1216Singapore real estate, housing, condo apartment "You got Tenant" ad & family stories by AsiaHomes Internet.

Properties for rent to expatriates.

Last updated: 16 Dec 2000


FOR RENT:
Dec 16 00. 

A Blair Road shophome which knocks your socks off. CLICK photo to see bigger picture.





7 Holt Road condos with big balconies
Email:

Judy@asiahomes.com
Tel:
+65 9668 6468.

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Army days with the "pastor"

I was contacted via email by the surfing pastor, an old army officer I had not met for at least 20 years.  That was how the Internet re-establishes old friendship.

It was good to meet up.  Four of us: 2 being senior citizens who are defined as above age of 55 years old.

"Order the whole chicken," over-ruled the pastor while 3 of us wanted only half a chicken, being health conscious even though this Toa Payoh Lor 4 eatery place is famous for its chicken.  The pastor just loves good food.

30 years ago, I could not imagine he would be in the service of God.  He was an army officer and later a top photographer.  At that time, it was the bra-less feminist movement.  The models who came into his studio would leave behind bras and panties.   He was strictly professional, not dirtying his own courtyard.

He still remembered the hilarious events in the army vividly. One was the CO or Commanding Officer's monthly parade.  The CO would stand on a dais and take the salute of the parading officer and his group as they mark past him.

The parading officer was one seconded from the police force. He was leading the contingent.  As the group neared the CO's platform, he continued marching past the platform and the CO. 

All the others turned left and saluted the CO while he marched on to turn left behind the CO who was returning the salute to the group.

"I have never seen such a happy group of soldiers in my life," commented the CO repeated the pastor. I couldn't believe this incident as there would have been rehearsals.  

The parading officer probably did not attend the rehearsals.

Another funny incident was a Captain who could swallow hot coals and put fish hooks into his skin without pain.

At a demonstration to the CO, he extended his neck and lifted up one piece of hot lump above his mouth with his chopsticks.

Could he really swallow hot coals? All stood with their mouths open.  The air was still. The soldiers love this type of extra ordinary shows.    

"Hey, hey, there," shouted one bystander loudly.  That loud distraction gave the Captain a shock. 

The hot lump slipped and fell onto his moustache and smoke appeared.  Half the moustache was up in flames and there was a rush for the fire extinguisher.  He became a half-moustache Captain.

Another story involved 3 new lawyer-graduate officers joining the unit for national service reported for duty to this pastor.  They were given a piece of ground to put up 3 tents as their barracks.  They complied.  The Army worked by blind obedience to orders. If  you did not want to get punished, like not being able to go home during the weekend, you obeyed the orders.  

3 free lunches were given by the new officers as it was a tradition of the officer's mess and the pastor was president of the mess.  They duly complied.

"When did the tradition start?" they enquired later. 

"Well, it started with you," said the pastor.   

Life should not be so serious in national service and the pastor was a good man to lift your spirits if you could take his jokes.

Once my mini-car disappeared from the parking lot.  The jokers just lifted up the back wheel and shifted it to another place.

The best car joke appeared to be that of the Land Rover driver.  As the office was on top of a hill, the driver had parked the Land Rover on the slope to see the pastor.   The vehicle disappeared when he came back.

It would be court-martial for him if he had left the keys behind in the ignition.   No, he did not.  Was it one of the pastor's pranks?

No. The vehicle had rolled backwards down the long road, hit 2 trees and crashed into the entry gate of the camp. Nobody was killed. Luckily, it did not crash into the cells where prisoners were held or there would be a mass escape.  Those were the early days and we were the military police Officers. 

The Army was not the pastor's vocation.  Neither was it his hobby of photography in which he was really good and was making good money from big projects. 

30 years ago, I could not imagine him being a pastor.  Just no way could he sell his services to the one above.  But fact is stranger than fiction. I was having lunch here with three believers who, of course, try to convert me to their faith.

The pastor is poorly paid in Singapore.  He would have been catering to the top corporate clients in photography.  It is hard to support a family and to make ends meet as a pastor but God has provided him with intelligent children and they excel in studies.  One is a doctor and one is working in a creative ad agency in Manhattan.

If you were not a believer, you would say that they have been motivated by hard times to better themselves. It would be the inner drive, the energy and the hunger to succeed. Those would be the ingredients for success. if you read motivation and success story books. 

The pastor does not beg to differ.  He believes it is the faith in God. It will be improper for me to argue otherwise with an old army mate.