Extending our REACH

There was this religious anniversary around Jon's neighborhood recently. There was a very big tentage at the side of Eunos MRT. It was to commemorate some ancient King whom they worshipped since their ancestors time. It looked like our Christian's Tentabacle. In front of the tentage there was a big stage. During the first week there was the Chinese Opera show in the evenings where many old folks gathered and watched it. During the second week it became "Getai", meaning those Chinese concerts by those "Tom, Dick & Harry" singers. During this time, you would see a very huge crowd watching the concert. There people were mainly late 30s uncles and aunties.

Indeed it looked like a big carnival. Jon had seen big crowds every night for 2 weeks. Even more surprisingly, there was a news reportage of the event on Channel 8 news broadcast. It was learnt that the organizer of the event actually gave away free dinner every night to worshippers. A lot of people staying around the places benefited from it. It was also reported that a lot of Indian/Blangadesh/Pakistan/Thai construction workers also took advantage of the free food they were giving off.

Jon thought it was a really good idea. A lot of time, Christians organize many charitable activities but do not identify themselves of Christian during their outreach events. For example our church (Hope Church Singapore) would work with Hope Centre (S) for all communities events. Why not simply do something so publicly like what those Chinese folks do and allow people from all walks of lives come into the santuary of God instead?

Even the idea of the "Getai" seems interesting. Invite Christian celebrities (Eg Dong Fang Bi Li or some TCS artists) to sing on stage to attract the uncles and aunties in the neighborhood. Then spread the gospels in between songs or breaks. In this case, isn't it more fulfilling instead? Able to do charity as well as spreading the gospels at the same time! Jon believes that it would definitely cost much cheaper as Christian celebrities would come cheaper than those professional "Getai" singers since these celebrities are doing this as outreach events. If all this get publicise by TVs, isn't it wonderful as we are able to spread our deeds to the whole nation?