Church Feeds 5,000

Victory Family Centre organises grand banquet for over 5,300 elderly poor

Monday, Oct. 26, 2009 Posted: 4:30:36AM HKT

A panoramic view of the 5,300+ participants, mostly elderly poor, at Saturday's Care and Share event at The Float@Marina Bay organised by Hope Community Services Centre, the social arm of Victory Family Centre. (Photo: CP)

The connection with the miracle in the Gospels was unmistakable.

But for the more than 5,300 elderly poor invited from across the island to the special Saturday event, it was a field day.

Not only were they treated to a restaurant-style grand banquet which occupied the whole of The Float@Marina Bay with 500 tables, they experienced a rare panorama of performances covering the spectrum of age groups, cultures and races, and genres.

There was a kindergarten dance, drama, mass exercise, primary school Chinese orchestra performance, celebrity performances by Tammy Chow, Murali Krishnan, Mahani Mohammed and the elderly Chen Mei Guang who had to be helped on stage and supported by a chair as she sang two songs in dialect, professional juggling and magic acts and more.

The event itself was co-hosted by former MediaCorp actress Lina Ng.

Participants had their fun too. A group of elderly fans of the 76 year-old Chen appeared to be enjoying her high-pitched numbers immensely.

The large representation of elderly people became kings and queens that day, with an entourage of buses bringing them between their houses and the venue and back and 'captains' befriending and thousands of volunteers serving them.

Behind it all: Hope Community Services Centre, the social arm of Victory Family Centre, and over 2,000 volunteers from VFC who extended invitations to needy residents in their neighbourhood of at least 60 years of age.

Back in 1989, VFC members felt the need to honour the senior citizens of Singapore and give them the opportunity to ‘taste’ the love of God, and share with them the Gospel, according to the HCSC Executive Director Andrew Chay.

“Basically the Gospel is [revealed in] different ways. One of them is through acts of kindness and loving [people] to Christ,” said Chay, 49, a VFC pastor in charge of two of seven buildings across Singapore where the 5,000-member congregation meets each Sunday.

HCSC, which has been conducting similar Care and Share events for a thousand elderly poor each time, decided to mark its 20th anniversary with a bang.

“[Care and Share is meant as] a service to elderly people because we felt they didn’t have many more years left for them,” expressed the youthful Pastor Chay. “The Lord just led us to do this to touch the elderly with the love of God.”

At the end, five white diamond pendants sponsored by Derocks Trading Pte Ltd were given out in a lucky draw. Organisers distributed goodie bags and ‘ang pows’ or red packets with $10 enclosed each of the participants.

Known for its impressive missionary achievement, VFC has 5,000 members including children.

Edmond Chua
edmond@christianpost.com