Many things have happened this year. Let’s just review.

January, 1^stcase of covid-19 confirmed.

February, covid-19 hit a Singapore church.

March, selected foreign visitors banned from entering Singapore.

April, circuit breaker implemented.  

Mid-April, many dormitories declared isolation areas.

YTD June, record high dengue cases surpassing historical high to 10,732.

And against the backdrop of all of the above, came the worse economic recession and global trade war in our lifetime.  

To many, 2020 seems like one long dark valley.  How is your 2020?

One of my dearest friend and mentor is Bobby Clinton from Fuller Theological Seminary. He helped me to reframe ‘dark valleys’ into the picture of ‘dark tunnels.’  He said the journey through the ‘dark tunnel’ can be divided into 4 stages:

1^ststage – light behind us – as you enter the dark tunnel, you are scared. You are constantly looking back for the light behind you, longing to run backwards towards the light.  But you cannot.

2^ndstage – light disappeared – as you travel deeper; the light behind you is gone.  It is totally dark.  You are terrified.  You feel so lost.

3^rdstage – light above us – you look up and notice there are air holes in the tunnel.  The star light shining through the holes impress upon you that God is with you in this journey.  You suddenly have a supernatural courage to venture on.

4^thstage – light in front of us – you look forward and start seeing a light at the end of the tunnel and you thank God for walking you through this dark journey.  And as you exit the dark tunnel, you have grown: in your faith as you face today; in your hope as you face tomorrow; and in gratitude as you look back at 2020.

I don’t know what stage of the journey you are in.  But be rest assured that the Good Shepherd of Ps 23 will get you “through” this dark tunnel and in the process – make you strong.  ‘Dark tunnels’ are necessary pathways of growth.

We at BTS too have been traveling through a dark tunnel.  As we close our books for the fiscal year 2020, we were looking at serious red ink as the 2 major sources of our revenue declined.  Our church contributions dropped 22 percent.  Our individual friends’ contributions dropped 30 percent.  Accordingly, in 2020 we have already frozen the salaries of our faculty and staff at 2019 level.

But the Lord lift our eyes from the accounts to ‘look up’ in the 3^rdstage of our journey towards Him and be encouraged.  Through the government’s Job Support Scheme (JSS), the JSS paid us just barely enough to erase our red ink.  We recognise this is God’s right hand of protection to encourage us to sojourn onwards.  

As we travel through this dark valley, we are thankful to God for each of you.  The scriptures reminded me that God does not evaluate gifts by the quantum.  But he cherishes givers who are both “generous” and “cheerful”.  And you, BTS’s faithful supporters, indeed have been both “generous” and “cheerful” towards God’s work in BTS.  Your gifts have encouraged us to constantly “look upwards” while we are still in this dark valley (2021 looks like a more challenging year) and be faithful in our guaranteed march out of this “2020 dark valley”.  

Together for His glory,

Rev Peter Lin

President