Over three services every weekend, the team of the Jesus For All Minds (JAMs) ministry at City Harvest Church brings the Word of God to their special needs congregation.

Services are lively and resemble ministry to children, featuring simple teachings that are illustrated with slides and props.

The congregation is fully and passionately absorbed in praise and worship and all that is happening on stage.  

While one may imagine such a service caters to children with special needs, many of the members of JAMs are adults in their twenties and thirties. Some are older.

“We always start with lots of action games,” Pastor Lily Yong, 52, who heads the JAMs ministry said to Salt&Light. “That’s to help them expend their energy so that they are able to sit quietly for the lesson.” 

The lessons – effectively sermons – delivered by Ps Lily and pastoral supervisors Adiel Choy and Santhi Singaram, are simple and short, often object lessons that are easily grasped.

Ps Lily explained: “Their attention span is short, so you can’t do a 40-minute message. Everything has to move quickly.”

The message may be simple but it is powerful: Jesus loves each one of them, and they can do all things through Him who strengthens them.

A JAMs Big Day service at CHC, Suntec is always a time filled with joy and laughter. Members worship the Lord wholeheartedly, without restraint.

The greatest reward of ministering to this group of people is seeing how God works in them, said Adiel,  47. “It is to see our JAMs members being transformed over time, to witness the love they have for the Lord and His Word.”

JAMs reaches out to 260 persons with special needs every week. Out of these, 180, a few accompanied by caregivers, attend the weekend services, which are held at two campuses: CHC at Suntec City on Saturdays at 10.30am, and the church’s Jurong West building on Saturdays and Sundays at 11am.

Reaching those beyond church walls

JAMs was started in 1996 as part of CHC’s “Church Without Walls” mission: To go beyond the walls of the church and reach out to those who would not ordinarily step into a church.

Ps Lily was then a young cell group leader taking care of youths in the congregation. The church launched into outreach to various groups, from children and at-risk youths to the dialect-speaking communities.

“We found that we were effective in our outreach and we encountered some people with special needs,” she described. “Then someone said, ‘Why don’t we start a church service on an alternate week basis?'”

It began with bringing these special needs individuals to church every other week. The first group was just four persons.

Pastor Lily (seated) preaching in an early JAMs service in 1996.

Ps Lily, in her early twenties at the time, was then asked to start a ministry to this demographic. She resisted.

“I was really scared because when I was 12 years old, I was chased and beaten by a mentally ill person, and I developed a phobia,” she explained.

“Back then we didn’t have any understanding of special needs like we do now. So I imagined those with special needs were like the mentally ill,” she explained.

“When I was sent to invite those from Ubi Hostel to church, I was afraid I would be beaten up.”

Touch Ubi Hostel is a residential home for adults with mild intellectual disabilities. In the late ’90s, the JAMs team would conduct outreach there and invite the residents to the JAMs service, held in those days at CHC’s church building that was the former Hollywood Theatre.

For a season, Pastor Lily wrestled with God. “I always wanted to be a pastor but I told God I didn’t want to work with special needs people. I cried every day in the prayer room when I went to work.” 

Despite her fears and prayers to God to be released from this assignment, Pastor Lily heard God say to her one day: “My grace is sufficient for you.” At that, she obeyed.

The early days of breaking ground were difficult, but Ps Lily and her co-workers faithfully went wherever there were people with special needs.

Breakthrough eventually came. “We did a networking session with a sheltered workshop (a place that trains people with special needs for employment) and told them about our Big Day celebration,” she recalled. “Big Day” events typically happen around Easter and Christmas.

From its onset in 1996, JAMs services begin with an exciting time of games. This helps the special needs members expend their energy so they are able to listen to the message later on.

“About 100 people came. That was our first Big Day. We made all the stage props – the theme was ‘Under the Sea’ – and we were so excited because we had more than 100 coming to service!”

Ps Lily quickly saw that she and her team needed training. She and Adiel obtained a Diploma of Community Services in Disability Work from the Centre for Developmental Disability Studies, while Santhi holds a Bachelor in Education specialising in Special Education.

Going the extra mile for members and their families

Since then, JAMs has grown into a ministry that reaches out and supports not only to those with special needs but their caregivers and family members as well. 

Supported by a force of 80 volunteers from CHC, the JAMs team engages 19 buses every weekend to bring 180 members to church.

JAMs currently has 260 active members. Before COVID, more would attend, but since the pandemic, many of them choose to attend service online.

The JAMs workers also conduct home visitations to every member of their congregation. The visits allow the ministry to build a strong relationship with the member and his or her family, and also to identify any areas of need the family may have.

“There are some members who are very challenging,” admitted Ps Lily. “That’s why home visits are the backbone of our ministry. It’s where we build relationships, get to know the child and how to handle situations when the child has a meltdown.”

It is a partnership between the JAMs team and the parents, who best know what works or doesn’t for their children.

Mixed media artist Fern Wong has been a member of the JAMs congregation the past 23 years. Encouraged to shine for Jesus, Fern will be holding her first solo exhibition this coming September. Photo courtesy of Lily Wong.

Fern Wong, 40, has been a member of JAMs for 23 years. Her parents are close to the JAMs team and share victories and valleys in their parenting journey.

Fern, who has Down syndrome, is a gifted artist who has won many local and international awards, including UOB Painting of the Year 2006 and the inaugural UOL-ART:DIS Art Prize last year.

Her mother Lily, 67, told Salt&Light: “JAMs has nurtured Fern’s faith, transforming her into a compassionate young lady who loves God’s words with unwavering hope, inspiring her to pray fervently for others and her loved ones and to support others through her tithing.”

Longtime JAMs volunteer See Lay Tin, 68, recalled the days she and a volunteer partner would conduct home visits to up to 10 families spread out across several housing estates every Saturday.

It was through these regular home visits that the family members began to open up their hearts to God. “Once I prayed with a member’s mother, who was very old, and she said the Sinner’s Prayer,” Lay Tin said.

Zoe Yue, 52, has been a JAMs volunteer since the start of the ministry. She and fellow volunteers  taught residents of Ubi Hostel during the week, and invited them to church on the weekends. 

Zoe was disappointed when only one resident agreed to go to church, but she still made the effort to bring her. To this day, that resident remains a faithful member of JAMs.

There are occasions when church members partner with JAMs to gift a hamper to a less privileged member and his family, or bring a family for a day out.

At the heart of their ministry is bringing the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ to the special needs and their caregivers. JAMs saw 171 people respond to the Big Day salvation altar calls in 2023.

Adiel explained that these numbers also reflect those members in the congregation who rededicate their lives to God. “Some of them respond to every altar call on every Big Day.”

This April, JAMs members and volunteers bought items and made hampers to bless the needy. This was a practical expression of what they had been learning through a series of lessons at JAMs service titled “I Am A Giver”.

There are many moments of joy, but there are also challenging times.

Ps Lily believes that most of their members understand the messages they hear in JAMs service, but there are those who face more severe challenges who may not.

“But we do the best we know how,” she said. “Every time we preach, we are dealing with people with special needs, and many of them are also vulnerable in the area of health.

“Each time we have the opportunity to preach, to share, we always tell ourselves that this may be  the last message that this person hears.”

Adiel, who has served in JAMs since 1997 shares that the most difficult thing is to face the death of members.

“I see them at service one week, and the next week, they’ve passed away,” she said.

Blessed by these special ones

Serving those with special needs is a calling. “I know God is using me as a yielded vessel to bring the love of God to them,” Adiel said. “Jesus set us an example to go and bring His love to others.”

In fact, it is the members that bless her, she added. “Our members are so hungry for God’s Word and they just worship Him with all their heart without worrying about other people’s opinions.

“JAMs is a place where they freely express their love for the Lord. I have learnt so much from them, especially their unrestricted love for God.”

While JAMs pastoral supervisor serves her members, she is in turn blessed by their unadulterated love for and worship of God.

For Ps Lily, her ministry has brought her into deep understanding of those with special needs – she has overcome her early fear and now embraces them wholeheartedly.

She has experienced firsthand the pure love of her members. Her husband had battled cancer before passing away a year ago.

“When my members knew he was sick, they would see me in church and ask me, ‘Pastor Lily, how is your husband? How are your four boys? I am praying for your husband.’

“Their prayers were so simple but they really touched my heart. 

“I feel God used them to minister to me.”

Teaming up with other special needs ministries 

JAMs has been intentional about collaborating and supporting other churches and Christian organisations in this sector.

To that end, in 2012, GO Conference was launched. Their partner that year was Church of Singapore.

“Our vision for GO conference was for it to be a Christian platform in Singapore for all matters related to special needs where all practitioners, stakeholders, volunteers can come together and seek the Lord as we serve the needs that we are called to meet,” said pastoral supervisor Santhi.

The conference has been held four times since 2012. In 2014, the speaker was a Christian therapist. In 2019, the conference featured Soakability Church, a parent of a special needs person and a social entrepreneur who hired persons with special needs for his restaurant. 

A life transformed by serving the special needs community: Ps Lily Yong is blessed by the pure hearts of her members.

This year, GO Conference was themed “In Jesus’ Name”. It gathered various churches that have special needs ministries. Speakers included Pastor Jeffrey Aw from Bethesda Bedok-Tampines Church who heads GLO Ministry, and Mei Koh who leads Church Of Our Saviour’s SUNSHINE Ministry. 

“In recent years churches have been coming to see what we do – many churches are seeing the need to start a ministry for those with special needs,” said Ps Lily. 

JAMs is happy to share knowledge with others, knowing how difficult it can be to start a ministry from scratch.

“As a church we want them to know they’re not alone, we’re here for them,” she said. “I’m glad now we have a chat group for the ministries to share information.”

The ministry is also mindful to meet the needs of caregivers. Parents In Action is a gathering of parents of special needs children from different churches, to encourage and pray for one another. Yet another event is for siblings of special needs persons.

Ps Lily and her team have also travelled to churches beyond Singapore to help set up ministries to those with special needs.

A community that serves together: JAMs hosts the GO Conference (photo taken at the 2024 conference) to gather ministries in Singapore that serve those with special needs. The group share information and support each other.

For someone who once begged to be released from the calling, Ps Lily now could not be more passionate about serving those with special needs.

“Unless God calls me to something else, I would gladly do this for always.”

For more information on JAMs or to visit, email [email protected] or call their hotline 97118105.