Hi dear parents of our youths,
Greetings to you in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!
Hope and pray that you are all doing well despite the COVID-19 outbreak and this “circuit breaker” season.
Hope you are seizing the moment for you to connect better with your youths at home.
One way to help them express how they feel about the present situation is to use what “Focus on the Family Singapore” has suggested:
❓ How are your children feeling about the Circuit Breaker, home-based learning, and safe distancing measures?
As parents, let’s do a check-in with them and guide them in processing their feelings about this season.
💕 We’ve developed a helpful tool to guide you and your kids in having this discussion: https://family.org.sg/fotfs/downloads/sgfamily/fotfs_feelingsinfographic.pdf
👦🏻👧🏻 For young ones, try the suggested activities.
😎🤟🏻 For teens, ask them the questions provided.
🎨 Developing emotional literacy in young people by modelling for and teaching them to navigate their rich and complex emotions is also an important aspect in guiding them in matters to do with sexuality, identity, and relationships.
👨👩👧👦 Take this opportunity to build emotional literacy and emotional connection with your family and in young people.
Apart from this, we are also changing our mode of communication to parents by maximizing the use of our youth ministry microsite (https://www.biblechurch.sg/teenacity). All future newsletter or official ministry announcements to parents will be done through the microsite. You may also want to share this site with anyone who would be interested in visiting or interested in the work of our youth ministry.
Please tune in regularly for updates or if you want to know more about:
January - March 2020
For the past three months (Jan-Mar 2020), we have had several sermons being preached on the topic “What does it really mean to worship God?” followed by the first part of the pulpit series from the book of Revelation.
The youths were reminded about:
Why we worship God?
How we should go about worshipping Him in a way that is God-honouring and God-pleasing? We also explored appropriate postures of worship.
The messages on Revelation, whilst challenging for some, helped to open the eyes of the youth on the book and encourage them in their faith. We look forward to more sermons in this series.
Because of COVID-19 and the stricter measures imposed on us, we have cancelled various outreach efforts and moved our youth services and DG times online. The transition has not been easy though we endeavour to continue meeting one another online through various video-conferencing apps and online tools.
April 2020
In the month of April, we would like to promote family worship by encouraging our youths to watch our church’s online service on Sunday together with their parents. I will be giving more information and handles to parents, in order to further engage their youths during or after the service; and to DGLs, for them to further disciple their DG members during DG time (which will now take place from 2 pm onward).
We also plan to have our own online youth program on Sundays at 10am (before the online sunday service) called "The Early Early Show" to maintain our youth ministry's presence and identity with all our youths.
In conclusion, I would like to share with you several articles that “Focus on the Family Singapore” has appropriately prepared to support families during this trying and challenging time:
14 Indoor Activities to Keep Your Kids Busy at Home
With almost everyone working from home and students doing home-based learning, families (with or without kids) may be scratching their heads for what they can do at home to engage the whole family. Check out (and feel free to share) these 14 ideas for indoor family activities to stay healthy and happy together 👨👩👧👦:
Click here for information:
https://family.org.sg/FOTFS/Blog/Parenting/14_indoor_activities_to_keep_your_kids_busy_at_home.aspx
Working from Home with Kids
Working from home is already itself quite an adjustment, so having kids around (and helping the school-going ones with home-based learning) can throw a new dynamic into the mix! 🌪️
Stay calm! 😌 Here are 6Rs that can help you establish a new rhythm for your whole family to balance both work and kids well:
Click here for information:
https://family.org.sg/FOTFS/Blog/Work-Life/working_from_home_with_kids.aspx
Showing Grace to our Family
Tensions are high, people are yelling, doors are slammed, everyone’s frustrated. Living in close quarters with our family members isn’t always a walk in the park (but now also don't anyhow go to the park, okay?), especially when we’re all cooped up with different competing responsibilities during the circuit breaker. 😤
In the midst of all the stress and conflict, how can we extend kindness and patience to ourselves and our family? Check out the following article and share it with those who might find it helpful!
Click here for information:
https://family.org.sg/FOTFS/Blog/Parenting/showing_grace_to_our_family.aspx
If you have any questions or issues pertaining to youth ministry, please do not hesitate to contact me!
In His love,
Asst. Ps. Patrick Chan Yin
(+65 9068 8992,patrick@biblechurch.sg)
About Whazzup!
Whazzup is Teenacity’s newsletter to parents of our youths - to inform them of what’s happening in our ministry, to pray with and for us, and to equip them in parenting their children.