Shortly after he witnessed the plight of that family, he visited a landfill that revealed mounds of once perfectly edible food, discarded and left rotting. The stark contrast was impossible to ignore.

“I felt an overwhelming spiritual urge to act,” he said. “It became clear how much food is wasted daily. We have taken God-given resources for granted, damaging His creation and disrespecting the poor with our wasteful habits.”

In 2018, he founded What A Waste (WaW) with his wife, Angela Tan, to bridge the gap between food waste and food insecurity.

Said Angela: “We couldn’t ignore what we saw: the waste, hunger and need for hope.”

Rescued over 32 million kg of surplus food

WaW focuses on diverting the surplus of cooked food to marginalised communities. This is done by empowering food operators to channel unsold meals to designated collection points.

In Malaysia, many food waste non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and food banks avoid handling ready-to-eat food due to the high risks involved and specialised knowledge required.

After giving up their successful careers as architects, Alvin and Angela are now food warriors on a God-led mission to bridge the gap between food insecurity and food waste.

WaW deliberately ventured into this challenging space, while aligning its work with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) objectives.

To date, the organisation has “rescued” over 32 million kg of food from landfills and used it to serve more than 400,000 nutritious meals to underserved communities, including urban poor families, refugees, the homeless, welfare homes, indigenous communities and even pet shelters.

They also run initiatives like daily food rescue missions, a disaster relief mobile kitchen, corporate social responsibility (CSR) collaborations, ESG impact reporting, and environmental education talks.

Alvin giving a talk at the International Social Wellbeing Conference 2023 in Kuala Lumpur.

One standout programme was ‘Saying I Do To The Environment’, where over 600 newlyweds opted to donate surplus food from their wedding to the underprivileged.

Another notable effort was ‘Ramadan Tanpa Pembaziran’, a partnership with the Subang Jaya City Council and the State Assemblywoman’s office to rescue unsold food from Ramadan bazaars.

Over the last six years, the value of food recovered by WaW stands at approximately RM30 million (S$9 million), preventing an estimated 80 million kg of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere.

The statistics are impressive and the impact is staggering, but the journey has not been without significant sacrifices.

Seeing God’s faithfulness in the struggle

One of the biggest challenges they have faced is financial hardship.

For Alvin, the shift from architect to food warrior was emotionally challenging. He traded posh offices, high-profile clientele, and architectural awards for the back-of-house work of handling food waste and surplus food.

As parents, the couple are learning to trust God for all of their needs, and to know that He will not shortchange them or their children.

“Transitioning from a stable and rewarding career (as architects) to something new also meant letting go of financial security. Suddenly, gone were days of comfort filled with family holidays, restaurant dining and gifts for my children,” said Alvin.

As parents, he and Angela constantly struggle with being unable to afford better quality education for their two children.

Yet, all these have led Alvin to deepen his faith in a God who loves and takes care of them.

“Declaring God’s faithfulness and engaging Him in conversation has taught me to see goodness in every struggle, and to find peace and joy in my darkest moments,” he said.

For Angela, the hardships have revealed God’s love in deeper and more personal ways.

“After losing my mother and my younger brother to separate accidents, I carried a deep void. But over time, I felt God fill that emptiness with His love,” she said.

“So I have learned that following Christ means living with purpose and serving others, reflecting His love for the broken and needy.”

In God’s hands, nothing is wasted

Looking back, the couple sees how God has used their corporate experience as former architects and knowledge of sustainable practices to establish WaW as Malaysia’s first and only ESG-driven food rescue specialist.

“Seeing lives transformed, food rescued, the environment protected, and communities empowered is a testament to God’s faithfulness,” Angela said.

“It reminds us that this work matters. Every meal we distribute is more than just feeding someone. We are caring for His creation.”

A 100 kg of fresh cherry tomatoes were saved and repacked in rescued plastic bottles for distribution to underprivileged communities.

By God’s grace, WaW has grown from a grassroots initiative into a high-impact environmental organisation widely recognised in Malaysia for its professionalism, impact and excellence.

For Alvin, John 6:12 remains the heartbeat of WaW’s mission.

“It says, “When they had all had enough to eat, (Jesus) said to his disciples, ‘Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.’

This verse is a powerful reminder to them that in God’s hands, nothing is wasted – not food, not resources, not lives.

Said Alvin: “This isn’t our work; it’s His.”

Are you trying to discover your God-given purpose? Alvin and Angela share keys they’ve found helpful in their journey.

Pray and listen: Spend time in His presence, asking for clarity and direction. His voice often comes in quiet moments. Allocate some undisturbed personal time in a week. “Start where you are. Look at what breaks your heart or stirs your passion. God often calls us to act in areas where we feel the deepest burden,” said Alvin.

Step out in faith: God calls us into uncomfortable places. Change often starts at the end of your comfort zone. So, step out of your comfort zone. Trust Him and take that first step, even if it’s small.

Use your gifts: Reflect on your skills and experiences. God has uniquely equipped you to make an impact. Never underestimate even a small skill, for it leads to bigger things.

Be patient: Purpose unfolds in God’s timing, not ours. And God’s timing is perfect. Stay faithful in the waiting.

“However, don’t wait for everything to be ‘perfect’ by your standards,” said Angela. “Obedience often precedes clarity. When God calls, step out in faith, even if it’s scary. He will equip you along the way. Surround yourself with godly counsel, stay rooted in His Word, and be willing to take risks for His glory.”

Learn more about What A Waste here.

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Sent there by their church, Harvester Assembly of God Church (now Harvester Community Church), they planted churches and started schools in local communities.

Sunny (centre with bag) and his wife Susan (second from right in blue) spent 10 years doing church-planting work in the Philippines.

But in 2009, they were forced to come home. Susan had been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. The cancer in her breast had spread to her spine, and she needed treatment.

“It was a major transition for my family, and there were financial needs as well,” said Sunny.

Back in Singapore, their sons, then 13 and 10, struggled to adjust to life and school in a place they barely knew.

At the time, Sunny, now 58, had been planning to reach out to Marawi City in the Philippines. The sudden move meant all his plans would come to naught.

“But I still believed God had a purpose despite what had happened. So I was waiting.”

A life with God’s purpose

Sunny was in his 20s when he became a Christian.

By the time he got married, he thought life was smooth-sailing.

Sunny (left) with an employer and his family at an award ceremony in 2022.

Then Susan suffered two miscarriages that made him do some “deep soul searching”. He realised that his heart had been drawn away from the Lord.

Going to church was no longer a priority for him. His job as a tour guide, which required him to work on weekends, did not help.

So he quit his job and went in search of a deeper purpose in life. During a worship service under Pastor Francis Khoo’s ministry one day, Sunny had an encounter with God that changed his life.

“For me, purpose is very important. I thought money would be the answer. But no. Then I thought happiness would be the answer. But no. All these years I had been searching for a purpose in life.

”At that service, someone gave me a word – Jeremiah 29:11. The verse struck my heart. I thought: How did you know I was searching for a purpose, God?”

As he walked closer with God, Sunny realised that his life’s purpose was meant to be found in God’s purpose.

“The joy and fulfilment in life is when you see someone turn their hearts to Jesus, to God. This is everyone’s calling and purpose. When we live our own lives, that is how we get lost,” he said.

So even when he had to leave the mission field and come home, he knew that God’s call for him to “reach out to people in the third world”, which he had first received when he became a missionary, still stood strong.

A mission field at home

When his family returned to Singapore from the mission field, Sunny’s father came to live with them.

Sunny hired a domestic helper to care for him and do the household chores, since Susan was ill and Sunny was busy with his new job as a real estate agent.

Sunny and his late wife Susan. This photograph was taken after her cancer went into remission.

When the Filipino helper arrived at their home, she cried non-stop for the first few months and could not work. She was homesick, missed her two children and could not adapt to life as a foreign domestic worker.

Sunny said: “I shared with her my story and told her, ‘God always has a purpose. There is always a new beginning.’”

That sparked an idea in Sunny. He decided to gather a few of his Christian friends to go to Lucky Plaza, a popular haunt among Filipino foreign domestic workers, to share God’s love with them.

As he heard the stories and struggles of the domestic workers, he was moved with compassion for them. “Then I felt God say to me, ‘You don’t have to travel to another country. Your mission starts here.’”

Going back to Eden

By this time, Susan had gone into remission. “It was really God,” said Sunny.

Moved by the word Sunny had received from God, the pair set up a maid agency, Eden Grace, as their new mission field. 

Susan would remain healthy till she suffered a relapse and passed away in 2018. But the extra nearly 10 years allowed them to build up their mission field.

Sunny and the helpers recently celebrated Pastor Appreciation Day in October 2024.

Explaining the agency’s name, Sunny said: “Our purpose began from the Garden of Eden when God made us in His image and gave us a purpose.

“I saw many of the foreign domestic workers were lost. They didn’t know their purpose in life. I wanted to help them find it.

“Because of the Fall, we lost our purpose. Grace is what Christ has done for us, restoring our purpose and giving us a second chance in life.”

Discipleship on off-days

From the start, Sunny and Susan planned for the business to be more than just a maid agency. It would be a ministry to reach out to foreign domestic workers.

To disciple them even before they come to Singapore, Sunny set up a training programme for the maids in the Philippines. He also employed a live-in pastor who conducts devotions and Bible study with them, as well as counsels them.

In Singapore, they started a weekly worship service for the helpers, during which Sunny or Susan would preach.

Pastors in the Philippines got to know about their ministry and would tell their members about it when they came to work in Singapore.

Apart from Sunny, whom the domestic helpers call “Pastor Sunny”, guest speakers also preach at the Sunday worship service. “We needed a separate service (instead of bringing them to an existing church) because their needs are very different,” said Sunny.

Foreign domestic workers praying for newcomers at the Sunday worship service Sunny conducts.

These services see up to 80 worshippers.

As most helpers only get one day off a month to attend the worship service, Sunny also started a weekly cell group meeting on Zoom. The domestic helpers are put into different small groups. There are now three zones with one or two cell groups each.

“We want them to have godly influence. We want to watch over them and mentor them. So that’s what these meetings are for,” said Sunny.

Domestic helpers at the weekly online cell group meeting.

More than a decade on, the cell group leaders and those who serve in the worship service are all foreign domestic workers. “Sharing the work helps us grow together,” said Sunny, who has seen his labour for God bear fruit.  

Helpers have come to believe in Jesus and get baptised. Some months, they baptise two converts. Some months, they see as many as six baptisms.

Once a month, instead of a worship service, Sunny takes the maids on outings. They have visited Pulau Ubin, the Singapore Zoo and gone on hikes.

A Valentine’s Day outing for domestic helpers.

“Not all the helpers want to go to church. These activities give them another thing to do so that they don’t end up in wrong relationships or getting bad influence from friends,” explained Sunny.

The activities also give the foreign domestic workers a chance to build bonds and bring friends so that the Gospel can be shared with them.

Strengthening employer-helper bonds

Realising that the relationship between the helper and their employer is key to a positive work experience, Sunny conducts orientation talks for employers.

“Employers need to be educated on the cultural differences. We also hope that they can adopt the maids into their family,” he said.

A bonding picnic for domestic helpers and their employers.

This October, he also launched a programme that seeks to empower all Singaporean employers to better understand their helpers and support them. The programme will also include workshops and forums for employers to connect and build a support network within the Christian community as well.

“This is another way to fulfil the Great Commission for Christian employers,” said Sunny.

Twice a year, Eden Grace also organises employer-maid bonding activities like picnics and cooking competitions.

Employers and their domestic helpers participating in a cooking competition, one of Eden Grace’s employer-helper bonding activities.

Every Christmas, it also holds an award ceremony where employers and maids can nominate and honour each other for positive character traits like integrity, kindness and initiative.

“I used to cap it at 30 nominations, but now I am giving (an award) to every nominee,” said Sunny.

The 2023 Award Ceremony.

It is at these ceremonies that heartwarming testimonies are shared.

Sunny, who encourages domestic helpers to be a testimony for Christ, recalled an example: “I will always remember this helper who was a caregiver to an employer using a wheelchair because he had Stage 4 cancer.

“At first the man was very bitter and had a lot of demands on the helper. But she showed him love and care, and shared Christ with him. Some weekends, other helpers went to his house to share Christ with him. Eventually, he received Christ.

“Before he passed on, he had such peace in his heart because he knew where he was going. It brought a lot of fulfilment to my life (to hear about this).”

Since Eden Grace started, hundreds of helpers have been placed in Singapore homes. Now, apart from domestic foreign workers from the Philippines, Sunny has those from Indonesia and Myanmar, too.

Life may have called Sunny back to Singapore. But God has given him a mission field that spans nations right at home.

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The post “I saw many of them were lost”: He started maid agency Eden Grace to help foreign domestic workers find their purpose appeared first on Salt&Light.

“In Malaysia, more than 15,000 tonnes of food are wasted on a daily basis. That’s enough to feed 12 million people, three times a day,” said the 37-year-old.

Struck by these facts, and with a passion for social and environmental causes, Clara decided to tackle the issue from the ground up.

From 10 boxes a week to 50 a day

In 2019, after spending seven years serving low-income families and students with a non-profit organisation, Clara decided to open Graze Market, a surplus food grocer, in Petaling Jaya. 

The first six months of running Graze Market was challenging. She had opened a physical store with only RM15,000 (S$4,300), and little clue about how to run a business.

“But I felt I needed to just stay in the game,” said Clara, who has a degree in finance.

Several months later, the pandemic hit. Overnight, Graze Market’s veggie boxes became a hit.

“We went from 10 boxes a week to 50 boxes a day. I then realised that low-income families without much access to technology would be impacted, so we worked with corporates to sponsor fruit and veggie boxes,” she shared.

These boxes were a blessing to the underprivileged community, as many food aid boxes were filled with dry goods such as rice, oil and flour.

When the pandemic passed, Graze Market reopened its retail space to sell premium food nearing their best before dates. The team now also produces its own sauces and marinades, and is venturing into the catering space to increase its impact.

More recently, Graze Market started venturing into catering as a sustainable, high-impact way to tackle food waste and encourage responsible consumption.

What can the Church do?

Food wastage is not just a problem in Malaysia, but worldwide.

According to global statistics, a third of all food is wasted.

Graze Market started with surplus fruits and vegetables, but has since expanded to making their own sauces and marinades.

Food wastage means also discarding the energy used in growing, harvesting, preparing, transporting, packing and distributing it. Furthermore, wasted food produces methane as it rots in landfills, contributing to the problem of climate change.

She noted that in Christian circles, evangelism and social work are often the focus.

“Not many churches emphasise the need to protect the planet. But God made the earth, and we are called to tend it (Genesis 2:15),” she said.

“When we cause our earth to degrade faster, we are doing the future generations a disservice,” Clara added matter-of-factly.

Apart from damage to the environment, food wastage also affects people – in particular, the poor and needy.

The reality is, the world is growing enough food for everyone. But because so much is going to waste, millions of people are paying the price.

The ones who suffer most are the poor and underprivileged, who often lack access to nutritious food and the financial capacity to manage increasing prices.

Today, as many as 309 million people in 72 countries live with chronic hunger every day, according to the World Food Programme.

While Clara acknowledged that there are Christian impact investors sowing into creation care, she believes the Church can do more.

“In general, the whole idea of food waste applies to everyone. How can we spearhead such initiatives as a church? These are questions we can be asking,” she said.

Giving the business back to God

Since its inception, Graze Market has distributed imperfect fruits and vegetables to more than 10,000 people. The young entrepreneur knows more lies ahead.

“A big part of running an organisation is your internal growth, learning to rely on God. It’s easy to think it’s all just us. But when we realise it’s all by God’s grace, and that He can give and He can take, we grow,” she said.

Having been at the helm of Amazing Graze for five years, Clara has learned to sow not just into her business but also into her team.

Clara is also a member of Accomplish Asia, a community that inspires impact-driven leaders to transform businesses and enrich lives.

“When I started, I had a purpose from God. But when struggles came, I went into survival mode. Now I’m asking, ‘How do I give this business back to God?’ I’m trying to put that into practice,” Clara mused.

A member of Accomplish Asia, Clara is learning how to be a faithful steward of her business and lead with Christ-centred values for true success.

This shift in perspective has given her renewed courage to take risks.

“I have a tendency to hold back on funds, but I’m learning to sow. And it’s not just about resources, but the people we work with,” she explained.

Living out God’s purposes

Asked how we can know that God is calling us to initiate an idea that brings His purposes to life, Clara answered: God’s presence.

“As you spend time with the Lord and share moments with Him, you will have a sense of God’s heart,” she said.

A practical check is to ask if this initiative will help you to know God and make Him known in whatever space you’re in, be it the workplace, in service or in ministry, she added.

Next to the surplus food market, Graze Market also runs a small cafe, Graze Eatery with a menu based on the available surplus produce.

“If you’ve ticked off these two points, then it’s time to take the step of faith. In the beginning, it can look like you’ve gone off (track), but just staying in the game and being faithful will bring you to a place of God’s unfolding,” she said.

For Clara, stewardship means being faithful in whatever opportunities God gives her.

Through the vicissitudes of life and running a social enterprise, the young entrepreneur holds onto John 14:27.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

Her focus is to ensure she’s living out God’s purposes for her daily.

She said: “I didn’t plan to be an entrepreneur. But having been in this space for five years, I now see it as a God-given opportunity to serve Him, care for our planet and love others.”

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The post Reducing food waste has lots to do with good stewardship: Founder of Malaysian surplus food grocer, Graze Market appeared first on Salt&Light.

Ami Tsoi was there to sell jewellery she had designed and made by hand. But she ended up sharing her life story with a customer instead.

The piece the woman had been eyeing was part of The Blessings series. The tassel earrings in the collection are inspired by the tassels on the garments used by priests in the Old Testament of the Bible that represented holiness. Each earring has a name. The one Ami and her customer bonded over was called Lydia.

Ami at a weekend market in New Zealand. It was the first time she sold her handiwork and got to see others appreciating her craft.

One of the tassel earrings from The Blessings collection.

The name is particularly meaningful to Ami.

“I was engaged once. My ex- fiancé had given me a lot of promises. He even said our girl would be called Lydia.”

When Ami was designing the earring, she had asked God for the name of that piece.  

Ami modelling the Imperfect bracelet, the Olive Branch necklace and the Twelve Stones necklace.

“I always involve God in the design and craftsmanship of my pieces. 

“When I asked Him what the tassel earrings should be called, He named it ‘Lydia’.

“I told Him, ‘God, You are so cruel. Why would You tell me this name of all the Bible women’s names? Do You want to taunt me with what I do not have?’

“I was crying, but then He said, ‘Lydia is not your daughter’s name. Her name is another name.’ I felt His promise. Even though I don’t see it now, it is His promise to me. That brought a lot of healing to me.”

When Ami shared the story with her customer, the woman – who was also single – identified with it.

“I told her, ‘God knows your heart, your desire.’ We prayed together at the booth and we cried together. We were blessing each other.”

When Ami started Deror Jewellery (Hebrew for “freedom”), she wanted a brand that delivered revelations from God. That is why each piece she designs has a story that inspires.

Ami, who loved to draw as a child, picked up jewellery-making as a hobby.

But behind the brand itself is also a story, one of embracing the love of the Father and the freedom that comes with that unconditional love.

“Do you want to dance with me?”

The year was 2018. Ami was stressed and stretched at work and in church. Her Hong Kong job in investment banking was intense and the hours were long.

In church, she was involved in several different ministries, from missions to discipleship and fund-raising.

Ami in her heady corporate days, when dressing well and living well also meant working long hours.

“I was really depressed at work. During rush hour, when I saw a lot of people in the MTR, I would become depressed. I didn’t even know why.

“Maybe it was burnout. Maybe it was the suffocation from meeting up to the expectations to be a good girl,” said the 36-year-old who was born in Hong Kong and lives there.

The year before, she had attended a seven-day Fatherheart Ministries school at the behest of her best friend where she had learnt about the love of God the Father.

As she contemplated her state and what she had learnt, she wondered: If I am so loved and approved by God, why do I feel like this?

That was when she decided to quit her job and take three months to explore the Father’s love.

“I felt in my heart like God was pulling me to go. I wanted to be free from all this.”

The middle child who had always lived by the book surprised her parents with her decision to enrol at the Fatherheart Ministries’ Inheriting the Nations (INS) training school in New Zealand.

Ami’s decision to go to New Zealand for three months and join the Fatherheart Ministries’ INS training school was one that puzzled her friends and family. But it would change the trajectory of her life.

“In New Zealand, God was so close. Every day, He would speak to me very gently, very intimately. I had never experienced such a long, intimate period of time with Him.”

One night she was chatting with a friend there and the next day God talked to her about the very topic of the conversation the night before.

“It was as if He was in the conversation!”

On another occasion, she learnt Scottish folk dancing.

“When I woke up the next morning, God asked me, ‘Do you want to dance with Me?’

“It was a very sweet invitation. I had always seen Him as a frightening God who would punish me. But this was so, so sweet.

During her time in New Zealand, Ami got to experience God’s Father love in a way she never had before.

“I used to see myself as a servant. But during those three months, God tangibly showed me that I was really His daughter. That love, that approval, helped me to open my heart to receive His love and allowed me to acknowledge my heart, my desires and my feelings towards God.”

Some of those encounters with God would become the basis for Ami’s design ideas.  

A little girl again  

When Ami went to New Zealand, she brought material for making jewellery with her, as well as pieces she had made. Jewellery-making was her hobby.

Classmates who saw her work asked her to make jewellery for them. When she set up a pop-up stall at a night market, her creations sold quickly.

Each of Ami’s creations tells a story. Her hope is that the meaning behind each piece will give meaning to those who wear it as well.

“People appreciated my jewellery and the meaning behind the pieces. It gave me so much joy to share with people and it ignited something inside me.”

As a child, Ami had loved to draw. But her mother had discouraged her because she believed that artists have a harder time making a living. So Ami suppressed her creativity and went into banking and finance instead.

“I realised God had put that creative desire in me when I was young. It felt like God was allowing me to be a little girl again. It gave me pure joy.”

Ami’s jewellery displayed at her first pop-up stall in Hong Kong.

When Ami returned to Hong Kong, she did not go back to banking. Instead, she took a few part-time jobs. Then, Covid swept across the world.

“During Covid, I told God, ‘Why don’t You give me a job? I know You can.’ One day, He asked me, ‘What brings you joy? What do you like to do?’”

Although her jewellery can be bought online, Ami likes to set up pop-up stalls where she can interact with her customers and share the stories behind her pieces.

Jewellery-making came to mind immediately. But Ami hesitated.

“You cannot make it a full-time job. It would not pay the bills at all.”

But Ami’s church would not let the dream that God gave her die. Not only did they pray for her, they let her use a room in the church as her studio.

A church friend became her model for her jewellery photo shoot for free. Another took time off work to help her when she set up a pop-up stall.

“I realised that I did not have much capital to start off with but God blessed me with so many people so that I could have my dream and be a little girl again.

“My desire was His because He gave this desire to me.

“When I was in finance, I felt like my arm was dislocated and I had to go to work everyday with a limp. But when I am making jewellery, I feel like my arm is properly in place. It is very natural. I feel like I am flowing with the Spirit.”

Twelve Stones

Asked which piece of jewellery she created holds a special place in her heart, Ami cites the Twelve Stones collection, her first design for Deror Jewellery.

“The day I woke up after making a decision to set up my business, God gave me this line: Today you are going to cross the Jordan River.

“He had given me the design of the Twelve Stones in my dream.”

The Twelve Stones earrings and necklace which God designed and downloaded to Ami.

The collection is inspired by Joshua 4:1-5:12. After crossing the raging Jordan River that had been miraculously parted in order that the Israelites could possess the Promised Land, Joshua tells a man from each of the 12 tribes of Israel to take up a stone from the middle of the dry riverbed.

The 12 stones were set up at Gilgal as memorial stones so that the generations after would know that “the hand of the Lord is might” and they would fear God forever.

“It was exactly what I was facing opening a business during Covid. No one was going out. Now You ask me to open my business? Are You kidding me, God?

“But when you step into it, like the Israelites who stepped into the river then it parted, only then do you realise He is real.”

When Ami’s pastor first drove her with all her jewellery-making material to her studio in the church, the pair had to cross Victoria Harbour.

“I thought: This is how I cross the Jordan River.”

God would show Ami her Promised Land as well. On the first day she worked at her church studio, someone offered her the last spot at a weekend market. She had 14 days to set up her business – create a website, do photo shoots, design and make jewellery and get name cards printed.

Church friends came alongside her every step of the way to help. Even so, she only managed to make one piece. Yet over the two-day market, she managed to pre-sell about $2,000 worth of jewellery.

“It was God with me in my whole business. If I had studied jewellery design, I can brag. But all this is what Father God created with me.”

Letting go

Even so, the leap from the monied world of finance to the uncertainty of running a small business took getting used to.

Beyond adjusting to a more modest lifestyle, Ami had to re-think her identity which had been tied to her job.

Ami (left) at her brother’s wedding.

When her younger brother got married and she could only afford to give him jewellery she had made instead of solid gold jewellery during the tea ceremony, Ami grieved.

“I cried so much. I didn’t know my choice would affect my family. For myself, I’m okay. But when I cannot bless my family like before, my heart was so sad.

“But Papa God was just so sweet. He said, ‘What if I don’t want you to bless him financially but through your presence?’”

God has since shown Ami how her presence can be a blessing by bringing people to her pop-up stalls who needed to hear the stories of love, hope and faith behind each piece of jewellery.

This is why, though her business is primarily online or sold on consignment in places like the National Gallery in Singapore, she still sets up pop-up stalls whenever she can.

She now has a studio of her own and two employees, as well as clients who commission her to design jewellery for them.

Ami (left) at a pop-up stall.

“Now I can tell my mum I also make custom-made designs like engagement rings with real diamonds.

“I show her my products and tell her I am doing real business. She is more okay about it now, less worried for me.

“It is all by the grace of God.”

The post From necklaces named Olive Branch to earrings inspired by Joshua, she uses her jewellery to tell stories of God appeared first on Salt&Light.

His first venture was selling Ninja stars that he had made. Each piece went for 50 cents. He was in primary school then and managed to make about $5 before his teacher got wind of his enterprise and shut it down.

Jasper’s “enterprises” in school did very well. But he never imagined he would be part of a business start-up, much less a founding member of one.

“My mum scolded me, but I just felt like selling things,” he told Salt&Light.

His next money-making pursuit was to hack the online game MapleStory so he could level up faster. Friends would pay him to help them in the game. Charging $2 per session, he managed to earn $70. Jasper was 12 then.

He grew up to become co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of B2B marketplace start-up Eezee at 22. But before that, he would have to watch his parents’ marriage fall apart, be detained in a boys’ home, and live through want and poverty.

Read Part 1 of his story here.

The turning point

Had his family life not imploded when Jasper was 13, he may have gone on to start more businesses in his teens.

Instead, life took a different turn.

He joined a gang, smoked and did drugs. In 2009, 15-year-old Jasper was arrested for vehicle theft and robbery, and sentenced to two years at the Singapore Boys’ Home.

Unexpectedly, it was at the Home, where he was detained for two years, that Jasper was given a chance to turn his life around.

“That was when I remembered that when I was young, I used to go to church and there was a peace I’d felt. And I remembered the Lord,” said Jasper.

So when he was invited to Christian fellowship at the Home, he went.

One day during worship, they sang the song Mighty to Save.

“When I heard the verse, ‘Everyone needs compassion’, I thought, ‘Lord, I really need your compassion.’ I felt the presence of the Lord and I started to cry,” he said.

The realisation that God is real shook him to the core.

As he read God’s Word, his broken self-image slowly healed. The boy who never thought that he would amount to anything started to believe that God had a plan for him.

“I started to think: What do I want to do in the future? Before, if you had asked me, I would have said, ‘Cut hair, zuo Ah Long (become an illegal money-lender), sell (pirated) VCDs.’ I wouldn’t have said, ‘Go to poly, uni, build a business.’”

Jasper had dropped out of Secondary Two. But at the Boys’ Home, he took the opportunity to return to his studies. He did so well that he topped his cohort during his N-level examinations. 

“There was a change in me. I didn’t realise it was the Lord. But as I grew up and reflected on it, I realised it couldn’t have been me.”

Lessons from failure

It was then that Jasper resumed his entrepreneurial endeavours.

While preparing for his N-level examinations, he worked at a recruitment agency. His boss gave him a little piece of the business to manage – recruiting part-timers.  

Though many of his earlier businesses did not succeed, each failure taught Jasper a lesson that he would later apply to Eezee.

Jasper went door to door to companies and restaurants to secure a good part-time worker rate. With that, he offered to pay his part-timers slightly more money than the market rate and had them recruit others. Whatever was left was his commission.

The model was a success and he made a few thousand dollars within months – a big sum for an 18-year-old.

While serving National Service, he worked at a maid agency. He saw how much paperwork was involved, so using the software programming skills he’d learnt in polytechnic, he created a programme to automate administrative tasks. The programme worked so well that it was used in all 12 of the maid agency’s franchises. Other maid agencies ended up using it as well.

“All of my life, I never really did anything to make people proud except for my N-level results,” said Jasper. “This programme was the second time. I started to believe I could do things.”

He would go on to be involved in a few other tech businesses while still studying at the polytechnic, but none took off. He now realises that the failures were necessary.

“When I was a new believer, I had a hint that God was working in my life. But I also thought that I was good. I had pride. I kept thinking I’m going to buy this condo, buy that car.

“My faith foundation wasn’t strong enough,” he admitted. “If you had put this weight (of success) on me then, I would have crumbled. I would have forgotten the Lord.”

Out of each unsuccessful attempt, he gleaned something valuable about doing business.

But, most importantly, Jasper learnt to rely on God.

“I came to terms with myself. My flesh is weak. I cannot bring anything into existence. So I need God. I need to lean on the Lord to do this.”

Open doors

When God eventually opened the door for him to meet his future business partner, Jasper was “not in a good mental state”, as he was discouraged by the lack of breakthroughs in his businesses.

“I came to a point where I was tired but I just continued to trust,” he said. “So I told God, ‘I enjoy coding and bringing things into existence. I leave the rest to You.’

“If we keep holding on to things, we can’t let go and He cannot take over. This way, when the day comes that you see the fruit, there is no doubt whether it was me or the Lord.

“It is Him, His grace and favour, that opens the doors, gives me strength to labour and gives me wisdom.”

Jasper had graduated as valedictorian in polytechnic where he had thrived as an engineering scholar.

When a man who was trying to build an “Amazon-style programme” for business procurement approached his school for a computer engineer to build it, Jasper’s name came up.

That man, Logan Tan, wanted to create a digital platform for businesses to sell and manage their products through a seller centre.

For many businesses, procurement is a mainstay requiring contacting several different vendors at the same time to enquire about items or to secure them. There was no option to buy the items online, nor a central depository for easy price comparisons.

After hearing Logan’s pitch, Jasper agreed to work with him. But he did not want to be an employee, he wanted to be a co-founder.

“I knew the business was right for disruption,” said Jasper.

As the two entered into a partnership, opportunities opened up. Jasper, who had previously not been able to get onto Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s incubator programme, received an offer from them.

With that, the pair formed Eezee in early May of 2017, together with a designer. Their product was launched in five months.

Faithful in little

The euphoria did not last.

By 2018, they were making profits of just $5,000 a month, barely enough to sustain the three people on the team. Jasper had drawn no salary for nearly two years.

To keep going, they needed to bring in five-figure sales. But they had no money to run advertisements.

Efforts to secure investments came to naught. As they met with rejection after rejection, sales also fell.

Around that time, Jasper and his then girlfriend, now wife, Amanda, learnt about tithing from their cell group leader.  

“He wasn’t telling us to tithe,” Jasper clarified. “He just said, ‘When you tithe, you acknowledge that God is alive. We are tithing to God.’

“He also said, ‘How can the Lord put big things into your hands if you don’t even handle the small things?'”

Jasper was serving National Service and drawing an allowance of $600. Amanda was a student and had an allowance from her scholarship. They both decided to tithe the little that they had to honour God.

“The month I started tithing, we started to see an increase in our sales. Some things cannot be explained. I don’t really know how it happened.

“But I said, ‘Lord, thank You so much. God, You are so good.’”

Lessons from DMV

As his business grew, Jasper began to wonder how he could connect his faith with his work.

“The start-up culture may not sit well with many Christians. We work on tight timelines and we need to drive people. I wondered: Is this right?”

He began praying for a Christian business community to guide him. In his search for investors, he met Chris Yeo, CEO of Doku, a B2B payment platform.

Jasper (back row, third from the left) learnt from DMV founder Chris Yeo (front) what it meant to be a Christian business owner.

Chris did not end up investing in Eezee, but as the founder of Digital Mission Ventures (DMV), he did introduced Jasper to DMV Redemptive Labs, an accelerator for early-stage tech founders looking to steward their businesses for God.

Jasper joined the three-month programme which included a week-long stay-in session every month.

“I got to meet like-minded entrepreneurs. I remember a conversation that really moved me. One of them shared a verse – 1 Kings 19:11-13 – and said, ‘As entrepreneurs, we think of big deals, we look at the big things. But the Lord is in the still, small voice on Sunday, in your quiet time with Him.’

“That hit me very hard,” said Jasper of the reminder to stay centred on God.

The godly principles DMV taught also shaped Jasper’s perspective as a business owner.

“Most businesses work in the realm of exploitation. Some try to be ethical. But few businesses are redemptive.

“Exploitative means I pay you as little as I can. Ethical means I pay you what you are worth. Redemptive means I pay you more than market rate because I know that if I take care of you, you will not want to leave.

“This has helped me to realise the nature of business and how I want to move from ethical to redemptive.”

Jasper was also challenged to think about his role in the workplace.

“We are founders. We have influence. How do we call people to the Lord? Until now, I didn’t see myself as a shepherd. But a boss is a sort of shepherd.

“Chris told us that when he first became CEO of Doku, he asked, ‘How can I honour You, Lord?’ On the first day, he told everyone, ‘I am a believer.’ It was as easy as that. In his first engagement, he talked about his faith.

“Now I see my purpose as a Christian founder,” said Jasper. “I ask, ‘Can I bless the people? Can I tell them the Lord is good?’ I have started testifying and bringing up the Lord more.”

Jasper brought his designer, Terence Goh, to church and now they share Bible verses to encourage each other in their work.

Because of his love of worship, Jasper also plans to start a praise and worship session at work every month.

Ready to lose it all

Two years ago, Eezee raised US$7.5 million in Series A funding. This round of funding refers to the first round of venture money a start-up raises after the seed funding and angel investor round.

It is only secured by companies that have shown progress in building a business model and the potential to grow and generate revenue.

Jasper with his Eezee team. The start-up now has some 80 people on its payroll.

At the time that Jasper was looking for investors, the war in Ukraine had just started. Investors were cautious. As the possibilities fell through one by one, Jasper prepared for the worst for Eezee.

“It was a very tough time. I sought the Lord and I found peace. And I knew that even that came from Him.

“I knew that, even if Eezee is gone, He will bring me another thing that is better for me. I told the Lord, ‘I’m ready to lose everything because I know You are my source.”

By June 2022, the team was down to their last investor. The pitch was going poorly and there was one last decision-maker to convince. If he gave the nod, Eezee would have its Series A funding.

The team had just 15 minutes to present its business case.

“We prayed frantically as I prepared to do the demo,” Jasper remembered.

He walked through the demonstration in 10 minutes, surrendering it all to God. A month later, they were told that they had secured their investment. Jasper’s presentation had sealed the deal.

Said Jasper: “God, You are good lah. Through You are all things, from You are all things (Romans 11:36). I just need to sit at Your feet and worship You.”

Eezee is on track to be profitable by this round of funding. The start-up has over 2,000 suppliers and manages more than 400 enterprise customer accounts, including major companies like SMRT, PSA, SIA and Rolls-Royce Singapore.

The team of three is now 80 strong. Apart from being in Singapore, Eezee has also opened in Malaysia and Indonesia. The Philippines is next and Thailand is likely to follow.

“I never would have believed that I would be a CTO. When I sat in the Boys’ Home and looked at my future, these were not the thoughts I had about myself.

“This is really grace upon grace,” said Jasper. “It’s not me. It is the grace of God.”

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Talia Lee owned the business with her then husband. Qara Yoon was a regular.

“It was a small place and I tried to get to know all my customers,” said Talia, 53.

Chimed in Qara, 46, the chattier of the two: “I paid a lot of money to drink and sing there.”

This was two decades ago, but it might as well have been a lifetime.

They did not expect then that they would end up partners in a business that is a far cry from the pleasure dome of a KTV pub. Nor did they expect that they would be giving struggling women a way forward by looking back at tradition.

They certainly did not expect to be housemates with former drug addicts.

Qara and Talia have been friends for nearly two decades. It was Qara who brought Talia to church. In turn, when Talia’s marriages failed, Qara stood by her.

Talia and Qara now own a social enterprise called Yoon’s Social Kitchen that provides jobs to senior female ex-drug offenders.

The café-cum-cooking studio specialises in traditional Teochew kueh (steamed glutinous rice flour dumplings) as well as local, old-school delights like mee siam, lontong and fried Hokkien mee.

Intricately made Teochew kueh from Qara’s mother’s recipes are the specialty of Yoon’s Social Kitchen.

How the pair went from the KTV life to the kueh business is a story of friendship and redemption 15 years in the making.

(Read Talia’s story here.)

In church by accident

Qara’s encounter with God began in the mid-2000s.

Her sister knocked down a man on the way to pick up a friend. The man was, thankfully, not too badly hurt and her sister was given a fine. While the situation was being resolved, her friend’s mother, who was a Christian, prayed for her sister.

“So when my sister got away with a fine, we thought: Must thank the prayer warrior mother and thank God,” said Qara.

That was how she and her sister ended up going to church. Because Talia was a close friend, she was invited to join them as well.

“We attended the 5.30pm service because we were all drinkers. Could only wake up at that time.

“During worship, my sister teared. My reaction was – these people are very funny, all raising their hands.”

Qara (left) and Talia went to church together and each had their own encounter with God that changed their lives.

Qara remembers nothing of the sermon but everything else about what happened to her that day.

“The lady who sat next to me gave me a note. The note said, ‘God wants me to tell you He loves you.’

“At the time, I thought: Seow (crazy)! I threw the note away. But that was when the seed was planted.”

Qara was part of the security ministry in her church.

Inexplicably, Qara would return to church week after week with Talia in tow.

A year or two later, “the Word just dropped” in her, she said, and she realised that she had embraced the Christian faith.

Queen of kueh

Talia had her own faith journey that saw her end her KTV pub business and start a beauty training school for delinquent girls, which she ran for five years before working at The Turning Point between 2015 and 2019.

At the time, it was the only halfway house for female ex-offenders.

In those years, her burden grew for women who had been left behind by society.

“In my four years at The Turning Point, I observed that there is a group of ladies who are at high risk of relapsing – the mature ex-drug offenders.

“I realised they needed four things to rehabilitate: A job, a good living environment, friends and family.”

While Talia saw the need, she could not see a solution.

Then Qara started selling Teochew kueh online in 2016.

Already busy with a job in the civil service, the business was more of a way to preserve and promote her mother’s traditional recipes than a source of income.

But Yoon’s Traditional Teochew Kueh became a stepping stone towards Yoon’s Social Kitchen.

Qara (right) convinced her mother (left) to be part of the kueh-making workshops at Yoon’s Social Kitchen.

Three years into the business, a major corporation approached Qara to conduct a Teochew kueh-making workshop. The class was a success.

Soon, they were running workshops for the public with a waiting list of over 100.

All the kueh kueh are made by hand from recipes Qara’s mother has perfected.

Said Qara: “We had always been looking for a profit-making entity to support the social cause that we had in mind – to help women 55 years and above who are drug overcomers and who are unskilled. This gave us the confidence.”

After much prayer, they decided to set up a social enterprise at which mature female ex-offenders could work. They would be taught to make traditional Teochew kueh, as well as help out at kueh-making workshops.

The decision was not without its cost.

Talia manages business development while Qara takes care of administrative matters and social media presence.

When Talia got divorced a second time, she had no home. Qara took her in.

For years, Talia had been saving up to buy her own BTO (Build to Order) flat. But when the idea for the social enterprise solidified, she channelled her BTO money into that instead. Qara also dug into her own savings. 

Then both quit their jobs to concentrate on the enterprise. On February 22, 2020, the pair dedicated Yoon’s Traditional Teochew Kueh, Cultural Concept Studio to God.

The kueh-making workshops help to fund the social enterprise.

But within months, Covid struck.

They were forced to focus on bento boxes rather than Teochew kuehs to remain viable. That became the beginning of the café they now run.

During Covid, the kueh enterprise pivoted to focus more on food.

Today, Yoon’s Social Kitchen is a café-cum-cooking studio. On the ground floor is where the female ex-offenders work. Above the unit is where Talia and Qara, as well as their workers, live. 

While Talia manages the business and training, Qara handles the administrative work and social media.

A community of support

The employees at Yoon’s Social Kitchen have different jobs – making kueh, preparing drinks and desserts, cooking and facilitating workshops. But they share similar stories – women dragged down by drugs, detained in prison, and discarded by their families and by society.

Among them is Ah Bern, their first employee.

Introduced to drugs in her kampung (village), she has been in and out of prison 12 times for drug-related offences. In all, she spent almost 50 years behind bars. She is in her 60s now and never married.

One of their beneficiaries being baptised.

Said Talia: “She has never even gone overseas before. Never even to JB (Johor Bahru, Malaysia). The only time she crossed the seas was to take a sampan (small boat) to buy drugs.”

Talia met her at The Turning Point and, when Yoon’s Social Kitchen opened, offered her a job.

Ah Bern showing her drinks-making skills.

Ah Bern now makes a mean tehsi peng (iced tea with milk) thanks to her experience as a barista – a job she had in between prison sentences.

“Our target beneficiaries are those 55 years and above. Most are uneducated, unskilled. So the only other jobs they can do is being cleaners,” said Talia.

“They go around on their own. No motivation. They become bored and begin to call their old friends. When old friends gather together and one falls (back into drugs), all fall.

“Some say they want to change, but when they go back to their families, there are unsettled issues. They have poor coping skills and they go back to drugs.”

In the four years that Ah Bern has been working at Yoon’s Social Kitchen, she has relapsed at least twice a year.

After each setback, Talia and Qara would send her to the National Addictions Management Services (NAMS) and then to The Turning Point.

A step to independence

The hope is that the women not only stay clean but can stand on their own. So apart from giving them a roof over their heads and a job, Talia and Qara also try to help the them start their own businesses.

(From left) Qara, her mum, one of their beneficiaries and Talia in the kitchen.

“The food we serve come from recipes we learnt from our beneficiaries. 

“But they have no ability to be stall owners or business owners on their own,” said Qara.

“So for those who are able, we help them look for sponsors to open up their own stall.”

In January this year, they helped one of their beneficiaries open an economy rice stall at an office staff canteen.

They visit her stall regularly to lend her a hand. When she is ready, they will turn the business entirely over to her.

“In the years of running the business, the Lord has humbled me,” Qara said quietly.

“Every time we are down in the pits and want to give up and just go back to full-time office job, He will send people, finances and open doors, lifting us up and drawing us nearer to Him with each ordeal.

“My verse throughout it all is Proverbs 3:5-6: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

“In troubles, truly only He is the constant and pillar you can rely on.”

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“Even when my dad gave us pocket money, he would teach us to create a budget and to report back on how much we spent,” said Daniel, the founder of start-up GET that provides a payment platform to university clubs and societies.

“It was memorable because it created relevancy around the topic of money even at that early age.”

Daniel, who was born in Sydney, was grateful for this as he realised that it was not something he would have otherwise learnt.

“If you are born into a family that doesn’t teach financial literacy, then you will not be taught because this is not something they teach in school,” said Daniel, who was named one of Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2019.

“Even parents who want to equip their children may not do it. They have a heart for it but they have no content to impart to their kids.

“At the most, it comes in the form of nagging to turn off the lights. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Raising a financially smarter generation

This is why Daniel, 29, wants to provide children with the right tools for financially literacy.

He recently added a new product to his start-up: A debit card and app, also called GET, that is made for children aged six to 18 to help them learn about money.

There are some 25,000 GET users in Singapore, where it was launched. Plans are afoot to take GET to the rest of Asia.

GET is a debit card and app created for children aged six to 18 to help them learn about money.

The app functions like a debit card for adults. It allows parents to upload money into the account for their children to use for payment, explained Daniel, who has been based in Singapore since the end of 2018.

“Children can manage their money independently, make connections between numbers and what their hearts desires, understand profit and loss, that they can’t use up all their pocket money by Tuesday.  

“My tool aims to increase awareness of how money works. We want to partner parents to make it easier for them to raise a financially smarter generation. We act as another pair of eyes for parents.”

As with any new product, there were funding and software design challenges. But Daniel, who had raised millions before to fund his digital payment app, was up for that.

What he really grappled with this time around was something else: As a Christian, he wondered how he could incorporate his Christian faith into his desire to “build things from scratch”.

A faith awakening

Daniel had been baptised at 16 after his parents, who had emigrated from Shanghai to Sydney, became Christians. “A pastor visited my mother’s store and shared the Gospel with her,” Daniel recalled.

From that point, church-going became part of his weekly routine. But his faith then was only in its infancy, he admitted.

In 2022, while in Indonesia working to bring GET to the country, he realised that he had been spending most of his time and effort at work.

Suddenly, he found himself wondering: What is a life lived worth?

“How many times a day do we think about the best inventors? No one really cares about them. If you are devoting yourself to that kind of work, then it is not very worth it,” he recalled thinking.

“It led me to ask the question: What were humans created for? Are humans a random biological phenomenon or were they created for a purpose by a Designer whom they are to recognise or adopt for their lives?”

He decided to research the origins of the universe, and began reading and talking to both atheists and Christians.

That months-long season of searching solidified his conviction that Jesus is “who He says He is”.

But it was more than just an intellectual exercise: “At one point, I was so convicted I was on my knees praising God.”

For the greater good

His renewed faith became pivotal to how Daniel viewed GET.

Even as a youth in Sydney, he always had a burden to nurture those who were younger, though he had not been the typical “goody-two-shoes” type.

“I felt this responsibility to steward the kids onto the right path. It was recognising that you are an influence to others,” he said.

As a young entrepreneur developing his payment platform, he always wondered: How will this progress society?

Daniel (centre) intends for GET to teach children how to be good stewards of money.

He later created the debit card and app for children with the firm belief that “everyone should have access to financial education and financial convenience”.

“It started as something that was cool. It would be fun to build a bank app from scratch and launch it. I fell in love with the idea of software as an equaliser.

“But after that whole reflection after we launched, I told everyone that GET is not (just) a fintech (product). It is an education company trying to solve an education question in society.

“The GET mission is to scale financial literacy for kids, teens and parents, providing them with a financial practice tool, connecting them with content and gamified solutions, because people learn experientially.”

Doing business God’s way

However, this broad mission for the greater good was not enough for Daniel. He wanted to know how to run his business as a Christian.

It was around then that Daniel’s co-founder, Liran Lv, introduced him to a monthly fellowship lunch with Christian business owners.

Among them was Chris Yeo, CEO of Doku and Director of Digital Mission Ventures (DMV).

DMV is a capital provider and accelerator that helps early-stage tech founders looking to use their business for Kingdom impact.

Chris invited Daniel to a three-day retreat in Batam, where participants learnt to adopt biblical principles in their businesses.

“They were the right mentors, the right people for me to learn from. A lot of them operate in a different way from the rest of the world when making business decisions,” said Daniel.

“They see things differently, they hear God. For them, it is not their business. It is God’s business. Money is not (just) a digit. It is a vehicle to expand God’s kingdom.”

Meeting Christian start-up founders at DMV who were intentional about applying biblical principles to their businesses opened Daniel’s eyes to a new way of running his start-up.

From them, Daniel learnt not to be afraid to “tell people you are a Christian straight up”. This is why Daniel started discussing a verse a day with his co-founder who is also a believer.

From them, he learnt how to deal with investors and shareholders, valuing truth over securing funds and seeing his product as “a vehicle to love people”.

For them, he learnt what Christian leadership looks.

“My co-founder and I may bicker about who does what and how things work, but there is a lot of forgiveness. Forgiveness is very important,” said Daniel, who helms a team of six.

Learning about biblical principles in business has helped Daniel (left) manage not only his start-up but his relationship with his co-founder, Liran Lv (right).

“Recognising unity – that two are better than one but that people operate in different ways – has been really valuable,” he said, adding that he has grown to value humility as well.

“If it were not for Christ, our co-founder relationship would not be sustained.”

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However, his early years were not spent in a world-class culinary school but running with gangs, dealing drugs and spending time in prison.

At the age of 21, Peter found himself behind bars for a second time. There, he was already planning to expand his business as a drug dealer after serving his sentence.

But a divine encounter with God in prison completely transformed him overnight.

A word of knowledge and a supernatural experience in his jail cell set in him a lifelong determination never to return to drugs.

Today, after a 14-year career in some of Asia’s best kitchens, Peter is the Executive Chef of Breakthrough Cafe, a new restaurant in Changi Village run by a team of ex-offenders that he is training.

School drop-out turned drug dealer

Peter was born into a Christian family, but did not grow up having a relationship with God.

“I never really believed in Him,” he admitted. “To me, God should be someone who helps you when you need.”

When he experienced bullying in secondary school, he discovered that if he joined a gang, he was accepted and protected.

Peter (right) at age 16 hanging out with a friend. Photo courtesy of Peter Teo.

“Most of my friends were involved in gangs,” he recalled. “I thought it was fun.” He began hanging out with these friends, picking up smoking and, eventually, drugs.

By the age of 15, Peter was taking hard drugs. He also decided to drop out of school. 

As he was only in Secondary three, he was told by his school principal that he could not quit without parental consent. “I made my mother come down and tell the principal I was not continuing,” he remembered. 

His mother begged him to stop taking drugs.

“I was very rebellious,” he admitted. “It was difficult for my parents to control me.”

The first time Peter was arrested, he was 17. “I took Ecstasy,” he said. He was sentenced to one year.

Being in prison the first time affected him. “I felt intimidated,” he said. “Initially, I wanted to change.”

Peter was released on home detention after six months, and had to wear an electronic tag. He worked as a cleaner for a few months. But once the tag was removed, he returned to his old life.

“I was quite a popular drug dealer,” he said with a grim smile. “I had a lot of customers.”

His “success” led him to desiring to grow his drug distribution network because it brought him money. 

The second time Peter was arrested for drugs, it was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time — or so it seemed.

“I was 21, and I was arrested for consuming and for assaulting police officers,” he said, adding that he was in National Service at the time. “I was out on bail but was in camp and a fellow campmate broke into the medical centre and stole drugs.”

The camp was raided by the military police. “The theft was not done by me, but those who had a record, like me, were rounded up first.”

His urine test registered positive for drugs, and Peter was sent to the detention barracks, then to Queenstown Remand Prison.

Peter (right) at age 17 just before he was arrested for the first time. Photo courtesy of Peter Teo.

His biggest worry at that point was that he would be charged a third time after completing his second sentence. He waited for news but none came. 

The mysterious man

While at Queenstown Remand Prison, Peter attended the prison chapel sessions.

“I liked to go because there was aircon in the chapel and sometimes they gave us chocolates,” he said with a laugh.

During one session, the minister that day, Pastor Jeffrey Lye, approached Peter. “He didn’t know me, but he came and comforted me,” remembered Peter.

Pastor Jeffrey was a pastor at Queenstown Baptist Church who was serving in the prison ministry.

He recounted to Salt&Light: “Peter usually stood at chapel with his arms folded. My first thought of him was he was an aloof, short-tempered person.

“On this Sunday just before service started, I was walking towards the hall when someone in a white T-shirt and blue shorts, whom I assumed was another inmate, came to me and told me that Peter was very worried about the next day’s trial. He asked me to pray for Peter.”

Pastor Jeffrey looked for Peter and prayed for him over his trial.

“I was surprised that Pastor Jeffrey knew what was going on in my life — I didn’t tell anyone. After he prayed I felt very peaceful,” said Peter.

The next day when he went to trial, Peter received good news: He was given a light sentence.

It was only later, when Pastor Jeffrey could not find the man in the T-shirt and shorts, that he remembered that inmates were not allowed to walk the hallways by themselves. At that moment, Pastor Jeffrey realised that the man he had encountered could have been an angel.

Said Peter: “One night in the cell, I just sat down and told God, ‘If You are real, I want to change. But I need Your help.’”

Pastor Jeffrey Lye (left) with Peter (right) and Derrick Ee (middle). Both Peter and Derrick received salvation in the same prison cell. Photo courtesy of Peter Teo.

It was a simple prayer. But something happened.

“In the cell there were four of us, and all of us experienced God,” Peter recalled. “Suddenly we felt very peaceful and loved. We felt that kind of love that I couldn’t explain.

“We were crying, praying. At that moment, all four of us gave our hearts to Jesus.”

Peter was surprised to encounter the God of his youth in such a powerful way. 

“I told Him, ‘When I was young, I could not even see You. When I had problems and asked for help, nothing happened.’

“But that night, God softened all our hearts. It was supernatural.”

Before meeting the Lord, Peter’s plan after his release was to go back to dealing drugs and, in fact, to grow his “business”. 

“I had no future,” he said, pointing out that he did not have ‘N’ or ‘O’ levels. He thought he had no choice but to continue in the one thing that he was “good at”.

But that encounter with God in the cell changed everything.

“It gave me a new direction,” he said. “At that time I was working in the prison kitchen, and I knew that was the direction I would go.”

When he first stepped into the prison kitchen, “I couldn’t tell garlic from onion.”

He learned quickly in a tough environment. “It was not easy cooking for 2,000, 3,000 people,” he said. “But the inmates gave good feedback so I could improve.”

Peter was released from prison in 2008. Pastor Jeffrey picked him up and took him for a meal, and encouraged him to attend Queenstown Baptist Church.

The Breakthrough

When he learned that he would be granted early release like the last time, Peter called his father.

“My father has known Simon Neo and Freddy Wee (the Founder and Deputy Director of Breakthrough Missions) for a long time,” he said. “When I was a kid, sometimes I would go to Breakthrough Missions.”

Breakthrough Missions is an evangelical drug rehabilitation centre that offers an 18- to 36-month Christian programme to help former inmates develop spiritual, work and life disciplines to heal and recover holistically. Among the many services carried out by its residents are Bible-binding and house-moving.

“Breakthrough Missions had very strict rules,” said Peter. “That was important to me. I was very committed to changing my life.”

His father linked him with the staff of Breakthrough Missions and Peter spent six months staying and working there.

When he had completed his six months at the halfway house, Peter did not know if he should work or resume studying.

“A fellow inmate encouraged me to go to SHATEC,” he said. SHATEC is Singapore’s leading institute for hotel and tourism studies that offers a diploma course in culinary arts.

Peter (centre) with Les Amis Director of Culinary Sebastien Lepinoy and team when they were awarded their second Michelin star. Photo courtesy of Peter Teo.

The minimum qualification to enter SHATEC was ’N’ levels, which Peter did not have. “But I took the WSQ test and got a good result.”

He was granted an interview, but was ultimately rejected due to his record.

Undeterred, he applied a second time, and this time he was interviewed by SHATEC’s operations manager. 

“He was German, and he threw me a lot of tough questions. But he was willing to give me a chance,” said Peter.

It turned out that the operations manager himself had had a similar past, and just as he had been given the opportunity to turn his life around, he wanted to open the door for Peter.

An inspired Peter said: “I wanted to do my very best in everything.” His determination paid off: He was top of his cohort.

However, when it came to applying for an attachment, his past became a barrier.

“I was the first to send out applications and go for interviews. But one by one I was rejected because of my record.

“From the first, I became the last one in my cohort to get an attachment.”

This was a blow to Peter, who desperately wanted this to be his turning point.

“I was very disappointed,” he admitted. “But I prayed and waited.”

“I didn’t know what Les Amis was”

Peter’s lecturer at SHATEC told him of a scholarship and suggested he apply. 

The application for the Les Amis Scholarship 2010 culminated in a final interview that would decide if Peter would be interning at the high-end restaurant.

Peter found himself the last one in line, watching other candidates go in and come out.

“I knew I was the one with the lowest GPA. I was the only one with a record. I was very sian (discouraged),” he admitted.

“I watched the others come out, looking happy after their interviews, and I felt there was no hope.

“But I kept praying and asking God for help.”

To his amazement, Peter got the job.

“During the interview the human resource manager asked me about my criminal record, and I answered honestly,” he said.

To this day, Peter cannot explain how he landed the prized attachment.

“When I started I still didn’t know what Les Amis was, until people told me it’s one of Singapore’s top restaurants,” he said. 

Peter (extreme right) with former President Tony Tan and Les Amis staff in 2015. Photo courtesy of Peter Teo.

Peter poured himself into his work. 

“As a junior, I was very hungry to learn,” he recalled. “I came early every day. Whatever job people didn’t want to do, I would volunteer to do — cleaning, taking out the rubbish. 

“I knew I wanted to do this long term, so I gave it my all.”

Slowly but steadily climbing up the ranks, Peter was made Executive Sous Chef after six years (including a short break when he joined Halia Restaurant as its Sous Chef before rejoining Les Amis in 2015).

As the second-in-command under Sebastien Lepinoy, the Director of Culinary at Les Amis, Peter was part of the team that clinched the restaurant’s prestigious second Michelin star.

His own star kept rising: In 2018, the Les Amis Group sent him to its restaurants in Hong Kong for three years, where he was appointed Executive Chef at Bistro du Vin Hong Kong and Bâtard.

He returned to Singapore at the end of 2020, and was made Chef de Cuisine of the now-defunct La Strada, followed by Bistro du Vin (Singapore) in 2021 and Élan in 2022.

“It’s a tough journey, but I know God is with me”

While his career went from strength to strength, Peter’s personal and spiritual journey was more complicated.

When he started working long hours, he found it harder and harder to stay in church.

Peter (extreme right) was coach to Singaporean Koh Han Jie, who won the prestigious 2017 Young Talents Escoffier Asia award in Hong Kong. Photo courtesy of Peter Teo.

While he was determined not to return to drugs, he developed a taste for gambling instead.

“I borrowed a lot of money from banks to gamble,” he said. “At first I won, but within a month I had lost everything. I was $90,000 in debt.”

By his mid-30s Peter was a father of three boys. One day, bitterly disappointed with himself for gambling, he contemplated suicide.

“I hugged my two older children while they were sleeping and I cried,” he remembered. “I could not accept what I had done.”

He went to the top floor of the building to take his own life but lost his nerve.

A few days later, he spotted a church, Victory Family Centre, near his home. “I went to the office to ask someone to pray for me, and this pastor prayed for me.”

He started attending services there, which brought him relief and strength as he battled stress on many fronts, from work pressures to clearing his debts.

“A lot of people prayed for me during those years,” he shared. “Thank God I was able to get another job (Halia) at the time, which paid me twice what I was getting.”

Finally after eight years, Peter was free from his gambling debt.

“It was a very tough journey, but I knew God was with me,” he told Salt&Light.

Peter with his three sons during Chinese New Year 2024. Photo courtesy of Peter Teo.

Throughout his life, Peter’s parents continually prayed for him. Today, his 65-year-old mother helps to care for his children while he works.

“It’s very important for parents to know who their kids hang out with,” he said, reflecting on his growing up years.

“I was able to move away from my previous life by cutting contact with all my old friends. It was tough. These were the people I grew up with.”

Some of them continue to go in and out of prison as they were unable to break the cycle, he noted with sadness.

He has shared his past with his sons. “I told them, ‘I don’t want you all to follow in my footsteps.’”

Sharing hope with his “brothers”

It had never been Peter’s intention to leave the Les Amis Group, and he had never thought of joining a non-profit organisation.

But he kept thinking about the breaks he was given in his life.

Peter finally parted ways with the group in November 2023 and joined Breakthrough Missions to launch and run a new French restaurant, Breakthrough Café.

As Head of Culinary, he leads a team of around 12 who are former inmates, training them in the basics of French cuisine and how to be organised. He also imparts leadership skills.

“When I first started, it wasn’t easy,” he said. “F&B is very competitive. Day in, day out, you must be on top of your game.”

He hopes to give his team a leg up and make their transition to working life smoother than his had been.

The French-themed menu at Breakthrough Café offers classics like pan-seared foie gras, French style roast chicken, lamb stew and bouillabaisse.

“These are dishes I did in Hong Kong and Singapore which have received good feedback,” he explained, adding, “There will also be my own version of chicken rice.”

Chef Peter Teo trains ex-offenders in French cooking at Breakthrough Cafe. Photo by Theresa Tan.

Throughout the many difficult years, he has remained close to Pastor Jeffrey, even when he worked in Hong Kong.

Observed Pastor Jeffrey: “Over these 15 years I have known Peter, he has been very determined to live a meaningful life.”

“His move to Breakthrough is really a turning point,” said the pastor, who now serves with Shelter Baptist Church. “I see that he wants to serve God, and that God is really working in his life.”

Peter also makes himself accountable to Brother Simon Neo who founded Breakthrough Missions.

His hope is to pass down his skills to the staff and the “brothers” who come to the new café to be trained. 

“Whatever experience and knowledge I have gained, I will share, as long as they are willing to learn.”

The “brothers” that work at Breakthrough Café wear electronic tags as they serve their remaining time at the halfway house and café.

Peter wants to give them the choice to learn new skills, to have “something to look forward to”.

His life has not been easy but Peter lives with purpose. His hope is in the Lord.

“I have kept my faith because of that encounter with God in the cell,” he said. “I know this is a real God.”

The post Former Les Amis chef helms relaunched Breakthrough Cafe to bring hope to ex-offenders appeared first on Salt&Light.

AI that mines data from social media to predict behaviour and then uses that information to create targeted digital ads. This is, in a nutshell, what SoMin.ai does.

The start-up is part of DMV Redemptive Labs, the accelerator programme of Digital Mission Ventures (DMV), a capital provider and accelerator that helps early-stage tech founders looking to use their business for Kingdom impact.

Prof Aleks Farseev has created a cloud-based platform that is able to remove the guesswork involved in creating ads by harnassing data from social media accounts and predicting the preferences of people.

At the helm of the martech (marketing technology) start-up is co-founder and CEO Prof Aleks Farseev.

He is part researcher, part entrepreneur, all visionary. Unendingly patient as he explains the complexities of his SaaS (software as a service) solution, he even stops to assure that he is not irked that he has to explain his life’s work simplistically.

“People think I am angry all the time but it’s just my face,” says the 33-year-old with good humour.

No fear of robot uprising

Born and bred in Russia, Prof Aleks came to Singapore in 2013 to do his PhD in Computer Science and stayed. Now he and his business are based in the country.

Asked why a computer scientist would want to venture into the emotive world of advertising, he explains: “We see ourselves as a platform that helps marketeers in all steps of the journey to make things more transparent, more data-driven and more efficient. 

“AI becomes a friend that helps people plan, strategise and achieve their KPIs.

“When there is a proper plan and strategy, people are more satisfied with their jobs. It helps lower turnover rates. The advertising industry has the number two turnover rate of 30% because people are not happy working in the industry.”

If his goal to use AI to deliver sales results automatically and extensively with minimum human involvement sounds scarily like a script for robot uprising, Prof Aleks is unfazed.

You fear what you do not understand, he tells Salt&Light, sharing of a time when professors protested the use of calculators out of fear.

“AI is just Math with powerful computers,” says Prof Aleks.

Prof Aleks with key members of the SoMin.ai team.

“Marketing can be a healthy industry because it brings relevant knowledge to people on what to buy and what not want to buy.

“Our imagination and work can be turned into good or bad depending on whose hands it is in. Everything can be used by God in a good way, just as it can be used by the devil in a bad way.”

Beyond that, Prof Aleks is selective about which industries he partners.

“We do not get involved in general in the Industries that are not aligned with God’s kingdom. For example we are very selective when it comes to particularly industries that deal with gambling.”

This conviction to live and work right by God has its foundation in Prof Aleks’ experience with divine intervention in his life even at a young age.

The simple faith that brought a duck 

Prof Aleks grew up in a Christian household and was baptised as an infant. The 70-odd years of Communism, he said, was no match for the more than 1,000 years of Russian Orthodoxy.

“I always knew there is God in control of everything.”

As a child, he would spend his summers with his grandmother. Because he played the accordion well, the adults would often ask him to play for them.

Baby Aleks visiting his grandmother.

During duck hunting season, he would even be invited to tag along on hunts to provide musical entertainment. On one particular hunt, the men returned empty-handed. Young Aleks, all of eight years old then, offered to pray for ducks.

“My mother had taught me to pray for my needs.”

The men laughed at his simple faith because the day was coming to a close. There would be no ducks appearing any time soon.

But not more than 30 seconds after young Aleks finished his prayer, his mother appeared with a duck in hand.

Young Aleks enjoyed being asked by the adults to play the accordion for them.

“She told me that she was walking in the village when the duck flew into her hand. She thought I would be interested in seeing the duck.

“You can imagine how shocked the hunters were. I am a mathematician. I know the odds. Never before and never after have I seen wild ducks run into a person’s hand in the middle of a village. It must have travelled about 1km to reach the village.

“Every time I have doubts about God, I remember this incident.”

An unexpected book

Prof Aleks continues to see God in his life.

A year ago, he had to return to Russia to settle an issue about his research grant at a university there. The war in Ukraine was raging then and Russia was conscripting citizens to bolster their military efforts.

“There was a super huge wave of people leaving Russia, especially those in IT positions. All my relatives in Russia told me not to come.”

But the grant was too significant a sum to let go. The money was needed to support the staff at SoMin.ai. He had to go.

Prof Aleks (centre) with the co-founders of SoMin.ai, an AI-powered platform aimed at changing the world of advertising.

En route to Russia, Prof Aleks stopped over in London and attended a Russian Orthodox Church service. After the service, he visited the church bookstore. To his surprise, he found a book by CS Lewis there.

“The Russian Orthodox Church does not usually accept anything apart from the Orthodox religion. To find a non-Orthodox book in their bookstore was quite a surprise.”

Prof Aleks bought the book, The Screwtape Letters, dropped it into his bag and promptly forgot about it.

So do not fear

As was his practice, Prof Aleks also went to a service at Holy Trinity Brompton. When he consulted the vicar about his impending trip home, the man told him: “God already told you what to do. You already know. You don’t need to ask anymore.”

That surprised Prof Aleks who had expected him to dissuade him from returning to Russia. But as he boarded the plane home, the fear for his life refused to leave him.

“It was probably one of the strongest fears in my life. I could be taken by the army straight from the airport or I may not be able to leave Russia.

“So I could not sleep. I could not do anything.”

Then he remembered the book he had bought. To distract himself, he read it.

“Almost instantly, I reached the chapter where the senior devil Screwtape was teaching the younger devil what to do with the person they were trying to tempt.

“It was written at the time of World War II. The man was in London and he was super afraid. First, he was afraid that he would be kidnapped. Second, he was afraid that he would be killed. Third, he was afraid his family would be bombed. Fourth, he was afraid his family would be kidnapped.

“The senior devil then told the junior one to never let the man know that all the bad things could not possibly happen to him at the same time because the moment he knew, he would not be afraid anymore.”

The situation depicted was uncannily similar to what Prof Aleks was facing. It was exactly the encouragement he needed. He finished the book and went to sleep.

His two-week stay in Russia turned out to be uneventful and he managed to secure his research grant.

“I am not a very sensitive person. So God talks to me in a straightforward fashion.

“That makes me feel quite confident because I know if I do something wrong, I will get a very clear message.”

Divine guidance

Prof Aleks also believes that God has been watching over SoMin.ai.

When the war in Ukraine broke out three years ago, the start-up was badly affected. Many of his employees were in Russia, as was much of the business. The company was haemorrhaging as much as over $150,000 a month sustaining the employees and giving them time to find employment elsewhere.

SoMin.ai had to start all over again in a new market – Southeast Asia. But Prof Aleks sees God’s goodness even in this.

“He let us fund raise just before the war broke out. So we had enough cash to go through those two years.

“I never asked God why this happened. Just listen to what He wants you to do.”

In fact, he sees the roadblock as God’s way of redirecting him.

Had SoMin.ai not had to go back to square one, Prof Aleks may not have sought help. Then he would not have found an opportunity with the Singapore-based Kingdom impact venture capitalist firm Digital Mission Ventures (DMV).

No fear of troubles

Prof Aleks continues to believe that, if he walks right with God, God will direct his path. This is why he wants SoMin.ai to redeem the advertising world.

“We are focussed on driving value to employees and clients, helping them to become better partners, marketeers and businesses.

“We often compromise margins to help businesses who really want to change for better. Sometimes our operations manager says to our clients, ‘You don’t need our services, use the money to invest in infrastructure to improve.’”

As recently as two days before the interview with Salt&Light, Prof Aleks saw God redirect his path.

“We had a deal of $500,000 cancelled at the last moment. Now we are in challenging times. We have to re-plan, the team has to do something else we are not ready for.

“But to me, it was a good occasion – one more chance for me to be reminded that God is in control. I had a great sense of peace when I received the news that they had rejected us.”

Resilience is vital to every start-up founder. For Prof Aleks, this is not merely a character trait but a result of his faith.

SoMin.ai aims to bring transparency to the advertising world using data.

“In this world, it is impossible to be without tribulations. But that is the only thing that sharpens us for assignments in the future.

“Maybe through this, I can be a better CEO. Without VC money, I may have to concentrate on structures that are not so good which I would not have focussed on if I had lots of cash.

“One of the prayers a pastor taught me was, ‘God, don’t give me what I don’t need even if I want it or ask for it.’

“I think this part is very important for start-ups.”

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The post How a child-like prayer for ducks laid the faith foundation for an AI start-up appeared first on Salt&Light.

As the relatives present milled around him, she held back her tears, took a bowl of food and started eating.

“I was very calm,” Linda, now in her 50s, told Stories of Hope.

Linda with her son, Shane Lim, who was just nine when his father passed on in 2005. They are pictured one year later.

“I asked God to strengthen me. I said to myself, ‘I must stay strong for my son and others. I must eat normally, so that I will have the strength to make funeral arrangements.’”

It was only that evening, when her oldest girl friend came to stay over, that her tears flowed and flowed.

Taste of a new world

Linda first met her husband when she was 21.

The Peranakan businessman took her to a restaurant in Albert Court. There, she had her first taste of ayam buah keluak (chicken in tamarind gravy with kepayang nut).

Chicken wings stuffed with buah keluak – Linda’s novel twist on the classic Peranakan dish. She started Linda’s Table private dining during the Covid pandemic. Photo by Benjamin Liew.

“I had no idea what Peranakan food or Italian linguine was until I met him. He opened up a whole new world of food to me,” recalled Linda.

Armed with a thick cookbook with very few pictures by Mrs Leong Yee Soo, Linda set her heart on figuring out the cuisine of her husband’s culture. She had been cooking Cantonese food since the age of six.

“As a new bride, I wanted to please my husband,” Linda explained.

Guided by her husband’s tastebuds and his mother’s feedback, she tweaked the recipes.

Soon Peranakan food became her forte, and her husband’s family descended on their home for Chinese New Year feasts.

Twice a week, her husband entertained guests at their rooftop garden, with Linda whipping up a storm for Italian, Spanish and Chinese themed nights.

The rooftop garden at Linda’s home in Pandan Valley where diners can enjoy drinks at sunset. Photo by Gemma Koh.

“When we went travelling, we brought home – not designer bags – but plates and tableware,” said Linda, who worked in facility management at that time.

Little did she guess that honing her skills in table presentation, plating and entertaining would come in useful for a future phase in her life.

“Cling to Me”

“It was very painful when my husband passed away – especially for our son, because he lost a father who cannot be replaced,” said Linda.

“I told myself, ‘My focus should be on my son.’

“I prayed that I would bring him up to the be son the Lord wanted him to be. And I would become the woman that the Lord wanted me to be,” said Linda, who described herself as “only a Sunday church goer” at that time.

Linda’s notebooks. “I started to journal to get over my grief. Every night, I would write, write, write and cry. As I moved forward from that period in life, the journal writing went down, and so did the crying,” she said.

One day, while grieving alone, she heard an audible voice. 

“He said, ‘Cling to Me. I will be your Father and your son’s Father.’

“I knew I couldn’t go wrong if I clung to Him.

“I knew I did not need to be both father and mother to my son. I let Jesus be the Father.”

She added: “I prayed for patience and strength, and kept telling myself that things would get better.

Linda and son Shane have since moved forward from that dark time in their lives. “God has blessed us,” she said.

“I may not have started my life well …. But I want to finish well.”

“I also told God, ‘I want to do what pleases you. I may not have started my life well, and may have failed miserably along the way. But I want to finish well. So guide me.’”

She found Jeremiah 29:11 particularly encouraging.

She said: “My hope in God kept me going, and I trusted that He has a good plan for my life.

Never lonely

“I was quite comfortable with myself,” said Linda. “I was never lonely but I couldn’t do it alone. I did it with the Lord’s help.”

She saw how God put people in her life to support her and pray for her.

Eventually, doors opened for Linda (in apron), to be a volunteer chef at a theological school (pictured) and at the Alpha course at St Andrew’s Cathedral.

They included a small group at church who studied the Bible with her.

“A whole new world opened up. I learnt about what God wants and I tried to follow his commandments,” she said.

“Previously, I didn’t understand the Bible. But things changed when I said, ‘God, please help me.’”

She also had a renewed relationship with a sister, as well as her sister-in-law.

“My husband’s younger sister took it upon herself to jaga (“watch over” in Malay) me, to see to my needs.

“She brought me food and took me for manicures, pedicures and massages to cheer me up.”

The ministry of food

Not wanting to feel sorry for herself, Linda told her church that she wanted to serve as a volunteer.

“When you help others, you forget your own problems,” she explained.

She ushered, arranged flowers and also helped in the administration of the docent’s ministry that shares the rich heritage of St Andrew’s Cathedral (SAC) with visitors.

At one point, she was at church four times a week, in between freelance work projects.

Then doors opened for her to be a volunteer cook.

It started at the Discipleship Training Centre at Chancery Road.

“In the big but old kitchen, I had quiet time with the Lord.

“The cooking, cutting and slicing was very therapeutic and relaxing, and the people were very appreciative,” she said.

Subsequently, she was roped in to prepare food for the Alpha course hosted by St Andrew’s Cathedral when Canon Terry Wong, then vicar and head of the food ministry, noticed Linda’s gifts of cooking and bringing people together.

“There was joyful fellowship and good bonding. We would exchange what was going on with our lives,” said Linda (right) of the Alpha cooking team (pictured having a tea break).

Alpha’s loving, non-judgemental, no-pressure approach welcomes all to ask questions about the Christian faith. Each session typically starts with complimentary food – a friendly way for participants and facilitators to get to know each other.

“I would go to the market in the morning to buy ingredients, have a quick lunch and start working at 1pm,” she said.

“When the event ended at 9pm, I was so tired, but my heart was full of joy. I went to sleep with a smile.

“I had found purpose in my life.”

The Alpha course attracted some 200 people. But when word spread about the free dinners, attendance doubled to 400.

Covid, however, put a stop to these dinners.

Looking back, Linda saw how God was preparing her every step of the way for a future phase in her life.

When international borders were closed because of the pandemic, Linda’s work as a project management consultant also dried up.

Canon Wong, who is also a cookbook author who blogs as The Food Canon, suggested that she start a food business.

When Linda started a food delivery to church friends, word spread.

Linda gave a cooking demonstration over Zoom for the church when Singapore went into lockdown during the pandemic.

Later, Canon Wong suggested that the ambience in Linda’s home was perfect for a private dining business.

Warm and inviting, Linda’s home is tastefully decorated with Asian art and artefacts. Photo by Benjamin Liew.

And so in October 2020, Linda’s Table Private Dining, serving Peranakan food omakase-style was born.

Training from the age of 5

Looking back, Linda is thankful for her rich experience in preparing food. She attributes it to the grace of God.

“He was training me at every step of the way,” she said.

It started when she was five. She and her younger sister were living with their maternal grandmother, while their mum helped out in a shop and their dad worked in construction to support the family.

“We left the house when it was pitch dark at 4.30am every day and followed our grandmother to the market,” she recalled.

“We also followed her to our grandfather’s coffeeshop, and watched her prepare wonton mee.

“I found it fascinating how food came together.”

Her grandma would pile all the ingredients in the bowl in one chunk. But young Linda “enjoyed laying the char siew, the chai sim, the chilli nicely in the bowl”.

Linda’s grandmother (pictured), gave five-year-old Linda her first taste of preparing and plating food.

Linda’s ode to her heritage. “I wanted to do a ravioli with otah (ground fish mixed with spices). But the pasta machine took forever to arrive. Then I hit on the idea of doing otah in a wonton, served in a laksa gravy,” she said. Photo by Benjamin Liew.

“I discovered that when I placed them nicely, people would think the dish is different even though it tastes the same,” said Linda.

Linda’s intuition in the kitchen is likely to have been passed down from her father who had “discerning taste buds and knew how to make a dish sing”.

“Our cousins brought us to an expensive seafood place. He figured out the soup base and replicated it back at home. My cousin declared, ‘No need to go to that place anymore.’”

Linda went back to live with her parents when she was six.

Her father taught his little sous chef how to stir-fry chai sim to retain its crunch and colour, and how to use her ear to listen to the rhythm when making rempah (spice paste) with a batu lesung (mortar and pestle).

“He was the rare Cantonese who enjoyed curry, probably from the influence of Malay friends in his kampung,” Linda said of her father (pictured with her mother).

“When he thought I was ready, he gave me $5 to go to the market and tasked me to prepare a meal for the family.

“So I learnt to budget and make a balanced meal for the family.”

Uniquely Linda

After cooking for 400 people, preparing food for a party of 10 diners was comparatively easy. Still, Linda had butterflies in her stomach when she started Linda’s Table.

Then she heard God tell her: “Linda, do your best, do it with love.

Feeling the love in her cooking: An elderly man, who had not had bakwan kepiting (pork and crab meatball soup) in decades, took one sip of Linda’s version and teared. “He took the hand of his host and thanked them for inviting him. My heart melted,” said Linda, who thanked God for allowing her to use the gift He has given her to touch others and do something that she truly enjoys. Photo by Benjamin Liew.

“Be yourself, Linda, because you are uniquely you.”

It gave her the confidence to stop comparing herself to other chefs, and to cook for others what she would enjoy eating.

Her dishes are constantly evolving, partly because she doesn’t want to cook the same thing for returning fans of her food, and partly because she wants to challenge herself.

Linda engages with God while cooking. She believes that God regularly inspires her with fresh ideas as she cooks or via accidental culinary discoveries and diners’ suggestions.

When a regular asked Linda to prepare a Cantonese menu, she included pork lard rice. “It was something I ate as a child when we didn’t have much money. Social media posts of the rice went viral. People started coming because of the rice.” It is now offered as an option on the Peranakan menu. Photo by Benjamin Liew.

For instance, one day she had extra pork lard and threw it into the prawns cooked with the sour belimbing fruit.

“Pah! It became a speciality and one of my favourite dishes,” she said.

Another example: Her babi pongteh used to sit in a watery sauce. One day when she wasn’t watching the fire, it caramelised and coated the pork. She started including potato in the dish when one man briefed her that his wife loves it made that way.

Of the unique dishes which have become part of her signature, she said: “God created an identity for my business.”

When prompted, Linda offers to pray for blessings over diners celebrating special occasions. “So far no one has refused a blessing,” she said.

“God is with me all the time. I pray for every meal, that the people coming will have a good evening. I pray for the strength to go through this.”

God’s provision

Word about Linda’s new venture spread in waves.

The blessing started when a friend posted on social media about their dining experience at Linda’s Table.

Then at 11am on a Saturday in May 2021, Linda’s mobile phone started ringing off the hook while she was at the supermarket.

It was the response to a review on ieatishootipost, by medical doctor and food blogger, Dr Leslie Tay.

“I abandoned my shopping and spent the next four hours taking enquiries and bookings,” Linda recalled.

The day after the ieatishootipost review was published, Linda’s Table was highlighted in The Sunday Times, bringing another wave of enquiries.

In no time, Linda’s Table was booked solid for six months.

“It was incredible for a newcomer,” exclaimed Linda in wonder.

“It’s really God’s blessing.”

When diners at Linda’s Table ask how Linda started cooking, she tells them that she once helped out at the Alpha course. She encourages them to go for the course and the free dinners.

“I want people to know that where I am today is because of God.”

Linda’s Table Private Dining is fully booked till July 2024, and is not accepting bookings or waitlists for now.

Slots for the third quarter of 2024 will be released in February 2024 via its Facebook or Instagram pages.

This story first appeared in Salt&Light’s sister platform, Stories of Hope.

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The post How a widow who cooked for an Alpha group became a Peranakan private dining chef with a viral following appeared first on Salt&Light.