This article was originally posted in our March 2021 Word@Work.
While 2020 was the year that saw COVID-19 ravage countries and economies all around the world, 2021 promises to hold some hope as some nations are slowly emerging from the crisis. In the midst of this transition, The Bible Society of Singapore (BSS) remains steadfast in its mission to make the Word of God known to all peoples, especially in these uncertain times. Having been in existence for more than 183 years now, BSS has never ceased to serve churches and communities around the world, as the Beacon of Light pointing others to Christ.
Strengthening Mental Wellness
As the world adapts to the “new normal”, the Gospel remains ever so relevant as a powerful story of redemption and hope. This is much needed—the lockdowns all over the world have put the spotlight on mental health issues as people find themselves struggling with the effects of confinement and isolation. A survey of 1,000 people in Singapore by Ipsos between April and May 2020 found that one in four respondents said they were not in good mental health. Similarly, an online poll by mental health charity Silver Ribbon found that a quarter of the 577 participants had experienced “more than usual” anxiety and feelings of low moods.
Now, more than ever, is the pressing time to make God’s Word more available, accessible and credible to all peoples. This is why BSS has worked with various partners, such as Care Corner Singapore, Caring for Life, Trauma Healing Institute and Lutheran Community Care Services, to roll out Bible-based mental wellness programmes to help the local community become more resilient. Since December 2020, the Sower Institute for Biblical Discipleship (SIBD)—a Ministry of BSS—and Caring for Life have been jointly holding a LIFE Training workshop twice a month to help participants identify potential suicide cases, and introduce them to the basic principles of suicide identification and prevention.
Mental wellness also has to do with Trauma Healing, which is a ministry that BSS has been helming since 2014, with professional trainers from the USA and local facilitators. In order to amplify our Trauma Healing efforts, SIBD and the Trauma Healing Institute organised a Trauma Healing Initial Equipping workshop which combined proven mental health practices with the wisdom of the Bible to bring restoration and hope to the broken-hearted. SIBD also partnered Care Corner Singapore to organise a series of talks on mental wellness, titled Empowerment for Effective Self-Care. More information on these events can be found on page 28.
To continue efforts to make the Word of God accessible to all peoples, in 2021, SIBD will organise more Bible Literacy Programmes in more languages and for targetted age groups. BSS Chinese Ministry will also expand its reach by working with regional partners in 18 countries and territories in East Asia, South East Asia, the Pacific, and even in North America. It will reach out to the larger Chinese-speaking communities and bridge the gap by offering more Bible-based courses and resources to build up the Body of Christ.
Sowing Care for the Needy
Aside from strengthening our mental wellbeing, God has also called us to serve the physical needs of our fellow brothers and sisters. The Bible urges us to “share (our) bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into (our houses)” (Isaiah 58:7a). It is with this missional call in mind that SowCare—the social service arm of BSS—continues to partner the Alliance of Guest Workers Outreach (AGWO)—a movement of Hope Initiative Alliance—to reach out to needy communities, such as the guest workers. On 17 December 2020, SowCare and its pool of volunteers were actively involved in an International Migrants Day cum Christmas Celebration that launched a nine-day long celebration for more than 10,000 workers across 75 factory-converted dormitories (FCDs). A special festive meal was served to 600 guest workers from one of the FCDs on 17 December. (More information on this initiative can be found on page 18.)
Beyond celebrating festive occasions with the guest workers, SowCare is also focused on improving their mental wellness by teaming up with partners to provide suicide prevention support, counselling, recreation activities and befriending services.
Another vulnerable group that SowCare has been blessed to help is the homeless. On 19 December 2020, SowCare hosted a Christmas celebration for 14 rough sleepers at the Safe Sound Sleeping Places (S3P) at the Bible House (S3P is a community initiative to provide temporary shelter for rough sleepers, set up in partnership with the Ministry for Social and Family Development (MSF)). SowCare supports S3P@Bible House, which currently houses 10 homeless individuals. The programme included a lunch and dinner for the homeless individuals, a bazaar and an opportunity for them to receive gifts for themselves and their loved ones. SowCare also distributed 500 care packs to homeless individuals in celebration of Christmas. Aside from S3P, SowCare also supports The Innkeeper’s Project, in partnership with New Hope Community Services and Singapore Kindness Movement, that aims to provide holistic care for 165 homeless individuals housed temporarily in HDB estates.
Also, SowCare aims to work and partner with more churches to impact the community by doing good together with them. (More information on SowCare’s activities can be found on page 20.)
Wielding the Word
With the Lent season upon us, Sower Publishing Centre—also a ministry of BSS—has produced a 2021 Lent Devotional, themed From Fear to Faith, commissioned by the National Council of Churches of Singapore and into its 16th year running. Visit bible.org.sg/lent to get an e-copy of the Lent Devotional 2021.
Sower Publishing Centre will also continue to render more services and digitalisation efforts to make Scriptural resources more available online and on various digital platforms.
In May, BSS will also be organising the annual DECLARE event—a 72-hour long national Bible reading event—typically held in conjunction with the Feast of Pentecost, where believers come together to read the Bible aloud in different languages.
More Partnerships and Initiatives Looking Ahead
Moving forward, BSS will continue to assist churches in digitalising their services through SowerCommuniTech—our offering of digitalisation and media services to meet the future needs of the Christian community. Watch out for more BSS digitalisation projects underway that aim to provide holistic services for the churches and community—fulfilling our core purpose in making God’s Word more relevant in this digital era.
In the midst of this Lent season, let us not forget to be the love of Christ in tangible form to the people around us. May we embody the sacrificial love of Christ to help rebuild lives in need of His transforming power and resilience that comes from an unwavering faith in Him.
This article was originally posted in our June 2021 Word@Work.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” —John 14:12
As faithful followers of Jesus, those who have been born again and redeemed are to be stewards of God’s creation, extending the Kingdom of God throughout the Earth to transform lives and bring peoples to Christ through the power of the Gospel. Despite our imperfections, we can still be influential because of God’s grace and power in and through us, by becoming a blessing to others to bear fruit for Him. This is also the vital role that The Bible Society of Singapore (BSS) plays as a Christ-centred and Bible-based mission agency—to become key influencers in making the Word of God known to everyone and providing care for the vulnerable and marginalised communities.
As BSS strives to do more this year through partnerships with like-minded organisations locally and overseas, we pray that God will raise up more labourers, such as volunteers, donors or partners—as “the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few” (Matthew 9:37). If you are moved to serve the Kingdom of God, join the Bible Mission—visit bible.org.sg for more information.
Increasing Efforts to Spread God’s Word to the Minority Language Groups
Making God’s Word available in everyone’s heart language has always been at the core of The Bible Society of Singapore’s (BSS) mission. Hence, BSS strives to reach out to the nations within our nation to sow God’s Word to the minority language groups in Singapore such as the Tamil, Bahasa, Thai, and Filipino. In addition, BSS has also been reaching out to the Chinese community through various initiatives, such as the Bible translation project for the Li minority language in China.
In the last quarter of 2020, Sower Publishing Centre (SPC)—a ministry of BSS— launched and published a new Chinese Christian Theological Explorations series. These include The Apostles’ Creed: A Chinese Catechism, The Lord’s Prayer: A Chinese Catechism, The Ten Commandments: A Chinese Catechism, Meditations on the Birthing of Christ, and An Illustrated Brief History of Christianity. Through the increased efforts and number of produced resources, we hope to empower all language communities to learn more about the truth of God’s Word in their own language and to influence and impact the people around them.
For 16 years, SPC has also been commissioned by the National Council of Churches in Singapore to produce the annual Lenten Devotional booklet for the Christian community. These were made available in English, Chinese, Bahasa Indonesian, Tamil, and even Hokkien. With a theme From Fear to Faith, this year’s Lenten Devotional e-book version was downloaded worldwide. Nearly 16% of the total e-book downloads originated from 19 countries in North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania. There were also a total of 7,200 copies printed for the English version and 3,800 copies for the Chinese version.
Building Up Christian Faith Through Engagement Programmes
Apart from publishing a plethora of resources and Scripture materials, BSS’s various ministries also seek to increase its reach by working closely with our local, regional and global partners in 18 countries through engagement programmes, to cater to the growing needs of the minority language communities. As of last year, more than 17,000 people from 20 countries have attended our various virtual equipping programmes.
Over the years, BSS has been actively engaging people with the Word of God through our Language-based Ministry Programmes. The Chinese Ministry of BSS has been organising various Bible-based initiatives, such as The Bible and Chinese Culture Festival (BCCF) to influence the Chinese Christian community to appreciate the integration of the Bible and Chinese culture in a creative way. The D6 Family Conference was launched in 2016 and has been an annual event since then. It was finally adapted to Chinese D6 Conference in 2017 and has also become an annual event that aims to equip the participants with practical principles in discipling and influencing the next generation with Biblical values.
The Alliance of Indian Ministries (AIM) was also launched in 2018 and is now working closely with The Alliance of Guest Workers Outreach (AGWO)—a movement of Hope Initiative Alliance—that aims to take the love of God to the guest workers in Singapore and overseas. In addition, starting this year, BSS will be partnering with Network of Filipino Churches in Singapore (NetFIL) in order to reach out to over 200,000 Filipinos in Singapore. These are just a few of the many initiatives we have conducted to reach out to the various communities with the Word of God.
Influencers of Hope and Faith
Aside from serving the minority language groups, it is also equally important for BSS to cater to the needs of the people who are struggling with the psychological impacts of the current COVID-19 pandemic—for we are called to comfort those in trouble with compassion and comfort we receive from God (2 Corinthians 1:3). We remain committed to being the influencer of hope and faith to people dealing with such crises.
Hence, SowCare—the community service arm of The Bible Society of Singapore—has been providing holistic care for the vulnerable, poor and needy communities, such as the homeless. Since 2020, a series of outreach programmes for the destitute have been launched, especially during festive occasions.
On 12 and 13 May 2021 (Hari Raya), SowCare hosted an event for the rough sleepers at S3P@Bible House and S3P@Life Centre, where special festive meals were distributed to the rough sleepers, as well as ‘green packets’ and new shirts as gifts.
The Sower Institute for Biblical Discipleship (SIBD)—a BSS ministry—has organised various mental wellness programmes. This year, the Empowerment for Effective Self-Care was organised by SIBD from January to March to increase awareness of mental health issues. The LIFE Training—a suicide prevention workshop—was also organised monthly since February 2021 to equip the participants in caring for those who struggle with suicidal ideation. (More information on these events can be found on page 27.)
BSS is also supporting the inaugural Christian Mental Health Conference in July 2021. The conference is organised by Christian Mental Health Advocates, Association of Christian Counsellors and Promises Healthcare that sought to provide clinical perspectives on the issues of mental health and how these perspectives stand in relation to Biblical teachings.
With the rise of secularism, radical ideologies and extremism, being ambassadors of Christ also means influencing the world with Biblical values. Since 2014, this has been the vital role of ETHOS Institute for Public Christianity—a Christian think-tank—to serve the Church and society by engaging contemporary issues and trends from the Christian perspective. In October 2020, the ETHOS Annual Conference 2020 was held to help participants understand as to how our Christian foundation plays an important role in shaping and influencing moral values and the common good. In March, Mr K Shanmugam, Minister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law, graced the ETHOS Conversation 2021: Religion and Politics in Singapore as the Guest of Honour. The event helped to equip the Churches in addressing the complex intersections between religion and politics. In April, nearly 1,000 people signed up for Church and Society in Pandemic Times, where Mr Lawrence Wong, the then Minister for Education and Second Minister for Finance, discussed the impact of the pandemic and its effect via Zoom. (More information on these events can be found on page 27-28.)
Influencing the Next Generation
With the increased influence of digital media to the younger generation—exposing them to a plethora of worldly beliefs and practices—it is also crucial to engage the youths with Bible-based initiatives.
That is why, aside from the guest workers, homeless and other vulnerable groups, SowCare—the community service arm of BSS—has also increased its efforts to reach out to the youths in Singapore. In December 2020, SowCare participated in the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY)’s Mission: Unite Hackathon. The SowCare Together team emerged as one of the top ten finalists. A grant of SGD$20,000 was presented by President Halimah Yacob to the team in order to implement its initiative that aims to influence the youths to do good together for the vulnerable communities. On 3 April, the SowCare Together initiative was officially launched by Mr Alvin Tan, the Minister of State, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth & Ministry of Trade and Industry with representatives from various partnering organisations. (More information on these events can be found on Page 20.)
Increase Christ’s Followers and Bible Mission Supporters
In spite of the changing times, God’s powerful and influential Word has enabled the Bible Mission to step up its efforts to fulfil the Great Commission. By following in Jesus’ footsteps, we endeavour to become fishers of men, so that many may know God’s life-transforming Word and follow His Son as their ultimate Influencer.
Without givers like you, the Bible Mission cannot have an impact or influence on the community. With your support, we are partnering with our sister Bible Societies to bring hope and light in the midst of the dark world we are living in. Together, we can make a difference. Click here to donate today.
This article was originally posted in our June 2019 Word@Work.
We pursue our historic objective of achieving the widest possible,effective and meaningful distribution of Holy Scriptures and to help people interact with the Word of God…”—This is one of the objectives of the Bible Mission that was stated in the Philadelphia Promise—affirmed by the Bible Societies during the World Assembly in Philadelphia in 2016. (To read the full document, visit bible.org.sg/philadelphiapromise). Staying true to this, The Bible Society of Singapore (BSS) upholds this objective of our mission by providing a variety of Bible engagement programmes, services, and resources that meet the growing needs of people locally and in the region.
While Jesus commands us to go into the world and proclaim the Gospel (Mark 16:15), this mission will not be fulfilled unless the Word is readily accessible to all. This is the vital role that Sower Publishers— a ministry of BSS—plays in the Bible Mission, publishing Bibles and Scripture materials in various languages, versions and formats. Locally, Sower Publishers has participated in fundraising efforts to print 70,000 copies of the New Testament in English and Chinese for Celebration of Hope (COH) 2019. These copies were distributed to new believers during the 3-day mass rally from 17–19 May at the National Stadium. Similarly, in 2015, Sower Publishers was also involved in the production of 53,000 copies of the Jubilee SG50 Bibles, which were distributed to the participants of the Jubilee Day of Prayer to bless their pre-believing friends.
Embarking on the Bible Mission is not limited to outreach; it also involves encouraging others with the Living Word. In 2012 and 2013, Sower Publishers also served the Filipino community in Singapore by printing and distributing over 10,000 copies of the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) Bible in partnership with the Network of Filipino Churches in Singapore. To individuals who have left their families, especially transient workers, the Word of God can be an immense source of comfort. Other than transient workers, there are also individuals who have been separated from their families and loved ones, and are in need of God’s hope— those who have been imprisoned. Also in 2012, Sower Publishers partnered with Prison Fellowship Singapore to publish the Free on the Inside Bible, which contains notes of encouragement and advice on how to attain the freedom that God has promised through Christ (John 8:36). Beyond Singapore, Sower Publishers is also involved in supporting various Bible distribution projects in China, Sri Lanka, Qatar, and many others. As an inter-confessional missions organisation, it is our ethos to serve the needs of the Church and edify her members. Since 2006, Sower Publishers has been producing a yearly Lenten Devotional to encourage Christians to meditate on the Word during the season of Lent. This year, Sower Publishers printed about 18,500 copies of the devotional with the theme Hope in Tribulation in English, Chinese, Tamil and Bahasa.
Aside from encouraging Christians to ruminate on God’s promises, BSS also aims to equip the Christian community to respond to contemporary societal issues. Sower Publishers has been regularly publishing the ETHOS Engagement Series in partnership with the National Council of Churches of Singapore and Trinity Theological College, dealing with a wide range of topics.
Since its first publication in 2014, 12 books have been published, and have been well-received by the public. (Get a copy of this series from the Bible Resource Centre, or visit bibleresource.net). The Bible Society not only serves
contemporary society, but also the marginalised communities. Hence, we actively contribute to charitable causes. Early this year, Sower Publishers was actively involved in the production of photo books for Our Place in the World, a fundraising photo exhibition by Speaker of
Parliament, Tan Chuan-Jin. The exhibition managed to raise over $1.7 million for 13 local charities that serve the poor and needy. Our work does not end here. Being ambassadors of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20), there is a need to introduce Jesus to the young and pre-believers. In 2016, Sower Publishers launched Sheepography, a series of delightful and endearing illustrations that beautifully convey the loving relationship that Jesus, the Shepherd, has with His sheep. Since then, Sheepography has grown and now produces a wide variety of products, ranging from their P23 (Psalm 23) Plushie to journals and calendars. (To find out what Sheepography has to offer, read our feature on page 38). Sower Publishers is open for partnerships to bless more people in Singapore and beyond. If you are interested to partner with us, visit our website at bible.org.sg/spc or email publishing@bible.org.sg.
Our goal of serving people goes beyond producing products; there are also arrays of services to bring forth the truth of God’s Word. This is why the Bible Society offers Bible Mission Trips (BMTs) organised by the International Bible Experiences (IBEx). BMTs allow participants to experience how enriching Bible Mission work can be, as they reach out and spread God’s love to the local communities. (Read the heartwarming stories from past Bible Mission Trips on pages 10 and 11). Aside from overseas mission fields, the Word must be preached to the online community as well. Early this year, The Bible Society launched the SOWGOOD mobile application, which provides a plethora of online resources and opportunities for sharing and learning the Word of God. Download the app today to discover the latest Christian-related events, products, tours, videos and more! 6 Lastly, arts@work, a marketplace initiative in partnership with Far East Plaza and Far East Organization, organised an art exhibition during the season of Lent, titled Steps of Unity: Jesus Walks the Difficult Road—The 14 Stations of the Cross. The exhibition featured artworks of Jesus’ journey from Gethsemane to Calvary by artist Dianne Minnaar, to encourage reflection and meditation upon the immense sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the cross. (More information about the exhibition and event can be found on page 22.) All these initiatives would not have been made possible without our donors, partners and volunteers. It is our hope
and aim that through the production and provision of these products and services, the gospel will be proclaimed to all peoples, and above all, impact lives by leading people to Jesus.