Our Stories
We recount testimonies of God’s favour, provision and love for our brothers
by vendors, friends, our LifeGroups and families at The City.
Kurk Fong — Volunteer Driver
I consider it a privilege and blessing to be able to help in this small way in delivering food to our brothers in the dormitories during this time. As is often the case when you go out to the mission field, you are more likely to feel blessed by God than the ones you are reaching out to. Sometimes, God uses these opportunities of service more as a way of touching our hearts and doing a work in us. The long journey to and from the dorm allows one a lot of time to just commune with God and reflect.
Racial tensions have come to the fore of late, both near and far. Nearer to home, there are those who have taken to vilifying foreigners in our midst who may not have been respecting the Circuit Breaker rules. It is however dangerous to paint everyone with the same brush. I was therefore especially heartened to see a foreign colleague of mine, after hearing of our volunteer work, reach out to me with food and cash contributions to our efforts. The message was clear that my colleague and his family saw Singapore as their adopted home and wanted to do their part in making it a better place for all who live here.
Similarly, the brothers we serve in the dorms may hail from a different nationality and culture. Nevertheless, if this virus outbreak has taught us anything, it is that nobody is immune or superior and all belong to one single human race, equally loved by God and deserving of human kindness.
“When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself. I am the Lord your God.” Leviticus 19: 33-34
Suren Daniel — Breakfast Vendor
My family have been hawkers for quite a number of years. Our stall has been through SARS and H1N1. Every time, we have depended on God to provide for us and not stress about the future of our stall. My mum retired and I took over the stall the same month the circuit breaker happened. We took it in stride. Actually, my mother was laughing, saying, “Look at what is happening but don’t worry, God will provide.”
From the beginning of the circuit breaker, there were drivers in the area who started picking up and delivering food from our stall. A friend of mine started working out deliveries for us. Business was supposed to be down but by God’s grace, business got better for our stall during the outbreak. I think we are experiencing the unmerited favour of God because we depend on Him.
Then one day when I was preparing delivery items, Ivan Tan came up and asked where the food was going. He told me about what The City was doing with providing food for the brothers in the dorm and I agreed to help.
That afternoon, I felt God speaking to me. If the church is doing this why don’t you do something about it too since I am blessing your business.
I knew then and told Ivan that I would put in extra thosai, extra eggs, extra potatoes at not cost to the church. I didn’t want to make a profit on this delivery. God was blessing me so that I could share the blessing. It was a push from the Lord for me to go the extra mile.
As we started preparing the delivery items for the brothers, other hawkers near my stall got involved as well. Some have passed me fruits to include in the meal. Recently, one stall gave me Indian rice pudding. I know that some of the brothers must have prayed for it. It seems like such a basic need to get a good meal that is a taste of home but God works in unexpected ways.
God has blessed me so much during this time and He continues to bless me. Amazingly, after we started making food for the brothers, we have had even more business and new orders from new customers. Our God is a good Father. He gives good gifts to His children.
Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven – James 1:17
The Seah Family
We were excited when Pastor Andre announced that our church has adopted a dormitory. Nelson took the initiative to get involved by signing up to be a driver to deliver meals to Tuas each week. Later, he activated the rest of us to also participate by providing home baked goods for their tea break. So together with Isabella (5), Amanda (3) and Natasha (2), we spent a whole Friday baking a large batch of muffins together, as well as packing and labelling them. It was a precious time with the children, to highlight issues beyond the four walls of the home we have been confined in, as well as practically live out how we can all do our part to lend a loving hand in the name of Jesus. Though it is such a small gesture, we are reminded of Mother Teresa’s well-remembered words: Not all of us can do great things, but we can all do small things with great love."
By the time we were done baking, it was nearly evening and dinner was not yet prepared. Just then, a friend dropped by with a surprise dinner for us! How good is our God that He would see this little act and take note? How loving is our God that He would encourage us in our hearts and spirits in such a tangible and specific way? How amazing is God’s economy that it is one that keeps giving and multiplying? Let’s believe the 60 brothers we are serving will receive a touch from God too.
“The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” –– Matthew 25:40
Michael Tan — Volunteer Driver
This was a journey of realizing and understanding the importance of putting myself in a position to be more “others centric”. Leading up to The City announcing that they were going to take part in the “Adopt A Dorm” program, these two words circled in my head. “Surviving” and “Thriving” – if you are in a position of “surviving”, it puts you in a position of being self-focused or inward-looking; and if you are in a position of “thriving,” it puts you in a position of having the margin to be others-focused or outward-looking. It’s not a question of which position is right or wrong. Both concepts have their merits and seasons in life. But “thriving” stuck with me. If I put myself in a mindset of “thriving” it means I do not lack and have the margin to give in some way, shape or form. And so, I embarked on putting that mindset into physical action. In this case, it is by helping out our fellow brothers in the dorms.
These fellow human beings are just like anyone of us, trying to get by during this period. However, with whatever circumstances there may be, they have ended up in a position of need.
1. I think by helping or by being involved in this initiative in some way, is just the first step into changing our often default understanding/outlook on how we view this situation. We often ask ourselves “why me?” or “why must I be the one doing it?” or we tell ourselves that “someone else is going to do it so its ok, I’ll just support from afar” or “I have no time.” Whether you intend to or not, by doing that we’re actually essentially saying that “I’m too good for this / I’m more important than this”. But by being involved (even though it might seem only in a small, simple way), I can say that I’m part of the puzzle in bringing a positive impact to my fellow brothers.
2. Picking and delivering the food might be a small gesture, but it is so significant for these brothers. As I was doing one of the deliveries, I had a (very immature) thought “wah, these brothers so privileged, got free food delivered to them.” I caught myself on this thought and told myself “wait a minute, I’m the privileged one. This is basic necessity for them, but I can get/make whatever food I want, whenever I want it, and I have a car to do it too.” And this got to me - Being blessed doesn’t bring any purpose or meaning, unless it is passed on.
3. During the drive, Jesus spoke to me: Isn’t it astounding how thousands of people (not just a few hundred) are thrown aside to one area of Singapore where it is not frequented and are kind of left and forgotten about? They take up a significant portion of our country’s population, but yet not enough to be noticed?
As I drove, I felt led to pray for the area (like how you would if you prayer walked). I prayed that these brothers will see love through people like us, working amongst their community. These brothers need God in the same way we do. That puts us all in the same boat.
“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all men.” –– 1 Timothy 2:1
The Gomez Family
In February, the janitor at our HDB did not come into work. That was then the Lord laid it on our hearts to start praying for our brothers in the dorms. We started praying that God would invade them with dreams and visions. For healing to break out. For lives to be saved and for strength to those brothers who knew Jesus. We prayed that believers in the dorms would be able to minister to others on a level they never had before. We started looking for opportunities to help. Not just give. But do.
And then our life group was asked to help with tea time. A week before that we had attempted to make a local treat for the first time. Seemed so much like Jesus to equip us foreign folk so that we could volunteer to bake pineapple tarts. We were thankful that the time we made it, we had leftover dough and filling. Our convection oven is so tiny we couldn’t bake the entire recipe in one afternoon. The next day we had experimented making the little flower shaped pineapple tarts. We decided to bake those instead of the traditional pineapple shaped ones. It was a family effort with everyone pitching in. It was daunting but God came through. Miraculously our little oven worked overtime. And we made some 200 tarts -- enough to give each brother three tarts and have a few leftovers to bless the driver who picked up.
What we did that strengthened our spirits and blessed us even more, was that we made cards of encouragement for the brothers. We asked the Lord and he gave us Numbers 6:24-26 and Jeremiah 31:3. We then used Google Translate and an Indian friend to confirm it said what we knew the Lord wanted said. Then we printed out 12 cards that we decorated with pictures and words of encouragement. Inside some of those we wrote words of knowledge in English. How does one write a word for someone who may not even speak English? Jesus. He said “do” and so we did. We know He always completes what He says He will do. While we might not know the impact of the cards this side of heaven, we had an amazing sense of joy and peace when we saw those notes and packaged tarts leave our home.
“The Lord will accomplish what He sets out to do. His loving kindness is everlasting.” –– Psalm 138:8