ChezHemdi has found a way to do it with a hongbao (red packet).

This year, ChezHemdi founder Hemdi Unamee and her husband Peter Hui landed on the idea of telling the full story of the life of Jesus by illustrating on a hongbao 80 key moments from His life: His ministry, teachings, miracles, and ultimately His sacrifice and resurrection.

“As we prayed and planned, we knew it couldn’t stop at just the highlights of Jesus’ life,” Hemdi said. “We wanted this hongbao to tell a richer story.”

The couple hopes the hongbao will be a reminder of the blessings and new beginnings that Jesus brings, and that the one receiving it will carry His light and love into the new year.

ChezHemdi is one of many companies – including AlyLetters, The Commandment Co., The Glorious Letterings and Rey’s Little Loft – that have turned hongbaos into a channel to sow Gospel seeds and speak God’s blessings over others this Chinese New Year. 

“Words are powerful; they’re not just for decoration, but can speak to our hearts and remind us of what’s true,” said Christina Goh , founder and designer of The Glorious Letterings. “Jesus said we don’t live on bread alone but on every word that comes from God, and we need His Word to renew our minds each day.”

Here are nine hongbaos made to inspire hope and spark conversations about Jesus.

1. Share the life of Jesus: ChezHemdi

“We love how Chinese New Year is all about new beginnings, hope, and blessings – things that tie so beautifully to Jesus’ story,” founder Hemdi told Salt&Light.

“His birth brought hope into the world, His teachings showed us how to live, and His sacrifice gave us the ultimate blessing of eternal life.”

Following on their wildly successful debut with the 37 miracles of Jesus hongbao, Hemdi and Peter, the illustrator, set out to create something this time that would facilitate sharing the Gospel in a creative way. 

Can you spot Jesus? This hongbao features 80 key events in Jesus’s life: His ministry, sacrifice and resurrection. Photo by ChezHemdi.

“By including these life events (of Jesus), our hope is more people will be inspired to use this as a tool to share His story and the hope it brings.”

The couple has injected fun into the giving and receiving of their hongbaos by “hiding” Jesus in the illustration for a game of “spot the Saviour”.

“We hope to bring families and friends together as they connect over the story of Jesus this Chinese New Year,” she said.

ChezHemdi has released a limited edition electric blue version of the hongbao for use throughout the year.

The ChezHemdi hongbaos are available in red or blue. $10 for a pack of 8. Click here to purchase.

2. Catch the eye with Chinese silk: AlyLetters

These stunning Chinese silk hongbaos by AlyLetters in luxurious gold and vibrant red are designed to capture first the eye, then the heart.

These gold-stamped Chinese silk hongbaos are designed to captivate recipients’ eyes and heart. Photo by AlyLetters.

“I love gifting these hongbaos not just to loved ones, but to the security, cleaning and service staff I come across,” Alicia Choo, the name behind AlyLetters told Salt&Light. Aly has found that when people receive these hongbaos, they take a closer look and read the verse.

This typically kick starts a conversation about the verse, laying the groundwork for relationship building, Aly explained. 

The verse reference is included discreetly and the back of the hongbao is left blank for you to craft personal messages.

Aly designed these envelopes to bless and encourage recipients with Biblical promises. And these hongbaos are not just great for CNY but for weddings, birthdays, and just-because days.

AlyLetters’ 2025 “Surely Goodness” silk hongbaos are priced at $16 for a bundle of 10 (bundle discounts available till January 24). Click here to purchase. 

3. Make it personal with hand lettering: The Glorious Letterings

Each of The Glorious Letterings’ hand-lettered hongbao is handcrafted from scratch, including the cutting and assembly, on paper and colours selected by designer Christina.

She personally picked verses that would resonate with both believers and pre-believers. The words are debossed in gold.

Handcrafted hongbaos featuring debossed wordings, verses that appeal to both believers and pre-believers. Photo by The Glorious Letterings.

“Simple phrases like ‘Love never fails’ and ‘It is more blessed to give’ carry timeless truth,” Christina explained. Others like “Trust in the Lord with all your heart” and “Blessed are those who fear the Lord” hold deep personal meaning for the designer as she realised that a closer walk with God starts with trusting Him and learning to fear Him.

“As we step into a new year, I hope that these verses remind us to continually trust God and live in greater surrender,” Christina told Salt&Light.

She conceptualised these gold hand-lettered hongbaos to plug a gap in the local market where hand-lettered hongbaos are rare. 

Because these hongbaos are handcrafted, pre-orders are required. Customisation options are available.

Each set ($25) consists of 6 handcrafted hongbaos. Pre-order by January 20 here. 

4. Spring blooms all year round: Rey’s Little Loft

Why stop at Chinese New Year? Joanne Toh’s answer to versatile gifting comes in these cheery hongbaos sporting blossom doodles in spring-coloured pastels. 

A collaboration with artist Doodled by Oli, Rey’s Little Loft’s hongbaos provide  the opportunity to bless the recipient with the word of God all year, not just during Chinese New Year.

A collaboration with Doodle by Oli, these hongbaos featuring spring blooms are owner Joanne Toh’s answer to year-long gifting. Photo by Rey’s Little Loft.

“Whether used as a bookmark or displayed somewhere meaningful, I want them to inspire hope and remind people that even in life’s hard pathways, God’s abundance overflows,” Jo told Salt&Light.

Jo, in her 30s, started Rey’s Little Loft two years ago to create products that inspire families to draw closer to Him. 

These hongbaos are available in Chinese, English and bilingual text, $12 for 16 hongbaos, or $22 for 32. Click here to buy.

5. Celebrate the Everlasting God: The Commandment Co.

This year’s hongbao collection from The Commandment Co. celebrates the everlasting God by highlighting His eternal promises and grace.

The 2025 series features five motifs inspired by His blessings: Everlasting Blessings (福), Everlasting Joy (乐), Everlasting Peace (安), Everlasting Grace 恩, Everlasting Love 爱

This series celebrates the everlasting God by highlighting God’s eternal promises and grace. Photo by The Commandment Co.

The hongbaos open up to be used as door or wall decor.   

Available in 5 designs, $7.90 for a set of 10. Purchase them here. 

6. Gift Bible blessings: Parable Gifts

Inspired by an article in Thir.st, Mark Tang, owner of Parable Gifts based this limited series of traditional Chinese New Year blessings on Bible verses.  

Customary hongbaos that convey traditional blessings from the Bible. Photo by Parables Gifts.

Mark’s prayer is that every occasion becomes an opportunity to evangelise, especially during the time of Chinese New Year, when customary red packets can convey not just our blessing but even more from Jesus.

Available in 3 designs, $7.90 for a set of 10. Click here to buy.

7. Look to the true treasure: The Treasure Box

There is no occasion like Chinese New Year when it comes to prosperity, whether gauged by gifts or things owned or topics discussed. 

“Trust in self and what we can achieve by our own strengths, talents and abilities is a pervasive idea, often highlighted during this festive season,” observed Esther Foong, co-founder and designer who owns The Treasure Box with her husband Elvin.

Esther picked two verses and images by Mei Hui for this year’s design that are stark reminders that one is to ultimately look to God and trust in His providence and sovereignty: 

“In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths” (Proverbs 3:6)  and “My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:2).

These verses and images illustrated by Mei Hui serve as reminders of God’s power and sovereignty. Photo by Treasure Box.

⁠”For pre-believers, it’s an opportunity to introduce them to a God whose tender care and loving provision are part of His divine nature,” Esther added.

1 pack of 6 hongbaos at $4.50, 3 packs at $10. 

The hongbaos are available from January 20 online or in store at The Ink Room at City Harvest Church (Level 6 Suntec Singapore Convention & Exhibition Centre, Hall 605 during weekend services) and For the One (9 King Albert Park, #01-70, Singapore 598332)

8. Foster renewal and generosity: Cornerstone Community Church

Cornerstone’s 2025 hongbao series showcases themes of joy, blessings, abundance, and spring that symbolises hope, prosperity, and new beginnings.

“The hongbaos are more than just a gift—they’re a meaningful expression of love and gratitude this festive season,” said Tan Rui Ping, media director at Cornerstone.

Every hongbao comes with a Scripture blessing inscribed inside the packet. Photo by Cornerstone Community Church

No worries with money falling out of these hongbaos, which feature a self-locking mechanism. Each design comes with a Scripture blessing inscribed within the packet.

Available in 4 designs. $8.80 for a pack of 8. Buy them online or in store at Faithworks Bookstore (11 East Coast Rd, #02-22 The Odeon, Singapore 428722)

9. Pray for someone: Bethesda Bedok Tampines Church

Bethesda Bedok Tampines Church (BBTC) brings back its “Can I pray for you?” hongbaos with a refreshed design. 

BBTC rolled out this hongbao last year in a bid to foster prayer as a lifestyle. These hongbaos were employed extensively as a tool to offer prayers as a blessing in addition to the tradition of gifting money.

Hundreds of prayers were offered and made for pre-believers over the Chinese New Year period last year thanks to these hongbaos. Photo by author.

Several church members have shared testimonies of how they used this very practical and timely tool to pray for and to share the love of God with hundreds of pre-believers. 

One church member used the hongbao to bless a homeless lady who had been sleeping at the void deck. The door was open for her to pray for the lady, who received Jesus into her heart.

The hongbao is available for purchase at the BBTC lobby (300 Bedok North Avenue 3, Singapore 469717) following its worship services on Saturday and Sunday. 

RELATED STORIES

This Chinese New year, use your ang baos to bring blessings of Good News

Greetings you can use this Chinese New Year that share the blessings of God

3 places to buy Chinese New Year decorations that honour Christ in your home

The post 9 <I>hongbaos</I> to sow the Gospel this Chinese New Year appeared first on Salt&Light.

“We quarrelled about anything and everything. Not being home, not doing well in school, skipping school,” he told Salt&Light.

Things had not always been this way. When Jacob was young, he had quite a good relationship with his mother.

(Back left to right) Ps Jacob’s wife Charmaine, Ps Jacob, (seated left to right) his mother and aunt. Ps Jacob was raised by his mother.

“It got worse in Primary 5 or 6 when she constantly compared my school grades with other people’s. No matter how hard I tried, it didn’t meet her requirements. Eventually I gave up trying.

“Then I had a big quarrel with her and decided to run away from home. I thought I could survive on the streets.”

His mother had been raising Jacob on her own since he was a toddler. She worked two jobs to provide for him and made sure that he never lacked anything.

“In terms of food, clothing, money to spend, I had enough. So it didn’t dawn on me that earning money was difficult.”

Out on the streets, he quickly he realised he did not even have money for lunch. He had to rely on his friend to share half a cheeseburger with him.

“That experience with hunger was when my worldview was formed that I couldn’t live without money.”

Already mixing with street gangs then, Jacob decided to sell pirated VCDs to earn a quick buck. That led to joining a gang, and then to dealing drugs.

“It fit into the worldview of ‘I cannot live without money’ and drugs was the fastest way to get money.”

There is a God  

Jacob’s first taste of drugs was when he was 13. A classmate two years his senior introduced him to marijuana.

Asked why he took the substance knowing what it was, Jacob said: “Peer pressure, curiosity.”

Though he was never an addict, drugs still got Jacob, now 43, into trouble.

When he was 17, he was arrested for drug-related offences. By then, he had worked his way up the drug-dealing ladder and was about to take over a bigger chunk of the business.

But because he was not arrested during a raid, he was only charged with possession and consumption of drugs. On his 18^th birthday, he began his two-year sentence at the Reformative Training Centre (RTC).

There, he started attending Christian chapel services.

“I was told chapel is more fun and there is chocolate to eat during Christmas. It was also a way to kill time,” he recalled.

It was not Jacob’s first exposure to Christianity. As a child, his aunt had brought him to church and he had attended Sunday School every week. He only stopped going in upper primary school because “the lessons got a bit boring”.

A year into his sentence, Jacob accepted Jesus as His Lord and Saviour.

“Hearing the messages, I knew that there is a God. I took my ‘N’ levels inside and, through prayer during the exam period, there was this calmness in me,” he said.

“There was a feeling that this God is real to me and that caused me to say, ‘It’s okay to be a Christian.’”

The lure of money

But his faith had no real roots in the Word. Once out of the cocooned environment of RTC, Jacob found it hard to stay the course.

“I didn’t have an interest to go to church. I lived in Sembawang and church was in Marine Parade. Travelling that distance was too hard.”

At first, he did try to keep his nose clean. He enrolled in a polytechnic to study Banking and Finance. But the lure of fast cash was too much. When his old gang friends got in touch with him, it did not take long for him to return to trafficking drugs.

After serving National Service, Jacob tried out different jobs in an effort to live right. But nothing was as lucrative as selling drugs.

“In a month, I can earn S$8,000 to S$9,000 just by working from 7pm to 9pm or 10pm.”

Whenever he passed by a church, though, he would “feel a prompting” to leave his lifestyle and return to church.

“But I was stuck in my habits and my lifestyle. I couldn’t give it up just like that. I kept telling myself, ‘Maybe one day I will return.’”

His motivation was to escape God’s wrath and judgement. But it was not enough to pull him away from drugs and back to his faith. The thought remained no more than a thought.

The Word that convicts

Five years later in 2006, it was the law that put a stop to his drug trafficking. His drug activities had caught the attention of the authorities. He was arrested one day after work. A search of his room uncovered the stash of drugs he had collected the day before to traffic.

“I was very disappointed and there was a lot of anger. My thought was: Who tipped off the police? I was also very uncertain, not knowing how long I would spend in prison and what my future would be like.”

He was remanded for six months awaiting sentencing. During that time, he was in lockup 23 hours of the day. The only way to pass time was to read.

“When my aunt came to visit me, she had asked if I wanted a Bible. I told her, ‘Don’t waste my time with this kind of things.’

“But in remand, I ran out of reading materials and my cellmate told me that religious materials were not part of the three books we were allowed.

“So when he passed me a Bible, I took it.”

The boy who used to find Bible stories boring started reading Bible stories again. Slowly, God’s Word convicted him.

“The first verse that convicted me was Proverbs 12:11. It hit me very hard. Isn’t that how I lived my life? Chasing after fantasy, chasing after money. That word, though harsh, got me thinking: Why am I living in such a foolish way?”

As he read on, more verses spoke to him. Luke 12:15 made him re-think his worldview that he could not live without money.

“If money is not all there is in life, what is my life for? With these two verses, I started to ponder.”

As the date of his sentencing neared, Jacob came across Hebrews 12:5-6. The admonishment to accept punishment prepared him for the sentence to come.

“When the judge said, ‘Six years, six strokes of the cane’, I was not flustered, not anxious. I could accept it.

“Compared to six months earlier – I would (have been) jumping.”

God also became personal to him through prayer. In remand, he could receive visitors daily. But every morning, it would rain.

“I would be like, ‘It’s raining. My family is coming to visit. God, can You stop the rain?’ And it would stop.

“First day it happened, second day it happened, third day it happened. I was gripped with a certain kind of fear. This God is so powerful yet He listens to this kind of prayer. That was my encounter with the amazing, powerful God.”

“My remaining years for You”  

In prison, Jacob dedicated his life to God.

“I went before God and said, ‘I have squandered away my years.’ I was 25. By the time I was released, I would be about 30.

“I told him, ‘Let me commit my remaining years to You and see where You will lead me.”

Thus began his “journey in following God”. Jacob went for chapel services and also joined the Prison Fellowship Singapore (PFS) Christian Intensive Religious Counselling programme.

For 18 months, he was immersed in training of life skills Bible study, topical studies and counselling in preparation for life on the outside.

Ps Jacob (second, left) with his colleagues from Prison Fellowship Singapore.

As part of the programme, he had the opportunity to heal his relationship with his mother.

“When they brought us together in prison, we had been prepped to talk about how we felt. So I could voice out areas of disappointment and anger as well as apologise for the areas I did wrong.

“She had only listened to the teachers’ comments about me and didn’t listen to me. I felt I was not understood.

“When I was told her, she broke down and cried. She realised how her parenting style had a negative impact on me that caused my disappointment with her.”

The programme also ensured that Jacob would have a church to receive him and nurture his faith when he got out of prison.

Six months before completing four years of his six-year sentence, PFS offered him an internship.

“It was humbling. I dropped out of poly so I was a school dropout. Yet they were willing to wait six months for me when I had nothing to offer.

“I was grateful. I saw that as God bringing me through.”

A call to serve many

After his year-long internship, Jacob joined PFS as a staff. In that time, he became convinced that while people could help the inmates and their families, God could help even more.

“Social work is helpful in intervening in some of their issues but it was only intervention. To help more people, God has to work. People need God. And He can be there 24/7 where we can’t.”

That and his desire to know God better blossomed into a plan to go to a theological school. His pastor at his receiving church, Pentecost Methodist Church, put him on an internship programme to expose him to the inner workings of the church while he thought about what he would do if he earned a theological degree.

Ps Jacob (second from right) with his cell group members when he was at Pentecost Methodist Church.

“My pastor was trying to expose me to as many ministries in church as possible. I told him I wanted to study at TTC (Trinity Theological College) but I didn’t want to be a pastor.

“I thought Methodist pastors all came from brand-name schools and I didn’t. So I didn’t want to be a pastor.”

Because of his personal experience, Jacob had a passion for restorative work, particularly restoration of families.

“My pastor gave me an idea. He told me, ‘If you are going to do this alone, you can. But if you do this as part of a church, you can mobilise more people to do these things.’”

As Jacob prayed over his decision, he became convicted that God had called him to be a pastor.

“If God wants me to serve more people in the area of restoring families, I have to face my own inferiority.”

After two years as an intern in his church, Jacob went to TTC and graduated in 2017.

In TTC, he also met his wife Charmaine who was three years ahead of him. They married the year he graduated. Jacob is now a pastor at Paya Lebar Methodist Church.

Ps Jacob (right) with his wife Charmaine whom he met at Trinity Theological College.

Asked about his former worldview that placed money above all else, Ps Jacob said: “I may not earn a lot (compared to before), but I always have enough.”

Living simply and saving what he can has allowed him to pay for his wedding, honeymoon and new home right after graduation.

“When we check, ‘Do we have enough money? Eh, got enough.’ God just kept providing.”

RELATED STORIES:

“I was a condemned case. Prison couldn’t cure me”: In prison 4 times, caned 15 times, he thought he would die a drug addict

He started a p*rn club and tried to become a drug dealer, but his destiny was to be a pastor

Addicted to drugs, he broke his father’s heart. Years later, his sons would do the same

“After all that you have done, I still love you”: The audible voice of God changed him from gangster to pastor

The post He trafficked drugs to get rich quick, but in prison he realised he had been “chasing fantasies” appeared first on Salt&Light.

Having just graduated with a degree in biomedical science, she had planned to work in a hospital here.

However, she never expected that her decision to move across the Causeway would transform her life so radically – and in more ways than one.

An unusual student

When Lydia first arrived in Singapore, she worked at a hospital – her first job – for eight months. 

But workplace stress made going to work a chore. “I was so anxious. I was dragging my feet to work every day,” said Lydia, now 32.

In the common area of the hospital was a piano. During every lunch break, Lydia would scoff down her food so that she could play the piano there, as form of escape.

“Doctors and nurses who saw me would say, ‘Ms Sim, you can play very well. Why are you working here?’” said Lydia, who has been playing the piano since she was four years old.

While she had always wanted to pursue a music degree, she never had the courage to do so. But her colleagues’ remarks made Lydia re-think her career choice.

In 2016, she finally plucked up the courage to quit her hospital job and start teaching piano at a music school.

Lydia and her students at the music school.

Her students were mostly children. But in the second year of her two-year contract, a 60-year-old woman came for a trial lesson with her.

Armed with a book of Christian worship songs, Auntie Maryaan told Lydia that she only wanted to learn how to play those songs. It was her desire to play the piano for her cell group during their worship sessions.

Auntie Maryaan befriended Lydia and eventually became Lydia’s godmother. Here, the two are celebrating Auntie Maryaan’s birthday.

“Back then, I was the kind of person that if you tell me about Jesus, I will run far, far away,” said Lydia. In the past, she had felt pressured by Christians she encountered to accept the faith.

However, despite her reservations, she agreed to teach Auntie Maryaan: “I started playing songs I had never heard before.”

A song that moved her heart

After the trial lesson, Auntie Maryaan asked to have regular hour-long lessons with Lydia.

“I was really packed in that school, students back-to-back. I only had one hour to rest and would have loved to have no students then. So I told her, ‘Sorry, I only have half-hour slots’,” said Lydia.

“In my heart, I was thinking: Take it or leave it. I was very arrogant. Then suddenly, there was a voice within that spoke to me: ‘Take her.’ Right away, I changed my mind.”

From then on, Auntie Maryaan would come every week with different worship songs to learn. To get familiar with the songs, Lydia would watch videos of the songs on YouTube before their lessons.

“I got exposed to Christian songs – Hillsong, Don Moen. One day, there was a song called Still. As I listened to it, I felt like big arms were covering me,” Lydia recalled.

“I was alone in Singapore, a foreigner. I was lonely. There was a need in my heart. I was seeking solace.”

After that experience, Lydia approached Auntie Maryaan to make sense of her emotions: “I told her, ‘Auntie Maryaan, I felt like crying when I listened to the song.’”

Upon hearing what Lydia shared, Auntie Maryaan invited her to church. Lydia declined. “But she was very chill. She never pressed me,” Lydia recalled.

Lydia celebrating her first Christmas as a Christian in 2017 with Auntie Maryaan.

Not only that, Auntie Maryaan showed Lydia love like she had always wanted to experience.

“She would bring me liang teh (herbal tea), cake. We would text each other.  With her, I felt love.”

“If You are real, show me”

After some time, Lydia expressed an interest in the Christian faith.

“I asked Auntie Maryaan, ‘Good Friday, what do Christians do?’ I was interested in knowing a different culture,” she explained.

Auntie Maryaan invited Lydia to church again, promising her that there would be “nice music”.

“Being a musician, I love music. So I went,” said Lydia. “My life changed after that. When I stepped into the place and the music started, tears started flowing. I felt something in my heart.”

But when she was asked if she wanted to know Jesus, Lydia demurred. Those around her prayed for her instead.

After that, Auntie Maryaan taught Lydia to pray. Suddenly, the young woman saw the world through fresh eyes: “Everything was very beautiful. The trees were greener, the sky bluer … I already felt something in my heart was different.”

Auntie Maryaan (right) was the spiritual mentor who not only pointed Lydia to Jesus, but also helped her on her journey to becoming a Christian.

One day, she issued God a challenge: “If You are real, show me.”

That very night, Lydia saw Jesus in a peace-filled dream.

When she woke up, she texted Auntie Maryaan: “I saw Jesus. I want to accept Him right away.”

After becoming a Christian, Lydia stared serving in her church’s worship ministry.

The following year – 2018 – she was baptised. Her relationship with Auntie Maryaan was so instrumental to her Christian faith that the older woman also became her godmother a few years later.

Divine provision

The decision to accept Jesus into her life would lead Lydia to new paths.

She had always had a love for adventure. She has spent a month as a housekeeper in a backpackers’ hostel in New Zealand, worked for four months at a resort in the United States and made a life on her own in Singapore.

But each of these journeys had been for herself.

In 2019, Lydia went on a working holiday to New Zealand.

Two years ago, Lydia felt God call her to “reset, renew and realign” in a journey for Him.

She ended up spending a year teaching children and youths to play the keyboard at the Living Waters Village in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. (Read more about her experience here.)

It was an adventure that allowed her to “see the faithfulness of God” in providing for her financially, restoring her relationship with her mother and smoothening out the rough edges of her character. (Read more about it here.)

Lydia in her first week at the Living Waters Village.

Months into her return to life as a freelance piano teacher in Singapore, those lessons remain. When she left for Indonesia, she gave up all her students and her rental apartment. Re-starting life in Singapore required faith.

“I just started recruiting new students three weeks ago and the students are pouring in … I see how God provided for me.”

Before her return, Lydia also prayed for God to provide a place for her to stay. Within two days, a friend contacted her to ask if she would like to rent a room in her house.

“I had not even come back to Singapore and He was already preparing a place for me to stay.

“It has been seven good years journeying with Him.”

RELATED STORIES:

She thought she had it all until God called her to the jungles of Indonesia to show how much more He had for her  

“If not you, who can I send?” She was bound for Australia, but God rerouted her to serve in West Kalimantan

“It started with a desperate cry to God”: That’s Worship debut original transforms songwriter’s plea to praise

The post Teaching her 60-year-old piano student to play worship songs led her to a life-changing encounter appeared first on Salt&Light.

They took hold of the two children — a girl, 7, and a boy, 5 — who were left behind. The kids were regular attendees at the Sunday school conducted by Metro World Child.

The two women were staff members of Metro’s Sunday school ministry, which is conducted on the sidewalks of various neighbourhoods every Sunday. On Saturdays, these staffers would go and check in on the children and remind them about Sunday school.

“They are ordinary people,” Metro World Child Founder Pastor Bill Wilson told the congregation at Bethesda Bedok-Tampines Church (BBTC) on the weekend of July 13 and 14.

“But on that day, those two women stood between the living and the dead. And where they stood, it made a difference.” 

Ps Bill was preaching at BBTC as part of his “The Fire of the Footprint (Deuteronomy 11:24)” Singapore tour which took place from July 9 to 20. 

The following is an edited excerpt of Ps Bill’s message. 

I was speaking at a conference and a pastor asked, “Pastor Bill, do you really believe that one ordinary person can make a difference in this thing we call Christianity?” 

Is it really possible for one ordinary Christian to make a difference? The simple question is: What kind of people go out into a situation that is so urgent?

In Numbers 16, God’s people were complaining again. They were struggling with the leadership that God had given, which was Moses. They didn’t like the food, they didn’t like the water, they didn’t like the provision, they didn’t like the leadership.

There was about to be a revolution. 

The people were getting ready to overthrow Moses and Aaron. God steps up and 14,700 people start falling over dead (Numbers 16:47). Moses turns to Aaron, and he says, “Do something!”

That is what urgency does.

When you are close to the urgency, it reaches over and grabs you by the throat. If you allow yourself to get close enough to the urgency, suddenly something changes in you. 

Moses says to Aaron, “Run to the altar, get some fire and just get out there!” So Aaron grabs a censer and runs to the altar where the fire of God is.

He scooped up some fire from the altar and he stood between the living and the dead. Where he stood, the plague was stopped (Numbers 16:48).

“I wonder what could happen if some of you ordinary folks say, ‘Hey, maybe I just need to run to the altar. Maybe I just need to see what the needs are,’” Ps Wilson challenged the congregation.

The first thing I noticed was that Aaron was only thing in this story that stood between the living and the dead. The denomination did not go, the congregation did not go, a committee did not go.

Aaron with the fire was the only thing that stood between the living and the dead.

Back in New York City, we have a Sunday school in the South Bronx. We visit every kid in our Sunday school every week. We knock on doors the day before Sunday school to make sure the kids are ready. 

There were two kids at that Sunday school: The girl was seven and her little brother was five. They were not mentally retarded, they were just slow, but they were so faithful. They came to Sunday school every week.

Two of the female staff of Metro World Child were knocking on the door of these kids the day before Sunday school: The TV was on in the apartment, but the mother was not answering the door.

The women smelled something. They knew something was wrong so they called the police. The cops came and broke down the door of the apartment.

They saw the mother lying just inside the door. Her throat had been cut. She had been dead for almost a week.

The two kids were sitting on the couch, watching television, and ripping pieces off a cereal box and eating them because that was the only “food” they had. They didn’t even know how to process what had happened.

The cops only let the women in to the crime scene after three hours, when it became apparent no one was coming to help the kids. The sergeant said to the women, “Look, I know you said you know these kids. Can you help us?”

The women said yes, and that was how they were able to step over the body of the dead mother to get to the children. 

One of these women only made it to the 10th grade in high school (equivalent to secondary four). She had to go to work to take care of her mother who was dying of cancer. The other woman was so poor she had one dress that she wore every day.

You’ll never see them in a magazine. They will never get interviewed. They are just ordinary people. But that day in the Bronx in New York City, those two women stood between the living and the dead.

And where they stood, it made a difference.

“The need is the call”

I’ve said for years that the need is the call. I’m so tired of Christians telling me I’m waiting for God to call me.

The saddest thing I see is 50-, 60-, 70-year-old people that have been waiting for God to call. And then one day you realise the need was right in front of you.

If you see the need today and you can feel it, that, my friend, is the call of God for you this day.

Do you know how old Aaron was at that time? He was 100 years old. What did Moses say? He said, “Run to the altar! “

But you say he’s 100, he’s not running anywhere. But verse 47 says he ran. Isn’t it amazing what you can do that you thought you could not do? 

The third thing I noticed about Aaron was that he just did what he knew to do. Moses said “Go, run, get the fire.” Aaron did. 

You know who the guy in the blue suit is: That’s the kid that got left on the corner because my mother didn’t want me anymore.

The other guy is the guy who picked me up off the street in 1960. You are looking at the most ordinary Christian guy that you will ever see: He worked in a machine shop his whole life to feed his family and take care of his kids.  

Even when his other boy was dying of leukemia — he was on his way to visit his own son in hospital — he stopped for me. So, take a good look at what ordinary looks like.

Ps Bill (right, in the blue suit) with Dave Rudenis, the man who picked him up from the street corner where his mother abandoned him at the age of 12. Because of that ordinary man, Metro World Child exists today.

We’ve got a house full of ordinary people this morning. I wonder what could happen if some of you ordinary folks say, “Hey, maybe I just need to run to the altar. Maybe I just need to get some fire and see what the needs are.”

There was a lady from Puerto Rico that gave her life to Christ when she came to our church in Brooklyn. She couldn’t speak any English but came up to me and said through an interpreter, “Pastor Bill, I give my life to Christ. He’s done so much for me. I need to do something to serve him.”

She did not speak English so we had her on a different bus each week to just sit there and love the kids.

She would sit on the first step right next to the driver and she would look for the dirtiest, poorest kid. And she would put the kid on her lap. And she learned how to say, “I love you. Jesus loves you.” 

She did that for at least six months, on a different bus every week. And she came to me one day, and she said, “Pastor Bill. I don’t want to change buses anymore.”

I found out she had connected to one little boy on a bus she had been on. He lived in a drug house not far from our church. He was six years old. And he was very dirty.

We didn’t know if he couldn’t talk, or wouldn’t talk. But he would just sit on her lap, and she would say, “I love you. Jesus loves you.”

A couple of weeks before Christmas, the bus pulled up to the little boy’s apartment building and she said the same thing, “I love you, Jesus loves you.”

This time, instead of just jumping off her lap, he stood up, put his hands on this lady’s face and tried to tell her: “I-I-I love you too.” And he gave her a big hug, got off the bus and went in the back of the drug house.

At 6.30 that night, that little boy’s mother – who was a drug addict – took a baseball bat, cracked his skull open and killed him, put him in a garbage bag and threw him out under the fire escape.

I did a funeral several days afterwards with just a couple of the staffers and the lady.

“I am not done yet. Neither are you,” Ps Wilson said.

Before the little boy died, one of the last things he heard from a lady who couldn’t even speak English was, “I love you. Jesus loves you.”

There’s a little boy in heaven today because there was one lady who saw a little boy that nobody loved and nobody wanted.

Back to what the pastor at the conference asked, “Do you really think one ordinary person can make a difference?”

Aaron was not the most spiritual guy, not the greatest Old Testament character, but he was just close enough to the urgency. He ran to an altar, got some fire and he stood between the living and the dead.

People have been chastising me because I’m going back to Ukraine at 75. But I am not done yet.

Neither are you.

RELATED STORIES 

Wading through trash on a mission trip, this corporate leader decided to give up all to serve children

“Could you live in a cemetery like these kids?” Pastor Bill Wilson’s Sunday School ministry stops at nothing to help children

“I want to see them grow up and plant churches”: This children’s pastor believes kids are key to building God’s kingdom

“Don’t limit God”: Children’s pastor goes to the highways and the byways to bring young ones to the Lord

The post Pastor Bill Wilson: “Will you be that ordinary Christian standing between the living and the dead?” appeared first on Salt&Light.

“I could make more in Singapore than in Indonesia. Everyone in my country knows that if you go to other countries to work, you can earn a lot more money.

“I was proud to be able to do this. It was for our future. We could buy a house.”

So despite the fact that she was frightened because she had heard “a lot of news about girls not treated well by employers”, Inda, then only 22, became a domestic helper in Singapore. It would be the first time she had even travelled out of Indonesia.

That decision would forever change her life.

A home of love  

The family with whom Inda worked – a husband and wife and their two daughters – was nothing like what she had feared.

“Before I went to Singapore, I met other domestic helpers at an Indonesian agency. They were all returning to Singapore to work and they shared with us what it was like. They told me that in Singapore, you can’t eat with the employer.

“But I ate with my employers at same table. If we went to restaurant, they put food on my plate. They serve me like they serve their children. They speak nicely to me and treated me with a lot love,” said Inda, 47.

Her Ma’am was particularly kind to her. Inda knew no one in Singapore. So her Ma’am became her confidante.

“If things happen, she would tell me to pray. She likes to pray and she is very close to God. Ma’am would also tell me about God.”

In turn, Inda loved her young charges, aged two and one at the time she started working with the family.

A heart ready for God

Three years into her employment, Inda unexpectedly encountered God. She was in the cry room caring for the younger of the two girls when she witnessed the speaker miraculously healing people.

“I thought it was so great, the healing. I had never seen anything like that before. I saw them praying and becoming so free. I suddenly had questions: Why can this thing happen?”

Then she burst into tears.

Asked why this particular worship service impacted her so much, Inda told Salt&Light: “My situation this time was not good. I just didn’t feel good.”

The year before, after completing a two-year contract, Inda had gone home for a break. Her mother had arranged for her to marry the village chief’s son. Inda had demurred. She’d wanted to return to work in Singapore.

“I was scared these two girls would be bullied by the next helper. My ma’am advised me to go home, but I love the children.”

Against the wishes of her family, she signed another two-year contract with her employer. Her mother was furious and gave her the cold shoulder. It broke Inda’s heart.

“I thought that if this God can perform healing miracles, He can give me back my family.”

No longer alone

Someone saw her crying and told her employers. They took her aside and shared the Gospel with her. Inda did not receive Jesus then; the years of being raised in another religion held her back.

“So they prayed for me and then told me to ask God to help me whenever I felt lousy.

“I tried to do that, but every time I called on God, a voice inside me would tell me to call on another god instead.”

After that, her employers prayed with her every night.

In a testimony she shared with friends at a church, Inda said: “Every day as I did my work in the house, I would feel like there was Someone with me all the time. I knew it was God because it was a good and peaceful feeling.”

One night when her employers came to pray with her, Inda asked to receive Jesus into her life.

“I felt peace like I can face things more strongly than before. Not so poor thing. I felt I had Someone caring for me. It was nice that I first saw Jesus through my employers’ love.”

A few months later, God showed up for Inda personally. She received a call from her mother saying that she missed Inda. 

“I knew then that God is indeed real.”

And God was just getting started.

God the matchmaker

After becoming a Christian, Inda joined the Indonesian Fellowship at the church where she had made friends with other domestic helpers. She read the Bible and prayed with them regularly.

“I was really happy to be there. I grew in my faith.”

In 2005, three years after becoming a Christian, Inda went on a mission trip to Batam with the Indonesian Fellowship. On the itinerary was a visit to a Bible school and delivery of groceries to the people living in the slums. One of the students of the Bible school was asked to be their guide.

When Inda saw the young man who was studying to be a pastor, she felt “a very special feeling”.

“It was not a normal feeling. The feeling was from God. He was showing something to me.”

She could not stop thinking about him.

“I prayed and I cried to God and asked Him, ‘Who is this man? Why is he special to me?’

“God said, ‘This is the man for you.’ He showed me that this was the man He had prepared for me.”

Inda confided in the leader of the Indonesian Fellowship in her church who called her Indonesian contact, the head of the Bible school in Batam, who gave Inda the man’s contact.

“I contacted him first.”

The man is question was Berkah*. He, too, had noticed Inda.

Said Berkah: “I had no idea I would marry her. I just liked her.”

The two started texting each other. On occasion, Inda would visit him in Batam with the people in the Indonesian Fellowship as chaperones.

Two years later in 2007, they got married at the Bible school in Batam.

Said Berkah: “She’s very pretty and this girl can do ministry with me, go for mission trip, very caring to people. Wah!”

Open doors  

Inda remained in Singapore for another two years to finish her contract, working 12 years in all with the same family.

Berkah became a pastor in Batam, preaching at the youth service, leading worship and ferrying members to and from worship services. Inda joined him in 2010 to pursue a Bachelor of Theology.

But within a year, tragedy struck. While pregnant with their first child, Inda contracted rubella. She became very ill and lost her baby.

“I felt so sad. Why did this happen to me? But I didn’t blame God. I had faith. My husband also never blamed me. He said, ‘Just go on. No baby also happy.’”

Added Berkah: “I believed God had a big plan for us.”

Indeed, God would give them a family far bigger than they could ever have planned. But first, they had to move to another part of Indonesia.

In 2015, Berkah was asked to pastor a church in Borneo.

“We said we would pray,” said Berkah. “We told God, ‘If You want us to go, open the door so it will go smoothly.”

And it did. To move to another part of the country, they needed to get a transfer letter from the government. This was usually a tedious process that took a long time. When Berkah showed up to get the letter, it took less than an hour. Others had waited all morning and still had not received their papers.

Said Inda: “When he got home, we said, ‘Praise the Lord.’”

In Borneo, they experienced another open door. They needed a new identity card which usually took a month. They got theirs in less than an hour.

Said Berhan: “After that, we said to God, ‘Enough confirmations.’”

The Lord added to their numbers

The church in Borneo was tiny, just about 15 people. Nearly a decade hence, it has grown to almost 100 strong.

The couple also plants churches in other parts of Indonesia whenever they can get a building in which the people can worship. They then train graduands of the Bible school in Batam to pastor those churches. They have three church plants.

“We prepare a new pastor to run the church plant, mentoring him. We pray for the place, go to the place and prepare it.”

They have a feeding programme as well.  

It started with visiting the homes in the area to share the Gospel. There was one particular household of an elderly couple and their two granddaughters that caught their attention.

“The parents had divorced and left them with their grandparents. We passed by their hut. It wasn’t even a proper house.”

The couple began by giving this family food once a week. News of this spread and soon they were feeding 25 to 30 needy people every week.

From the feeding programme came the fostering of children.

“We meet children, we see the need. I asked a boy, ‘What grade are you?’ He said, ‘I don’t go to school.’

“Another girl, we asked, ‘How is school?’ She said, ‘I don’t go to school. I stopped a few months ago.’”

Husband and wife decided to take in these children from homes too poor to provide for them.

“The parents are willing. They tell the children, ‘This is your papa, mama. You must listen to them.’”

They now have 15 foster children, aged eight to 28, from troubled or impoverished homes, as well as a five-year-old they adopted. Berkah’s belief that God would give them a big family has become a reality. One of the boys they took in has a mother suffering from mental illness. His father left the family for another and so Inda and Berkah care for the boy’s mother as well.

“He has graduated from secondary school. Now he helps us to do ministry, playing the guitar and keyboard. My husband taught him.”

As early as 2003, the year that Inda got baptised, God had already prepared her for this ministry.

“I saw a picture of these children with dark skin on the calendar in the room of my employer’s children. They were poor children.

“I cried and bowed my head and prayed, ‘Lord, I want to be like those people in the picture. I want to feed these children, too.’

“Now I understand because I am feeding a lot of people physically and spiritually.

“It is God who has given us hearts like that, able to love children. To us, they are our children.”

The God who gives

In the past 10 years, they have seen God’s hand firmly on their lives. In the beginning, money for the feeding programme came out of their own pockets. From 2020 to 2023, they had a sponsor.

“In 2024, nothing yet. But God will provide,” said Inda confidently.

They have seen enough of God’s providence to not be fearful. In 2020 as Covid overcame the world, a company learnt that they were caring for many children. They donated so much rice, oil and groceries to the couple that it lasted them two years. They were even able to share the supplies with the local community.

On another occasion, they needed a bigger fridge to store food for their feeding programme and also to feed their growing brood. A company donated one to them.

Recently, they needed new shoes for the children and new foldable mattresses.

Recounted Inda: “We fasted and prayed. Then a community leader came to ask us what we needed. We asked him if it was okay to ask for more. He said it was. So we told him we needed mattresses, shoes, a fan, a gas stove and a freezer.

“A week later, all those things came to our house. We were so happy, we cried. And they gave even more. We asked for five mattresses, they gave us 10. We asked for a fan and they gave us three.

“God has always provided for us. He knows our needs even before we know it.”

*Names have been changed for reasons of protection and privacy.

RELATED STORIES:

This domestic helper gave God 3 challenges and He transformed her into a missionary

“You will work in My household”: From domestic helper to a servant in a church

“God gave me the love I was craving”: Former foreign domestic worker now married to a Singaporean

Cheated of money, cheated in love, yet this foreign domestic helper chose to forgive

The post She left home to be a domestic helper, but returned to plant churches, feed the poor and foster 15 kids appeared first on Salt&Light.

“I was a chain smoker, 60 sticks a day. I was drinking and doing all kinds of stupid stuff.”

Then he “came out of a very bad relationship” and became so depressed that he could not get out of bed.

Paul Wong was 27 years old then.

“I didn’t want to come out of the room. I was incapacitated. Every time I lay in bed, it was like a weight pressed upon me. Every other day I thought of how to kill myself.”

His condition was so bad that his father dragged him to see a psychiatrist who diagnosed him with clinical depression. He was prescribed medication.

“In the morning, I had to take a set of drugs to keep me up. In the afternoon, I had to take drugs to make sure I don’t go too high. Come evening, I had drugs to help me sleep.

“I thought: This is not a life,” said Paul.

Then an old classmate invited him to a birthday party and, for want of anything else better to do, he went. There, he got to talking to a woman, Barbara Tjoa, with whom he shared about his situation. She was so moved that, after the party, she and her prayer buddy started praying for him.

“After she prayed for me, my life got worse.”

Becoming an atheist  

Paul, now 62, comes from generations of Christians on both his father’s and mother’s sides of the family. His parents brought him to worship service regularly and sent him to Sunday School when he was old enough.

Paul as a four-year-old (centre) with his parents and siblings. Both his father’s and his mother’s families were Christians for many generations.

“I went dutifully and listened to the Bible stories. I was also from a mission school. But just because you go to a Christian school or go to church doesn’t make you a Christian.”

By the time he was in his teens, Paul started to “do my own stuff”. That led him to “a lot of trouble”. At 16, he was caught for fighting.

Paul, then 16, at an Anglo-Chinese School track and field meet in 1978.

“We were hauled to the principal’s office. We found ourselves in a room with three police officers.”

He was let off with a warning.

By the time he was serving National Service, Paul no longer went to church.

“I don’t think I was ever a Christian.”

In university, disappointed by the inability of Christians to answer his questions and propelled by influence from modules in the Philosophy course that he took, Paul became an atheist.

Paul at age 20. By then, he had become an atheist.

“How do you know the resurrection of Christ is real? How do you know it isn’t a hoax? Was Jesus a mad man, liar or really who He says He is?

“The thing that upset me about Christians then was when you asked them the really tough questions, they cannot answer. You can’t even answer these questions and you want to talk to me about salvation?

“Religion didn’t make sense at all to me. I felt this thing called God was more a figment of our imagination. If you want to believe, you believe. I believed in myself. I was, in essence, a humanist.”

That worldview influenced his lifestyle.

“I was doing everything a young guy would do. You would see me in a bar every day. My house was a hotel. I think I disappointed my parents tremendously during that period.”

A smoker no more

In 1991, Paul fell into depression because of a breakup. Shortly after that, he met Barbara at a party.

She became both his confidante and prayer warrior, praying for him with her prayer buddy Dorcas, who would eventually become Paul’s wife.

But when the prayers began, his life became worse. He lost his insurance job because his depression made it difficult for him to hold down a job. Then his depression worsened.

Barbara Tjoa (left) and her friend Dorcas who would become Paul’s wife.

“One day, it was so bad I called Barbara at about 10pm and we spoke till about 2am.

“Whenever I speak to her, she always speaks to me about God. That night, she told me, ‘For all your intellectualism, what has it brought you to? What have you got to lose by receiving Christ?’” 

Stumped for an answer, Paul said the Sinner’s Prayer with her and accepted Jesus into his life.  

The next day, instead of waking up a new creation, he awoke with the old desire to smoke. Within an hour, he had puffed away four sticks of cigarettes.

He called Barbara.

“I told her, ‘I can’t be a Christian.’ She asked me, ‘Why not?’ So I told her that I was still smoking.

“She told him that smoking did not make him less a Christian and encouraged him to pray if he wanted to stop smoking.

“I thought: This woman is crazy. But I will just humour her. I am going to pray.”

He said a simple prayer asking God to take away his desire to smoke. The moment he ended his prayer, he suddenly lost the urge to smoke. He took all the cigarettes from his drawer and threw them into the bin.

“I have not touched a cigarette again since that morning in June 2, 1992.”

Free at last  

Paul began going to church with Barbara. Instead of becoming better, Paul’s life deteriorated even more in the months that followed.

“It was the toughest time. Most terrible. The devil was still after my soul.”

He found himself unable to sleep. Some days, it got so bad that he thought of killing himself. Other days, he fought to carry on.

“I was like a washing machine going round and round.”

Accusatory thoughts assaulted him, telling him he was a hypocrite not worthy of the Christian faith. On the verge of giving up on Christianity, he decided to go to one last church service to hear a visiting pastor preach.

After the sermon, the pastor called people up to pray for them. As he did, rows of people fell to the ground under the power of the Holy Spirit.

“I thought: This is mass emotionalism, mass psychosis. This is crazy. Just because I said a prayer (to be a Christian) doesn’t mean I have left my brain on the shelf.”

Paul refused to go up for prayers. He did, however, go to the pastor when all was done to thank him for the “really good message”.

“I thought it would be my last conversation before I leave God. The pastor looked at me and said, ‘Has anybody prayed for you?’

“Then he prayed, ‘I rebuke the spirit of intellectualism in you.’ I thought: How did he know that?”

The pastor did not even touch him but Paul fell to the ground.

“On the ground, something was happening. It was like my heart was shattered because of the relationship I came out of. But I felt like the jigsaw puzzle of my heart was coming together.

“Then I heard a voice say, ‘You will never love Me the way I love you but I am going to teach you how to love Me.’

“I realised it was the voice of God. Then something was lifted out from me. It was a demonic spirit. When I got up, my legs were like tauhu (beancurd), like I was drunk.

“They prayed for me for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the depression left me. The depression never came back.”

A mind for Christ

With that, Paul suddenly “knew who God was”. He became “like a man possessed by the Holy Spirit”. For months, he stayed in his room, reading the Bible from cover to cover and praying non-stop. He also listened to sermons and read Christian books.

Paul (right) with his wife Dorcas (right, standing) and their sons, daughter-in-law and beloved dog.

“I did this for six months. My parents were shocked. But I got a new revelation every day.

“What I studied in Philosophy, I used in my Bible reading and Bible understanding to break down the issues and understand it. I began to have a revelation of who God is and who Jesus is.

“I told God, ‘I am going to take Your Word for all that it is. You tell me what to do, I will do it 100%. Because depression, addiction — You delivered me from them.’”

Since then, the man who had prided himself on the power of his mind and his ability to reason told God: “You blessed me with a mind. Let me use it for Your glory.”

Over time, God led Paul to see that it was more logical to accept miracles as from God than not.

“I have seen miracles. On a mission trip in Cambodia, there was a kid who was born blind in one eye. He was prayed for and his eyes turned till his pupil came back and he could see. How do you explain that?

Paul preaching in Uganda. He sponsored a water filtration system in the capital that has become a means through which people there have been drawn to the Gospel.

“We had this lady in church. She had breast cancer and the cancer spread through her whole body, her nervous system and blood. The MRI showed it. After we prayed for her, she was totally clear. I have the MRI. It blows your mind.

“When I was an atheist, I would have said it is unexplained and be perfectly fine with it from a philosophical standpoint because we don’t know everything.

“Now I look back and think it is quite stupid not to admit it is a miracle of God.”

Paul at a rural church in Sri Lanka.

In 2011, Paul became a bi-vocational pastor at New Life Community Church, a position he still holds today.

“After being born again, wherever I go, I talk about God. People at my job would call me Holy Moses. I just laugh. It was something I decided: What God wants me to do, I’ll just do it.”

RELATED STORIES:

Novel Coronavirus: China’s pastors go digital to spur flock on to faith and prayer

In Primary 1, a teacher’s kindness made him feel welcome. On his last day in Sec 4, another changed this head prefect’s world forever

Afghan aid worker who has chosen to stay: “I am not a brave person. Every day I pray to the Father and ask Him to help me.”

“I was a hardcore party animal”: Paid sex, gambling and drinking every night but he was empty inside

The post Raised by Christians, he became an atheist until a Voice said “I will teach you how to love Me” appeared first on Salt&Light.

Highlighting the faith decline, the article points out how the percentage of adults in the US who regularly attend religious services has dropped across the decades.

For instance, a Gallup study released in March 2024 showed that 20 years ago, 42 per cent attended religious services every week or nearly every week. This decreased to 38 per cent 10 years ago and has continued to slide to 30 per cent now.

Most attempts to explain this phenomenon are “either wrong or, at best, incomplete”, said J.P. De Gance, founder and president of Communio, a non-profit ministry that works with churches to strengthen relationships, marriages and the family. 

“The faith crisis facing churches and denominations nationwide was fuelled by the collapse of the family at home,” he deduced, drawing from data his ministry has gathered over the years.

Strength of marriages affects the health of churches

Referencing Communio’s Nationwide Study on Faith and Relationships, De Gance noted that four out of five of churchgoers grew up in a home where their parents stayed married, a family structure that is becoming increasingly uncommon within the country.

According to the 2023 study, which surveyed 19,000 Sunday church attendees across 112 different congregations in the US, this finding was observed across all age groups, including young adults.

For example, 80 per cent of never-married Sunday churchgoers aged 25–29 were raised in homes with married parents. This stands in contrast to less than half of this age group in the US population that had the same childhood experience.

Drawing the link between family and faith, it appears that children who grow up in homes with married parents are more likely to attend church regularly as adults.

Source: Nationwide Study on Faith and Relationships by Communio

“Causation is notoriously difficult to prove,” stated the study’s report.

“However, the overall homogeneity in the families of origin from church goers in various generations (Gen Z all the way through the youngest Baby Boomers) is striking.

“The absence of a proportionate number of church attendees who grew up in homes without married parents across all recent generations suggests movement in family structure is at the heart of the decline in church participation.”

The study also touched on the role of dads, showing how the breakdown of marriages and the decline in involvement by fathers can impact transmission of faith and active church participation.

What happens then when a typical household is no longer one with married parents and children?

In his article, De Gance expressed concern that the number of US households comprising married parents with children under the age of 18 has tumbled from 40 per cent in 1970 to 17.9 per cent in 2023, according to census data.

That is why “marriage is the most urgent ministry gap in the church today”, he emphasised.

Are churches investing enough in marriage ministry?

In other research conducted by Barna and commissioned by Communio, it was found that 72 per cent of American churches lacked a substantive marriage ministry.

For this study, 531 clergy were interviewed between November 27, 2018, and February 12, 2019. 

Source: The State of Marriage & Relationship Ministry report with research from Communio and Barna

Churches without a substantive marriage ministry did not have more than two of the below activities:

• Training and equipping leaders to mentor married couples.
• Organising a marriage retreat.
• Conducting a marriage workshop or seminar.
• Hosting date nights.
• Facilitating marriage support small groups.

In addition, over 70 per cent reported not having a ministry for newlyweds.

The survey also looked at how churches were helping single people in their marital aspirations. 

The result? More than 90 per cent of churches did not offer any ministry for singles.

Source: The State of Marriage & Relationship Ministry report with research from Communio and Barna

Reflecting on the current state of marriage in the US, Communio’s De Gance said that the Church required a “metanoia” mindset shift.

Citing the original Greek word used in Matthew 3:2 for repentance, he explained how “that aspect of turning from one thing and turning towards another on a deeper level is a transformation in our thoughts and actions”.

Similarly, to stop and reverse the flight from faith, churches need to turn away from ineffective efforts and turn towards new approaches in ministry that address the root of the issue.

“We’ve seen time and time again, that when a church becomes intentional and strategic in nurturing strong marriages, they see strengthened families as shockwaves of faith surge through church families, where Christ-like love of earthly fathers glorifies our Heavenly Father, impacting the next generation,” said De Gance. 

To equip churches in supporting singles and couples at each stage of romantic life, Communio’s strategic framework focuses on these four key areas: singlehood, marriage preparation, marriage enrichment and marriages in crisis.

What will happen when marriage and relationship ministries are transformed?

“I think we’d see every Gospel-centred church become an evangelising hub where people desire to enter and form healthy, God-honouring relationships,” concluded De Gance.

“At the local level, we’d see more people coming to faith in Jesus, more Christ-centred marriages forming and enduring, more healthy marriages thriving, and more children growing up to become adults who repeat the God-ordained masterpiece of ‘family’.”

RELATED STORIES:

Our kids are watching: State of the Family 2024 looks at the challenge of building strong marriages

Role of fathers, greater support needed for dads among key concerns raised at State of the Family 2024

What are the top ingredients that preserve a marriage? Hear from these couples with over 60 years of marriage combined

The post “Marriage is the most urgent ministry gap in the church today”: US study links faith crisis to family woes appeared first on Salt&Light.

“Forgive him as I forgave you.  Love him just as I have loved you.” May, now 50, heard these words entering her heart in the midst of deep anguish and tears.

At that point, May had discovered that her husband, Lim Cheng Kwan, was having an affair. Unbeknownst to her, he had, in fact, been unfaithful to her all the years they had known each other.

Before they got together he was already addicted to pornography. When they got married in 1993, his addiction only grew, until he finally entered into an affair with a prostitute.

May had always trusted her husband, until she had a sudden thought to look at what he had spent on his credit card. When she confronted him about an unusual expense, he brushed her off.

She found irrefutable proof on his phone soon enough. Emotionally devastated, May made the decision to divorce Cheng Kwan. But God changed her mind.

Powerless against sexual sin

Cheng Kwan was 11 years old when he began to explore pornography. What he thought was a harmless experience turned into a lifestyle that entrapped him for decades.

He and his friends “went from talking about masturbation to trying it, and I got hooked,” Cheng Kwan recounted. Whenever the urge to gratify himself arose, he would give in. 

Cheng Kwan thought the compulsion would stop when he was in a relationship or got married.

It did not.

Cheng Kwan’s addiction to pornography began in primary school. It grew into a sex addiction in his adult years, and culminated in a full-fledged affair.

When vivacious Cheng Kwan and soft-spoken May met in 1992 as teenagers in school, they started a relationship very quickly, and accepted Jesus into their lives at a church camp.

Despite turning to Jesus as Saviour, Cheng Kwan did not turn away from his sexual sin. With neither discipleship nor a Christian community around him, he wandered from God after a few years. 

“But I always knew I belonged to God and that God was with me,” he said. 

After a year of courtship, Cheng Kwan and May got married just before they turned 20, and subsequently had two children.

The father of two not only continued to indulge in pornography and masturbation, he progressed from magazines to videos. Then he began to frequent hostess bars. 

Cheng Kwan was tormented by the sin he knew he was committing against his wife. However, he convinced himself he could have the best of both worlds as long as he brought home the bacon and spent time with his family.

His spiral into sexual addiction eventually took him to the red-light district, where he succumbed to paying for sex with prostitutes.

The double life he led was tearing him apart. He wanted a way out but did not know how. 

“I was totally hooked and unable to get out of this darkness,” he admitted. 

Serving in church but still imprisoned 

Throughout their marriage, May was unaware of Cheng Kwan’s clandestine life and struggle. She gave him free rein to spend time with his friends as she did not want to tie down the man who had married young. 

But she prayed regularly for her husband, asking God to draw Cheng Kwan back to Himself. 

By 2016, Cheng Kwan longed to find rest in His heavenly Father, having wrestled with sex addiction for 30 long years.

“I was sick and tired of it,” he said.

In 2017, Cheng Kwan began attending church services every Sunday with his wife and son at Covenant Evangelical Free Church (CEFC) Woodlands church. Their daughter worshipped at a different church. 

Having returned to church and community, Cheng Kwan was keen for the family to grow together spiritually. A year later, they joined a group led by Ng Yong Siong, 54. 

As his faith and spiritual fervour grew, Cheng Kwan stepped up serve the youth in The Next Generation Ministry, where he facilitates discussions for primary school children.

He also volunteered as an usher at the annual Intentional Disciple Making Church (IDMC) conference. 

Despite all his efforts, the vicious claws of sexual addiction continued to grip him even as he served in church.

“I was no longer going to ‘dirty’ bars or to prostitutes but it was still a stronghold,” he told Salt&Light. He was determined to overcome it by his own strength but the decision to keep his struggles to himself would prove deadly. 

A celebratory drink session with his coworkers ended up in the red-light district. This time, Cheng Kwan not only engaged in sexual activity with a prostitute but entered into a relationship with her. 

This illicit relationship continued until God intervened.

Crushing betrayal

The couple’s children – a daughter in her 20s and a teenage son – were the first to inadvertently discover their father’s infidelity. When they confronted their father, he denied any impropriety and brushed off their questions.

Although they never told their mother about it, May had a seemingly random thought one day: “What did my husband spend on the credit card?”.

She spotted a charge for two tickets to the zoo in the credit card bill, and May asked Cheng Kwan about it. He claimed he had bought tickets for a friend, but May knew something was amiss.

“I felt no peace,” she recalled. “From that day on, I could not sleep well, I could not eat thinking about it.”

May began to look for clues. She went through his phone, and discovered text messages from the other woman, as well as incriminating photos. Her search on social media confirmed her suspicion.

“I saw what she looked like, where they went,” May said. Now knowing the truth, she questioned her husband again, but he denied any wrongdoing.

In the following months, May felt she was drowning in a flood of anger, bitterness and disappointment brought on by her husband’s crushing betrayal. She said: “I felt like I was walking alone.”

Being protective of Cheng Kwan, May told no one about the affair, not knowing her children were already aware of it.

Without another human to confide in, she leaned hard on God and held tightly to Him. She soaked herself in praise and worship music, and poured out her heart to God.

Many nights she would sit alone in the silence of the neighbourhood park, staring at the sky. Sometimes she went for a run in the wee hours of the morning when sleep eluded her. 

“My focus was solely on God,” she said. “His Word really encouraged me.”

The verse that carried her was Romans 8:39 – “Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

“No matter what situation I’m in, nothing can separate me from God,” she stated.

May made a decision to file for divorce. She said: “I didn’t want a man that doesn’t love me. l was willing to let him go so he can be happy with a woman he loves.”

But God changed her mind.

“Forgive him as I forgave you” 

One morning at 4am as she was running, May heard God’s voice: “Forgive him as I forgave you. Love him just as I have loved you.”

It was a difficult thing God asked of her, but May said: “I realised it was no longer about me or about Cheng Kwan’s sin. It was about showing him how much God loved him. It was about saving the family.” 

May took up God’s challenge, strengthened by the words of Paul in 1 Timothy 1:16 – “But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners.”

“It was no longer about me or my husband’s sin, but about showing him how much God loves him, and about saving my family,” May recalled her decision to forgive.

Now determined to fight for her marriage and her family, May revealed the truth about Cheng Kwan to her cell group leader Siong. Together with assistant cell group leader Kenneth Soh, Siong confronted Cheng Kwan.

Cheng Kwan denied the truth the first two times he was asked, but finally came clean the third time.

“I didn’t want to drag on in this relationship (with the other woman) anymore,” Cheng Kwan said.

Admitting his sin to Siong broke its power over him. Cheng Kwan now readily heeded his leader’s counsel to repent, seek his wife’s forgiveness, and make restitution.

He mustered the courage to make his confession to his wife, pouring out all his years of secrets and struggles. He sought her forgiveness.

“I told her everything. I told her about the relationship with the other woman. I told her all the things I did in the past that did not honour her,” he said. 

May remained calm as her husband owned up to all his sexual sins beyond the affair. God had prepared her those months before, allowing May to work through her pain with Him before Cheng Kwan’s eventual confession.

She forgave her husband, as she had promised God she would. 

“This love of God in May is the only reason we are still together,” Cheng Kwan said to Salt&Light.

Following his confession to his wife, Cheng Kwan confessed his sin to his cell group leaders and repented. He also came clean with both his children and sought their forgiveness.

“One of the key reasons I wanted so badly to break this sin was because I did not want it to become a generational sin, affecting my children and their children,” Cheng Kwan said. “I want it completely chopped off at me.” 

Although she was wronged, through God, May could even feel compassion for the other woman, recognising her as a foreigner trying to make a living.

“I pray that God will take care of her,” she said. “I pray that God will really open her eyes to see that what she did was wrong and that she shouldn’t be doing this anymore.” 

The road to restoration

From the first year that Cheng Kwan and May began their journey to restore their marriage, their cell group leaders and their wives have walked closely with them, covering them in prayer and accountability.

Siong told Cheng Kwan to read Psalm 51. Verse 13 made a big impact on him: “Transgressors will know your way, and sinners will turn back to you.” 

A WhatsApp group chat “Rekindle Marriage” was set up to encourage and exhort them. In the chat are three couples from the cell group who support Cheng Kwan and May.

Leaders of their cell group journeyed with May and Cheng Kwan on their road to the restoration and kept them accountable (L-R): Ng Yong Siong, Kenneth Soh, Joyce Tan (Kenneth’s wife), Jane Ng (Siong’s wife).

In 2021, Siong set up a men’s group called Warpath to minister to men in CEFC struggling with addictions. Cheng Kwan is one of six in the group who come together regularly to share testimonies, pray for one another and be discipled in various areas such as conquering sin, breaking bondage and walking in freedom.

Cheng Kwan also allowed his location to be tracked by the Life360 app, developed during the pandemic to trace contacts after Singapore lifted the COVID lockdown.

Repentance also led him to renounce his past behaviour in the presence of his co-workers and put an end to his former habits.

When he told his co-workers that he had changed, they were shocked. They tested his resolve a few times, inviting him out with them.

“I tell them no. No way. Not even for drinks or for KTV,” Cheng Kwan said. “I’m going back home.”  

Being plugged into a church, surrounded by a band of brothers from the Warpath group has kept Cheng Kwan from falling back into his double life, he said. 

A few weeks after Cheng Kwan confessed his sins and repented, the COVID pandemic brought Singapore into lockdown mode. As a result, the family spent two months patching and catching up.

“God is so amazing with His timing,” Cheng Kwan smiled. 

It was during this time that Cheng Kwan started conducting cell group at home. The couple and their two children worshipped, prayed and studied the Word of God together using materials from their church. They partook of the Holy Communion as a family too.

“I could see a spiritual transformation in our family,” May said. The couple was also baptised after Cheng Kwan’s deliverance from sexual addiction. 

Today, it has been five years since the truth set Cheng Kwan free and God began healing his marriage to May. It is a work in progress, requiring commitment and accountability from both husband and wife.

May had never imagined she would undergo the trauma of marital betrayal. 

“It is not easy to forgive but God can heal me,” she said. “Through Him, l forgive. l always remember I am God’s child, He loves me. In my deepest hurt, l just call on His name and He is faithful to answer.”

It was her razor sharp focus on God throughout the ordeal that shifted her priority to bringing Cheng Kwan back to God, not to her.

“I do not wish to see him leave God,” she declared. “I just commit him to God, asking Him to help me learn to forgive him.”

RELATED STORIES: 

“I am moved by the tears of your wife. I will heal you,” Jesus told this dying man

“If these children with HIV can praise God, why can’t I?” cried out Radion’s Eugene Wee when his family lost everything

“God wants you to forgive and restore your family”: Esther Tzer Wong

The post From porn to prostitutes, he cheated on his wife for 26 years, but she did the unthinkable appeared first on Salt&Light.

Borrowing from the Where’s Wally book concept of spotting the iconic Wally hidden in every detailed illustration, Christian retailer ChezHemdi invites us to look for the figure of Jesus in ang baos illustrated with Jesus’ 37 miracles.

ChezHemdi founder Hemdi Unamee, 42, believes these ang baos offer a fun way of introducing Jesus to friends and family members over the festive season.

“The ang bao is a good medium to share Christ because everyone is giving them during Chinese New Year,” Hemdi said. “How can we put Jesus inside and let Him be the focus during Chinese New Year?”  

ChezHemdi, along with The Commandment Co, Cornerstone Community Church and Bethesda Bedok-Tampines Church (BBTC), are among those leveraging the Chinese New Year tradition of ang bao giving as a platform for outreach.

Here are their ideas for sharing New Year greetings of abundant life, new beginnings and the ultimate blessing that is Jesus Christ.

Marvel at the miracles of Jesus: ChezHemdi

Hemdi and her husband Peter Hui wanted to create an ang bao design that would be an avenue to share the Gospel. It would also be a physical reminder of the miracles of God. 

The initial concept was to highlight the triumphant entry of Jesus and the blessing that comes with it.

“When Jesus comes into your life, into your house, especially for Chinese New Year, it’s a big thing, a grand thing,” Hemdi told Salt&Light. 

Eventually, they extended the idea to focus on the miracles of Jesus. After all, when Jesus enters a town, a city, a life, miracles start to appear, Hemdi said. 

The couple used these reflections to craft a narrative and create scenes that people can spot on the ang baos.

The healing of the paralytic let into the house through the roof (Matthew 9:1-8). A QR code on the ang pao directs to a page describing the miracles and scripture references. Photo by ChezHemdi.

Peter, a graphic designer, illustrated each miracle by hand.

The couple believes that the miracles, most of which are of healing, are relatable.

“It would be a good platform to pray for healing when the ang baos are given out,” Hemdi said.

Hemdi and Peter, who have two boys of five and three years old, were inspired by the illustrations in their children’s books.

At the back of the ang bao is a QR code that directs to a page describing each of the 37 miracles with Scripture references. 

These packets can be used not just to share the Gospel with pre-believers but also for believers to learn more about the miracles of Jesus.

“It’s also like a little Bible study for Christians to learn the Word,” added Hemdi.

Peter hopes that, through interaction with this ang bao, people will come to know God as a miracle working God.

The ang baos are available online here.

Share the splendour of God’s creation: The Commandment Co

God’s creation was the inspiration for The Commandment Co’s “Bountiful Blessings” ang bao series this year.

“We were deeply moved by the splendour of God’s creation,” said Edwin Lim, founder of The Commandment Co. 

This year’s ang bao series highlights God’s creativity in nature. Photo by The Commandment Co.

“The magnificence and greatness of His artwork are evident in every aspect of life, yet there is a harmony and peace that words cannot describe.”

The ang baos can be repurposed as wall decor. Photo: The Commandment Co.

The team landed on the idea of a series of five scenic imageries showcasing God’s creativity: Pastoral scenes of lakes and countryside, rolling hills and majestic mountains, as well as a cityscape of apartment buildings nestled among verdant trees.

The Commandment Co used pastel colours as an alternative to the conventional red so the packets are suitable for use throughout the year. These envelopes can even be repurposed as home décor for walls and door entrances.

Each design incorporates a universal blessing of 福 (bountiful blessings), 春 (spring, symbolising bountiful life), 满 (abundance for bountiful favour), 乐(bountiful joy) and 喜(bountiful happiness).

“We hope these ‘Bountiful Blessings’ packets will spark meaningful conversations inspired by a wish for peace or happiness,” Edwin shared. “Our intention is for recipients to sense the heartfelt blessings woven into the design, and plant the seed for dialogue about God when they receive this gift.”

Buy the ang baos online here or at The Commandment Co’s store at 231 Bain Street (Bras Basah Complex), #04-41, Singapore 180231.

Include blessings of abundance: Cornerstone Community Church

In designing its ang baos this year, Cornerstone Community Church lifted from the rich imageries in the Bible, particularly in passages emphasising blessings and harvest.

The vivid colours, intricate patterns and symbols of abundance highlights Scriptural principles of reaping what one sows, and the promise of God’s blessings. The designs are founded on the Chinese characters: 春 (spring), 贺 (congratulation), 庆 (celebration) and 平安 (peace).

These ang baos lift from the rich imagery of Bible passages emphasising blessings and harvest. Photo: Cornerstone Community Church

“We envision these ang baos to be tangible reminders of gratitude and the spiritual journey,” Tan Ruiping, Cornerstone media director told Salt&Light.

“We encourage our members to engage with the recipients by including personal prayers, wishes, or expressions of thanks in the envelopes as they fill them.”

This interaction has the potential to transform the ang baos into vessels of blessings to foster a sense of community and connection, said Ruiping. 

The ang baos are available next week online or at the Faithworks Bookstore, 11 East Coast Road, #02-22 The Odeon Katong, Singapore 428722.

Connect through personalised prayer: Bethesda Bedok-Tampines Church

Can I pray for you?

This is a simple question that can draw deep, emotional responses. 

Bethesda Bedok-Tampines Church (BBTC) rolled out its “Can I Pray For You?” prayer movement with customised ang baos that can kickstart Chinese New Year conversations. 

The cover of the ang bao features a list of prayer requests that recipients can select. 

“Behind this simple question is a powerful God waiting to be connected to your loved ones,” says BBTC Senior Pastor Chua Seng Lee. “The potential blessings that can flow out of this connection is beyond our wildest imagination.”

“Behind this simple question is a powerful God waiting to be connected to your loved ones,” says BBTC Senior Pastor Chua Seng Lee of the “Can I Pray for You?” movement.

The concept is to use the ang bao to start a conversation, then intercede for recipients in prayer so that the love of God can be introduced to them.

Through this campaign, several members of BBTC have stepped up to pray for their pre-believing loved ones and even strangers on the street.

Through these simple prayers, the Gospel is being shared and people are coming to Christ, Ps Seng Lee said. 

RELATED STORIES

How to share God’s love as you do CNY

What if parents use ang baos and reunion dinner to share about God?

The post This Chinese New year, use your <i>ang baos</i> to bring blessings of Good News appeared first on Salt&Light.

While I understand the desire for fresh starts and new beginnings, none of us has the power to reinvent ourselves simply because the calendar has flipped over to a new year.

But since the Gospel of Jesus Christ carries with it a message of fresh starts and new beginnings – because of the forgiving and transforming power of God’s grace – looking forward at the year to come does give us an opportunity to give ourselves anew to practical, daily-life commitments that are rooted in the Gospel.

Let me suggest seven commitments that all of us have been empowered, and can be excited, to make.

1. Be honest about your struggles

Denial of your daily struggles with temptation and sin is never a pathway to change.

The work of Jesus frees all of us to be honest about our weaknesses and failures without fear of God’s judgment.

The Gospel welcomes us in our weakness to run to God and not away from him. The doorway to personal change begins with humbly admitting your need for the help that only God can give.

2. Rest in God’s presence and strength

Refuse to load your personal potential and welfare on your small shoulders. Remember the Jesus is with you, in you and for you, and because he is, your welfare rests on his infinitely huge shoulders.

When you measure your potential, don’t forget that your life has been invaded by His power and grace. You could argue that Jesus is your potential.

3. Don’t look horizontally for what can only be found vertically

Don’t allow yourself to be seduced into believing that life can be found in the people, possessions, situations, locations and experiences of everyday life.

Remember, the role of created things is not to give you life, but to point you to the One who is the Way, the Truth and Life.

Refuse to try to satisfy your heart with things that will never offer you the satisfaction that you seek.

4. Deepen your relationship with the body of Christ

You and I were never hardwired by God to walk with Him on our own. God’s plan for us is deeply relational. We’re wired to be connected and dependent, not isolated and independent.

Live close to God’s people, inviting those around you to intrude on your private world and to function as God’s tools of comfort, encouragement, confrontation, growth and change.

Remember, sin makes it hard for us to see ourselves objectively and accurately. Personal spiritual insight and growth really is the result of community.

5. Argue with your own heart

It’s a theme of my ministry that I will continue to repeat: No one has more influence in your life than you do because no one talks to you more than you do.

Don’t give way to self-talk that is marked by fear, despondency, futility, hopelessness or discouragement. Preach the Gospel of God’s love, grace, presence, promises and power to yourself multiple times a day.

Commit to carrying on a Gospel conversation with yourself that never stops.

6. Work to assure that praise replaces complaint

It’s sad, but true, that the default language of every sinner is complaint. Because sin causes me to think that life is all about me, it also causes me to constantly find reasons for being dissatisfied.

But when you and I are living for something bigger than our own pleasure and comfort, and when we’re committed to counting our blessings more than we count our complaints, praise will fill our hearts and punctuate our conversations.

How about committing yourself to beginning every day by counting the many, many ways God has showered you with blessings you could have never earned or deserved on your own?

7. Rest in the complete work of Jesus Christ

You have reason for rest, because even though the calendar has flipped to a new year, your Saviour still greets you with new mercies every morning, He still will not send you without going with you or call you to a job without giving you what you need to do it, and He still reigns over all things for your sake.

You can rest because you are in the good hands of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

So, as the new year unfolds, don’t fool yourself with grandiose resolutions that none of us has the power to keep. Rather, celebrate the Gospel of Jesus Christ and its huge catalogue of graces.

Re-commit yourself to living every day in light of what you have been given in and through your Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Happy New Year!

RELATED STORIES:

4 words of counsel for the new year

What to put on and off for the new year

3 ways to live purposefully in the new year

The post Don’t make resolutions, make these 7 commitments appeared first on Salt&Light.