7 & 8 Feb 2026 (Pastoral Page) REMEMBERING GOD’S GRACE

by Asst Ps Elaine Ng

Just this past week, Kelvin and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary. We are deeply grateful to God for His love and grace to help us reach this milestone. We count ourselves blessed and know that God’s grace, loved ones and this church community have helped us on our journey thus far. To God be the glory!

First decade

We are grateful to God for the pre-marital course that we attended in this church and our marriage mentors, Mr and Mrs Francis Loo. I personally vividly recall a session where we were asked to openly discuss certain expectations with each other to work out any differences before tying the knot. These ranged from matters such as having children, perspectives on expenditure, etc. That was indeed helpful to us back then and also set us on the path to lovingly communicate our expectations clearly on other matters to this day. Whenever we forget to do that, we inevitably rue the angst and grief that results.

We are grateful for the parenting course that was then led by Royston Koh and his late wife, Sin Yow. The lesson that left an indelible mark on us was about the right order of relationships. The primary relationship for us as individuals is with God, under which our relationship as husband and wife would be of next importance. The children are welcomed into that spousal relationship. That was a fundamental lesson for us to not let the children displace and become more important than our relationship with God and our spousal relationship.

Second decade

While we knew we were stewards, and not owners of the kids that God had gifted to us, our Father in heaven tested our understanding of that. We learnt to entrust the kids’ education and lives to God through specific moments for each around the time they had to take their Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE).

For our daughter, Sarah, as she had some struggles in Primary school, we started to prepare her for an alternative if she did not make it back to the school for her secondary education. We had the opportunity to remind her of God’s love for her and our love for her. That she would not be defined by the PSLE results. We prayed together to submit to God’s will, and declared our trust in Him to lead and guide her beyond that. And so when we went to get her results, she cried tears of gratitude and relief. She made it back to the school with a score that was not a mark more or less. It was just enough! It was a family lesson learnt that God hears our prayers and He knows best.

For our son, Sean, he really struggled with Mandarin and it affected his other subjects. We heard about a “Chinese dyslexia” test and decided we would get him assessed a few months before his PSLE exams. We submitted the outcome to God and told Sean that whatever the outcome, we would thank God. We would thank God if the results would grant him exemption from taking the Mandarin exams and to thank God for helping us identify that Sean had learning disabilities. We would give thanks to the Lord too if there were no obvious learning disabilities to warrant exemption. The irony was that we only got news of the exemption quite close to the actual exams so he still had to study and prepare for it but did not have to sit for it.

These are just two examples of God teaching us His ways together as a family and what it means to submit to His will.

Third decade

Our children have graduated from university and are now working adults. One married. One going to be. We saw our careers peak and start to change and wind down too. And again, we see how God has led and provided for us.

When I broached the subject of leaving my previous job to join the church as a full-time staff in 2020, I wasn't sure how Kelvin would respond. I’d like to think that the lessons we had learnt in our years together prepared him to be ready to submit to what the Lord wills. He simply said, “If this is what the Lord wills, I can’t stop it”. That was his way of giving me the blessing to start the process of switching careers. As some of you may remember, I started work in this church in January 2024. It took 3 years for that switch and that itself has its own amazing story for another day of how God showed He was in control and can be trusted.

As we thanked God for blessing us over our 30 years of marriage, we also realised that in this day and age, where people live longer, we may have 30 years more together, as the Lord wills. We know we will not do this alone but only by God’s grace and with the support of loved ones and this church community. Thanks be to God!