The Little Church within the Church

Manik has a childhood habit in Singapore, that is to have breakfast of Roti prata from a nearby food court (or a hawker centre) on a Saturday morning.
What he has is quite unacceptable for a Chinese woman like me.

I can't understand how can one have such an oily meal with curry early in the morning???
Therefore I decided to have some Chinese noodles (which is good to eat at any time of the day of course ;)
Here's a photo of the food we had this morning~ Manik's roti prata and Maple's prawn noodles...

Here's wishing all our beloved family and loved ones in various places in the world, a wonderful Christmas and a new year you can look forward to.

Thank God for this season, a reminder to all the world of the gift of His Son, the Saviour of the world, born on earth so that we may have forgiveness and new life.

Love from Manik and Maple Corea

ps - Chrismas tree at home courtesy of Mum & Dad

Maple and my world changed irrevocably this past August. First, as many of you may still remember who were there, on August 20th 2005 (don’t forget Manik!) we vowed before God to love and cherish each other as husband and wife till death parted us. What followed that unforgettable day in August, after a brief trip away to the beautiful Norfolk countryside, was frantic days of packing, as we attempted to empty our flats, give away what we could and pack our bags for our move back to Asia and Singapore where I grew up. No doubt we were not able to say our proper goodbyes to many of you in Colchester, England.

The memories we carried with us from our time in Colchester are full, vivid and life-affirming. The faces and places from my 5 years there (and Maple’s three-and-a-half) will continue to remind us that home is where God places you, and for us, Colchester was special. As we look back, it is amazing to think of the mind-boggling way God brought us from two different backgrounds and cultures, to yoke us together as husband and wife the other side of the world.

We are ever grateful to God for some of the key characters in our story, not least our families who loved us enough to let us go, but also to many of you whose friendship, love and encouragement meant the world (and sometimes crossed the world) to us.Our time in Colchester could not happened without God’s people in 3 different parts of the world co-operating together.

There was the kind support financially from St Paul’s Anglican Church, Singapore - the church where I grew up in and is still close to my heart. They adopted me as an associate missionary for 3 years while I was in Colchester and provided me generously with monthly funds until recently.

Then, there was the sensitive oversight and leading of Jon Shuler and NAMS (under the administration of King of Kings Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA) who originally sent me to Colchester and now on to Asia, and who provided funding through missionary contributions all through my time there up to the present. NAMS in Asia is now happening!

Both Maple and I were also most privileged to work under and be blessed for 5 years by the inspiring work of David and Janie Beales and the community of faith called DNA Networks in Colchester England, which they planted and lead. Maple’s time in Colchester was funded sacrificially by gifts from members of the DNA church, while my housing expenses were also paid for throughout. We will also continue our partnership with them and truly think of them now as our sending church. In addition, Maple and I were also welcomed, loved and encouraged by many others in the community of faith in DNA and by Christians from many other churches in Colchester. We also remember particularly the different ones we were privileged to work together with in the international work at the university in events like All Nations and Dunamis. They were great years and Maple and I were greatly loved and blessed.

Finally, there are friends scattered throughout the UK like Angela Leeding in Norwich and others in Europe and other parts of the world who gave us great encouragement during our time in the UK.We hope that through this blog-site, we will keep all of you friends and family informed regularly of what we are up to. We would love feedback from any of you at anytime.

Please do keep in contact. We love hearing from you and will do our best to respond individually as soon as we can.
With love,
Manik Corea

14th December 2005.

Why are we back in Singapore?
Since August 1999, when I joined NAMS as a church-planter in training, I have now had 6 years as a NAMS associate church-planter. So, 2005 was always going to be a sabbatical/furlough year of sorts for me. In 2004, Maple and I also started making serious plans towards marriage and sensed that God was calling us to look to return to Asia from Colchester England. This we prayed about and sought the counsel of those above us in the Lord. A united decision was made by us with NAMS and DNA that we would return to Singapore in September of 2005 for a year of furlough, a sabbatical first year of marriage which would be for us a time to rest, settle into married life and make initial preparations for a further move into another Asian country where we intend to begin to plant an international church.

What are we doing now?
For the moment, Maple has made an application for Permanent Resident (PR) status in Singapore (so that she doesn’t have to keep leaving the country every month!). She is also busy making a home within a home for us and may take a part-time job once her PR status comes through. It is a blessing to be able to live with my parents, but we have both still adjusting to being in a more confined space at home, as well as the unrelenting pace of life in Singapore and its hot, humid climate (though December is definitely a cooler month!).

Manik has enrolled for some theological courses at a local Bible College, and looking into doing a CELTA course next year or at some point in the future.

Please will you pray with us :

1. That we will lay the right foundations for a strong, healthy marriage and family, built out of mutual love, respect and with God as our centre.

2. That God will clearly make known in His time the country of His choosing that we are to relocate to after our year or so in Singapore.

3. That Maple’s PR application will soon be processed, and that we will have sufficient funds for travel to UK and China in 2006. Pray for a good time in Thailand in late January when we will have Chinese New Year together with her aunt's family, dad and brother.

4. That we will have sufficient funding for the courses of study that we intend topursue in the new year in order to equip us for the work God will have us do.

5 . For the provision of financial needs, as we will need to raise funds to support ourselves after August 2006.

6. Finally, that we will truly be a blessing to our families, friends and those around us, by our words, actions and lives. Pray too that we will seek constantly to share and bear good witness to the love and good news of Jesus to those who don’t know Him.

Thank you
Maple and Manik