TESTIMONY OF SERVICE

Dn Tai Mern Yee

Truly, I can say that I was called “out of darkness into His marvellous light” (1 Pet 2:9), having been born and raised in a heathen unbelieving family. This alone is praise and thankworthy, for I know salvation is grace bestowed upon me, grace I thoroughly do not deserve. This is especially so on account of the waywardness of life and the pain and sorrow I have afflicted on many in my growing up years.

How does that affect my walk with the Lord, and in particular serving the Lord? Being grateful for God’s goodness towards me, I have held on to the conviction that I would by default take on service opportunities when presented, accounting that the opportunity to serve is a privilege, an honour, showing my thankfulness to the Lord who has been so good to me! I am also confident that the Lord will also enable me in whatever capacity He has called me to serve Him in. This has been my experience in my service journey to date.

I was baptized in 1992, a good five years after I first stepped into Life BPC and I was subsequently inducted as a member of the Youth Fellowship. It was my first step into Christian service. Since then, I have had the privilege to serve the Lord in different capacities and in diverse areas over 25 years at True Life BP Church, FEBC Lord’s Day Service, Rhein Valley Independent Baptist Church and Life BP Church.

Administration and Leadership

The first taste of leadership in an official capacity started when I was in the Young Adults’ Fellowship of Life BPC. I served in the Exco of the YAF, and finally as chairman for two years. I bid adieu to the YAF in 2002, and subsequently was elected to the Session of Life BPC as deacon.

When we left Life BPC and started the FEBC Lord’s Day Service at RELC, I was able to serve the Lord as the Treasurer for the Interim Committee. Thank God also for choosing me to serve as deacon for the first session of True Life, and I thank the Lord for the opportunity to be the Clerk of Session as well. I was asked to serve again as Deacon in True Life BPC from 2011 after our sojourn in Germany from 2007 to 2009.

Sunday School

I first taught in Life BPC’s Teens’ department and also had the privilege to assist our late brother Henry Tan as Assistant Sunday School Superintendent for the Adults’ Department, in addition to teaching a class in the Adults’ Department. I also had the opportunity to teach the first Adults’ Sunday School class at FEBC Lord’s Day Service studying the book of James. I have been a co-teacher for the Chinese Sunday School at True Life BPC since 2011.

Fellowship Groups

I first got a taste of serving the Lord at the Youth Fellowship (YF). I drew by hand covers for the YF magazine: Challenge and Missions, I shared my first devotion at the YF Prayer Meeting, I also led Bible Study at the Young Adults’ Fellowship (YAF), had a first taste of leading a committee in YAF and thereafter led the YAF. Thank God for opening the way for True Life to start the YAF and I was privileged to be her Advisor. Subsequently, I was also involved in the inception and running of the Chinese Fellowship since 2011.

Missions and Evangelism

My first taste of missions work was in teaching Vacation Bible School (VBS) in Medan for three consecutive years in teams led by our late brother Henry Tan when still in university. Thereafter, I participated in Missions Work with Life BPC in Vietnam, visiting twice. I also undertook regular preaching and teaching assignments in Kemaman Life BPC since 2005. Thank God that True Life also started to take on the VBS work for Kemaman BPC in rotation with Tabernacle BPC since 2015. I was also thankful to be able to start the evangelism work with brother Lok Kwok Wah at True Life, leading the Evangelistic Band in our first forays to Clementi and Bukit Panjang in 2003/4.

Music Ministry

I thank the Lord for the Chinese Choir that started in 2011. Brethren young and old are encouraged to learn the good old hymns, and through this ministry, we have learnt a good many precious hymns, and been blessed by singing them. Truly, music is next to theology and worthy of all praise!

Encouragement Ministry

The time our family spent in Rhein Valley Independent Baptist Church in Germany (2007–2009) was a time when we were not “actively” involved in formal service. However, when the Pastor and members there told us how we had been an encouragement to them, we learnt that just by being present faithfully, by being supportive was an invaluable ministry and service unto the Lord. This is something we continue to try to practise now we are back at True Life, endeavoring to be present for various church and fellowship events, visiting the brethren in need, and by just being present. Attending prayer meetings as a family to pray for the church and fellow brethren is also another means of grace we are thankful to the Lord for.

Other Service Areas

I thank the Lord also for other avenues of service, from coordinating and emceeing weddings for various brethren since 1995, leading church camps in True Life in 2004 (assisting Elder Mahadevan) and 2005, organising True Life’s first outdoor Easter worship service at Labrador Park with brother Steve Chng, to sharing God’s word at various gatherings, formal and informal, fetching brethren to and from meetings, and attending vigil services. All these have been blessings to me, to bless others and to bless the Lord!

Spiritual Lessons Learnt

In watering others, we ourselves have been watered. I have been much “watered” through all these service opportunities the Lord has blessed us with. With such “watering”, I have learnt a good many spiritual lessons.

Conviction

There will come a time for us to take a stand for the Lord. Thank God for helping me do so, for what I believed was the right doctrine concerning the Word of God (VPP). I was the sole deacon from Life session to follow our late Pastor Timothy Tow to come over and start what is now True Life BPC. It was definitely a difficult decision, and not forgetting the times when only Mei Lan and I were alone, caught in the maelstrom of accusations, counter-accusations, rumours, trusted by no one, held in suspicion by all, but the Lord saw us through. Thank God for the courage and conviction He gave us to stand for what we believe is the truth.

Conflict

I had the pain to endure quite a number of conflicts in the years of service. From conflicts in personality, doctrine (with the hyper-Calvinists) and leadership in YAF, to the trauma of open warfare in the Church and at Session meetings over the VPP issue. These taught me the importance of choosing the right leaders, and also to respect and observe the Biblical teachings with respect to doctrine, church governance and discipline. Satan will definitely seek to tear the church apart again, and I pray the Lord will grant us His grace, wisdom and fortitude to see off the next attack.

Charity

We were blessed to have spent time with Rhein Valley Independent Baptist Church, a small independent Baptist church started by US military personnel in Wiesbaden, Germany. We were first hand eyewitnesses to the life of a tent making Pastor (Pastor Bracher had to fry tacos in Taco Bells as the church could not afford a full time minister), as well as seeing a full scale “water-tank” in the church premises (for baptism by immersion).

If not for the charity of our Baptist brethren, and their non-judgmental view of our BP church practices, we would not have had a church to worship and grow in whilst living in a foreign land. Where it concerns the basic tenets of our faith, we compromise not, but we can be charitable and accepting where it comes to doctrines that touch not fundamentals and areas of certain practices.

Discouragement

Meeting discouragement in serving the Lord is to be expected, and many times it is because we have placed our hopes and trust in men, and ourselves. By our own flesh, we are bound to disappoint, for we are but weak and frail vessels. Our brethren around us are also of the same flesh and blood. We can only look unto the Lord when we are discouraged.

The Lord is faithful, He will encourage us, and He will also send brethren to help us. I was exhausted with the strife in Life BPC session and deeply discouraged when FEBC Lord’s Day Service first started and wanted to take a back seat, but God had other plans. He sent brothers Lok Kwok Wah and Barnabas Yap to encourage me and to prod me to take on an active role in this new work.

Enabling and Preparation

I would definitely be the last person to be asked to lead a choir, though I did sing in the school choir in primary school! Yet, the Lord enables and the Chinese choir has been blessed by the Lord to minister to the Chinese speaking congregation.

Thank God too for the opportunity to serve the Lord as translator for combined worship services, gospel meetings and vigil services at True Life. Truly, it is the Lord that enables, and the human responsibility on my part is to pray and prepare, troubling the speaker for the synopsis so that I can better familiarise myself with the relevant passages and related Bible verses.

There is no short cut, and preparation is needed for all service to the Lord. We cannot afford to be slipshod but must be always prepared, for our business is the King’s business and He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

God Owes No Man Anything

Instead of taking the opportunity afforded to us to relocate to Shanghai, China in 2010/2011, we decided that career would take a step back for service to the Lord and time with the family. There would be a time when we have to choose: to serve God or serve our secular ambitions and worldly progress. One truly cannot serve God and mammon. However, God owes no man anything, and we lack nothing, He provides for our every need.

Waiting on the Lord

There will be times when we may
be “unoccupied”. When we returned to Singapore in 2009 after our stint in Germany, for the first time in a long time, no doors were opened for service. It was to be another period of struggle, this time struggling to be a pew sitter. Having been active in service for a number of years, it was difficult to be “unemployed”. Why the wait?

The Lord in His love and wisdom has His reasons, to convict us of sin, to humble us, to sanctify us, and to prepare us for His work. His work does not need us, it is a privilege that He uses us. Such times are times when we learn to focus on the Lord and remember we are serving the Kings of Kings and Lord of Lords, when we realise we are unworthy and learn to be grateful and thankful to the Lord for His grace and mercy, when we are reminded to fulfil the Lord’s will and not our own ambitions.

Next Steps

As long as the Lord is pleased to use us, we will be His vessel. This is our prayer and desire, for there is nothing better than to serve our King, our Lord, our Saviour, our Master and our Friend. He is such a good God, can we do any less?

[Dn Tai Mern Yee has been nominated by the Board of Elders to stand for election as Elder at the ACM, 30 April 2017.]