Creasmans World

Our first year in China, in 1997, we didn’t think we would have a Christmas tree. We had a few humble decorations, but in those days Christmas was not well recognized in China. In our city of a few million people, we saw maybe half a dozen signs of Christmas around town. Most of the people we knew were not conscious of the actual date for Christmas. Nowadays, as affluence grows, it is much different. Christmas is becoming a big commercial holiday all around China, and throughout Asia. And in Singapore, which is about 15% Christian (majority Buddhist/Daoist, with minority Muslims and Hindus), it is a huge commercial deal.

On Christmas Eve that year, Kimberly were on our bikes riding around downtown doing a little shopping. Low and behold! We saw a Christmas tree! Green plastic, about three feet tall. We had to get it. That served us for two years in China…

And for our first eight years in Singapore, we also had a trusty fake 6-foot tree that served us well. But last year, Kimberly put her maternal foot down and felt that our children ought to have the experience of a real Christmas tree. So… we got one.

Tonight we went out and got our second real Christmas tree in Singapore! I am sure this is the earliest we have ever put up a Christmas tree, even when we had a fake one in the closet. (Boy, are we looking forward to a holiday!) We found out that it came from the US, so that means it must have been cut down about???!!!

It doesn’t feel like Thanksgiving without a family dinner…. but we still have plenty to be thankful for.

Kimberly decided to invite friends to come have a taste of the American tradition, learn about where Thanksgiving came from, and share some fellowship in our apartment. We had friends from church and the neighborhood, both foreigners and locals.

Kimberly bought a turkey and ham and made up the side dishes, and friends brought the drinks and desserts. We invited people to drop by between 7-10pm (Thanksgiving is a working day here) and 48 people showed up!

Before dinner we gathered around the table and explained some of the food and some of the history, from the first observation in 1621 to the presidential proclamations in 1789 and 1863, to today. Jim led in prayer, asking people to reflect and thank God silently for something this year.

For most of those present, it was their first taste of Thanksgiving, and they expressed how much they enjoyed it. That gave us a lot of joy, though we weren’t able to share the meal with our families across the world.

CRM Singapore is governed by an Executive Committee of eight elected members, with me serving as President. Today we met for the afternoon to talk about International Expansion.

Part of our vision for CRMS is to birth apostolic mentoring teams in every country in Asia. We want to reproduce what we provide in Singapore, which is bringing godly and gifted mentors alongside church and mission leaders to help them in their spiritual and leadership growth.

Part of the calling for the Singapore church, and a factor that motivated us to come here when we first considered it in 1996, was to equip them to build leaders for the church in China, and for all of Asia.

Last month our Exco considered how to expand in Singapore, discussing what kind of staff we needed in order to grow. Today we brainstormed how to expand to other countries in Asia. There are a lot of questions we do not yet have answers for, but we are excited to start exploring in 2010!

I held a one day seminar today to teach mentoring philosophy and skills. Church Resource Ministries is primarily about mentoring Christian leaders. We create small groups and one-to-one relationships to focus on spiritual renewal, character formation, and leadership development. The result is not only leaders that benefit in their own lives and ministries, but leaders who in turn become mentors for others.

I have learned a lot over the years about the dynamics of mentoring and how to develop effective mentoring relationships. In the seminar, I teach the different types of mentoring and how to identify and grow mentoring ability.

Today, as always, it was a delightful group of eager and teachable Christian leaders who already have numerous mentoring relationships in their churches and ministries. We had a great time of learning through presentations, reflection, and discussion.

In Church Resource Ministries Singapore (CRMS), our goal is to not only help Christian leaders grow in their spiritual lives and leadership effectiveness, but to empower them to become mentors for others.

The primary way we do that is through training our graduates to facilitate our peer mentoring network curriculum, called Focusing Leaders.

This week, I spent three full days with a great group of network alumni who wanted to become facilitators for others.

We spent the first day talking through the Biblical/theological/philosophical foundations of Focusing Leaders - what lessons we are trying to get across and how to effectively facilitate learning. The second day we practiced facilitation skills, and the third day we practiced coaching skills.

With these six new facilitators (from six different churches), we have more than 50 who have been trained to mentor others with our curriculum. My hope and prayer is that the lessons they learned through the process and the training will carry over into other areas and relationships, not only in the Focusing Leaders networks.

A local newspaper (the tabloid!) ran an article on Tyler today. He is of local interest because of his ability to speak English with a local flavor, unlike most foreigners. His couple of clips on youtube have gotten nearly 280,000 hits!

The Singapore American Football League season has come to an end. The three Creasman males will now go into an extended period of mourning, and unproductive Saturdays…

Both of the boys had tremendous seasons. Tyler (11th grade) had his second year of starting quarterback in the 4 team league. He had a couple of very productive games, where he threw for two touchdowns, ran for 1 and 2 touchdowns, and threw for a two-point conversion, without any interceptions. He also made a couple of interceptions and had a couple of big tackles on defense, but only played sparingly as a safety this year. Last year, he played every down of every game, because they only had 14 players on his team. This year they had 18, and his coach wanted to save him for offense. His team made it to the championship game, but came up short and finished second.

Cameron (7th grade) played in the middle school league and was an anchor on the offensive line at guard, sometimes center (where he played last year). What he really loves is playing linebacker, though. The few times he played defense, he made a few sacks and tackles for losses. We expect him to be a beast next year as an 8th grader! His team was dominant this year, going undefeated through the season and winning their championship game in a blowout.

For the second year in a row, Jim was the announcer for the Middle School games, and has found his second vocation. He loves hanging out in the booth with other dads who are running the clock and scoreboard and “spotting” for him. He will miss the comraderie and the taste of America on Saturdays. Kimberly was a team mom and the music DJ for Jim’s announcing. We both led the High School Parents in cheering in the stands during Tyler’s games, and hope to keep up relationships with some of the other parents in the off-season.

Today we launched a new Focusing Leaders Network, which is our primary method of mentoring Christian leaders. We meet monthly for one day, and then meet for personal coaching appointments in between the group meetings.

This is the fourth new mentoring group we have started this year, and two experienced facilitators are joining me in leading the group, which has four men and three women participating (from six different churches). One man is a businessman and church lay leader, and the rest are pastors and ministry workers.

This is only the second time that one of the groups I have led includes both men and women together, and I found it to be delightful! There is a different relational dynamic which leads to more lively discussion. All the participants seemed enthusiastic and very appreciative to be in a group like this that is solely focused on their own growth and development.

The Executive Committee of CRM Singapore spent a half day discussing how to expand our staff to accomplish our ministry vision.

Our vision is to build spiritual leaders for every church and ministry in Singapore, and to birth apostolic mentoring teams in every country in Asia.

In order to accomplish that, we know it will take more staff joining CRMS, who are called to a mentoring ministry. It also requires staff who are able to raise their own financial support, which is more of a challenge in the Singapore context than it is in the US.

We had an enthusiastic day of discussion among the 7 Exco members, and sensed God’s clear leading to identify priorities for recruiting staff, which will guide our decisions in the coming months. We also set aside a half-day in November to discuss international expansion.

The seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar is Hungry Ghost month, when Chinese believe their dead ancestors come back to earth as ghosts. During the month, there are open air concerts at night to entertain the ghosts, and lots of burning of paper money and other paper luxuries, which are transferred to the ghosts for their enjoyment.

Large open barrels are located in housing areas for people to burn items day and night. Mostly, people burn items individually and with their immediate families. Sometimes, they gather for bigger burning ceremonies, like this one downstairs from our apartment building tonight. It also means there is a lot of soot in the air during the month…

This is Tyler’s second year as starting quarterback for the Vikings in the Singapore American Football League (he’s #6). There are four teams of high school players, mostly students from the American School.

Tyler and three other high schoolers from his international school make the bus trip after school to practice everyday. Today the season began, and we will relish every week until it ends October 31st.

Last year, Cameron played in the 4th-6th grade football league in Singapore. This year, he has moved up to the 7th-8th grade league, and plays on the Cougars. And he has two classmates from his international school who make the daily bus trip with him to practice after school.

Cameron is number 54 (Brian Urlacher’s number), and he plays on the offensive and defensive lines. Saturdays are the highlight of our week! But the season only lasts from September through October…

Kimberly was very active in a national drama ministry in the US called Christians in Theatre Arts. In fact, when we moved to Asia, they blessed her as a “missionary” of CITA.

Along with mentoring artists and helping churches and church leaders with their using drama in ministry, Kimberly has also been networking Christian leaders in Singapore to collaborate in drama ministry.

This week the Executive Director of CITA in the US (Dale Savidge) is in Singapore for 10 days, and Kimberly is busy setting up meetings for him individually and in groups to inspire and equip Christian drama leaders.

CRM Singapore held our Annual General Meeting today. We have been blessed with great friendship and support from several outstanding Christian leaders.

While the meeting was more a legal requirement than an agenda-driven gathering, it was a time to re-affirm God’s direction for our ministry, and there was thanks to God and prayer for his leading and provision.

The Mission of CRMS
Our mission is to develop leaders to strengthen and multiply churches in Singapore and beyond.

The Vision of CRMS
Our vision is to build spiritual leaders for every church and ministry in Singapore (558 as at 2009), and to birth apostolic mentoring teams in every country in Asia (25).

The Values of CRMS
Character formation is our emphasis.
Relationship is our means of influence.
Mission in unique calling is the outcome.
Spirituality is what drives us and guides us.

The Methodology of CRMS
CRMS creates communities of transformation and mentoring relationships?to empower leaders.

www.crmsingapore.com

The boys started the new school year today. Tyler enters 11th grade and Cameron enters 7th.

First days of school in 2005 and 2003 and 2000: (Didn’t they used to be sweet???)