How Do We Identify Ourselves? (Part 3)

Wednesday, 30th September 2026

PART 3: THE GREAT BOSS (AND THE NOT-SO-GREAT STAFF)

As I look back fondly upon my time in the corporate world, I have had various bosses, colleagues and staff.

Among my bosses, the one whom I admire the most has got to be Mr HLG.

He is a typical businessman who has this uncanny ability to see opportunity when everyone else sees adversity.  People see the problem, he sees the solution.  I will give you 2 very concrete examples, so read on.

(5) PricewaterhouseCoopers / Tricor Business Outsourcing (Mar 2000 to Dec 2004)

When I initially rejoined PwC in March 2000, we were operating as a department within the firm's structure.  Due to a series of regulatory changes that accounting firms worldwide had to comply with (as a result of Enron's collapse, and then SOX), we subsequently had to operate under separate legal entities, wholly-owned by the local PwC partnership, and finally had to be totally independent of PwC when the entire business was divested to Bank of East Asia, and rebranded as Tricor Singapore.

Mr HLG oversaw three lines of businesses: accounting/payroll outsourcing, corporate secretarial and share registration.  These became OutsourceCentre, Evatthouse and Barbinder respectively.

(He actually oversaw a fourth -- Global Human Resource Solutions, a fancy name for executive search -- but that is not relevant to my post).

I could not locate my PwC name card, but thankfully found one when we were operating as OutsourceCentre.  Notice how they retained the font and corporate colours of PwC.  

For the life of me, I cannot remember if I ever carried a Tricor name card. 

During my initial week, I recall being shocked by the fee numbers I saw: not at how high they were, but how low they were!  As an auditor in PW, I was used to seeing clients being billed five- (ie. $10K+) or even six-figure (ie. $100K+) amounts.

At SICC, the horizon stretched exponentially.  The Club had cash reserves that stood in the mid-nine figures (ie. $500M+), and had placed seven-figure (ie. $M+) funds each with a handful of asset management companies.

When working in Solomon's SW as a post-sales consultant, one of our customers was a major cigarette distributor.  During my training sessions with a particular user, he would perform daily transfers from the non-bonded warehouse to the bonded warehouse, and pay Singapore Customs the corresponding tobacco duty amounting to several million dollars each time.

Well, guess what the monthly accounting and payroll business processing outsourcing ("BPO") fees were like? Typically three, at most four figures!  Mr HLG then explained to me that it was a volume game, a classic case of "little drops of water making a mighty ocean".  

Unlike in audit, where each manager had maybe two dozen or so clients in his portfolio,  it was not unusual for BPO managers to handle close to a hundred clients, while those in corporate secretarial services had hundreds of them.  If each client's annual fees totalled say $10K, each manager would typically be handling an annual portfolio of $1M!

When meeting a potential or existing client, Mr HLG would park his 7-series BMW some distance away and walk to the entrance of the building.  Unlike real estate or insurance agents who had to show off to their clients how successful they were in order to gain their trust, Mr HLG said the reverse held true for clients who wanted to outsource their accounting or payroll function.  They tended to be cost-conscious to begin with, so had they seen that he could afford to drive a fancy car, they would have thought he was earning too much and would bargain down their fees!

I remember being told by a colleague how the PwC partners were very grateful to him because he had made the department the most profitable one for them.  When we became a separate legal entity, the dividends declared after tax were distributed to them individually without being subject to further tax.  And when we were subsequently sold off to Bank of East Asia, they each pocketed a tidy sum from the sale.

Audit may be a Big Four's core, high-profile business, while deals and advisory may be the one with the highest margins, but the former requires highly-qualified (and thus expensive) staff, while the latter is non-recurring in nature  It is the outsourcing business that has the best of both worlds: steady, repeated, volume-driven, low-risk, and scaleable income, requiring just a handful of qualified management staff but the rank-and-file work could be carried out by those with diplomas or less.

The firm also had a policy that partners had to retire at 57 (now increased to 60) to make way for younger blood.  While most of Mr HLG's peers had to leave their lucrative jobs, he remained gainfully (and gleefully) employed as the Managing Director of Tricor, and only recently retired, when he was well into his 70s.

OK, let's talk about the 2 cases which showed how shrewd, resourceful and enterprising Mr HLG was.

CLOBbered

Some of you out there may be aware that Malaysian shares used to be tradable over-the-counter in Singapore under what was known as "CLOB" (Central Limit Order Book).  The then-PM of Malaysia Dr Mahatir was unhappy that Singapore brokerages and Stock Exchange were earning the commissions and clearing fees on the trading of these shares, at the expense of those from his own country.  On 16 September 1998, he imposed a ban on the offshore trading of Malaysian shares, effectively causing 172,000 investors to be stuck with shares worth RM17 billion.

These investors were kept in limbo until March 2000, when a company called ECSB was appointed to carry out the "migration" of these shares from Singapore's Central Depository ("CDP") to Malaysia's Central Depository ("MCD").  ECSB charged investors an admin fee of 1.5%, effectively pocketing RM300 million.  Mr HLG, via PwC's then share registration arm Barbinder, assisted ECSB with the massive paperwork, for which I understand the fee involved was a cool seven-figure sum. 

What others saw as dogsbody "sai kang" work, having to deal with the forms of some 163,000 disgruntled investors who had to reluctantly part with 1.5% worth of their stock portfolio, Mr HLG saw as an opportunity to assist them in bringing their 18-month wait to an end. 

Oh ya, 163,000 of the 172,000 investors accepted ECSB's offer. Our $2.5M fee worked out to be about $15 per investor, which was definitely a bargain to them. But this fee was the equivalent of an entire year's worth of fees from several hundred other clients added together.

Monday Blues

The regulatory changes imposed upon audit firms post-Enron also required them to divest of their management consulting practice.  Prior to finding a buyer in IBM, PwC had wanted to spin it off via an IPO calling it Monday (I kid you not!).

When conducting a due diligence sometime in 2002, IBM discovered to its horror that the PwC Consulting ("PwCC") entities in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Hong Kong, China and the Philippines (collectively known as "EAMCS") had inadvertently omitted to withhold the relevant tax when billing each other for their staff who were performing regional work in one another's countries.

For example, let's say a PwCC Singapore staff who was implementing Oracle for client XYZ Group had to travel physically to XYZ Thailand to carry out work over there.  Whatever fees that were billed by PwCC Singapore to PwCC Thailand for work carried out in Thailand itself would be considered as Thailand-sourced income and thus subjected to Thailand's withholding tax, and vice versa.

To cut a long story short, everywhere else around the world, IBM acquired the entire PwCC entity lock, stock and barrel (ie via a "share sale"), but in this part of the world, they only bought over the individual balance sheet items that passed muster (ie. via a "net asset" sale), leaving behind the EAMCS entities and with it, the problematic balance sheet items such as tax liabilities.

Once again, what others saw as "sai kang", Mr HLG saw as an opportunity to do a proper clean up of the said entities, record the relevant withholding taxes, pay them together with whatever late penalties were imposed, and ultimately have them wound them, all at a reasonable fee, of course.  From the proceeds of the US$3.5B sale to IBM, PwC Global set aside a sufficient sum for this dogsbody work, and the said EAMCS entities took a good three to five years to be finally put to bed.  If one uses a conservative estimate of just S$20,000 per month for the work done, the total fee over the length of the project must have been quite substantial :p

I am very conversant with the above-mentioned cases because I had the awesome privilege of being personally involved in both of them.

While Mr HLG appears to be rather task-oriented to most people, he has a compassionate side to him as well.  When he learnt that my son had to start peritoneal dialysis in September 2000, he spoke with the partner of Baxter Healthcare (which was also a PwC client then) and through a series of connections, we were given the staff (ie. discounted) price on the monthly supply of bags of dialysate fluids.  This continued all the way for the next 8 years, until he got his transplanted kidney on 10 April 2008.

Mr HLG also confirmed me way ahead of my 6-month probation period, so that he could intentionally include me in the nominal roll of staff entitled to receive the bonus payout for the financial year ended 30 June 2000, and he did not even prorate the amount, even though I only joined in March that very year!

When he wanted to join SICC sometime in 2003, he got me to be one of his proposers.  A photo of the two of us was featured in the Club's magazine (the largest one, because my ex-colleague John, the graphic designer, made sure of that haha).

It was taken at Introduction Night, when new members are officially welcomed by the General Committee. 

Well, if he was such a great boss to you, why did you quit in December 2004 to join a German semiconductor company, on a one-year contract basis, some of you may ask.  

The short answer to that is I was not a great staff to him.  He must have aged 10 years during my 58-month tenure under him :-(

In particular, the PwCC project faced a lot of unnecessary hiccups.  We required the assistance of PwC-related colleagues from the other regional offices, but they were not in any hurry to complete their share of the work, to put it nicely.  Their fees were time-based, so it was to their ironical advantage to be inefficient and to continue dragging their feet.  I was not task-oriented enough of a project manager, to the chagrin of Mr HLG.  He had to resort to micro-managing me, insisting that I give him a daily status update in person every morning before heading out to the client's place in Ngee Ann City.

Although increasingly frustrated with me, to his credit, he did not sack me but allowed me sufficient time to look for another job, bless his heart.

Well, God causes all things to work out for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.  It was at that German MNC that I was first introduced to the gospel of grace.  More details in the next post :-)

How Do We Identify Ourselves? (Part 1)

Monday, 28th September 2026

PART 1: THE PART-TIME FULL-TIMER / FULL-TIME PART-TIMER

While de-cluttering recently, I came across both my parents' ICs.

My mom's has a hole punched in it, whereas dad's remains intact.

Why, you may ask.  Well, when mom went back home to the Lord in June 2012, the requirement back then was to officially notify the Registry of Births and Deaths, so my dad and I headed to the nearby police post with her death certificate, and it was the police officer who punched the hole in her IC.

By the time dad went home in July 2025, MOH had been linked up with ICA.  His death certificate was electronically generated, and the Registry was automatically updated.  

IC is an abbreviation of NRIC (national registration identity card).  It is a card issued by the authorities so that one can "identify" himself and is usually required when opening a bank account, or a trading account, or starting a business, etc.

In fact, I also located the IC that was issued to me in 1985, when I was an 18-year-old ACJC 2nd year student.

That's me in the unique and immediately-recognisable blue-on-the-inside-collared uniform.

Another form of identification is one's job, profession or station in life.

When meeting up with strangers at a gathering, a question we typically ask one another is, "So what do you do?"

While children identify themselves as "students", we as adults are largely defined by our vocation, and this is especially so for men.  Some even cite a biblical basis for this: Adam was a gardener, Jesus Himself was a carpenter, Paul a tentmaker, who even remarked in 2 Thess 3:10 that "he who does not work, neither should he eat."

That was one reason why I set up a sole proprietorship back in July 2022, after having left the corporate world after 31 years.  I can tell people that I am "self"-employed rather than "un"-employed, so that I do not need to starve or fast :p

But, seriously though, is our job/profession/vocation our true identity?  What happens when we retire?  Do we lose our identity as a result?  I will answer that question towards the end of this multi-part series of posts, so stay tuned.

As regular readers may be aware, I have been clearing out stuff that has accumulated in my dad's house over the past 48 years (we moved into this place in June 1978).  We will be moving into a nearby condo a fifth the size of our current abode.

Besides my parents' ICs, I have also come across name cards that I kept, literally hundreds upon hundreds of them.

They include some of my very own, which I have decided to keep one of each, for posterity sake.

Unlike my wife, who has only worked for just 3 illustrious companies since both of us graduated from NTU in 1991, I had been somewhat of a serial job-hopper, changing employers every few years.  In fact, there was only 1 company that I stayed at for more than 10 years (and even then, it was over 2 stints). 

Let me take you on a quick walkthrough of my career journey (a la resume, but in a way less formal, light-hearted manner haha)

• Audit (1991 to 1997) : Full-Time Part-timer or Part-time Full-timer?
• Software Consulting (1997 to 2000) : THE CON Job of the Century
• Business Process Outsourcing (2000 to 2004) : The Great Boss (and the Not-so-Great Staff)
• Shared Accounting (2005 to 2008) : From External to Internal
• Finance (2008 to 2019) : The Serial Hopper Finally Stops Hopping
• Listco (2019 to 2020) : The CFO-Designate who Wrapped Sand and Sea
• Business Owner (2022 to present) : The Unemployed Employer

(1) Price Waterhouse (Jan 1991 to Nov 1994): External Auditor

Upon graduation, I joined what was (and still is) considered to be the most prestigious of the Big Four (then "Big 8") audit firms.  It subsequently merged with Coopers & Lybrand in 1999 to become PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Back then, PW was the auditor of choice for the bluest of blue-chip listed companies such as C&C, DBS, NOL and SPH, and because of that, we were barred from buying these stocks and shares.  Mrs Wendy Foo, who was then a lecturer at NTU (and whose hubby Ron was a PW partner), was an unofficial "lobbyist and promoter" of PW, and would be the conduit between the Accountancy Society (affectionately known as "Accounts Soc)" and the firm.  Many an undergraduate who wanted to join PW would thus stand for elections to become Exco members of the Accounts Soc.

I was fortunately blessed to know Mrs Foo in a personal capacity (we both attended Paya Lebar Methodist Church) and I have paid a tribute to her in a post here.

https://rootss.blogspot.com/2025/09/a-tribute-to-class-mentorcv.html  

Needless to say, Mrs Foo was instrumental in me joining the firm as an intern in 1990, the year before I graduated.  She passed my CV to PW's HR and the resulting interview was a mere formality :-)

While tidying up my room, I sadly could not find my maiden name card.  I did however chance upon the July 1994 edition of the Staff Directory. 

I left PW as a Supervisor (the equivalent of Assistant Manager 1) at the end of that very year, just in time to avoid the peak period :p

(2) Singapore Island Country Club (Dec 1994 to Jul 1997): Internal Auditor

Yep, I moved from one prestigious organisation to another.  SICC had just made its hereditarily-exclusive membership transferable, and had started to build up massive cash reserves from conversion fees ($50,000 X say 5,000 members = $250 million), and the Chairman felt that it required someone on the inside to ensure that its assets were properly safeguarded.  I saw the newspaper ad, applied for the role, and was duly recruited as its inaugural internal auditor.

I will remember SICC fondly as the place where my 2 kids were manufactured, as I hardly had to do any overtime, a great place if one wanted a wonderful work-life balance.  I obtained my official golf handicap shortly after joining, golfed once or twice a week (Monday mornings and the occasional Friday evenings), and bowled once a week (on Thursday evenings).

I also pursued a part-time MBA, attending evening classes at NTU, initially once a week and then ramping it up to three times a week.

I recall giving my name card to an ex-colleague, Yee Chen Fah (who was then a PW Senior Manager and subsequently made PwC Partner), who remarked, "Are you sure you are not studying full-time and working there part-time?"  He said it in jest, but nothing could have been nearer to the truth ;-)

Truth be told, I had initially wanted to carry out serious audit work and only start on my MBA a year into my job. My first audit report on Jackpot Operations was 50-odd pages thick.

When it was presented at the Finance Committee sometime in February 1995, the Treasurer (whom I reported directly to) said, "OK, ladies and gentlemen, take note ah."  It took no more than a minute, and we did not even go through the findings and areas for improvement!

Shortly thereafter, I had a meeting with him and he asked me why I had taken on a "dead-end" job, given that I was still only in my late twenties.  What he said caused me to panic, and I hurriedly called Mrs Foo to enlist her help to submit my MBA application, even though the deadline had passed.  Thanks to her assistance, I embarked on the program in August that same year (ie. 1995), rather than having to wait till the following August (ie. 1996) to do so.

Oh ya, I need to point out that it was the outgoing Treasurer who interviewed me for the job sometime in October 1994. His term ended in December 1994. The incoming Treasurer started his role in January 1995 and was the one who told me it was a dead-end job meant for someone in the twilight of his career.

Truth be told, internal audit is a function that is extremely thankless which no colleague ever appreciates. After that curt remark from the Treasurer, I only submitted to him a one-page summary list of work that I carried out every month, and everybody seemed happier.  Nobody felt their toes were being stepped on.  In fact, the less emphasis I placed on my role, the less animosity I encountered from colleagues as well.  I focused on doing my MBA as though it was full-time, and working as though I was there part-time.

Hving obtained my MBA (specialising in Information Technology) in mid-1997, it was time to move on from my "dead-end", "retirement" job and seek greener and more challenging pastures elsewhere.

In the next post, I will talk about the software consultancy stage of my roller-coaster career leading up to the Year 2000, so stay tuned!

Oh ya, after I quit, SICC decided to outsource its internal audit function to Deloitte & Touche, and I firmly believed that was the right decision, rather than hiring a replacement internal audit employee.

God Blesses Neverendingly: Perfectly Perfect, Grace upon Grace, Lavishly (GBN 7755 L)

Sunday, 12th July 2026

At the end of every year, our church has this annual practice of getting her members to write down 3 prayer requests for the upcoming year, which we then bring before the Lord as a corporate body on the first Sunday service of the new year.  

Just this week, the 1st prayer request that I had jotted down back in December 2025 was answered.  Thank you Jesus!

Through God's wonderful divine arrangement,  my son was able to accelerate his learning journey and was assigned to a team of elite driving instructors.  That all culminated in him obtaining his Class 3A licence on 8 July 2026.  Hallelujah!

Over the past few months, I would happily fetch him to the driving centre and back for his lessons (he was my "captive" audience, so to speak), and as a consequence, we have gotten much closer because of the time spent together :-)

In fact, he and I went on our maiden father-son bonding trip to UK from 24 to 31 December 2025 (primarily to watch Chelsea v Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge), and will be going on a second trip together to Hong Kong from 4 to 8 August 2026 to watch both our favourite teams in pre-season action (Chelsea v Juventus and Aston Villa v Bayern Munich).

On to the title of today's post.

Separately, I have been monitoring COE prices and noted that one particular vehicle category typically lags behind the rest by around $30,000, which is Cat C meant for commercial vehicles such as vans and lorries.  I have also observed an increasing number of minivans (what the Japanese term as kei cars) such as the Suzuki Spacia and Nissan N-Van plying our roads. It appears that drivers are switching from Cat A cars to Cat C kei cars, and saving at least $30,000 as a result of doing so.

In August 2025, when Cat C COE was at $70,000, I purchased a Suzuki Spacia Base XF for $91,800 so that I could give it to my son to use upon him obtaining his driving licence.  But I kept it under wraps until he did so, so as not to put unnecessary pressure upon him.

Meanwhile, Cat C COEs just hit a record-high of $95,000 (and is likely to breach $100k before the year's end).

Thank God for His prompting then because it has saved me $25,000 :-) 

Indeed, God's Blessings are Never-ending.  They are perfectly perfect (77), filled with grace upon grace (55).  Lavish.  In other words, GBN 7755 L.  Amen?

By the way, I had initially bidded for GBN5775S but someone else beat me to it.  Thankfully, GBN7755L was available.

For those of you also considering doing a switch from a Cat A car to a Cat C kei car, do take note of the following:

- the vehicle has to be G-plated and purchased using an ACRA-registered entity (for which, a sole proprietorship suffices at an annual fee of $30). It cannot be purchased in your own individual name.

- unlike passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles are subject to annual LTA inspections (yup, EVERY year).

- the vehicle technically cannot have rear passenger seats, so they will need to be removed every time before it is sent for that annual inspection.

- the speed limit is 70km/h (although you do see some of them travelling faster than that).

- the vehicle technically cannot be driven into JB (unless you first register a Malaysian business with a director that is also a director/owner of your Singapore business)

Having said that, the above are tolerable "inconveniences", given that you will be saving at least $30,000 on COE.  There is also excellent fuel efficiency -- you can get at least 20km per litre.

God is S(o) GOOD

Friday, 6th March 2026

Yesterday, I attended a full-day session that is meant for board members of charities and non-profit organisations, called SGOOD 2.0, which is a collaboration between the Singapore Institute of Directors ("SID") and NCSS ("National Council of Social Services").

Per the Singapore Institute of Directors' website, 

https://www.sid.org.sg/SGOOD

SGD 2.0 - Governance for Outstanding Organisation Directors (SGOOD) 2.0 Programme

Effective governance of nonprofit organisations starts with informed and empowered board leaders. Serving on a nonprofit board requires not only a strong foundation in governance and strategic oversight but also the ability to drive meaningful impact while balancing diverse stakeholder interests.

The SGOOD (Governance for Outstanding Organisation Directors) 2.0 Programme provides nonprofit organisation board members with the necessary governance tools to lead with confidence. Developed in collaboration with the National Council of Social Service, it is part of GovernWell: Excellence in Charity Leadership, an initiative launched by the Commissioner of Charities and Charity Council.

How did this begin? When I changed CG in October 2022, one of my fellow CG mates Wayne Soo, who is also a Chartered Accountant, noted that I was kinda retired and had the capacity to do volunteer work. So he roped me into serving at a nursing home meant for people with dementia called Apex Harmony Lodge as one of her Management Committee member (the equivalent of its Board).  My term began in April 2023 and after 2 years, my role is now as her Assistant Treasurer, with Wayne as the Treasurer.

The Lodge is deliberately built to look like a chalet resort, so that long-term residents (yes, we call them "residents" rather than "patients") feel like they are on a staycation, rather than in a nursing home of sorts. In fact, some of them feel so comfortable that they do not want to go back to their own homes.

The Lodge even employs 2 in-house musicians to entertain the residents daily.  At their CNY gathering last month, they were so kind to invite the ONNB (oi nang noob bassist) to jam along with them.  Here is a picture of us, with me holding onto my bass ukelele.

Back to the SGOOD session and the title of today's post.  When I agreed with Wayne to come on board, I had no agenda of any sort.  Not only is this an unpaid volunteer role, we even have to pay the Lodge $12 a year in membership fees!  The constitution requires one to first be a member of the Lodge before he can become a management committee member.

But God is so good and this is why.

At my table yesterday were sat other like-minded individuals who want to give back to society, while still holding onto daytime jobs in the corporate world.  One is an accountant that heads up risk and compliance in a commodities trading conglomerate.  Another is a lawyer working as the general counsel to a family office.  Yet another is a lawyer working for a venture capitalist fund focused on the life-sciences industry.

Those close to me will know that I currently rely very much on passive income (being kinda retired), and is heavily vested in the private credit space.  By the grace of God (and more so because I have been tithing faithfully), I will very soon be receiving a significant inheritance, and leading up to that day, have been asking God how to best steward what He will be bestowing upon me.  The earlier promptings has been to go into private equity, and God confirmed it yesterday by placing those 3 individuals to sit at the same table as me!!!

What do commodities trading, family offices and venture capitalists have in common?  Yup, they all operate with private companies.  Hallelujah!

Yesterday, the 4 of us (2 accountants and 2 lawyers) connected with one another via Linkedin, and I am so looking forward to the much more that God has in store.  Amen?

Boutiques, the Minor Prophets of Today

Friday, 20th February 2026

Regular readers of my blog will note that I usually blog about spiritual matters.

But today, God has placed in my heart to blog about something more secular in nature.  He destined me away from following the footsteps of my dad, who in his latter years said, "Son, it is better for you to be a good accountant than a bad doctor".  (I do not believe he was not referring to a certain Goh Jr who ventured into routes made of silk because he said that to me sometime in the early 2000s, unless dad was a prophet haha). 

So for today, and today only, please indulge me to put on my accountant's hat.

Many of us have this habit of "jumping on the bandwagon".  We "follow the crowd" and take pride that we drive the latest Tesla, or bought the latest iPhone 17 Plus Pro, or use the latest Lab Putter.

I myself am guilty of 2 of the above.

But what God has placed in my heart recently is that there is a place for what are known as the "boutiques" of the world. Read on.

The word "boutique" originated from the Greek word for "storehouse" but has morphed into the French word for "small shop".

A fellow colleague of mine from legacy Price Waterhouse went on to work for DBS corporate finance in the late 1990s.  After that, a handful of them came out to form a boutique fund management company, offering the same expertise as the big boy yet at a fraction of the cost.  His boutique helped to take many local SMEs public, including BreadTalk, Old Chang Kee and Soup Restaurant, just to name but a few.

Just last month, my wife and I attended a talk conducted by a rather large bank and I noticed an intentional focus and shift towards what is commonly known as "private markets". The bank even invited its partners in the private market space to set up booths, and for some reason God only knows, I took selfies in front of Blue Owl, KKR, and even BlackRock and Pimco (yes, the latter two have jumped onto the private market bandwagon).

Frankly speaking, I had only heard of Blue Owl that evening (which goes to show I am not really well-versed). But everyone will have heard of it today because it just made the headlines for the wrong reasons, viz:

Those close to me got a bit concerned because we are currently very, very exposed in the private credit space.

But the difference is this. We have invested not via a big boy like Blue Owl or KKR but via yes, a boutique player, which we will not mention the name of because it wants to remain so and its existence is known very much by word of mouth.

While they are seemingly in the same space, their investment strategies are like chalk and cheese.

The big boys take in tens of billions of dollars and have no choice but to deploy them into hundreds of private companies, hoping that one in ten will turn out to be a unicorn with maybe a 10x ROI to more than cover the other 9 that go belly-up. Many a times, it is a win-lose outcome.

The boutique takes in at most a hundred million dollars from investors.  They carefully select which company to partner with (yup partner with, not invest in), and run the race alongside them to the finishing line of going public, and even beyond! It is a win-win-win for the private company, the boutique and the investor.

Thank God for boutiques!

Oh ya, I cannot end this post without bringing up a biblical parallel, so please indulge me again.

Much is said about the "big boy" major prophets like Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel and even Jeremiah.

But let us not forget the "boutique" minor prophets like Micah, Joel or even Malachi.  They also had a part to play in pointing us to Jesus and His finished work, Amen?

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah,

Yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel,

Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.” Mic 5:2 (NKJV)

“And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh;

Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your old men shall dream dreams,

Your young men shall see visions. Joel 2:28 (NKJV)

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house,

And try Me now in this,”Says the Lord of hosts,

“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing

That there will not be room enough to receive it. Mal 3:10 (NKJV)

Go Ahead, Make My Day!

Sunday, 8th February 2026

The title of today's post is a quotable quote from Clint Eastwood.  It was a challenge or dare to the person he said it to.

Which I humbly submit also describes what God is saying to us in Mal 3:10...

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

I was the Head of Finance of a Canadian MNC and was initially on extremely good terms with my boss G. G was stationed in HK and we would golf whenever he came to Singapore.  We played golf in Ipoh, Desaru, Bangkok and even in Singapore.

He highly-favoured me over my peers, the Head of Ops and the Head of CS. Both of them were relieved of their roles in January 2017, leaving me sticking out like a sore thumb as the most expensive staff in Singapore.

When that happened, instead of thanking God and trusting Him for His continued protection, I started thinking in human terms and became anxious that I would be the next to be let go.

Sometime in August 2017, a brother (let's call him J) shared with me his "revelation" about "non-tithing". He showed me this passage about how the Israelites were allowed to eat part of their tithe. 

Deut 14:22-26
Make an offering of ten percent, a tithe, of all the produce which grows in your fields year after year. Bring this into the Presence of God, your God, at the place he designates for worship and there eat the tithe from your grain, wine, and oil and the firstborn from your herds and flocks. In this way you will learn to live in deep reverence before God, your God, as long as you live. But if the place God, your God, designates for worship is too far away and you can’t carry your tithe that far, God, your God, will still bless you: exchange your tithe for money and take the money to the place God, your God, has chosen to be worshiped. Use the money to buy anything you want: cattle, sheep, wine, or beer—anything that looks good to you. You and your family can then feast in the Presence of God, your God, and have a good time.

Because of this, I stopped tithing 10% and used some of it to buy stuff for myself and my family, so long as I thanked God that He was the source.

Initially I felt a sense of "liberation" because suddenly I had "spare cash" when I cut back to tithing only 5%.

However, shortly thereafter I lost favour with my boss G and he kept finding fault with me for no reason. By October 2019, i had lost my high-paying job...

I was being penny wise, pound foolish. I may have saved maybe a few thousand dollars but eventually lost a source of income that would have exceeded hundreds of thousands of dollars 😰

I shared with Isaac Goh, my ministry cluster leader, and he told me it was not too late to resume tithing, and that God did not require me to "pay back" those months I had held back. By then, I was no longer in active employment, so I tithed on my passive income.

Wow, things started to turn around almost immediately!  God opened to me the door to various investment opportunities that currently pay 8% pa (and much more!) My passive income now exceeds my last-drawn active income! 😇

When my late dad returned to the Lord on 2 July 2025, he left behind $1m in liquid cash, of which my share was 20% or $200k. Even before I received the amount in full, I quickly tithed $20k, just in case I changed my mind about doing so. 

So it resonated with me when fellow CG member Grace Wong shared her own testimony 2 days ago about being prompted by the Holy Spirit to give, and to just obey Him. She also said we can never out-give God and He will never shortchange us. Amen to that!

I was clearing up stuff in my room just last week and came across the sample cheque (shown above, at the top of the post) that I had printed out. I was using Excel to create a template and wanted to find out what was the maximum length that could fit nicely on the cheque, both in terms of numbers and letters.

May this be a faith picture that will one day come to pass!

The cheque was generated some time in early 2020 during my stint as CFO-designate of a listed company, and that was the last full-time employment job I held. My dad suffered a stroke in June of that same year, and I quit shortly thereafter so that I could spend more time with him.

Coming back to J, I would not say he is the cause of my financial downfall, as I was equally to blame for taking my eyes off Jesus. But it was an eye-opener for me to be more discerning. We naturally drifted apart because he is no longer on the frequency of grace, sad to say. Let's keep him in prayer though because God still loves him and yearns for him to return to grace.

He has strayed so much from where he was before. He does not believe in the rapture, says praying in tongues and praying in the spirit are 2 separate things, and even attended an LGBT-practicing "church"!

Also, nowadays whenever someone shares with me about his lack of a financial breakthrough, or is unable to find a stable job, I will ask him gently, "Bro, have you been tithing?" and his answer will invariably be "no". He will typically say "Aiya, I already have so little money, how to tithe?". I will then tell him to start small first, be it just 1% or 2%.  God sees the heart and the willingness to take the first step to trust Him.

The prophet asked that widow "What do you have in your house?" We all would have received $300 in CDC vouchers, so can definitely tithe $30 mah.  What restricted the blessing for the widow was her capacity to receive; the oil stopped flowing once all the jars were filled.

So go ahead, make God's day!  Put Him to the ultimate test. Amen?

Afternote: fellow CG member Steve Koh (Grace Wong's hubby) sent me this video expounding on the Deut 14 passage which J had shared with me back in August 2017.  Pastor Skip Heitzig of Calvary Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico explains that there were actually 3 different tithes:

(1) Agricultural tithe

(2) Adoration tithe

(3) Aaronic tithe

In other words, the Israelites were expected to give up to 30% under the Mosaic Law!!!

The passage in Deut 14 referred to the Adoration tithe.  So it does not negate the Agricultural tithe being the entire 10%.  Thanks bro Steve!  Please forward that video to J too :-)

Of Footstools and Pedestals (Part 2)

Tuesday, 20th January 2026

Beethoven on a pedestal

About 2 weeks ago, I blogged about how we as Christians tend to admire certain men (or even women) of God because of how anointed they come across, and may inadvertently end up placing them on a proverbial pedestal.

The danger of doing so is that should they happen to fall (which can happen to anyone and everyone because we human beings are not perfect), we get disillusioned and may even end up getting our faith affected or shattered.

The solution is to keep our eyes firmly on Jesus and Jesus alone, because He will never, ever let us down.

So why the title "of Footstools and Pedestals" you may ask?

In ancient times, the pedestal was used to prop up someone that people looked up to.  For example, shown above is the bust of the late, great classical music composer Ludwig van Beethoven being sculpted atop one.

Now contrast this to another ancient object that was used for propping, being a footstool.  In Biblical times, the victors of a hard-fought battle would typically rest their feet on the heads of those they had defeated.  Here is an illustration of a king using the heads of his vanquished enemies as a footstool.

We read further in Psalm 110:1 (NIV)

"The LORD says to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."

an ancient footstool

Although this is an Old Testament passage written by King David, we know it is Messianic in nature and refers to Jesus because it says further in verse 4, “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.”

In the Old Testament, the enemies of God's people were those who prevented them from fully-inheriting the land God had promised them, such as the Philistines, Moabites, Hittites, Amorites, etc.  They were actual human beings, but "types/shadows" as examples for us to learn from and apply.

Now that Jesus has established the New Covenant for us, the equivalent  "anti-types/substance" of enemies this side of the cross would be what prevents us from fully possessing our possessions and enjoying the more abundant zoe life that He has come to give us.

In other words, the enemies of the Christians of today are the opposite of what Jesus gives to us, viz

What Jesus gives versus What the enemy brings

Life versus Death

Provision and Prosperity versus Poverty and Lack

Health and Wholeness versus Sickness and Disease

Peace and Well-Being versus Worry and Anxiety

In 1 Corinthians 15:26, Paul tells us that, "The last enemy to be destroyed is death".  What this means is that we as New Covenant beneficiaries can already claim victory over all the abovementioned enemies.  Death, the final enemy, will also be defeated when Jesus comes to take us up to be with Him via the blessed hope of the Rapture and transforms our mortal and corruptible bodies to become like His, immortal and incorruptible.

The point I am trying to make is this.  While many of us are doing what we ought *NOT* to do with regards to pedestals, the same in reverse holds true in that many of us are also *NOT* doing what we ought to be doing with regards to footstools!

So let's begin already to put under our feet poverty and lack, sickness and diseases, fears, worries and anxieties.  All these enemies are now beneath us because we are much more than conquerors through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen?

Bayerische Motoren Werke (2008/2016)

Thursday, 20th November 2025

Today, we move on to the 2nd item on the rapture list, namely to own a Bayerische Motoren Werke (ie. "BMW"). 

When my dad was in his mid-30s, he bought a Mercedes Benz. That is a photo of it being used for his brother's wedding.

Having fulfilled his dream, he would then opt to drive Toyotas for the rest of his life.

I, on the other hand, have never fancied a Merz.  I seem to get the vibe that Merz drivers are very "ah-zhek" ie. "lao uncle" haha.

But I have been very fascinated with Bimmers, especially so after I joined a Munich-headquartered company in 2005.  Up until then, I had been driving Japanese cars -- a couple of Toyotas and a couple of Mitsubishis.

In 2008, I joined a Canadian-headquartered company.  It was at this point in time of my career when continental cars became affordably within my budget, and so I took a trip to Performance Motors Limited ("PML") to check out the X3.

An ex-colleague of mine from that earlier German company, Valerie Foo, happened to be MBA classmates with the then-GM of PML and informed him about my interest.  That weekend, the GM arranged for his top salesgirl to attend to me.  She also told me her boss told her to give me a staff discount!  As a result, the X5 suddenly became within my budget, and I ended buying the X5 at the price of an X3!!!  God was exceedingly, abundantly answering my prayer.  Hallelujah!

And so in December 2008, at the age of 41, I checked off item 2 on my rapture list.  That's my bestie and I posing in front of the X5.  And yes, 5 and 7 are my favourite numbers.

Truth be told, the X5 was the most ostentatious car I have ever driven.  The monthly instalments were around $4,200+, petrol cost was in excess of $900 a month as I was only getting like 6km per litre, not to mention road tax and insurance was exorbitant too.  But hey, I was at the peak of my career and paying tax at rates higher than corporations.

Sometime in late 2015, I thought I saw an MPV with the BMW logo.  I googled it and sure enough, Performance Motors had just introduced into Singapore a 7-seater to compete with the likes of Honda Odyssey and Toyota Wish.And so in April 2016, it was time to check-off item 2 of the list a second time. I bought a Diesel 2-series Gran Tourer for a mere $138,888.

Here is a video of the car I took in 2020 as part of the SG55 celebrations.  I actually bidded for SLC7557G but someone beat me to it.  So I bidded for SLC5775G and thankfully that was successful.

And this car was so much more wallet-friendly.  Monthly instalments was just over $1,500, diesel was very affordable, and I was getting like 13-14 km per litre.

Now that I am in my late 50s, my fascination with continental cars has waned.  I currently drive a Tesla and am seriously considering a Lexus as my next purchase.  And for some reason, neither the Tesla nor the Lexus is on my rapture list.

Riding a motorbike, however, is on that list, and I will blog about that in a future post.

Remembering Dad on His 90th

Saturday 23rd August 2025

Today, dad would have turned 90.

We celebrated his 75th and 80th birthday in a very big way, in 2010 and 2015 respectively.

There were 27 tables for his 75th, which was held in Serangoon Gardens Country Club, and 18 tables for his 80th, when it was held in Singapore Island Country Club.

You can see photos taken at the following links

75th:

https://www.facebook.com/malcolm.loh/media_set?set=a.422701019341.200883.751059341&type=3

80th:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10153361433919342&type=3

He unfortunately suffered a mild stroke during the year Covid hit (ie. 2020) and spent his 85th birthday at home, with just his immediate family.

He hardly ate and watched us eat on his behalf because he had gradually lost his ability to swallow, and would shortly thereafter have to be tube-fed :-(

Today, he would have turned 90, and is celebrating it with the Lord Jesus Himself :-)

Dad was quite the sentimental and nostalgic person, and would keep items that meant a lot to him.

One of them was his GCE O level results.

I remember him telling us that he was only 1 of 2 students that aced Latin.

Another were his baptism and membership certificates.

He also had 42 rolls of 35mm film, which I helped sent for conversion to digital format.

Unfortunately, many of the slides had mold on them. 

Nonetheless, we would watch them occasionally as a trip down memory lane. 

I have uploaded the digitised version of the 42 albums onto Facebook for everyone's viewing pleasure:

https://www.facebook.com/malcolm.loh/photos_albums

HAVE A BLESSED 90TH BIRTHDAY, DADDY!

Till we meet again in heaven.

At the Crossroads (Part 5)

Friday 22nd August 2025

Yesterday, I made mention about MWS FOTG 2025 and how I had reluctantly participated in it.

I had joked with James Tham, the Organising Committee Chairman, that I would match a fellow Goodness CG member dollar-for-dollar.

As it turned out, that member had been one of the earliest to sign up and sponsor a $3,500 flight! So I had to keep my word and ended sponsoring one too.

I also mentioned that the highlight of the event was the dinner.

Yes, the food was indeed excellent. But what God had personally in store for me was most unexpected.

To raise even more funds, the Organising Committee had invited 5 persons from PLMC's Prophetic Arts Ministry to produce 5 different paintings.

But what stood out for me was painting Number 5.

First and foremost, 5 is the number of grace and that is why 5 features very heavily in the lives of New Creation churchgoers.  In fact, our church's logo is derived from the 5th letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  It looks like the letter N but there is spacing between the vertical stroke and the curved stroke, and is pronounced as "Hei"

But more significantly, the painting's title was, I kid you not, "The Third Day".

Readers from NewCre will straightaway know that that is our (yes, I said "our" because that's my wife and my home church for now) theme of the year for 2025... 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3rgNYOj9Pw

... while those from PLMC would have absolutely no clue about this at all.

Yet, this particular artist, Darren Teo from PLMC, was prompted by the Lord back in 2024 to come up with this painting with the exact same theme!

In other words, God the Holy Spirit spoke to both of them (ie. Ps Prince and Darren Teo) separately.  Yet because He is the same Spirit, He is consistent in His messaging. 

In the natural, men would remark, "Wow, what are the odds?"  Yet in the supernatural, odds do not matter at all to God.

Just like how the odds of Someone being conceived via a virgin was born in Bethlehem, fled with his parents to Egypt, grew up in Nazareth, and sat on a donkey into Jerusalem (thus fulfilling so many Old Testament prophecies), seemed like a million to one.

And that same Holy Spirit was prompting me to buy that painting because of its significance, in linking both the church of my forefathers and my current home church!

And so I obeyed.

Truth be told, I was prepared to pay around $5,555 for it (the four earlier paintings were sold for way less than that).  But as it turned out, there was a bidding war (thanks to Roland Teo) and I had to increase the amount all the way to $10,500.

When the emcee asked me what spoke to me about the painting, I told her it was because it was based on "this year's theme".  I'm sure 99% of the dinner attendees (made up of mostly Methodists) were scratching their heads haha.

That $10,500, together with the flight sponsorship of $3,500 totalled, $14,000, which is a multiple of 7 so it resonated with me.

The painting was God's way of telling me, "Son, I am doing a mighty work in the Methodist Church, as I have done in NewCre.  I raised a grace-based pastor to become its TRAC President from an MOT in a mere 17 years.  I impressed upon a member of PLMC the exact same theme as I did to your senior pastor in NewCre. That goes to show that nothing is impossible for Me, oh ye of little faith."

And so dear readers, let us continue to pray for all the Methodist churches in Singapore.  God is much more concerned about their spiritual well-being than anyone of us can ever be.

Let us continue to pray that He will raise more grace-based pastors like Rev Reuben Ng to boldly preach the unadulterated message of the person of Jesus and His complete and finished work on the cross.  It is all about Him and none about us.  Amen?

Live Your Now Moments!

Saturday 26th July 2025

I have the most amazing testimony to share!

Many of you may not know this, but I have a favourite pastor here in New Creation Church, and it is not Pastor Prince, but Pastor Julia Lim Lian Neo (whom we call Ps Lian).

She was previously from a Methodist school and used to attend a Methodist church, so our backgrounds are similar in that sense.  She also used to be a school teacher, so she delivers her sermons in a very clear and concise manner.

On 10 June 2025, my best buddy David Tang asked me whether I wanted some of her classic CD sermons from way back in 2006 and 2007, to which I told him definitely yes, because they are not even available from the Rock Bookstore website anymore.

He passed me the sermons but I did not get down to doing anything about them until Thursday night, just before we sent dad's helper Vanessa to the airport.

I managed to find a portable CD player, wiped off the dust that had gathered on it, and got down to ripping the 3 CDs (ie converting the audio to MP3 format).

Yesterday,  I had to look for a software to merge the files into a single one (back then, sermons were split into several tracks (like a pop music album), so that listeners could pause the sermon at convenient intervals and resume where they left off.

While doing the merging of the tracks for the sermon "Live Your Now Moments!" preached on 9 Dec 2007, I listened to Ps Lian relating the story about how a staff at a coffee chain had gotten her so upset, that she kept on repeating the story for 2 days straight.

But what really arrested me was Track 2, which I have used Otter.ai to transcribe:

"I realized I counsel people of all ages, even those in their 40s and 50s and 60s, some of them still don't let go of their past. They're in their 60s, and they're still recounting to me, how they were hurt when they were in their childhood. whole 15 minutes about they were hurt. injustice was done to them. They are so bitter, and it's all about their childhood. 

After 15 minutes, they go on to the husband. So the husband had misunderstood them and and rejected them and made them feel so lousy. Oh, 15 minutes. Then after that, another 15 minutes on the children. Oh, my children, they are so rude to me. They don't respect me nowadays 15 minutes, then the next 15 minutes about the boss, oh, he is, and then another 15 minutes on the colleagues.

 
And I realized, what God wants us to let go and to let God, you know why? Let me show you the verse in Isaiah 43 that tells us why he wants us to let go. 

Because he says, do not remember the former things nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing now. It shall spring forth. Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 

You know why God wants us to let go? Because he says, Why hold on to the past when I am doing a new thing, and I am doing awesome and wonderful things, and I'm making even a road in the wilderness, and I'm making rivers in the desert. So don't hold on to the past. Don't cling on to all the old hurts and the bitterness and the anger, Let it go."

You can listen to track 2 here

Track 2:

https://app.box.com/s/taf0765ee95aa42bfrmcco5vaz3k987o

This was the Rhema word for me, 18 years on.

But what was truly amazing is that God used Ps Lian's sermon from Dec 2007 to address the very deep hurts that I had in Dec 2007!

I felt God telling me, "Son, why are you still holding on to things that happened 18 years ago?  Just let it go and let me.  Stop re-living in the past." 

I went on to listen to the rest of the sermon and Ps Lian also spoke about how in Isa 43, God does not only talk about forgetting the past, but also about having hope for a better future (a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert).

The overriding theme is for us to enjoy each day at a time and to live in the NOW moments (hence the title of her sermon).

This part of her sermon also spoke to me and I will blog about how I have inadvertently hurt people very dear to me by placing unnecessary pressure and expectations on the vision God had placed in their heart. By doing so, I had become the voice of condemnation and I want to publicly apologise for plucking the proverbial rose before seeing it blooming (to quote my CG Leader).

Meanwhile, here is her Entire Sermon for your listening pleasure.  May it minister to you as it did to me.

https://app.box.com/s/1iquxvkgfgrdsft3xuknfl3f44x8uha5

Exalt Jesus, and He Will Exalt You

Tuesday, 22nd July 2025

I am constantly reminded of the unique situation I am currently in.  I still keep my membership with the church of my forefathers (ie. Paya Lebar Methodist Church) on the advice of the then-PIC Rev Jonathan Seet. Yet my wife and I consider New Creation Church as our home church since January 2018.

There is this fleshly part of me that tends to make comparisons between churches, and even pastors, like which are the ones that are "law"-based or which of the ones that are "grace"-based, etc.

Then God gently reminds me of the passage whereby Paul admonished the church in Corinth for having different "camps".  Back then, some prided themselves to be followers of him, while others prided themselves to be followers of Apollos.  Ultimately, what mattered was whether they were followers of Jesus Christ Himself.

1 Corinthians 3:3-8 

The Church and Its Leaders

1 Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? 4 For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,”are you not mere human beings?

5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants,through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

I recall meeting up  (together with Philip Ng), with Bishop Wee Boon Hup when he was TRAC President and Peter Koh was PLMC's PIC.  He told Phil and me that the Methodist Church is unique in that there is no "official" stand regarding any doctrine, be it tongues, healing, prosperity, the rapture or the grace gospel. Each Pastor-in-charge sets the tone for his/her congregation.

So while we have the likes of Peter and Barnabas Chong on the one extreme side of the spectrum who are ostensibly and vehemently against New Creation Church and its teachings, we have others like Rev Reuben Ng on the other extreme side who went so far as to even invite Ps Lim Lian Neo to guest speak when he was PIC at Toa Payoh Methodist Church!  To be precise, it was on 26 April 2015 and I was wearing my Year of Greater Glory t-shirt when I stepped forward to say hello to her.  She probably thought I was from TPMC haha.  Ps Lian herself was from a Methodist church and even taught in a Methodist school.

Rev Reuben is truly a breath of fresh air.  I see so many similarities between him and Ps Prince. They both preach without having to refer to a script because it is the Holy Spirit giving them utterance.  They never fail to mention Jesus and His finished work.  Because both of them exalt Jesus, God in turn has exalted them.

In my humble opinion, Ps Prince is God's gift to Singapore, while Rev Reuben is God's gift to the Methodist Church. God has prospered the ministry of these 2 men of God because their message is Jesus-centric.

New Creation Church's growth from below 200 in 1984 to more than 35,000 today is a testament to God's goodness and faithfulness.  Similarly, Rev Reuben's promotion up the ranks from Member-on-Trail in Aug 2007 to TRAC President in Nov 2024 is nothing short of the spectacular.

Rev Reuben's godly wisdom shone through very distinctly right in the heart of Covid when Singapore was in lockdown.

Here is the Timeline

24 May 2020: The then-Bishop Chong Chin Chung makes an announcement that all Methodists are banned from partaking of the Holy Communion.  He subsequently issues a formal memo on 2 June 2020.

24 May 2020: That very same day, a handful of us got together to pray in agreement that Jesus would somehow visit Bishop Chong in a vision to tell him not to deprive his congregants of something so fundamental, like how Jesus visited Saul on his road to Damascus to ask him why he was persecuting Him.  And indeed, God heard our prayer and did pay him a visit in his sleep.  We even anointed his photo.

25 May 2020 to 1 June 2020: Meanwhile, God prompts Rev Reuben to come up with a solution so that his members at TPMC can continue to take Holy Communion.  The Methodist Church requires the sacraments to be consecrated (ie. prayed over by an ordained pastor) so that is what he does. On 4 June 2020, TPMC announces that her members can partake of the consecrated elements.

3 June 2020 to 5 June 2020: I write to Rev Kow, the PIC of PLMC expressing my concern about my dad and kids being deprived.  He reads my messages but does not respond. 

14 June 2020: Bishop Chong reverses his earlier decision and allows all Methodists to partake the elements, provided they are first consecrated by their respective Pastors-in-Charge.  This practice is rolled out to all other Methodist churches.

The lessons I learnt from this episode were as follows:

(1)  the prayer of righteous men avail much.  We pleaded on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Methodist churches that they would be able to continue to obey Jesus' command to eat of His body and drink of His blood to declare His death has brought us health and wholeness.

(2) God is more concerned about the well-being of His children than anyone of us can ever be.  Hence, He imparted His wisdom to Rev Reuben to get it to work within the Methodist system.

Conclusion: As long as a preacher exalts the person of Jesus and His finished work in His sermons, God will exalt him and prosper his ministry and influence.  Hallelujah!