We were a Saturday Methodist Youth Fellowship (MYF) of Geylang Chinese Methodist Church (GCMC). We were meeting at level 1 of the GCMC building.
Attendance dwindled till five regular attendees. They prayed and asked the Lord if MYF should continue on Maundy Thursday of 1987, at an overnight prayer gathering. Although there was no clear answer, they felt they should run a youth event in the June holidays that was coming.
This event took place at Katong Park, and by God granting favour of men, quite a number of secondary school students from GMSS attended. Miraculously, God preserved good weather only at Katong Park, with people as near as at the bus-stop right outside of the park experiencing heavy rain (witness present today).
Some of these youths came to YF regularly, bringing more youths, bringing more schools… and it was taken that God has answered their prayer to continue the ministry
The English Congregation of Geylang Chinese Methodist Church became autonomous on 1st January 1989 and was named Charis Methodist Church.
We continued as a Methodist Youth Fellowship (MYF) of Charis Methodist Church.
We met at the new church office which was across the main road, at an industrial building with orange bricks in various hues, affectionately nicknamed ‘Orange Building’.
As a Methodist Youth Fellowship (MYF), we left Charis Methodist Church to join Covenant Evangelical Free Church (Covenant)
Their care-groups were named by the 12 tribes of Israel, and we were given the name ‘Gad’.
We were meeting at Joo Chiat where there was an old building belonging to Presbyterian Church (PC) for a while. Subsequently we moved out from there and rented a Bomb shelter in Pasir Ris to continue our weekly meeting.
Bomb shelter gave us the space to do daily ministry like tuition programs, a drop-in centre for the youth…etc.
Some days when PC was used, we could use a nearby Katong Presbyterian Church’s premises to have YF. By God’s amazing grace, we never had to miss a single Saturday.
In 1997, Covenant finally successfully bid for a plot of land in Bukit Panjang in the far west of Singapore. Gad being made up mostly of people living in the east, was asked to consider to be a church plant in the East.
After much prayer, we became a church in April 1998. The name Emmaus was chosen with the back story from Luke 24:13-35 – it embodies what we are and what we hope to be. A church whose heart will be warm to God’s word, whose eyes are open, whose people have conversations about His things and more.
We began our journey as Church.
We had our first afternoon service at Geylang Chinese Methodist Church Building level 2 (GCMC). As we can only rent from them from 1:00pm onwards, our service was from 2:00pm to 3:30pm.
All the other activities were held at a rented unit at Guilin Building.
The church was officially registered as Emmaus Evangelical Free Church.
We appealed to Rev. Brian Cummins for help, specifically to be our regular pulpit pastor.
He came and he was teaching until he had to leave Singapore to be back to Canada in 2001.
We started sending mission teams to Thailand, China, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia…
In June 2004, at one of our bi-annual camps, we spent time praying for Unreached People Groups and one of the People Group is the Akha. It was the Jonah camp, with the critical question of are we unwilling witnesses for God like Jonah, or do we have God’s heart for the lost (last verses).
After 2 years of regular short term mission trips to an Asia country, we decided to focus our support for the Akha. We started to work with a few key individuals among the Akha Ministry and give regular support to the work.
We sent out our 1st missionary, Sim Chuan and family into the mission field – Macau, then Kunming, China.
By the mercy and grace of God, almost by accident, our church came to know of a Christian owner of a new freehold building, who was looking to sell or rent out floors to churches. The place is two floors of Antioch@MacPherson. It was also God’s answer to prayer of many years for a permanent place (as permanent as earth can give) without a bank loan. The purchase price of $5.1m was fully paid by the many years of fund-raising caroling, carnivals, making original normal cards, Christmas cards and trinkets to sell… and the faith pledges of many YFers past and present… but ultimately who can give without the Giver first blessing us?
With little money left over, minimal renovation was done, and the bulk of 4th floor was left as cement floor until two years later. The small rooms at 4th floor were named after major places that the Lord brought us to along our journey, so that we will not forget all His wonderful faithfulness and amazing works all the way – Orange Building, Guilin, Bomb Shelter and GCMC.
We had our first Service at Antioch in Nov 2010.
We seek out the help of Mr. Albert Lee to come onboard as the appointed person by Church Council to take the lead role in Emmaus.
We believe that it is God’s arrangement for us to be located in this area of Macpherson. Being saved by grace through faith in Christ, God has prepared for us to do good works through Christ (Eph 2: 8 – 10). Hence, we hope to share God’s goodness and blessings in our lives in our neighbourhood. Thus Emmaus Neighbourhood Outreach (ENO) was started from ENO Read, followed by ENO Tuition, ENO Dodgeball, and ENO Arts & Craft. Our desire is for the programs to help us form authentic relationships with our neighbours.
The Church appointed Rev Dr. McCoy Chow as our Pastor.
The Covid-19 pandemic compelled the church to use technology so that Sunday service, Sunday school, small group meetings, small group bible studies, prayer gatherings, can still take place despite the various government safe management measures. Recorded online service progressed to live online service progressed to hybrid physical/ online service. Small group meetings, prayer gatherings, and bible studies held on zoom online.
At the Annual General Meeting, Mr Albert Lee stepped aside from the lead role after faithfully serving for the past 10 years, guiding and mentoring the Elders and Deacons of Emmaus.
In his last report, Albert highlighted 3 things that are needed in the world we live in:
Truth, Community and Hope
Continue to:
- Teach God’s Word faithfully. (2 Tim 2:15)
- Care for one another appropriately. (John 13:35)
- Mobilise all to serve, effectively. (Rom 1:16 & 1 Pet 1:13)
Will we continue to say the following?
- Fear nothing but God? Trust God and do what is right. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
- Hate nothing but sin? Repent and confess our sins. (1 John 1:9)
- Know nothing but Christ crucified? Christ living in me. (Galatians 2:20