Officers' Retreat

Once again we were invited to participate in the Officers' Retreat, a privilege that is given in our Territory. In many territories, retirees are excluded. In many places that I know of the retirees have their own retreats. We have very few retired officers - in Singapore there are only three of us, Major Wasagan and ourselves and in Malaysia four officers, Majors Teck Fung and Grace Lim and Majors Stephen and Esther Rengasamy)

In 2001 we were invited to Christchurch, New Zealand to conduct series of Bible studies for the Retired Officers' Convention held in Christchurch from 18- 21 October. It was called SPROC (South Pacific Retired Officers Convention) for the retired officers of the two Australian territories and New Zealand. I gave a series of studies on Psalm 139.

Anyway, Major Pascoe, Aux. Captains Raymond and Cathy Aloba plus both of us left at 2.00 p.m. from Praisehaven. It rained cats and dogs on the way. We got to the Singapore check point, when lo and behold, the immigration officer would not permit the Raymond and Cathy to leave as their exit visas have expired. So we had to return home.

While Raymond and Cathy had to go to the Immigration Department to sort out their visas, Major Pascoe and both of us left again for Johor. We checked in and had our dinner and welcome meeting.

In the meantime, Raymond and Cathy got their papers cleared and Major returned to Singapore to fetch them to the Retreat.

The theme was "Come unto me." The papers presented were good and relevant to our needs. In the evenings we had more relaxing time when children were also involved. We ended with a time of commitment to the Lord.

We left at 3.00 p.m. and arrived home about 4.00 p.m. We thank God for the fellowship we had with our officers of both Singapore and Malaysia.