The gospel has always been not just a message, but a life-transforming power. And through the lives of the Christian migrant worker converts, the power of the gospel was displayed in full view. We saw the power of gospel to bring hope in the face of hopelessness. Many of them are facing a seemingly hopeless situations in Singapore, an irresponsible company who refuses to give them any pay or medical attention, and thus no income to survive in Singapore or to send back to their families. And precisely because of their medical condition, they are unable to even find other small sources of income.
In this time of darkness, the gospel is what they need, the gospel of hope, of a righteous God who loves and initiates a reconciliation with His rebellious people at His own expense. It gives them a source of never-failing strength, an eternal perspective to a temporal problem. Because of the gospel, they have been redeemed from despair and are able to rejoice.
And this is the difference between a Christian’s joy and happiness. Happiness is circumstantial, once circumstances change for the worse, one becomes unhappy. But a Christian’s joy is unchanging, because it is rooted not just in the unchanging gospel of what God has done for us, but also in the unchanging nature of God. And when the source of joy is unchanging, the Christian’s joy will remain even in the worst circumstances. And that is why the Christian migrant workers can rejoice even in the face of despair, because when no one else cares, there is always one who will. Even when all seems lost, there is the shepherd who will take care of His sheep. And that is why they need to hear the gospel.
But more than just bringing healing and hope, the life-changing gospel transforms once broken lamps into spotlights shining for and pointing others to Jesus. We met Charlie, an ex-convict who used to sell drugs and entered jail multiple times. His wife divorced him, his beloved children left him, and his whole world seemed to collapse, until he met Christ. And because of the gospel, he has now returned to Onesimus garden, helping not just in the running of the farm, but in the restarting of people’s lives through the gospel.
We also heard from Dr Goh Wei Leong about how the HealthServe ministry grew as more and more migrant workers came to join them, and he realized that the Singaporeans working there were not the source of the growth, but it was the migrant workers themselves. They were the ones bringing their friends to HealthServe, and telling them the gospel, or living it out in such a way that their friends were unable to not be curious about what makes them so different. And because of these living testimonies of the power of the gospel, the gospel continues to reach more and more migrant workers. And this is not just by the original evangelists, but by the evangelized. They too, became fellow participants in God’s mission.
And yet I find my actions often betray a subconscious trivialization of this power, whether it’s through not being an active enough proponent of the gospel, or not fully living out the gospel in my life, or even not expecting great things through the sharing of the gospel. Often I mask my belittlement of God’s power under the cover of being realistic. Knowing that the ground is tough in this postmodern and religiously plural age does not discount the fact that God is able to work greatly in this place. And I often unconsciously discount what God is capable of doing. But I was reminded this week, that if it is the mission of God, he can and will bring it to fulfilment. And like the conversion stories show, the gospel is a healing and life-transforming power.
Elvira Tan
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