“Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” (Luke 15: 7)
In June 2016, I attended a local missions camp co-organised by AMKMC, AMKCMC and SKMC. Working with different organisations, this 4D3N camp raised my understanding of the underprivileged in Singapore.
Firstly, we partnered with HealthServe to serve the migrant workers in our community. We learnt so much about their working situations in Singapore and the many difficulties they are experiencing. Many of them paid a hefty sum to come to Singapore because they were promised a job that was decent paying.
However, when they arrive in Singapore, many of them encounter difficulties. The living conditions in some dorms are really in need of improvement. My heart ached so badly when I saw the injustice that they were facing; I could only love them with no strings attached.
We also worked with a professor from NUS on a “Soap with Hope” project. We made soap bars out of recycled soap and presented them to the migrant workers. And, not forgetting the polaroid photos we took for them…that was probably the happiness moment for many of them and our team.
Food From The Heart (FFTH) is another one of the organisations that we worked with. Their aim is to reach out to the less-fortunate by alleviating hunger through food distribution programmes. We were involved in packing food such as biscuits, rice, canned food and powdered drinks (i.e. Coffee and Milo) into small bags for distribution. The process took less than an hour. Following that, the residents from the block would come to collect their goodie bags. Some of the elderly were quite frail, so we helped carry the bags and accompanied them back to their unit. Those were the touching and teaching moments indeed.
Next, to the Willing Hearts. Willing Hearts is a secular, non-affiliated charity that looks into elderly, the disabled, low income families, children from single parent families or the poverty-stricken families, as well as the migrant workers in Singapore.
In this partnership, we “started work” in the wee hours of the morning.
Our team volunteered at the soup kitchen that Willing Hearts operates and the duties included preparation of food, cooking, packing and distribution. Each person was allocated to a specific task, such as deboning fishes, frying eggs or cutting vegetables. The task may be simple, but doing it repetitively made it very mundane and at the end of it, everyone felt really drained. We began to wonder our motive… then, we remembered God and His people. We are to love God’s people in the simplest things in life without expectation of any returns.
Besides those mentioned, there were still many other activities and organisations that we worked with. At the end of the local mission trip, I become mindful of the people around me who need the love of God. I begin to notice the migrant workers whenever I walk past a construction site and I’ll be prompted to say a little prayer for their safety. I also become more aware of the people sleeping on the streets at night…
Although the local missions camp had ended…. the work has really just begun.
by Michelle Koh
