Make a Date with Us! NavAlumni Lunch 13 November, saturday 12 noon – 3.00 pm
Hilton Hotel
ALUMNI TEAM@NEWS Our Alumni Team was in the news lately. Christian Post did an interview with Kim Meng with the write-up 'Effective Witnessing is Natural' posted on Jun 26. Alex Lo was featured in the Sunday Times 'If you are a Lo, your clan wants to say hi'' dated 11 July. At the gathering of about 250, one third professed to be Christians.
Alex has also been reaching out to his pre-believers friends with the gospel. They were his guests at a dinner function on 1 July for 400 businessmen and professionals listening to the testimony of Gurmit Singh. San Wee motivated and encouraged mid-lifers to tackle life issues through the Half Time Summit, where trainers from Bob Buford's ministry came and guided 20 men in thinking through how to move from success to significance in their lives. Several alumni were involved in this second seminar from July 20 - 22. Sup made a trip to Indonesia recently just to minister with a TNT alumnus who is very much involved with E1 and E2, seeking to influence these young people in his environment. Sup did a 'Life Missions' session with these ones. Doug is making a trip to Hong Kong in August to minister with the disciple-making groups in the HK campus ministry. Like us, they see the need to reconnect with their alumni from the earlier collegiate days and new initiatives are taken to challenge these alumni.
ALUMNI TAKE OFF For the older ones (SP Navs) in Supra's Adventure in Discipling Others (AODO) group, it was a timely revisit of the fundamentals of disciple-making. AODO brought back the focus first sharpened during campus days, which had been blunted somewhat in the course of living life and building careers. They truly appreciate this valuable resource and what's happening to them lately as they engage others. Our group of four couples (Military Navs) has been doing bible-study using AODO and we take turns to lead the study. Raymond Kwok highlighted that he learnt afresh of the need to focus on individuals instead of performing tasks of organising meetings and leading groups.
Ever watch grown-ups playing missiles and bombs with paper planes?
28 Military Navs alumni played this icebreaker game when they met on 17 July to listen to fellow alumnus Raja share his life story. Raj, a former air traffic controller with the SAF came on full time with the Singapore Navs and is now stationed in Canada. The challenges he faces in raising a young family of four children in the
midst of those who are not believers allow for authenticity in expressing dependence on the Lord for grace and mercy on a daily basis. His honest sharing of his life, and lessons learnt from the Lord ministered to many of us. Raymond reiterated what he learnt from the AODO session by making reference to the booklet ‘Born to Reproduce’ and posed three questions to the gang from the booklet: 'How is your devotional life?', 'Who is your man?', and 'Why are you working?'
ALUMNI@CHURCHES Since the March Alumni Gathering, I have been receiving invitations to speak and share at various churches where Nav alumni are and who are seeking to re-ignite the flame of discipling. Some preferred it termed Mentoring but it is similar in content and focus. Besides speaking on Mentoring at The Peoples' Bible Church during two Sunday services, I was also asked to address the leadership teams after both services for a time of Q & A upon the invitation of our military alumnus Jit Meng.
CALLING ALUMNI WITH COLLEGE GOING CHILDREN
Periodically we also get alumni knocking at our doors asking for training - not for themselves but for their children entering schools. So for those with children entering the universities, we have two events in which you may want to interest your children. The NUSNavs Freshman Orientation Camp 31 July-3 Aug. The NTUNavs Freshman Orientation Camp 11-13 Aug.
Kok Khen (NTU alumnus) heads the Cell Group ministry in Seng Kang Methodist Church, and at their recent pastoral and key leadership team meeting from both English and Chinese services, I was invited to share to the group of about seventy on Mentoring.
You can visit the website at http://navigators.org.sg/ for further information.
BOOK A DATE WITH US Our next Alumni lunch gathering has been changed to Sat, 13 Nov because of the clash with many wedding functions. We have booked Hilton Hotel for a lunch setting for 50 tables for our alumni and staff from 12.00pm – 3.00pm. We welcome alumni to form your own table of ten and this will be set aside for you. We are trusting God to raise sponsors to underwrite the entire cost of the lunch. This is an early invitation for you to come as our guests for the event. A missions leader, (featured in latest episode of NavNews: Emerging Missions Leaders From Singapore) came home recently and made a pledge that he will be available to share his pilgrimage in missions with the alumni. He wishes to pass on the torch of missions to our alumni. God willing, he will share with us at this November gathering. We will also be giving away a book that features stories of our alumni labouring in their respective churches and marketplaces. If you have a story to tell or know of an alumnus, let us know. We will feature such sharing personally from the alumni during the event. Further information will be given closer the date. Recently the US Navs launched 'City Life' covenant for Nav collegians to group together in various cities to reach out and serve their alumni in these 4 areas:
This is what we seek to do with our alumni too. We need one another for mutual encouragement and accountability. We will go further and deeper in our spiritual pilgrimage if we can do it with others as opposed to doing it alone. As the African adage says, 'Go fast, do it alone; go far, do it with others.' Let us know how we can serve you where you are. In the meantime, mark the date down in your calendar and plan to come. Yap Kim Meng Nav Alumni Team