Tell of what you are hearing and seeing

December 12, 2004

In 1991 Grace Choo found herself sharing a boarding room in Singapore with her husband Andrew and their new-born son, and a transvestite, a drunk and a mentally disabled person. Andrew was studying at Trinity Theological college for a degree. Meanwhile a battered wife and her three children were staying in the Choo’s own four room flat.

Now, over 10 years later, the couple run the Andrew and Grace home, a project that provides care and shelter for runaway girls. Stress levels are high in Singapore’s success-driven society. Parents can work 16-hour days, and their children are judged by their academic achievements. Youths who cannot keep up often turn to petty crime, drugs and gangs, and many run away from home.

Alicia Kam Meili, for example, came from a home in which her father was disabled by a leg operation, and her mother rarely spoke to her. The atmosphere was so tense that she spent her days with friends on the streets, where she experimented with heroin. When she was caught, the judge was lenient, and agreed to her going to the Andrew and Grace Home to see if her behaviour changed. This has happened, and now she joins in the Home’s activities, such as studying, praying, cleaning, and looking after the pets.

The Home is now housed in a former girl’s hostel, and is supported by the Presbyterian Church in Singapore and CWM. Underlying the work is a firm belief in the redeeming power of Jesus Christ.

Andrew plans to develop the Home’s training aspect, and employ a counsellor and a social worker. He says, ‘we prepare the girls for the outside world and try to direct them towards a career. Through the work of the Home lives are transformed, and families reconciled. It shows that people can change and that God is working here’.

Pray with the Presbyterian Church in Singapore (CWM East Asia Region)

Advent 3, The hidden and the seen
Read Matthew 11: 2 – 11

Could we recognise the holy,
coming as the wearer of the ‘Next’ catalogue?
Could we see you through the eyebrow piercing?
Could we see you wearing a suit?
Could we see beyond the dreadlocks?
Lord, how do we know who is from you and who is not?

We hold up to you,
those who have a prophetic word which nobody will listen to;
those who are ‘the part’ but do not look it;
those who look ‘the part’ but whose religion is an empty shell;
those who have abilities but can find nowhere to use them;
those whose religion is unconventional and intense.

S urprising Jesus,
open our eyes to see you:
open our hands to reach out to you:
open our hearts to love you:
move our feet at your directing.

Rev Fred Ireland