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Message from Col (Ret) Chan Choy Kee, Dec 2008


Ang Mo Kio Methodist Church was built in 1980 to accommodate a congregation of about 350 members. Over the last 30 years or so, our congregation has grown to nearly 1,000 worshippers. This does not include the additional 700 members from the other two Methodist Churches (CAC & ETAC) who are sharing the same building with us. Those of you who have been with the church long enough would remember the many additions and alterations we have made to the current church building to cater to our growing needs. Many of us were cognizant of the fact that it was only a matter of time before we had to re-build our church.

The idea to redevelop the church building was mooted more than five years ago.  It made prudent sense as we still have a balance lease of seventy (70) years for the site. Finally, after prayerful consideration, on 30th March 2008, the Joint Management Committee (JMC) made up of key representatives of the 3 Churches (Ang Mo Kio Methodist Church (English), Ang Mo Kio Chinese Methodist Church and Ang Mo Kio Tamil Methodist Church) decided to embark on a church rebuilding plan.

Our Church leaders wasted no time and set up our own TRAC AMKMC Redevelopment Management Committee. Under this committee are four sub-committees taking charge of the various aspects of the redevelopment namely: Fund Raising, Publicity, Relocation and Finance. These are mirrored after the JMC level committees formed by representatives of TRAC, CAC and ETAC. I am glad to report that we have made significant progress since the decision was made to go ahead with the Church redevelopment. We have designed a corporate logo for the project, produced a publicity video, an FAQ booklet, completed a number of fund raising activities and most recently, conducted a Q & A session to update and solicit feedback from Church members on the project.

The new building will cost $18 million to construct. Of this, $5 million will be raised by JMC. Of the remaining $13 million, TRAC will have to raise about $7 million, 54% of the $13 million. We envisage that 80% of this amount or about $5.6 million will have to come from pledges and 20% from fund raising activities. We have given ourselves 2 years to raise the money. Over the last 2 years, Church members have generously contributed about $500,000 seed money for the redevelopment. The recent pledging exercise netted a commitment of $945,730 at the point of this writing. Together with the various funds received through previous donations and fund raising activities the total amount raised to date is about $1.63 million. This is most encouraging.

However, we are still a long way from our target. We need to raise at least 70% of the required $18 million or $12.6 million by mid 2010 before we can proceed with the redevelopment. As Pastor has said in the publicity video, "the sum may seem daunting, but nothing is impossible with God". We must move forward with faith. With God's help and your support, the redevelopment committee is confident that we will succeed in enlarging our tent for God's glory.


(this article first appeared on “The Journey” Dec 2008 issue)

 

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