Body Building: Welcome Ministry (Coffee and Tea)
Our recent "Body Building" series reminded us that we are members of one body and God has designed the church to be made up of members with different gifts under one Head, Jesus Christ. Every Sunday, we catch a glimpse of the church being one body, as different members work together to serve, love and care for one another. This year, we hope to feature some ways that members have been doing so, and also highlight some needs in the church.
To start us off, we interview Rachael Chong regarding the Welcome Ministry's Coffee and Tea team. Rachael is married to Frederick Chua, or more commonly known as Fred. Fred has been attending GBC since 2017 and Rachael recently made GBC her home church in 2022, the year they got married.
1. What prompted you to serve in this ministry?
Actually, it started with friends in the team asking if we'd like to help make coffee for fellowship after the service. We thought, "Why not? We both love coffee, and we were looking for ways to serve the body together." Being new, I (Rachael) thought it was a great way to get to know people in church.
2. What’s it like to serve? What goes on as part of the preparation process?
We're rostered twice in two months to serve coffee and tea. It involves coming slightly earlier before service to set up the equipment, and get the coffee to brew and hot water to boil. We then leave service just a little earlier to "open shop" and start pouring coffee into cups for the early birds so folks can get their coffee quickly. The rest of the time sees us shuttling between pouring coffee, helping to ration milk, and joining in brief conversations. We also have to clean up afterwards.
Each week, we also take stock of how much coffee, paper cups, milk and sugar we have left, to ensure that we have enough for each week.
3. This ministry might not be immediately obvious to many of us, but how have you been encouraged as you serve and how does it build up the church?
Serving alongside others is encouraging. We've been blessed by members on the team who fill in for each other even when they are not rostered for the week. The more experienced members are also very willing to help and guide us patiently, especially in assembling the percolator (coffee pot) and how to wash it properly. It's heartening to see team members who think of new ways to make the serving process more efficient, like how to help serve milk for people to minimise the wait time. Team members taking pride in doing a seemingly simple job well reminds me that no act of service in church is too small.
This embodies what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12—that the body of Christ is made up of many parts, "significant" and seeminlgy "insignificant", but none are dispensable. Thank God that He has "so composed the body, giving greater honour to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another". I'm glad to know that God can use this coffee ministry to grow our love and care for each other in the team, as well as for His church body at GBC.
We also welcome other GBC members to come and serve alongside us! If you’re willing and able, you can email Elder Caleb (calebyap@gmail.com) to volunteer.