Adventist Crossroads
January - March 2002

If You Truly Seek Me . . .
Judy Choong
SDA Community Church

My walk with God started when I was in school. I was studying evolution but wasn’t convinced and would instead be discussing the beasts in the book of Revelation with my classmates during laboratory periods.
And as surely as God was calling out to me then, He continued to do so though my “U” days of shaven head and colored hair, nightly clubbing and 7-day work slavery. Throughout this time I drifted in and out. My response to God was intermittent and so was my spiritual growth. Maybe I pretended not to hear. Maybe it was easier staying in my comfort zone and be held in the grips of worldly distractions. But God in all His love for me did not give up on me. He was slowly but surely working on me. He was going to finish what He started in His own way.
I was thirsting for the Word and Spirit of God and did not even realize it. Learning from the Bible about the Ten Commandments and the Sabbath, I searched for a church that obeyed God’s fourth commandment. I started attending the Seventh-Day Adventist Church a couple of years back. Then I stopped attending when I had to work seven days a weeks till late at night. In between working late and sleeping late I squeezed in a couple of minutes now and then for prayer and Bible reading.
That kind of life style left me “mega” exhausted. So just six months back I quit my job. Now I have more time to seriously study my Bible, and I couldn’t stop—this turned into 12-hour prayer-and-worship sessions! It felt like I was coming off a draught and given an intravenous in an ICU. God’s word was life-giving after all those lost years of spiritual famine.
I praise and thank God for the difference He made in my life. In the past six months I have learned and grown more than all past years put together. I realized that it is not the number of years one has been a Christian that matters but that there is truly a personal relationship with God.
True to His words, “If you truly seek me, you will surely find me,” God was there for me all the while, never leaving me, never forsaking me, always sustaining me, delivering me and providing for me. He bathed me in His love, grace and mercy and blessed me with His peace, joy, wisdom and strength.
God is not finished with me. He will perfect in me His righteous character. I trust in His power and His victory to accomplish this so that I would be completely sanctified and blameless. Whatever He has promised He will do!

The Miracle of Rebirth
Diane Tan
SDA Community Church

I thought I was always a Christian my whole life, but it was recently that I came to really know God. Years ago, when I was so out of reach from God I did not do much about it except pray.
God does answer prayers in miraculous ways. One day on June 2, 2002, I was invited to a youth crusade at a Seventh-day Adventist Church. Unknowingly, my life took a different direction.
It dawn on me that in the past 15 years, my walk with God was anything but close. Four months after the crusade I decided to get baptized. My decision was met with surprise, skepticism and even opposition. It was a difficult time for me. I felt weak, destroyed and helpless. But with prayers and help from friends, God guided me along. I began this fantastic journey with God and discovered that He was someone I could not live without.

O Give Thanks to the Lord!
Wan Kwong Weng
Maranatha Adventist Church

On November 18, 2001 the Maranatha Adventist Church at Dunman Road invited Mr. Chan Soo Sen, MP, Minister of State (Prime Minister’s Office) as the guest of honour at the ground breaking ceremony of its rebuilding program.
In his speech, Mr. Chan Soo Sen spoke of how he became acquainted with our rebuilding project. He commented that it was our perseverance and hard work that had paid off. More importantly, he added that it must be “the invisible hand of God that have guided you through.”
Dr. Michael Ho, our pastor, then presented a plaque engraved with words of thanks commemorating the event and the verse found in Psalms 107:1: “O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!”
Then donning white helmets and with changkuls in hand several members with the guest performed the ceremonial ground-breaking ritual.
The expected completion date of the rebuilding project is November 2002. With a more functional layout, increased sitting capacity and better facilities the members are looking forward to new opportunities for evangelism and community work.

He Has Finished the Race

Mr. Soelaga Siregar was born on March 23, 1903 to Adventist parents in Batakland, Indonesia.
His first lessons in school were taught in the Batak language. Later lessons were taught in Indonesian and then in English
His education continued in Singapore when in 1919 he enrolled in the Malayan Union Seminary.
He returned to serve as head of the Batakland English School in 1925 and later established and directed the International English School. In 1936 he prepared to sit for the Senior Cambridge and the London Chamber of Commerce examinations and also taught at the Sunny Hill School in Sarawak.
The following year, he returned to the Malayan Union Seminary where he taught junior and senior classes until 1941 when WW2 broke out .
After the war he continued with the Seminary until his retirement in 1963. He was very involved in school development and ingathering to raise funds.
In retirement he has continued to serve the school, the church and the community. In more ways than one, he was larger than life. His former students would reminisced about his extraordinary memory for historical facts and figures.
He lived a simple and healthy lifestyle and remained healthy to the end. On February 8, 2002 he “finished the race” and passed away at the age of 99.