edward) join us in time to come, they will be blessed with the same love that we ourselves have received.
Written by Aaron Tan
Aaron is a BASIC leader who enjoys imparting wisdom to young people (read: nagging them about everything under the sun). He believes strongly in God’s call for Christians to live in the community and to contribute actively towards it, and thus showing God’s love to those around us. He is also a self-proclaimed Dark Lord of the Sith (even Pastor Roger calls him that), and enjoys all sorts of geekery from board/PC games to quoting entire scenes from Star Wars and Lord of the Rings from memory. Aaron is happily married to Hui Ying, though whether Hui Ying is happily married to him is another issue altogether.
Photo Credit: Lisabelle Tay (@studio_exlibris)