“Educators, you are making a bigger difference than you will ever know on this side of eternity.”

Pastor Jeff Chong, Senior Pastor of Hope Church and Chairman of LoveSingapore, was addressing close to 400 educators at the National Christian Educators Conference (NCEC) 2024, held yesterday (December 23) at Bethesda Bedok-Tampines Church.

The second iteration of the conference saw teachers, ranging from early childhood educators to university lecturers, coming together to be encouraged to live out their God-given calling as Christians in the sphere of education.

Close to 400 educators from across 120 churches came together to be encouraged in their calling.

Kicking off the day’s programme, which comprised a keynote speech by a veteran educator, breakout prayer sessions and a panel discussion, Pastor Jeff shared a personal story of how his Primary 6 form teacher transformed the way he saw himself, through just a single affirmation.

Here is what he said, in his words.

Failed in Primary 1

I grew up in the heartlands. In my family, we only speak Mandarin and Hainanese. Both my parents are Hainanese.

My home television, we only use the on and off button. We just watched Channel 8. We never went to the wild side of Channel 5 to listen to angmoh (Caucasians) speaking. Only Channel 8 all the while.

So, that was how I was from when I was one year old all the way to six years old. Then when I was seven, I went to Catholic High School.

“You have a significant role to make an impact in the Kingdom and in our nation today and tomorrow,” Pastor Jeff told educators.

After the end of my first year of studies, I came in 29th position out of the 32 students in my class. I had a red mark in my report book. I failed a subject in Primary 1, at the ripe old age of seven years old.

The subject I failed was conduct. I got D – a red D – for it.

I went back and my mother said: “I don’t know how to help you, because if you fail Chinese, I can send you for tuition. If you fail English, I can send you for tuition. This one, how? Must send you to some dog training school or something.”

The teacher who believed

So I’ve always been in the middle of the road, all the way from Primary 1 until Primary 5.

Until Primary 6, I had a form teacher. Her name is Mary Cheong. She was my Chinese teacher. She was also my form teacher. Until today, I can still vividly remember this incident as if it just happened yesterday.

It was during the middle of the class. She spoke in Mandarin but I’ll translate it. She said that in this class, there is a particular student that is most sengmok. In Cantonese, sengmok means bright, smart, shrewd.

I kid you not, this was in the beginning of the school term. She pointed at me and she said: “He is the one.”

I looked around. Me? Sengmok? Really? Wow. Yeah! I’m Mr Sengmok. I believed whatever she was saying.

And I kid you not, something shifted in me. I did so well for my Primary School Leaving Examination. Because of humility I cannot share with you my score, but let’s just say that if I had applied for Raffles Girls’ School, I would have probably gotten in.

A powerful role

Now, what is my point? I’m sengmok. That’s the major point.

The minor point is: All you educators, you are making a bigger difference than you will ever know on this side of eternity. Your words have power. Your actions have power, and God has empowered you to make a difference.

You have a significant role to make an impact in the Kingdom and in our nation today and tomorrow. In the present, as well as in the future. Locally, as well as globally, because there are going to be some international students that are going to come to Singapore to study, and because God has placed him or her under your care, you have the opportunity to impact nations more than you could ever imagine.

Pastor Jeff closed his sharing by saying a prayer for all the educators in attendance.

Now I know that being an educator is not easy. There are many educators in my church. I see them marking papers in between worship sets. I know that it is not easy. It is endless work. And if I may add, sometimes thankless work as well.

I just want you to know – hear it from me – you are not crazy. You are not crazy to be doing what you’re doing. Turn to someone beside you and say: “You’re not crazy.”

But more importantly, you are not alone. God and the Church, we are with you. We are on the same side and we will make an impact in the Kingdom together. 

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