A Response To A Need - Elvira Tan

The theme for this week’s program was “The commission”, and we saw the different ways people did missions, partners of the mission of God. We were exposed to the different mission fields right at our doorstep. Through this week, my eyes and ears were opened to the many needs right here in Singapore. We heard of and met the ostracized and the forgotten, not just by society, but even by the church. There are so many who are in dire need of the love and comfort that the gospel and Christians living out the gospel can bring. There are teenage mothers, prostitutes, prisoners and foreign workers living in our midst, rejected by or victims of society. 

But knowing the many needs in Singapore should not be an end in itself. And this week we were introduced to people who not just saw the need, but responded to it. Pastor Andrew Choo and his wife Grace, upon hearing the story of a Christian teenage mother rejected by the church, started the Andrew and Grace home for teenage mothers like her. They also opened the Onesimus garden as a form of restorative therapy for prisoners and ex-convicts, where through the whole process of farming, their emotional and physical health is nursed, and they are able to return to a productive and useful life as a contributing member of society. The restoration and rehabilitation is achieved not only through the physical act of farming, but also through the metaphorical association between different stages of plant cultivation and the gospel. 

We were also introduced to Dr. Goh Wei Leong and Timothy who started HealthServe, an organization catering to injured foreign workers and prostitutes. Foreign workers who injure themselves while working in Singapore often have to go for many months without pay or even proper medical attention before finally being sent back to their home country. HealthServe was started in response to this need, providing the workers with medical services, a loving family and most importantly, the gospel. Timothy also works with the poor in Singapore, building relationships with the children through soccer clinics. 

I am a very ignorant and pampered Singaporean, having lived in a sheltered bubble all my life. But now that my claim of ignorance has been invalidated, how should I thus respond to the needs presented before me? That was the challenge that came out very strongly after this week’s experiential learning trips. And thank God for people like Dr. Goh Wei Leong and Pastor Andrew Choo, who not just saw or heard the need, but responded in action to it. Thank God for allowing us to partake in His mission, and for broadening my perspective to see a much bigger field of people in Singapore whom we can be missioners to, and for spurring me to take action. (first by volunteering with HealthServe) And I pray for God to grant us the sensitivity to the needs of people around, and for the initiative to take up action in response to the need.

Elvira Tan