Okay, now some things I have to say.

1. In the post about instructions for cyber cell, we told all of you coming for it to prepare a short paragraph that you want to share with the cell.
Due to last minute changes last night, we didn't have time to let yal share it on Saturday. We apologize for that!
BUT, we don't want to waste your efforts because we know some of you took alot of time to prepare it, so please share here in a post! Don't be shy okay.
Get the username and pass from any of our cell members (:

2. Please read the note from SP I will put at the end of the post, to get a better understanding of the H1N1 situation in Riverlife.

3. I want all of you to be mentally prepared for what is to come. What I mean is, when you return to school in a day's time, be prepared to tackle people's lack of understanding towards the situation about our church (H1N1).
Which is why you have to read the note from SP to get a clearer understanding, to explain to your friends if the need arises.
People may fear and hold apprehension. People may critisize our church, or say unpleasant things in your face.
Know how to carry yourself. Wherever you go, you represent God. Remember that. WWJD - What would Jesus do? Think before you respond.

Be patient with your friends.
Do not become defensive/retaliate.
Forgive them if they offend you.
Be firm, be gracious, be gentle. Do NOT be intimidated, there's nothing to be afraid of.
Let your testimony and action and speech do evangelism.

If there's anything, you can always contact any one of the leaders. (:

4. If we don't need a service to come together to hear a sermon and have cell (cyber cell), then we don't need cyber cell to worship Him and spend time with Him.
What I'm saying is, in the days to come, grab every opportunity to spend time with God. Let's not neglect Him and let's not be satisfied with substitutes yes?
Let's all resolve to do QT daily alright? I'm with you guys in it too. (:
God will take the highest place, and will receive the highest praise from us.

Alright everyone, take care! (: Let's keep in touch via cell blog yeah! We will get busy with school again, but let's not forget each other and of course, God!


PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING MSG FROM SP:

RiverLife Church
Note from the Senior Pastor
25 June 2009

Dear sisters and brothers in RiverLife,

As you are probably aware by now, RiverLife Church has been identified as a community cluster of local H1N1 infections. Since 19 June, ten H1N1 cases have been linked to our church (please refer to attachment). We have contacted all adults and youths who came into close contact with them, as well as their household members, to quarantine themselves at home. Thankfully, all ten of them are recovering well and no new cases have been reported since. I wish to thank the pastoral staff, cell leaders and members for extending their care and support to those hospitalised or under home quarantine.

As a precautionary measure, the church leadership decided to cancel our youth service on Saturday, 20 June, and our children's services and classes on Sunday, 21 June. This is partly because children and youths are more vulnerable to the H1N1 virus. My sincerest apologies to those who did not receive the notice and came to church with their children. I thank you for your kind understanding and cooperation with our staff and volunteers. To keep yourself posted, please check out our website at www.riverlife.org.sg for updates and announcements.

Last night, the Elders’ Board met and a decision was made to suspend all church-based meetings and programmes until and including Saturday, 4 July. These activities will resume on Sunday, 5 July.

There are a few reasons behind the implementation of these measures. Firstly, as one of the first two “community transmission clusters,” our risk level should be deemed even higher. We are concerned for the health and safety of our people and those whom we come in contact with. Secondly, this matter has received extensive media coverage on TV and in the newspapers over the past few days. It is important that we assure the public that we are doing all we can to contain this local spread.

Although we have not had any new infections since 22 June, this time frame from now until 4 July may still be a high risk period. Furthermore, we are expecting the return of many Singaporeans from overseas holidays during this time. The Elders’ Board has decided that it will be wise and socially responsible to suspend all our church-based meetings and programmes until 4 July.

In addition, I appeal to all RiverLifers not to visit other churches over the next two weekends. We wish to be considerate about the health and peace of mind of the other churches in our city. To ensure that you receive spiritual input during this time, we will post pre-recorded English and bilingual services on our website, which will be available for download from 7pm on Saturday, 27 June. You can conduct a family service or have a personal time of worship in your home. I have a message that I believe God wants me to share with you, so be sure to tune in.

This has been an unusual and challenging week for our church, to say the least. I want to salute the staff and volunteers for their herculean efforts in coping with all the last minute changes. They have served with excellence and great attitude. I also wish to thank RiverLifers for your understanding, cooperation and prayers. I am sorry we have not been able to update you sooner and faster due to our overstretched resources.

Why is this happening to us and how are we to respond to it? I will share more in the pre-recorded service, but suffice to say that whenever God wants to move powerfully in and through someone or a church, He will first allow us to be shaken, and then awaken us to pray and seek Him. I have not seen such a commitment to prayer in our church for a long time. We are even more convinced than before that God is sending an outpouring of His Holy Spirit upon us.

The devil is obviously not pleased, and will do all that he can to distract and discourage us when we are rising up as an army to impact our society and bless the nations. Yes, we must do what is socially responsible but we must not be thrown off by distractions or doubt. Let us stand firm and stay focused on what God wants to do. Let us seek purity, pray like never before and be united in our passion for God.

Let me end with the words in 1 Peter 5:8-9, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”

Amen.

Yours in Christ,
Rev Vincent Lun



LOVE YOU C2 - Joanc.

Before this cell camp, I thought that this camp would be like any other school camp. Everything would be games and fun. I did not have an expectant heart then. When camp started, I was still in the same mood until it came to service. When I worshipped God, absolutely nothing distracted me, I felt deeply in love with God. I enjoyed the camp especially the part when the camp committee still tried to do their best to keep the camp moving on regardless of the situation. From now on, I want to seek more connection with God. I want to surrender everything to God, I will give my worship to the fullest. I will do my best to enter into his presence with an expectant heart. For my Daily Life, I would pray regularly, I already started out by saying grace for every meal. I really love the feeling of being connected with God always.

When I got home from cell camp, I deleted all my internet friends, feeling less stressed up and realised what is more important in life.

Thank You,

Ernest

UPDATES ON CYBER CELL!

CYBER CELL
Who? Everyone from Central 2 is invited!
When? 27th June, Saturday, 4.15 to 6.30! (Usual megalife time!)
What? A "gathering" of all the Central 2 people, insisting that God must still be praised-regardless of whether service is on or not :)
Why? Already said, hehehe.
Where? (this is the cool part) In the comfort of your own home!

1. All of your MSN nicks must have your proper name in front, example:
   C2: Head first, fearless ->this will not do!
   FORMAT: C2, (NAME) Alright? :)
   
2. During cyber cell (4.15-6.30 pm) you should NOT be using any other internet facilities, example:
   Facebook, Youtube, Other MSN conversations, etc.
   We're implementing this rule cos we don't want you all to be distracted. Just like how in service you guys don't want to be distracted, we don't want that during cyber cell. The leaders can't possibly be there to check up on all of you, so we're trusting you guys okay? :)
3. STRICTLY no NUDGING, WINKING or SPAMMING (you guys know what I mean). Treat this time with respect, like as if in normal service and cell.
4. Listen and follow closely to the instructions of the operators, Joan Chew and Myself.
   
5. As much as possible, do NOT use shortcuts (or whatever you call it), especially those that people don't usually understand. Seriously, like......I don't even know how to give examples but yeah. Also, during our MSN conversation, STRICTLY no one word entering. This means you don't type things like:
   Jayna says:
   Hi
   Jayna says:
   this
   Jayna says:
   is
   Jayna says:
   Jayna
   
   STRICTLY NO. You guys know what I mean. If you guys have something to say, say it in one whole enter. Like, type finish EVERYTHING then enter. Alright?
6. You should set aside those 2 hr and 15 min strictly for cyber cell and not for anything else (eg: try your best not to use handphones). And that means there's no such thing as suddenly "gtg" in the middle of nowhere and disappear. This is like how in service when you're sitting for the sermon you do not suddenly stand up and shout "GTG" and you run out of the worship centre, NO. If you REALLY have to leave half way, tell one of the operators before you do, and then leave after that. :)
   
7. Have fun! :)

1. Prepare a sharing about what impacted you from the begining of camp till now and how you wanna lead your spiritual life and daily life from now on. If you didn't go for camp, share about what's been going on for you recently. :) I know this was the project I had for you guys on this blog, but let's still share-repeat if need be but I'm sure since then there were more things we've learnt. :) Try your best not to have it as a one liner or something. Substantial sharing :) Anyway prepare it as in, type it out into a microsoft word form and have it ready by the time cyber cell starts.
2. After reading this post, please tell me if you'll be around for Cyber Cell and if you have MSN or not. :) If we don't recieve a reply from all of you by tomorrow 5 pm, we'll call you just to check (:
3. Before cyber cell, prepare your hearts to recieve from God! Treat this like a normal service and cell session, with respect. This is not something we're doing out of fun, alright? :) As children of God we must know when it's time to joke and when it's not, and cyber cell isn't just a joke, alright? :) And also if you haven't prepared your hearts before for service, start now (: Pray before cyber cell and ask God to show you something new.
   

Oh and one thing some of you are asking me: You have nothing good to share about, so how?

Please understand that there's no such thing as 'good sharing'. Neither God, nor the leaders, nor C2 will judge the quality of your sharing (: ANYTHING that comes from your heart, is good sharing. Please do not feel pressurized to share chim stuff, good stuff, etc. No such thing (: In a cell, with C2, BE YOURSELF! (: Just say whatever's weighing on your heart. If you really have nothing to say regarding cell camp/cell/this whole h1n1 episode, then it's alright, you can always share about anything else. Also, if you really feel you want to share more than what we mentioned, feel free to do so! We exist as a cell to hear from one another and to support each other, kay! (:

Alright that’s all I have to say! Any queries, please ask Jayna/Benton/me.
ANTICIPATE IT :D

Lotsa love,
Joanc. :D

CYBER CELL
Who? Everyone from Central 2 is invited!
When? 27th June, Saturday, 4.15 to 6.30! (Usual megalife time!)
What? A "gathering" of all the Central 2 people, insisting that God must still be praised-regardless of whether service is on or not :)
Why? Already said, hehehe.
Where? (this is the cool part) In the comfort of your own home!

1. All of your MSN nicks must have your proper name in front, example:
   C2: Head first, fearless ->this will not do!
   FORMAT: C2, (NAME) Alright? :)
   
2. During cyber cell (4.15-6.30 pm) you should NOT be using any other internet facilities, example:
   Facebook, Youtube, Other MSN conversations, etc.
   We're implementing this rule cos we don't want you all to be distracted. Just like how in service you guys don't want to be distracted, we don't want that during cyber cell. The leaders can't possibly be there to check up on all of you, so we're trusting you guys okay? :)
3. STRICTLY no NUDGING, WINKING or SPAMMING (you guys know what I mean). Treat this time with respect, like as if in normal service and cell.
4. Listen and follow closely to the instructions of the operators, Joan Chew and Myself.
   
5. As much as possible, do NOT use shortcuts (or whatever you call it), especially those that people don't usually understand. Seriously, like......I don't even know how to give examples but yeah. Also, during our MSN conversation, STRICTLY no one word entering. This means you don't type things like:
   Jayna says:
   Hi
   Jayna says:
   this
   Jayna says:
   is
   Jayna says:
   Jayna
   
   STRICTLY NO. You guys know what I mean. If you guys have something to say, say it in one whole enter. Like, type finish EVERYTHING then enter. Alright?
6. You should set aside those 2 hr and 15 min strictly for cyber cell and not for anything else (eg: try your best not to use handphones). And that means there's no such thing as suddenly "gtg" in the middle of nowhere and disappear. This is like how in service when you're sitting for the sermon you do not suddenly stand up and shout "GTG" and you run out of the worship centre, NO. If you REALLY have to leave half way, tell one of the operators before you do, and then leave after that. :)
   
7. Have fun! :)

1. Prepare a sharing about what impacted you from the begining of camp till now and how you wanna lead your spiritual life and daily life from now on. If you didn't go for camp, share about what's been going on for you recently. :) I know this was the project I had for you guys on this blog, but let's still share-repeat if need be but I'm sure since then there were more things we've learnt. :) Try your best not to have it as a one liner or something. Substantial sharing :) Anyway prepare it as in, type it out into a microsoft word form and have it ready by the time cyber cell starts.
2. After reading this post, please tell me if you'll be around for Cyber Cell and if you have MSN or not. :) If we don't recieve a reply from all of you by tomorrow 5 pm, we'll call you just to check (:
3. Before cyber cell, prepare your hearts to recieve from God! Treat this like a normal service and cell session, with respect. This is not something we're doing out of fun, alright? :) As children of God we must know when it's time to joke and when it's not, and cyber cell isn't just a joke, alright? :) And also if you haven't prepared your hearts before for service, start now (: Pray before cyber cell and ask God to show you something new.
   

"It was a group of people that had decided that they weren't going to be defeated, that they were going to survive, that the family was going to be strong together. And by the blood of the Lamb and word of our testimony, we will overcome."

Are we all feeling the same after reading Ah Biao's post?

I think to be chosen to be at the battlefront, is really honourable. And I feel absolutely... unworthy of it.