For 10 years, Sunny Wong and his wife Susan served in the mission field in Iloilo City, Philippines.

Sent there by their church, Harvester Assembly of God Church (now Harvester Community Church), they planted churches and started schools in local communities.

Sunny (centre with bag) and his wife Susan (second from right in blue) spent 10 years doing church-planting work in the Philippines.

But in 2009, they were forced to come home. Susan had been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer. The cancer in her breast had spread to her spine, and she needed treatment.

“It was a major transition for my family, and there were financial needs as well,” said Sunny.

Back in Singapore, their sons, then 13 and 10, struggled to adjust to life and school in a place they barely knew.

At the time, Sunny, now 58, had been planning to reach out to Marawi City in the Philippines. The sudden move meant all his plans would come to naught.

“But I still believed God had a purpose despite what had happened. So I was waiting.”

A life with God’s purpose

Sunny was in his 20s when he became a Christian.

By the time he got married, he thought life was smooth-sailing.

Sunny (left) with an employer and his family at an award ceremony in 2022.

Then Susan suffered two miscarriages that made him do some “deep soul searching”. He realised that his heart had been drawn away from the Lord.

Going to church was no longer a priority for him. His job as a tour guide, which required him to work on weekends, did not help.

So he quit his job and went in search of a deeper purpose in life. During a worship service under Pastor Francis Khoo’s ministry one day, Sunny had an encounter with God that changed his life.

“For me, purpose is very important. I thought money would be the answer. But no. Then I thought happiness would be the answer. But no. All these years I had been searching for a purpose in life.

”At that service, someone gave me a word – Jeremiah 29:11. The verse struck my heart. I thought: How did you know I was searching for a purpose, God?”

As he walked closer with God, Sunny realised that his life’s purpose was meant to be found in God’s purpose.

“The joy and fulfilment in life is when you see someone turn their hearts to Jesus, to God. This is everyone’s calling and purpose. When we live our own lives, that is how we get lost,” he said.

So even when he had to leave the mission field and come home, he knew that God’s call for him to “reach out to people in the third world”, which he had first received when he became a missionary, still stood strong.

A mission field at home

When his family returned to Singapore from the mission field, Sunny’s father came to live with them.

Sunny hired a domestic helper to care for him and do the household chores, since Susan was ill and Sunny was busy with his new job as a real estate agent.

Sunny and his late wife Susan. This photograph was taken after her cancer went into remission.

When the Filipino helper arrived at their home, she cried non-stop for the first few months and could not work. She was homesick, missed her two children and could not adapt to life as a foreign domestic worker.

Sunny said: “I shared with her my story and told her, ‘God always has a purpose. There is always a new beginning.’”

That sparked an idea in Sunny. He decided to gather a few of his Christian friends to go to Lucky Plaza, a popular haunt among Filipino foreign domestic workers, to share God’s love with them.

As he heard the stories and struggles of the domestic workers, he was moved with compassion for them. “Then I felt God say to me, ‘You don’t have to travel to another country. Your mission starts here.’”

Going back to Eden

By this time, Susan had gone into remission. “It was really God,” said Sunny.

Moved by the word Sunny had received from God, the pair set up a maid agency, Eden Grace, as their new mission field. 

Susan would remain healthy till she suffered a relapse and passed away in 2018. But the extra nearly 10 years allowed them to build up their mission field.

Sunny and the helpers recently celebrated Pastor Appreciation Day in October 2024.

Explaining the agency’s name, Sunny said: “Our purpose began from the Garden of Eden when God made us in His image and gave us a purpose.

“I saw many of the foreign domestic workers were lost. They didn’t know their purpose in life. I wanted to help them find it.

“Because of the Fall, we lost our purpose. Grace is what Christ has done for us, restoring our purpose and giving us a second chance in life.”

Discipleship on off-days

From the start, Sunny and Susan planned for the business to be more than just a maid agency. It would be a ministry to reach out to foreign domestic workers.

To disciple them even before they come to Singapore, Sunny set up a training programme for the maids in the Philippines. He also employed a live-in pastor who conducts devotions and Bible study with them, as well as counsels them.

In Singapore, they started a weekly worship service for the helpers, during which Sunny or Susan would preach.

Pastors in the Philippines got to know about their ministry and would tell their members about it when they came to work in Singapore.

Apart from Sunny, whom the domestic helpers call “Pastor Sunny”, guest speakers also preach at the Sunday worship service. “We needed a separate service (instead of bringing them to an existing church) because their needs are very different,” said Sunny.

Foreign domestic workers praying for newcomers at the Sunday worship service Sunny conducts.

These services see up to 80 worshippers.

As most helpers only get one day off a month to attend the worship service, Sunny also started a weekly cell group meeting on Zoom. The domestic helpers are put into different small groups. There are now three zones with one or two cell groups each.

“We want them to have godly influence. We want to watch over them and mentor them. So that’s what these meetings are for,” said Sunny.

Domestic helpers at the weekly online cell group meeting.

More than a decade on, the cell group leaders and those who serve in the worship service are all foreign domestic workers. “Sharing the work helps us grow together,” said Sunny, who has seen his labour for God bear fruit.  

Helpers have come to believe in Jesus and get baptised. Some months, they baptise two converts. Some months, they see as many as six baptisms.

Once a month, instead of a worship service, Sunny takes the maids on outings. They have visited Pulau Ubin, the Singapore Zoo and gone on hikes.

A Valentine’s Day outing for domestic helpers.

“Not all the helpers want to go to church. These activities give them another thing to do so that they don’t end up in wrong relationships or getting bad influence from friends,” explained Sunny.

The activities also give the foreign domestic workers a chance to build bonds and bring friends so that the Gospel can be shared with them.

Strengthening employer-helper bonds

Realising that the relationship between the helper and their employer is key to a positive work experience, Sunny conducts orientation talks for employers.

“Employers need to be educated on the cultural differences. We also hope that they can adopt the maids into their family,” he said.

A bonding picnic for domestic helpers and their employers.

This October, he also launched a programme that seeks to empower all Singaporean employers to better understand their helpers and support them. The programme will also include workshops and forums for employers to connect and build a support network within the Christian community as well.

“This is another way to fulfil the Great Commission for Christian employers,” said Sunny.

Twice a year, Eden Grace also organises employer-maid bonding activities like picnics and cooking competitions.

Employers and their domestic helpers participating in a cooking competition, one of Eden Grace’s employer-helper bonding activities.

Every Christmas, it also holds an award ceremony where employers and maids can nominate and honour each other for positive character traits like integrity, kindness and initiative.

“I used to cap it at 30 nominations, but now I am giving (an award) to every nominee,” said Sunny.

The 2023 Award Ceremony.

It is at these ceremonies that heartwarming testimonies are shared.

Sunny, who encourages domestic helpers to be a testimony for Christ, recalled an example: “I will always remember this helper who was a caregiver to an employer using a wheelchair because he had Stage 4 cancer.

“At first the man was very bitter and had a lot of demands on the helper. But she showed him love and care, and shared Christ with him. Some weekends, other helpers went to his house to share Christ with him. Eventually, he received Christ.

“Before he passed on, he had such peace in his heart because he knew where he was going. It brought a lot of fulfilment to my life (to hear about this).”

Since Eden Grace started, hundreds of helpers have been placed in Singapore homes. Now, apart from domestic foreign workers from the Philippines, Sunny has those from Indonesia and Myanmar, too.

Life may have called Sunny back to Singapore. But God has given him a mission field that spans nations right at home.

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