As a Primary 1 boy in a brand new environment, Joshua Sudharman (then known as Shaam) felt at home right away at St Andrew’s Junior School, thanks to his form teacher, Mrs Mary Yee, who was “motherly, kind and caring”.

“Looking back, it was quite something to make a kid feel comfortable, safe and at home,” said Joshua, now 53.

Mrs Mary Yee taught the boys all subjects except for Chinese.

Joshua recalled sitting cross-legged on the floor at the front of his classroom, enthralled by the stories she read to the class during Bible Knowledge class.

“After I left Primary School, Mrs Yee (middle, in stripes) would remember me without hesitation and would always express that she was proud of me. That was something very, very precious,” said Joshua. Mrs Yee is now 90. Photo, taken in 2016, from the St Andrew’s Secondary School Facebook.

“Mrs Yee had the Bible open, and read stories to us and showed us the pictures.

“Those began to have an impact on me.”

Joshua’s family were of a different faith. He was brought up on the idea that all religions are the same, that people “pray to the same God using different names”.

“So it gave me permission to participate freely in whatever was happening in school and to stay open minded – but with no need to convert.” 

Young Joshua (pictured) followed in the footsteps of his father who was an Old Boy of St Andrew’s School. “Even though my father was not a Christian at that time, he felt that St Andrew’s was a good school, and it was natural for him to want to put me there.” His father studied there after the Japanese Occupation.

The stories Mrs Yee read the class kick-started in Joshua “a growing sense of admiration for Jesus, and a wonder of the kind of person that He is, His kindness and love”.

Shaam (top middle, in Primary 3) officially took on the name Joshua in his 30s after receiving several prophecies over many years from Joshua 1 (especially Joshua 1:9), urging courage and trust in the Lord’s empowering presence.

Joshua recalled looking forward to singing his favourite song – In the Stars His Handiwork I See – during chapel service.

“Each one of us, even non-Christians, had our favourite hymns. Not so much for the profundity of the words, but probably for the tune,” he said with a smile.

True blue Saint: Rev Dr Joshua Sudharman outside the building that once housed his secondary school. It is now home to The Diocese of Singapore, within which he serves as the Warden of its training arm, St Peter’s Hall. Photo by the Thirst Collective.

He felt comfortable with the prayers and faith programmes at the mission school. There was no pressure to give up his family’s spiritual beliefs.

Pulling away

But in Secondary Four, something began to trouble Joshua, who was then the Head Prefect (or School Captain, in the unique nomenclature of St Andrew’s School).

His close friends, who were also prefects, took opportunities during barbecues, dinners and social gatherings to ask him what he thought about the Bible verse “I am the way, the truth and the life”. (John 14:6)

That is, that Jesus is the one and only way to God.

Joshua, when he was the Head Prefect in Secondary 4.

“It implied things that were critical and negative about my beliefs. It offended me.”

This led to arguments.

“It created some tension in our friendship – not enough to derail it, but enough to complicate it.

“Things came to a head and I told them, ‘Enough. I don’t want to talk about this subject any more. I am prepared to believe in the whole Bible except this one verse that you keep confronting me with.’

“So I pulled away.”

Little did he realise that “something was already swirling” inside him.

Last day of Sec 4

On the last day of Secondary 4, Joshua and his schoolmates exchanged autographs with each other, and said their goodbyes to their teachers.

Joshua went up to his teacher-in-charge of rugby with whom he was close.

Mrs Priscilla Krempl was Singapore’s first female rugby coach and referee, and would later become the principal of St Andrew’s Secondary School.

“As part of my goodbye to my teacher, I said to her, ‘Please pray for me for the upcoming ‘O’ Levels.’

“I don’t know why I said it, but I thought it couldn’t hurt if she remembered me when she said her prayers.”

What she said next surprised him.

“She said, ‘Sure. Why don’t we go to the chapel now?’”

Somersaulting in space

In the chapel, teacher and student sat side by side in a pew.

“I would have never asked my friends to pray for me, but perhaps I felt safe asking Mrs Krempl to. I respected her for her Christian faith and also was grateful that she never tried to pressure me into believing,” said Joshua (left, with Mrs Krempl).

Joshua recalled: “We bowed our heads, closed our eyes and she began to pray. She said, ‘Dear Lord, we pray for Shaam as his exams are coming up …’

“After that, her words were drowned out by a voice in my mind that kept saying: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. I am the Way, the Truth …’

“Accompanying those words was a very, very weird sensation of spinning – like tumbling or somersaulting, as if I were in space. I felt giddy.

“The next thing you know, I’m weeping and crying uncontrollably.

“It was quite a supernatural thing. It was really something I couldn’t have engineered, something that I couldn’t have predicted.

“It was like something boiling inside me had come to the surface.

“Maybe because that was the first time I had prayed in a very personal way.”

“What have I done?”

Joshua was still very emotional when Mrs Krempl suggested: “Why don’t you pray now?”

He had never prayed out loud before.

“At prefect board meetings, it was always my duty to appoint a Christian prefect to open in prayer. After he says the words ‘In Jesus name’, other non-Christians and I would join in on the ‘Amen’.

“Now, blubbering through my tears, I started to pray,” he recalled.

“I don’t remember my exact words but I didn’t ask for help with my exams – it seemed the least important thing at that point.

“I felt like I had come face to face with God in some way. My prayer was something to the effect of, ‘I acknowledge You as God’.

“I felt like I was being confronted with the question that I had been running away from. I felt like ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’ was now inescapably pointing to the fact that Jesus brings us to God in a way that no one else does.

Obituary for the big-hearted Mrs Priscilla Krempl in The New Paper, December 2011. From Otterman’s blog.

“And then, more tellingly for me, I uttered the words ‘In Jesus’ name’. And my teacher joined in on the ‘Amen’,” he said.

When he finished saying his first prayer, Joshua asked himself: “What have I done?”

Prayers answered

A week later, Joshua went to the home of his closest friend – another prefect – to study.

That friend, Tay Choon Mong, is better known today as Dr Leslie Tay, medical doctor and food blogger of ieatishootipost.sg. 

Recalled Joshua: “We were taking a break from memorising Shakespeare. And suddenly, I blurted out to him, ‘Mong, I’ve decided to embrace the Christian faith.’

“I don’t know why I said it that way,” he said.

Joshua didn’t have a habit of journalling, so reckons he was “internally processing his thoughts, making sense of what happened the previous week”, when things suddenly became crystal clear.

“I think Mong had to pick his jaw up from the floor. He was so shocked.

“Then he let me in on a secret. He told me, ‘Do you know that at the beginning of the year, Wilfred had the assurance from God that by the end of the year you would become a Christian? And that we’ve all been praying for you behind your back?

(Wilfred Leow, like Joshua, went on to be a teacher in the St Andrew’s family of schools and subsequently a pastor.)

Joshua (left of teacher) and his best friend Mong (aka Dr Leslie Tay, third from right, seated) in Secondary 3.

“Mong told me, ‘We prayed for ways to reach you. And then you became so hardened, and we were so discouraged. And the more we tried, the further away you ran.’”

Said Joshua: “I had no idea they were conspiring to pray for me.”

Then Mong asked Joshua if he had prayed the Sinner’s Prayer. 

Joshua didn’t know what it was.

“Mong said, ‘Let us pray. You say it after me.’

“So we sat down facing each other. The moment we bowed our heads and we began to pray, I started to weep again.

“As soon we finished praying, Mong ran out of the room and started phoning our friends with the news, ‘You won’t believe what just happened. Shaam just prayed to receive Christ.’”

Recalled Rev Wilfred Leow (left, with Rev Dr Joshua Sudharman and Dr Leslie Tay): “I was incredulous and elated when our dear friend became a Christian. And perhaps more relieved that what God had assured me had come to pass for His goodness and His glory.” In the background is the prefect’s tower where they used to hang out in secondary school. Photo by the Thirst Collective.

Said Joshua: “It was a miracle to them.

“It was vindication for my friends that they had heard God right. I really did become a believer.

“And their prayers and efforts were not in vain. It was really faith-building for them.

“Because of this, I believe in the power of prayer.

“If I could be turned around so supernaturally, I think there’s hope for everyone.”

Gift of teaching

Joshua and his best friend, Mong, had made up their minds to go to a secular junior college. But just two months before the end of Secondary 4 – and before becoming a Christian – Joshua “made a 180-degree turn”, and chose St Andrew’s Junior College (SAJC) instead.

Looking back, Joshua saw how God had already been directing the course of his life, even before he became a believer. At SAJC, Joshua grew in his newfound faith, even before he could start attending church.

Baptised and confirmed in his junior college years.

Joshua rowing at Cambridge. He received a scholarship to read physics – his favourite subject.

He subsequently received a scholarship to read physics – his favourite subject – at the University of Cambridge, where he found a Christian community on the advice of his Singapore pastor, Canon James Wong.

His time in Cambridge helped him grow in his love for God’s Word and his ability to lead Bible study.

Joshua in 1996, just before giving up teaching to become a pastor.

During university holidays, Joshua taught physics at his former junior college. There, he discovered his gifting for teaching physics in a simple, logical and sequential way. He believes it was God’s way of preparing Him to become a full-time teacher, and subsequently, a pastor.

Twelve years after Joshua’s supernatural experience in his secondary school chapel, he felt moved to give up teaching to serve his God full-time as a pastor.

Almost 20 years later, Joshua had the joy of baptising his own father who became a Christian at the age of 80 – seven years before he passed on.

God’s fingerperints

Looking back, Joshua sees God’s fingerprints in leading him to Christ: The provision of faithful close friends, the impact of a Christian institution, teachers who bookended his school years – from Mrs Yee in Primary 1 to Mrs Krempl in Secondary 4 – and others in between.

Teachers who made an impact included Mrs Yee’s husband, Joshua’s rugby coach in Secondary 4. Mr Yee Teck Peng, a beloved coach to many, communicated God’s love and care for others in practical ways and by example.

Joshua (right) in the Seven-A-Side rugby squad at the Padang in his final year of secondary school. Mr Yee was their coach. They won gold that year.

“He was always a gentleman and did not use foul language”, said Joshua of the coach who introduced tactical and strength training to reduce the likelihood of injury among the boys.

“He demonstrated care for the team, not just in terms of winning matches, but in terms of our health and physique.”

Joshua’s school years were bookended by Mrs Mary Yee in Primary One and her husband, Mr Yee Teck Peng, in Secondary Four. They are pictured in a 2018 photo from Sylvia Tay/Friends of Saints Rugby Football Club Facebook.

Joshua saw “all of these as the means by which God was impacting me”.

“God was very gradual, very patient, wooing me for 10 years from Primary 1 to Secondary 4, adding layer upon layer to my view of Christianity. And then finally, at the right time, it became a critical decision point for me.

Rev Dr Joshua Sudharman hosting the 2023 Pastors’ Summit in January. Photo by the Thirst Collective.

“He was captivating me in terms of my falling in love with His person, His character, the kind way in which He dealt with everyone.

“He’s been incredible.”

A version of this story first appeared in Stories of Hope.

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