Junior Sunday School Report 2021

 

Colossians 2:6-7: “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.”

Our objectives (based on Colossians 2:6-7) are to lead the children:

1. to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ (Receive)
2. to obey God and be a good testimony (Walk)
3. to a vibrant spiritual life (Rooted & Built up)
4. to a clear understanding of the basic Christian doctrines and teachings in the Word of God (Stablished and abounding)

In 2021, the Junior Sunday School (JSS) was still faced with much uncertainties and many changes because of the pandemic. Thank God for His grace and mercies that helped us overcome these challenges. After using Zoom for about a year in 2020, most of the JSS teachers, parents and even the children were very well versed in using Zoom by 2021. Zoom is a very useful tool, but having JSS lessons over Zoom is always a last resort. Thank God that for the most part of 2021, we could have physical JSS classes in church. However, in order to slow down the increasing number of COVID-19 cases, the government did not allow in-person religious classes for a few weeks in May, July, August and October. Thus, JSS lessons had to be via Zoom during that period. Otherwise, we provided Zoom for children only on a case-by case basis (i.e. for children who were unwell and could not come to church or whose parents did not allow them to come to church, etc).

 As the church continued with “Walking Worthy of Our Calling” as the theme in 2021, the JSS followed suit. In line with this theme, Rev Dennis Kwok spoke to the children on “Walk not as other Gentiles walk” (3 Jan), “Walk in love” (16 May) and “Walk as Wise” (7 November) over 3 Open Sundays. Ng Boon Choo and Liz Yeo assisted him by leading the children in message related activities.

Due to the pandemic, we could not have a 2-day-1-night Young Teens-cum-Junior Retreat in church. But thank God that we could still have a 2-and-a-half-day Retreat from 18 to 19 March. The theme was “Drawing Closer to God.” Rev Zhu Jian Wei was our speaker. Thank God for a blessed Retreat with 13 fulltime and 2 part-time attendees, and 3 helpers. May the Lord help everyone to apply the lessons learnt.

We also thank and praise God for leading us through the other major events in our JSS calendar in 2021. These included the General Meetings (7 March and 7 November, prerecorded messages), Combined Department Easter Programme (4 April), Combined Department Reformation Programme (31 October), Vacation Bible School (23 to 24 November, via Zoom), Combined Department Christmas Programme (19 December) and Promotion Sunday (26 December). Without God, we can do nothing. As the pandemic rages on, please continue to pray for the ministry of the JSS. May the LORD continue to keep us faithful.