A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out. ~ Walter Winchell

Last week, the Watoto Children’s Choir came to SAJS.

Were you touched and inspired by their stories?

Some of you were willing even to donate your ang pao money to support them!

That’s really practising the value of empathy!

Well done, Saints!

You know, when it comes to practising empathy, it doesn’t feel so hard.

When it comes to making friends, it is also not too hard.

It’s not hard to find people with common interests,

and for people who like you and like hanging out with you.

Our Bible passage today is from Proverbs 17:17

It says, “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”

So here we can see 2 levels of closeness:

there’s the lower level of friendship,

where your friend loves you at all times,

as long as the sun is shining and things are nice and good

But there’s the higher level of friendship,

where your friend is more than a friend, but a brother

A brother who is closer to you, because he’s family

A brother who empathises with you, because he really cares

A brother who will not leave you behind when you have problems.

A brother who is born for adversity.

Is such a friend easy to find?

In my life experience, there have been many friends in my life

But not all friends will stay with you for life

In fact, one time when I saw that my close friend from primary school was on Facebook, I was so happy.

But it turns out that he has forgotten about me

Because we all went to different secondary schools after that.

Sometimes, it takes a while for you to discover who that brother in your life might be.

I thank God that I have a few friends like that -

when I got into big trouble, they didn’t leave me

but continued to pray for me and tried to keep in touch.

And the friend that is always close to me like a brother is Jesus.

I’m sure you remember the song that I shared with you 2 weeks ago at the Friday assembly.

Song 353 in your red song book - What a Friend we have in Jesus

Jesus is the friend who not only loves at all times,

but also the brother who is born for adversity.

even when you feel that nobody understands you,

when you feel that nobody cares about you,

when you feel that it’s so hard to find a friend,

look to Jesus!

I will close by singing only the 1st verse of the song,

because we only got time for 1 verse.

You can sing the rest of the verses in your free time.

So if you have your red song book, please turn with me to pg. xx

and let’s sing song 353 - What a Friend we have in Jesus.