Singapore International Bible Institute

Greetings from Singapore!
Another month of 2009 is history, but May was a month of several accomplishments for us here! By the way, as of May 23rd we have been here in Singapore now for one year. For those of you who remember our last month’s newsletter, you will remember that the first week of May I was traveling on a business trip. I was blessed to be invited to meet with a small group of family in Shanghai, China where I taught a group of approximately 20 in studies of historical Christian evidences. At the same time, I used this opportunity to encourage possible students to consider studying with us here in Singapore.
Let me also remind you of the dangers of why I am cautious about reporting too much too soon about trips into such places as China. During the month of May I have been informed of at least 4 different churches in different cities who were visited by government authorities. Until the Lord changes things in China, most believers continue to meet “underground.” Please pray that the blessings that come to a nation through Christianity can be understood in China and other countries of the world so God can be glorified through a great harvest in such places. To the right Tom is shown holding one of the 20 million souls of Shanghai.  Indeed, the harvest is plentiful! I was told that the estimated population of Shanghai alone is around 20 million souls.

Upon my return to Singapore, my co-worker, Charles Cook, and I set about planning and making preparations for scheduling July and August courses in anticipation of inviting short term students to the ministry training school here in Singapore. With only a week having passed since our first letters of invitation were sent out, we have three responses already committing to come for some of this period of study. There will be four of us prepared to teach what I will call 13 “condensed courses” during that two month period of time.

                   SCHEDULE OF JULY & AUGUST COURSES (and teachers)

“Christian History (c100 to c1517)” (Stuart Jones)
“Science Supports Scripture” (Stuart Jones)
“The Identity of The N.T. Church Part I” (Charles Cook)
“Historical Christian Evidences” (Tom Goracke)
“The Identity of The N.T. Church Part II” (Charles Cook)
“The Minor Prophets” (guest instructor)
“The Christian Home” (guest instructor)
“The Identity of The N.T. Church Part III” (Charles Cook)
“Homiletics” (Charles Cook)
“Letters of John” (Tom Goracke)
“Evangelistic Methods Part I” (Charles Cook)
“The Gospel of Mark” (Tom Goracke)
“Evangelistic Methods Part II” (Charles Cook)

Besides these preparations for July and August, I have been preparing for teaching a lesson for the PP church’s youth camp session to be held June 10-13 in Malaysia. Prior to and during this camp, we have another Sunset alumni, Glen Gray, who will be here teaching a short pre-camp seminar about the Holy Spirit and he will also be the guest speaker presenting “God in the Marketplace” for the camp sessions.

Also during May, we started planning and working toward creating a bi-lingual and possibly a multi-lingual website for this ministry training institute to better inform potential students from surrounding nations of what we have to offer in training teachers and preachers of the word of God. We were also blessed to meet up with Craig Phillips and his family who are missionaries to Mumbai, India. We (Charles Cook and I) have tentatively made plans to start some distance learning courses with about 6 of Craig’s contacts there in Mumbai using an internet service called Skype. This is a free audio and video service enabling us to teach live with multiple students at the same time.  The photo above is of Craig Phillips, his wife, Teresa, and their daughter, Anna.

Finally, I want to report two more exciting points of progress for the month of May. The first is that our Singaporean board members are in the thick of making progress on our government registration! Please, keep praying about this becoming final. The second is that 6 of the 13 chapters of the historical Christian evidence book being translated into the simplified Mandarin language are now complete! I am convinced this will be an outstanding tool for both evangelism and grounding in faith for serious students of the Bible.

Family news for the month of May…

Looking back it seems the majority of the month was spent looking forward to the end of the month, specifically to the special day that we’d celebrate Jaydon’s changing from “being a handful” to “being more than a handful”. Jaydon’s birthday was our main family event this month. The photos to the right are of The Birthday spent in the countryside…

Although he uses two hands to show his age now, it just doesn’t seem possible that our Jaydon is already six. In addition to being more than a handful, he’ll always be more than a “heartful” for us also. We are blessed.

Birthdays are a good time for reflection. Looking back I have to wonder where the years and our little bundle of joy went. Jaydon continues to be a bundle of joy, but he’s not little any more. In my mind I flashback to one of Jaydon’s baby showers—remembering advice given to me then to enjoy and love every age of his life because his years at home would flash by and he’d be grown up and venturing out into the world before I knew it. I also remember someone wondering out loud how many kisses had already been placed on top of Jaydon’s head and on his chubby cheeks since his birth. I remember smiling at this pondering. At age six Jaydon still has those chubby cheeks and I still can’t say for sure how many kisses have been placed on them or on top of his head—thousands or more.
Birthdays are also a good time for thankfulness. Thank you God, for blessing Tom and me with Jaydon and Shayla. We are grateful and humbled and realize even more how dependant and reliant we need to be on You. Jaydon and Shayla have added new dimensions to our lives—new responsibilities, new joys, new discoveries, new opportunities for growing up. We haven’t reached “grownup” status yet. Shayla says we’re “growing ups”.

Our birthday countryside tour consisted of a trip to a dairy goat farm and a bullfrog farm… Posing with a pineapple plant (Bottom left)… A young goat getting a drink (Bottom right)… Some of the 5,000+ bullfrogs at the frog farm

 

 

 

 

 

Birthdays are also a good time for cake  and ice cream. We had both on Jaydon’s special day. As soon as Jaydon woke up on his birthday, he started talking cake and ice cream. If he could have, he would have had cake and ice cream for breakfast. Young children make birthdays a joy. They get so excited and are ready to celebrate from the moment they wake up. As a friend commented about her own birthday recently, she doesn’t even mind getting older because seeing how excited her children get just to be celebrating her birthday overrides the aging blues.

That’s it for family news this time. As I mentioned before most of our month was spent looking forward to the end of the month when we’d celebrate Jaydon’s big day. In between the beginning and end of the month, Jaydon and Shayla anticipated, planned, dreamed, went about their daily routines and celebrated. Can’t help but think our Christian lives our similar in many ways to how the kids spent this month. As Christians we spend our lives also looking forward to a special event. We anticipate Jesus’ return, we plan, we dream, we go about our daily routines and we can celebrate now and in the end. Also just as birthdays are good times for reflections and thankfulness, so too our spiritual lives must have ample reflection times and be bathed in thankfulness. May your days be filled with thankfulness, things to look forward to and things to celebrate. Know that we love you and that God loves you more. He loves you the most!

Overseeing church:
12th Street church of Christ
P.O. Box 1476
Seagraves, TX 79359

Contact person:
Kenny Smith
Cell Phone: (432) 209-1735
Home Phone: (806) 546-2336

Our Singapore Information:
Tom & Nancy Goracke
BLK 60 Teban Garden Road
#17 – 462
Singapore, 600060

Tom’s mobile phone:
(65) 83683213
Nancy’s mobile phone:
(65) 83683214
Home Phone: (65) 64981864
Email: HUUtwoservants2002@yahoo.com

Pictured below: More of the 20 million souls of Shanghai (upper left)  (Jaydon shown right)  Who needs toys? A creative mind makes his own… This is not saying he does not have plenty of toys…. They both do! (Below left) Sharing a ride on the Big Wheel
(And seen lower right) Shayla enjoying the flowers while we wait for the bus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Closing Remarks…

As much as I do not like to have to talk about finances for this ministry for the future, I must do so to be responsible to both work and family. At this time we are estimating that we will be several hundred dollars short of our monthly budget needs for the later part of this second year. Our projected needs will be even greater for our third year here in Singapore especially if we lose some key support committed only through our second year. Our plan is to return on a furlough trip every 1½ years instead of every year and by doing so our monthly budget needs will be considerably less than originally budgeted. Yet we will need to use some of our furlough time in search of support for our third year and beyond.
We are so grateful for your support in every way. Please remember us in your prayers as we plan for the future success of this ministry training school in behalf of the millions and even billions who live in Asia who have yet to hear the gospel. A reminder to you that updates about this ministry are posted regularly on this blog…. www.focusonasia.wordpress.com
                                                        Our love to you… Tom, Nancy, Jaydon & Shayla