A Pioneering Spirit at work
A week after the initial house meetings, the church moved into a shop-lot in SS2. One of the early miracles that the church experienced was that they were able to come up with the rent and deposit even though a majority of the members at the time were students with just a handful of young working adults. It was in this premises where the now-legendary story of church members sitting on newspapers on the floor is frequently recounted!Ask any of the church pioneers, and they would likely tell you that there were two keys that sustained FGT- prayer and sacrifice. It was that combination of trusting in God and a willingness to sacrifice which saw the church through its early years. Although the church could not boast of having much to attract visitors, it nevertheless saw steady growth over the months and years as members faithfully did.
We were poor. I remember our first challenge was to raise finance to rent the shop-lot. It was an ideal place- in terms of location, size, hall arrangement but the asking price was really high. We challenged everyone to come together to raise the money needed. It was the Chinese New Year season, and they gave from what they received. We counted the money and found that we had just enough to pay the deposit and secure the place. I suppose it was memorable because we achieved it with their support and sacrifice. Pastor Goh Hock Huat
Ang Kim Hong (1981)
The Sunday worship service was something I always looked forward to in the early days as coming to church was not an easy thing for me
What made it more exciting was Sunday School which was held before service started, and we usually stayed on from morning till afternoon. Prayer Meeting on the other hand was not as big as what we have today but it was dynamic as
the church was growing and was meeting needs then as it is now. Prayer has always been a strong point of FGT.
As for the youth meeting, we called it YF and not 365 like today. YF grew fast at that time and serving then was a
challenge. As a leader then, you were constantly learning and developing the giftings that you had as one was called upon to serve.
No one pushed you to study or to develop your skills- you just had to learn to do it yourself, otherwise you would not be effective in meeting needs. I guess that kind of regime helped develop many outstanding leaders, many of whom are still actively serving Him today.
