JAN 28 1983

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"Go therefore and make disciples
hof all nations. ..
Box 67, Collinsvine, Illinois 6^'23'3
BOB and DIANE SIGAFOOSE
Dear Friends in Christ.
It has been an exhausting joy to be back in
the States once again to visit all of you here.
We have traveled many miles already and
look forward to traveling many more during
our stay. Visits to our supporting churches
have been thrilling ones, especially when we
share ideals, work, andgoals to those during
class time and also to those wee ones in
children's worship. They get so excited
when we talk about living in a country so far
from home.
We count it a blessing to be able to share
with you, to let you know that God is still
working. Through your prayers and your
financial support, the church is wonderously
growing in areas all over the world. We know
that for a fact as we labor in Singapore . . .
your efforts are not in vain!
There are family members we have not seen,
but hopefully that will be done by the end of
our stay in the States.
it has been a special privilege to spend time
with our two girls and have treasured every
second of it. Some of you may not know that
Debbie developed acute pericarditis in
October. During her hospital time in inten
sive care, the-doctors also found she had a
heart murmur labeled "mitro valve prolap
se ". The valve problem does not concern the
doctors at this time, hoping medication will
dear up the infection around the heart. We
ask you to be in prayer concerning this dif
ficult time. Debbie is working and even play
ing volley ball, so she is much improved.
Laurie is finishing her final year at Artesia
Christian College. She is still undecided as
to her future, as there are several areas of
service to consider. Her graduation date is
May 11th.
In Christian Love,
'1 7 rT ' j : ::r
The cost of living in Singapore has sky
rocketed because of the cost of housing
and transportation.
it is necessary to raise an additional $800.00
per month support. Some of the support may
come from the churches that have not
Excerpt from "Singapore Times", April 21.1982
S'pore fourth most
expensive city
NEW YORK, Tues.
Singapore has been rank
ed fourth among the 10
most expensive cities in
the Asia-Pacific region,
according to Business
Interhational's 1982 world
wide survey of executive
living costs.
The magazine's survey
listed Tokyo as the most
expensive, with a cost-of-
living index rating of 137.
Second is Jakarta with
an.index of 120 and Taipeh
third with 113.
Singapore, on 110
points, came ahead of
Sydney (108), Melbourne
(106), Seoul (101), Hong
kong (100), ^ngkok (85)
and Auckland (80).
Business ' International
said it based its survey on
the cost of certain food
items, alcoholic bever
ages. household supplies,
personal care items,
tobacco, utilities, clothing,
domestic help, ^recreation
and entertainment and
transport. AP.
helped us before, but much of it will have to
come from our friends who have so faithfully
been behind us all these years. While we are
busy reporting to our churches and Bible
Colleges, will you pray that our needs might
be met? Can we count on you?
5 Christian Mission board
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therefore and^ make disciples
Box 67, Collinsville, Illinois 62234
Greetings I
Many thousand miles have passed since
we last reported to you. After we
took Laurie to school from her Christ
mas break, we then went on to the West
coast. The warm fellowships and hos
pitality more than made up for the
heavy rains which flooded many parts
of California. On our way back, we
spent some time in Albuquerque with
the Cass family. On February 5th, Bob
performed the wedding ceremony of
Melissa Cass and Russ Dorcas.
^-Thile traveling through Texas, we
stopped to visit a Doctor friend of
ours that we knew both medically and
personally in Indonesia. He gra
ciously offered his surgical abilities
to remove several cysts from Bob's
eyes free gratis. It was a torturous
trip home after that surgery because
of driving with painful, swollen eyes;
but committments made it necessary to
hurry home.
In March we travelled to the East
Coast. Along with church committments
in Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, and North
Carolina, we managed to visit some
of Diane's family which she had not
seen for more than four years.
Throughout all of our traveling this
furlough, the Lord has given us good
weather. We were praying for a mild
winter, especially in the cold mid
west, so perhaps your mild winter
was a personal answer to that prayer.,
for us.
We will be returning to Singapore on
June 27th.
Many of you have asked if there might
be special projects which your church
groups might participate in. We will
list a few for those who may be int
erested.
t)ur IMMEDIATE needs are:
Travel to return to the field . . .
$2000.00
Housing ... 3 months deposit plus
one month's rent in advance. .
$3200.00
Our next immediate need is a trans
portation vehicle on the field.
We should be able to get a used
one for about $6000.00.
OTHER PROJECTS . . .
Teaching materials for all ages.
We ask that there be enough
workbooks or material for an ave
rage class of ten members.
VES material will be accept
ed if they are full packs and not
used.
Standard quarterlies are , also
good.
There is a real need for com
mentaries and other helpful teach
ing books. For 40 pounds of books
you can get a Postal Mail Bag and
send it for only $17.00.
Love in Christ,
3 o !> V Diavi
Idols destroyed in 2 homes
(The following article was In a newslet
ter recently received from Singapore.
Lee Ee Tat was one of the first Singa
poreans to help Bob & Diane vhen they
first arrived in Singapore.)
Last month, two families came to know
the joy and peace of Jesus Christ and
had idols removed from their homes by
the church.
When Sow Leng, the wife of Area Leader
Lee Ee Tat, became a Christian in 1973.
her grandmother strongly opposed and
tried ways and means to stop her. Last
month, after 10 years of prayers, she
too has decided to follow Jesus and des
troy all the idols at home.
"I'Jhen I became a Christian," Sow Leng
said, "my granny was the one who really
tried to stop ime. So what I did was to
give her some tracts and prayed."
She would read those tracts, according
to Sow Leng, but she also reads a lot of
other materials and is knowledgeable but
skeptical.
In spite of her skepticism she kept lots
of gods around the house kitchen god,
living room god and participate deli-
gently in ancestral worship.
Late last year, she fell, fractured a
thighbone and was hospitalized. In^ the
hospital, she would become hysterical
and had to be sedated as well as physi"
cally restrained. Sow Leng believes
that the reason for her behavior was
mainly because of fear and her realiza
tion that her gods cannot do anything.
When she was discharged a month later,
she was a changed person. She no longer
bothered with the daily ritual of an
cestral worship and even mentioned about
wanting to become a Christian.
All this had come about in God's good
time according to Sow Leng^ The family's
washing lady was a recent Christian and
she would give her tracts to read. The
family had also engaged a private nurse
and she was also a Christian.
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Then one night last month, in one of her
frequent visits. Sow Leng asked if she
would like to accept Christ as Lord and
Savior. Her grandmother said yes and
together they prayed. But Sow Leng want
ed further confirmation, she wanted to
see the idols removed.
Tliat eventually came to pass when in the
course of a church visit a member of the
visitation team suggested that it would
be good to have the idols removed and
her grandmother agreed. And so Sow Leng
got her confirmation and is even more
convinced that her God is a prayer
answering God.
CINDY LIN, of MA//2 had been praying for
her mother for a long time. One day in
January, in the course of a conversation
her mother began talking about the prob
lems in her life. Taking this opportun
ity, Cindy shared with her about Jesus
and found that she was actually listen
ing and receiving all she had said.
Encouraged and rejoicing, Cindy went to
her home fellowship and shared her joy.
Lee Ee Tat, Cindy's area leader was pre
sent at that meeting and suggested that
the church staff visit her mother.
So it was all arranged. On the eve of
the planned visit, Cindy prayed hard,
"realjia^."
The next morning, Cindy went to work
full of excitement and expectation.
That morning, with the church .members
present, her mother decided to entrust
her life to Christ and to accept Him as
Lord and Savior. She also requested
that the idols at her home be removed
that same morning. \^en they were re
moved, she found that the heavy head
aches and pains she had been having were
all gone. She was filled with joy.
So now Cindy's mother is constantly
telling her friends and relatives about
the goodness of the Lord.
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Box 67, ColUnsville, Illinois 62234
Greetings from Singapore I
We often wondered Just how far
one of our walking treks incl
uded, so the other day we de
cided to find out by using a
pedometer to add up our miles.
We went to town on business,
and that half-hour business
transaction cost us nearly six
miles in walking plus unnum
bered bus miles....a total of
nearly six hours being away
from home. It was an average
day.
We are happy to be back in
Singapore! Churches are much
alive and growing by leaps and
bounds. Demands on our teach
ing are beginning to pile up
already. Getting settled in
again has been quite an exper
ience with the first few
weeks of Jet-lag, plus getting
used to the heat again, we put
in some very draggy days. How
ever, that is now beginning to
wane and we can see more clear
ly some of the responsibilit
ies facing us. At the time of
this writing, our visa has
been turned in to the immigra
tion authorities, but has not
been granted as yet.
We were able to rent a house
approximately 13 kilometers
from the main part of the city
and main church working area.
It was cheaper than any others
we looked at and feel very
fortunate in having it. The
house is fully furnished, in
cluding a big fridge which
Diane hugs every day. The one
problem we have had, has been
receiving enough money in get
ting settled in. As most of
you know, we needed three
months rent in advance, plus
huge deposits on telephone and
other utilities, plus the cost
of settling in, A couple of
churches took up special off
80B and DIANE SIGAFOOSE
erings for this needed expense
as well as contributions from
individuals. We feel without
that help at that particular
time of need, we would not
have been able to return to
this exciting area of service.
We are extremely grateful to
those who have such a vision.
Nationals here have loaned us
money for the first primary
expenses. We had to borrow
$2,000 U.S. At the time of
this writing, we have repaid
$1,000, but still need $1,000
more. We have assured these
loving folks we will pay back
the rest as soon as we poss
ibly could.
To show you how the Lord does
take care of us in small ways,
we will share an incident with
you. When we were trying to
get settled into a banking
system, we were told that
Singapore banks now require a
minimum of $500 U.S. in your
account at all times, If you
do not have that much in your
account, then you would have
to pay a "penalty" which a-
mounts to a substantial fee
per month. Since we need two
accounts (one mission , the
other personal), we told the
office girl we would have to
pay the fee as there would
never be that much money in
the bank account that we
used every penny every month.
After minutes of arguing that
we would eventually have more
money, we said, "no, we never
would." The girl left us sit
ting for a few minutes only to
return later to say, "0. K.,
your account has been waivered
...you do not have to have the
minimum in your account, nor
do you have to pay a monthly
fee." Well, we were in awe!
How the Lord is going to
change a regulated banking
computerized system is beyond
us, but He is!
We were treated to a "tim sum"
lunch on Sunday. "Tim sum" is
Chinese hors d*oeuvres. It was
quite a unique experience as
they brought around cart after
cart of tidbits. You were to
choose whatever suited your
fancy. Unfortunately, we did
not know what our "fancy" was
at that moment. Shrimp pasta,
shrimp balls, shrimp fritters,
and shrimp cakes were some of
the first item^ we tasted.
Later, we were encouraged to
try some glutinous rice which
took courage to eat. Hong Kong
noodles came next (which suit
ed us best of all) followed by
coconut pudding and lychee
fruit Jello for dessert (of a
sort). However there is a good
local brand of alka-seltzer
available that we rush for
from time to time after these
Sunday battles. Don't think
for a minute we have forgotten
the taste of those grilled
steaks, Bar-B-Qued chicken and
strawberry shortcake.
We want to take this time to
thank all of you who were so
kind to us during our short
furlough in the States. How we
appreciated those who feasted
us well with food, plus en
couragement and let us share
our adventures from Singapore.
It is truly a wonderful exper
ience to be here serving the
Lord.
Well-educated and
more easily trained
''SINGAPOREANS wifrk hard and are
proad of their worh/' said Mr Jerry Con-
stanttne, genera! manager of Watt and
Akhermans, an engineering repair and
servicing company.
The Japanese, however, feel a Singapore
engineer needs more snpervislen than his
Japanese counterpart, who will also do more
work.
"In Japan, 1 need employ only one engi
neer to look ftfter the packing machine, the
conveyor belt and the biding. HereI neMat
least two," said Mr Takuya Ninomiya,
managing director of Orient Bulk Terminal
whicb packs fertilisers for re-export.
Another Japanese senior executtve said
the Singapore worker does not think beyond
his Job. "He does not think
what will happen if he does
something this way or
that. His work haUt is also
not good. For example, he
will not clear Us table be
fore he goes home. Next
morning, he wastes Hme
eleanlng his work area."
However, an Asean
Industrialist had something
complimentary to say.
"Singapore workers are
better educated mid so can
be tndned easily."
The fact that fliere are
vocational training pro
grammes and money from
the Skills Development
Fond to train te<^cal
workers also weigh heavily
in the companies' deci
sions.
But trained or not, la
bour is neither abundant
nor cheap today, following
the high-wage policy intro
duced In 1916. However It
Is still cheap compared to
that In the develop^ conn-
Mes.
"Our wage bili has gene
up 66 per cent In the past
four years. Sttil, tte cost
per worker is about 111an
hour less than bach
home," said Mr Constan
ce.
A Singapore worker
costs, roughly speaking,
two-thirds of a Japanese
worker. However, said Mr
Ninomiya, Japanese
productivity more than
makes up for the differ
ence.
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It was a sure thing that Matthew 28il9-20"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
"baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and teach
ing them to o"bey everything 1 have commanded you", was not on Bo"b Sigafoose's mind in
Aiigust of 1965. A persistant preacher from the South Side CJhurch of Christ in Danville,
Illinois kept Bo"b on his visitation list. ( Diane was already attending church and was
"baptized in May of that year). But the last day the minister visited the Sigafoose home,
he was not so politely and not so gently removed from their home. In just a matter of
days following the incident, the minister, along with an elder plus a pilot were killed
in a plane crash on their way to Grundy, Va. Needless to say that tragedy left its im
pact on Bo"b. He took a long, hard look at his life, wondering if it was "being used for
^ purpose. He decided it wasn't... .and in Novemher of that same year was "baptized
into Christ .From the haptistry to the mission field in five short years, he went.
Bo"b and Diane entered Singapore in I970 and waited there eight months for a visa to
Indonesia which was the goal of their vision. Ohen in May of I971, they were at last
granted a visa to work in that country. After settling in Central Java, the work of
establishing churches soon began to grow. With a tremendous team effort, many, many soula
were added to the Lord's church. Surely the Lord must have wept with joy. They did.
However, the government vowed to oust all the missionaries from Indonesia by I98O.
Bot, ^ong with one of the co-workers, lew Cass, then decided to move to another area
in Tduch there were no Christian churches/Churches of Christ. While the country of Bang
ladesh was to hecome their nert goal, it was not the Lord-s , at that time. So, another
new field, namely Portugal, was decided upon. In 1979, along with the Lew Cass family, '
Boh and Diane went to Portugal, staying until I981. WhUe -Hiere, Boh helped with surveying ,
working out government red tape, plus establishing Portuguese Bihle Studies and starting
an E^lish-speaking congregation.Kiis was all done so as to lay the foundation for new
missionaries to come and stay on a pemanent hasis, hoping hy that time the door might he
open to Bangladesh. It wasn't. Singapore, then, seemed the next logical country geograph-
i<ll to try and work from. VBiiie visas are not easily obtained to Singapore, the Siga-
fooses were. But here agaiii;- was the lord's working and not ttieirs. JHe country of Sing
apore itself, was found to he in the midst of a great Christianity explosion. Churches
were overflowing, "house churches" springing up everyidiere, groups including school child
ren, store clerks, business people, police force members all meeting together on lunch
breaks to have devotions and Bible study, like fi^ out of water, so are they, grasping
or the Good News of Eternal life. Demands on Bible trained teachers were heavy, as Bob
and Diane soon learned. '
Singapore is a good place to be. Bob feels. It is the most stable country in Southeast
Asia, politically and economically. While the recent thrust of Christianity is new, so
is the idea of sending out missionaries from Singapore. Ihe churches are beginning to
9. < im P
see the need. We feel it is a good vision as Singaporeans can enter most all of their
surcoiinding neighbors, including India and CSiina with the problem of a visa. Not
only can Singapore be used as a base for sending out missionaries , but also used as a
base for our own missionaries in Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia. They can live
here and work out of this country, going back and forth into Indonesia to lift up and
continue to teach national leaders, if and when the need arises. Religion is now comp-
ulsary in the public school system and Ghristainity is one that is included. Bob has a
certificate from the government to teach Christianity in the Schools. However, at the
time of this writing., the plans for this particular program has not been finalized.
Althou^ not started be Bob and Diane, there is a Ghxncch of Christ in Singapore, a
break-away from another group. They have welcomed Bob and Diane into the fold and very
of;fefiiJ_ar6_asked to preach, teach and help with Bible camps or in any capacity they see
the need of support. Starting the first of the year, iiiey will be working together to
start a new congregation in the area where the Sigafooses are living. Survey and planning
is being done in the meantime. Bob has also been asked by anothe New Testament congrega
tion to lead them as their gi^wth was down. They wanted somewone who could speak Englsih
with a strong Bible Doctrine, KLus working between the two congregations, Bob and Diane
have been holding Christian-living and Christian-family seminars. Because of the rapid
growth of Ghr^ianity here, the new Singaporean Christian does not know the values or
principles involved in living as a Christian. Their deep-seeded ciature and customs are
having to change . While it is a very difficult task for them, they are eager and willing
to stand strong in their committment for Christ. Aside from the work load of their teach
ing, Bob and Diane's home has been turned into a "hotel". Because Singapore is a cross
road of Southeast Asia, many missionaries travel throughgoing to and from the States.
There have been occasions for missionaries to bring their children to Singapore seeking
medical help and they need a place to stay for this reason.
Bob was bom on September 30, 1933 in Danville, Illinois. His parents, sister and broth
er still live in that area. His former employers were the U.S. Navy ( 3 years), the U.S.
Postal Service ( 10 years) and had been trained as a computer machinist for Caterpillar
Tractor Go. in Davenport, Iowa at the time of his decision to give his life and service
fully to the Lord. Bob then receceived his training from Lincoln Christian College, spec
ializing in Missions and Bible, which prepared him for the field.
Diane was bom on February 3, 1938 in the Danville area, also, although her parents now
live in Nasville, Tennessee.
Bob and Diane were married on June l6th, I956, From this marriage they have two daughters,
Debora who was schooled at Lincoln Christian College and Artesia Christian College ard is
now married nad living in Mitchell, South Dakota. Laura, gratuated from Artesia Christian
College in May of I983 and is living in Gatesville, Texas, teaching in a Day-Care Center,