What the Ladies Fellowship Means to Me

Meeting by Faith

 

Since we first started meeting at the home of Mrs Quek seven years ago, the Ladies Fellowship (LF) has not elected a committee, president or chairman. Is that possible? With God, it is! He has provided all that is needed—ladies to organise the meetings, bring the food, prepare the place; a venue for our monthly meetings; and speakers to bring us God’s Word. By faith the LF has met, every first Wednesday of the month and, by God’s grace, has ministered to many ladies over the years. It is always a marvellously blessed time. Weary bodies, minds and souls go home refreshed. Do come and be spiritually uplifted by the Word of God and encouraged by the sharing of prayers and testimonies.  Judith d’Silva

Support Missions and Study God’s Word

I praise and thank my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for blessing the Ladies’ Fellowship and for sustaining it for seven years. I thank the Lord also for our late beloved Pastor, Rev (Dr) Timothy Tow, for giving the fellowship two important objectives: to support missions and to study God’s Word. By God’s grace I have learnt many important lessons out of God’s inspired, infallible and preserved Word. I shall highlight seven important lessons I have learnt.

I have learnt that the Ladies’ Fellowship is not a place to exchange recipes and enhance our culinary skills but where we can feast continually on the Perfect Word of God and to “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body,” because “Is not the life more than meat and the body more than raiment?” (Matt 6:25).

It is not a place where we learn flower arrangement but we learn that God, our Heavenly Father, out of His perfect will, arranges for us to be in different circumstances that “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” (Rom 8:28).

It is not where we learn pottery but to be shaped and moulded by the Divine Potter Himself, to become “a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.” (2 Tim 2:21).

It is not a place where we gather to “talk” and “share” about our children, husbands or the in-laws, but where we come together as brethren of like struggles to petition our prayers and to learn to “be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:6, 7).

It is not a place to learn to keep fit but be mindful always “For which cause we faint not; but though our outer man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” (2 Cor 4:16).

It is definitely not the place where ladies meet and form their own little cliques but where both brothers and sisters in Christ, as weary pilgrims, come and drink at the fountain, because Jesus has promised “whosever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:14). We come continually to drink in the Words of everlasting life that we may have strength and fortitude to walk our pilgrim journey.

It is not a place to satisfy our itching ears but the specially appointed place where, like Mary of Bethany, we sit at Jesus’ feet being “transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Rom 12:2), to be reminded that “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Heb 11:6) and to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Rom 12:1). Praise the Lord! Jenny Kan

Staying in Good Spiritual Health

I thank and praise God for the 7th Ladies Fellowship Anniversary. At the Ladies Fellowship we are fed with God’s solid words, and doing His will we are in the safest place in all the world. The Bible study helps us to stay in good spiritual health and be a good witness for Him. I would remind myself to tune my heart to sing “Now thank we all our God, With hearts and hands and voices, Who wondrous things hath done, In whom His world rejoices; Who from our mothers’ arms, Hath blessed us on our way, with countless gifts of love, And still is ours today.” All praise and thanks to God. Hedy Ho

Thank God for Faithful Preachers

Thank and praise God for His goodness and bountiful grace which have seen the Ladies Fellowship through these seven years. It has been a wonderful journey since its inauguration where our late Pastor Rev Dr Timothy Tow exhorted us to grow in the knowledge of God’s Word and also to play a part in the support of missions. Thank God for providing faithful preachers for every single meeting where we truly grow in the grace and knowledge of God’s perfectly inspired and preserved Word. I thank the Lord for this once a month, mid-week gathering of likeminded saints who through the fellowship; provoke one another to love and good works. My prayer is that more ladies will come to partake of these wonderful blessings! All praise and glory to God! Alice Chng

Refreshed by God’s Word

In October 2009, I was invited by Rebecca to attend the Ladies Fellowship. Initially, I was hesitant to attend because I have already been attending another fellowship group. But I went in the end. Since then, I have never regretted going. Though tired after a day’s work, you feel so refreshed hearing God’s words. I learnt many lessons, but the lesson that made the most impact on me was “The Faith of Moses”. Rev Das Koshy concluded the lesson by exhorting us not to do things that the Lord would not reward. I look forward to another year of listening to and learning from God’s Word. Jane Goh

To Draw Near to God

I thank God for a very blessed 2010 for both myself and the Ladies Fellowship. Since I started attending True Life B-P Church in May 2009, the Ladies Fellowship has played a very big part in my spiritual growth. Thank God for faithful speakers who expounded God’s words during our monthly fellowship, and for supportive sisters who encouraged me to continuously draw near to God. Come every first week of the month, I look forward to the warm fellowship where I can draw strength during mid-week and be spiritually refreshed. May God bless the Ladies Fellowship as we faithfully follow His Word. Rebecca Chan

Not Gossip but Gospel

“That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.” (1 John 1:3). Thank the LORD God for raising up the Ladies Fellowship in True Life BP Church. Through seven years of God’s grace and blessing, each meeting is not gossip-filled, but gospel-filled with much spiritual benefit for my body and soul. At the very first meeting, God’s Word was expounded by our late beloved Pastor Timothy Tow who taught us to be like Mary of Bethany to offer our “alabaster of very precious ointment” to our LORD Jesus. At the last meeting in March this year, Rev Quek Suan Yew taught us that “charity” or agape love in Galatians 5:22 is to love unconditionally, to love the unlovable, just as our LORD Jesus loved and died for our sins while we were yet sinners (Rom 5:8). During this year’s anniversary, Rev (Dr) Jeffrey Khoo instructed us how to be like the three Marys in the Bible who were full of faith and full of love for the LORD Jesus and His Word. We also enjoyed the many spirit-filled messages on the theme “He that overcometh” given by Preacher Dennis Kabingue from the book of Revelation which encouraged me to persevere and be faithful to our LORD Jesus to the end. There are many, many more precious spiritual lessons learnt at Ladies Fellowship. I just would like to end in testifying one such precious lesson learnt from preaching of Rev Prabhudas Koshy from Hebrews 11:21 “By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.” This impressed upon me how I should worship God at my death bed like Jacob. I encourage fellow saints, men or women, to come to the Ladies Fellowship to know our “exceeding great and precious promises” from our LORD God Jesus (2 Pet 1:4). Tan Mui Mui